My 2024 Watchlist Obsession!

[PHOENIX74]

You know what? I'm not going to waffle on. This thread is pretty self-explanatory - I want to start catching up on my watchlist, so that the number of films on it goes down instead of creeping up. I start with a nice even total of 450 films on it - and I want to go through it from the earliest added onwards, otherwise there will be a group of films deep down that never get watched.

I've been planning this for a couple of months now, and was going to start on January 1st - but I'm done waiting and will award myself a couple of bonus days to finish off 2023. I have to have a firm target, so that when 2024 ends I've caught up some. I'll say, 150 movies plus however many additions there are in 2024.


TARGET : 300


The earliest film that ever went into my Letterboxd watchlist was Out of the Past (1947), directed by Jacques Tourneur - but coincidentally, that film came up on the last Hall of Fame I was involved with, so I've already watched and reviewed it. That was film 451, giving me a neat, round figure.

https://i.postimg.cc/fLtStrqG/out-of-the-past.jpg

Out of the Past review (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2426779#post2426779) - 450 films left.

So - here we go. The next film up on the list is Targets (1968)

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/YCr5rKhC/targets12.webp

TARGETS (1968)

Directed by : Peter Bogdanovich

I watched this film along with Nitram yesterday, making for a themed double feature - a mass shooting one. The killing in Targets is fictional, but inspired by the Tower shooting at the University of Texas in 1966, perpetrated by Charles Whitman, whose shadow looms over this film ominously. It's Peter Bogdanovich's first ever feature film - done with a low budget and produced by Roger Corman. The great thing it does is connect this new modern monster with the frightening visions of old by including Boris Karloff as pretty much himself (in the movie his name is Byron Orlok) and even including footage of real film The Terror, featuring Karloff as this film's 'movie within a movie' - Orlok's new feature. Most notably, that movie features Jack Nicholson, giving me a "oh my God, is that Jack Nicholson?" moment. It also includes a brief snipped of 1931 Howard Hawks movie The Criminal Code, which also features Karloff. Half of the film is devoted to a storyline with actor Orlok, and screenwriter/director Sammy Michaels (Peter Bogdanovich himself), prior to a promotional appearance the actor is to make after his new movie, and the other half deals with the killer - a fairly normal, quiet, nondescript man called Bobby Thompson (Tim O'Kelly) who is planning a killing spree.

The film itself keeps everything simple and straightforward, and that adds to the creepy sense of how these events warped the very reality of 1960s America. The way Thompson just continues his life as if nothing at all is wrong, while at the same time obviously harboring the desire to kill strangers and end his own life, is beyond our reckoning. In the meantime the man who plays monsters in movies notes how scary he finds this new breed of menace. Of course, the two are on a collision course, because one of the places Thompson plans to take out a great number of people is at a drive-in Orlok is due to make his appearance at. Visually, all of this is pretty unsparing as we follow on with Thompon's POV through the scope of his rifles, seeing what he sees. While there is a sense of prescience considering what we go through in today's society every year, I can't shake that feeling of how foreign it still was back when this was made - the shockwaves still felt from Whitman's crimes. The film flopped at the box office (it was marketed as an "anti-guns" feature, alienating some) but has lived on, and kick-started Bogdanovich's career regardless.

I thought Targets was a perfect example of what's achievable when a talented and hungry filmmaker has to work with a very limiting budget. Bogdanovich would follow this up with The Last Picture Show, which proves the kind of form he was in. I was really impressed and enjoyed it, considering that it was unnerving all the same. At 90 minutes it falls way short of overstaying it's welcome. Jaws editor Verna Fields worked on it (in the sound department) and I was happy to see László Kovács as cinematographer (he was director of photography on films such as Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces along with a few other Bogdanovich films.) Although the "monster" in Targets represents something really scary, one of the reasons they do what they do is because of how inconsequential they feel, and how scary they're not, in person. Targets presents this as an immediate reaction to something we didn't know yet - that this was only the beginning, and half a century later the problem would become an ever-present and painful part of our lives.

Glad to catch this one - Criterion #1179 and in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

4

Watchlist Count : 449 (-1)

Next : The Housemaid (1960)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Targets

https://i.postimg.cc/mkN3GPvr/targets.jpg

[Takoma11]

I've also been wanting to chip away at my watchlists (I have three of them: one at JustWatch, one on the IMDb, and a hand-written list somewhere).

My problem has been that I've watched all the fun stuff, so the majority of the films on my list have plot summaries that start like "After the tragic death of her . . . " or "In this harrowing tale . . .".

So I'm cheering you on! After I finish Jabs 2024 Film Challenge, I want to start on my watchlists.

[Mr Minio]

450? Rookie numbers

[SpelingError]

450? Rookie numbers
What are your numbers?

[Mr Minio]

What are your numbers? 3,423 on Letterboxd

2,017 on RYM

[Captain Terror]

I want to start catching up on my watchlist, so that the number of films on it goes down instead of creeping up.


and I want to go through it from the earliest added onwards, otherwise there will be a group of films deep down that never get watched.
I often choose a movie to watch for the sole reason that it's been on my list longer than anything else and I'm tired of it being there. Which is exactly the right frame of mind to interact with art, I think. 🙂


I approve of this thread is what I'm saying, and I will vicariously enjoy the pruning of your list.

[SpelingError]

3,423 on Letterboxd

2,017 on RYM
Mark f would've been proud.

I'm only at 551. I've seen approximately the same amount in short films though.

[PHOENIX74]

3,423 on Letterboxd

2,017 on RYM

One a day will get you there in 15 years time.

[Mr Minio]

One a day will get you there in 15 years time. Challenge accepted. :D

[Wooley]

This is a great idea and a great thread idea. I am with you.



Incidentally, I was going to do the same - without the thread though - starting on November 1st - and since then I have watched... *checks notes... zero films from my watchlists.
(In fact, I think I may have watched zero films period since Halloween!)

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/tT8Vs4n6/housemaid.jpg

THE HOUSEMAID (1960)

Directed by : Kim Ki-young

So, this was a good time to get a book on Korean cinema - the one I was gifted had a whole chapter devoted to The Housemaid in it, although I must say nothing beats simply watching this thing. Adultery has never, ever looked this crazy - and I was never quite sure how this figured in relation to Korea, either culturally or artistically. The handsome Mr. Dong-sik Kim (Kim Jin-kyu) gives piano lessons and leads a choir group at a factory, and there is a never-ending conga line of ladies throwing themselves at him. He's happily married, and his wife is having their third child - but the intrusion of a newly hired maid unleashes an unusual kind of living hell for everyone. The Housemaid is kind of like Fatal Attraction - only if Glenn Close's bunny-boiling Alex character had of just moved in with the Gallagher family. When the characters make a big deal out of the rat poison early on in this film, you'll know it's going to come into play later - but not how much. This movie became so much more than melodrama when people started tumbling down staircases, and poison starts being passed around.

Something I especially enjoyed was the fact that it's director, Kim Ki-young (now revered by the new young modern masters of Korean cinema) adds so many avant-garde touches to the way this is filmed - fetching tracking shots along the home's second floor as we voyeuristically watch vixen housemaid Myung-sook (Lee Eun-shim) hide around corners and slyly slip in and out of situations. Or the fact that when Myung-sook succeeds in seducing Dong-sik Kim lightning hits the tree outside, which then bursts into flames. This film never lets the flames die out - and is never, ever boring - but I found the characters behaved in inexplicable ways. Like I said, I could never quite discern if this was a cultural thing, or part of a very strange story. There are times when you expect the status quo to disintegrate - but being revealed, and even murdering someone, does little to change the dynamic of this family's situation. Myung-sook's determination makes her the ultimate immoveable object, and the Kim family undergoes convulsive upheaval.

So, I learned a lot about early Korean cinema - and that fact that most films up to 1960 are now lost because old film stock was used and recycled. It took a while to even get a full version of The Housemaid, but by 1997 a few missing portions had been fixed up and reintegrated into a film which Kim Ki-young had subsequently made two more versions of - in 1971 (Fire Woman) and 1982 (Fire Woman '82). Full of raging passions, melodrama, great film technique and pulsating score - it's the kind of over the top that explores adultery from a cultural perspective that's extremely interesting. I don't think Lee Eun-shim did much else, but she's a sultry and desperately sad figure I won't forget too soon as the titular housemaid. I can hardly believe this film was nearly lost to us, and that there are many other Kim Ki-young films that have been lost. Brought to Criterion as part of the Martin Scorsese World Cinema Project, it's a fiery taste of the Korean cinematic world that birthed the likes of Bong Joon-ho - I found it electrifyingly crazy and great movie-making of the highest order.

Glad to catch this one - Criterion #690 and also in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/VkcLZHCX/housemaid2.jpg

The good news? I watched an incidental movie that was on my watchlist :

https://i.postimg.cc/0yXCxm05/pearl.jpg

Mentioned here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2429865#post2429865), and reviewed here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2429876#post2429876).

The bad? A few more additions to my watchlist has me right where I started. Oh well, I guess that's better than being over where I started.

Watchlist Count : 450

Next : King and the Clown (2005)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Housemaid

[ScarletLion]

the majority of the films on my list have plot summaries that start like "After the tragic death of her . . . " or "In this harrowing tale . . .".



Those are the best ones.

[Jabs]

I approve of this thread is what I'm saying, and I will vicariously enjoy the pruning of your list.
This. Good luck with that.


I've been hoping to do the same but I keep adding things to my watchlist and it's been sitting at a little over 2k for a long time.

[Takoma11]

Those are the best ones.

Perhaps, but I need some lighthearted space between tragedies and harrowing tales.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/j5BTY7JB/king-and-the-clown.jpg

THE KING AND THE CLOWN (2005)

Directed by : Joon-ik Lee

If mowing through my watchlist turns out how the first three films did in general, I'll be very glad I undertook this venture. It figures though - I'm watching the movies that caught my eye as definite "I have to watch this" entries. The King and the Clown was surprisingly brilliant, and I loved it. Another South Korean film - a nation that has a special pedigree now, with so many great filmmakers flooding the international scene with great films. Director Lee Joon-ik is known primarily for this one, but has a strong resume backing him up (two of his other films have gone onto my watchlist - this is going to be a battle!) This is a historical film - set in the late 15th Century, during the reign of one of the most tyrannical kings of Korea (of which he formed part of an unbroken line of kings which stretch out 500 years in time.) The characters we're introduced to initially though, are a couple of street clowns - Jang-saeng (Kam Woo-sung) and the feminine Gong-gil (Lee Joon-gi), who usually plays the part of women in the various situations they act out.

So - I wish to give nothing of importance away - they (and a bunch of other performers) obviously come into contact with the notorious king. It's a situation fraught with danger (they at first stake their lives on making him laugh - and suffer a moment of terrifying stage fright) and one that will eventually be steeped with intrigue. I was so impressed with actor Jung Jin-young as King Yeonsan - a complex mix of stunted emotional growth and rage. His child-like joy with the performers, and tension-filled attempts to join in on their comedy acts, are pitch perfect in body and voice. Kam Woo-sung and Lee Joon-gi also get everything just right, the former charismatic, and latter delicate and filled with barely concealed emotion. Everyone who lives within the king's orbit has the ever-present strain of knowing he can order them executed for any perceived infraction - and the troupe of comedians win no friends at all amongst those at court. There is one though, that guides the performers in the hope they can open the king's eyes to the corruption in the palace.

There was something of everything for me in The King and the Clown - it has it's very funny moments, and it's hard not to laugh along with the various audiences who watch the shows these performers put on - a blend of acrobatics, comedy and theater. The costumes are of course something else - a very pleasing visual presentation of life in 15th Century Korea. This was adapted from a stage play called "Yi", and the story never let me out of it's grip for a moment - some films make you forget about everything else until they eventually end, and this one was one of those. I also usually enjoy "I Claudius" kinds of royal conspiracy and machination - and there was plenty of that as well. This film was huge in South Korea during 2005 - and I'm going to do my best to make sure anybody who doesn't know about it gets to know about it. At first I was neither looking forward to watching it nor dreading it - I didn't see fun from a first glance. But The King and the Clown is more than fun. It's fairy tale mixed with history and unique South Korean cinematic sensibility. That's a concoction that'll always go on my watchlist.


