JUST BEFORE NIGHTFALL (1971)

Starring: Michel Bouquet & Francois Perier

Director: Claude Chabrol

Claude Chabrol, the French filmmaker known for his masterful explorations of crime, suspense, and the darker sides of human nature, directed this drama about a man forced to come to terms with his double life. Charles Masson (Michel Bouquet) is a successful ad man with a loving wife, Helene (Stephane Audran), two children, and a close friendship with his next-door neighbor Francois Tellier (Francois Perier), an architect who designed both of their houses. However, Charles has a secret -- he's been having an affair with Francois's wife Laura (Anna Douking). Charles and Laura share an enthusiasm for sadomasochism, and one night while mock-strangling her during lovemaking, Charles goes too far and kills Laura. At first, Charles seems to get away Scot free -- he's not considered a suspect, and while someone did see him leave the scene of the crime, that person declines to inform the police. But Charles cannot escape his conscience, and he eventually feels compelled to tell both Helene and Francois, neither of whom react with any particular shock or dismay. Juste Avant La Nuit was adapted by Chabrol from a novel of the same name by Edouard Atiyah. (100 mins.)

My Rating: ***

SHUTTER (2008)

Starring: Joshua Jackson

Director: Masayuki Ochiai

Ghostly images appearing in pictures are nothing new. Neither are long-haired, sepulchral Japanese women dressed in white, moving slowly and looking ominous (see The Grudge). Yet Masayuki Ochiai's Shutter repackages these tired horror tropes into something effectively chilling, despite the fact that it isn't the least bit new or inventive. Shutter feels like the latest in a trend that's been bled dry, namely, Hollywood remaking Japanese horror movies -- yet it's actually an update of a Thai film, directed by a Japanese director, set in Japan and featuring American actors. This idiom is certainly familiar enough, but settingShutter apart is its relatively clean and straightforward script. Neither huge logical leaps nor clarifications of who's who/what's happening, are necessary to wade through its brisk 85 minutes, which leaves Ochiai free to concentrate on his eerie set pieces. Jaded viewers may find themselves embarrassed to be producing such a reaction, considering Shutter's massive debt to other films, but the fact remains -- these fleeting images in the "spirit photos" do leave a viewer feeling disquieted, and sometimes downright spooked. When the spirit, a lonely girl who stalked her unrequited love (Joshua Jackson), manifests herself physically, it's a bit more clearly recognizable as a hackneyed theft from the Grudge andRing movies. But even if he isn't reinventing the wheel, Ochiai utilizes his familiar images as well as possible given our familiarity with them -- and thereby underscores what made them unsettling in the first place. Shutter will never be confused for anything more than an anonymous genre film with a generic title, but it's slightly less anonymous and generic than it could have been, which makes it worth recommending on some level -- especially relative to the other anonymous and generic options out there. (85 mins.)

My Rating: BOMB

TWO LOVERS (2008)

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix & Gwyneth Paltrow

Director: James Gray

A depressed young man moves back in with his parents and finds his life turned upside down as he struggles to choose between the beautiful daughter of a close family friend and the scintillating but volatile next-door neighbor whose passion helps to reignite his lust for life. The third screen outing for writer/director James Gray and actor Joaquin Phoenix following We Own the Night and The Yards.

Directing a movie is all about establishing and maintaining a consistent tone. When the editing, art direction, and cinematography all complement each other -- and when the actors understand how subtly they need to play each scene -- that's when a filmmaker has greatness within reach. James Gray achieves just that with Two Lovers because he tells a story of emotionally operatic proportion in the tone of a gentle whisper.

Phoenix drives the movie with a remarkable performance as a simple man who's as torn apart by his passions as he is compelled to act on them. Taking advantage of the nuances in the script, Phoenix plays all of these internal struggles without resorting to James Dean-inspired brooding. Phoenix reveals the depth of Leonard's pain in the character's everyday conversations.

The entire story practically begs for scenes with huge cathartic upheavals -- the kind of scenes that make their way into Oscar highlight reels -- but instead Gray plays everything close to the vest because he knows that's exactly what his characters would do. (110 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976)

Starring: David Bowie & Rip Torn

Director: Nicolas Roeg

A moody, cerebral science-fiction thriller about an alien (David Bowie) who becomes trapped on our planet. Its occasional ambiguities are overpowered by sheer mind-tugging bizarreness and directorial brilliance.

Title character ostensibly heads world conglomerate, but is actually here to find water for his planet. Highly original, fabulously photographed adaptation of Walter Tevis' classic fantasy novel is riveting for the first two-thirds, goes downhill toward the end. Still tops of its kind. (140 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

RICHARD III (1955)

Starring & Director: Laurence Olivier

Elaborate if stagy version of Shakespeare's chronicle of ambitious 15th century British king and his court intrigues.

Once again, as in Henry V and Hamlet, England's foremost player displays his near-matchless acting and directing skills in bringing Shakespeare to life on film. His royal crookback usurper is beautifully malevolent, a completely intriguing, smiling villain. This film fascinates from first to last. (161 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

THE OMEGA MAN (1971)

Starring: Charlton Heston

Director: Boris Sagal

Visually striking but unsatisfying second filming of Richard Matheson's sci-fi thriller I Am Legend. Heston is under siege by a race of zombies spawned by apocalyptic germ warfare. Heston is superior to Vincent Price (who had role in THE LAST MAN ON EARTH).

Heston does a last-man-on-Earth number in this free adaptation. The novel's vampirism has been toned down, but Chuck still is holed up in his high-rise mansion by night, and killing robed (and sleeping) zombies by day. Although this is no more faithful to Matheson's work than 1964's The Last Man On Earth, it has enough throat-grabbing suspense to keep it moving. (98 mins.)

My Rating: ***

CASTLE KEEP (1969)

Starring: Burt Lancaster

Director: Sydney Pollack

Offbeat, well-produced WWII story set in a Belgian castle where a great many art treasures are kept. Lancaster is the major who has to hold off a German attack from the castle, and he comes to grips with the Count of the castle, who can't stand by and see the priceless art be destroyed.

Pretentious adaptation of William Eastlake's novel about eight soldiers on French border. Good cast, but film has no coherency. (105 mins.)

My Rating: *