Peter Falk

This documentary focuses on the person and the films of one of Germany’s premiere post-war filmmakers, Wim Wenders. Wenders is a lifelong fan of American pop culture, particularly its rock music and B-movies, and his highly personalized filmmaking style is deeply influenced by both of these. He is best known for films featuring drifters and the lure of the open road and open spaces. The documentary features interviews with actors like Dennis Hopper, filmmakers (cinematographer Robby Muller) and rock musicians (e.g., Ry Cooder) and others who have worked with him over the years, as well as interviews with the director himself, who is well aware of his cinematic gifts and limitations.Read More »

Quote:
Peter Falk and Alan Arkin make for a hilarious dream team in this beloved American sidesplitter. Directed by Arthur Hiller from an ingenious script by Andrew Bergman, The In-Laws may at first seem like a generic meet-the-parents comedy, as Arkin’s mild-mannered dentist suspiciously eyes Falk’s volatile mystery man, whose son is engaged to his daughter. But soon, through a series of events too serpentine and surprising to spoil, the two men are brought together by a dangerous mission that takes them from suburban New Jersey to Honduras. Fueled by elaborate stunt work and the laconic, naturalistic charms of its two stars, The In-Laws deserves its status as a madcap classic—and has continued to draw ardent fans in the years since its release.Read More »

Quote:
A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE is a love story of a troubled marriage between a working class man, Nick (played movingly by Peter Falk), and his wife Mabel (played with brilliant attention to emotional nuance by Gena Rowlands). Mabel appears to be experiencing a breakdown, though there is not much difference between her normal and abnormal behaviour. The film explores the impact of her fragility, neediness, and shifts of feeling on Nick, their three children, relatives, and friends.Read More »

Synopsis:
Frustrated by his inability to help an African-American patient who hates whites, a psychiatrist (Peter Falk) asks his superior (Sidney Poitier) to release him from the case. The superior relates a case from his own past during World War II when he treated a young Nazi (Bobby Darin) who despised blacks. Explaining the tragic results of the case, the older psychiatrist encourages his younger colleague not to be swayed by the patient’s attitude, to remain objective and to stick with his treatment.Read More »

The Brink’s Job tells the real-life story of a group of small-time, working-class robbers in Boston, who came together and pulled off the largest robbery in US history, taking the Brink’s security company for $2.8 million in 1950. Peter Falk plays the ringleader. He tells his wife (Gena Rowlands): “All that money is in there, and it’s being held prisoner, it’s just screaming to me through the walls… Well I’m going in there, and I’m gonna get it out.” The film follows the group’s task (and their environment, and their pursuers) with an eye to the pragmatic, but it’s not so procedural (in the sense of Friedkin’s earlier Sorcerer or French Connection) as to hamper the movie’s broad purpose: reanimating an old news headline, into a fun sort of ensemble heist folktale.Read More »

Quote:
In Philadelphia, a small-time bookie who stole mob money is in hiding and he begs a childhood friend to help him evade the hit-man who’s on his trail.Read More »