Glad to catch this one - South Korea's official submission for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/XJqMxGWG/ka-nd-the-c.jpg


Watchlist Count : 451 (+1)

Next : Mad God (2021)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The King and the Clown

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/zfFrfZyC/mad-god.jpg

MAD GOD (2021)

Directed by : Phil Tippett

I marvel at what I can hardly describe. A stop-motion "world" - or perhaps "hell" would be a more accurate description, although I doubt hell would be this much fun to watch. Phil Tippet's project - which had it's genesis 30 years ago and finally came to fruition thanks to the likes of Kickstarter (for shame, but thank goodness) - was worth the wait. A maelstrom of monsters and creatures fallen prey to the likes of mad scientists, sadistic madmen and a dimension full of fire and fury. This world has all of the bad, and none of the good - but is a pure joy to watch. At one stage the character we follow through the first portion of this film steps on a trio of bickering tiny gnome-like creatures (was one of them Santa Claus?) which manages to ease much building apprehension. This isn't misery porn - it's a celebration of pure invention and wonderful creative spirit. It's stop-motion at it's very best, and while dark there's no malice or ill-will involved here. There seems to be a natural order to this very unnatural place.

So, is there a story? Not quite. There's a progression, for sure, but this film is too surreal to describe in any narrative sense. There's as much sense to things as your imagination provides, even for the journey of the redoubtable "assassin" who makes his way through the dangerous levels of this ultimate dystopia. What I loved were the monsters themselves, created by hand and brought to life through stop-motion. The imagination here is on an inspired level, and it's not only what the monsters look like, but what they do and the way they do it - which is invariably horrible, and earns the film's tag as horror. What they do and what we see isn't always logical, but purely surreal and adds to the psychological impact of the place as a whole. There's so much here as well - Mad God is another one of those films I'm going to have to see multiple times, and I'm very much enthused about that.

I can remember reading about Mad God now, when it first came out - and that just goes to show how valuable a watchlist is for keeping in touch with films you hear about and grab your attention. If not for it being on my list, it would have never come up again in my mind - and that would have been a real shame. A subconscious trawl through a dreamscape featuring war, torture, experimentation and one which makes references to God's warning of fire, brimstone and vengeance in Leviticus, you'll find a panacea encoded in our universe's natural tendency for regeneration and creation. It's the driving force of everything (just think of Darren Aronofsky's Mother!) Around the time Phil Tippett won an Oscar for his effects work on Jurassic Park, he figured the days of stop-motion were long over. If this is a clue, it might be around for quite a while yet - there's no surprise to learn that I like it more than CGI.

Glad to catch this one - available to anyone who's currently subscribing to Shudder!

4

https://i.postimg.cc/zD7VnkrF/mad-god2.jpg


Watchlist Count : 450

Next : Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Mad God

[SpelingError]

Mad God is really good.

[Takoma11]

Next : Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

How bizarre! I was just thinking about this film last night and for the life of me I could not come up with the title!

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.

[hacxx]

Not waiting for any good movie in 2024. I always keep a look in TorrentFreak list of movie.
https://torrentfreak.com/

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/xdrJ1bmX/funeral-parade.jpg

FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (1969)

Directed by : Toshio Matsumoto

I became aware of Toshio Matsumoto when I first watched Shura (known variously as Demons, Pandemonium or The Pandemonium), looked him up, and discovered the odd fact that he only ever made 4 feature films. Shura (1971) was fantastic, but the film he's really known for is Funeral Parade of Roses - his 1969 avant-garde experimental movie examining the transgender underground scene in Tokyo. To be fair, I must mention the fact that he made many short films in his lifetime and his artistic output was varied - but that doesn't mean his features aren't some of the best films of all time. I had no idea that I'd be wrestling with something so profound and free-spirited when I started this, although I'd already figured that it'd be something very original and different. At times I was thinking about Alain Resnais film Hiroshima Mon Amour, mainly because of the lyrical, fragmentary way everything comes to us in Roses - where you have to open yourself up to the process and trust that you're feeling what Matsumoto wants you to feel.

Eddie (Shinnosuke Ikehata, aka Peter) is the transvestite protagonist whose life we'll get to know very well in piecemeal fashion throughout Funeral Parade of Roses - sleeping with drug dealer Gonda (Yoshio Tsuchiya) and meshing with fellow transvestites, the protest scene in Tokyo, a gay bar, art exhibits, a group of filmmakers and life in general. As we see scenes from a kaleidoscopic timeline, the film also steps outside of itself to interview various characters and people in straight documentary fashion - or else it will do something completely out of the blue that reshapes what we've been watching into something new, or in a way that spins us around a dozen or so times, making us dizzy and purposely stirring up the water. For example - a visit to an art gallery has a speaker speaking to an audience (us) directly about the way we all wear masks on top of masks in social situations and the various guises these masks come in. As Eddie examines some of the hideous paintings in the gallery, we see that the speaker is really a tape player, and various ghostly sillhoettes haunt the room. Eddie had run to this place as refuge, and now we're pulsating to some kind of murderous flashback as the score pounds, paintings swirl.

I don't know if it's possible for a person to get all of Funeral Parade of Roses the first time through it, but after a familiarization it opens up to the viewer who might be at first confounded by the film. It's certainly far greater and more assured than I expected. Matsumoto's feature debut seems to be coming from someone who might have been directing features for a lifetime. It uses so many different styles, techniques and ways of communicating ideas that it was a little overwhelming at first. Documentary realism slowly morphs into completely stylized avant-garde experimentation and back again - but always with great purpose and deliberately guided. I wondered throughout how acceptable being a transvestite was for someone living in late '60s Tokyo, and how progressive this was for a Japanese film in many ways. I have to admit that it's a pretty remarkable film all-up, and probably one of the best films I've seen this year (on 2023's second-last day.) Not bad considering Shura was also pretty great. My watchlist viewing schedule has opened with a parade of outstanding features.

Glad to catch this one - #143 on the Letterboxd Top 250 films!

5

https://i.postimg.cc/T3VSMy5J/parade.jpg


Watchlist Count : 449 (-1)

Next : Scum (1979)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Funeral Parade of Roses

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/wMnMHSx1/scum-br01.jpg

SCUM (1979)

Directed by : Alan Clarke

I feel like I've seen many films like Scum over the years - although the specific institution up for examination here is the average British borstal. A troubled kid would do something wrong, go in this place, and come out a hardened young criminal - there was no reforming done here. Just brutalization. The average citizen would never see what went on there - and as such the BBC's Play for Today program was going to air what director Alan Clarke and scribe Roy Minton put together. It ended up being too much - and was never televised, so the pair had to remake the whole thing (this time with a free hand, so they could show anything they wanted.) Graphic depictions of suicide, rape and violence were rare for British films of that time, but the system was rotten enough to really need exposing. The kids would brutalize the guards, and the guards the kids - and even in the 20th Century there was a kind of medieval feel to the whole place. What gets me most is the cruel attitude most of those in charge have - with absolutely no interest in turning the lives of these boys around.

If you didn't know that the boy called Carlin in this is played by Ray Winstone, you wouldn't guess it. At some stage of his life, Winstone's older gruff look transformed what was once a fresh, smooth-faced kid (closest to us above.) The performances in this - yeah, they're okay. There's only a lot demanded from the kids who lose it in the end. Poor Davis (Julian Firth) and a few others. The institution is racist from the top to the bottom, so darker skinned kids get abuse from both the warders and the white kids. Lord help you then if you're not white. The nature of these indemic faults in the system are apparent in one of the scenes I found to be funny - the 'physical education' or sports scene where the kids are playing some kind of game (it's so out of control it might be basketball or rugby - I couldn't tell) and just start attacking each other and hurting each other with the single aim of winning the ball, ending up in one big scrum. But most of all it's just hate, hate, hate. The warders make no beef about tearing these kids apart psychologically - any way they can.

The worst of it comes during a rape scene that one of the warders witnesses, and then just watches on without doing anything. He even has a slight smirk on his face. Often, when a kid is beat up badly he's the one who is punished, because his bruised, bleeding face proves that he was "fighting" - so you can be assaulted, and then punished after it. That puts the whole system into a nutshell - there's no justice, and no good work being done. Some of these kids can be turned away from criminality, but they're never given the chance, or a second thought. You'd expect to see this in 18th Century Britain, but not in the 1970s - and as such while I hear about reform, I really hope there actually has been some concrete steps taken reform-wise. The film itself is okay. Important even. Although both Ken Loach and Mike Leigh were already working around this time, I'd like to think it's realism influenced the kind of work they went on to do in their careers. Films with a social conscience. Films about reality. Films that help usher in long overdue change.


Glad to catch this one - 7.6/10 from 13k votes on the IMDb, which is a pretty decent rating.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/jSvF3NsF/scu.jpg


Watchlist Count : 448 (-2)

Next : Joint Security Area (2000)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Scum

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/XqqdCRGN/jsa.jpg

JOINT SECURITY AREA (2000)

Directed by : Park Chan-wook

When I watch my watchlist movies I tend to go in as blind as I can - I've already decided they're movies I really want to see, so there's no reason to screen each movie on the list. Going that route on Joint Security Area, I thought at first glance it looked a little like a mix between war and action. Then I saw who directed it, and went "woah!" Park Chan-wook? Oldboy? Decision to Leave? This wasn't going to be some random action movie. JSA is in fact part mystery, and part reflection on the division between North and South Korea. It starts after there's been an incident at the demarcation point between North and South. Apparently a South Korean soldier was kidnapped, and escaped after killing a couple of North Korean soldiers. The only problem is, everybody has a very different story to tell. Major Sophie E. Jean (Lee Young-ae) is brought in to investigate, and the truth behind this whole occurrence is both stranger and more surprising than anyone could ever have imagined.

This was another excellent movie on the list - it takes a sharp turn away from everything I thought it was going to be, and has at it's core a very touching, meaningful story that also made the whole film very interesting and thought-provoking. It also has some of my favourite South Korean actors in it. Song Kang-ho I'd just enjoyed in movies like Broker, and was also great in Parasite, Snowpiercer, The Host and many others. He must surely be the biggest star they have over there. All of the main players are great in this, and give really genuine traits to their various characters - their humanity rising above their roles as nameless, faceless troops guarding one of the most contentious borders in the world. I'm avoiding the plot - I think anyone who watches this deserves to go in without knowing exactly what happened. The other aspect to the film that really shines is the cinematography - guided by the very inventive eye of the director.

Yes, visually you see flourish after flourish - I think that's one of Park Chan-wook's trademarks, and was something I wasn't expecting in this kind of film (before I knew who made it.) Shots from every kind of angle, transitions that center on a certain shape, object or colour - along with revealing what's beautiful in the ordinary. So overall this was very satisfying - an exploration of what's beneath the uniform, and the tragedy of circumstance that the border between North and South Korea is. It's a rare case of both sides being particularly the same due to the fact that North was separated from South relatively recently. I saw soldiers on the film's poster and thought this would be a film where guns are blazing, and grenades flying through the air. There are brief moments that are explosive, but this movie is more about heart and humanity than war. More mystery than action. Park Chan-wook's first really great film, and his breakthrough. I highly recommend it.

Glad to catch this one - one of Quentin Tarantino's twenty favorite films since 1992.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/d1kqpFfT/jsa.jpg


Watchlist Count : 447 (-3)

Next : The Rescue (2021)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Joint Security Area

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/L6QRRkCL/rescue.webp

THE RESCUE (2021)

Directed by : Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin

I think nearly all of us watched on and remember the Tham Luang cave rescue in 2018. The seeming impossibility of a successful rescue was such that the cave divers called in from around the world were going to pack up and leave the 13 (12 kids and their soccer coach) in the cave. They were actually going to leave them. You only get a sense of what faced the rescuers when their trip through the cave system in Thailand is detailed step by step - and that's something The Rescue does very well. It maps the space out in 3 dimensions as these cave divers describe the difficulties that can be faced (and were faced) - difficulties I'd never be able to face. Claustrophobic, I'd panic even before I got into the water. The very idea of cave diving scares me - as does exploring cave systems where there's not much room to wriggle through elongated passages. If I stop and think about it for a moment, I feel the stress rising just through visualization. Getting stuck in a narrow passage deep down, and not being able to wriggle out, is pure horror - and I'd lose it.

