Modesty Blaise
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Movie Reviews of Modesty Blaise
Movie Review: rock'n'droll
Summary: 4 Stars
Though this is not a knee-slapper as satire, and certainly no thrill-giver as an action flick, this film has aged better than Bond films like Thunderball, generically speaking the ground of this satire. Modesty Blaise is loosely based on a comic-book super-heroine and played by Monica Vitti. The humor is very droll, yet needle-sharp in its mockery of the amorality of empire and espionage, and in its parody of the conventions of the action-hero movie, its mad-camp villain, its tools, its blue waters. It hits its dry humorous notes and jazzy visual chords without pedantry, seeming very British and looking very Italian, a nice trick. Stoned in a rather stately way, and head-scratchingly complex in places, this movie is shrewd enough to avoid the utter silliness of many 60s movies. The film is visually beautiful and engaging, with grand colors and compositions with lots of space and depth: the toughest thing about Modesty Blaise is that it moves at a pace more like an Italian sex-and-class study than an action movie or typical spoof; indeed, the film freely recalls Antonioni's L'Aventura, (which also starred Vitti), especially in its Mediterranean location shots. And after all else is said, Monica Vitti remains an absolute stunner here, a true movie star, with a face of a thousand shades of tenderness and cunning. She also has great hair that changes about every five minutes. (Her hair itself is a better actress than Madonna.) Vitti and her sidekick, Terence Stamp, a mod Adonis, have a cool chemistry, and even sing in one pleasantly bizarre scene. Dirk Bogarde, the villain, is in a role unlike any other he ever played, but he may steal the movie. This is an anomaly: a rocknroll movie--droll, nonconformist, and hip--with almost no rocknroll in the soundtrack.Movie Review: enjoyable hotch-potch of [stuff]
Summary: 4 Stars
MODESTY BLAISE is an enjoyable, campy little gem that is quite fun. High in style and low in plot, the cast obviously had a ball working on this great film.Based on the popular long-running comic strip character, the story concerns high-class jewel and art thief Modesty Blaise (played bewitchingly by Monica Vitti) who is called upon to investigate the actions of reclusive millionaire and criminal Gabriel (Dirk Bogarde) who lives on a foreboding island.
Modesty enlists the help of her associate and some-time lover Willie Garvin (Terence Stamp) and soon Modesty is up to her neck in psychedelic espionage and sexy costumes! However, there is always Gabriel's assistant to contend with: the man-eating, sadistic Mrs Fothergill (Rosella Falk)...
The plot is as wafer-thin as Modesty's silken dresses; between the time that Modesty is recruited to the final showdown on Gabriel's island, there is about 90 minutes of plot that I cannot even fathom. Dirk Bogarde relishes his role as the decadent Gabriel, wearing a John Inman-esque fright wig and drinking out of impossibly-sized glasses. Another hilaious scene is where Mrs Fothergill is holding "diving lessons". During the climactic battle, Modesty and Willie have a time-out to sing a rather annoying love song, and somehow Arabs on stallions are mysteriously transported to the island to assist Modesty in her showdown with Gabriel!!...Totally unbelievable and only possible in the 60's.
Nontheless, MODESTY BLAISE is a charming piece of fluffy eye-candy and should be savored as the harmless schlock that it was meant to be.
Highly recommended. (Single-sided, single-layer disc).
Movie Review: Fun If You Simply Take It for What It Is
Summary: 4 Stars
As breezy and formless as a good vacation or a life of shameless self-indulgence, "Modesty Blaise" is likely to drive anyone expecting a standard Hollywood plot nuts. In a way, that's what makes it most appealing. With director Joseph Losey's eclectic mix of old-fashioned studio and handheld verite styles, set to a swinging 60s Eurotrash soundtrack, there's enough happening in each scene to dazzle the senses--if not the brain--provided you see the letterboxed version, of course. Sultry Monica Vitti is Modesty Blaise, an international thief recruited by the British government to interfere with a diamond payoff involving an old arch-enemy (Dirk Bogarde), presumed dead all these years. Along for the ride is the often-creepy Terrance Stamp, cast here perfectly as a Cockney ally handy with a knife. There's not much in "Modesty Blaise" that makes sense conventionally, but viewing it as something of a time capsule--not for its camp or art direction, but for the many crisply photographed scenes of locations like London and Amsterdam-makes for a fascinating experience. And though much is made of Vitti's heavily accented command of English, listening to her is a more pleasant experience than to so many other actors challenged by speaking the language, such as Sylvester Stallone, Rosie Perez, Arnold Swarzenegger, Anna Nicole Smith, or Snoop Dog. You might even notice scenes that may have inspired similar ones in "Arabesque," "Casino Royale" and the "Charlie's Angels" redux. Like the much overhyped "Barbarella" a few years later, "Modesty Blaise" is a product of its time, no "Blow Up" but a curiosity to be experienced.Movie Review: Better than I remember it being, but still not recommended
Summary: 3 Stars
I saw "Modesty Blaise" in the cinema when it was first released in 1966. At that time I had already read the book, which I loved, and I came away from the cinema thinking that this travesty, this blasphemy of a movie was total trash.
