jpclifford Reviews

Muiterij op de Caine (1968 TV Movie)

Something to remember

[9/10 · 30 January 2021]

I saw this "movie" on TV when I was young (born 1950, seen 1968). I was very impressed. Years later I got the video-file from "Beeld & Geluid", a dutch database collecting TV programs. And it was there again. But there was one peculiarity: The story does not mention what the officer, after "dismissing" Queeg, did with the ship. They all survived, but did he go North or South.

???

Far from Vietnam (1967)

Mechanics?

[9/10 · 27 April 2020]

I bought this DVD and it has a "cryptic" title. Lion du Vietnam. This says that the witness it tries to deliver on what there is going on has nothing to do with the Vietnamese people or their country. It is all about the West, raging mechanics and death. For what reason? You give the answer.

George and Mildred (1980)

Humor?

[5/10 · 7 May 2019]

I admit that I came accidentally at this"movie". From my early youth I remembered the actress Yootha Joyce from television. She impressed me because she "was really there". I later learned that she was a "regular drinker ( one bottle of wine a day)". I wandered why she came to this habit. But now seeing, watching this movie you know Wernher she was "trapped in". This movie is not humor nor amusement, it is a complete horror. Probably "producers" like this kind of "toy-play".

I think that they and there toys are better in the "wastepaper-bin".

Enjoy.

Rebecca (1997)

Excelent, masterpiece?

[5/10 · 4 May 2018]

I accidentally came upon this version. I had seen Hitchcock's version and it came to as "dubious, questionable". But this version really makes it a horror. The picture on the front of the case shows a woman with a "naughty glance". But if you wait you see behind this an absolute determination of immense cruelty. And that is not she but Mr. de Winter.

Is it "sophisticated amusement"? For who?

Indochine (1992)

westpenn49 ?

[8/10 · 16 April 2018]

I saw the picture (now, when I am retired) and did read the review of westpenn49. On one side he admit that it is a sad story, on the other side he acclaims that it is a splendid movie. Is this not a "classic" example of perversion? The most cruel is the most orgiastic?

I am sorry but this is real weird.

Regards,

J.P. (Jan) Clifford

Repulsion (1965)

No one knows?? (?)

[8/10 · 16 October 2017]

Years ago ( '70s) I saw this movie with some friends at the cinema. I was strongly impressed with a sense of awe (== terror). But there was no VHS or DVD so I put it in a drawer of my memory. Now I am retired and sometimes go back in time. Happily this movie was on DVD so I bought it. When you see it again after so many years "the penny finally dropped".

I don't know much about Polanski (except from Wikipedia), but I think that he is a "gifted by nature".

When you try to circumscribe (no! not geometrical, but Aristotelian) the main character, a woman, you soon find yourself immersed in what Wittgenstein called "the witchery of language". She appears not to be sensitive (a hot item these days) but sensuous (today this word is undefined!) so I use sensible in the original sense. This is not erotic but emotional (does this still exist??). And as she is very sensible she is apt to here environment. And I think that is just what Polanski does, addressing you (the audience)??? I think many people identify with here environment and expel here as "mad". But I think that if Polanski should have had "bad manners" he should have called this movie "Mirror".

Enjoy,

J.P. (Jan) Clifford

Friends & Crocodiles (2005 TV Movie)

Awe

[2/10 · 1 April 2017]

I saw this "picture" (you look like a picture) and experienced it as horror or must I say "ghast"? I wrote to the BBC that there seems nothing more fascinating then to witness insanity. I never got an answer. The problem is: Why must this kind of amusement be made public? Is it disdain? Regards.

Anna Karenina (I) (2012)

What is it up?

[2/10 · 30 October 2016]

Someone made me view this picture on DVD. But the enclosure told that the screenplay was of Tom Stoppard. I acutely froze. I had seen his picture "Parades End". In this picture he lets a man who lives in a nearby hell choose for his "redemption" a fearless suffragette. My youth learned me that people who know no anguish or fear are a terror to themselves and the society thy live in. So, I watched the movie and the only emotion that came to me was disgust, very strong. I am afraid that Tom Stoppard ranks with Oliver Stone and (yes!) even with Harold Pinter. The DVD opens with a preview of "Les Miserables". It closes with the sentence "Live has destroyed my dream". That reminded me of another picture in which a man with a great bottle of whiskey in his hand says: "Live does this to us". I am afraid that live does not do this and people who give this utterance are moved by only one drive: blood thirst.

Enjoy.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

fantasy

[6/10 · 10 August 2016]

When viewing this movie you wonder if this is a story or a compilation of imaginary emotional moments. There is "Sweetwater" a place important for the railway to get water. But the railway supervisor (Morton) tries to intervene with it. Why?? He sends Frank to intimidate but he kills. Why has Morton connection with Frank??? No explanation. Frank tries to place the blame of his action on Cheyenne. Who is Cheyenne? It is a bandit but what has he to seek in that "middle of nowhere place"??? It is hardly to believe that it offers any profit.

So, I am afraid that I have to conclude that is it is a compilation, "photo's in a frame" expressing "the void".

Enjoy!