Mountain
Deep Red
David Hemmings (Blow Up) stars as a jazz musician in Italy who witnesses a bizarre murder and is drawn into the investigation. With Deep Red (1975) Dario Argento directed a stylish slasher flick. Though the dialogue lurches from lame to profound, every scene is visually interesting and—maybe it’s those red curtains, creepy cameras and awareness of unseen dimensions?—that suggests Deep Red’s influence on David Lynch. Italian prog-rock band Goblin provides an excellent score.
The Day of the Jackal
Charles de Gaulle was driven from power by the left, but a few years earlier, he was menaced from the right. Based on Frederick Forsyth’s novel, The Day of the Jackal (1973) is a fictional story of a right-wing plot against de Gaulle by a debonair, utterly amoral British assassin (Edward Fox) armed with many false faces and identities. Director Fred Zinnemann (High Noon) maintains suspense despite the audience’s knowledge that the scheme must surely fail.
Mountain
Mountains were once sacred spaces, but adventure increasingly supplanted reverence as climbing became a sport, not a pilgrimage. Reciting from Robert Macfarlane’s poetic Mountains of the Mind, Willem Dafoe narrates this documentary on the human urge to touch every summit. This sort of footage has been seen many times, but it’s still almost breathtaking to watch climbers on vertical cliffs or snowy peaks overlooking sheer drops. The Australian Chamber Orchestra lends solemnity with its score.
“Television’s Lost Classics Volume One”
Jazz music, dim lighting, urban poverty—it’s low-budget small-screen noir from a long defunct network series. The opening 1955 episode on this anthology includes many familiar names. The director, Sidney Lumet, went on to film Serpico. The star, a teenage John Cassavetes, plays the vengeful leader of a teenage pack. Van Dyke Parks, a Brian Wilson collaborator in the ’60s, was in the gang. “Lost Classics” is a fascinating glimpse into the beginnings of many careers.
