Signoret games

You just never buy into a single thing happening in this with so much getting strained so far past the breaking point. And it does a terrible job of priming you for all of that by showing you early on that almost everything….

Games is one of the more unusual releases to come out of Universal in the late s. It was a strange time for that studio; they had moved away from the fluffy comedies and women's pictures that had helped them immensely at the box office and many of their films in the late 60s, outside of a few A-list films like Thoroughly Modern Millie, Isadora, and Sweet Charity, often had a visually bland, TV-like look.

Games is mostly set in one big house, so it was probably done on a pretty low budget, but this particular psychological thriller benefits from this due to the intense feeling of claustrophobia. The house itself is oppressive; with its bizarre denizens, bizarre occult rituals,…. Curis Harrington's films tend to be something I like a lot more in concept than execution, and this one's a perfect example. It's jam packed with nice visual touches thanks to some killer scope lensing by William Fraker , the cast is pretty incredible even if it's a chore to make out half of Simone Signoret's lines , and the idea of a thriller composed of a small group of characters playing increasingly deadly games on each other seems like it can't miss.

So why does it feel so hollow? And why isn't it more fun? I still haven't figured that out, and each time I come back to it this time via Scream Factory's new Blu-ray, which at least looks better…. This movie was just a bunch of hooey! I can't believe they wasted such a cast with this ugly set and stupid story.

It takes so long to get were it's going and I hated what I saw when I got there. I have seen better twists in a pack of Twizzlers. You cannot claim to be an art critic with such a hideous collection.

Just say your rich and you like ugly things. It's not clever but I guess there are some cool shots but not enough that I can in good nature recommend this to anyone. This was my first Curtis Harrington movie and I feel I will have to temper my enthusiasm going further. Games over. Take the plot and star of Les Diaboliques , relocate them to a hip lates Manhattan and toss in some emergent New Hollywood talent, and we get an odd, cozily predictable little potboiler that's entirely of its era.

She is a repository of unspeakable trauma, conveying through her body and her gestures the tragedy and the will of someone who longs for death but yearns for life. Signoret insisted on wearing this tattoo, even though it was never visible in the film. According to Signoret herself, that number indicated deportation in , and thus became a phantom of the millions of Jews deported from France and exterminated by the Nazis. This extraordinary film, about a group of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who, during World War II, formed an activist wing of the Communist Resistance in Paris and elsewhere, was almost not shown.

Her autobiography, written some ten years before this film, describes the atmosphere of wartime France, her emerging political consciousness, and her enduring commitment to issues of social justice. But only after the experience of Terrorists in Retirement was Signoret able to write her novel, Adieu Volodia , which heralded her new literary career, sadly cut short by her death in Paris of cancer on September 30, Signoret emerges as a novelist of exceptional breadth and generosity, with a human warmth most current novelists completely lack.

But the inner story of her specifically Jewish identification is highlighted in her two enduring cinematic portraits and in the interstices of her writing, the profound sadness mixed with celebration, as she looks at the lives of two families of Jews from the Yiddish Small-town Jewish community in Eastern Europe. Have an update or correction? Let us know.

Episode Jane: Abortion Before Roe. Flitterman-Lewis, Sandy. Jewish Women's Archive. Learn more. Simone Signoret March 25, —September 30, Studio photo of Simone Signoret, From Studio Harcourt. In Brief. Early Film Career. Mature Film Career. Jewish Consciousness. Marjorie Bennett Nora as Nora.

Ian Wolfe Dr. Edwards as Dr. Anthony Eustrel Winthrop as Winthrop. Eloise Hardt Celia as Celia. George Furth Terry as Terry. Peter Brocco Count as Count. Carmen Phillips Holly as Holly. Curtis Harrington.

More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. Wealthy heiress Jennifer inherited their New York brownstone from her mother. Paul likes to spend her money indulging in his interest of modern art. They hold frequent parties and play their games. Into their lives comes door-to-door sales-rep Lisa Schindler. They decide to play one of their practical jokes on grocery-deliveryman Norman: a supposedly-jealous Paul accuses him of making advances to Jennifer.

He He shoots him twice--with blanks--and everyone has a laugh, but the third shot kills him. In the days following his death, Jennifer begins to hear noises in the house and seeing shadowy figures at the end of dark hallways. Is it all a game? Where the Normal is Not and the Bizarre Is. Not Rated. Add content advisory. Did you know Edit. Producers vetoed the choice, and Simone Signoret was cast.