© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p8
21/07/2013 04:18 par tellurikwaves
© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p8
21/07/2013 04:18 par tellurikwaves
more here than meets the eye
Author: Robert D. Ruplenas
25 August 2000
I too became a fan of this movie (thank you American Movie Classics). What at first appeared to be a run-of-the-mill frontier cabin story turned into an absorbing, well-written, well-acted human interest story with four engaging characters, a beautiful locale (the movie would have benefited from color), and a fine score to boot. The concept of a bonded (indentured) servant added an interesting historical facet. The cast, of course, is top notch. Mitchum and Holden work particularly well together. The film should be a lot better known than it is, and is well worth a see.
© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p7
21/07/2013 04:10 par tellurikwaves
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© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p7
21/07/2013 04:10 par tellurikwaves
Highly Recommended
Author: aimless-46 from Kentucky
17 April 2006
At its most basic, "Rachel and the Stranger" is a domestic comedy set in the wilderness of 19th century Ohio. Director Norman Foster manages to pack more charm into each five minutes than most films have during their entire running length. At its most ambitious, "Rachel and the Stranger" is an allegorical story about the impact of a catalyst into a seemingly stable dynamic. In this case the stranger in the title, Jim (Robert Mitchum), visits the isolated farm of long-time friend David Harvey (William Holden), his young son Davey (Gary Gray), and their bond servant Rachel (Loretta Young).
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David bought Rachel (who is working off her late father's debts) after his wife died, needing a replacement to help raise Davey. He married her out of respect for social convention but has no intention of consummating the marriage. While David treats Rachel with respect and consideration, his son is openly resentful of the substitute mother. After some initial progress the threesome settles into a distanced existence, a rut from which there is little chance they will be able to escape on their own. But things quickly change when Jim stops by on his way to town.
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For the first time Rachel has someone who actively engages her. Jim's attentions build up Rachel's status in Davey's eyes while causing David to see her obvious attractions for the first time. But Foster doesn't limit things to this predictable interplay; he builds on it by having Rachel quickly come out of her guarded shell in response to Jim's interest. Even the makeup people get into the act as Young goes from the look of a plain pioneer woman to a subtle radiance.
All four stars are excellent. It was probably Holden's best performance as he provides most of the humor with his growing attraction to Rachel and his increasing irritation with the attention Jim is paying to her. Young was about 10 years too old for her 25 year-old character but this is not really a factor as the age of the character is unimportant; you wonder why they did not simply change the one reference to her age after casting Young for the part.
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Young's acting tends to be underrated because of her later work as a television hostess but
even her film work as a teenager was extraordinary. She was an especially good casting choice because the repressed Rachel needs to subtly convey a depth and dimensionality early in the film to make her later transformation plausible.Mitchum gives perhaps his liveliest performance as he seems to be having a lot of fun with his part. Gray is solid as always, one of those rare child actors who were not irritating after a few minutes on the screen.*Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
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* Faut dire que les moufflets au cinéma à l'époque (en plus doublés en français !!)...fallait se les coltiner.
© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p6
21/07/2013 03:47 par tellurikwaves
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© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p6
21/07/2013 03:47 par tellurikwaves
My favorite western/love story
Author: tpottera from Manhattan
28 July 2002
This is a WONDERFUL movie. Why it wasn't released for home video....Its a beautiful story of a widower (Holden) and his son who feel they need a woman around the house. A neighbor recommends a bond slave (Young) and after persuasion, he reluctantly marries her. She moves in but finds there is not a welcome wagon from the boy or Holden!
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She is just a housekeeper to them. A wily bachelor friend (Mitchum) shows up unexpectedly and has eyes for Young! Holden doesn't know what to think. He hasn't gotten over the death of his wife yet and can't love Young, but with Mitchum's arrival he starts to get jealous! Simple but deep, touching story with nice filming and awesome performance by all. Especially Mitchum as the lonely bachelor trying to steal Young. Catch it on the classic movie channel.
© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p5
20/07/2013 13:08 par tellurikwaves
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© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p5
20/07/2013 13:08 par tellurikwaves
A Forgotten Classic
Author: Prof-Hieronymos-Grost from Ireland
11 August 2005
"Big" Davey Harvey(William Holden) a widower, and his only son Davey live in the mountains of Ohio during the Pioneer days.Big Davey increasingly frustrated at the influence of his fur hunter friend Jim Fairways-Robert Mitchum-decides his son needs a woman's influence around the house and sets off to the local stockade to find a wife much to the protestations of little Davey who doesn't want anyone to replace his recently deceased mother.Big Davey is recommended a bonds girl Rachel(Loretta Young )who is surplus to requirements and he buys her for 18 dollars.
