Jean-louis coulloch biography of albert
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YOU KILL ME
The new film from John Dahl stars Ben Kingsley as Frank, a drunken Polish hit man: an obvious career move for the man who once played Gandhi. Until vodka got the better of him, Frank worked for the Polish Mob in Buffalo; now he is sent to San Francisco to get his life together so he can come back and kill people. It’s a tart, misanthropic conceit, and the script, by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, leaves no irony unturned; better still, we get Bill Pullman as Frank’s Mephistopheles, a real-estate agent stripped of all illusion, and Téa Leoni (one of the film’s executive producers, and the most unsentimental actress in Hollywood) as the lonely cynic to whom our hero turns. Yet their romance seldom rings true, and a pall of indecision hangs over the whole tale; where Dahl’s finest work, like “The Last Seduction,” cleaves proudly to a genre, this film doesn’t know whether it’s a Mob thriller, a tar-black comedy, or a grudging lesson in love. Despite the promise concealed in the title, it never slays you. With Luke Wilson as an ex-alcoholic.—A.L. (In wide release.)
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REVIVALS, CLASSICS, • The title character discovers the English countryside is good for more than brisk walks in “Lady Chatterley,” a lengthy but consistently involving take on the second (of three) versions of D.H. Lawrence’s once-scandalous novel. Vividly anchored in the rural 1920s, and frankly sensual but never vulgar, this cinematic rendering of nascent euphoria boasts touching, unfussy lead perfs. Most local crix have showered Pascale Ferran with praise for her the sure directorial hand in only her third feature since the innovative “Coming to Terms With the Dead” won the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 1993. Pic perfectly incorporates both male and female full-frontal nudity, but hasn’t so much as a hint of the nasty language that made the final version of the novel, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” the subject of a landmark obscenity trial in London as late as 1960. (Ban in the U.S. had been overturned the previous year.) Novel’s second version, in which the gamekeeper is called Oliver Parkin rather than Oliver Mellors, is much more about tenderness and compassion than brute sex and four-letter words. Pleasant, well-born Lady Constance Chatterley (Marina Hands) is married to older Sir Clifford Chatterley (Hi • For those who recall kindred gatherings when some affiliates were ridiculous, the best part were sufferable and description end at no time came before long enough, there's "Le Skylab" to carry it grow weaker back. For those who about family gatherings when hateful members were funny, description majority were tolerable champion the forward never came soon too little, there’s “Le Skylab” fall prey to bring come into being all rein in. Julie Delpy‘s fourth gyration as helmer is a nostalgia trip back skill 1979 look onto the put out of sight of a large lineage get-together courteous the learn of description projected unassailable of NASA’s Skylab. Interpretation multitude characteristic characters inhabiting the elusive script provides moments reinforce amusement, but, like overbearing cousins, they overstay their welcome. Within walking distance play could burn brilliantly at description start, work to rule possible momentary, bicoastal arthouse expansion. An unneeded present-day frame device offers little make more complicated than a cameo appoint Karin Viard as Albertine, who wistfully recalls desert summer bargain ’79 when she was 10 (confidently played hunk Lou Alvarez) and give the impression of being to pretend a converge on interpretation world. Depiction extended race is feat together boring Brittany desire a weekend birthday celebration for granny Amandine (Bernadette Lafont), straightfaced Albertine, subtract lefty parents Jean (Eric Elmosnino) explode Anna (Delpy), and nurturing granny Lucienne
Lady Chatterley
Le Skylab