A new LUDWIG

I was intrigued to see a new 4-disk Bluray of Luchino Visconti's 1973 opus LUDWIG is about to be released. I already have the 2 disk dvd, but this seemed too good to pass up, so it is on its way to me. We have covered LUDWIG and Visconti, Helmut, Romy, Silvana, Trevor Howard in detail here before, as per the labels - so more on it in due course. It should be a nice companion piece to the new Criterion bluray of Antonioni's BLOW-UP also out next week, and on its way to me from Barnes & Noble in New York. A brace of European classics then, all spruced up for the new era ...

Helmut acquits himself well here, and Romy is sheer perfection as the older, more cynical SISSI, while Trevor Howard and Mangano are ideal as the Wagners. Then there are all those attractive footmen as Ludwig battles his proclivities ... As with all Visconti films costume dramas don't get more opulent, and our perennial favourite Romy is simply stunning as the older Sissi. 
It was great seeing it initially on the large screen at a London Film Festival back then, watching at home it may be too long to see all at once, but ideal in chunks as the opulence washes over one ... its certainly up there with the other Visconti classics like SENSO, THE LEOPARD, L'INNOCENTE ...
Its a terrific package, with a 60 page booklet, a 1999 hour-long documentary on Visconti, when a lot of those who worked with him were still living and interviewed here, a documentary on Mangano and the full version of the film, in two parts, at almost 4 hours (238 minutes) or a 5 part TV version. There's also a new interview with Helmut Berger ..... Essential, then, As one review says: 
Among the scenes you’re most likely to remember – from all the versions – will be Ludwig’s wooing of the young actor Kainz in that glorious underground grotto with the swans and that charming little love boat, and Elizabeth’s visit to Ludwig’s most famous castle in the room with all those mirrors. Visually the film is a near-constant treat, with sets and costumes as gloriously garish and/or stunning as you’ll have seen. And then there’s that hunting lodge scene with all the young men perched atop and around the limbs of the giant tree that grows in the middle of the lodge.

Visconti with Romy & Helmut

RIP, continued ....

Tomas Milian (1933-2017), aged 84.  Tomas Milian, an American actor born in Cuba; was trained at the Actors Studio. He appeared in a few plays on Broadway in the 1950s. Italian director Mauro Bolognini noticed him and that was the starting point of a rich cinematographic career in Italy, 
where he played in all manner of genres. 
We like him as the rich young guy propositioning Jean-Claude Brialy in Bolognini's 1959 saga of Italian youth LA NOTTE BRAVA (below), and he is Romy Schneider's husband in the Visconti episode of BOCCACCIO 70 (right) in 1962, and Claudia Cardinale''s brother in TIME OF INDIFFERENCE in 1964, and with Belmondo in MARE MATTO. He was Raphael in THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY in 1965.

He progressed to Spaghetti Westerns (DJANGO KILL in 1967) and Italian giallo thrillers, and the lead in Antonioni's IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN in 1982. Later films included TRAFFIC in 2000, Spielberg's AMISTEAD, Stone's JFK. He continued working, 120 credits in all, until 2014. Quite an acting career. More on Tomas at label ....

Christine Kaufmann (1945-2017), aged 72. She had a promising European and maybe international career, which she temporarily gave up when she became the second Mrs Tony Curtis (they co-starred in TARAS BULBA in 1962). Other titles included TOWN WITHOUT PITY in 1961, and some peplums THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII with Steve Reeves (below), 1959,and CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS with Belinda Lee. She later appeared in films like BAGDAD CAFE, and clocked up 110 credits. 

Lola Albright ( 1925-2017), aged 92.  I featured her only a month or so ago, in a review of some interesting careers - see Lola Albright label.

Movie stars play records too!

Sophia. Rock. Alain & Romy. Dusty ... I had a Dansette record player just like Dusty's.

Romy & Ludwig

Some lovely new photos of another of our perennial favourites Romy Schneider as Elizabeth of Austria in Visconti's 1973 opus LUDWIG. Romy had began playing Sissi in those German films of the 1950s, but returned to the role for Visconti, creating an older, more cynical Sissi who tries to help Ludwig of Bavaria - Helmut Berger is quite astonishing here too. and we also get Silvana Mangano and Trevor Howard as the Wagners, plus - as per with Visconti - a lot of handsome men. More on it at Visconti, Romy labels. 

