Posted by: BoyScoutKevin
« on: January 31, 2012, 11:31:10 PM »PS do Americans know Cliff Richard?
I wa going to say yes, but then realized I was confusing Cliff Richard with Lonnie Donegan. Does anybody remember Lonnie Donegan?
As for "French Dressing," I do think it is a film that is underappreciated, even by Ken's fans, as for the first time we get to see what Ken could do on the big screen.
And what could he do on the big screen? He could use a camera, to best effect, like few other directors.
We also get to see the courage of his convictions. Which he would maintain throughout his film career from here in 1963 to "Trapped Ashes" in 2006.
As for his use of the sailor suit in his films, what intrigues me more his using of a Tadzio look-alike. Again, in this film and then later in his "Mahler." And what makes his use even more intriguing, while 1974's "Mahler" came some 3 years after 1971's "Death in Venice," 1963's "French Dressing" came some 8 years before "Death in Venice." Why and where did that come from?
And everybody has to start someplace, but does anybody know how he got the job of directing this film, when he had never directed a film for the big screen before?