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Movie Club (Bi-Weekly) - #3 Foreign Correspondent

MusicEd921

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[font=Raleway, sans-serif]Welcome to MusicEd921's Movie Club![/font]

[font=Raleway, sans-serif]Here's how the movie club will work:[/font]

[font=Raleway, sans-serif]-We will view movies on a bi-weekly basis[/font]
[font=Raleway, sans-serif]-Each month will be a new theme.  This month is Spying on Hitchcock[/font]

[font=Raleway, sans-serif]Now, for our second and last viewing in this theme.....[/font]

foreign-correspondent.jpg


SYNOPSIS: A spy thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock that tells the story of an American reporter who tries to expose enemy spies in Britain who are involved in a continent-wide conspiracy in the prelude to World War II.

AVAILABILITY: This film is available as a rental from Amazon (at least here in the U.S.).

PAIRS NICELY WITH:

Beer - Any British beer you can find, but a common one to look for is Newcastle Brown Ale

Wine -  A Sauvignon Blanc of your choosing (popular grape in Britain)

Cocktail - Pimm's Cup

[font=Raleway, sans-serif]Anyone interested in viewing has 2 weeks (April 21-May 04).  In that time, please feel free to comment with your thoughts and reviews.  Any MAJOR spoilers, please use the spoiler tags.  Happy viewing![/font]
 

TM2YC

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Dammit, I already watched this recently too :D . The Criterion blu-ray looks amazing. I wanted to see it because it was on the list of 11-films Christopher Nolan screened to his cast/crew on 'Dunkirk' as his primary influences (I just need to see 'The Wages of Fear'):

Erich von Stroheim - Greed (1924)
F. W. Murnau - Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Lewis Milestone - Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Henri-Georges Clouzot - The Wages of Fear (1953)
Gillo Pontecorvo - The Battle of Algiers (1966)
David Lean - Ryan's Daughter (1970)
Ridley Scott - Alien (1979)
Hugh Hudson - Chariots of Fire (1981)
Jan de Bont - Speed (1994)
Tony Scott - Unstoppable (2010)

Nolan said:

“No examination of cinematic suspense and visual storytelling would be complete without Hitchcock, and his technical virtuosity in ‘Foreign Correspondent’s portrayal of the downing of a plane at sea provided inspiration for much of what we attempted in ‘Dunkirk,'”

The frenetic plane scene is indeed a clear influence on 'Dunkirk'.

Apparently the final scene was hastily rewritten and reshot by Hitchcock as it became clear England was probably about to be bombed. It's a plea for the US to join the fight against Hitler. The film then opened 3-days into the "Battle of Britain". Timing. The end of 'Dunkirk' also has a similar plea.

From Wikipedia: It also attracted attention from at least one professional propagandist, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who called Foreign Correspondent "a masterpiece of propaganda, a first-class production which no doubt will make a certain impression upon the broad masses of the people in enemy countries."

Overall, it's a solid spy thriller but I didn't think Joel McCrea had the charm or star power of some of Hitchcock's more famous leading men.


musiced921 said:
PAIRS NICELY WITH:

Beer - Any British beer you can find, but a common one to look for is Newcastle Brown Ale

Served warm... to really capture the spirit of a horrified American dropped into 1940s Britain. Thankfully, we've learned since then and an ice-cold "Broon Ale" is a great choice.
 

The Scribbling Man

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Moe_Syzlak said:
I’m going to grab one of these:

samuel-smith-s-organically-produced-ale-tadcaster-beer-england-10482997.jpg

Samuel Smith have got some nice beers. Oatmeal Stout and Yorkshire Stingo are lovely.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Sam Smith and Chimay are the brands that made me a beer geek in the ‘80s. I don’t drink either often anymore as there are just so many good beers out there now. But this seems as good of an occasion as any.
 

The Scribbling Man

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I'm lucky enough to have a really good beer shop/tap room in my local area. I had my first Samuel Smith and Chimay from there, but I too have gone beyond that now. Thier selection is consistently mind blowing.

Who knows though, maybe I'll also grab an old favourite for this particular movie.
 

The Scribbling Man

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Nice. I'm a Brit, so... a bit far from there! 

Lest we veer too far off topic, there's always this thread. Though it seemed to descend into whiskey territory  :dodgy:
 

Dwight Fry

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Brilliant film, though it's been years since I watched it. I remember loving everything about it except for the too in-your-face final speech. A sign of the times, I know, but to the best of my understanding the themes are clear enough without a speech to hammer them home.
 

Neglify

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Awesome, a Hitch film I haven't seen yet. Note to self: Stay sober at least one day this week and watch this.
 

The Scribbling Man

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I watched this this evening. From the comments so far, I gather I could end up being alone in my thoughts...

Much of this didn't feel like a Hitchcock film to me. 
The tone is very lighthearted, with humour that's often more miss than hit. The pacing is also sluggish, and things took so long to get started that I was uncertain whether to expect anything other than a bad romance story. 

When things finally do kick off with an "unexpected" murder, we're suddenly thrown into a car chase and are given the impression that we're in for a classic Hitchcockian thrill ride - this is far from the case though, since things soon slow right back down and keep on plodding for most of the movie. The score doesn't help too much either, being fairly generic, unexciting, and occasionally intrusive.

The plot, also, is very predictable and I was frustrated by the glaring unexplained phenomena of 
Vandermeer's double.

The lead guy is hard to take seriously and is generally unconvincing. Although it gets reeled in a little bit as the film goes on, he often comes across as a bit of a clown, and he certainly says some very stupid things, of which no one seems to react to - 
Eg. "surely you can see how important it is not to alert Kruger? They'll kill Vandermeer."
"dead or alive, it's still a story."
*no reaction from anybody* - and yet he's a jerk for much less later on in the film.

His motives are consistently selfish for the duration of the movie, purely focused on getting his story, and yet this is never addressed or brought into question by any character - not even the love interest.
- his romance with the woman lead is even worse, being horrifically mushy and forced. 

Naturally, there are some visual treats - this is Hitchcock after all. The scene that takes place within the Windmill is rather striking, easily containing some of the best cinematography in the film, and the climax involving the plane crash is also very impressive; still, it felt remarkably unexciting. But maybe that's because I didn't really care about what was happening by that point.

I wouldn't say this is a bad movie, but for me, outside of the 2 visual highlights, it felt remarkably forgettable. Although "technically" well made, I certainly would not describe this as one of Hitchcock's best. 


Being a Brit, I wanted to pick up something special for the pairing, rather than any old British beer - but I forgot. :-/ 

Instead, I rummaged through my stash and pulled out an Azacca Pale Ale from The Kernel Brewery - arguably one of the best breweries in Britain. Not my favourite hop variety, but a tasty, quaffable beer nonetheless. 

IMG_20180429_204842.jpg
 

Neglify

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Fanedit.org Movie Club Movie #3 - Foreign Correspondent
Drug of choice - Ganja (and beer)

I've never been much of a fan of espionage movies because they move so slow and I rarely care about the plot. This one was no exception. Maybe I was too drunk but man oh man this was so boring. It was well-made (obviously) and I enjoyed the ending, but this ranks quite low on my Hitchcock scale.

3/5
 
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