Rock Hudson stars in this unsettling look at second chances. Banker Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) lives a comfortable, stifling life until he is contacted by a mysterious caller offering “what every middle-aged man wants: complete freedom.” Hamilton, with the help of an enigmatic corporation, fakes his own death and starts over in his new swinging-bachelor persona (now played by Rock Hudson). A change of life, though, is not just a change of scenery, and Seconds, for all its thriller aspects, contains some sad and disturbing meditations on the way we make our own prisons. Director John Frankenheimer uses skewed angles, bizarre close-ups, and fisheye lenses to underscore the film’s off-kilter tension. —Ali Davis
Born in New York and raised in Queens, John Frankenheimer wanted to become a professional tennis player. He loved movies and his favorite actor was Robert Mitchum. He decided he wanted to be an actor but then he applied for and was accepted in the Motion Picture Squadron of the Air Force where he realized his natural talent to handle a camera. After his military discharge he began a TV career in 1953 convincing CBS to hire him as an assistant director, which consisted mainly working as a cameraman at that time. He eventually started to direct the show he was working on as an assistant director. Frankenheimer still didn’t want to direct films. He liked to direct live television, and he would have continued to do it if the profession itself hadn’t cease to exist. He first turned to the big screen with The Young Stranger (1957) which he hated to do because he thought he didn’t understand movies and wasn’t used to work with only one camera. Disappointed with his first feature film experience… read more
Can't believe it but it's coming from Criterion in August: http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=11165
That Malibu party sure drags - almost breaking the spell - but what a film! Why is it so unknown?
Um dos filmes mais subvalorizados dos anos 60, a par de Shock Corridor e The Naked Kiss. Mas a essas andanças já o pobre Fuller estava habituado.
Para além de todo aquele movimento de câmara… read review
Hallucinatory and craftily directed thriller. Seemingly inspired by Orson Welles’ method, and particularly his take on Kafka’s The Trial, using the camera as a tool for enhancing the central character’s… read review
