Then comes Michael Curtiz’s “Mildred Pierce” (1945), which won an Oscar for Joan Crawford as a waitress who rises to restaurateur only to be undone by her nasty daughter (Ann Blyth, in a bold cast-against-type performance).
First up is Billy Wilder’s “Double Indemnity” (1944), with blond femme fatale Barbara Stanwyck wreaking havoc on Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Ribisi and Harris are both talented, but their efforts don’t make these movies any less hard to watch.Īlso in its sixth edition is Side Streets and Back Alleys: The Festival of Film Noir, one of American Cinematheque’s most popular annual events. “Intoxicating” is less arty and pretentious than “I Love Your Work,” but both become as insufferable as their self-absorbed antiheroes. In the second, Kirk Harris is a workaholic heart surgeon caught up in drugs and a beautiful Dane (Camilla Overbye Roos).
#The case of the provacative protege cast movie
In the first, Giovanni Ribisi is an unstable movie star married to a German actress (Franka Potente).
Both are about young men unable to cope with the pressures of a demanding career whose downward spirals are hastened by their infatuations with gorgeous European blonds.
It’s scarcely unusual for talented actors to turn up in misfired movies, and that is the case with two surprisingly - and depressingly - similar pictures, Adam Goldberg’s “I Love Your Work” ( Friday at 7 p.m.) and Mark David’s “Intoxicating” (Saturday at 7:45 p.m.). Grodecki is best known for “Mandragora,” an expose of post-Communist Czech youths in the dicey world of hustling and pornography. “Insatiability’s” extravagant dementia is demanding but also provocative. The inclusion of Polish filmmaker Wiktor Grodecki’s ultra-bizarre “Insatiability” in the festival is both venturesome and apt - first, because it is so exuberantly surreal and decadent second, because it offers a good example of actors maintaining high energy while playing demented types delivering dialogue that, via literate subtitles, comes across as witty, well-turned nonsense.īased on a 1930 novel, at once retro and futuristic, by avant-garde writer-artist Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885-1939), the film is a fable of power, sex and politics carried to absurdist limits. But no matter because the confusion is part of the fun. As double-crosses escalate and cons become dizzyingly elaborate, it becomes virtually impossible to keep track of the shenanigans. In desperate straits, he’s open to a scheme proposed by his young protege, Fiona (Liane Balaban), a nervy pickpocket. Harlan’s life starts unraveling when he “borrows” $10,000 from his ruthless underworld boss (a vivid Babz Chula) and blows it on a horserace. The film provides veteran actor Kevin Pollak with a solid yet subtle role as Harlan, a small-time grifter living in a faded old Beaux-Arts hotel. Yates’ “Seven Times Lucky,” an adroit neo-noir set in a seedy section of downtown Winnipeg, Canada. The strongest film available for preview is Gary B. The festival this year has honored Dennis Hopper with its lifetime achievement award. The sixth annual Method Fest, devoted to independent films with an emphasis on acting, returns to Burbank starting Friday with 26 features and 46 shorts, as well as panel discussions and other events.
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