Even though this event didn't happen all that long ago, there's already half a dozen documentaries and feature films made about it. Most notable is 2022 feature Thirteen Lives, which I actually saw before The Rescue. Which is better? I think The Rescue manages to make the whole process feel more tense, and much more connected to the real world without film stars such as Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Tom Bateman being shoved in our faces. I'm far too conscious of who I'm watching in that case, and can't immerse myself to the degree I'd ordinarily be able to do. Real footage of the drama also helps to a very great degree. There are details that don't fit easily into a scripted film - details that can much more easily be provided to an audience through the direct words of those involved. All of it combines to make this the preferred choice in my estimation, for bringing this specific story to us. The world's media descended on the place, and there's not much that wasn't recorded - and this doc also makes use of various news broadcasts.

So, a good documentary? Yes - a cut above the average one, and it seems Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have made a habit of making above average chronicles of the notable and interesting, along with directing feature film Nyad which came out recently. A husband and wife team making movies and doing so to some acclaim - sounds so nice. So, why were none of the boys interviewed? That was my first question, and the answer I hunted down pertains to Netflix scooping their stories up and signing them on to some kind of exclusivity. Kudos to this filmmaking pair for making a great film while being hamstrung like that. The footage they managed to procure from the Thai Navy Seals ended up helping a lot - and what they didn't have they recreated. Added to all of that, the pacing in this is absolutely perfect. Adds up to the best telling of an already oft-told story. In a competitive industry, Elizabeth and Jimmy came out on top with The Rescue I think.

Glad to catch this one - nominated for a BAFTA for Best Documentary 2022.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/ZYrf3YZs/rescue.jpg


Watchlist Count : 446 (-4)

Next : Blind (2014)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Joint Security Area

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/zvqWY4jC/blind.png

BLIND (2014)

Directed by : Eskil Vogt

Okay, so here we are with Eskil Vogt - the guy who wrote the screenplay to such films as The Worst Person in the World (and quite a few other significant Joachim Trier movies) along with writing and directing 2021 must-see The Innocents (which I've yet to see.) Blind was his directorial debut, and features Ingrid (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) - a writer who has recently become totally blind. We pretty much experience everything from the point of view of her mind - and that's not to say the screen is black or anything. It's her imagination that still fires away while her eyes fail to see what's in front of her. She sees in her dreams, and she spends much time visualizing objects. She keeps on getting the feeling that her husband is slipping into the apartment unannounced, and spying on her. Her psychological struggle is the frame through which we see everything. In other words, if we're watching her husband in the apartment, he's probably not actually there.

Ingrid introduces characters to this story free from any basis from which we can see how they relate to her. They are players who give voice to her anxieties, fears and live out in the world that she's completely retreated from. Her fear is understandable, and there are moments when you see Ingrid stumble around outside and nearly get cleaned up by a bus - which are moments that are probably part of her imagination as well. I'm slow to catch on, so as we watch these characters and situations I'm thinking, "Oookay, and this person/moment will become part of a narrative whole at some stage?" without realising what we're watching (until it's explicitly pointed out to me.) It's not all as straightforward as that, and I give the movie kudos for allowing everything time to breathe before we see everything cohere cleanly and neatly. What's important is how everything is skewed and coloured by Ingrid's psychological state.

How did I like it? There's a free easiness to Scandinavian films that's really different - whether it's sex, shyness, or a disability - there's no holding back, and an assured confidence. It's almost like I should make a psychological adjustment myself before watching one. As it is, Blind is the kind of film where I'm thinking "Okay. This is, okay" while watching it, but turning around and thinking, "That was really, really good!" when reflecting on the movie as a whole, after it's finished. This is a really scrambled movie story-wise - threads that are real and only imaginary flitter through our consciousness, and as such I figured this was much more of a mood picture. As far as providing insight though, to everything that Vogt tries and wants to express, the movie does really well and should be considered a very nice addition to that collection of films he and Joachim Trier are sending out to much acclaim. I am generally a fan of everything they've lent their intellect and filmmaking prowess to.

Glad to catch this one - winner of the Best Screenwriting Award at Sundance, 2014.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/j2YNqQwt/blin.jpg


Watchlist Count : 446 (-4)

Next : The Match Factory Girl (1990)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Blind

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/3wSg0Yf8/match-factory.png

THE MATCH FACTORY GIRL (1990)

Directed by : Aki Kaurismäki

As it was the first to turn up on my watchlist, the first of Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki's films I get to see is The Match Factory Girl - and as such I'm really excited to have an entire oeuvre to rip into. This film is simple - and almost minimalist, but also one of those films where each quiet scene, and even shot, has a lot to say about it's impoverished characters and desperately lonely protagonist. It's also a very quiet movie - the various songs we hear do a lot of the talking, and after a few scenes I was wondering if it was going to be silent. A tidbit from the IMDb tells us that "Although being in nearly every scene, the protagonist does not speak until the 25-minute mark in the film." I'd argue that we learn more when a movie is like this, because as an audience watching on in anticipation - hungry for information - we pick up on every little bit of body language, composition, music, sound and detail.

Iris (Kati Outinen) works in a match factory (I bet you figured that out already) and gives most of her earnings to her distant, cold mother and stern step-father. She goes to dances in the hope of romance, but is rarely asked to partner anyone on the dance floor. Her treatment, when she does manage to become a part of someone's life, is shockingly cynical, rude and dismissive - even when she has good cause to need a sympathetic shoulder to cry on. As such, she decides on an overwhelmingly dark response to all of those who have made her life so miserably disappointing and empty. The film only goes for 69 minutes, and as such I mean it as a compliment when I say I was really wishing for more - I didn't want The Match Factory Girl to end, because Kaurismäki is a virtuoso behind the camera, and guides his performers and composes his shots to make every moment in this really stick.

I've mentioned it once already, but it's worth exploring in more detail how Kaurismäki has managed to insert diegetic songs into the film which have such a bearing on where the story is and how the characters are feeling or thinking - especially in a movie where the characters say so little to each other. I've seen filmmakers do this often enough, but not for a film's entirety like this. Anyway, one other thing to reiterate is how psyched I am now to watch all of this guy's movies. The title is a play on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Little Match Girl" - another story with an impoverished, lonely girl related to unloving parents whose fate is a lonely, cold and thankless one. Kati Outinen (who Kaurismäki seems to have called on repeatedly in his films) is absolutely fantastic in her role - the movie has it's focus so intently zeroed in on her that the entire film's fate was in her hands performance-wise. It's well worth seeing - indeed, essential I think.

Glad to catch this one - included on Roger Ebert's list of "Great Movies".

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/J0VxK6Pg/match.jpg


Watchlist Count : 448 (-2)

Next : The Young and the Damned (Los olvidados) (1950)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Match Factory Girl!

* One thing I have to mention, even though it really has nothing much to do with the film per se, is how surprised I am that the brother of Iris in this (played by Silu Seppälä) isn't actually her brother in real life - because they look like identical twins. It's not really worth bringing up in the review, but I was so surprised by their likeness that I become convinced they must be brother and sister.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/2yKjpBbs/Young-Damned-Website.jpg

THE YOUNG AND THE DAMNED (1950)
(Los olvidados)

Directed by : Luis Buñuel

"That's one less. They'll all end up like that. It would be better to kill them before they're born!"


I remember reading about Luis Buñuel's Mexican period, and he made this film smack-dab in the middle of that particular era for him. I have to say, that this is a fantastically grim piece - taking place in the poorest of poor areas where kids run wild. Where they steal what they can or else starve. Not that anyone is looked upon in too sympathetic a manner. These kids beat up old blind men, and smash their belongings while also robbing defenseless cripples, leaving them on the pavement dazed and bleeding. I guess the above quote, spoken when one of the kids is shot by police (wanted for murder) is enough of a clue as to this one's tone. The IMDb's trivia section tells us that "When it was released in Mexico in 1950, its theatrical commercial run only lasted for three days due to the enraged reactions from the press, government, and upper and middle class audiences." Wow. Some people would prefer not to see what's going on, and insist on seeing happy tales of redemption and reform, lest they feel too guilty.

If you have enough resilience to see these filthy kids (literally filthy I mean) scrape through their days, falling prey to hopeless circumstance, then you'll probably never see a film as unsparing but dignified in it's tone and purpose. Some people are worse than others, but there are no angels or devils here in the poverty-stricken slum this is set in - although the one boy who has returned from being locked up, "El Jaibo" (Roberto Cobo), has been criminalized. That's something that our modern society has been so slow to learn - how locking people up together with no thought to reform just turns them into more hardened and committed lawbreakers. El Jaibo goes on to kill the kid who ratted on him - a crime that has far-reaching consequences for a few of the gang he runs with. I was amused and gladdened though, that Buñuel still manages to insert a moment of surrealism in this when Pedro (Alfonso Mejía) has a bad dream.

This was another great film - a classic that I'm probably underrating. It's just, I'm not used to watching so many great films together, and instead of the generality of films I'm starting to rate them against each other instead. I do recognize it as something special however - this film never slackens in it's pace, keeping us a little keyed up because of the constant danger and never-ending chance that something will happen suddenly. I spotted how much of an Italian neorealist tone it had because the sun, dust and outdoor settings made me think of films like Bicycle Thieves (not to mention the gang of kids that maraud in Rome, Open City) - but I wasn't confident enough within myself to be sure of that observation. It has a lot of well-written characters, all with their own problems and kind of moral ambiguity that comes with how impossible some problems are to solve. One of those movies that really feels like it's "alive", I liked Los olvidados a great deal and think it's terrible if people protested against it. It's passionate - and withholds none of the terrible truth, awful actions and despair we all need to be aware of if we're to progress to a more egalitarian and evolved society one day in the far, far future.

Glad to catch this one - placed at #110 in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll of the greatest films ever made. Ranked #2 in the list of the Best 100 Mexican films of all time according to 25 cinema critics (1994/2020)

4

https://i.postimg.cc/jjLLFZJx/young-and-the-damned.jpg


Watchlist Count : 447 (-3)

Next : The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Ensayo de un crimen) (1955)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Young and the Damned.

[Takoma11]

I had a feeling you'd enjoy Match Factory Girl.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/TY7Q6W46/criminal.jpg

THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO del la CRUZ (1955)
(Ensayo de un crimen)

Directed by : Luis Buñuel

The surrealism we associate with Luis Buñuel is evident in The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz - which is about a would-be murderer, the titular Archibaldo (Ernesto Alonso) whose victims all die before he gets a chance to kill them. Archibaldo, correctly I'd reckon, thinks of himself as a criminal and murderer - because if these women hadn't of died by other causes, he would have killed them. His plans were in the act of being carried out. Those in authority however, proclaim his innocence - because you can't be convicted on future intentions alone. This protagonist is wealthy and pampered, which lends him a very soft, ineffectual air, further rubbed in by the fact he's frequently rejected by many of the women he meets in the movie. Buñuel constantly snipes at the upper classes - at one stage having Archibaldo's parents complain that the bloody Mexican revolution is delaying their trip to the opera. I love the weirdness which frequently rears up out of the screen.

I remember being surprised to learn that Buñuel had made some films which weren't out-and-out surrealist, freaky features - most of the films I first watched, like The Exterminating Angel and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie were full-on. This has a definite edge to it - although most scenes play out pretty much how they would in real life. Apart from hallucinogenic moments and the bizarre and extreme coincidence that these people die when they're about to be murdered, the characters themselves drive the off-kilter properties of the film. For example, when Archibaldo fails to kill new acquaintance Lavinia (Miroslava Stern) he takes the mannequin based on her likeness and burns it in his kiln while he watches on in sadistic glee. Occasionally, during moments when our protagonist's sanity is tested, the film is accompanied by the quirky tune Archibaldo's music box makes - a childhood relic which he once believed had the power to magically kill anyone he wished, thus revealing to him the feeling of power and mastery that brings.

This movie really surprised me - it's rather twisted for a feature made during the 1950s, regardless of the fact it was made in Mexico (I hear the Mexicans wanted Buñuel to make more normal, melodramatic films.) There's a serial killer vibe I'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere during this time period. It also clearly defines a personality type I'd rarely see as well - the resentful, stunted and sexually conflicted man-child whose success in life entirely depends on the money he inherited from his parents. I wonder what audiences thought of this when they saw it! Archibaldo's obsessive desire and constant rejection would show up as features we'd see in many of the notorious killers humanity has had to confront, which makes The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz a fascinating peek into how they were perceived mid-century. The fact that he's a completely ineffectual killer brings him to an ideal state that nevertheless means he's free to walk amongst us, despite being exactly the same as the monsters who succeeded in their aims. A freaky cinematic treat, which manages to be very enjoyable despite it's ultra-dark subject material.

