Library Videos for July 2013--Private Eyes

Private Eye, Starring Jeong-min Hwang, Dal-su Oh, Deok-Hwan

 Ryu and Ji-won Uhm. Directed by Dae-Min Park.

Call Number: PN1995.9.F67P75 2012.

   A Korean import that shows their directors have been paying

attention to American noir.  In the 1900 Korean empire, Hong-Jin

Ho is a private eye barely surviving on money made by spying on

cheating spouses.  Then a rich man’s son is found murdered in

the woods and Hong-Jin is hired to find the culprit.  With the help

of a medical student, he uncovers a far more complex crime than

it seems. Film noir meets an Asian Sherlock Holmes.

 

The Zero Effect, starring Bill Pullman, Ben Stiller, Ryan O’Neal and Kim Dickens.  Directed by Jake Kasdan.  Call Number: PN1995.9.D4Z47 1998.

     Daryl Zero is a brilliant detective who can’t function in the real world.  Steve Arlo is hired to be his leg man and gofer, dealing with people Zero can’t talk to—which is everybody.  When Daryl is hired to find a millionaire’s missing keys, it leads to a lot of unexpected complications for him—like love.

 

 

 

The Big Sleep, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Directed by Howard Hawks.   Call Number: PN1995.9.D4B56 2000.

   A Faulkner screenplay from a Raymond Chandler script revolves around legendary detective Philip Marlowe, trying to save a family’s name from the indiscretions of the youngest sister.  The plot takes a lot of watching, but the characters and atmosphere carry everyone along through the murky world of blackmail, pornography, gamblers and murder.  And of course, whenever Bacall and Bogart are on the screen the dialog and sexual tension sizzle.

 

 

The Girl by the Lake, starring Toni Servillo, Valeria Golino, Fabrizio Gifuni.

Directed by Andrea Molaioli. Call Number: PN1995.9.D4G57 2010.

     Called to a small Northern Italian village, Inspector Giovanni Sanzio investigates the murder of a beautiful young girl, and uncovers many of the secrets of the town in the process of recreating her last day.  It’s a place of great beauty, but beneath the idyllic setting, there are many things people are trying to keep hidden—and the Inspector is one of them.

Library Videos for July--Foreign Classics from the Criterion Collection

 400 Blows, starring Jean-Pierre Léaud. Directed by Francois Truffaut. (1959)  Library Call Number: PN1995.9.F67F68 2009.
     The first of Truffaut’s semi-autobiographical films starring Jean-Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel, the film follows a neglected boy who skips school, tells a lie, runs away from home and lands in reform school.  Not a complex plot, yet the film is on virtually every list of top all-time films, because of the way it involves the viewer so completely in the boy’s life, without becoming maudlin or depressing. The plight of Doinel becomes all-important to the viewer, who rejoices in his path to adulthood.

La Strada, starring Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn. Directed by Fredrico Fellini.(1954.)  Library Call Number: PN1995.9.F67S73 2003.

           La Strada,(the road) is a Fellini masterpiece revolving around an innocent young girl, sold by her mother to a traveling strongman named Zampano (Quinn).  Treated no better than a slave, she nonetheless falls in love with her companion until they fatefully join a small circus.  Masina gives one of the best film performances in history, endearing and affecting.  And Anthony Quinn is an incredible counterpoint as the brutal strongman with no control of his feelings.

The Seventh Seal, starring Max von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot and Gunnar Bjorkstrand.  Directed by Ingmar Bergman. (1958.) Library Call Number: PN1995.9.F67S47x1994.

      Von Sydow is magnificent as a Swedish knight , who returns home from ten years of fighting in the Crusades,to find the Plague ravaging towns and villages, religious fanaticism and terror all around.  Seeking the meaning of life, he challenges Death to a chess match.  Apocalyptic and allegorical, this is at the pinnacle of movie-making.