THE QUEENS

Raquel Welch and Jean Sorel

THE QUEENS (aka Le fate/1966.) Various directors.

This Italian anthology film dealing with comedic relationships between men and women has a large cast and different directors and features such weak screenplays it's a wonder it was even made. The first story is a silly concoction in which a man saves a strange woman (Monica Vitti of Modesty Blaise) from assault. The second is a weird, confusing trifle with a police officer dealing with an even stranger woman (Claudia Cardinale), who has an adorable baby, and lives in a very odd apartment overhanging a gallery thronging with people -- only there doesn't appear to be any wall, just a big open space over the gallery. The third story stars Jean Sorel [A View from the Bridge] and Raquel Welch [One Million Years B.C.] as neighbors who are married to others. Sorel wonders if his wife is carrying on with another man the way he is carrying on with Welch. This segment is the shortest and leads to nowhere, completely wasting the two sexy leads. The fourth story, which had possibilities, deals with a waiter, Giovanni (Alberto Sordi), who is importuned to sleep with a guest, a countess (Capucine), during a party. When he is hired as a chauffeur, his new employer's wife turns out to be ... the countess. She only recognizes and lusts after him when she's drunk. This segment has an especially flat ending. Vitti and Sordi give the most memorable performances.

Verdict: An intriguing idea betrayed by very poor and ill-conceived screenplays. *1/2.

L'ECLISSE aka ECLIPSE

L'ECLISSE (1962/Eclipse). Director: Michelangelo Antonioni.

L'eclisse is a perfect example of a movie that's interesting and boring at one and the same time. Basically the film details a couple of days in the life of Vittoria (Monica Vitti), who breaks up with her fiance, Riccardo (Francisco Rabal), spends time with a racist girlfriend who spent time in Kenya, watches her mother (Lilla Brignone) lose at the stock market, and dallies with a handsome, callow young stockbroker named Piero (French actor Alain Delon, who appears to be dubbed). The film is cinematic, well-directed by Antonioni (who also co-scripted), and boasts crisp black and white cinematography by Gianni Di Venanzo, but despite the introduction of some ideas (which aren't well-developed) and several characters (also not especially well developed), it lacks a strong story and hasn't real depth. The best sequence has to do with a crowd gathering as Piero's stolen car is dredged up from the river -- along with the corpse of the drunk driver who took it. The crowd, including children, mill about as if it's a carnival, and Piero complains about the dents in the car. "Your thinking about the dents ... " says Vittoria. The film is full of striking images of the city, and there is an arresting ride in a small plane as well. Still, despite its good points, one wishes the film was more dramatic and entertaining.

Verdict: Strictly for Antonioni admirers. **.

MODESTY BLAISE

MODESTY BLAISE (UK/1966). Director: Josey Losey.

It's hard to figure out what Losey and company were thinking when they cobbled together this adaptation of the novels and comic strip by Peter O'Donnell about a shapely thief who goes on assignment for the British Empire. The movie isn't funny or satirical enough to work as a parody, and it is completely devoid of thrills, suspense, and a sense of danger – and hasn't even that much action – so it certainly hasn't the entertainment level of a Bond film. Blaise (Monica Vitti) employs the aid of cockney lover boy Willie Garvin (Terence Stamp) to fight villainous Gabriel (Dirk Bogarde) over some jewels. Bogarde affects such “camp” mannerisms at times that it may be that his character is meant to be stereotypically gay (although a heterosexual Arab has two hunks paint his toenails at one point!), but sometimes Bogarde acts in a more “normal” fashion, so who can tell – or care? Vitti and Bogarde banter well together during a breakfast scene, but the movie boasts not one outstanding sequence. There's an interesting moment when Gabriel's hit-woman Mrs. Fothergill (Rosella Falk) breaks a mime's neck with her knees, but her karate "cat-fight" with Modesty is brief and disappointing. This isn't even as good as an average episode of the British spy parody The Avengers of the 60's. At times it has a Batman TV show (also of the 60's) kind of sensibility but without the amusing aspects. You can miss the moment when Vitti and Stamp break out into song.

Verdict: Nice scenery. *.