Glad to catch this one - I've now seen 7 of Luis Buñuel's films.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/C10cyPqP/crim.jpg


Watchlist Count : 447 (-3)

Next : Pickup on South Street (1953)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz.

[Takoma11]

Pickup on South Street is one of my all-time favorites. Great story, great lead and supporting characters.

[Mr Minio]

Pickup on South Street is one of my all-time favorites. Great story, great lead and supporting characters.

No metaphysics, no humanity, no transcendence, etc., great story yep but I require my favs to have much more than just a great story and characters. Of course Thelma Ritter is godsend but thats not enough.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/cJtV2Rmr/pickup.jpg

PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953)

Directed by : Samuel Fuller

Looking through Samuel Fuller's filmography, I notice that I haven't seen many of his films. In fact, before this, The Big Red One looks to be it - although a lifetime ago I saw White Dog on video as a kid. Pickup on South Street is one that's very much a sharpened point of a movie. Wallet lifter Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) picks the wrong pocket (or perhaps the right pocket) one day on the New York City Subway, ending up with a piece of microfilm that was headed towards communist information gatherers - and when it's missing both the peddlers of the info and the agents who were trying to nab them attempt to find him and shake him down. Candy (Jean Peters), whose purse was picked, tries various tricks and methods, but Skip is street smart - even the cops find it hard pinning anything on him. When Candy starts falling for Skip, the sudden danger that develops (with deadly force now on the table) leads to the Stoolie everyone has depended on, Moe (Thelma Ritter), losing her head and Candy becomes desperate to save the man she's only just fell in love with.

Skip McCoy is one of the greyest of grey characters I've seen in a 1950s film. Painted black from the outset, this sneering, arrogant and boisterous thief - who seems completely irredeemable at first - slowly melts under the intensity of Jean Peter's simmering heat. It's impossible to forget Widmark's wild performance when thinking about the film, but it was Thelma Ritter who gained another shot at glory, being nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar (she'd be nominated for an Oscar six times, never to win.) She has such an easy presence that it's simple to understand why she was a magnet for nominations, and it's interesting to see that charisma brought to bear in a role where she's basically a crook. She gets what is probably the best scene of the film - facing death in brave but heartbreaking circumstances. Being noir, the hard edge that all of this brings is what makes each unfolding scene exciting. It's also hard to predict what's going to happen with these characters and the fast-paced storyline - I was honestly pretty surprised with how this ends, considering what I've learned about the film industry in the 50s.

So, another film noir classic during my film noir cram session - a genre that has grown on me, and one that makes sojourns back to the 1950s a rich and rewarding experience. It makes Pickup on South Street a visually interesting experience - with all it's close-ups, shadow and Widmark's leering visage - (he gets to try out a whole variety of swaggering, haughty and always amused facial expressions.) It marks an entry in the subcategory "Cold War noir", which I imagine would have been pretty divisive in the industry, considering Cold War paranoia was about to send so many great screenwriters and filmmakers into blacklisted exile. This allowed for an interesting twist on proceedings - a bunch of petty crooks become our heroes in this violent and edgy entry into a dark genre. It's a vague threat they face, but it's the redemption of our main characters which draws our focus, and the threat could have been anything to achieve the same aims. I enjoyed Pickup on South Street to the hilt anyway - it's a dark, lean straight-to-it film noir classic which I'll add to my Criterion collection.

Glad to catch this one - #224 in the Criterion collection and included in Steven Jay Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/wjJkKXsw/pickup-on-south.jpg


Watchlist Count : 447 (-3)

Next : El Sur (1983)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Pickup on South Street.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/cJFYWdJs/sur.jpg

EL SUR (1983)

Directed by : Víctor Erice

El Sur would have been so much easier to talk about if I hadn't of done any extracurricular research and found out that it's basically an "unfinished" film - Víctor Erice intended the film to go for another 90 minutes, and bemoans the fact that funding was cut before he could complete the project as he envisioned it. Before finding that out, I was absolutely enchanted by this film about childhood and the painful discoveries we make about our parents not being the Gods we think they are when we're small. I'm going to have to read the novella to find out what happened when main character Estrella (Icíar Bollaín plays the teenage version) decides to travel to the south of Spain, where her father comes from - and the place he was forced to leave, leaving the love of his life behind. Estrella has a perfect kind of childhood until she discovers how unhappy her father really is, and the fact that he pines for someone other than her mother.

Taken by itself, this is a really great film - it embeds us in childhood, as the camera follows the narration we get, describing in detail childish attitudes and awakening understandings. It does end at a peculiar moment for a film to end, but I thought this was very deliberate and kind of an excellent place to finish off - with Estrella on the verge of leaving her childhood behind forever. It's another Spanish film which has their civil war looming in the background - a menace that has altered the lives of everyone there, with the added specter of General Franco - who had only died 8 years before this film was made. But the anguish is a quiet one which every character carries around with them without letting it out. It's funny how the drama that causes all of the misery is left far away - unexplored in every sense of the word. It kind of makes this all the more interesting, and perhaps would be considered an inspired choice if it hadn't of been forced on Erice by happenstance.

So yeah - I absolutely loved this film when it ended, but was deeply troubled when I found out it was an incomplete one. I wish I could forget that information. I also have Víctor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive on my watchlist, but I think I'll get to it before I actually get up to it otherwise it'll be years before I see it. I intend to read the novella that El Sur was based on, but not without some trepidation (it might make the fact that this film is unfinished all the more evident.) I really wish Estrella's father had of just been open with her - although I can understand the reticence, because if he had of been open it might have damaged their relationship irreparably. Still - what he ended up doing was worse than that. I haven't seen too many films that capture the feeling of childhood much better than El Sur - or at least, the dark corners within which there is joy tinged with a great deal of pain when looked upon with older eyes. I hope I can come to terms with the fact that this perfect movie was meant to be much longer - and thus could possibly be accidentally brilliant.

Glad to catch this one - Criterion #927 .

4

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Watchlist Count : 446 (-4)

Next : The Round-Up (1966)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch El Sur.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/t42C5PjD/round-up.jpg

THE ROUND-UP (1966)

Directed by : Miklós Jancsó

The version of The Round-Up that I watched was really shabby - the resolution so poor that it was hard reading the subititles even. It brought me to the conclusion that it was unfair to rate it as I saw it, so I'm leaving it on my watchlist until I can find a better copy. I reckon it might have deserved a rewatch in any event - because I found the film demands some historical knowledge about what's happening. It's not about to spoon feed the viewer, and as such watching a fuzzy version of a film in which I'm lacking the requisite knowledge to know exactly what's going on is a miserable viewing experience. Not a great film to go into completely blind - but I have a feeling I might really like it the next time around. Any American website it's streaming on I cannot access, but I'll find it eventually and review it properly.

Watchlist Count : 446 (-4)

Next : Titane (2021)

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/yYNw2tw5/titane.webp

TITANE (2021)

Directed by : Julia Ducournau

There are some films where I'm still thinking "What am I going to say about this? What did I even think of it?" as the time rolls around to say something about it. Overall, my feelings for Titane are positive though. I like body horror's capacity to make us feel this or that character's pain in a film - and that's what Titane does particularly well. No matter if it's main character Alexia's pinched discomfort hiding her breasts while pretending to be a young man, or her major agony as a metallic monstrosity grows in her womb, we really feel every bit of it through Agathe Rousselle's excellent performance and the make-up effects combined with visual effects. Because of this, and despite the fact that Alexia is a full-blown serial killer, we kind of feel for her. We see her broken in the film's opening scene when her high-strung father crashes the car while she's climbing about on the seats - having a titanium plate inserted into her skull is just the start of her physical transformation, and we notice the psychological aspect when she ignores her parents and shows physical affection to the car.

Now, Titane isn't the kind of film that will hold back when it comes to an imaginatively unreal narrative in saying what it wants to say. I mean, a car impregnates Alexia one night, just after she brutally murders one of her fans (who, of course, was asking for it.) It won't hold back as far as far as making us uncomfortable goes either (I couldn't count how many times I impored Alexia to see a doctor) - I mean, she sticks herself with rods and they come out covered in black oil as if she's just doing the rounds at a service station. There are scenes like the one where she has to break her own nose so as to fool people as to her identity. How would you break your own nose? It can't be easy - and it isn't here. I had to tell myself to let go of all the fabric scrunched in my fists when that scene ended. So - if you find that kind of thing fun then I guess you'll have a ball here, and Alexia isn't the only lost soul we'll meet. Vincent (Vincent Lindon) takes on Alexia, fooled into believing it's his long lost son, and underneath his fierce exterior is a foundering inner turmoil.

All up a pretty interesting film about human connection, love and technology/titanium steel's part in soothing our lack of deeply satisfying person to person contact. What are we becoming? Everything we touch blends into our beings - and fuses into our DNA. Titane is ferocious in it's answer and illustration of those questions, and seeks to do this using a fatally flawed, desperate survivor who seeks refuge with someone equally lost. Love can be found in the most unlikely of places. A cocoon from which something new can be born. It was the big winner at Cannes, taking home the Palme d'Or in 2021, despite it's lean towards horror. I'd say that people would be less inclined to take it really seriously the more horror that's in it (unless David Cronenberg is making it - but this is a very Cronenberg-like film.) Horror can tell us a lot though, as here. A good one this. I was consistently unaware of which direction the film was about to go in, which is something I value a lot in a movie. Lots of pain, and blood (and oil) - and lots to think about.

Glad to catch this one - Like I said, it won the Palme d'Or!

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/hPtzcnx8/titane.jpg


Watchlist Count : 445 (-5)

Next : Kansas City Confidential (1952)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Titane.

[crumbsroom]

Watch more Fuller.


Watch all Fuller.


(Actually, no, skip Shark!)

[crumbsroom]

Apparently I watched El Sur last year.


Who knew? Definitely not me.

And the Round Up is good. I imagine I suffered through the same bad copy you did though. I have lots of bad copies of good movies, and clearly no standards

[crumbsroom]

Shit, you watched Bunuels Criminal Life of.... as well recently.


You're doing all the good overlooked stuff.

EDIT: And Scum too!

[Wyldesyde19]

Jancso is someone I need to ge ti to, haven’t seen any of his films yet. That’s pretty much something I can say about most of Hungary’s films, of course. Maybe soon.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/5yN89nh4/kansascityconfidential1952-17618-1.jpg

KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952)

Directed by : Phil Karlson

It all starts with Jack Elam - and I rarely get to see Jack Elam (the last time was during a Twilight Zone Hall of Fame a little over 2 years ago), so I was immediately grabbed by Kansas City Confidential. Elam plays Pete Harris - one of a four man crew who rob an armored car while it's picking up money from a bank. It's "perfect crime" stuff, with none of the three men recruited knowing each other, and all wearing masks. The patsy - our protagonist - is Joe Rolfe (John Payne), who works as a florist and drives the same florist delivery van that the robbers duplicate and use as a getaway car. That means the cops are at first sure that Rolfe, an ex-con, has something to do with the crime. By the time they figure out otherwise, Rolfe has lost his job and had his reputation smeared in all the papers. He's fuming, and makes it his life purpose to find out who framed him so he can deliver justice - and maybe, a get piece of the loot.

One of the things I liked about Kansas City Confidential was that at a certain point the game changes as a surprise reveal alters the playing field as far as whos who and what the score is. The other surprise is how capable Rolfe is and how bumbling the various crooks are compared to him - one of whom is played by a young Lee Van Cleef. Rolfe is often disarming them, much like Bogart's Sam Spade did to all and sundry in The Maltese Falcon. Shoehorned in is, of course, a love interest for Rolfe - Helen Foster (Coleen Gray) is the daughter of one of the major players, and falling for her is obviously going to complicate matters for everyone. It's rough and tumble was one of the inspirations Quentin Tarantino had for one of my favourite films of all time - Reservoir Dogs. It exudes that testosterone-fuelled "Rififi" menace, with most scenes involving some kind of deadly threat or vice one of the characters can't get enough of. You can almost smell the sweat and the metallic tang the plethora of guns everyone has is giving off.

