Film and Episodic Content Discussion Thread

I'm 3 episodes in on Acorn's MONSIEUR SPADE. It's not all smooth sailing: there are confusions in plotting, locale, characters' relationship/importance to each other, the British lead actor doing an American accent (somewhat half-heartedly) in a French town ... the list is long. But somehow this bizarre transplant of early '40s west coast noir to early '60s France just works.

I knew it would be OK when I saw the title font. Beyond the gold color (announcing this as not just a noir, but a color noir), it's a font you might see in movie titles of the early the '40s when Dashiell Hammett's THE MALTESE FALCON introduced film-goers to Sam Spade.

I'm a fairly attentive watcher, but am confused as to who is doing what to whom, how all these carefully drawn characters fit together. Overly complex plots are hardly unusual in noir fiction. The through line here is Clive Owens' weirdly convincing evocation of Sam Spade. He got the fatalism and world-weariness exactly right. He plays an aging man who's seen it all, even lost a beloved wife, yet has to keep going forward. I appreciate that his character is written as fundamentally decent, but rather difficult for people to like (a distinct noir type, for sure).

Not all the dialogue sticks the landing, but when it does, it zings. The acting is uniformly good IMO. This series is an oasis of period character acting & a reminder that some of the best, most lived-in character acting I've seen was in French films of the '40s to the '60s. My two favorite characters are Louise Bourgoin as Marguerite (Peggy) Devereaux; & Mr. Spade's housekeeper (couldn't find her name--she's wonderful).

Not sure if this border-hopscotching stylistic transplant will continue to hold up for another 3 episodes, but I'm locked in and will see this through.

 

We found much of it pretty slow moving, and the later episodes' explanations of why everybody was after the boy to be so tortuous and hard to credit that it became hard to care. For the most part though we enjoyed the acting, despite Clive Owen's attempts at Bogart coming across more like Nicolas Cage (after Mrsdegraded pointed that out I couldn't unsee him), and the atmosphere created of time & place was great.

But, my main reason for this post: you can buy his car!!

Half the fun of period dramas like this is in spotting the chronological inconsistencies. They used a 1964 model, which if I'm reading the history/looking at the old pics right has slightly different rear lights than the 1963 or earlier required by the year of the story. But that's less of a mistake than in the French series Totems (Prime), set in 1965 but which featured a BMW 1602 (1966 -) or 2002 (1968 -).

Anyway. 17,500 Euros, pickup just north of Montpellier. Almost tempted

 

Now I want the car!

Saw episode-4 last night. Thought it vaulted to a higher level of drama with that wild multiple shooter opening. I continue to like this series despite all its flaws. I've always liked the acting of Clive Owen. He has quite a range. Here he's in aging male mode (for real/as a person; also as an aging character), past his leading man days, and still magnetic onscreen.

 

What he said!

I just finished episode-6, a bravura display of horribly bad screenwriting in which pretty much every dialogue and character mistake possible was made--with gusto. They actually gathered every character (still alive by episode-6) in one room and let the conversational fur fly. I mean, what the f**k is that?

The long, inane scene with Alfre Woodard (great actress, but what is she doing here?) was so awful, so self-satisfied & ironic in leaden ways ... It felt like watching a large train derailment. Maybe the worst part of that scene is Clive Owen pasting a wry smile on his face for his entire conversation with (uhh, his turn to speak) with Woodard's exalted [in a mysterious espionagy way] character. Mr. Spade's contained grief and anger are (were) the best things about that role, so of course they threw it away at the end like it was nothing..

All I really wanted was for him to put his arms around the snappy young woman who so clearly is his progeny, and unironically declare their family connection. Instead we get, "Please call me Sam."

The sheer density of episode-6's dramatic clusterfuck is kind of impressive, though. Everyone behind this production put their all into it. They "blowed it up real good."

 

just watched this. highly recommended

 

Really enjoying Tokyo Vice. A glimps into Japan in the early 00's dealing with the Yakuza and the under world through the eyes of an American Reporter who works for a local news paper.

 

I lived in Tokyo around that time off and on for several years, very interesting to get a taste of it again. I really like the show too, definitely marks the end of an era in Japan.

 

Ah that's cool! Watching the show it really portrayed the feeling of being a gaijin. How was that for you?

 

I started out working as a bartender at one of the Gaspanic bars in Roppongi, then as a street tout/waiter at Private Eyes Gentlemens club, and then to security for several other bars/clubs later. I asked Jake if the man he often mentioned in the Tokyo Vice book was "Gondo" (patron/owner of Private Eyes/One Eyed Jacks, Seventh Heaven, Sports Cafe), Jake did not reply. Gondo was associated with a white women from my hometown at the time...

