Atlantic City, directed by French film director Louis Malle, wonderfully avoids any moral judgements in its portrayal of the emotionally injured characters featured within its narrative. It contains some delightful performances from its cast, which includes Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon, and is a poetic tale with many allegorical connotations and perversities, sensitivities and parodies. It won the Golden Lion at the 37th Venice International Film Festival and was shot in and around the vibrant backdrop of Atlantic City, with the location providing some symbolic metaphors of its own.
Reviews of Atlantic City 1980
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”Buddy, you live too much in the past.”
“Yeah, but those were the days.”Tonight was my second viewing and the easy going vibe is growing on me. It reminds me a lot of Robert Altman. You’ve got Sarandon and Lancaster in Oscar nominated roles with some fantastic dialogue. The story keeps things spinning nicely, so that you’re never quite sure where it’s going, and call me crazy, but I prefer the elder Lancaster compared to his younger self.
There’s…
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Ageing small-time mobster Lou Pascal (Burt Lancaster) and aspiring blackjack dealer Sally Matthews (Susan Sarandon) become caught up in a plan that could endanger both of them, in Louis Malle’s romantic crime drama co-starring Kate Reid, Michel Piccoli and Robert Joy.
This marked a resurgence in Lancaster’s career, and he gives one of his best performances here, imbuing Lou with a charm that works in parallel with his questionable behaviour, showing a man out of his time looking for one…
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Ah, losers. My people.
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Gripping fiction. Burt Lancaster in perhaps the greatest old man looks back and regrets his life role, of course, he gets one last chance to do something about that. Lancaster is Lou Pascal, a small time bookie and numbers runner who used to be a gangster; he once shared a prison cell with Bugsy Siegel. As habit, Louis is a voyeur on a bathing beauty Sally (Susan Sarandon, showing breasts and being carnal perfection). For extra money Louis regularly tends…
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I'm not sure that Louis Malle is talked about as often as he should for he has only made a name for himself as one of the most unique cinematic experimenters of his own time: and here's where I pull up a rarely discussed effort of the sort despite a considerable amount of acclaim it has received. Atlantic City, Louis Malle's tribute to the death of the gangster genre, is a film that lives and breathes within the monotony and…
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"I've got fingerprints."
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When life gives you lemons...
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No filmmaker fascinates me quite as much as Louis Malle -- in terms of range in style and storytelling. This French/Canadian production from the French director, shot on location in Atlantic City, reeks of America in all its decay and decadence. It reeks of money, too, and cheapness... And dreams rotting away. But there's always a veneer of optimism. Meanwhile, Malle can't help his European sensibilities seeping out... Read my blurb for BK Mag here.
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As seedy and dripping in neon-soaked artificiality as the title suggests, but director Louis Malle illuminates the shady goings on by imbuing his crime thriller with a tender, glowing touch of warm humanity.
And Old Man Lancaster is just great. I always find a bittersweet charm in watching actors I have a fondness for get old. They’re slower, a little more rough around the edges, and no longer in their physical peak. But this is usually traded in for an extra dose of wisdom and vulnerability; A certain brand of homely believability and movie-goer trust that you can only hope to earn as a veteran actor.
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Me: *rolls my eyes at them having 34-year-old Susan Sarandon fuck 67-year-old Burt Lancaster*
Also me: *is 34 and would fuck 67-year-old Burt Lancaster IN A SECOND* -
Stodgy and dull. Or maybe the crumbling casinos represent the characters' lives: no amount of repair or redecoration can fix the broken foundations, the only recourse is to demolish what is there and start over and build something stronger. *yawns*
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