"Atlantic City": Adventures of a Boring Old Man [Golden Lion Award at the 36th Venice Film Festival]

Alexys 2022-03-14 08:01:02

http://blog.trivialfilm.com/2012/12/atlantic-city36.html

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The film won the Golden Lion Award at the 36th Venice Film Festival in 1980.

The film tells the story of an old man. The male protagonist is a white-haired old man who relies on taking care of the old woman downstairs for a living, and she is also used to peeping at the young female neighbor next door. One day, the husband of the female neighbor who eloped with her sister brought her sister home and brought back a large bag of drugs. When the husband was about to sell drugs, he happened to meet the hero and asked the hero to help him deal. During the transaction, her husband was discovered by drug dealers and could not escape and be killed. When the drug trade is over, the actor discovers that her husband is dead and stole the money from the drug trade. In the next few days, the male protagonist kept selling drugs and became rich. Therefore, the male protagonist is very courteous to the female neighbor, so that the female neighbor has a relationship with him. Afterwards, drug dealers attacked the two and rummaged through the female neighbor's home. I learned about the drug trade through my sister and the female neighbor, so I went to the hero to ask for money, but he had already run away. In this way, the female neighbor chased the male protagonist, and when he finally caught up with him, the drug dealers also caught up, and the male protagonist immediately took out a gun and killed them. After the two died, the male protagonist and the female neighbor hurriedly fled to the out-of-town hotel. In the hotel, the male protagonist shows his love to the female protagonist, but the female neighbor is noncommittal and steals the male protagonist's money the next day. The male protagonist saw all this, but he didn't stop it. In the end, the male protagonist asked the female neighbor to leave, and he returned to Atlantic City, where he had found out that he was the murderer.

This film is another bad film. I didn't expect the judges of the Venice Film Festival to be so poor! Or, it may be that the movies of the past are indeed outdated and do not meet the aesthetics of modern audiences. Where is this film rotten? First of all, it doesn't have a deep theme. The movie just shows the life of a boring old man, telling the audience that a lonely man expects something to happen, even if it's not a good thing. Second, the plot of the movie is very chaotic and there is no point to watch. What kind of drugs, murder, voyeurism, etc. are not very logical, especially the relationship between the female neighbor and the male protagonist is too abrupt! How could she like such a man? Is it because he has some money and is nice to her? In addition, the character settings of the old woman, sister, and husband are also very pale. Their existence only plays an auxiliary role in the story and the film, and the film does not create their perfect personality at all. That's what I'm most dissatisfied with about this film. To put it simply, this film is a film that has neither theme, nor plot, nor anything to watch. How can it win the Golden Lion Award? Incredible!

The filming aspect is fairly ordinary, and it looks very old-fashioned and sleepy. Louis Malle has been able to make the film so boring, it seems that he really can't be superstitious about any big director or famous director. However, the scenery in the film is still worth seeing, because at the junction of the late 1970s and early 1980s, you can clearly see the changes in society, and the thing that impressed me the most was the tape recorder - at that time, people were It was walking around the streets holding a large cassette tape recorder. It was really inconvenient when there was no Walkman!

The performances of the two leading actors in this film are equally mediocre. The male protagonist Burt Lancaster looked very familiar. After checking the information, he remembered that he played "The Leopard", which also won three awards. At that time, he was very handsome. It's just that in this film, the person is not only old, but also the performance is very stereotyped, which makes me feel like an ordinary old man. The heroine Susan Sarandon was a beautiful woman at that time, but I never appreciated her performance, it felt fake, which is probably the reason why she has never won awards for so many years. Others are tricks, not to mention.

in conclusion. This is a bad movie, I don't know how it won an award! But I know I wasted my time watching it.

Sequence: 0968

2012-12-04

View more about Atlantic City reviews

Extended Reading
  • Lilliana 2022-03-25 09:01:23

    "So love is the point here."

  • Kaya 2022-04-21 09:03:46

    Three and a half stars, Louis Mahler actually won the Golden Lion for this film. It is even more unbelievable that Calanster and Susan's old and young are so attractive. Although Susan was young at the time, she still looked old... It's really a casino desire. The opening and the end use the word ''destroy''. A metaphor.

Atlantic City quotes

  • Sally: What about Grace?

    Lou: She came down here during the war - a beauty contest.

    Sally: Oh, for Miss America?

    Lou: Nothing like that. More like - Miss Pinball Machine.

  • Lou: I watch you.

    Sally: Huh?

    Lou: The place where we live. I watch you.

    Sally: Through my window?

    Lou: You saw me?

    Sally: I figured maybe somebody was there.

    Lou: Did you know it was me?

    Sally: You were just this guy across the way.