Le Cerveau (1969)

	Also Known As: The Brain
	Year of first release: 1969
	Director: Gérard Oury (La Grande Vadrouille, Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob)
	Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo (Flic ou Voyou), Bourvil (La Grande Vadrouille), David Niven (The Pink Panther, The Guns of Navarone), Eli Wallach (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)
	Country: F, I
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 25.12.2016, 42" TV
Synopsis: The thief known as The Brain (Niven) plans to rob a train containing money from NATO. Anatole and Arthur (Bourvil & Belmondo), the latter freshly out of jail, have the same plan.
Review: Another classic French comedy I have seen many times in my youth, directed by one of the masters of the genre Gérard Oury, and starring the classic aging comedian Bourvil and the young action-comedian Belmondo. The story is pretty ambitious, but peppered with situations prone to humour and characters like Frankie (Wallach) over-protecting his sister, the impassable British David Niven and the naive Bourvil. That story is also well shot and not shy on stunts and large sets. The production may be a Franco-Italian one, I found that the movie contains an original mix of French (Cartesian) humour and British (absurd, second degree) one, a difference that I mentioned when reviewing the French TV-series Kaamelott. The movie is thus a succession of comic dialogs in French (Anatole and Arthur arguing), obviously staged comedy (the Italian Wallach loosing his woolen sweater) and more subtle British notes like the difference between the perfect robbery shown by The Brain in an elaborate cartoon and the actual robbery. That aspect is in fact what I appreciated and made me laugh most. The rest I found often over-exaggerated.
Rating: 5 /10

Designated Survivor - Season 1 (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Creator: David Guggenheim
	Actors: Kiefer Sutherland (Flatliners, 24 TV-series), Natascha McElhone (The Truman Show), Adan Canto (Narcos TV-series), Italia Ricci (Supergirl TV-series), Maggie Q (Naked Weapon), Kal Penn (Superman Returns)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: December 2016, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: After a terrorist bombing decimates the whole government, a planned survivor is revealed in the person of Tom Kirkman (Sutherland) that has now to assume the function of President of the USA.
Review: It was easy for me to decide to start watching this series as it contains some part of political life in the White House (that I like since watching House of Cards), a disastrous terrorist attack (as in White House Down, Olympus has Fallen and London has Fallen, although not the best quality examples) and a Kiefer Sutherland under a lot of pressure like he played so well in the 24 TV-series. All the ingredients to produce a TV-series if not revolutionary, at least watchable and entertaining, with the hope of some reflection on terrorism. That hope you can forget. Designated Survivor turns out to be a good Thriller series, and various characters well played by good actors, but little more than a designated series of challenges for the FBI (nice to see Maggie Q play there) and the presidential couple, including familial ones, a couple that would by the way get eaten for breakfast by the Underwoods of House of Cards. The Kirkmans are just not built for it. It is not what is asked of them in fact, in a TV-series that focuses more on suspense that on power games. And suspense you have with twists at almost every episode, catastrophes happening at the worst times, security breaches, internal and external political tension, and suspicion and conspiracy all around, although likely less well rendered as in the other TV-series Homeland that I haven't seen but was recommended to me for its paranoid component. Note that it is the first series in many years (15?) that I have been watching episode by episode as they were released. Funny that Netflix decided to release it that way and not in one shot as usual. The waiting between episodes made me more eager to watch the series, but I am not sure I would repeat the experiment. Also I learned only after 10 episodes that the first season will contain 22 Episodes, the 12 remaining to be released after march 2017. A bit disappointing as the Episode 10: The Oath ends with a cliffhanger barely more tense than in any other episode. I will update this article after watching the whole season but wanted to publish this part at least while it is fresh in memory.
Rating: 4 /10

