Change Your Image
alandolton
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
La gueule ouverte (1974)
Sad film, with beautiful photography
This is a sad film with beautiful photography and some haunting music. It deals, graphically and unflinchingly, with the gradual death of a woman. Both the male characters (her husband and son) are portrayed as unsympathetic and incorrigible philanderers. The son (Philippe, played by Philippe Leotard) is married to a strikingly attractive woman (played by Nathalie Baye) yet he still cheats on her. Incidentally the cast list on IMDb seems to credit two different women as playing the part of Corinne, one of the women with whom Philippe goes to bed. The actress playing this part is in fact the strikingly attractive Marie-Blanche Dehaux, and she gives a good cameo performance. The film is an interesting reminder of the fashions in 1974, and is also a reminder of the casual racism and anti-immigrant prejudice which was apparently normal in rural France at that time.
Black Killer (1971)
Good performances from Marina Malfatti and Tiziana Dini
This film features good performances by the Italian actresses Marina Malfatti and Tiziani Dini. Bizarrely, although Malfatti is correctly credited in several of the earlier reviews on IMDb, and is also correctly credited on Wkikpedia, the cast list for this title on IMDb has been changed (vandalised) within the last year or so to credit Malfatti's part to a little-known actress named Marina Rabissi. I attempted to correct this some months ago, but the change has not been made. Malfatti looks convincing as a Native American, but the weakest feature of this film is the 'brownface' make-up of some of the Italian actors playing the O'Hara brothers who are the villains of this movie.
Bill Brand (1976)
Passionate, partisan 1970s political drama
I can remember enjoying this series when it was first broadcast in the summer of 1976. Not having seen it for 35 years, I bought the DVD to see how it would appear so much later.
Bill Brand is a socialist who is selected as Labour candidate for a Lancashire textile constituency, following the death of the sitting Labour MP. He holds the seat with a small majority. Although Brand is married with two young children, he is having an affair with an attractive young woman named Alex (an excellent performance by Cherie Lunghi). Early in the series, Brand's wife begins divorce proceedings. Brand also gets into trouble with the Labour whips for voting against the Labour government.
There is a very strong supporting cast. Arthur Lowe plays the Prime Minister, Arthur Watson (loosely based on Harold Wilson) - although he does not get much screen time. Alan Badel has a major role as David Last, a left-wing Cabinet minister and member of the 'Journal group' (a character clearly based on Michael Foot). Geoffrey Palmer and Nigel Hawthorne both appear as Government ministers from the Gaitskellite wing of the Labour party.
Looking back 36 years after the series was broadcast, the series' weaknesses are obvious. Brand's political opponents are stereotypes. Although we are clearly meant to sympathise with Brand's politics, his behaviour towards his wife is appalling. The writer, Trevor Griffiths, was unduly pessimistic in his political forecasting. During the series the Prime Minister resigns through ill-health and is replaced by a Gaitskellite who has no sympathy with the traditional Labour left. In reality Wilson was succeeded by Jim Callaghan, a centrist who wished to keep the party united: he in turn was subsequently succeeded by Michael Foot, and the Gaitskellites left the Labour Party to form the SDP. Finally, it is unfortunate that Griffiths chose to give Brand's mistress the same name as a well-known former Rangers footballer: I can remember this being criticised in 1976 by Rangers supporters who felt that Griffiths (a Catholic) was deliberately baiting them, and it seems even more inappropriate given that the footballer in question subsequently developed into one of Britain's most successful managers.
Despite these weaknesses, I still found the series remarkably gripping and very watchable as a reminder of British politics in the 1970s.