Review: "Connecting Rooms" (1970) Starring Bette Davis And Michael Redgrave; Blu-ray Special Edition
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“Boarding House Blues”
By Raymond Benson
Having never heard of this British production prior to the release of Kino Lorber’s new high definition transfer of the picture, this reviewer approached it with caution. It was much better than expected. Luckily, there is much to be said about Connecting Rooms.
Based on a stage play called The Cellist by Marion Hart, the screenplay was written by director Franklin Gollings. It’s a low-budget affair that was shot in London in 1969, and there is a decidedly TV-movie feel about it. The picture was first released in 1970 in the United States, of all places, and didn’t receive a U.K. release until 1972.
What Connecting Rooms has going for it is the presence of the remarkable Bette Davis, who delivers a note-perfect late career performance as Wanda, an aging cellist who lives in a seedy boarding house in London.
“Boarding House Blues”
By Raymond Benson
Having never heard of this British production prior to the release of Kino Lorber’s new high definition transfer of the picture, this reviewer approached it with caution. It was much better than expected. Luckily, there is much to be said about Connecting Rooms.
Based on a stage play called The Cellist by Marion Hart, the screenplay was written by director Franklin Gollings. It’s a low-budget affair that was shot in London in 1969, and there is a decidedly TV-movie feel about it. The picture was first released in 1970 in the United States, of all places, and didn’t receive a U.K. release until 1972.
What Connecting Rooms has going for it is the presence of the remarkable Bette Davis, who delivers a note-perfect late career performance as Wanda, an aging cellist who lives in a seedy boarding house in London.
- 5/24/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Fred Zinnemann’s counter-assassination thriller remains topflight filmmaking, torn from reality and shot through with an unsentimental dose of political realism. Edward Fox’s implacable killer outwits the combined resources of an entire nation as he stalks his prey, and when bad luck forces him to improvise, he racks up more victims on his kill list. Step aside Bond, Bourne and Marvel — the original Jackal is the man to beat.
The Day of the Jackal
Blu-ray
Arrow Video USA
1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date September 25, 2018 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig, Cyril Cusack, Eric Porter, Tony Britton, Alan Badel, Michel Auclair, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, Vernon Dobtcheff, Olga Georges-Picot, Timothy West, Derek Jacobi, Jean Martin, Ronald Pickup, Jean Sorel, Philippe Léotard, Jean Champion, Michel Subor, Howard Vernon.
Cinematography: Jean Tournier
Film Editor: Ralph Kemplen
Second Unit Director: Andrew Marton
Original Music: Georges Delerue
Written...
The Day of the Jackal
Blu-ray
Arrow Video USA
1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date September 25, 2018 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig, Cyril Cusack, Eric Porter, Tony Britton, Alan Badel, Michel Auclair, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, Vernon Dobtcheff, Olga Georges-Picot, Timothy West, Derek Jacobi, Jean Martin, Ronald Pickup, Jean Sorel, Philippe Léotard, Jean Champion, Michel Subor, Howard Vernon.
Cinematography: Jean Tournier
Film Editor: Ralph Kemplen
Second Unit Director: Andrew Marton
Original Music: Georges Delerue
Written...
- 9/18/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By Tim Greaves
The year is 1962. Aggrieved when Algeria is granted independence by President Charles de Gaulle, the militant underground alliance known as the Organisation Armée Secrète botches an attempt to assassinate him. Within months many of the conspirators, including their top man, have been captured and executed. The remaining Oas leaders, bereft of funds, take refuge in Austria and warily decide to contract an outside professional to do the job for them. They settle on a British assassin (Edward Fox), who chooses to be identified as Jackal. The Oas orchestrate several bank robberies to cover his exorbitant fee of half a million dollars whilst the mechanics of the plotting are left entirely to Jackal's discretion. After capturing and interrogating another alliance member, the French authorities learn of Jackal's existence and, suspecting another attempt on de Gaulle's life may be imminent, they set their best man – Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel (Michel Lonsdale) – on his tail.
The year is 1962. Aggrieved when Algeria is granted independence by President Charles de Gaulle, the militant underground alliance known as the Organisation Armée Secrète botches an attempt to assassinate him. Within months many of the conspirators, including their top man, have been captured and executed. The remaining Oas leaders, bereft of funds, take refuge in Austria and warily decide to contract an outside professional to do the job for them. They settle on a British assassin (Edward Fox), who chooses to be identified as Jackal. The Oas orchestrate several bank robberies to cover his exorbitant fee of half a million dollars whilst the mechanics of the plotting are left entirely to Jackal's discretion. After capturing and interrogating another alliance member, the French authorities learn of Jackal's existence and, suspecting another attempt on de Gaulle's life may be imminent, they set their best man – Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel (Michel Lonsdale) – on his tail.
- 8/27/2017
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
One of the best international thrillers ever has almost become an obscurity, for reasons unknown – this Blu-ray comes from Australia. Edward Fox’s wily assassin for hire goes up against the combined police and security establishments of three nations as he sets up the killing of a head of state – France’s president Charles de Gaulle. The terrific cast features Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig and Cyril Cusack; director Fred Zinnemann’s excellent direction reaches a high pitch of tension – even though the outcome is known from the start.
