Word: films
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...wonder, then, that the Cannes Festival is a perfect subject for Director Michael Ritchie, a satirist who has previously assaulted such institutions as competitive sports (Downhill Racer), beauty pageants (Smile), political campaigns (The Candidate) and est (Semi-Tough). For his new film, An Almost Perfect Affair, Ritchie went to the 1978 festival to record the goings-on in all their vulgar glory. He eavesdrops on the manic deal making that transpires daily on the Carlton Hotel terrace, the pretentious black-tie screenings, the endless parade of female pulchritude for commercial purposes. Such real-life luminaries as Rona Barrett, Edy Williams...
Unfortunately there is more to Affair than Ritchie's delicious documentary footage. The backbone of the film is a fictional liaison between Hal (Keith Carradine), a precious young independent director, and Maria (Monica Vitti), a married, middle-aged movie star. When this odd couple first start fooling around there are some amusing cross-cultural jokes, as well as touching erotic interludes in dreamy Riviera locales. But the affair quickly becomes a high-toned soap opera that devours the movie. By the end, the hero and heroine are adrift at sea in a stalled motorboat, screaming platitudes at each other...
With so many talented documentary-film makers about, it is sad to see a serious budget in the hands of the hacks who made The American Game. The movie's problems begin with its title: Since when is basketball the American game...
...directors follow two high school basketball stars, a black from Brooklyn and a small-town Wasp from Lebanon, Ind., as they endure the victories and defeats of senior year. The overall message is a real doozy: sports are a metaphor for society. From this profound insight, the film embraces all the sociological idiocies that Albert Brooks satirized in Real Life...
...teams play to win, that coaches can be tough taskmasters, that pretty girls and college recruiters fawn over the best players. If these tedious observations were served up in an interesting way, the movie might at least offer some entertainment. No dice. The American Game is a survey of film-making clichés. There are soupy graphics, split-screen effects, a platitudinous narration. The editing is so splintered that even the few potentially good scenes, those set at the heroes' homes and locker rooms, are too short to allow the characters breathing room. There is also an insistent...