Last Three Things I Watched: Even the Rain, Passage to Marseille, Case Histories

Case Histories – Just finished watching episodes 3 and 4 and now consider the BBC One cop show up to the standards of The Shadow Line, Luther, Scott & Bailey. It’s more personal and emotional plus being cerebral. Jason Isaacs has strengths in these areas. One area where it has all contenders beat is the photography. Some of scenes I wish I could print out and hang on my wall. [ Official BBC One site ]

Passage to Marseille – Bogie and the whole gang are here (Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Claude Rains . . ) in this silly, cheap looking, story of the Free French facing the German take over of their “motherland.” There is a reason this is a hard to find 1944 film. And the reason is . . . it’s not very good. Bogart as a French ex-con/freedom fighter/machine gunner in a French bomber?? The history is okay . . . The French, this is set in June 1940, are torn between the pro German Vichy government in south France and the, so called, Free French lead by General de Gaulle in London. But stories like an escape from Devil’s Island and the delivery of messages to a wife and child (whom he has never seen) by opening up the bomb bay doors to drop it, right on target while fly back from a bombing of Berlin . . are just plain goofy. [ RT ]

Even the Rain – One of those film-within-a-film films, Gael García Bernal as director “Sebastián” in Bolivia, to shoot a film about Christopher Columbus’ trespasses in the New World, only to find the locals protesting present-day exploitation of the poor. Interesting parallels between Columbus’ subjection of the indigenous peoples and the issues facing the modern generation of indigenous peoples of Bolivia. [ RT ]

This is a list of the last three major video items I have watched on my home HD TV (excluding MLB games).