We’re in the final four days of Cinequest, so take a gander at my Best of Cinequest. And here are my remembrances of Yaphet Kotto, George Segal and Jessica Walter.
ON VIDEO
Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman deliver heartbreaking performances in The Father, an unsettling exploration of memory loss. I saw The Father while covering the virtual Mill Valley Film Festival in October, and it’s now widely available to stream (just before the Oscars). It’s on my list of Best Movies of 2020.
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
- Nomadland: refusing to be defeated. THE YEAR’S BEST MOVIE. Hulu.
- Jumbo: a girl and her ride. Laemmle.
- Minari: who gets to decide on a family’s dream? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.
- Sound of Metal: Seeking anything but stillness. Amazon (included with Prime).
- Black Bear: Ever surprising. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play
- Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You: Wiser and still vital. AppleTV.
- Mayor: potholes and tear gas, all in a day’s work. Roxie.
- MLK/FBI: about America then and about America today. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
- Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer: a good man tracks down evil. Netflix.
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: searing, with an electric performance. Netflix.
- The Personal History of David Copperfield: Dickins alive, at last. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
- Another Round: Humanity buzzed. Amazon.
- Mank: biting the hand. Netflix.
- One Night in Miami: four icons share one pivotal moment. Amazon.
- Martin Eden: Jack London in an art film. Laemmle.
- Ammonite: When the slow burn is a dud. Amazon.
ON TV
On March 27 and 28, Turner Classic Movies brings us one of the greatest movie stars, Jean Gabin in a pre-noir film, Pépé le Moko. Probably the greatest male French movie star ever, Gabin had dominated prewar French cinema with La Grande Illusion, Port of Shadows and Le Bete Humaine. After the war, he aged into noir (Touchez Pas aux Grisbi, Razzia) and, in the 1960s, into neo-noir (Any Number Can Win, The Sicilian Clan). Gabin oozed a seasoned cool (like Bogart) and imparted a stately gravitas to his noir and neo-noir characters.
Jean Gabin is on my very short list of the most perpetually cool humans to ever walk the planet, along with Dean Martin, Ben Gazzara, Joan Jett and Barack Obama.
In Pépé le Moko, Gabin plays the titular Algiers gangster who operates, immune from police interference, in the Casbah. The cops have been trying to lure him out of the Casbah for ages – and then they learn that he is obsessed with a woman…
Pépé le Moko was filmed in 1937, four years before the emergence of the film noir movement, an American cinematic phenomenon soon appreciated, named, and joined by the French. Pépé le Moko foreshadows noir with its elements of the dark, shadowy underworld setting and, of the course, the protagonist who has a dame for a weak spot. TCM is airing Pépé le Moko on TCM’s addictive Noir Alley, with intro and outro by Eddie Muller.