Lot's of interesting back stories to the building that housed the Private Eyes Gentleman's club and One Eyed jacks Hostess club. Some of the web has been scrubbed of the stories, but here are a few links

https://www.tokyoreporter.com/japan...ious-gangster-playpen-in-roppongi-now-vacant/

Here was the man actually sitting/living/office in the building when the dispute over ownership was taking place as the mediator/care taker. He has over 50 children with different women over the years, nuff said.



Roppongi has literally dozens of embassies, with the Russian embassy and the American club literally back to back. Lot's of high level diplomats and all their associated high level security (killers) and all that good stuff in a very concentrated area, not to mention Lehman Bros, Goldman Sachs, etc running rampant in the area with AM Black cards back in the day. Wild times to say the least. Those guys put dot com bros and crypto bros to shame, they knew how to party.

Pile that on with K1 and Pride FC fighters, and it was an electrifying environment with tons of energy, pretty amazing times.

 

Wow that is so cool! I should get the book if i can't stand to wait for another season. I knew it was based on true events but i didn't know it went so deep.
Thanks for sharing!

 

His second book "The Last Yakuza" is interesting as well, sometimes it kind of rambles on, but decent.

 

Your post makes me want to visit Japan. Never felt that urge before...

 

With the weak Yen it would be a great time to visit if you have the time.
Some people probably already know that the group Sato is with in the show is really the Inagawa-Kai and the the other group is the Goto-gumi, which in turn was a faction of the Yamguchi-gumi.

The leader of the Goto-gumi was in fact exposed by Jake for giving the FBI a bunch of “useless info” to jump the queue on the UCLA liver transplant list. Then expelled not long after for bringing too much publicity to the group…

I’m sure some of the books and show are embellished a bit, but a lot is also true.

 

In order to get full access to MONSIEUR SPADE I re-upped my trial subscription to ACORN TV (through Prime Video). After finishing that series, I finally had the opportunity to sample a British police procedural I've long been interested in: INSPECTOR GEORGE GENTLY. 2 of those long (90") episodes in, I'm pretty much hooked.

The show is nominally about crime & police procedure, but at heart it's a character study, a 2-hander in which an older, experienced, and personally bereaved Detective Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard (George Gently, played by Martin Shaw) gets himself posted to rural station miles from the action, where he partners with a younger Detective Sargeant (John Bacchus, played by Lee Ingleby). It's also a character study in that various impossible-to-describe local characters play prominent roles in the stories. That plus scenes all around the place, including in people's homes, give a strong flavor of rural England that is a mix of entertaining, affectionate, and ironic as hell.

At first I disliked the Bacchus character, but I'm coming around on that one. I'm also starting to see why IGG got the relatively high IMDB rating of 8.1. This show is very well done: well written, directed, shot, lighted, edited. The long-form stories give maximum opportunity for character development, observation of human behavior & foibles, and sightseeing of the often beautiful surroundings. Martin Shaw is the center of the show, and this stage trained Brit was born to be the center of things. He's handsome, assertive, authoritative w/o being a dick, and often quite sensitive to what other people think and feel. Wthout good writing he would become a one trick pony, but what I see developing here in the early going of a series that lasted 10 years, is one of those great character pairings one often sees in British police shows (ie, Chief Inspector Morse & Detective Sergeant Lewis; DI Lewis & DS Hathaway; and maybe the best of them all, DI Thursday & DS Endeavour Morse).

I have a lot of affection for shows like this, so am delighted to find yet another with multiple seasons to savour...

PS: Another asset of this show is cinematography/lighting. Upscaled on my LG OLED, the look of the show is outstanding with beautiful saturated colors, great shadow detail, and perfectly framed rural location shots. This show & Freevee's ENDEAVOR have easily the best upscaled picture quality I've yet seen.

 

Just watched the first two episodes of Netflix's 3 Body Problem and I'm hooked. Tried reading the book a while back as it is so well regarded by scifi fans, but could not get into it, I think because the translation made for an awkward read. Definitely liking this interpretation though. Must go watch some more.

 

I'm also 2 episodes in, looking forward to the rest. I really enjoyed the book trilogy, and so far the series adaptation/interpretation has been entertaining.

 

Yeah. I stayed up till 3am and watched another 4 episodes. Between that and the Australian Grand Prix I'm spending a lot of time in front of the TV this weekend. Gonna check out the last 2 episodes this evening.

 

Speaking of F1, I never followed it that closely before (still knew about all the popular drivers and watched occasional footage), but Formula 1: Drive to Survive on Netflix has been captivating.

 

That show has done a lot to elevate F1 in the minds of the North American audience more familiar with Indycars and NASCAR, and that is good to see, as it really is a truly global series.

 

Not to mention the coke smuggling allegations of yesteryear