LE SAUVAGE (1975)

Catherine Deneuve is bullied into promising to marry a local gangster, Vittorio. She's very unhappy, so a few days before the wedding she runs away, but doesn't make it far before Vittorio is hot on her trail. After some exciting and funny misadventures she ends up on a deserted island with Yves Montand. He rents the island, has a really nice set up going and doesn't want any company, but he has it anyway because Catherine refuses to leave! They have a small war, but soon enough romantic sparks begin to fly. I was pleasantly surprised to see how natural their romance grew. It wasn't forced like you see in a lot of romantic comedies. I was also surprised, more like shocked, to see Tony Roberts with a substantial role in this film and speaking French!

When I first put this movie in I thought it was going to be a deserted island drama, but instead it's an light-hearted comedy and a good one at that. I found myself laughing a number of times and will definitely be watching it again. It also didn't hurt that the tan Catherine is beautiful and runs around in warm weather clothing and even gets topless! Yves turns in a perfect performance, Catherine is beautiful and funny and the script was very well written and kept my attention the entire time. When it was over I found myself wishing it had been longer!

[SPOILERS!!!] At the end, I wish that instead of returning to his childhood home, Catherine instead had rebuild the house that got burned down on the island. I think that would have been more romantic.[SPOILERS!!!]

THE DEVIL STRIKES AT NIGHT (1957)

During the war years, German director Robert Siodmak made a number of great movies in America, including THE KILLERS (1946) and CRISS CROSS (1949), then in the early 1950's he returned to Germany where he continued to make films, but many of them are hard to find...at least by me. I did recently come across a copy of THE DEVIL STRIKES AT NIGHT and it's an well-made film about a intellectually disabled strongman who's going around killing women during the chaos of the last years of WW2.

The SS are secretly investigating the murders.  When they arrest an innocent man for one of the killings, a lone police detective goes to great lengths to prove his innocence, but unfortunately for him the SS isn't interested in justice only keeping the population under their boot.

The guy who plays the investigator does a fine job, but it's the serial killer (played brilliantly by Mario Adorf) that steals the show. One look at him and you know he's bad news. You wouldn't want to be stuck in a broken elevator with this guy! But even more disturbing are the SS guys who lurk around behind the scenes pulling the strings with no concern for right or wrong or even who dies in the process.

If you can find a copy, it's well worth watching.

TRUE GRIT (2010)

Fourteen year-old Mattie Ross' pa was shot and killed in cold-blood by a low-down, snake in the grass motherhumper by the name of Tom Chaney. The cops ain't worth a shit, so Mattie is forced to hire a Marshall to bring her pa's killer to justice. Shit happens, they wander around riding horses and eventually a few people get shot. The End.

I liked the film alright and there was some beautifully scenery, but I was kinda surprised at how I didn't feel any emotional attachment to any of the characters. From the very start Mattie is a cold and calculating character with more in common with a Terminator robot than a little girl and it never lets up. Right up until the very end she has the personality of an ice cube. It's like the brain of a Terminator was installed into the robot from "Small Wonder". Jeff Bridges is entertaining, but he could have reeled it in and been less hammy.  Also, he uses such an heavy mush-mouthed voice that you need the subtitles to understand everything he's saying! Matt Damon, well, he's actually pretty funny and the closest thing resembling a human of the main characters. I liked him.

I just wanted more depth to the characters. A short 10 minute build up at the beginning showing the father as a good man and Mattie as a human being would have helped a lot. One of the most impressive things about Ripley in ALIENS turning into a complete badass at the end was she was genuinely a nice person who was just pushed too goddamn far by the aliens and that's what needed to be shown here. We never got to see Mattie as a sweet innocent girl. There's also a lot of wasted time in the middle section that could have been fleshed out better.

Worth a watch, it's a good film.

Original - True Grit (1969)

MANON 70 (1968)

[Update 03/09/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

Made a year after Bunuel's sexual masterpiece BELLE DE JOUR, Deneuve continues the sexuality theme by playing a free-spirited prostitute who, with the help of her pimp brother, hooks up with extremely rich men and uses them to provide herself with an extravagant lifestyle. Things change when she bumps into average joe Des Grieux and she instantly falls in love with him.

Old habits are hard to break though and she soon finds herself on a yacht with a rich swinger and his entourage, but when she discovers that Des Grieux has been seen with another girl while she's off "working" she immediately leaves to confront him about his infidelity! Things go on like this for awhile until finally, well, you have to watch it for yourself.

With a less beautiful and less talented actress this film would have rightfully slipped into obscurity, but Catherine is completely hypnotizing in every scene and she carries the film with her playful little smiles. As far as the story goes it's alright, I was entertained, but really it comes down to how much like Deneuve as to whether you should watch this film or not. The story alone isn't reason enough.