Both of the Harveys are cold and distant towards their new family member and treat her as the slave she is, until that is the charismatic Jim Fairways arrives and treats her like a queen,they hit it off straight away much to the jealousy of Big Davey who is just not ready for love yet…this triggers a battle of wills to win the heart of Rachel…and just to add to their problems the film is set against a backdrop of continuing raids by rogue Shawnee Indians on the local homesteads.
This is truly a forgotten western classic that still feels very fresh today,Rachel and the Stranger is very very charming film,that is also very funny and has a simple but intelligent script,on top of that add three truly Epic performances by the three leads and an action packed finale and you have a wonderful film.Mitchum never ceases to amaze me, a true giant of the Cinema and a really good singer too
© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p4
20/07/2013 01:38 par tellurikwaves
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© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p4
20/07/2013 01:38 par tellurikwaves
Rachel and her 3 guys
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
12 December 2004
This is a film that for most of its running time has no other players than the three adult leads and a child. The players had better be good for this one. Fortunately they are and Rachel and the Stranger has a good quiet charm about it.
The title role is played by Loretta Young. She was a year past her Oscar winning performance in The Farmer's Daughter and really at the top of her game. Rachel is a bondservant who is bought by widower William Holden to help out at the family farm, bring back a feminine touch to the place and help raise his son, Gary Gray. Rachel is bought for "eighteen dollars and owing four" by Holden, but frontier proprieties being what they were, Holden has to marry her.
But she's no wife, she's bought and paid for help, until Holden's friend Robert Mitchum shows up and starts looking at her as a desirable woman. Now Holden starts thinking along those lines and the fun begins.Holden and Mitchum both do very well in typical roles for both at the time. Bill Holden called this his "smiling jim" period which ended with Sunset Boulevard a year later.
Mitchum gets to sing in Rachel and the Stranger and even cut a couple of records of the songs he sings from the film. Not bad for Bob, among the many accomplishments of that complex and talented man was as a singer and songwriter. He didn't do it often enough in movies.But the movie really turns on Loretta Young's performance. She strikes just the right note as the bondwoman who helps make the whole lot of them a family again.
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The movie is also a good depiction of frontier Ohio. An Indian attack is part of the problems the quartet faces and the Shawnees were very active there until the Battle of Fallen Timbers which took place in 1795. Figure the action to be taking place slightly before that.
© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p3
19/07/2013 08:52 par tellurikwaves
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© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p3
19/07/2013 08:52 par tellurikwaves
Fiche technique
Titre original : Rachel and the Stranger
Réalisation : Norman Foster
Scénario : Waldo Salt
d'après Howard Fast (histoire)
Photographie : Maury Gertsman
Montage : Les Millbrook
Musique : Roy Webb
Production : Richard H. Berger,
Jack J. Gross
Société de production et
de distribution : RKO Radio Pictures
Pays d'origine : États-Unis
Langue : anglais
Format : Noir et blanc - 35 mm -
1,37:1 - Mono
Genre : western
Durée : 80 minutes
Date de sortie :USA : 20 sept 1948
© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p2
18/07/2013 04:18 par tellurikwaves
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© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948) p2
18/07/2013 04:18 par tellurikwaves
Résumé et analyse de DVD CLASSIK
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L'HISTOIRE
Dans les paysages sauvages de l’Ohio à l’époque des pionniers, David Harvey (William Holden) vient de perdre sa femme et se retrouve seul avec son fils. Son épouse défunte ayant toujours souhaité que son garçon ait une bonne éducation malgré leurs conditions de vie difficile, David décide d’aller chercher une nouvelle épouse en ville malgré les protestations de son rejeton qui ne désire pas de remplaçante pour sa mère. Pour respecter les traditions, on le marie à Rachel (Loretta Young), servante qu’il rachète pour l’emmener dans ses montagnes. La vie reprend donc son cours mais les deux "hommes" se montrent froids et distants envers Rachel, la traitant plus en esclave et femme d’intérieur qu’en épouse et mère. Il faudra l’arrivée de Jim (Robert Mitchum), un trappeur et le meilleur ami de David, et son incrustation dans la famille suite à son béguin pour Rachel qu’il traite comme une reine, pour éveiller en David des sentiments insoupçonnés : la jalousie, le respect et l’amour. Rachel devient donc le déclencheur d’une prise de conscience au sujet du véritable rôle de la femme au sein de la famille mais aussi un “objet” de rivalité entre les deux amis qui étaient déjà auparavant entrés en “compétition amoureuse” pour la défunte…
ANALYSE ET CRITIQUE
Après L’Ange et le Mauvais Garçon de James Edward Grant et Four Faces West de Alfred E. Green, c’est avec Rachel and the Stranger la troisième fois en à peine deux ans que le western tente d’éradiquer la violence de ses intrigues. Ce sont trois westerns que l’on pourrait qualifier de ‘familiaux’, se focalisant plus sur les romances et histoires d’amitié que sur toute autre chose, les scènes d’action étant quasiment inexistantes. Sans atteindre loin de là des sommets, ce sont trois westerns assez inhabituels pour l’époque, tous trois très agréables à suivre notamment grâce à leur interprétation. Après John Wayne et Gail Russell, Joel McCrea et Frances Dee, nous avons affaire ici à un trio composé de William Holden et Robert Mitchum, tous deux tournants autour de Loretta Young qui avait déjà été trois ans plus tôt l’héroïne de Along Came Jones aux côtés de Gary Cooper. Moins touchant que L’Ange et le Mauvais Garçon, moins ‘radical’ que le curieux Four Faces West qui ne dérogeait jamais à son idée de départ (aucun coups de feu, aucune méchanceté), Rachel and The Stranger n’en est pas moins un assez joli film qui pourra plaire même à ceux qui ne supportent pas le genre car, hormis le décorum et une attaque indienne vers le final, le reste du canevas aurait très bien pu se dérouler à une autre époque et en un autre lieu.