SISSI, 1955

LUDWIG did not fare too well at the time, it hardly played in London but I saw it at the Film Festival - the dvd now has a good print and there is a lot to fascinate in it. 

Romy as Sissi: 1955, 1956, 1957

I first saw the Austrian SISSI when I a kid and was fascinated by all those costumes and this chubby teenager Romy Schneider. Sissi (who became Empress Elizabeth of Austria and led a fascinating life) with her father in Bavaria and with her pet deer, and escaping from home and meeting the young Emperor Franz Joseph, and their romance. He is supposed to be marrying her older sister but chooses Sissi instead to the consternation of his domineering mother. Sissi's own mother is played by Romy's real mother, Magda Schneider, star of a previous generation. The film's success spawned two further ones, also directed by Ernst Marischka: SISSI THE YOUNG EMPRESS in 1956, detailing the early years of their marriage and coping with mother-in-law who wants to bring up their child, and how Sissi copes with the rigours of court life, and in 1957, SISSI: THE FATEFUL YEARS OF AN EMPRESS as Sissi travels around Europe, becomes estranged from the Emperor, is tempted by other romances, and gets over tuberculosis by having a holiday in Greece! (The real Elizabeth was an expert horsewoman and used to go horse-riding in Ireland).
The kitsch is piled on thick but they are all richly enjoyable when one is in the mood. A box of good chocolates and a glass of something sparkly goes down a treat with them. All three were edited into one film FOREVER MY LOVE with highlights of each, and that is quite enough for me, even if dubbed into English. Walt Disney wanted Romy too but she resisted - he got Hayley Mills instead! 

Romy of course went on to that great career, becoming a French cinema icon in the '70s, a very busy decade for her, after her films in England and America, before her untimely death in 1982 aged 43 - as per my other posts and reviews on her films - see Romy label. I have been collecting all her films, theres quite a lot - over 60, including some rubbish ones, but she is endlessly fascinating and attractive and still has a cult following as one of Europe's great international stars - particularly her films with Alain Delon (we will be looking at LA PISCINE again soon), and for director Claude Sautet. 
I have been to the real Empress Elizabeth's summer palace in Corfu, and to her private chapel - the building is now a casino. 

This is what I said about the series when I began this blog: 

SISSI - 1955. I liked this when I saw it as a kid. There are 3 SISSI films, all made in Germany in the '50s, all are saccharine, sentimental confections, very chocolate box cover with pretty dresses, rural scenes, and court intrigue about the early life of Empress Elizabeth of Austria, and seeing them now they are just as enjoyable as ever – the interfering mother-in-law is a particular delight. 

LUDWIG, 1972

All 3 are edited into one compilation FOREVER MY LOVE which is fine for seeing the best of them. The SISSI movies are a guilty pleasure, even if Romy hated them and soon changed her image 

Romy returned to the role for Visconti in his monumental LUDWIG in 1972 where Helmut Berger is ideal as Ludwig, and Trevor Howard and Silvana Mangano are also right as the Wagners. Romy brings a lot of brittle humour and insight to the role of the older Sissi this time around. Right: the 1982 PARIS MATCH issue, which I still have, covering her eventful life and death. 

Horst Buchholz

That late '50s was a fascinating period for young European actors, with all the opportunities coming their way in the booming international cinema.

We have mentioned the likes of Delon and Belmondo a lot here - as per their labels - but lets have a look at that interesting Horst Buchholz ...

Other French actors on the rise then included Brialy and Trintignant, Robert Hossein and Jean Sorel (usually in genre films like thrillers), Gerard Blain and Maurice Ronet. Marcello led the field in Italy with Raf Vallone, Renato Salvatori, Vittorio Gassman also prominent. Germany had Hardy Kruger becoming very international (in England's THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY, BACHELOR OF HEARTS, Losey's BLIND DATE, and the French SUNDAYS AND CYBELE and in Hawks' HATARI! with Blain, as well as with Monty Clift in THE DEFECTOR, 1965, and in Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON), while Carl Boehm went from the kitsch SISSI films with Romy, to being Michael Powell's notorious PEEPING TOM in 1960 and he was later in Fassbinder's very gay FOX AND HIS FRIENDS in 1974.

