Modesty Blaise (Joseph Losey, 1966)

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Lino
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:18 am
Location: Sitting End
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#1 Post by Lino » Mon Jul 31, 2006 1:34 pm

File this Joseph Losey oddity alongside Barbarella, Danger: Diabolik and Roman Coppola's CQ. If you don't think Monica Vitti can be sexy and funny, think again -- she is in this trippy/moddy/swinging/campy/harmless little flick!

And if I'm not mistaken, this is one of our very own Mr. Hare's guilty pleasures...! I can't blame him, really. What other film gives you a duet between Vitti and Terence Stamp? With Dirk Bogarde as an evil Mastermind with a white wig on? You get the picture. It's that kind of movie. Some clever cinematography throughout, though.

I leave you with some reviews.

Narshty
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:27 pm
Location: London, UK

#2 Post by Narshty » Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:43 pm

Until he watched it again recently, this was one of my dad's favourite films.

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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

#3 Post by Matt » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:00 pm

I remember little else from this film other than my shock at how wide Monica's hips had gotten. Those outfits did nothing for her.

filmfan
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:06 pm
Location: metro NYC

#4 Post by filmfan » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:31 am

I always loved Dirk Bogarde's performance...just enough with all of the right "business".

David Ehrenstein
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:30 pm
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#5 Post by David Ehrenstein » Wed Aug 02, 2006 5:03 pm

I'm over the moon about this one. In fact it's my very favorite Losey. Saw it when it came out and couldn't believe it! Dirk Bogarde gives, without question, the gayest performance of all time. He discovers a level of camp few knew existed.

The shooting was quite hectic and neither Vitti (who called Antonioni every day) nor Stamp enjoyed themselves very much. But you can't tell that from the film, especially in the sequence where they sing a duet while tooling around Mount Etna in a sports car.

Rosella Falk is marvelous as Mrs. Fothergill, and that's Maria Montez's daughter Tina Aumont (billed here as Tina Marquand) who plays one of Stamp's less lucky girlfriends.

If you want to find out what the current mideast crisis is all about, see this film.

I'm not kidding.

Cinesimilitude
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:43 am

#6 Post by Cinesimilitude » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:41 pm

I liked it quite a bit, if only for Vitti.

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