Eraser (1996)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1996
	Director: Chuck Russell (The Blob, The Mask, The Scorpion King)
	Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator, Predator), Vanessa Williams (Shaft), James Caan (Elf, Misery, The Godfather), James Coburn (The Great Escape)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 23.12.2016, VOD, 42" TV
Synopsis: John Kruger (Schwarzenegger) is a US Marshall helping people under witness protection program to relocate, and protecting them. He is assigned Lee Cullen (Williams) who just helped the FBI get information from a company that is suspected of selling arms to foreign countries.
Review: For me that last good Action movie by Schwarzenegger, released after James Cameron's True Lies and before End of Days, The 6th Day and the cursed Collateral Damage. Even though it was released after the Genre's golden period of the 80's, it contains all the ingredients for that: Arnie as irreproachable (and indestructible) cop, crooked partners, a conspiracy, a woman to protect, semi-futuristic weapons, and a bunch of bad guys henchmen around for arm twisting, neck breaking, throwing to crocodiles or just shoot at. Many death are by the way pretty brutal to loook at. This chase is just fun to look at although the characters and situations are sometimes (very) far-fetched, and the special effects in some scenes are too poorly done (the parachute and crocodiles scenes). But hey, one cannot ask too much from a movie in which our favorite Action hero at the top of his shape shoot at cars that go flying over his head while everything else around explodes as well. Action you wanted, Action you have.
Rating: 6 /10

The Arrival (1996)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1996
	Director: David Twohy (Pitch Black, Riddick)
	Actors: Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men TV-series), Lindsay Crouse, Richard Schiff
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 23.12.2016, VOD, 42" TV
Synopsis: Zane Zaminsky (Sheen) is a radio-astronomer looking for extra-terrestrial life. He looses his job after detecting something, and then becomes obsessed with finding answers, an obsession that will lead him to Mexico.
Review: Not to be confused with the recent release Arrival, this movie is 20 years old and features Charlie Sheen, but probably the title and main actor motivated me to watch it, on top of the fact that it is an Alien Invasion story, a sub-genre that I like. Indeed even though the story sounds at first like the one of Robert Zemeckis' Contact with Jodie Foster, it is treated very differently, more like an Action Thriller than a mystical quest. In 1996 Charlie Sheen was far from his debuts in Red Dawn and his very serious role in Platoon, but not yet the comedy monster of Two and a Half Men although he had already starred in the two Hot Shot! movies. I have been watching a lot of his TV-series lately so I found it hard to take him seriously in the movie at first, but then his convincing acting made it work. He is in fact quite at ease in this semi-serious role. As already mentioned, the story approach is a kind of Action-SF Thriller, meaning not much reflexion about our place in the Universe but more investigation and plenty of discoveries and twists that keep you well entertained through the almost two hours of the movie. A bit like John Carpenter's 1992 Big Trouble in Little China but with more outdoors and less ass-kicking. After all Sheen plays a scientist. Screenplay writer / director David Thowy is probably more than partly responsible for a movie well put together. Four years later he went on to deliver the cult B Pitch Black and create the action hero Riddick at the same time (embodied by Vin Diesel). I have yet to watch his directing debut Timescape (1992).
Rating: 6 /10

Frida (2002)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2002
	Director: Julie Taymor
	Actors: Salma Hayek, Alfredo Molina, Geoffrey Rush
	Country: USA, CDN, MEX
	Genre: Drama, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 08.12.2016, DVD, German version
Synopsis: Frida Kahlo (Hayek) is an art student when she meets Diego Rivera (Molina) and astonishes him with her intelligence and emancipated way of life.
Review: The life of Frida Kahlo is interesting as emancipated woman in a rather machist country of Mexico. The artistical view is focused on her self-portraits and therefore focused on pain, to quote Frida "My painting carries with it the message of pain". While all other still life and portraits are not shown at all in the movie. This choice is adequate to show her dramatical life. The encounter with Leon Trotski (Rush) is surprising. The charm of a woman's intelligence is confirmed to be great.  The acting of Salma Hayek and Alfredo Molina is good. Geoffrey Rush's role is short but very right. The directing had some good ideas like the motionless transition of paintings into persons.  Even if the movie does not reach an excellent rating, I would recommend it not only for fans of art but also for people interested in feminism history.
Rating: 6 /10

A fistful of dollars (1964)

