edited by Jonathan Doyle

Classe tous risques (The Criterion Collection, 6.17.2008) Claude Sautet is best known for subtle interpretations of French bourgeois life in such films as Un coeur en hiver and Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud. Yet the director began his career with genre films. Classe Tous Risques, released in 1960, is considered the best of his early work and it's a fascinating companion to similar crime movies made around the same time by Jean-Pierre Melville. (continued)

Upcoming

July 2

Hancock

July 3

The Whackness

July 4

Diminished Capacity

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson

Holding Trevor

Kabluey

We are Together

July 9

Full Battle Rattle

July 11

A Man Named Pearl

August

Eight Miles High

Garden Party

Harold

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Meet Dave

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

The Stone Angel

July 18

A Very British Gangster

Before I Forget

The Dark Knight

The Doorman

Felon

Lou Reed's Berlin

Transsiberian

July 22

Two Tickets to Paradise

July 23

Boy A

LaBute on "Wicker Man"

email this story
read comments (4)
post a comment

"All of [the] power is lying in the last third of the movie, and you're slowly ratcheting up the tension along the way," Wicker Man director-writer Neil LaBute has told Coming Soon's Edward Douglas. "You have to be very patient and say that I'm making a movie that people can watch and enjoy, but it's not something that's going to keep rattling the cage every few minutes. It's just something that's constantly twisting, twisting itself so that you're very caught up in it.

"It's knowing the genre, knowing how you want to approach that and how you want to surprise with it. You set up situations that look like very familiar ones where audiences are like, 'I know what's going to happen.' You're going to get close to that girl and then her eyes are going to open to try to spook me, and when that doesn't happen, you go, 'Now, why did they do that?' Because you're always trying to reward expectations and reward the audience a bit later with something. I tried to know that genre well, and then play against it a bit as well."

Scorsese's downturn<< previous | next >>Horn's Telluride calls

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on August 30, 2006 at 11:14 AM

comment #1

Edward says ...

I hope LaBute can pull it off, I'd love to experience a horror film that get's under the skin ever so gradually and creeps the hell out of me.

Posted by Edward at August 30, 2006 12:32 PM

comment #2

Neilo says ...

Hang the naysayer, we plan to see this on Friday night...my gut goes with LaBute.

Posted by Neilo at August 30, 2006 12:58 PM

comment #3

lesterg says ...

LaBute definately elevates this project to another level, but his track record has been fairly inconsistant. For every "In the Company of Men" or "The Shape of Things" - there's a "Nurse Betty" or "Possession".

Add the remake factor, a late August release and Nicholas Cage and you've got some serious signs of trouble.

Posted by lesterg at August 30, 2006 01:24 PM

comment #4

Nate West says ...

If audience members on Friday were to step into darkened theaters and suddenly find themselves inside smouldering wicker cages, then THAT would be something, THAT would be worthwhile. Short of a real surprise like that, this project is about as exciting as wet teak.

Posted by Nate West at August 30, 2006 06:13 PM