theognis-80821

John Le Carre's novel features a German intelligence officer (Philip Seymour Hoffman), investigating a possible financial stream going to Al Qaeda, which has been characterized by some as a CIA asset. Much of the dialogue is in sotto voce, as befits hush-hush super secret spy craft and is in keeping with this film's naturalistic style, wobbly cameras and all. Director Anton Corbijn has a background in music videos and still photography and some of the pictures are very pretty. As we saw in "The French Connection" (1971), cops often have to be very patient and wait a long time, but movie audiences should not be expected to do the same. The ending is a bit of a surprise as is the platitudinous villain.

Anthony Quinn is the hot-blooded Mexican, who guzzles booze and laughs to mask his overwhelming rage. Robert Taylor is "Rio," his cool, detached Americano sidekick with a mysterious past. Howard Keel is the Anglo settler, a courageous upholder of bourgeois values, like Gary Cooper in last year's "High Noon." Ava Gardner is Keel's wife, who arrives, in this parched outpost by paddlewheel steamer on some river or other and, like Grace Kelly in last year's "High Noon," abhors violence but will stand by her man. Kurt Kasznar is the kind, but courageous, Padre. Ted di Corsia is the tough, but badly outnumbered, Sheriff. And Jack Elam is the psychopathic gunfighter, replacing Taylor, when his loyalty wavers. We know that something extraordinary must happen for Ava to gravitate towards Robert, who is a bigger star than Howard and appears in close-up with her on the film's poster. But what??? The suspense is spellbinding. Veteran writer Frank Fenton is tasked with making it all work. Director John Farrow is inexperienced with westerns, but an old pro at getting his characters out of tight spots. Makeup artist Frank Tuttle ensures that Ava has more lipstick than Robert. And the lively score by Bronislau Kaper is as hot as a tamale!

"Teorema" ("Theorem") begins by posing a question. Would the embourgeoisement of the proletariat abolish class conflict? What follows is irrelevant: into an upper class household enters a Visitor (Terence Stamp), who becomes physically or sexually intimate with each member, The Servant, The Son, The Daughter, The Father, The Mother (Silvana Mangano) and each reacts differently from his departure. In a year in which Stamp, who specialized in portraying sexually ambiguous characters, appeared in his best picture, "Toby Dammit," he starred here in, arguably, his worst. Similarly, Ennio Morricone's music veers erratically from popular to atonal. Writer/director Pier Paolo Passolini, who began as a poet, made, after about a dozen features, this film that he felt like making. It may mean something to him, but not much to me.