I thought the story itself went on to tread water for the final third of the film - it spends that time building tension and gaining traction for the love interest, but I missed what was so great about the first two-thirds, which was the way the story advanced and morphed as it went. For a while nothing new is gleaned, and there's a series of confrontations and "getting to know you" moments that continue up until the climax we all know is coming. By that time however, I'd gotten a lot of enjoyment out of Kansas City Confidential, with it's gritty noir atmosphere and some powerful music by Paul Sawtell, whose exclamatory musical moments feel like gunshots and car crashes. A noir with Jack Elam in it (even playing a small part) is something I must see, especially with a film noir countdown in the offing soon. The best part of the film is the central plot point I won't mention - an excellent plan, and one which I kind of wonder hasn't been tried in real life. When the film starts it tells us it's based on a real event, but the way it does that makes you immediately suspicious of such a claim. A really cool addition to the genre of noir that's really bristly and pugnacious.

Glad to catch this one - it's in the public domain, roaming free.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/Y0T0GhQh/kansas.jpg

I saw Dream Scenario the other day, which was also on my watchlist, so I'm doing well - getting close to that 10 ahead milestone!

https://i.postimg.cc/kgKs5SWR/dream.webp


Watchlist Count : 443 (-7)

Next : Scarecrow (1973)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Kansas City Confidential.

[PHOENIX74]

Shit, you watched Bunuels Criminal Life of.... as well recently.


You're doing all the good overlooked stuff.

EDIT: And Scum too!

It's been quite an opening few weeks. If the whole year turns out like this then wow.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/sfJGP3NX/scarecrow1973-23027.jpg

SCARECROW (1973)

Directed by : Jerry Schatzberg

Wistfully downbeat, Scarecrow manages to slowly and evenly pace out the foundations of a loving friendship from it's inception - an unlikely one between the paranoid, gruff and violent Max Millan (Gene Hackman) and softer, playful funny guy Francis Lionel Delbuchi (Al Pacino). It's a road trip movie without ready transportation as Max and 'Lion' hitchhike their way across the United States. For Lion it's to see the kid he's never even met, and for Max a dream of opening a car wash business in Pittsburgh. What constantly threatens to derail the whole enterprise is Max's propensity to get into fights and take his side too far - he's already spent 6 years in prison for hurting someone, but what Lion brings to this coupling is a tendency to soften Max's view of the world, and bring him to a more happy place. Their meeting is what kicks off the movie, and Max is the kind of guy that needs constant work on Lion's part to get through those outer defenses. Max's barbs and insults are like water off a duck's back to him, and he's not easily turned away.

Well, this is one of those films that would have truly disappeared into obscurity never to return if it weren't for some beautiful work by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (who I know from Altman films McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Images and The Long Goodbye) and brilliant dual performances from Pacino and Hackman. The screenplay isn't up to all that much, but the chemistry the two leads build with their characters managed to truly touch me, and I have to admit the film gets gritty and brave when it comes time for both Max and Lion to spend a few months in prison - the less physically forthright Lion beat up pretty badly in an attempted rape. It's a moment when Max's dam wall really breaks, and his protective instincts take the friendship to a new level. More powerful scenes of that nature could have elevated this film, but that coupled with quite an ending provide some counterpoints to it's occasional drift. Apparently the acting methods of Hackman and Pacino clashed - but you'd never guess that from watching the movie.

I kind of feel a little incredulous that I'd never heard of this film before - despite the fact that it was a box office flop. Another Cannes top award winner as well, taking home the Palme d'Or equivalent (the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film - I see why they changed the name.) So, all up, a movie that you have to have a look at if you're all about the great actors giving "at their peak" performances, and cinema itself. Gene Hackman pointed to this one as his personal favourites performance-wise, and this was a guy with a great body of work behind him. Anyway - my take is a growing awareness of a certain slow sift upwards of films that had very short lives at the box office, but are very slowly gaining the appreciation they either never got or was not due to them at the time, because the film didn't mesh with the age it was released in. Films no longer disappear into voids - and it's strange thinking that they once did (apart from the occasional showing on television) once they stopped playing. This is another that I intend to casually drop into conversations so word spreads - Scarecrow is very much worth seeing.


Glad to catch this one - another Cannes top prize winner.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/bJLLsrst/scarecrow.jpg

Watchlist Count : 442 (-8)

Next : Dry Summer (1963)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Scarecrow.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/KjdDnMJL/dry.jpg

DRY SUMMER (1963)

Directed by : Metin Erksan

God help those who have brothers like Osman (Erol Taş) - he works his plot of land with Hasan (Ulvi Dogan), and being the older brother gets to dictate how everything operates. When he decides to prevent the water's natural progression from his property to the land below - denying all of those farmers the precious water they need while he gets it all - all Hasan can do is lodge a protest, and try to convince him not to go that route. Young Hasan has just married Bahar (Hülya Koçyiğit) - who Osman lusts after - and when the latter accidentally kills an unhappy marauder on his property he convinces Hasan to take the blame - leading to him getting an 8 year prison sentence. Once gone, there's nobody left to temper Hasan's worst impulses and inclinations. Quite the tale about greed, honor, community and this moral lesson : just because something is within your legal rights and boundaries doesn't mean you should just go ahead and do what you want despite the implications.

Metin Erksan had me where he wanted me - my lord, I hated Osman. Dry Summer is just an endless procession of scenes which prove how awful the man is. As soon as his younger brother gets married, Osman wastes no time making a hole in the wall so he can watch them both make love. His worst act though is coming up for the reasoning for diverting the water - the spring is on his land so all the water is his. He's too dim-witted to understand that if he goes to such extreme measures he'll never again endure any kind of peace or good standing within the community. All of the senseless tragedy that occurs in this film does so because of his decision, and the fact that no matter what he won't be diverted from his insistence on it. I found this all made for a very nice analogy concerning nations and especially corporations. Many corporations do things that are morally reprehensible, but because they're within their legal rights they consider any course of action "okay" - and justify it by claiming that it's a dog eat dog, savage corporate world and they must do whatever it takes to maximise profits.

Dry Summer is a very easy film to watch because of it's very basic moral story. I thought the performances from Erol Taş and Hülya Koçyiğit were excellent - Osman is a very hard character to sell, but Taş makes him utterly believable in a boorish, primal manner. The cinematography was much better than what I was expecting from a Turkish film made in the 1960s, but apparently the 60s was something of a heyday and peak for Turkish cinema, Dry Summer being the key film which is at the top of most lists of great Turkish films of the period. I'd been watching quite a bit of avant-garde stuff, so it's nice to come back to very elemental storytelling - especially if it's making an agreeable point. One last take-away : I'm not so sure of the wisdom concerning a culture where the oldest brother gets to basically dictate matters to the younger ones - and this is a great example of how that tradition can go awry. Sometimes, you simply have to mutiny - even if it's in-family. There's no way I'd have taken an 8 year jail sentence for something my brother did while acting like a jerk.

Glad to catch this one - Golden Bear winner at the 1964 Berlin Film Festival.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/wjhzttzs/dry-summ.jpg

Watchlist Count : 443 (-7)

Next : In a Lonely Place (1950)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Dry Summer.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/ZKRmb4jr/lonely.jpg

IN A LONELY PLACE (1950)

Directed by : Nicholas Ray

Wow - that was a surprise. A film noir directed with incredible panache by Nicholas Ray that features one of Humphrey Bogart's finest ever performances, and I don't think I'd ever even heard of it before. Like the best of it's kind, it gave me that special kind of feeling the moment it ended - a mixture of sadness and shock mixed with excitement and supreme satisfaction. Bogart plays screenwriter Dixon Steele, accused of murdering a girl he had over at his apartment one night, and given an alibi by neighbour Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), who saw the girl leave his apartment alone (and alive.) The film keeps the door open as to whether Steele really did have something to do with her murder, but what's certain is that this is a troubled man. Talk about methods of murder excites him, and he explodes into violence at the slightest provocation. When Steele and Laurel fall in love, the former starts to work again after a long hiatus - but the latter has yet to witness the terrifying change of personality that occurs when he's angered.

It's refreshing to see a film that wants to examine violence in a serious and meaningful way. So many are forced to excuse it because of it's essential necessity as part of the conflict in a story - with protagonists forced to depend on it. Here it's senseless - much like road rage, which I was thinking about quite a bit during the film. Steele's first moment of anger comes early in the film, while he's in his car waiting at the lights and gets into an altercation for talking to a jealous man's wife. Later he takes out his fury on a motorist he swipes while rage-driving, where all sense of proportion is lost and he nearly takes to the man with a rock he picks up on the side of the road. It looks primal and savage - like Bogart has suddenly become a cave man in some paleolithic era exhibit. That along with the possibility he murdered that girl has poor Laurel's internal alarm triggered - exacerbated when Steele starts pressuring her into huge decisions like marriage. Steele's disintegration is terrible to sit through, but we can't look away.

I read that Humphrey Bogart came closest to presenting his real-life persona on film as he ever did in this feature - which is both sad and a little unnerving. So many have that kind of rage trigger in them (and I think the number could possibly be halved if they stopped drinking.) Here we see it poison a love story still at the height of it's honeymoon phase, adding extra weight to the "did he kill that girl?" question which would probably have been dismissed if he didn't seem like the guy that'd do it. But overall, I found In a Lonely Place to be a tremendously gripping movie, and one that forged it's own way forward without relying on clichés or formulas. Loads of talent both in front of and behind the cameras, and a frightening intensity in Humphrey Bogart's performance. I'm all too happy to add it to the pile of films that are new favourites of mine, reminding myself to drop the odd, "Have you seen In an Lonely Place?" into conversations as if I've known about it all my life. Absolute masterpiece.


So glad to catch this one - Criterion number 810 and included in Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

5

https://i.postimg.cc/2SGxFwG4/in-a-lonely-place.jpg

Watchlist Count : 443 (-7)

Next : Ladybug, Ladybug (1963)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch In a Lonely Place.

[Takoma11]

I think that In a Lonely Place does really interesting things with the trope of a love story where it sort of hinges on whether one of the people murdered someone.

This movie dares to say, "If someone seems like they might have killed someone, maybe don't, like, become intimate with them?"

[matt72582]

https://i.postimg.cc/sfJGP3NX/scarecrow1973-23027.jpg

SCARECROW (1973)

Directed by : Jerry Schatzberg

Wistfully downbeat, Scarecrow manages to slowly and evenly pace out the foundations of a loving friendship from it's inception - an unlikely one between the paranoid, gruff and violent Max Millan (Gene Hackman) and softer, playful funny guy Francis Lionel Delbuchi (Al Pacino). It's a road trip movie without ready transportation as Max and 'Lion' hitchhike their way across the United States. For Lion it's to see the kid he's never even met, and for Max a dream of opening a car wash business in Pittsburgh. What constantly threatens to derail the whole enterprise is Max's propensity to get into fights and take his side too far - he's already spent 6 years in prison for hurting someone, but what Lion brings to this coupling is a tendency to soften Max's view of the world, and bring him to a more happy place. Their meeting is what kicks off the movie, and Max is the kind of guy that needs constant work on Lion's part to get through those outer defenses. Max's barbs and insults are like water off a duck's back to him, and he's not easily turned away.

Well, this is one of those films that would have truly disappeared into obscurity never to return if it weren't for some beautiful work by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (who I know from Altman films McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Images and The Long Goodbye) and brilliant dual performances from Pacino and Hackman. The screenplay isn't up to all that much, but the chemistry the two leads build with their characters managed to truly touch me, and I have to admit the film gets gritty and brave when it comes time for both Max and Lion to spend a few months in prison - the less physically forthright Lion beat up pretty badly in an attempted rape. It's a moment when Max's dam wall really breaks, and his protective instincts take the friendship to a new level. More powerful scenes of that nature could have elevated this film, but that coupled with quite an ending provide some counterpoints to it's occasional drift. Apparently the acting methods of Hackman and Pacino clashed - but you'd never guess that from watching the movie.

