Old Movies

The idea for this topic occurred to me because I'm thinking of a film but can't remember the title. Instead of creating a new thread to simply ask what movie it is I thought I'd create one where we can recommend a favorite old movie that perhaps other people haven't seen.I'm going to recommend the one in question, but like I said I can't remember the name. It's a French film from the early 80s about a young man who makes a bootleg tape of a concert performance by his favorite opera singer (a black woman, but like all the other actors here I don't know her name; it's not Jessye Norman or Leontyne Price, I'm sure of that). Somehow, he doesn't notice when his tape gets switched with one containing evidence about a mob crime. In the story, the opera singer has never allowed her voice to be recorded, so the guy knows he has something valuable and wants to protect it, but he has no idea why so many cops and mafiosi are after him.It's a modern day film noir, and the real set piece is an absolutely riveting chase scene on mopeds that takes place in the tunnels of the Paris Metro (I thought the name of the film was Metro but apparently not). That chase is probably the most exciting I've ever seen, and I've seen both Bullit and The French Connection, et many al.The style and cinematography of this picture reminded me of another classic French film: Breathless.Does anybody know what movie this is, and/or does anybody have another one to recommend?

Parasomnium writes me:

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Your film is Diva (1981).

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Yep, that's it. Everyone should see it. Thanks!

JavaMan writes:

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It's one of the most perfectly pitched films I've ever seen. I can watch it over and over again and find different qualities to love in it each time.

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I agree! I love this one too, and I've watched it many, many times. I think the idea behind the plot came from Shakespeare's Richard III.

Some excellent suggestions, holmes. I'm not familiar with Detective Story, but it sounds great. I have the original Manchurian Candidate and Inherit The Wind on DVD. I've seen your other suggestions and I agree with them.

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I still think Akira Kurasawa is one of the best, if not the best, director of all time. I'd recommend almost any of them.

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One of the best, absolutely! Not just a director, he write the screenplay to Runaway Train with Eric Roberts and Jon Voight, to my mind about the best American action movie ever made - one of the few to approach the quality of the best Chinese and Hong Kong action flicks.Switching gears, I was at Wal*Mart while ago and picked up the original Mel Brooks 1968 The Producers for 15 bucks! I've scanned through it and it's a beatiful print. I haven't seen the new version but I have a hard time believing that it will come anywhere close to the original. If you watch it, be sure you don't have anything in your mouth when the production number Springtime For Hitler starts. I'm serious.

crashfrog recommends the excellent:

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Thief of Baghdad

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I assume you mean the Technicolor one with the great Sabu. There's another good one that I'd never seen until recently on TCM, an old silent version with Douglas Fairbanks.

Then you should see the rest of it. I'd forgotten about that one, haven't seen it in years. You're quite right, it's excellent.

Sorry, I probably shouldn't have used the word 'great', but when I was a kid I sure thought he was. The local cinemas used to often have children's matinees. I can remember seeing this one at about the age of 10 and I fell in love with Sabu. I thought he was the best looking kid I'd ever seen.Looking at the movie as an adult I wouldn't call him great, but he was certainly good and he had an undeniable charisma.His masterpiece, if he can be considered to have had one, was Jungle Book, the trailer for which is available for free download at the Internet Archive's Sabucat Movie Trailers (I wrote the review).