@BUFFFILMBUFF

Frank Perry’s 1969 LAST SUMMER is an adaption of Evan Hunter’s novel with a screenplay by his wife Eleanor Perry. Set on Fire Island three teenagers (Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas, and Bruce Davidson) bond and fall into ever darker behaviors. They meet another teen (Cathy Burns) who they slowly bring into their group. The finale, which is still shocking, originally gave the film an X rating. ...

Alain Resnais’ STAVISKY is a 1974 French biographical drama film based on the life of the financier and embezzler Alexandre Stavisky and the circumstances leading to his mysterious death in 1934. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays the charismatic and yet mysterious lead. By turn fascinating and confusing it is beautiful to look at with lovely period settings and costuming. This has a rare film score by St...

Martin Ritt’s 1963 HUD is a Texas set family drama based on a novel by Larry McMurtry. Paul Newman is the alienated son of rancher Melvin Douglas and the script sets up their conflict rather baldly as good versus evil. But Newman, even playing a real bastard, has so much audience appeal that despite the awful things he does and says they adore him. This was more or less the beginning of the per...

Tom Tywker, Lana Wachowski, and Lilly Wachowski’s CLOUD ATLAS is a three hour epic spanning six different time periods. Most of the cast plays multiple characters. The basic theme is, I guess, that souls are born and reborn and are connected through the ages. There are elements of sci fi here with a couple of futuristic sections and lots of CGI throughout. By turns interesting and baffling th...

Victor Fleming’s 1932 RED DUST is pre-code joy with three perfectly matched stars. Jean Harlow and Mary Astor vie for the attentions of Clark Gable on a steamy rubber plantation. Expert camerawork by Hal Rosson and sly dialog enhance the performances. A delight and highest recommendation. (Remade in 1953 where Gable again plays the lead this time pursued by Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.). Yet ano...

In James Vanderbilt’s NUREMBERG a WWII psychiatrist (Rami Malek) evaluates Nazi leaders before the Nuremberg trials, growing increasingly obsessed with understanding evil as he forms a disturbing bond with Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe). While something this serious does reek of Oscar bait and reportedly some of the facts were altered for dramatic effect, this is still an absorbing film boosted b...

Angus MacLachlan’s A LITTLE PRAYER is a lovely little gem about the complicated relationships in a southern family. The authenticity of the accents and behaviors are small miracles when characters from below the Mason-Dixon Line are so often portrayed as cliches with bad accents painful to the ear. Strong cast with David Strathairn as a protector of his daughter in law (Jane Levy) when he discov...

Michael Curtiz’ 1935 CAPTAIN BLOOD is the movie that propelled Errol Flynn into movie stardom. After treating a Monmouth rebel against King James II in 1680s England, a young Irish doctor is exiled as a slave to Jamaica where he captures a Spanish galleon and becomes the most feared pirate of the Caribbean. Mostly shot in the studio with sea battles achieved quite effectively with scale models. ...

Jacques Tati’s 1967 PLAYTIME is an elaborate plotless comedy stressing the inhuman quality of modern architecture. Shot in 70mm on huge sets which were essentially a small city the director appears as his famous character Monsieur Hulot. Tati’s perfectionism and bad luck caused the film to take 3 years to shoot. Tati insisted on only showing the film in 70mm with a complex stereophonic soundtra...

Jonathan Glazer’s BIRTH is a unique and sometimes disturbing tale of eternal love. A woman (Nicole Kidman)who becomes convinced that her deceased husband has been reincarnated as a ten-year-old boy (Cameron Bright). Glazer direction reminds me of Kubrick and the film has an odd look with desaturated colors and an emphasis on shades of green. The script has a lot of loose ends but Kidman’s delic...