Screenwriter / filmmakers CRAIG JAMISON and JIM DELANEY put a fresh spin on the cinema podcast show with news, interviews, musical guests and more. Sneak with us up into those hidden balcony seats!
THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".
Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT at ...
www.gullcottageonline.com
Even those who don't subscribe to Cinema 101 "auteur theory" acknowledge that some of the most intriguing films are those wherein a director with a very distinctive and independent cinematic style / stamp / thematic brings that sensibility to what otherwise could be a standard genre programmer, and in so doing elevates it - at least a little - to a more memorable status. Think Donald Cammel's DEMON SEED, Nicolas Roeg's THE WITCHES, and Spike Lee producing TALES FROM THE HOOD, and that'll give a decent impression of the classic caper film (à la OCEAN'S 11 or TOPKAPI) as filtered through the sensibility of END OF THE ROAD director Aram Avakian's 11 HARROWHOUSE. Make no mistake, more than anything HARROWHOUSE is an unabashedly pulp-ish, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-esque, old-school caper yarn wherein low level American diamond broker Charles Grodin and his thrill seeking ex pat girlfriend Candice Bergen are "coerced" into robbing a (not entirely legal) diamond clearing house in London of 12 billion dollars in undeclared gems stashed in a secret subterranean vault. But Avakian's thriller also manages to be a droll satire on 70s era social geopolitics, especially in regards to the "battle of the classes", ... or perhaps more accurately the "chess game" of the classes. Taking a bestselling novel which many considered "THE DAY OF THE JACKAL of the diamond trade" and turning it into a darkly acerbic adventure (say somewhere between the tone of THE HOT ROCK and MOTHER, JUGGS AND SPEED, but with a kick-ass car chase climax courtesy of ON HER HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE's Anthony Squire) was a decision which many back-in-the-day didn't much care for, but which over the years newer fans of the film have found to be one of it's greatest assets.
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THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".
Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com
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