The Trial, French Cancan, The Bad Sleep Well, & Bleak House

The Trial was just as well-made as you would expect from an Orson Welles film, and it's extremely paranoid. Which is exactly what you'd expect from a movie based on Kafka's The Trial. Now, I've never read it, again showing that my knowledge of a large amount of literature comes almost entirely from pop cultural references. Which sometimes is sufficient (I never felt like I needed to read Moby Dick), and other times needs to be remedied (I finally finished Lolita, but I can't top that song...). I feel like I have a firm enough grasp on it to not have to read it. Anthony Perkins is sufficiently bewildered throughout the film, until the film requires desperation. He's basically just good. According to the IMDB, Orson Welles dubbed quite a few other people throughout the film, and it was fairly obvious about some of them. When he finally showed up as the Advocate, I was sort of surprised. He didn't want to just be responsible for everything behind the camera, but also acting and replacing voices? The film does work very well, though.

French Cancan is the story of the opening of the Moulin Rouge, fictionalized, but far less FREAKING TERRIBLE than Moulin Rouge!. That said, it's still not good. I didn't like the songs, and the choice of name for the main female character just... Well, I think the film would have worked far better if the name had been changed. I understand that it's supposed to be a great film of the creation of art, but all the films and cartoons and the like spoofing (whether intentional or not (I'm looking at you Moulin Rouge!)) cancan dancers just makes me not care that much. Sorry Renoir, I just don't like the film.

The Bad Sleep Well is another outstanding Kurosawa film about corruption and bureaucracy. This one has the great Toshiro Mifune trying to expose bribery among two huge corporations in (then) modern day Japan, and it clearly had to have touched some nerves. Especially with the ending, which I won't spoil. And for those that care, the 135 minute running time listed on Netflix is wrong, it's the full 150 minute version.

Bleak House is something I should have watched back when it first aired, but as previously stated, I made a mistake. I have rectified that, and can completely recommend it, as I can't imagine reading the actual book would be nearly as fun as seeing Charles Dance, Nathaniel Parker, Burn Gorman, and especially Philip Davis so clearly enjoy their roles. That's not to say that Anna Maxwell Martin, Gillian "Scully" Anderson, and Denis "Wedge" Lawson weren't good, but they didn't stick out quite as much for the awesomeness of their performances. Apparently, the English version has an extra 30 minutes or so, but I think 8 hours was enough.