Body Heat

[See discussion under “My diary” entry for June 29, 2011] Discover more from James Bowman Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email. Type your email… Subscribe

This is a young man’s movie, but one which even many young people are likely to find very tedious

La Vita è Bella or Life is Beautiful was directed and co-written by Roberto Benigni, who stars as Guido Orefice, a Jewish waiter in Arezzo before the war. He woos and wins his wife, Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), whom he calls la principessa — the princess — in memorably comic and romantic style and manages to…

A thrilling adaptation of the work of a popular historical novelist almost succeeds in taking us back to the days of Hollywood’s innocence

How on earth did Ron Howard hope to succeed where Peter Weir failed? Hubris, I suppose. Ron Howard’s done a guest shot on “The Simpsons” (along with those other giants of the silver screen, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger) and Peter Weir hasn’t. But for those of us not giddy with success, however, the idea…

The movie itself is at best routine, but it is interesting to watch the rather un-p.c. reactions of the audience