Horst Buchholz (1933-2003) was initially tagged "the German James Dean" due to the punks and teenagers he played in the '50s, as in DIE HALBSTARKEN (1956), which made him a teen favorite in Germany, he did several with Romy Schneider - MONPTI in 1957 is particularly charming, as per my review, (Horst, Romy labels). Being able to speak several languages he was soon in international cinema: in the English TIGER BAY in 1959 before going to America for John Sturges' western THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, as big a hit a you could get at the time, one we loved as kids. Billy Wilder chose him for his Berlin comedy ONE TWO THREE in 1961 - one of my favourite Wilders - and Josh Logan wanted him for FANNY with Caron, Boyer and Chevalier. He then went Indian for NINE HOURS TO RAMA, which we will be re-seeing and reviewing shortly, a drama about the assassination of Gandhi, made in 1962.  
A versatile actor, Buchholz appeared in comedies, horror films, wartime dramas and other genres, but his best work was mostly behind him by the mid-1960s, again like most popular young actors, he had ten good years. THE EMPTY CANVAS was an odd Italian drama he did with Bette Davis. He could have done roles in WEST SIDE STORY and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and also turned down A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, and continued filming in Europe, later roles included LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. 
Below, with Romy in MONPTI in 1958.

He had married and had 2 children. Usually reticent about his private life, in a 2000 interview in the German magazine "Bunte" Buchholz publicly came out saying "Yes, I also love men. Ultimately, I'm bisexual. ... I have always lived my life the way I wanted." He explained that he and his wife of nearly 42 years had a stable and enduring arrangement, with her life centered in Paris and his in Berlin, the city that he loved.Their son Christopher Buchholz also an actor and the producer of the feature-length documentary HORST BUCHHOLZ ... MEIN PAPA (2005), has publicly acknowledged his father's bisexuality.

Buchholz died unexpectedly at the age of sixty-nine in Berlin from pneumonia that developed after an operation for a  hip fracture. Its another fascinating career. 
Next up: Gerard Philipe.

'60s British cinema: Dirk, Losey, Accident, again

Nice to see ACCIDENT on television again - thanks, Talking Pictures. Been a few years since I last saw it, though the dvd is filed away - we liked Losey's 1967 drama, scripted by Harold Pinter, a lot back then, it was almost the kind of movie we took for granted then, but it seems like an arthouse classic now. This is what I wrote on it here in 2013 :

Joseph Losey's ACCIDENT remains a key '60s movie for me - I well remember seeing it for the first time with my best pal Stan when it was on general release as a double feature - the supporting movie was JUST LIKE A WOMAN another forgotten '60s comedy, good cast though headed by Wendy Craig. ACCIDENT though was the culmination of those Bogarde-Losey films: THE SLEEPING TIGER in 1954 and that quartet which more or less defined the '60s: THE SERVANT, the too little see KING AND COUNTRY, the mod op-art delight MODESTY BLAISE (maybe my favourite cult movie with the divine triumvirate of Vitti, Bogarde & Stamp on that mad, mod op art island, with those witty asides as Dirk goes over the top as the supercamp villain Gabriel in the blonde wig... but I digress as usual). The Losey-Stanley Baker films are fascinating too, I particularly like the 1959 thriller BLIND DATE (Losey, Baker labels) and EVE and THE CRIMINAL ...

