laura-magnus

Not the greatest little film in the world, but well worth seeking out if you're - like me - in love with Setsuko Hara. I don't think I've seen her as sexualised as in this film, with make-up, western garb and smoking cigarettes. She's s good girl gone bad, maybe comparable to Claire Trevor is Key Largo. In fact, the latter film has a lot in common with this - not only was it made in the same year, but both are about a bunch of gangsters stuck in a house during a storm. Basically she's the opposite of the 'saint' she often played in Ozu movies, and she looks stunning.

The credentials for a superb Noir are all there: Glenn Ford has been one of the most convincing (and still strangely unsung) anti-heroes American cinema has produced. The wonderful opening sequence (in which Ford escapes both the police and the mob) is as minimalistic ally brilliant as the seemingly tight budget would have allowed. Yet after only a short while the film's tone changes radically: sweeter music, romantic comedy and a (however underplayed) Christmas tear-jerker emerge from what promised to be a crisp, economic little masterpiece.

I'm not saying the uneven pacing ruin the film completely but my suspicion is, looking at the credits (no, I don't mean the cast which features a wonderfully noir-ish array of characters: Evelyn Keyes, John Ireland, Ted de Corsia) there are TWO directors (one made good noirs with Ford, the other made Rat Pack flicks with Sinatra, Davis Jr, Martin et al), TWO directors of photography...

For what it's worth my guess is the producer got cold feet and hired a second director to save (a lame comedy? a routine noir?) a product he wasn't very happy with. He probably made a mistake...

The most expensive (around $41.000.000!) ever Chinese film and also the most successful the superlatives don't stop here: it might also be the most loved/hated film of Chen Kaige illustrious career. Whatever you've heard this is an exquisite, visually sumptuous fairy tale with boggling CGI effects (as bold as The Stormriders, but better) and very watchable pan-oriental (China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan) leads. A flight of imagination and fancy, no less believable or logical than other Martial Arts epics, '24' or even 'The West Wing' (you didn't really believe we were lead by the most intelligent people in the world, did you?). So suspend your disbelieve on some surgically enhanced CGI effects and go with the flow - The Promise can be a magical ride!