Change Your Image
a-d-man
Reviews
Seul contre tous (1998)
A bitter heart and violent thoughts
A poignant look into the embittered mind of an ill-educated man failed in his professional and personal life who indulges in violent incest and revenge fantasies. A ticking bomb, ready to go off at the smallest provocation. The contrast between the resentful monologue intérieure and the dour, dull expression of the principal character works well.
Touch of Evil (1958)
The ultimate série noire
I am not sure how the in 1998 restored director's cut differs from the version I saw on television more than 10 years ago, but a poignant piece of work it is. Touch of Evil (TOE) is best compared to that other archetypical série noire, The Maltese Falcon (TMF). In both movies, the characters are bigger than life (in the case of Gutman/Greenstreet and Quinlan/Welles also in the literal sense) but still entirely credible. Janet Leigh is hilarious as the feisty, somewhat idiotic blonde wife.
However, the mood is quite different. In TMF, the main character (Spade/Bogart) and even his main opponent seem in control in spite of the occasional setback. Compare this with TOE, in which the events overtake the characters: Vargas/Heston is constantly looking for his wife gone astray, Quinlan/Welles feels so harassed that he turns again to liquor (always a bad omen, see E.G. Robinson in Little Cesar) and loses his characteristic cane (awkward for a cripple), which becomes his undoing. More than TMF, TOE is the ultimate série noire.
Pi (1998)
A downbeat metaphysical statement
The movie makes a downbeat metaphysical point about science. Unravelling the mystery of creation (here symbolised by the number Pi) is either portrayed as human hubris and therefore dangerous and hence inviting punishment (it is compared to be blinded by looking into the sun and compared with Icarus) or pointless (because it prevents appreciating the beauty of creation).
Out of Sight (1998)
A flawed mix of hard-boiled action, romance and comedy
After From Dusk Till Dawn, Clooney plays again a part in a movie that blends hard-boiled action, romance and comedy. The mix does not work. (1) Are we really supposed to take the love interest between Lopez and not-so-bad guy Clooney seriously? (2) Clooney is too charming a person to be a credible anti-hero in the série-noire tradition? (3) The série-noire pretence is undermined by a number of comic scenes.