	Also Known As: Pour une poignée de dollars, Für eine handvoll Dollar, Per un pugno de dollari, Por un puñado de dólares
	Year of first release: 1964
	Director: Sergio Leone
	Actors: Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volontè, Marianne Koch, Mario Brega
	Country: I, E, D
	Genre: Western
	Conditions of visioning: 08.11.2016, Bluray, English version
Synopsis: An anonymous, but deadly man (Eastwood) rides into a town torn by war between two factions, the Baxters and the Rojo's. Instead of fleeing or dying, as most other would do, the man schemes to play the two sides off each other, getting rich in the bargain.
Review: I watched this movies many times since my childhood. This movie did open for me the world of western genre and specifically spaghetti western. Western with humour and with style! The style of Sergio Leone was revolutionary at that time and made his success: large landscape images, close-ups on the characters faces, main character neither good nor bad, adequate cast, amazing music collaboration with Ennio Morricone as composer.  The story has something good and vertuous, to help a woman and her child to meet the father again in freedom without being threatened. And greedy, to extort money from both families in town. SPOILER As usual the story ends in a fair play duel. Gian Maria Volontè plays greatly the both impulsive and intelligent bad guy. Mario Brega completes the bad guys excellent acting. The story wins a lot by having both hero and bad guys as main characters and well cast. The rest of the cast is actually good as well. The villagers helping Clint Eastwood have marking faces that make them friendly. This is also one of the Sergio Leone's signature.  The image is just great! The big landscape images of southern Spain, by Almeria, that we can recognize in several movies of Sergio Leone. The excellent image composition and slow camera movements in the scenes in the village. For me the major quality of Sergio Leone is that image and story are amazingly enhanced by the music by Ennio Morricone. After this amazing success, Clint Eastwood, Ennio Morricone and Sergio Leone became legends of cinema. One remarkable add-on in the Bluray is an interview of Christopher Frayling an expert in spaghetti westerns and collectionneur of their posters. Many posters of very different countries are shown as well as the covers of the LPs. This gives another insight in the creativitiy and diversity of that time.
Rating: 9 /10

Le Grand Blond avec une Chaussure Noire (1972)

	Also Known As: Der große Blonde mit dem schwarzen Schuh
	Year of first release: 1972
	Director: Yves Robert (La Guerre des Boutons)
	Actors: Pierre Richard, Bernard Blier (Les Tontons Flingueurs), Jean Rochefort (Lost in La Mancha), Mireille Darc
	Country: F
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 25.12.2016, 42" TV
Synopsis: A hapless orchestra player becomes an unwitting pawn of rival factions within the French secret service after he is chosen as a decoy by being identified as a super secret agent.
Review: An unforgettable classic French comedy from my youth of watching public television, hard to believe that it is 45 years old thanks to digital conservation and projection of such movies nowadays. The humour ages but the image quality not! Indeed I guess it would be hard for a young audience to laugh at the gags, quite typical of that decade. For me that character of the absentminded violinist (Mr. Nobody in fact) is likeable, so much that a sequel was soon produced in 1974 (Le Retour du Grand Blond), and in fact it is the kind of character Pierre Richard excelled at playing (already in Le Distrait in 1970). But what makes the most fun for me is the rivalry between a stern Jean Rochefort as Secret Services Head and his deputy played by Bernard Blier as nervous as a Wolfoni Brother. This rivalry and the high-tech spy techniques used by both teams put in contrast with the mundane life of the violinist (between toothaches, adultery and an invading best friend) is what makes the comedy work.
Rating: 5 /10

