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4038 Films2 – Best Other films
Directed by Orson Welles – ‘Citizen Kane’ has long been the critic’s choice, and it is one of my favourites. I also love the follow-on, the much neglected ‘Magnificent Ambersons’. Thereafter his films, limited in budget, became more difficult; but I still rated ‘The Touch of Evil’ and (Kafka’s) ‘The Trial’ as masterpieces.
Howard Hawkes was one of Hollywood’s multitalented directors.He made ‘Bringing Up Baby’ with the exquisitely paired comedy team of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, along with ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’, from which most remember Marilyn Munroe’s number ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’, but I think her duet with Jane Russell, ‘Two Little Girls from Little Rock’, is even better.
Louis Malle I normally do not especially rate. His films, except for ‘Zazie dans le Metro’ and of course ‘Les Amants’ do not greatly impress me. But I loved one which others consider a failure. It was ‘The Two Marias’, starring Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau (one of my favourites) in a very unlikely combination – as participants in South American revolution.
My favourite films of Francois Truffaut were ‘Jules et Jim’, with the incomparable Jeanne Moreau, and ‘Tirez sur le Pianiste’, with Charles Aznavour. For me, at least, Truffaut encapsulated the nouvelle vague (new wave) in 1960s French cinema – with its emphasis on mise en scene.
Jacques Demy – made two marvelous, and very poignant, musicals. ‘Les Parapluies de Cherbourg’ starred Catherine Deneuve and was – justifiably - a great success. ‘Les Demoiselles de Rochefort’, which also starred her, was less well known but almost as good.
David O Selznick – a producer (not least of ‘Gone with the Wind’) made the beautifully atmospheric (ghost?) love story – ‘Portrait of Jenny’ - with his wife, Jennifer Jones in the lead – directed by the otherwise little known William Dieterle. She also starred in a ‘Farewell to Arms’, directed by King Vidor.
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