Karel Reisz
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The Gambler (2014)
Directed by Rupert Wyatt
influenced by The Gambler (1974), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
Music
A disappointing thriller from Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt, The Gambler is a remake of the 1974 James Caan gem of the same name, which itself was loosely based on a 1867 novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, one of the grandpapas of existentialism.
While stylishly composed and edited with music composed Jon Brion (and Theo Green) that recalls the artist’s work with Paul Thomas Anderson, The Gambler never quite takes off.
Directed by Rise of the Planet of the Apes helmer Rupert Wyatt, The Gambler has a solid visual shorthand and style to it that is actually one of the better aspects of the film.
Rupert Wyatt’s latest film — an unnecessary remake of Karel Reisz’s James Caan-starring The Gambler — is one more glaring example.
Pointless remakes are pretty thick on the ground nowadays, so one shouldn’t be surprised by “The Gambler,” Rupert Wyatt’s new take on Karel Reisz’s 1974 film.
The Gambler is a remake of a forceful 1974 drama that was scripted (with a fair degree of autobiography) by James Toback, skilfully played by James Caan and directed by Karel Reisz (The French Lieutenant’s Woman).
Two 1974 classics: “California Split” and “The Gambler.”
It's essentially a twisted, over/under gambling story, not unlike Karel Reisz's The Gambler (1974), wherein our protagonist rushes around borrowing things, hocking things, betting on things, and hoping everything evens out, or else he's going to meet an unpleasant fate.
Scorsese underlines the idea of untimely ends by scoring the movie with songs from performers whose careers were cut short by tragedy, such as John Lennon ("Well Well Well") and Patsy Cline, whose gorgeous heartbreaker "Sweet Dreams" floats through many of Costello's scenes like a melancholy ghost.
(This impressive opening sequence is scored to the Eurhythmics' '80s hit "Sweet Dreams," and you're supposed to connect the name of the asylum to the duo's lead singer, Annie Lennox.)
(She also appears on the soundtrack, channeling Metric's Emily Haines and slow-drone-moaning her way through covers like "Sweet Dreams" and "Where Is My Mind?")
All this is set to an interminable sing-song cover of Sweet Dreams, because, like, you know, she's actually in a living nightmare or some shit.
In the end, what can you say about a filmmaker who thinks nothing of laying a cover of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" (lyric: "Some of them want to abuse you") over scenes of a man menacing two young girls?
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Directed by Céline Sciamma
influenced by The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
Visuals
Much of that power belongs in the imaginative complexity of stillness in cinematographer Claire Mathon’s imagery, riffing on the imagery of men such as Persona and The French Lieutenant’s Woman .
A weird claim, but the sheer cacophony of digital sound effects falls incredibly pleasant on the ear; while the film's best gag comes from a cameo by the Eurythmic's "Sweet Dreams" mixed to cunning perfection.
Harold is a withdrawn rich boy who delights in staging elaborate — often gory — “suicides” to torment his very-proper control-freak of a mother (Vivian Pickles, best known as Isadora Duncan in the Ken Russell TV film Isadora), who remains blissfully unaffected by his theatrics.