R • 1 hour 46 min • 1973
Author Archives: Don Druker
Posted inFilm
Romeo and Juliet
Franco Zeffirelli’s athletic production of Shakespeare’s love story stars Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, with Michael York as Tybalt. Garish and goopy—a kind of West Side Story reworked into its original form—with narration by Laurence Olivier (1968).
Posted inFilm
The Stranger
Luchino Visconti stifles his operatic voice and prostrates himself before the altar of Camus. The result is a totally schematic vulgarization of Camus’ philosophical treatise in novel form. It’s not Visconti’s “fault” exactly, nor is it the fault of Marcello Mastroianni as Meursault. But Camus’ desperate either/or existentialism is perhaps better left not visualized.
Posted inFilm
The Angel Levine
Touching, funny tale of a maverick jive-talking black angel named Levine (Harry Belafonte) who tries to redeem himself with the higher powers by helping a poor, moaning Jew named Mishkin (Zero Mostel). Jan Kadar directed this 1970 fable.
Posted inNews & Politics
1974’s Top Ten Films
By Don Druker It’s not been the best of years for new films in Chicago —though I’ve seen worse. Yet it’s not been that bad a year for films generally. If we’ve had no unqualified masterpieces from fledgling directors or established figures, we’ve at least had some immensely promising first films, some satisfying works from […]