Saturday

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Thanks for the great Patricia Clarkson video from "Elegy." She has been one of my favorites, both as an actress and as an underrated sexpot, for some time now. I wonder if somebody out there has any video of her from 2005's "The Dying Gaul." Not only does she have a darkly-lit but clear nude sex scene, but she spends much of the movie walking around in a wet white bikini. Stills can be found on her page in the encyclopedia. Thanks

Scoop's response:

Simple enough.

I reviewed the film some time ago, and I still had the DVD lying around. It's a good movie in the sense that it is intelligent and slick. It's also depressing.

Clarkson plays a sexy role. I wrote, "What about Patricia Clarkson at 45? Has any woman ever done what she has - becoming a sex symbol after so many years as the next door neighbor? There are other women who have played sexy roles at age 45, but they were sexy when they were young - Sharon Stone, Kim Basinger, Barbara Hershey. Beautiful women are expected to start out sexy, and then the ones with real talent start to play the character parts as they age. But Clarkson somehow went from the Eve Arden roles to the Kim Basinger ones, and Eve Arden is not supposed to turn into Kim Basinger! Throughout Clarkson's youth she was always the dependable gal-pal with the sensible shoes and a husky voice which always sounded best delivering wisecracks and sarcasm and compassionate, well-grounded advice. Now, she appears in the credits in a white bikini with a semi-transparent top, stays in that bikini for several minutes of screen time, and does topless sex scenes. Our Miss Brooks isn't supposed to do that!

And she is just fine in that role. She looks great in that bikini. Her tummy is flat and her whole body looks young, slim, and well-exercised. Her face is not a young woman's face but, hell, she didn't even have a young woman's face when she was young. It was always one of those faces with character. Yet her face is beautiful in its way. She looks much better in moving pictures than in stills because she's pale and fair-haired and from a distance she seems to have no eyebrows, so we need to see how she moves her facial muscles to appreciate the humanity which underlies her beauty. Her eyes are compassionate, and her face is exceedingly expressive. It's surprising to me that she has never become a recognizable name. Then again, given her astounding reverse career path, she may yet make it."

Here are the clips. (samples below)

 

 

 

Kill Kill Faster Faster

2008

Movies don't get much darker than this story of a wife-killer who is paroled after seventeen years of prison because a hot-shot film producer pulls some strings for him. The movie mogul offers the convict an important job on the outside - creating a screenplay from the play he wrote about prison life.

Not a good idea.

Although "Joey One-Way" has a conscience and wants to become a better person, he seems to have violence, heroin addiction, and betrayal hard-wired into his DNA. Soon after his release he is having an affair with the wife of the man who vouched for him. Shortly thereafter he is shooting up some smack. He is obviously headed for a great tragedy of some kind, but the shocking nature of the denouement may shock and surprise even jaded viewers.

The film pulls few punches. There are explicit scenes portraying life in prison, including both forced and consensual sodomy. There are many explicit sex scenes between Joey One-Way and the producer's wife, although there is not as much female nudity as one might expect from all their steamy encounters. There are also hot sex scenes in flashbacks involving the young wife Joey killed so many years ago in a moment of uncontrolled passion caused by her infidelity.

Audiences may be extremely surprised to see that the complex lead role is essayed by Gil Bellows of "Ally Mcbeal," who normally plays likeable, intelligent, and sensitive characters in light dramas and dramedies. His portrayal of the parolee is not without sensitivity, but Joey is not a person you'd care to hang out with, and he has absolutely no moments of lightness. He carries the weight of his past transgressions with him at all times.

KKFF is a brutal, bleak film which won some film festival acclaim but has virtually no chance of a North American theatrical release because of a certain NC-17 rating. Even if it could be trimmed a bit for a release, the size of the potential audience would be miniscule, despite the fact that it is a very effective and powerful film on its own ugly and uncompromising terms. It's a feel-bad movie for the "movies as art" crowd, and even many of them will find the film just too unpleasant in too many ways.

You'll see even from these clips that the NC-17 is inevitable, but the male/male sex is even more explicit, although the director did avoid any clear penis shots.

We're sort of in Spaz territory here. Ray and Delain are both Canadian, as is Gil Bellows. The strippers must be either Dutch or Americans, I suppose, since the film was lensed in New York City and Rotterdam. (IMDb says it is a British/Dutch co-production, although nothing seems to have been done in the UK)

 

  • * Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe).

  • * White asterisk: expanded format.

  • * Blue asterisk: not mine.

  • No asterisk: it probably sucks.

OTHER CRAP:

Catch the deluxe version of Other Crap in real time, with all the bells and whistles, here.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Elegy

2008

Well, we just couldn't resist using the recent funhouse film clip and making more caps of Penelope Cruz in Elegy. This girl is just smoking hot and oh so sexy. Sir Ben Gandhi is one lucky dude.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes and collages

Half Moon Street

1986

Sigourney Weaver

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doppelganger

2001

Drew Barrymore film clips. Collages below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puppy

2005

Liz (Nadia Townsend) is one of these hard-luck people: if it were raining soup, she'd have a fork. Desperate for money, she steals from her sister while living with the sister and playing around with the sister's husband, and when caught, is kicked out onto the streets.

She attempts suicide by running a hose from the tailpipe of her car. It comes close to working, until she's rescued by tow truck driver Aiden. As Lizzie's luck would have it, the guy turns out to be Looney Tunes.

Aiden is a psychotic delusional off his meds, and mistakes Liz for his missing wife. He takes her home, ties her up, and keeps her in captivity waiting for his "wife" to come to her senses. Soon, though, the dynamics change.

Puppy is cool. This Australian drama has a story that while not totally unique, is well written and well acted, making it a very enjoyable evening's entertainment.
 

Nadia Townsend

 

 

 

 

 

 

This section will present film clips to accompany Charlie's collages (which are found in his own site).

Today: Claudia Cardinale in Cherche Fiance Tout Frais Paye

The collage from this film is included in today's update at Charlie's site.

Claudia did virtually no nudity in her youth. The closest was an oblique and generally unrevealing topless moment in The Professionals in 1966. This appearance is similarly discreet, but she was 69 years old in this film, so we can appreciate her discretion a bit more than we did back then.

(She turned 70 this April.)