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Criterion Collection: Le Deuxieme Souffle
»rank: 4569
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The Fall of the Roman Empire
»rank: 4569
Chroniques et points de vue:From :The second and last of Anthony Mann's historical epics is a smart, handsome spectacle of the decadence, corruption, and intrigue that tears apart the greatest empire the world has seen. The sprawling story spreads itself thin over a number of characters and stories. At the center are handsome but stiff Stephen Boyd as Livius, the loyal soldier and symbolic son of the aging emperor (Alec Guinness), and Christopher Plummer as Commodus, the corrupt heir to the throne--boyhood friends turned enemies when the latter accedes to the throne and sells ...
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War and Peace (Widescreen)
»rank: 4945
Chroniques et points de vue:From :Despite its reputation as an oversimplified epic, King Vidor's War and Peace remains a stellar showcase of Hollywood prestige. While Cecil B. De Mille was reviving ancient Egypt for The Ten Commandments, Vidor was transforming ltalian countryside into war-torn Russia, bringing massive resources to bear on this sumptuous, if ultimately misguided adaptation of Tolstoy's classic. Given the marquee casting of Audrey Hepburn as Natasha and then-husband Mel Ferrer as decorated battle hero Prince Andrei, this is a movie you watch for star value, not literary fidelity (for the latter, ...
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Paris when it Sizzles (Widescreen)
»rank: 13868
Chroniques et points de vue:From :Paris When lt Sizzles is an unusual screwball comedy to say the least. Whether it works is another matter, but the premise and humor are interesting enough to make it enjoyable. The basic problem with the film is its two stars: William Holden and Audrey Hepburn hardly sizzle with onscreen chemistry, and Hepburn's character, Miss Simpson, falls far too easily into the hands of Holden's drunken screen writer. However, the story is an interesting play on the typical Hollywood romance, with two plotlines running in parallel to each other. ...
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Scaramouche
»rank: 14631
Chroniques et points de vue:From :As first lines go, Scaramouche's is irresistible: 'He was born with a gift of laughter, and a sense that the world was mad.' This exuberant period adventure is pretty irresistible itself--even more than Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, likewise derived from Rafael Sabatini novels. Within more or less one day in pre-revolutionary France, devil-may-care Stewart Granger learns he's the bastard offspring of a nobleman, gets orphaned, realizes he's fallen in love with his sister (Janet Leigh), swears to avenge his best friend's murder, becomes a hunted traitor, and ...
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The Sun Also Rises
»rank: 18412
Chroniques et points de vue:From :As first lines go, Scaramouche's is irresistible: 'He was born with a gift of laughter, and a sense that the world was mad.' This exuberant period adventure is pretty irresistible itself--even more than Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, likewise derived from Rafael Sabatini novels. Within more or less one day in pre-revolutionary France, devil-may-care Stewart Granger learns he's the bastard offspring of a nobleman, gets orphaned, realizes he's fallen in love with his sister (Janet Leigh), swears to avenge his best friend's murder, becomes a hunted traitor, and ...
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Catherine The Great
»rank: 18959
Chroniques et points de vue:From :Russian history occurs on a sweeping scale, but that takes a bigger budget than A&E can muster. So instead the cable network keeps its treatment of Russian empress Catherine ll indoors as much as possible. That allows the camera to linger over the impossibly lovely face of Catherine Zeta-Jones, and the plot to focus on the political machinations of 18th-century Russia. Catherine goes from a bookish teen bride (her husband is the crazy and possibly impotent nephew of Russia's Empress Elizabeth) to the legendary empress who successfully concluded the ...
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The Fall of the Roman Empire
»rank: 18959
Chroniques et points de vue:From :The second and last of Anthony Mann's historical epics is a smart, handsome spectacle of the decadence, corruption, and intrigue that tears apart the greatest empire the world has seen. The sprawling story spreads itself thin over a number of characters and stories. At the center are handsome but stiff Stephen Boyd as Livius, the loyal soldier and symbolic son of the aging emperor (Alec Guinness), and Christopher Plummer as Commodus, the corrupt heir to the throne--boyhood friends turned enemies when the latter accedes to the throne and sells ...
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Knights Of The Round Table
»rank: 2952
Chroniques et points de vue:From :This 1953 follow-up to the successful teaming of actor Robert Taylor and director Richard Thorpe on lvanhoe isn't quite as good a film, but it is a sumptuous adventure-romance shot on location in England. MGM's first widescreen production finds Taylor playing Sir Lancelot to Mel Ferrer's King Arthur. Based in part on Thomas Malory's 14th-century version of the Camelot legend, Knights of the Round Table tells the familiar tale of Arthur's construction of a Utopian kingdom, where virtue, courage, and a sense of possibility rule the hearts of strong ...
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Nightmare City (Widescreen)
»rank: 26008
Chroniques et points de vue:From :This 1953 follow-up to the successful teaming of actor Robert Taylor and director Richard Thorpe on lvanhoe isn't quite as good a film, but it is a sumptuous adventure-romance shot on location in England. MGM's first widescreen production finds Taylor playing Sir Lancelot to Mel Ferrer's King Arthur. Based in part on Thomas Malory's 14th-century version of the Camelot legend, Knights of the Round Table tells the familiar tale of Arthur's construction of a Utopian kingdom, where virtue, courage, and a sense of possibility rule the hearts of strong ...
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