I kind of feel a little incredulous that I'd never heard of this film before - despite the fact that it was a box office flop. Another Cannes top award winner as well, taking home the Palme d'Or equivalent (the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film - I see why they changed the name.) So, all up, a movie that you have to have a look at if you're all about the great actors giving "at their peak" performances, and cinema itself. Gene Hackman pointed to this one as his personal favourites performance-wise, and this was a guy with a great body of work behind him. Anyway - my take is a growing awareness of a certain slow sift upwards of films that had very short lives at the box office, but are very slowly gaining the appreciation they either never got or was not due to them at the time, because the film didn't mesh with the age it was released in. Films no longer disappear into voids - and it's strange thinking that they once did (apart from the occasional showing on television) once they stopped playing. This is another that I intend to casually drop into conversations so word spreads - Scarecrow is very much worth seeing.


Glad to catch this one - another Cannes top prize winner.

rating_4

https://i.postimg.cc/bJLLsrst/scarecrow.jpg

Watchlist Count : 442 (-8)

Next : Dry Summer (1963)


Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Scarecrow.


I bought this movie when I was 17, and decades later, even fans of Pacino and Hackman haven't heard of this movie. It's too bad. I would have thought after Hackman winning his 2nd Oscar, Pacino being in "The Godfather" and in retrospect, this would be more popular, because it's a nice independent movie with a lot of the gritty realism of the 70s.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/SQtPp5Gf/ladybug.jpg

LADYBUG LADYBUG (1963)

Directed by : Frank Perry

Here is a film you simply can't seperate from the year it was made in - 1963, when the Cuban Missile Crisis was still fresh in everyone's mind (interesting to note that those "duck and cover" civil defense videos for kids were made in the early 1950s - I thought they came out around the same time.) Yeah - Ladybug. Fly away home. Your house is on fire. Or at least, the "nuclear attack is imminent" alarm has gone off, and the teachers at a secluded countryside elementary school aren't quite sure what to do. For me, they're all a little too lax for my liking - but I know that this is a movie, and that anything is possible (the more dramatic, the more probable) so excuse my paranoia. In the end there's nothing to do but go through all the steps put in place, and carry out what everyone has practiced during all the drills. This involves walking all of the students home so they can bunker down in their various bomb shelters and cellars. It feels crazy to be thinking "This might be it." It might be the end of life as we've always known it.

Now, I know I usually go through the films on my watchlist particularly blind - that's the way I like it, and seeing as though I put them there at some unknown time in the past for a long forgotten reason, I'm often completely clueless as to what's coming. Bar, that is, for an occasional odd sneaky look at a synopsis - and often an eyeful of a letterboxd banner still. The still for Ladybug Ladybug features a teacher leading her children along a peaceful country road (and the poster also alludes to the same.) So, obviously this isn't about fire, fury, survival and radiation sickness - it's about that uncertain walk home. Are bombs on their way? What will happen? All the kids process this in very different ways - but the one thing we can be certain about is that this long drawn out cold war tension has had an effect on them. The movie is based on a real event - an incident at a California elementary school during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis on which an article had been published in McCall's magazine. Despite happening over 60 years ago, it's still interesting to consider.

Although Ladybug Ladybug only goes for 82 minutes, the constant drumbeat speculation of the kids and their worried teacher can drag a little at times (are we there yet?), although that's eased a little when we follow one home and see how this or that one adapts. Overall, I can't see this as a film I'd return to multiple times. Still, for the most part it grabbed me, and I think it was a particularly noble attempt to make people take notice of what the cold war was doing to the kids who knew - in a general kind of way - what would happen if the Soviet Union and United States kicked off an exchange of their immense firepower. The tight close-in cinematography and some decent child performances help make this film from Frank and Eleanor Perry hit it's mark pretty much spot on. It also does a good job at making us uncertain as to whether the alarm is real or not. Radio broadcasts continue as if nothing is amiss...but, is that because there's nothing wrong, or because they've incorrectly assumed a true alarm is a false one? Like, say, being tested for cancer - you can't really relax until you know 100% that the prognosis is negative. Just - don't hide in a 1960s refrigerator. Please.

Glad to catch this one - the least seen film from my watchlist so far.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/qBywhkhm/ladybug-ladybug.jpg

Another incidental/accidental watching of a film from my watchlist (Monos (2019))means I'm killing it - on target early on.

https://i.postimg.cc/G35ptQzb/monos.jpg

Watchlist Count : 441 (-9)

Next : Memoria (2021)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Ladybug Ladybug.

[matt72582]

https://i.postimg.cc/SQtPp5Gf/ladybug.jpg

LADYBUG LADYBUG (1963)

Directed by : Frank Perry

Here is a film you simply can't seperate from the year it was made in - 1963, when the Cuban Missile Crisis was still fresh in everyone's mind (interesting to note that those "duck and cover" civil defense videos for kids were made in the early 1950s - I thought they came out around the same time.) Yeah - Ladybug. Fly away home. Your house is on fire. Or at least, the "nuclear attack is imminent" alarm has gone off, and the teachers at a secluded countryside elementary school aren't quite sure what to do. For me, they're all a little too lax for my liking - but I know that this is a movie, and that anything is possible (the more dramatic, the more probable) so excuse my paranoia. In the end there's nothing to do but go through all the steps put in place, and carry out what everyone has practiced during all the drills. This involves walking all of the students home so they can bunker down in their various bomb shelters and cellars. It feels crazy to be thinking "This might be it." It might be the end of life as we've always known it.

Now, I know I usually go through the films on my watchlist particularly blind - that's the way I like it, and seeing as though I put them there at some unknown time in the past for a long forgotten reason, I'm often completely clueless as to what's coming. Bar, that is, for an occasional odd sneaky look at a synopsis - and often an eyeful of a letterboxd banner still. The still for Ladybug Ladybug features a teacher leading her children along a peaceful country road (and the poster also alludes to the same.) So, obviously this isn't about fire, fury, survival and radiation sickness - it's about that uncertain walk home. Are bombs on their way? What will happen? All the kids process this in very different ways - but the one thing we can be certain about is that this long drawn out cold war tension has had an effect on them. The movie is based on a real event - an incident at a California elementary school during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis on which an article had been published in McCall's magazine. Despite happening over 60 years ago, it's still interesting to consider.

Although Ladybug Ladybug only goes for 82 minutes, the constant drumbeat speculation of the kids and their worried teacher can drag a little at times (are we there yet?), although that's eased a little when we follow one home and see how this or that one adapts. Overall, I can't see this as a film I'd return to multiple times. Still, for the most part it grabbed me, and I think it was a particularly noble attempt to make people take notice of what the cold war was doing to the kids who knew - in a general kind of way - what would happen if the Soviet Union and United States kicked off an exchange of their immense firepower. The tight close-in cinematography and some decent child performances help make this film from Frank and Eleanor Perry hit it's mark pretty much spot on. It also does a good job at making us uncertain as to whether the alarm is real or not. Radio broadcasts continue as if nothing is amiss...but, is that because there's nothing wrong, or because they've incorrectly assumed a true alarm is a false one? Like, say, being tested for cancer - you can't really relax until you know 100% that the prognosis is negative. Just - don't hide in a 1960s refrigerator. Please.

Glad to catch this one - the least seen film from my watchlist so far.

rating_3_5

https://i.postimg.cc/qBywhkhm/ladybug-ladybug.jpg

Another incidental/accidental watching of a film from my watchlist


Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Ladybug Ladybug.


You've been watching many of my 10/10s lately (or close to it)... One thing I also loved about "Ladybug, Ladybug" is how the narrative is seen through the children's eyes, and how they develop a hierarchy for power.. "This is MY shelter", etc etc..

[PHOENIX74]

You've been watching many of my 10/10s lately (or close to it)... One thing I also loved about "Ladybug, Ladybug" is how the narrative is seen through the children's eyes, and how they develop a hierarchy for power.. "This is MY shelter", etc etc..

You just made me realise how Ladybug Ladybug and the other film I watched, Monos (which I didn't really cover here) fit together - Monos was about child soldiers, and as such it was another film from a kid's perspective. Kids are great rule-setters as well. Whatever situation they find themselves in, one of the first things done is a setting of rules, job-assignments and boundaries.

I very well may have heard of some of these films from you!

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/xTK3YMHy/mem.jpg

MEMORIA (2021)

Directed by : Apichatpong Weerasethakul

I had a feeling Memoria was going to test me a little, but I gave it my patience and it ended up being a mix of furnishings and essence which really did something for me, and placid fabric that wasn't quite my kind of jazz. Like most cinema of it's ilk though, I'm drawn to it's mysteries - and with arthouse movies these days, I'm into almost anything as long as it's expressive. This one threw me a little at first, because for what turns out to be such a surrealist slice of life it begins in a fairly standard kind of way apart from the moments devoted to "that noise", which come across as if Memoria is about a haunting - and I guess it is in a kind of way. So I was perplexed as to whether this was just going to swim around in a realist kind of way or get freaky. It gets freaky, but eases us in as if acclimatizing us to the philosophical scope which is an unusual side-effect of Jessica Holland's (Tilda Swinton) tinnitus.

Memoria is surreal in it's words and thinking - if it were playing and somebody wasn't paying attention they'd never guess it was anything less than an extremely slow drama where nothing much really happens. Perhaps that's why Apichatpong Weerasethakul never wanted to release the film on any streaming platforms or DVD/Blu-Ray - you have to focus and be on it's wavelength, or else it will almost literally be nothing to you. I wonder now why Neon backtracked and did end up releasing it - but I'm glad they did. I don't need any lifelong frustrations about movies I missed during their theatrical runs, even if I do eventually get to see illegal bootleg recordings of them. (I'm still waiting for VR cinemas at home.) Anyway, I concede that many films can lose a little something once seen at home, and Memoria is one I'd say rates highly on that scale because it would have been the perfect place to hear that sound. Fomp!

I kept on thinking of the title The Woman Who Fell to Earth while watching Memoria, and if you need some kind of description of the film's vibe, that's my best approximation. She's just involved in some kind of flower business, and visits various people while in Columbia - including her sister in hospital, a sound engineer to help pinpoint the exact sound she keeps hearing, a paleontologist excavating land that has ancient humans buried in it, a doctor, and a whole variety of strangers. Her discussions with these people do their own kind of excavating, and are much more free-form and searching than your regular garden variety conversations are. The final scene (which is a really, really long scene) is what really transfixed me, and as such I left feeling like the experience had been really uneven for me. That makes it really hard to rate. It didn't work perfectly, but there was so much in this I thought exceptional.

Glad to catch this one - won the Jury prize at Cannes in 2021, and was Columbia's entry for possible nomination at the 94th Academy Awards.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/66dz3Hp7/memoria.jpg

Watchlist Count : 442 (-8)

Next : The Brand New Testament (2015)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Memoria.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/HkKN0c7z/testament.jpg

THE BRAND NEW TESTAMENT (2015)

Directed by : Jaco Van Dormael

The Brand New Testament's brand of humour didn't mesh with me, and since it goes really hard at it, I didn't have a very good experience with this movie. The idea behind the film is really great though. God is real, and is in fact an overbearing schlub (played by Benoît Poelvoorde) who lives in a spartan apartment in Brussels. He sits at his computer and makes up new universal rules such as "bread always falls on the floor in a jam-down position" and "the person you love the most will be the one you don't end up with" - but one day his put upon daughter, Ea (Pili Groyne) sneaks into his computer room, and sends everybody their "date and time of death" - so people end up living with a renewed sense of freedom, knowing that whatever they do, it won't matter since their death has already be pre-ordained. Therefore God's one purpose in life - to make our lives hard - is thwarted. Ea then escapes the apartment to gather 6 new apostles to help her write "The Brand New Testament". Once God discovers her acts of sabotage, he enters the real world for the first time ever, and discovers it's a tough place to visit.

I was looking forward to watching this film, but like I said - the comedy wavelength it was on happened to be a wavelength I don't connect with. Not connecting with what's meant to be funny in a comedy absolutely destroys a film - even if it's based on great ideas and is well made. I sat through each outrageous Amélie-like blast of comedy without any laughter or joy. I found it a little too energetic and forceful. The film's explosive pace and monumental use of farce and slapstick just kept me off-balance and never let me into the narrative or put me in a good place. So, it's one of those difficult situations where an antagonistic feeling builds whereupon the film isn't necessarily as bad as my negative feelings towards it. Whereas I'd normally be into any sense of whimsy and fun a movie might throw at me, with The Brand New Testament it just felt painful simply because of the chip I had on my shoulder.

