kenzo-1

A brilliant film; all three leads are just magnifico and Monica Vitti never looked better. Vitti, Mastroianni and Giannini in one film! Sharp treatment of un amour fou. Had never heard of the film before I recently saw it at a festival of restored films at MoMA in New York--what a terrific surprise, a genuine treat, funny and dark film about obsession. I doubt it could ever have been made in the US unfortunately; can't think of any American directors who could handle this successfully. Mastroianni shows his great range. If you love Italian film, see it soon! Now I'm going to see any other Ettore Scola films I can find or haven't seen yet.

A terrific picture and new to me. I think I had heard of it, perhaps showing at a pre-code festival at the Film Forum here in New York. Maybe not. Anyway caught it by accident on TCM today and what a find. Early George Cukor "woman's picture" I guess and has to be one of the earliest (1932) Hollywood pix about Hollywood. Brilliant, witty script with lots of stuff which would've been censored after the Code went into effect a couple of yrs. later. Great performances by Constance Bennett and Lowell Sherman, both of whose work I had very little knowledge of. I had never even heard of Lowell Sherman and he is just amazing in the role of a director with a drinking problem. Oh and that's Gregory Ratoff as foreign-born producer. I think he reprised that role a few times, of course most notably as Max Fabian in All About Eve, which was on the tube over the weekend and is hard to tune away from once you start watching...and listening, like this was. I could go on--but just catch it if you can!