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2 items from 2012

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Movie Poster of the Week: “Le passe-muraille” a.k.a. "Mr. Peek-a-Boo"

17 March 2012 11:48 AM, PDT | MUBI | See recent MUBI news »

One of the pleasures of digging around for movie posters is coming across great designs for films that have otherwise been forgotten, that have not become part of the pantheon—or even any of its foothills—but which nevertheless are fascinating reminders of areas of cinema history that are usually ignored. The other day I posted a lovely Russian poster on Movie Poster of the Day for an adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s White Nights that I wasn’t familiar with but which, I then discovered, was directed by a man described as “the high priest of Stalinist Cinema.” You can read more about that here.

When this terrific poster for Le passe-muraille caught my eye I knew absolutely nothing about the film, and, with the exception of English actress Joan Greenwood (Kind Hearts and Coronets), nearly every name on the poster, from star Bourvil to director Jean Boyer to author Marcel Aymé, »

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The Garlic Gangster – The 5 Best Films of Jean-Pierre Melville

13 March 2012 6:35 AM, PDT | Obsessed with Film | See recent Obsessed with Film news »

Jean-Pierre Melville (October 20, 1917 – August 2, 1973), was a French film director often looked upon as the ‘king crime-noir films’. His body of work and mise-en-scene style heavily influenced Scorsese, John Woo and Tarantino to name but a few. Under-stated and minimalist, he managed the difficult process of making an artistic film also commercially viable. Melville would control everything from set design, writing the script, and running the camera, mixing obsessive gangster pastiches with restrained, precise and sensitive symbolism.

Described as the ‘Poet of the underworld’ and the ‘garlic gangster’, he was considered to be the “father of the nouvelle vague”, a major influence on the French New Wave movement. But it was the American gangster films of the ’30s and ’40s starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart that really caught his imagination. Melville recreated the genre for a new wave audience using weapons, trench coats and fedora hats, to shape a characteristic look in his movies. »

- Matthew Gunn

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2012 | 2011 | 2010

2 items from 2012

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