Bay of Angels is a 1963 French film directed by Jacques Demy. Claude Mann ( Jean ) and Jeanne Moreau ( Jacqueline ) are the main actors.
The Main Story
Bay of Angels delves into the minds of gamblers where not only does a romance develop between two people but a deeply rooted romance for a Roulette wheel. The narrative revolves around gambling which also becomes this gambling movies central theme.
Jean, a young bank clerk, becomes addicted to gambling through a co-worker. He decides to vacation in the South of France, where he meets and falls in love with Jacqueline. Jacqueline is a manipulative, selfish, vulgar woman but at the same time somewhat charming and if given a chance would sell her own if it meant she could have another shot at the Roulette table.
On the other hand, Jean is dour and humourless and sometimes resorts to violence when he fears losing Jacqueline’s. Jacqueline was previously married and told Jean this. From the conversation, it is evident she isn’t wife mother or lover material. Instead, her ears and heart are attuned to the shuffling of cards, clinking of chips and the spinning of the Roulette Wheel. She’s wildly in love and obsessed with gambling and will stake everything. In contrast, Jean enjoys the casino but knows when to walk away because unlike Jacqueline, money is not his disease. His love for her is that she will one day embrace him as she does the Roulette ball.
The Ending
Bay of Angels ending is unusual coming as an improbably diamond bow. Jacqueline rebuffs Jean whilst sitting at the Roulette table, and he leaves the casino. She notices that he has left and runs out after him, an ironic turn of events. They embrace and walk away hand in hand, making one believe she had turned her back on gambling for love, a tad unbelievable especially from a woman who felt no remorse when she abandoned her son for gambling.
Casino Royale is the 21st James Bond film produced by Eon Productions, which makes all of the Bond movies. It was directed by Ian Campbell and starred Daniel Craig as the fictional MI16 agent James Bond. This version of Casino Royale is the 2006 version, but a previous version was released in 1967.
The Main Story
Bond is back in this excellent gambling movie Casino Royale which was released in November 2006. In Casino Royale Bond embarks on a mission to prevent a mob banker, Le Chiffre from winning a high stakes poker game.
Daniel Craig is Bond and the famous actress Judy Dench is “M.” In Casino Royale Bond is at the beginning stages of his career as 007 and earning his license to kill. This mission is at the Casino Royale in Montenegro. Here he meets Vesper Lynd, a treasury employee assigned to provide him with the $10 million he needs to enter the high stakes Texas Hold ’em Poker Game.
Initially Bond gains the upper hand during the game deducing Le Chiffre’s “tell”, but the table turns when Le Chiffre gets a tip-off on Bonds tell. The plot unravels with kidnappings, murder and betrayal. All in a day’s work as a British secret Agent with $10 million in stake money to protect.
The Ending
Bond wins the game against Le Chiffre. Vesper gets captured, and Bond goes after her but has an accident and wakes up in the hospital. Bond resigns and plans to leave with Vesper, but she takes the money out of the account.
In the end, Vesper drowns in an elevator while Bond tries to rescue her. One of the baddies, Mr White, escapes with the money. Bond finds him, shoots him in the leg and introduces himself “…. Bond. James Bond.”
Funny Man is a 1994 British comedy-horror film written and directed by Simon Sprackling. It stars Christopher Lee, Benny Young, Tim James and Pauline Black.
It is an unusual British gambling movie with an element of comedy and horror in it, and it’s a gem in its own right. It’s the Joker in the pack and a tongue in cheek cult movie where payback is one of the main plots.
The Main Story
An obnoxious record producer Max Taylor (Benny Young) wins a haunted house from a mysterious man (Christopher Lee) in a high stakes poker game. Little does he know what awaits him in his new acquisition. Upon moving his family into this spacious mansion equipped with a peculiar house guest, he spins what they call the Wheel of Chance. The wheel of chance is split into four sections. Two sections have “Win” on them, and the other two sections have “Lose” on them. Max spins the wheel, and it lands on the Lose section, which awakens a demon Jester that lives in the soil of the ancestral home.
The Jester is a hideously deformed jester known as THE Funny Man ( Tim James ) with an affinity to horrible puns and demented Monty Python style violence. He goes on a murderous rampage killing Max’s family starting with his wife and children.
After the wife’s killing, he changes his voice to sound like the son luring the wife to her death as he drags the child’s body away telling the audience it’s always good to put the little ones down first. This is the kind of sick humour reflected throughout the movie. However, the film was enjoyable to some, as it received a nomination in 1995 for the International Fantasy Best Film Award.
The Ending
The film ends with Funny Man turning to the cameras and saying “No rest for the wicked.”
