jrd_73
Joined May 2006
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The Girl Can't Stop is an extra on the Mondo Macabro release of Ravishing Dany. The two films share the same director (Willy Rozier). Although usually a bonus film is a large step down from the featured film, this was a case where I found the two films about equal. In fact, I might have slightly preferred the bonus film simply because it is of a genre that I happen to like, the crime film.
Manuel Liparos is a playboy who has overspent and is now in danger of being poor. Fortunately, Liparos has an attractive wife who catches the eye of an assistant banker. So, the playboy uses his wife to get a loan, but this creates other problems. The assistant banker only holds his job because his suspicious uncle runs the bank. The uncle knows his nephew wrongly approved the loan. Manuel has a plan though. He happens to be friends with a once feared hood now an alcoholic gambler who will do about anything for money.
The description sounds like the assistant banker might be the one who is the protagonist. In fact, it is Manuel's wife who does everything for her younger brother, her only relative. She knows nothing about the murder plot until way too late. Xenia Kalogeropoulou plays Thassoula Liparos well.
The Girl Can't Stop is a low budget, modest thriller with a perhaps too easy conclusion. On that level, I was pleasantly surprised by how much it held my attention. It was a better than expected bonus film.
Manuel Liparos is a playboy who has overspent and is now in danger of being poor. Fortunately, Liparos has an attractive wife who catches the eye of an assistant banker. So, the playboy uses his wife to get a loan, but this creates other problems. The assistant banker only holds his job because his suspicious uncle runs the bank. The uncle knows his nephew wrongly approved the loan. Manuel has a plan though. He happens to be friends with a once feared hood now an alcoholic gambler who will do about anything for money.
The description sounds like the assistant banker might be the one who is the protagonist. In fact, it is Manuel's wife who does everything for her younger brother, her only relative. She knows nothing about the murder plot until way too late. Xenia Kalogeropoulou plays Thassoula Liparos well.
The Girl Can't Stop is a low budget, modest thriller with a perhaps too easy conclusion. On that level, I was pleasantly surprised by how much it held my attention. It was a better than expected bonus film.
Ravishing Dany was recently released on disc by Mondo Macabro. I took a chance and was somewhat entertained by this European sex comedy.
Sandra Julien plays Dany, a Parisian model with a problem. Her car is need of repairs (four flat tires). Dany decides to hitchhike to and from her photoshoot in Italy. The film is rather oddly structured. We see the rides Dany gets on her way back to Paris, but not on the way to Italy. Then, at about the halfway point, Dany is given another modeling job, and we see her rides to the gig (but not on the way home). Why Dany did not get her car fixed with the money she made from the first modeling gig is never explained, other than the fact she is too cheap to pay for transportation.
The rides mostly involve lighthearted adventures. My favorites include an amorous butterfly collector with a lyrical imagination and a man who confuses women and sheep.
The film loses steam in the second half. The film includes a lengthy ride with a pair of bank robbers, which includes some killings and sexual violence (this is the 1970's after all) that darkens the otherwise lighthearted mood of the first half. However, the film does end on a humorous note.
For the most part, Ravishing Dany kept me entertained. I was certainly not riveted, but I did get a few laughs and the film's episodic nature worked for me.
Sandra Julien plays Dany, a Parisian model with a problem. Her car is need of repairs (four flat tires). Dany decides to hitchhike to and from her photoshoot in Italy. The film is rather oddly structured. We see the rides Dany gets on her way back to Paris, but not on the way to Italy. Then, at about the halfway point, Dany is given another modeling job, and we see her rides to the gig (but not on the way home). Why Dany did not get her car fixed with the money she made from the first modeling gig is never explained, other than the fact she is too cheap to pay for transportation.
The rides mostly involve lighthearted adventures. My favorites include an amorous butterfly collector with a lyrical imagination and a man who confuses women and sheep.
The film loses steam in the second half. The film includes a lengthy ride with a pair of bank robbers, which includes some killings and sexual violence (this is the 1970's after all) that darkens the otherwise lighthearted mood of the first half. However, the film does end on a humorous note.
For the most part, Ravishing Dany kept me entertained. I was certainly not riveted, but I did get a few laughs and the film's episodic nature worked for me.
Roughly twenty minutes of this historical biography is lost. According to the introduction on the Kafka Goes to the Movies DVD set, some scenes had deteriorated while others may have been cut to play for younger audiences. What remains is more of a curiosity than a satisfying film.
The first half of Theodor Korner consists of mostly domestic scenes. Korner's early life, school days, stage work, and engagement. These scenes are presented typically for the time. They are shot like a play with actors entering and exiting around a stationary camera.
The second half of the film consists of the battle scenes. Unfortunately, the majority of the missing scenes are in this section. Even Korner's death scene is missing as a title saying, "A Heroic Death" is followed by "(scene missing)." The impression the battle scenes leave in the viewer is of majestic horses galloping here and there but never getting anywhere. Some of the framing is questionable. In one scene a horseman runs his horse into a tree and falls off it. In a battle scene, the distant camera seems to be searching for the action.
I cannot fairly judge a film that is missing a third of its length, and what might be its most exciting sections. As it is, I can only recommend Theodor Korner to die hard students of German history or devotees of early cinema.
The first half of Theodor Korner consists of mostly domestic scenes. Korner's early life, school days, stage work, and engagement. These scenes are presented typically for the time. They are shot like a play with actors entering and exiting around a stationary camera.
The second half of the film consists of the battle scenes. Unfortunately, the majority of the missing scenes are in this section. Even Korner's death scene is missing as a title saying, "A Heroic Death" is followed by "(scene missing)." The impression the battle scenes leave in the viewer is of majestic horses galloping here and there but never getting anywhere. Some of the framing is questionable. In one scene a horseman runs his horse into a tree and falls off it. In a battle scene, the distant camera seems to be searching for the action.
I cannot fairly judge a film that is missing a third of its length, and what might be its most exciting sections. As it is, I can only recommend Theodor Korner to die hard students of German history or devotees of early cinema.