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Rutger Hauer The Legend
Friday, 2 March 2007
Posted by amiga2/taurus1
at 12:58 AM EST
Updated: Friday, 2 March 2007 1:00 AM EST Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post The Legend of the Holy Drinker (Ermano Olmi) - Rutger Hauer should be well known to readers, for his performances as a psychopath in 'The Hitcher', a barely controlled psychopath in 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' and a psychopath (medieval variety) in 'Flesh and Blood'. Although always near-perfect, he never seemed to be out of second gear which made the prospect of him playing a down-and-out an intriguing one. Set in Paris, he is given 200 francs by a mysterious stranger (Anthony Quayle) with the request to pay it back to a church when he can. Unfortunately, he keeps meeting figures from his past who distract him from this goal and gradually tell us about his earlier life. With no 'action' and almost no plot, the film relies heavily on Hauer, with him rarely being off the screen, so it's a good job he's up to the task. He seems very aware of the risk of over-acting, especially in a character of few words as he has here indeed, if anything he's TOO subtle, making the viewer concentrate to avoid missing the gestures and looks without which some scenes are meaningless. Ermanno Olmi shows us a different side to Paris from that normally filmed, and overall, perhaps the best tribute is to say that from now on, when I see Rutger Hauer, I'll no longer automatically expect him to pull out a shot-gun and start blasting! 8/10 review trash city
The Legend of the Holy Drinker By Joseph Roth Translated by Michael Hofmann This book, one of the most haunting things that Roth ever composed, was published in 1939, the year the author died. Like Andreas, the hero of the story, Roth drank himself to death in Paris, but this is not an autobiographical confession. It is a secular miracle-tale, in which the vagrant Andreas, after living under bridges, has a series of lucky breaks that lift him briefly onto a different plane of existence. The novella is extraordinarily compressed, dry-eyed and witty, despite its melancholic subject matter. The Legend of the Holy Drinker was turned into a fine film by Enrico Olmi, starring Rutger Hauer.
Posted by amiga2/taurus1
at 12:53 AM EST
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Posted by amiga2/taurus1
at 12:51 AM EST
Updated: Friday, 2 March 2007 12:49 AM EST Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Posted by amiga2/taurus1
at 12:45 AM EST
Updated: Friday, 2 March 2007 12:47 AM EST Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Monday, 15 January 2007
Thursday, 23 November 2006
Posted by amiga2/taurus1
at 6:35 AM EST
Updated: Thursday, 23 November 2006 6:38 AM EST Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post Sunday, 8 October 2006
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