STILL ALICE     3.5***

 

     Forgetting something can be quite annoying and somewhat stressful at times but slowly losing your memory and agonizingly becoming an empty shell of a person is far worse, and this movie  realistically illustrates what it can be like.

                                                                                             

The story is about a brilliant linguistics professor Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) who slowly begins forgetting things and after a scary situation where she finds herself lost on the very campus where she teaches, she decides to see her doctor and tragicly learns she has Alzheimer's.  After breaking the news to her husband (Alec Baldwin) she confronts her three adult children with the hard reality that she's not going to be herself for much longer.

 

The film is a very intimate look at a brilliant woman who has always used her mind but slowly finds her memory floating away as she finds herself turning into someone she doesn't know. Some of you may not care to watch such a sad movie but at the same time those who do watch it are in for a treat because it's certainly well done and features one of the year's strongest performances. That strong performance belongs to Julianne Moore who  shows why she's one of the best actresses out there and well deserving of winning this years’ Oscar for Best Actress .. She so brilliantly plays the character no matter what stage of the disease she's battling. Whether it's early on when she's giving speeches or towards the end when she struggles with remembering  anything, Moore simply becomes this character and in each frame you feel like you’re watching a real person struggling with the disease. ( What’s even more amazing is that the movie was filmed in 23 days and out of chronological order).

 

The supporting cast is also quite good especially Alec Baldwin in the role of the husband and Kristen Stewart as the youngest somewhat rebellious daughter.

 

There's a straightforwardness to the movie that might feel too blunt were if not for Moore’s heartbreaking performance. Indeed, the movie explicitly shows what a terrible thing it is to watch a mind waste away, and rarely has the tragedy of losing one's inner self to Alzheimer's been conveyed as precisely and powerfully as it is here, both as to the person afflicted and the caregivers.

 

Clark

 

NOTES:   Before Julianne Moore was cast, the part was offered to Michelle Pfeiffer, Julia Roberts, Diane Lane and Nicole Kidman, but they all turned it down….can you imagine their regrets now.

 

 

 

 

A TOP 15 LIST of BEST FILM NOIR MOVIES

 

 

The term film noir means black or dark film. Film noir movies can be primarily described as stylish crime dramas  associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style .  Hollywood's film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Many of the  stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression.

Many pictures released from the 1960s onward share attributes with film noir of the classical period  but have added features and film techniques not then available. Such latter-day works are referred to as neo-noir.  Examples of neo-noir are Chinatown (1974), L.A. Confidential (1997), The Man Who Wasn’t There  (2001) and Sin City (2005)

Roger Ebert described in a sort of tongue-in-cheek but accurately way noir films as:

1. A French term meaning "black film," or film of the night  

2. A movie which at no time misleads you into thinking there is going to be a happy ending.

3. Locations that reek of the night, of shadows, of alleys, of the back doors of fancy places, of apartment buildings with a high turnover rate, of taxi drivers and bartenders who have seen it all.

4. Cigarettes. Everybody in film noir is always smoking, as if to say, "On top of everything else, I've been assigned to get through three packs today

5. Women who would just as soon kill you as love you, and vice versa.

6. For women: low necklines, floppy hats, mascara, lipstick, dressing rooms, boudoirs, calling the doorman by his first name, high heels, red dresses, elbow length gloves, mixing drinks, having gangsters as boyfriends, having soft spots for alcoholic private eyes, wanting a lot of someone else's women, sprawling dead on the floor with every limb meticulously arranged and every hair in place.

7. For men: fedoras, suits and ties, shabby residential hotels with a neon sign blinking through the window, buying yourself a drink out of the office bottle, cars with running boards, all-night diners, protecting kids who shouldn't be playing with the big guys, being on first-name terms with homicide cops, knowing a lot of people whose descriptions end in "ies," such as bookies, newsies, junkies, alkys, jockeys and cabbies.

8. Movies either shot in black and white, or feeling like they were.

9. Relationships in which love is only the final flop card in the poker game of death.

10. The most American film genre, because no society could have created a world so filled with doom, fate, fear and betrayal, unless it were essentially naive and optimistic.

 

 

The list below was compiled from my research since I have only seen 2 of the 15 (those are in red lettering), and ONLY includes films from the classical noir period of the1940s and1950s. Note who the directors are… very famous names who went on to do outstanding movies : Billy Wilder, Carol Reed, Raoul Walsh, John Huston, Orson Wells, David Lean, Otto Preminger, Mervyn LeRoy, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanly Kubrick. Also check out the heavy weight actors; Wm Holden, Gloria Swanson, Fred McMurray, Barbara Stanwych, Joseph Cotton, James Cagney, Kirk Douglas, Humphrey Bogart, Charlton Heston Janet Leigh, Orson Wells, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Paul Muni, Farley Granger Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Lauren Bacall. NOTE: For many of you who are 35 years old or younger you probably don’t recognize many of those names but trust me they were true giants of the movie world !!!

 

Clark

 

 

 

 

1.		Sunset Blvd. (1950)   A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity. Dir: Billy Wilder With: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim Drama | Film-Noir110 mins.
2.		Double Indemnity (1944)       An insurance representative lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions. Dir: Billy Wilder With: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller107 mins.
3.		The Third Man (1949)       Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime. Dir: Carol Reed With: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller104 mins.
4.		White Heat (1949)       A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. Shortly after the plan takes place, events take a crazy turn Dir: Raoul Walsh With: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien Crime | Drama | Film-Noir114 mins.
5.		Ace in the Hole (1951)       A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to re-jump start his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus. Dir: Billy Wilder With: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur Drama | Film-Noir111 mins.
6.		The Maltese Falcon (1941)       A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette. Dir: John Huston With: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery100 mins.
7.		Touch of Evil (1958)       A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in a Mexican border town. Dir: Orson Welles With: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller95 mins.
8.		Sweet Smell of Success (1957)   Powerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician. Dir: Alexander Mackendrick With: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison Drama | Film-Noir96 mins.
9.		Brief Encounter (1945)       Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband. Dir: David Lean With: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway Drama | Film-Noir | Romance86 mins.
10.		Laura (1944)   A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating. Dir: Otto Preminger With: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance88 mins.
11.		I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)   Wrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy With: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson Crime | Drama | Film-Noir92 mins.
12.		Strangers on a Train (1951)   A psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder...a theory that he plans to implement. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock With: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller101 mins.
13.		Notorious (1946)       A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them? Dir: Alfred Hitchcock With: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains Drama | Film-Noir | Romance | Thriller101 mins.
14.		The Big Sleep (1946)       Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love. Dir: Howard Hawks With: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller114 mins.
15.		The Killing (1956)         Crooks plan and execute a daring race-track robbery. Dir: Stanley Kubrick With: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller85 mins.