In the Line of Fire (1993)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1993
	Director: Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, Air Force One)
	Actors: Clint Eastwood (For a few dollars more, Gran Torino), John Malkovich (R.E.D., Burn after Reading), Rene Russo (Lethal Weapon 3, Ransom)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 21.12.2016, VOD, 42" TV
Synopsis: Frank Horrigan (Eastwood) badly lives with the memory of the assassination of Kennedy that he couldn't prevent as member of the Secret Services. 25 years later a man (Malkovich) contacts him in person and threatens the current President.
Review: Directed by the very Americano-patriotic German citizen Wolfgang Petersen, In the Line of Fire is for me one of the best Thrillers starring Eastwood, in the decade of Heartbreak Ridge (1986) and Absolute Power (1997). OK the movie is very much centered on the Hollywood star that has the best role, gets the girl and saves the day by being an American hero, but if you like the style it is quite nice to watch. What set the movie apart are the back-story of Horrigan and the special relationship between him and the madman: it is not usual to have this bond between a (super-)cop and the bad guy. Also the state of mind of both characters is very well rendered by the respective actors Eastwood and Malkovich, both very natural. The story evolves at the right pace, with the expected amount of tension and conflict between Horrigan and his superiors who don't believe him the threat is real. In this movie Eastwood was starting to play with his age, i.e. the story requires the main character to be at the end of his career even though he then flirts with the 20 years younger Rene Russo. He will continue this way in Space Cowboys, Gran Torino...
Rating: 7 /10

Flic ou Voyou (1979)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1979
	Director: Georges Lautner (Le Professionnel, Le Pacha, Les Tontons Fligueurs)
	Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo (Le Magnifique), Georges Géret, Jean-François Balmer, Michel Galabru
	Country: F
	Genre: Polar, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 19.12.2016, 42" TV
Synopsis: Commissaire Stanislas Borowitz (Belmondo) is going undercover as gangster Antonio Cerutti in order to expose corrupted policemen in the South of France.
Review: It was very interesting to watch this movie by Georges Lautner back to back with his other one Le Pacha thanks to a double-feature on TV. In this movie produced 12 years later, Belmondo replaces Gabin (I remember their meeting in Un Singe en Hiver) in a strikingly similar story: a cop using unorthodox methods to eliminate gangsters. This appears to be a topic dear to Lautner. As much as Le Pacha was adapted to the sober time and style of Gabin, Flic ou Voyou is more in the extravagance of Belmondo and the 70/80's: young commissaire driving sports car and kicking asses, jazzy music (adequately used by Lautner like in Le Pacha), flashy clothes, comedy and impossible romance. Dialogs by Michel Audiard are ever present, even if infinitely more discreet than in Les Tontons Fligueurs. The movie is nice to watch for the cannonball character of Borowitz who doesn't follow many rules, but the whole thing is far too staged and unrealistic to become a classic. In fact there is just too much comedy in it.
Rating: 5 /10

Le Pacha (1967)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1967
	Director: Georges Lautner (Le Professionnel, Flic ou Voyou, Les Tontons Fligueurs)
	Actors: Jean Gabin (Le Cave se rebiffe, La Grande Illusion), Dany Carrel, Jean Gaven, André Pousse (La 7ème compagnie au clair de lune)
	Country: F, I
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 19.12.2016, 42" TV
Synopsis: After a large amount of diamonds is stolen, several gangsters die apparently from the hands of one of them, and Commissaire Joss (Gabin) starts investigating.
Review: As usual for the Christmas holidays I am eager to watch some French movies and I was glad to find out about this Georges Lautner double feature with Flic ou Voyou. Gabin was not that young anymore at the time so the role of a commissioner suits him well. It is great to see him entering the investigation, questioning his friend, getting more and more involved and finally changing his character to the point of devising a plan to have the gangsters exterminate one another. That was an excellent story-writing in the first place and Gabin (and the others) are excellent at giving life to it, and in brilliant color images. The point of view of Joss (a.k.a. The Pacha) is interesting and understandable: almost retired he is fed up with chasing always the same criminals that get away with light sentences. The complicity he has with his boss is also nicely shown, and is definitely at the opposite of how the Police is expected to behave nowadays. One additional element that plays a great role in the pleasure of watch Le Pacha is the soundtrack. Lautner has obviously understood the importance of it, and plays at repeating the same few note every time there is some suspense. That gets into your head. And after a while those few notes become the intro to Serge Gainsbourg's Requiem pour un Con, playing longer and longer until we meet the composer appearing as himself in the movie, leader of the band in which one gangster plays. I loved the meeting of Gabin and Gainsbourg, not interacting or exchanging a word in the movie, and you can see that moment in the picture below this post. A great Polar atmosphere in this old classic that must not be forgotten.
Rating: 8 /10