that is what’s so remarkable to me about this movie. it does everything to strip away the movie star gloss from Paul Newman. 20 minutes in you’re fully convinced that this guy is just the most miserable person on the planet. a guy who is barely alive and is clearly trying to drink himself to death
Yes exactly. The first funeral home scene really sells the dead inside misery for me. The scene with Rampling where you can’t quite tell if he has a little spark left and really does believe in juries or if he’s just trying to get over with her is a model of ambiguity. Great performance.
The Filmspotting podcast is doing a 6-film Lumet retrospective. This week I watched 1974's 'Murder on the Orient Express', an exhibit from the studio-death era. Initial train sequence is a mise-en-scène from a big musical. Lumet then lets the marquee stars run wild in a tight space. You picked well.
The Butler did it.