I don't want to rip into this movie because it would sound mean-spirited, and I can see that most people really liked it. Either way, it doesn't really matter - because my entire experience boils down to me not finding it particularly funny. It looked great, and I was looking forward to seeing it - but no. Fantastic idea - but I really didn't like it. Any comedy that finds the inclusion of a gorilla a winning card (and there are a few) I don't like. That's one thing I've never really understood - why so many comedies add one to the mix, as if they're inherently funny. Poor Catherine Deneuve. Her character, Martine, falls in love with one - which is one of the many flights of fancy that did nothing for me. I was on a remarkable run with my watchlist films, and it came to an end with this one - a movie that my personal taste was diametrically opposed to.

Most critics (and I guess people) enjoyed this more than I did. Not my kind of comedy. Didn't like it.

2

https://i.postimg.cc/QdCCj98g/brand-new-t.jpg

Watchlist Count : 444 (-6)

Next : What Happened Was… (1994)

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/g2MJrmTv/what-happened.jpg

WHAT HAPPENED WAS... (1994)

Directed by : Tom Noonan

Oh what a wonderful, heartbreaking movie this was. What Happened Was... is one of those films based on a play that has been elevated to a great cinematic standard, but has also stayed true to it's stage origin. It all takes place in one apartment - Jackie's (Karen Sillas), who is fussing around before her date arrives. His name is Michael (Tom Noonan) - and these two people are the only two characters in the film. What plays out is a date which goes through many of the phases most of us will be familiar with - there's a heightened awareness and tension during dates that make every awkward lull or moment of connection feel very intense. As the two become more comfortable with each other we see sides to their personality we weren't expecting - masks slip, and when reality begins to exert itself there's a completely new understanding of who these two people are. One that we never would have expected.

I loved this, and I would have loved to have seen the play before this was made (the film's eventual producer went to see it with only 11 other people - one of those intimate theater experiences that I often love.) I was glued - I mean, every moment is brimming with subtext and that special kind of tension that exists in situations like this. There are many unexpected turns, but we never for one moment feel that there's anything fanciful here, despite the fact that we're taken to so many psychologically varied places - both familiar and unusual. The performances of our two leads are both phenomenal, and I have to say absolutely perfect in every way conceivable. It's a really easy film to become involved with simply because we've all been through these experiences and can completely sympathise with the characters, and feel the tension.

Something I loved about this was the complete change of mood that occurs when Jackie reads the first chapter of her story to Michael in what turns out to be a very creepy room in the apartment - completely altering the balance between the characters and shifting the tone of the film. But I have to admit I loved the film as a whole, and every small shift in location brought with it an interesting change in the dynamics. Such a well-written piece of work from Tom Noonan, who I never knew had made a handful of what look like interesting films adapted from his theater work. This is my kind of film on so many different levels - I love these intense dramas that almost take place in real-time, in which we find ourselves bound to the one location (another great one like this is 2014 HBO film Nightingale.) I was completely wrapped up in this film emotionally, and it spoke to me on a very deep and personal level - so the ending moved me a great deal. Such a great movie - another favourite from my watchlist.

Glad to catch this one - won the Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/J4K4Kr7g/what-happened-was.jpg

Watchlist Count : 444 (-6)

Next : Carriage to Vienna (1966)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch What Happened Was....

[Takoma11]

I just want to point out that the still you've chosen is like a gender-reversed shot of a certain sequence from Manhunter.

Carry on!

EDIT: Why is this the best image I can find? Am I misremembering her touching his face while they are sitting on the couch?

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fstudiocloudpluslive.blob.core.windows.net%2Fsitepromo%2Fsite_promo%2F017369%2Fvisue ls%2Fphotos%2Fhaute_def%2F054PHOTO.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=23c1f569a99ff92b721dcbc688b8c7106d3c75cfa85dfe56a40a03bcb2f54cd5&ipo=images

[PHOENIX74]

I just want to point out that the still you've chosen is like a gender-reversed shot of a certain sequence from Manhunter.

Carry on!

EDIT: Why is this the best image I can find? Am I misremembering her touching his face while they are sitting on the couch?

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fstudiocloudpluslive.blob.core.windows.net%2Fsitepromo%2Fsite_promo%2F017369%2Fvisue ls%2Fphotos%2Fhaute_def%2F054PHOTO.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=23c1f569a99ff92b721dcbc688b8c7106d3c75cfa85dfe56a40a03bcb2f54cd5&ipo=images

I had a look at the scene and she doesn't touch his face in that specific one. Perhaps there's a bit of Manhunter/Red Dragon crossover going on for you here - or, ooh, my favourite, the Mandela effect.

[Takoma11]

I had a look at the scene and she doesn't touch his face in that specific one. Perhaps there's a bit of Manhunter/Red Dragon crossover going on for you here - or, ooh, my favourite, the Mandela effect.

I think she touches his face when they are at work, and then the couch scene is different. The moral of the story is be very careful sitting on a couch next to Tom Noonan.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/G3gKQjC1/coach-to-vienna.jpg

CARRIAGE TO VIENNA (1966)

Directed by : Karel Kachyňa

At what point does your natural desire for vengeance melt in the face of innocent humanity? Czechoslovakia, May 1945. Krista (Iva Janžurová) has just gone through the trauma of witnessing her husband get executed by retreating Nazi's for a trivial, trifling offence. Barely a moment passes before a German soldier, a deserter, orders her at gunpoint to help him transport his wounded comrade south to Vienna in her horse-drawn wagon. Bristling with fury, she plans to kill them at the very first opportunity - but how? The hidden axe underneath the wagon bed? The pistol left lying in the straw, practically unguarded? Or perhaps the rifle Hans (Jaromír Hanzlík) carelessly throws around - at times with a white handkerchief tied to the barrel. It'll take some nerve and good timing to catch them off guard - and she'll only get one chance. In the meantime, Hans showers her with gifts, thanks and friendliness - none of which she particularly wants.

I was quite surprised to come across a Czech film made so soon after the Second World War that paints it's German characters as very human, and in some cases innocent. By contrast the partisans are downright brutal - and of course this caused some controversy for the film when it was released. In 1968, when the Soviets strengthened their grip on the country, the film was banned outright. I never felt like this film was taking sides politically at all - it was simply a question of humanity, regardless of creed or country. Some Germans were evil, some were innocent. Some partisans turned to brutality, some were noble. Some civilians sought revenge, and some forgave. Hans is a boy, doesn't want to fight, and becomes quite enamoured with the undoubtedly good looking Krista - without even thinking about sides and conflict. Krista, on the other hand, has been pushed onto a different path after being on the wrong end of capricious cruelty.

Carriage to Vienna was very good, and another really simple straightforward film involving few characters and a virtually unchanging forest location (which the film makes great use of - it feels as if the characters are pinned in a claustrophobic self-imposed prison.) Injured soldier Günther (Luděk Munzar) only wakes occasionally, making it a mostly two-character story as well. It's not something that'll leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling though, despite it's focus being on humanity. When you reach the closing stages of the worst conflict in human history, brutality and bloodshed crouch around every corner. There was a reckoning awaiting in Czechoslovakia, no matter any moment of clarity a person could or would feel in passing. This 1966 Czech offering really puts a lot of the war films coming out at the same time around the world to shame, and was really decades and decades ahead of it's time. I couldn't help thinking all the way through how much it feels like the kind of film that would be made nowadays, and definitely not way back then. Brave filmmaking.

Glad to catch this one - deserves recognition.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/fT1NgYfp/coach.jpg

Watchlist Count : 448 (-2)

Next : The Ear (1970)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Carriage to Vienna.

[Wooley]

https://i.postimg.cc/xTK3YMHy/mem.jpg

MEMORIA (2021)

Directed by : Apichatpong Weerasethakul

I had a feeling Memoria was going to test me a little, but I gave it my patience and it ended up being a mix of furnishings and essence which really did something for me, and placid fabric that wasn't quite my kind of jazz. Like most cinema of it's ilk though, I'm drawn to it's mysteries - and with arthouse movies these days, I'm into almost anything as long as it's expressive. This one threw me a little at first, because for what turns out to be such a surrealist slice of life it begins in a fairly standard kind of way apart from the moments devoted to "that noise", which come across as if Memoria is about a haunting - and I guess it is in a kind of way. So I was perplexed as to whether this was just going to swim around in a realist kind of way or get freaky. It gets freaky, but eases us in as if acclimatizing us to the philosophical scope which is an unusual side-effect of Jessica Holland's (Tilda Swinton) tinnitus.

Memoria is surreal in it's words and thinking - if it were playing and somebody wasn't paying attention they'd never guess it was anything less than an extremely slow drama where nothing much really happens. Perhaps that's why Apichatpong Weerasethakul never wanted to release the film on any streaming platforms or DVD/Blu-Ray - you have to focus and be on it's wavelength, or else it will almost literally be nothing to you. I wonder now why Neon backtracked and did end up releasing it - but I'm glad they did. I don't need any lifelong frustrations about movies I missed during their theatrical runs, even if I do eventually get to see illegal bootleg recordings of them. (I'm still waiting for VR cinemas at home.) Anyway, I concede that many films can lose a little something once seen at home, and Memoria is one I'd say rates highly on that scale because it would have been the perfect place to hear that sound. Fomp!

I kept on thinking of the title The Woman Who Fell to Earth while watching Memoria, and if you need some kind of description of the film's vibe, that's my best approximation. She's just involved in some kind of flower business, and visits various people while in Columbia - including her sister in hospital, a sound engineer to help pinpoint the exact sound she keeps hearing, a paleontologist excavating land that has ancient humans buried in it, a doctor, and a whole variety of strangers. Her discussions with these people do their own kind of excavating, and are much more free-form and searching than your regular garden variety conversations are. The final scene (which is a really, really long scene) is what really transfixed me, and as such I left feeling like the experience had been really uneven for me. That makes it really hard to rate. It didn't work perfectly, but there was so much in this I thought exceptional.

Glad to catch this one - won the Jury prize at Cannes in 2021, and was Columbia's entry for possible nomination at the 94th Academy Awards.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/66dz3Hp7/memoria.jpg

Watchlist Count : 442 (-8)

Next : The Brand New Testament (2015)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Memoria.

This was my No.1 film of its year.


(And you're right, in the theater that sound almost makes your bowels move.)

[matt72582]

https://i.postimg.cc/G3gKQjC1/coach-to-vienna.jpg

CARRIAGE TO VIENNA (1966)

Directed by : Karel Kachyňa

At what point does your natural desire for vengeance melt in the face of innocent humanity? Czechoslovakia, May 1945. Krista (Iva Janžurová) has just gone through the trauma of witnessing her husband get executed by retreating Nazi's for a trivial, trifling offence. Barely a moment passes before a German soldier, a deserter, orders her at gunpoint to help him transport his wounded comrade south to Vienna in her horse-drawn wagon. Bristling with fury, she plans to kill them at the very first opportunity - but how? The hidden axe underneath the wagon bed? The pistol left lying in the straw, practically unguarded? Or perhaps the rifle Hans (Jaromír Hanzlík) carelessly throws around - at times with a white handkerchief tied to the barrel. It'll take some nerve and good timing to catch them off guard - and she'll only get one chance. In the meantime, Hans showers her with gifts, thanks and friendliness - none of which she particularly wants.

I was quite surprised to come across a Czech film made so soon after the Second World War that paints it's German characters as very human, and in some cases innocent. By contrast the partisans are downright brutal - and of course this caused some controversy for the film when it was released. In 1968, when the Soviets strengthened their grip on the country, the film was banned outright. I never felt like this film was taking sides politically at all - it was simply a question of humanity, regardless of creed or country. Some Germans were evil, some were innocent. Some partisans turned to brutality, some were noble. Some civilians sought revenge, and some forgave. Hans is a boy, doesn't want to fight, and becomes quite enamoured with the undoubtedly good looking Krista - without even thinking about sides and conflict. Krista, on the other hand, has been pushed onto a different path after being on the wrong end of capricious cruelty.

Carriage to Vienna was very good, and another really simple straightforward film involving few characters and a virtually unchanging forest location (which the film makes great use of - it feels as if the characters are pinned in a claustrophobic self-imposed prison.) Injured soldier Günther (Luděk Munzar) only wakes occasionally, making it a mostly two-character story as well. It's not something that'll leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling though, despite it's focus being on humanity. When you reach the closing stages of the worst conflict in human history, brutality and bloodshed crouch around every corner. There was a reckoning awaiting in Czechoslovakia, no matter any moment of clarity a person could or would feel in passing. This 1966 Czech offering really puts a lot of the war films coming out at the same time around the world to shame, and was really decades and decades ahead of it's time. I couldn't help thinking all the way through how much it feels like the kind of film that would be made nowadays, and definitely not way back then. Brave filmmaking.

