No.331158[Reply][Last 50 Posts]
Just saw Scaramouche (1952). An 18th century revenge tale about a man who plays a clown in a theater troupe by day as he plots to kill a heartless aristocrat by night to avenge the death of his best friend and foster brother.
The film feels very ahead of its time both visually and in terms of writing. This is probably because it blends elements of several different genres, which seems to have confused the critics of its day. It's essentially a swashbuckler but with a lot of time dedicated to political drama and comedy. It's also very risque for its time. As incongruent as this sounds, it actually balances these aspects rather well. The biggest weakness in the story is the ending, which feels somewhat underwhelming after everything building up to it and the final plot twist is more than a little hard to swallow. That being said, I don't think it detracts from the film too much.
The characters, even the side ones, are fairly strong and memorable and the acting is quite good as well. A few of the actors even act more like French actors than American ones. The villain is especially great. The only one of the main cast who feels like a typical Hollywood actor from the 50's is Janet Leigh but she's still adequate in her role.
The visuals, like I said, are ahead of their time. Only by a about a decade or so though; it certainly doesn't look modern. The most famous thing about this movie is the 5-minute long swordfight at the end. Despite its length, that fight scene is able to maintain a high level of excitement and tension throughout which is quite a feat since you know the hero is going to win in the end. There are many other swordfights in the movie too and they're all used pretty intelligently to serve the plot. What's nice about the fight scenes is that there's very little music in them and the silence helps tremendously.
Overall, I give Scaramouche an 8/10.
147 posts and 79 image replies omitted. Click reply to view. No.345325
>>345059What's that anime-like movie John Candy is in?
No.345326
Pretty sure it falls under the isekai category
No.345792
Just finished The Color of Pomegranates. I know very little of Armenian history and even less of Armenian culture, so a lot of this movie went right over my head. I don't understand what the carpets, the chickens, the dances, the gestures, or even the pomegranates are supposed to symbolize. Pomegranate juice, I assume, represents blood. Does that mean the pomegranates themselves are supposed to represent the heart? Or life in general? I assume not every single thing was meant to have a deeper meaning and that some things were just meant to create a certain atmosphere or provoke a particular emotional response, but the movie is still heavily symbolic, and I have no idea what most of the symbols mean because I'm not Armenian. That's a pretty big obstacle for being able to appreciate film.
From what I could piece together, it's about the life of an Armenian poet who grows up in a 18th century (I think; the note at the beginning of the film said it's 18th century, but it also used the term Medieval) Armenia, falls in love with some noblewoman, is forced to become a monk when their affair is found out, then spends the rest of his life living in misery and woe because of all the evil and destruction in the world, and then dies. The film doesn't tell you even that much explicitly, I'm just guessing.
Overall, I think I would have liked it a lot if I understood it.
No.345793
>>345792I watched the movie on Skanderbeg and since I knew a bit more about Albanian history I appreciated it more.