This is one of my favorite old movies. You can't go wrong with this one--if you ever have a chance to see it! I don't recall enough details to improve upon what's been said by other reviewers, but each part was engrossing (though I agree that "The Ransom of Red Chief" was the weakest dramatization of a great short story of the bunch), especially "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Last Leaf." Lingers in the memory long after you see it.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Europa Europa
(1990)
Beautiful film, suspenseful from first to last frame
5 March 2003
This film is surprisingly frank, and it's not the kind of thing a lady sits through with her date, but when you are alone or viewing with same-sex friends, you should find it riveting. I was most impressed with the beauty of the color reproduction and that fact that you can see everything clearly--no blurry sepia-toned washouts. Everything is distinct, heightening the effect of the film's extreme realism. Its production pluses on the beauty side, sublime performances and emotionality all help to compensate for its grim subject matter. You come away feeling good about things, which is one thing I like a great deal whenever I see any movie. Too many current films fade out on a down note making you feel that seeing it did you no good at all. "Europa, Europa"'s being based on a true story makes it all the more fascinating, in my book.
The Beguiled
(1971)
Top-notch Clint Eastwood but skewed portrait of Southerners.
27 February 2003
Here you see Mr. Eastwood in all of his glory (i.e., at the top of his form as an actor and at the height of his physical appeal), but the "ladies" depicted are hardly typical of the South, then or now. The young girls at the boarding school are incredibly naive, some showing signs of developing into really depraved women, and Geraldine Page, full-blown in her corruption, hardly represents the mean when it comes to head mistresses of girls schools, either then or now. (That is not to say that there isn't the occasional bad apple in any barrel.) Mr. Eastwood has said this is one of his own two favorite films.
"The Beguiled" does have an original plot, a lot of attractive characters and many surprises in store for the viewer. It's thoroughly engrossing and entertaining but not really realistic. (I know, having grown up in the South and attended a girls' school and college. Moreover, I have been acquainted with innumerable girls who did the same, not to mention their laid-back teachers, or you might even say "repressed professors" who were a far cry from the headmistress depicted here.) She is downright comical in her depiction of a Southern gentle woman who is not quite what she seems.
This movie was a little outrageous when it first appeared and still is, I think, but you won't be sorry you spent your time watching it.
"The Beguiled" does have an original plot, a lot of attractive characters and many surprises in store for the viewer. It's thoroughly engrossing and entertaining but not really realistic. (I know, having grown up in the South and attended a girls' school and college. Moreover, I have been acquainted with innumerable girls who did the same, not to mention their laid-back teachers, or you might even say "repressed professors" who were a far cry from the headmistress depicted here.) She is downright comical in her depiction of a Southern gentle woman who is not quite what she seems.
This movie was a little outrageous when it first appeared and still is, I think, but you won't be sorry you spent your time watching it.
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