Movielogr

Rating: 10 stars

Tags

kino lorber cia terrorism ira double cross shootout car chase France

All movies seen on 11/24/2023

View on: IMDb | TMDb

Ronin (1998)

Directed by John Frankenheimer

Action | Crime | Thriller

Overview

A briefcase with undisclosed contents – sought by Irish terrorists and the Russian mob – makes its way into criminals’ hands. An Irish liaison assembles a squad of mercenaries, or ‘ronin’, and gives them the thorny task of recovering the case.

Rated R | Length 122 minutes

Actors

Robert De Niro | Jean Reno | Natascha McElhone | Stellan Skarsgård | Skipp Sudduth | Jonathan Pryce | Sean Bean | Michael Lonsdale | Féodor Atkine | Katarina Witt | Ron Perkins | Daniel Breton | Amidou | Jan Tříska | Bernard Bloch | Léopoldine Serre | Dominic Gugliametti | Alan Beckworth | Tolsty | Gérard Moulévrier | Lionel Vitrant | Vincent Schmitt | Julia Maraval | Laurent Spielvogel | Steve Suissa | Katia Tchenko | Dyna Gauzy | Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux | Dimitrij Rafalský | Gérard Touratier | Christophe Maratier | Pierre Forest | Henry Moati | Cyril Prentout | Vladimir Tchernine | Amanda Spencer | Frédéric Schmalzbauer | Lou Maraval | Nader Boussandel | Hélène Cardona | Lee Delong | Norbert Ferrer | Veronique Blanc Meyere | Christine Musset

Viewing History (seen 8 times)

Viewing Notes

Finally cracked open the 4K from Kino Lorber (I also have the BD release from Arrow). I haven’t watched the Arrow release recently enough to compare, but the audio on this disc sounded really good. I’ll have to compare specs to see if its different or not.

This go around I was really paying attention to Frankenheimer’s shot/reverse shot composition when characters are talking, especially in the opening bar scene. They are fucking masterful and often include other characters centered in between the two main characters or off to one side. He often composes a shot consisting of an extreme closeup and a second character on the same side of the screen, visible and just at the edge of the focus range. He makes great use of the widescreen space and character placement to build tension between characters. So damn good.

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