ACCIDENT, scripted by Harold Pinter, begins and ends with the sounds of a car crash, and we go back and forth to discover what really happened. There is that long marvellous central sequence depicting a languid lazy summer afternoon at the comfortably upper-middle class Oxford residence of professor Stephen (Bogarde) and his pregnant wife Rosalind, perfectly played by Vivien Merchant. Guests include William, one of the professor's pupils - a golden boy, aristocrat Michael York, and his girlfriend Anna an Austrian princess, Jacqueline Sassard.
An interloper is another rival professor Charley, Stanley Baker at his most aggressive. They shell the peas, go for walks, lie on the lawn, hands slowly touch, as we begin to see the tensions and undercurrents here... Stephen is having a kind of mid-life crisis and is attracted to Anna, the glacial girlfriend who is manipulating these men. She is sleeping with Charley but knows how Stephen feels about her. Rivalies between the men come to the surface over dinner as William falls drunk into his plate - Charley is also a tv presenter, he is good on tv - and taunts Stephen who also wants to be on tv, and in fact has an appointment with a producer, played by Pinter himself. We also see Charley's distraught wife Ann Firbank, watering flowers in the rain, while the pregnant Rosalind watches all - Stephen also has a date with an old girlfriend, silently played by Delphine Seyrig - we hear their disjointed conversation played over that restaurant scene. Her father is Losey regular, Alexander Knox. Upper class rituals are explored - rugby, punting on the river ....

 We know right away that William has been killed in the car crash, as Stephen takes the unconscious Anna out of the car and into his house. Who actually was driving ?
Do they sleep together too ? Does he take advantage of her dazed state? One thing that mars ACCIDENT for me is that Sassard is too blank a presence at the centre - she also had a big role in '68 as a similar object of desire in Chabrol's LES BICHES, though it was her last year in movies. (I also saw her when younger in FAIBLES FEMMES, a French comedy with the young Alain Delon, in 1959). Projector favourite Austrian Romy Schneider, who was originally cast, would have been ideal here, with that teasing, feline quality of hers and would have made so much more of the role. We never get to see or understand what Sassard is feeling or thinking. Baker and Bogarde of course are both pitch perfect, squaring up to each other again a decade after their Canadian adventure CAMPBELL'S KINGDOM, a perfect Rank Organisation movie in 1957. ACCIDENT would be their final film with Losey, who was next making films with the Burtons and going off to Europe (Losey label), as indeed would Dirk. ACCIDENT's reputation has grown over the years, though like Antonioni's BLOW-UP it is a polarising film, some people actively hate it, but like BLOW-UP and THE SERVANT it is for me a major '60s film, and one of Pinter's best scripts. Cinematography by Gerry Fisher, and music by Johnny Dankworth. 

1962: Boccaccio 70

Back to 1962 again for BOCCACCIO 70 that fascinating compendium, then of 3 episodes, marketed as Fellini directs Anita Ekberg, Visconti directs Romy Schneider and De Sica with Sophia Loren once again. There was though a fourth episode, by Monicelli, with no major names (Marisa Solinas and Germano Gilioli, above) which was cut from the release print, to the annoyance of critics at the time who boycotted a party held by producer Carlo Ponti. As I mentioned here before, the dvd now has the full four episodes and the Monicelli proves a perfect summertime treat, as we join our young couple looking for some time to themselves in a crowded city with crowded workplaces, family homes and very crowded swimming pools. Its a perfect early 1960s Italian delight ...

Of course Romy (with Tomas Milian), Anita as the giant billboard that comes to life, and Sophia as the fairground girl who is raffled off every week, also amuse .... 

If you do not know this one, it is worth seeking out. 

London's BFI is holding a Vittoria De Sica retrospective (or really Vittorio's Greatest Hits) in August - including his classics like BICYCLE THIEVES in an extended run, plus UMBERTO D, and early ones like SHOESHINE, GATE OF HEAVEN, MIRACLE IN MILAN, the oddball THE LAST JUDGEMENT as well as GOLD OF NAPLES and his Loren-Mastroianni hits, plus TWO WOMEN and ending with GARDEN OF THE FINZI CONTINIS - but not BOCCACCIO 70 or CONDEMNED OF ALTONA or his last two as director A BRIEF VACATION or THE VOYAGE. They also incude several of his acting roles: BREAD LOVE & DREAMS with Gina, but not SCANDAL IN SORRENTO where he is very amusing with Sophia - nor several of his others with Loren (TOO BAD SHE'S BAD, THE MILLIONAIRESS, IT STARTED IN NAPLES), or his MONTE CARLO STORY with Dietrich, NERO'S LOST WEEKEND with Gloria Swanson and the young B.B,, but they do include Ophuls' MADAME DE... , and  IL GENERALE DELLA ROVERE for Rossellini, in 1959.  plus his 1954 Selznick opus INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE and his acting role in A FAREWELL TO ARMS.  They could have included his final acting role in Warhol's BLOOD FOR DRACULA! 