A travers le bref aperçu de l’intrigue, on devine que le "blacklisté" Waldo Salt a écrit (sans être crédité, liste noire obligeait) un joli scénario, légèrement ambigu (grâce au personnage de Robert Mitchum), sensible, féministe et progressiste, s’attaquant à toutes formes de préjugés (notamment le machisme, Loretta Young fustigeant à un moment donné la virilité avec virulence) et plutôt atypique à l’intérieur du genre (certains n'y verront d'ailleurs sans doute pas un western). Dans une veine identique à celle qu’avait tracé L’Ange et le Mauvais Garçon l’année précédente, un western pudique (superbe première séquence au cours de laquelle on apprend la mort de la première épouse), tendre et apaisé avec un arrière fond de chronique paysanne américaine comme avait pu l’être le magnifique Jody et le Faon (The Yearling) mais qui n’arrive malheureusement pas à concrétiser toutes ses promesses par la seule faute d’une mise en scène sans éclat de Norman Foster et*[ l’ajout pour le final d’une scène d’action malvenue et techniquement sans relief, très certainement amenée là pour satisfaire les amateurs d’émotions fortes qui devaient jusqu’alors se sentir lésés. Très dommage d’autant que le dernier quart d’heure se trouve franchement gâché par cette intrusion de la violence qui n’avait pas lieu d’être et qui se révèle de plus être très banale et sans véritable puissance dramatique.] *Entièrement d'accord)
Mais en oubliant ce final sans intérêt, une bien jolie histoire mettant en scène dans de beaux décors naturels (le fort que l’on atteint en traversant le fleuve à l’aide d’un bac, la cabane pas loin de la rivière…) trois personnages très bien croqués, interprétés avec énormément de conviction par William Holden, Loretta Young et un Robert Mitchum charismatique qui en profite pour nous faire découvrir un autre de ses grands talents, celui de chanteur. C’est avec ce film une première ; pour l’occasion, il interpréte ici pas moins de six très courtes chansons non plaquées mais au contraire parfaitement intégrées à l’intrigue dont la superbe « Foolish Pride ». C’est aussi la première fois qu’il tient son rôle ‘d’ambigu nonchalant’ pour lequel on l’appréciera tant tout au long de sa fabuleuse carrière. Alors qu’il était on ne peut plus sérieux dans Pursued (La Vallée de la Peur) de Raoul Walsh, ici, en habit de ‘pasteur’, avec son flegme légendaire et sa voix traînante, il préfigure également un peu son personnage de La Nuit du Chasseur et il n’est d’ailleurs pas impossible que Charles Laughton se soit inspiré d’un plan de ce film lorsqu’on voit en contre plongée arriver le grand Bob à cheval en chantant. Il se trouve aussi un quatrième important protagoniste, un jeune garçon plutôt bien campé par l’espiègle Gary Gray. Ce quatuor nous octroiera 80 minutes durant, charme, cocasserie et tendresse avec néanmoins quelques séquences équivoques lorsque Jim tente de séduire Rachel.
