adrianovasconcelos
Joined Feb 2017
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Reviews971
adrianovasconcelos's rating
I do readily concede that I know close to squat about Director Massimo Dallamano, having only watched his poliziotto entitled COLT 38 SPECIAL SQUAD, which made chases and gory action its main menu.
By comparison, A BLACK VEIL FOR LISA pays a shade more attention to character building. The ever reliable British actor John Mills plays Hamburg-based Interpol Inspector Franz Bulon who, in spite of his undeniable professionalism, prioritizes keeping an eye on his often absent from home wife, the stunningly dishy, fine-featured Luciana Paluzzi who had come to international notice three years earlier in THUNDERBALL, with Connery's James Bond handing her slippers to cover her nudity.
In BLACK VEIL FOR LISA, Paluzzi displays fabulous nudity and not just to cuckolded hubby Mills, who she also deceives by passing classified info to a Porsche-driving villain who deals in tulips and murder, in addition to bedding him and handsome hitman Max, smugly played by Robert Hoffmann.
Competent cinematography from Angelo Lotti, reasonably deft screenplay from Belli and Petrilli, with interesting nuances adding to Paluzzi's sensual survival instinct and sexiness, allowing her to completely steal the show.
The ending could and should have been more credibly done, difficult to believe that a police inspector and a habitual hitman should put up such innocuous personal defense.
As a footnote, a word of appreciation for the presence of great, very classy German car models of the 1960s: Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Opel, Volkswagen all there.
Enjoyable police thriller 8/10.
By comparison, A BLACK VEIL FOR LISA pays a shade more attention to character building. The ever reliable British actor John Mills plays Hamburg-based Interpol Inspector Franz Bulon who, in spite of his undeniable professionalism, prioritizes keeping an eye on his often absent from home wife, the stunningly dishy, fine-featured Luciana Paluzzi who had come to international notice three years earlier in THUNDERBALL, with Connery's James Bond handing her slippers to cover her nudity.
In BLACK VEIL FOR LISA, Paluzzi displays fabulous nudity and not just to cuckolded hubby Mills, who she also deceives by passing classified info to a Porsche-driving villain who deals in tulips and murder, in addition to bedding him and handsome hitman Max, smugly played by Robert Hoffmann.
Competent cinematography from Angelo Lotti, reasonably deft screenplay from Belli and Petrilli, with interesting nuances adding to Paluzzi's sensual survival instinct and sexiness, allowing her to completely steal the show.
The ending could and should have been more credibly done, difficult to believe that a police inspector and a habitual hitman should put up such innocuous personal defense.
As a footnote, a word of appreciation for the presence of great, very classy German car models of the 1960s: Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Opel, Volkswagen all there.
Enjoyable police thriller 8/10.
Director James Kent has a sensitive touch that deserves recognition and praise in this age of formulaic CGI films where character is more often than not ignored, or simply mass-produced to wooden specifications.
The film's curious title, THE THIRTEEN TALE, refers to a book of just 12 tales. The 13th tale amounts to the narrative that its dying author - superbly portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave - is conveying to a contracted biographer, intelligently played by Janet Amsden. The author's name I could not narrow down to Adeline or Emmeline because of the strange, almost transmutable relation between the twin sisters. However, one can reasonably assume that the 13th and final is the tale written by Amsden, who reveals that she too had a twin sister who died knocked down by a car, a death for which she blames herself. Thus, Redgrave and Amsden in a sense become spiritual twins, too, and that final tale is the result of their collaboration which starts edgily but ends on a tender, friendly note.
This TV film largely shot in a decaying manor house that still reflects past grandeur has the quality of Gothic vision and contained horror interlaced with credible, if deliberately evasive, characterization. Bedridden Redgrave, taking liquid morphine to relieve constant physical pain - to add to the pain of losing her sister(s) - narrates in a rather dettached manner, admitting that she physically beat up her sister but could not tell why.
Thus, she leaves her biographer with some interpretative loose ends that the latter supposedly weaves together into THE THIRTEENTH TALE.
Exquisite cinematography by Jean-Philippe Gossart, fittingly restrained musical score, sharp yet touching screenplay by Diane Setterfield off the novel by Christopher Hampton.
Definite must-see. 8/10.
The film's curious title, THE THIRTEEN TALE, refers to a book of just 12 tales. The 13th tale amounts to the narrative that its dying author - superbly portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave - is conveying to a contracted biographer, intelligently played by Janet Amsden. The author's name I could not narrow down to Adeline or Emmeline because of the strange, almost transmutable relation between the twin sisters. However, one can reasonably assume that the 13th and final is the tale written by Amsden, who reveals that she too had a twin sister who died knocked down by a car, a death for which she blames herself. Thus, Redgrave and Amsden in a sense become spiritual twins, too, and that final tale is the result of their collaboration which starts edgily but ends on a tender, friendly note.
This TV film largely shot in a decaying manor house that still reflects past grandeur has the quality of Gothic vision and contained horror interlaced with credible, if deliberately evasive, characterization. Bedridden Redgrave, taking liquid morphine to relieve constant physical pain - to add to the pain of losing her sister(s) - narrates in a rather dettached manner, admitting that she physically beat up her sister but could not tell why.
Thus, she leaves her biographer with some interpretative loose ends that the latter supposedly weaves together into THE THIRTEENTH TALE.
Exquisite cinematography by Jean-Philippe Gossart, fittingly restrained musical score, sharp yet touching screenplay by Diane Setterfield off the novel by Christopher Hampton.
Definite must-see. 8/10.
I like the versatility of director Richard Quine. DRIVE A CROOKED ROAD may well be the best I have seen from him and certainly from Mickey Rooney, MY SISTER EILEEN deserves praise as comedy.
In turn, STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET amounts to a brutally honest yet sensitive and observant assessment of how a man - architect Kirk Douglas - falls for a stunningly beautiful Kim Novak despite having a wonderful and very pretty wife in Barbara Rush.
As has happened with most men, I have been in that situation and completely sympathize with all involved. Glad I still have my wife.
Excellent musical theme by George Duning, in tune with the film's sensitive take.
Crisp, marvelous color photography from the great Charles Lang.
STRANGERS is not an easy movie to watch but it is a most accomplished opus, with superior, searching dialogue by Evan Hunter.
Recommended 8/10.
In turn, STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET amounts to a brutally honest yet sensitive and observant assessment of how a man - architect Kirk Douglas - falls for a stunningly beautiful Kim Novak despite having a wonderful and very pretty wife in Barbara Rush.
As has happened with most men, I have been in that situation and completely sympathize with all involved. Glad I still have my wife.
Excellent musical theme by George Duning, in tune with the film's sensitive take.
Crisp, marvelous color photography from the great Charles Lang.
STRANGERS is not an easy movie to watch but it is a most accomplished opus, with superior, searching dialogue by Evan Hunter.
Recommended 8/10.