... you can learn from:
Night Moves (1975)
Harry: Listen Delly, I know it doesn't make
much sense when you're sixteen. Don't worry.
When you get to be forty, it isn't any better.
Arthur Penn's classic 70s neo-noir
Night Moves has hit the Criterion collection in glorious 4K today, as we
previously forecasted -- and (unfortunately) there's probably a never better time to revisit it given the recent passing of its star Gene Hackman. Some people consider this his greatest performance! I'd have to go with
The Conversation on that front but this one's sure no slouch. Very much worth seeing.
In related news I watched Penn's 1966 film
The Chase for the first time over the weekend and I actually found it a really fascinating film. It's not perfect, it's wildly all over the place (and with an unwieldy cast that includes Marlon Brando, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall, James Fox, E.G. Marshall, and Miriam Hopkins that's to be expected), but as a portrait of the societal tensions (both racial and economic) of that chaotic moment in time it really gets across the feeling of a world on the brink of madness. And as I said in my brief
Letterboxd take it really feels like the kind of movie our current moment is really screaming out for. Any fans of
The Chase? Or
Night Moves for that matter?
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2 comments:
Both are fascinating films in different ways. I'd say Night Moves is the better film overall, but The Chase is more fun in its warped and wild scattered narrative. From what I've read it was the victim of too many points of view during its making with Penn, Lillian Hellman, producer Sam Spiegel and Columbia all fighting for their vision of what it should say and be with the result that it has no clear point of view. But what a cast! I think Jane is terrific in her role and Miriam, sensing there is no one to really rein her in , lets her inner ham fly.
I enjoyed "Night Moves" in the theater. It was one of the times I actually enjoyed being with an audience, when a woman gasped at the identity of the killer. I was surprised too.
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