Car le cœur de l’intrigue est constitué par ce triangle amoureux pour le moins amusant. Le brave David (William Holden) est un homme de principes assez rigide ; il découvre qu’il existe de l’amour entre lui et la femme qu’il a été obligé d’épouser (pour les convenances) suite à la jalousie qu’il éprouve dès l’arrivée de Jim (Robert Mitchum), son meilleur ami, qui vient passer quelques jours en leur compagnie. En effet ce dernier avait déjà essayé de lui prendre sa première femme défunte et il tente de recommencer avec Rachel. Bien plus civilisé que David, parfaitement éduqué, d’une galanterie incongrue dans la région, Jim plait immédiatement à Rachel. Alors que David se comportait comme un rustre envers Rachel, on le voit maintenant changer de comportement du tout au tout mais avec une maladresse assez touchante, se mettre à avoir des intentions, lui mettre la main sur l’épaule, la remercier… Une espèce de combat de coqs s’engage, qui finit par se transformer en un véritable pugilat mais cette rivalité est vue avec beaucoup d’humour et de légèreté. On comprend d’autant moins ce que vient faire l’attaque des Shawnees par là-dessus mais nous en avons déjà parlé. Bref, malgré la fadeur de la réalisation et un final bâclé, une assez belle réussite qui fut non moins que la plus grosse recette de la RKO en cette année 1948 !! Loin d'être inoubliable mais d'une fraîcheur pas déplaisante !
© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948)
18/07/2013 03:25 par tellurikwaves
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© DR - RACHEL & L'ETRANGER de William Foster (1948)
18/07/2013 03:25 par tellurikwaves
Rachel and the Stranger est un western romantique réalisé par Norman Foster, sorti en 1948.
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Cast
Loretta Young : Rachel Harvey
William Holden : David Harvey
Robert Mitchum : Jim Fairways
Gary Gray : Davey
Tom Tully : Parson Jackson
Sara Haden : Mrs. Jackson
Frank Ferguson : Mr. Green
Walter Baldwin : Gallus
Regina Wallace : Mrs. Green
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© DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) Fin
14/07/2013 11:09 par tellurikwaves
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© DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) Fin
14/07/2013 11:09 par tellurikwaves
"Wit opens any door."
Author: TrevorAclea from London, England
1 July 2007
Sometimes with movie distribution, as with humour, timing is everything. Patrice Leconte's Ridicule is a long way from the best work from almost anyone involved, yet still proved a major art-house success outside France, picking up Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film, winning a BAFTA as well as a nomination for the Palme D'Or at Cannes and winning four Cesars, including Best Film and Best Director, as well as another 8 nominations in France itself.All of which leaves you with the suspicion that it couldn't have been up against much competition that year
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It's certainly not a bad film, but at times it's almost as slight as its subject – the rules of wit and ridicule at the Court of Versailles under King Louis XVI, where you live or die by the readiness of your wit and where a single misstep can cast you into oblivion. Charles Berling is the impoverished minor aristocrat seeking royal patronage for a drainage project to stop his peasants from dropping like flies only to discover that the only way to get near to the King in a world where wit opens any door is to demonstrate a sharper and more malicious tongue than those around him.
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Tutored in the rules of engagement by Jean Rochefort's friendly courtier and both championed and checked by Fanny Ardant's court predator, he briefly finds himself a sensation in a world where honesty and wit are so rarely combined, only to find himself heading for a fall.While it's a cut above the usual dry costume drama and passes the time more than pleasantly enough, it never quite escapes the feeling of a safe and predictable morality tale while at times the wit could be sharper and the venom more prominent.
There are some fine good moments and Ardant gets a great screen entrance, her servants blowing powder over her naked body, but at the end of the day it manages to be a curious mixture of both a mildly satisfying diversion and slightly less than the sum of its parts. Very much like the Court of Versailles itself… Whereas Miramax's Region 1 DVD is bare-bones, Second Sight's UK PAL DVD boasts a fine 2.35:1 widescreen transfer as well as a good 52-minute documentary on the making of the film.
© DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p25
14/07/2013 10:46 par tellurikwaves
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© DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p25
14/07/2013 10:46 par tellurikwaves
An excellent period film(Fin)
There were dancing scenes later in the film where everyone wears masks and huge elaborate wigs, which demonstrated a dire need to be accepted. The fact that all of the wigs and masks worn in this scene were strikingly similar suggested that these people desired to be as much like everyone else as possible, and that individuality is discouraged. The men wore white powder on their faces, blush on their cheeks, and even distinct amounts of lipstick.
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Aside from being another way of illustrating conformity, it also poses a huge difference between then and now. In today's society, men who wear that much make-up are most often the ones who are actually trying NOT to fit in with the general population.One other thing that is worth mentioning is the fact that the exact words or topics spoken in the film are far less important than the way that they are said. Body language as well as things like costuming &make-up are far more important than the exact subjects that were spoken of
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This was most effectively communicated to the audience by the fact that there were a few scenes where the French conversation was not subtitled. This forced the audience, particularly the English speaking audience, to focus more on the way the characters were speaking to each other rather than what exactly they were saying. This is very unusual, but is also noteworthy because it successfully furthers the meaning delivered by the film.