I ended up watching The Day of the Jackal (1973), Fred Zinneman's film of the Frederick Forsyth book. Now, I'm not sure how accurate this is, but when I first saw the film as a kid, my dad told me that Forsyth, broke and unsure what to do next in his life as a foreign correspondent, ended up living with a friend for three weeks and spent the time typing up the manuscript for The Day of the Jackal, which went on to huge success. This is a great film. It has a documentary feel and is a thriller of the first order.
The star for me, as much as I love Edward Fox, is Michel Lonsdale. Or is it Michael Lonsdale? I never know as he is perfectly bilingual and plays either French or English wonderfully. He crops up in the most delightful places... not difficult when you see on www.imdb.com that he has made 197 films. That's huge! After Day of the Jackal, I think I must have next seen him as the enigmatic Hugo Drax in Moonraker (1979). And the last time I saw him was at the Toronto International Film Festival in Gentille (2005), which - if you can find it at your more esoteric video stores, is really worth catching. Very French and very charming.
After Day of the Jackal, TCM was showing Three Days of the Condor. But it was really Night of the Cat as Tibbles and I spent some much-needed time together. I have worked late so often this week that I think he feels a bit neglected. Poor old moggie.
2 comments:
You were not alone...I was also watching Day of the Jackal. I think I may have seen it years ago on HBO in the horrible standard version on my little '80s tv. I loved it last night in the wonderful letterbox edition on TCM. Edward Fox is great...like his brother, too. Handsome and talented duo. Derek Jacobi was so young! And the cars were absolutely fab!!
Michael Lonsdale did make the film. He is perfect with his "too tight shoes" as Dupont D'Ivry in The Remains of the Day.
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