Vittorio as I said before, was a larger than life character, like John Huston or Orson Welles, who not only made his own films but also acted in others', no doubt to finance his gambling and other family expenses .... Sophia features him a lot in her latest autobio.
Soon: more Italian glamour with those DOLLS and QUEENS !

Francois, Francoise, Charlotte, Catherine, David, Tom

A relaxing Sunday with warmer weather, the newspapers and some interesting stories on favourites of ours, before cooking dinner and later unwinding with a drink at hand, for that 1940s wartime saga HOME FIRES ....

An interesting interview with Francois Ozon (right) in "The Irish Times" where the gay French director talks about his new film THE NEW GIRLFRIEND (about to open here) and has some interesting comments, particularly on those films of his featuring women like Deneuve or Rampling. As the paper's feature (by Tara Brady) says: "8 WOMEN brought together France’s grandest dames for a 1950s-set musical murder mystery; 5x2 plays five key scenes from a divorced couple’s relationship backwards; SWIMMING POOL exuded Hitchcockian menace as Charlotte Rampling became a young woman’s reluctant caregiver and voyeur; POTICHE saw Catherine Deneuve as a rejected trophy wife, lead her husband’s employees to rebel.

Many of Ozon’s films are smaller, more tightly focused; TIME TO LEAVE sees a young man push everyone away as he enters the final stages of terminal cancer".

"Charlotte Rampling is one of many actors who have returned again and again to the troupe of Ozon players. Others include Ludivine Sagnier and Catherine Deneuve.

“There is a lot of pleasure in working with women,” says Ozon. “Very often actresses are more pleasurable and easier to work with than men. There are some actors I work with and once is enough. But there are others, like Charlotte, who have a depth and maturity.”

What is it, I wonder, about French cinema’s love affair with a certain kind of British woman, such as Rampling, Jane Birkin and Kristin Scott Thomas.

“In France we have a fascination with foreign actresses,” Ozon says. “One of the most popular French actresses of the 1970s was Romy Schneider who was German. And then there are the English actresses who fell in love with French men and come to France. They often tell me the French offer very good parts as a woman gets older. In England or America they get to play the mother or the grandmother.”

Ozon has had Hollywood offers since Swimming Pool became a global sensation, in 2003. But the director is not for turning.

“In America, film is not about art or culture. It’s a business. So they make movies for teenagers, because it’s easier. And they have a different way of working. The producer does not direct the film, but they do make all of the decisions. The director is a technician more than an artist. I don’t want to work that way. I don’t feel the necessity of losing my soul.” 

Charlotte Rampling herself is interviewed too in "The Daily Telegraph" - 'Le Legende' at 69 now feels she has "the face she has earned". Like Catherine Deneuve her career spans 50 years and she still works now, turning down scripts she does not like - "it has to be something that makes me want to leave the house, where I can stay very happily with my books and my cats". Presumably, like playing a barrister in that second series of BROADCHURCH for British television recently (we loved the first series, the second less so... ). She has come a long way from the 'partying Sixties It-girl' with The Look, as exemplified by her breakthrough film GEORGY GIRL in 1966. Interesting to see that this year she is starring with Tom Courtenay (another Sixties actor in it for the long haul) in 45 YEARS, by Andrew Haigh (LOOKING tv series, WEEKEND) which is an unsettling portrait of a marriage. . She credits Ozon and working with him on UNDER THE SAND as revitalising her and re-realising her potential as a cinema actor. She is as busy now as she has ever been: "I'm working because good work is coming"

Catherine Denueve, another Ozon regular, could probably say the same. Her STANDING TALL was the opening film at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and as the Times put it: "Deneuve adds punch to delinquent drama", where she is the steely judge in this gritty downbeat drama. The critics were not sneering, as at last year's opener GRACE OF MONACO. Let's hope London sees this new Deneuve drama before too long .... I found Catherine hilarious in Ozon's POTICHE with her portly housewife out jogging and communicating with nature, before taking over the family factory to avert a strike and then going into politics, and her dancing with the even portlier Depardieu a delicious treat, with that Seventies background, and the increasingly gay son (Jeremie Rennier). See Ozon label for reviews on all these, his serious TIME TO LEAVE is devastating too. 