The Day of the Jackal
Region B+A Blu-ray
Shock Entertainment / Universal
1973 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date ? / Available from Amazon UK / Pounds 19.99
Starring: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig, Cyril Cusack, Eric Porter, Tony Britton, Alan Badel, Michel Auclair, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, Vernon Dobtcheff, Olga Georges-Picot, Timothy West, Derek Jacobi, Jean Martin, Ronald Pickup, Jean Sorel, Philippe Léotard, Jean Champion,...
The Day of the Jackal
Region B+A Blu-ray
Shock Entertainment / Universal
1973 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date ? / Available from Amazon UK / Pounds 19.99
Starring: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig, Cyril Cusack, Eric Porter, Tony Britton, Alan Badel, Michel Auclair, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, Vernon Dobtcheff, Olga Georges-Picot, Timothy West, Derek Jacobi, Jean Martin, Ronald Pickup, Jean Sorel, Philippe Léotard, Jean Champion,...
- 4/29/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Yet another European art film director tries his hand at cerebral Sci-fi. Alain Resnais' openly experimental movie uses a generic time travel framework to, what else, explore the phenomenon of memory. Suicidal melancholic Claude Rich is projected back exactly one year, for exactly one minute. What could go wrong? Je t'aime, je t'aime Blu-ray Kino Classics 1968 / Color /1:66 widescreen / 94 min. / Street Date November 10, 2015 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Claude Rich, Olga Georges-Picot, Anouk Ferjac. Cinematography Jean Boffety Film Editors Albert Jurgenson, Colette Leloup Original Music Krzysztof Penderecki Written by Jacques Sternberg, Alain Resnais Produced by Mag Bodard Directed by Alain Resnais
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
My very first UCLA film class in the Fall of 1970 dispatched us to the Vagabond Theater to see a double bill of two 'art' movies that play fast and loose with narrative conventions: Luis Buñuel's Ensayo de un Crimen and Alain Resnais' Je t'aime,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
My very first UCLA film class in the Fall of 1970 dispatched us to the Vagabond Theater to see a double bill of two 'art' movies that play fast and loose with narrative conventions: Luis Buñuel's Ensayo de un Crimen and Alain Resnais' Je t'aime,...
- 11/3/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
For many years I’ve been aware of this poster—a classic by René Ferracci, the appointed affichiste of the nouvelle vague—without knowing anything about Je t’aime, je t’aime, a film which has been almost impossible to see for decades. Today, as a Valentine’s Day gift to New York cinephiles, Film Desk and Bleeding Light Film Group are bringing it back to Film Forum in a new 35mm print.
Ferracci, master of the photo-collage, captures the fragmented whirlpool of Alain Resnais’ time-traveling love story in an unforgettable image that would maybe be better known, as would the film itself, if its protagonists had been bigger names. Je t’aime, je t’aime, made in 1968, was only Resnais’ fifth feature film, twenty-two years into his filmmaking career. (Just this week, at the age of 91, he premiered his latest, Life of Riley, at the Berlin Film Festival.) An...
Ferracci, master of the photo-collage, captures the fragmented whirlpool of Alain Resnais’ time-traveling love story in an unforgettable image that would maybe be better known, as would the film itself, if its protagonists had been bigger names. Je t’aime, je t’aime, made in 1968, was only Resnais’ fifth feature film, twenty-two years into his filmmaking career. (Just this week, at the age of 91, he premiered his latest, Life of Riley, at the Berlin Film Festival.) An...
- 2/15/2014
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Trans-Europ-Express (1967)
Redemption films resurrects two long unavailable titles from director Alain Robbe-Grillet, a member of the Nouvelle Vague best known as the screenwriter for Last Year at Marienbad, the surrealist classic from Alain Resnais. As a director, Robbe-Grillet has a lesser known yet equally lucrative body of work, consisting of ten titles that seem to exist somewhere out in the frayed hinterlands of any sort of definable movement. Many of his titles will put you in mind of works by other filmmakers, but each title seems to walk the line between sweet dream and beautiful nightmare, defying notions of narrative and, often, logic. That said, his films don’t cater to popular tastes, and many of his titles as director seem to have floated into an oblivion, the exception being his 1983 fantasy/nightmare La Belle Captive, one of his few offerings available on DVD. Until now, that is. While the...
Redemption films resurrects two long unavailable titles from director Alain Robbe-Grillet, a member of the Nouvelle Vague best known as the screenwriter for Last Year at Marienbad, the surrealist classic from Alain Resnais. As a director, Robbe-Grillet has a lesser known yet equally lucrative body of work, consisting of ten titles that seem to exist somewhere out in the frayed hinterlands of any sort of definable movement. Many of his titles will put you in mind of works by other filmmakers, but each title seems to walk the line between sweet dream and beautiful nightmare, defying notions of narrative and, often, logic. That said, his films don’t cater to popular tastes, and many of his titles as director seem to have floated into an oblivion, the exception being his 1983 fantasy/nightmare La Belle Captive, one of his few offerings available on DVD. Until now, that is. While the...
- 2/11/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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