Posted on 12/09/2023 5:23:51 PM PST by Twotone
The French invented the term film noir – it's supposed to have been coined in 1946 by the critic Nino Frank – but it took them years to come up with their own contributions to the genre, by which time it was very nearly played out in Hollywood. That American film noir was essential to the earliest films by most directors of the French New Wave is generally accepted; that something critical was lost in translation is just as certain.
Louis Malle had a strange relationship with his peers in the nouvelle vague; like the very different Eric Rohmer, he never settled easily amidst directors like Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol and Rivette. After a handful of pictures (The Lovers, Zazie in the Metro, The Fire Within) that would fit nicely into a rep cinema New Wave retrospective, he began wandering away, and by the second half of his career he was in America, making films in English (Pretty Baby, Atlantic City, My Dinner with Andre, Crackers, Alamo Bay) and married to Candice Bergen, a movie star.
After a brief return to France for two films (Au revoir les enfants and Milou en mai) he ended his career with a romantic thriller (Damage) and Vanya on 42nd Street, which like My Dinner with Andre is probably one of the most perfect examples of a film festival film. He died in Beverly Hills in 1995, a long way from his start working as Jacques Cousteau's cameraman and his first film, a dreamlike crime thriller where all those American influences are turned into something unmistakably French, like the Croque McDo or P'tit Fondu you'd buy in a McDonald's in Paris.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
The most amazing part of the film is the soundtrack by Miles Davis. Recorded in one session with his band while watching the film.
To my suprise, I enjoyed ‘My Dinner With Andre’. Might have been a coupla white dudes sitting around talkin, but a good film. I only watched it because both Siskel and Ebert raved about it, and when they both agreed on a film, the film was usually good.
Thanks for posting! Excellent review by Mark.
So what it was a couple of White dudes? What does that remark mean?
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https://youtu.be/1OKQdp6iGUk?si=WMw0-_zzHRQzjxhs
Fantastic scene! Did you catch the gigantic “Tri Star” hood ornament on the old Mercedes. It was like a gunsight on a AA gun.
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