Remakes and Reissues
By I see here that there will be a remake of the greatest of all heist movies, Rififi [Mmm, probably not a great idea] starring Al Pacino [This whole casting system is out of order!!!!!!!!!] and directed by Mercury Rising auteur Harold Becker [No, really, see the original. I mean, I love Pacino too, when he’s good. But trust me; really, really bad fit.] What’s worse is the likelihood that I’ll end up seeing the thing.
On the other hand, I didn’t really trust my fond memories for The Passenger, which I retained from a grainy VHS copies I watched as an undergrad many moons ago. My subsequent viewing of his previous movie, Zabriskie Point, didn’t increase my trust; it’s worth seeing only to see how bad a film by a major director not doing actual hackwork can get. But I saw the reissue last weekend and I think it holds up very well; unlike Manohla Dargis I still prefer L’Avventura and L’Eclisse, but it still often produces a haunting beauty, and the final sequence deserves its classic status.