Because I said I would, here's the last Renoir review -- his next to last film I think. In it he re-visits the theme of one of his greatest films, La Grande Illusion, by setting the action in a prisoner of war camp -- but here it is during WW2, not the Great War. And it's a second-rate, not Great movie. The main trouble is Renoir's uncertain tone; he can't seem to make up his mind if he is making a comedy a la Wilder's fabulous "Stalag 17" or a serious treatment of men separated from their families, though it tends to veer to the former. Again he is blessed with one standout performance in his protagonist, Jean-Pierre Cassel (father of Vincent) who plays the eponymous corporal who keeps trying to escape; however in this instance, a number of the supporting actors do a good job as well. It is, however, only competently made and patchy in its appeal.
In answer to the comment asking where I get copies of some of the old films I view, most of them came off TV over a period of 25 years or so and a lot of them are still in Beta format. Where there has been no DVD, VHS or re-showing, I am gradually transcribing those that I can to disc. And good fun it is seeing some of them again.
1 comment:
Watched Shark Tales JP, it tickled me. I like how they got the characters to look like the people doing the voice overs. Will Smith's was brilliant very much like he was in 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air'. The jellyfish were great too. Rache xx
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