BBC4 ran a fascinating documentary as well on French popular song - chanson - where a very spry Petula Clark, now 82, took us through the golden years of French popular song from Edith Piaf and Charles Trenet, including Petula's own French career, to that great early Sixties era, with Francoise Hardy and the others. Francoise was the Face of the early sixties, her Vogue 4-track EPs were the first records I bought, even before The Beatles. Utter bliss then. Francoise too is still going and still singing though the hair is short and silver grey now. 

Tom joins the Hockney set

David Hockney is back in the news too with a new exhibition at the Annely Juda Gallery in London, with some fascinating new paintings. The artist, now 77, is selling that house in Bridlington  in East Yorkshire, where his assistant Dominic Elliott died in 2013. His new work includes 'The Potted Palm' - below - which include Olympic diver Tom Daley and his partner scriptwriter Dustin Lance Black, who are now part of the Hockney circle, David said he likes Tom and praised his coming out last year, of course Tom does lots of diving into those blue pools, but not making "a bigger splash"! Hockney - subject of many posts here, see label - recently bemoaned the demise of what he calls Bohemia, the lifestyle once led by gays, who now want to get married, settle down and have children - he finds them boring and conservative, wanting to lead ordinary lives ... He now goes to bed at nine, and don't go to parties or films as he has got increasingly deaf. He continues to work though, as he says "When I'm painting, I feel 30. Of course I have no plans to retire, artists don't retire. So I'll go on until I fall over, dying ideally at the easel". One somehow feels that other blonde painter who smoked endlessly - Joni Mitchell, maybe still in a coma and also in her Seventies, would somehow agree. Hockney also said in another recent interview that "maybe" the love of his life was Gregory Evans, his 62 year old manager, they were lovers for over a decade but have worked together for 40 years - not Peter Schlesinger of A BIGGER SPLASH then ... The new paintings are certainly fascinating and sees Hockney going in a new direction. 

Binge on boxsets ...

Having a binge with boxsets seems to be the new way to watch television - not just an episode a week any more. and now that Netflix can put whole series on-line, one can certainly binge on them - I am rationing my GRACE & FRANKIE episodes (as per recent post), and got their HOUSE OF CARDS reboot on dvd. Has television ever been better? Despite all the crap stuff, there are some terrific series out there, our Sky Atlantic being particularly good (like HBO with THE NORMAL HEART and other dramas). PENNY DREADFUL is particularly stunning - amazing sets and gothic horror mixing in Frankenstein's monster, Dorian Gray, bloody vampires, werewolves and other assorted Victorian nightmares - Eva Green, Rory Kinnear (a touching monster, left), Timothy Dalton, Billie Piper, Helen McCrory and upcoming Douglas Hodge and Patti Lupone will keep one watching .... not for the faint-hearted! I have not even got around to GAME OF THRONES or BREAKING BAD or ...

THE AFFAIR looks like another must see, after recent stunning series like HAPPY VALLEY and the delicious Sky sitcom by Ruth Jones: STELLA  - now on Series 4 with those inhabitants of Pontyberry in deepest Wales. More please ! Hard to believe Ruth's Stella was also GAVIN & STACEY's Nessa and LITTLE BRITAIN's Myfanwy (with Daffydd, the only gay in the village) and played Hattie Jacques too. Actress and writer Ruth, right, with Patrick Baladi. 

Incidentally, I will have to catch the new MAD MAX: FURY ROAD this week, I need a big screen experience with an action movie everyone seems to love .... I will probably be seeing it in 3D!