Peter O'Donnell, the author of the book and the comic strip that inspired the movie, went on to write a whole series of books about Modesty Blaise, and I loved them all, especially the first five - six of them, after which the series declined somewhat. I became a greater and greater fan of Modesty Blaise, and my memory of this movie remained completely negative.
Why this negativity? Because the movie does not follow the true concept of Modesty at all. The Modesty books are intelligent and exciting and character-driven, with a touch of humor. In particular, the characters of Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin (Modesty's loyal side-kick) and their unusual relationship are key factors in the books.
This movie, on the other hand, is just plain silly. It's "campy", with all of the characters acting strangely and with everything that is done being exaggerated. Modesty and Willie, who are both poorly cast relative to their appearance and physique as described in the books, even break into song a couple of times!
So as a movie depicting the "true Modesty Blaise" this movie deserves one star, even though the script does actually follow the first book to a large extent, although everything is modified a bit one way or another.
Now I've watched the movie again on DVD, and my opinion is less harsh.
If you take the point of view that this isn't a Modesty Blaise movie, but a Joseph Losey movie, then it isn't all that bad. Joseph Losey (the director) did have a specific idea of what kind of (campy) movie he wanted to make, and by gum, he did make it.
"Modesty Blaise" (the movie) lasts all of two hours, and the style is consistent and sure. Everyone acts consistently silly, the plot is silly, the action is silly and even the theme song (although catchy) is silly. So if you're in the mood for a silly, campy movie, you've come to the right place.
In fact, if I was a fan of campy movies then I might be giving this movie four or five stars. But I'm not, so I'll leave it at three stars. But it does deserve that simply for the consistent weirdness and for the song "Ice is Nice", sung by Bob Breen. (There's actually a sound track CD available!)
Incidentally, there is no extra material on the DVD, although it does include sound tracks in English, French and Spanish.
Over the years there was often talk of a new Modesty movie, and finally in 2003 "My Name is Modesty" was made and released directly to DVD. Comparing this movie with "My Name is Modesty" (which I also give three stars) I can say that the big difference is in the intention.
"Modesty Blaise" (the movie) was not intended to be a true Modesty movie, so it fails if that is what one is looking for. But it succeeds fairly well in what it was attempting to be, namely a campy movie.
"My Name is Modesty", on the other hand, really was trying to be a true Modesty movie, so it simply fails.
We true blue Modesty fans are still waiting for a good Modesty movie.
Rennie Petersen
Movie Review: Not Even a Touch of Modesty
Summary: 3 Stars
Were it not for the success of Austin Powers, Modesty Blaise would almost certainly never have been released on DVD. People buying it expecting something like Mike Meyers's film will either be disappointed or pleasantly surprised, depending on taste. Both films are parodies of spy movies, but that's about where the similarities end. Powers is star-centered low comedy; Modesty is a humorless director's vision of cartoon action. The film is genuinely funny, but in a way that may not be everyone's cup of tea. As just one of the more over the top examples, a joke late in the film depends on Dirk Bogarde's reaction to a strangled body hanging limply behind him. The moment *is* funny, but I suspect that more than a few viewers will find it anything but. The pace too is leisurely, not at all in the fist-in-the-face mode of even the early Bonds, much less more recent films in the series. In other words, expect neither childish jokes à la Powers nor fast-paced action à la Bond.
Instead, there is a lot of what pretentious critics call the "gestural," which might best be described as mannerisms so showy that even academics notice. There isn't an ounce of subtlety in any of it, which seems to be the point. From Losey's overly elaborate camerawork (take a moment to figure out how the shot in the credit sequence was taken without the camera crew becoming pretzels, for example), to Richard Macdonald's eye-popping Op Art inspired production design, to Dirk Bogarde's camped up Gabriel, everyone seems to be trying to out-outrage one another.
If you are familiar with Losey's more serious work, this loud declaiming might seem out of character, but the results are as obscure and opaque as his collaborations with Harold Pinter. Still, if you normally enjoy his films, you will probably get a kick out of seeing Losey's claustrophobia turned inside out and made into a joke.