Glad to catch this one - deserves recognition.

rating_4

https://i.postimg.cc/fT1NgYfp/coach.jpg

Watchlist Count : 448 (-2)

Next : The Ear (1970)


Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Carriage to Vienna.


I was very high on this movie and sure I had it in my Top 250... But the thing I remember most is how she got the attention of the horse, "Brrrrrrrr"

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/jq4k1dhv/the-ear.jpg

THE EAR (1970)
(Ucho)

Directed by : Karel Kachyňa

The burning question I had was "How the hell do you make a film like Ucho during an era of Soviet repression and censorship?" It was answered as soon as I logged on to Wikipedia. Despite being made in 1970, it wasn't possible for this film to be released until 1990. I had already credited Karel Kachyňa as being brave for making Carriage to Vienna, and apparently there was nothing this filmmaker wasn't going to tackle in spite of the probable backlash he'd face for going to these places in his films. Officially, nobody in the Communist (Soviet puppet) Czech government spied on their various ministers and senior officials - and there could be a free flow of ideas without danger of being imprisoned. In reality houses were bugged, and agents listened in day and night - especially spying on people who had some kind of uncertainty hanging over them. It was all meant to be about ideology - but loyalty is the key issue at play here. When it comes to abuses of power, maintaining an iron grip on it is what mostly leads to the abuse of what's possible in a police state.

Ucho is about senior official Ludvík (Radoslav Brzobohatý) and his wife Anna (Jiřina Bohdalová) living in Prague, who come home from a big political party celebration in a state of inebriation and ill-temper. The two go at each other like Martha and George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but as they enter their two-story house (after forgetting their keys at the party) they're disturbed to find their spare keys hanging in the door, objects in the house moved around, and the back door hanging ajar. Their power is out, but their neighbours have power - and in what couldn't be a coincidence, the telephone isn't working either. As they bicker Ludvík comes to the conclusion that there are incriminating files he has to destroy, and that they better watch what they say - leaving their most private comments for places that aren't usually bugged. Their paranoia grows as the night goes on, which potently mixes with their intoxication, marital problems, inner demons and the increasing suspicion that it might be too late for Ludvík to save himself. Flashbacks to the party reveal moments that might have had more meaning than the couple thought at the time.

What's unique and kind of original about Ucho is the way it balances (and compares or analogises) the antagonism that goes on between this couple and their oppressive overlords and the situation they are in concerning their marriage. Kachyňa creates a very intimate portrait of a couple that have learned to hate each other - but at least they can openly express their feelings as far as that goes. There's also an unspoken contempt for their government, which is completely intolerant of any kind of dissent. The situation they are in evolves over the course of this one night though, as both characters are stripped down to their core components. There are surprises in store as this happens. It's amazing to think that this great film was made only for it to go unreleased and left to waste - at least until the 1990s - and it's kind of inspiring to see a filmmaker do something that could cause a lot of trouble for him, but nonetheless be something that needed to be expressed. It's a brilliantly edited, very well shot film with very good performances - and when you consider Carriage to Vienna it's not hard to see how good a filmmaker this guy was.

Glad to catch this one - included in Steven Jay Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die and Karel Kachyňa was nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/Fznsyfhp/ucho.jpg

Watchlist Count : 448 (-2)

Next : Un mauvais fils (A Bad Son) (1980)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Ucho.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/9QqcTh1h/a-bad-son.jpg

A BAD SON (1980)
(Un mauvais fils)

Directed by : Claude Sautet

To get the most dramatic satisfaction from A Bad Son (Un mauvais fils) it kind of helps to dwell on the intensity tragic French film star Patrick Dewaere gives the lead role - that of Bruno Calgagni. Bruno is just arriving back in France when we meet him - an ignoble return as he's just been released from a 5 year stint in a U.S. prison for drug dealing. While he was away, his mother has passed, and as such he only has a father to return to. A father, René (Yves Robert), who doesn't even know he's about to knock on his door. Bruno is an agreeable sort of guy, but it's his tendency to fraternize with addicts and prostitutes that creates much conflict between his father and him. During his time reestablishing himself, Bruno meets fellow addict Catherine (Brigitte Fossey) and shuffles in and out of jobs, all while his volatile relationship with his father has it's explosive ups and downs. In the end, Bruno might prove to be the best of them all though.

I was gutted to read about Patrick Dewaere. By 1982 (only 2 years after A Bad Son came out), after spending most of his life acting and being nominated for 6 César Awards for Best Actor over a 7 year period, the troubled thespian aimed a rifle at himself and took his own life. His wife, Elsa Chalier had left him for his best friend - and Dewaere had struggled with depression all through his life. Watching him in this film (for which one of his César Award nominations had been for) was a real revelation and I thought he had something special. A Bad Son is full of great performances though, from Yves Robert to Brigitte Fossey to Jacques Dufilho who, as gay bookshop proprietor Adrien Dussart actually won a Best Supporting Actor César Award himself. This is a very mature film with very varied characters whose relationships are in a constant state of flux - and another who is introduced early, Madeleine (Claire Maurier - also nominated for a César) also plays a very important role in how all of this evolves.

Hanging over Bruno Calgagni throughout this film is the death of his mother, who took to drugs herself when her son left, and was soon consumed when his troubles became more and more dire. Despite his happy-go-lucky personality, you can see it weigh on him - and further revelations will add fuel to some emotionally raging fire within. A Bad Son doesn't turn into a full-blown drug relapse/recovery film like I was afraid it would at one stage - instead revolving around relationships and really allowing the narrative to dedicate itself to the way these characters relate to each other. Bruno and Catherine weather familiar dangers, while Dussart becomes the strong father-figure René finds himself unable to be. Bruno himself is an interesting mix of easy-going, dependable and intelligent, but is something of a rolling stone. The mix we get has an interesting taste and Claude Sautet drives it to his own rhythms - not depending on huge melodramatic fireworks, but instead digging deep into a contemplation about a father/son dynamic skewed by generational distance and a loss of connection. Great stuff for good actors to sink their teeth into, and interesting to watch.

Glad to catch this one - nominated for 6 César Awards at the 1981 Awards Ceremony.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/9MGgFsFC/bad-son.jpg

Watching Weird : The Al Yankovic Story helped bring my watchlist number down another notch, although I'm only just starting to grasp how hard it'll be getting some distance from that 450 figure!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/Weird_The_Al_Yankovic_Story.jpg

Watchlist Count : 447 (-3)

Next : The Round-Up (1966) - 2nd attempt

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Un mauvais fils.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/Rh9L85j0/round.webp

THE ROUND-UP (1966)

Directed by : Miklós Jancsó

The Round-Up is unlike any other film I've really looked at and tried to understand. It marches forward purposeful in it's determination to disorientate the viewer, and if a narrative strand starts to take shape it very purposely cuts it, then cauterizing the wound. If for a moment we start to wonder if things are meant to be this way then this is confirmed as we soon notice the faces of the various prisoners that are characters in the film - they're afraid, and just as confused as us. We're one of them. We never get to be a fly on the wall during strategy sessions the prison staff might be holding. Their various ways of weeding out the worst of Sándor Rózsa's guerrilla band are always happening, and the cast of characters always changing - promises of clemency, threats and tricks doled out by one group who has total power over the other. A time-honored game of marches, bags over heads, tiny dark cells, hangings, shootings, torture and mind games. In the meantime, lies and deception become reality.

Here we have the subjugation of prisoners, abuse of power, interrogation techniques and demoralisation down to a very unfamiliar 19th Century artform. Amongst it we see things we are familiar with today - the bags on heads for instance, which made it's return when the United States became openly nasty in it's campaigns in the Middle East (it has to be noted though - as far as warfare is concerned, other nations can be far nastier.) If there are reminders of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay it's because the parallels are striking. Prisoners have one rich resource which those in power want to take from them - and that's information. To do that they have their resolve completely crushed, so they don't care anymore whether it is taken from them. Seeing a prisoner in Round-Up run around ratting on all his brothers because he's become obsessed with absolving and saving himself is the result of the way the guards psychologically worked him over in previous scenes - and they don't even need to execute him anymore. The prisoners will take care of that. Then the prisoner that killed him will be worked over.

Miklós Jancsó films all of this on the steppes of Hungary, giving us wide open nothingness and a feeling of complete isolation. It's as if nothing else exists anymore. He expands it further by allowing elements such as horses to leave the shot and then cross back into it, or having the camera leave the confines of a cramped room into the perfectly flat, never-ending landscape. There's no real protagonist in this film - we never stick with a character, and although it's always obvious some kind of trick is being played out on this or that prisoner, we're never quite sure what the endgame is as far as how it's meant to play out. It's the ultimate in confusion, and as such gives us an absolutely spot-on perspective of being hopelessly played with by powerful forces who will most likely kill you at some point, but will hold out enough hope that you'll do their bidding no matter what that might be. They tell you that you'll never see your family again, and then in the very next breath that you're free to go. It's never been so scary to hear "you're free to go" - because what the jailer obviously means is you're free to go to the afterlife in the next few moments.

Glad to catch this one - screened in the Cannes Classics section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/DzVdpvx1/round-up.jpg

Watchlist Count : 448 (-2)

Next : Across 110th Street (1972)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Round-Up.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/sDJF21Y3/across.jpg

ACROSS 110TH STREET (1972)

Directed by : Barry Shear

Across 110th Street is a hard film to classify - it's too well budgeted to be slapped with a grindhouse tag (executive producer Anthony Quinn wanted John Wayne or Kirk Douglas to play the role he ended up taking for himself - hardly Driller Killer type trash then) and not quite fully into blaxploitation territory either - although elements of both are on full display regardless. But boy - director Barry Shear wanted us to get a real feel of the filthy, poor, rotten Harlem streets, and I think that alone makes it feel like you're watching a low budget grindhouse flick. He managed to film on location and defy naysayers by taking advantage of the new lightweight Arriflex 35 IIC camera, meaning the real Harlem streets and tenements weren't as tricky to negotiate. The places we go look terrible (and somehow familiar to me - but I was a student once, trying to make a go of it in the inner city - low rent city apartments have a "many many paint jobs" feel to them, as if misery itself can be painted over.) It's location camera work that gives the film an authentic feel, for which there's no substitute.

So it's a mix of race, poverty and justice in a gritty kind of crime film manner. We have lots of jive-talking and white mafioso trying to run things but always seeming out of place. We have a high-stakes robbery - $300,000 from a mob-run "bank" by three desperados (in an early role, check out Burt Young as one of the "bankers" - so cool - but he dies so quickly.) Jim Harris (Paul Benjamin), Joe Logart (Ed Bernard) and Henry J. Jackson (Antonio Fargas) are the robbers - and the film really earns it's tagline : "If you steal $300,000 from the mob, it's not robbery. It's suicide." Apart from mob capo Nick D'Salvio (Anthony Franciosa), two cops are also desperately seeking the trio. White, racist Capt. Frank Mattelli (Anthony Quinn), who brutalizes suspects and is on his way out, along with the black and by the book Lt. William Pope (Yaphet Kotto), who is in charge and on the way up. I liked that the story had a range of things going on, with the black mafia, the Italian mafia, the cops and the robbers all having their specific storylines and dramas. The soundtrack is also absolutely brilliant.

Was this a little too "In the Heat of the Night" regarding it's white cop/black cop storyline? Well, if it's kind of grindhouse then cliché is the rule and not the exception and anyway - they didn't feel like the center of the story. One of the great things about this film is that the poverty itself was central, and all the players played such equal roles. There's a great scene where Harris relates to his girlfriend about the fact that he's been to jail, has a disability and never had a good education - meaning there's no longer any way out of impoverishment for him. Across 110th Street was absolutely castigated by the critics when it came out as trash - so it's funny about it's reappraisal today. What's changed? Perhaps it's that we've been somewhat culturally removed from this early 70s kind of funky jive-talk and New York crime wave era period. It's easier to see beyond all of that, and enjoy it for being an historical epoch now. Even the violence doesn't seem gratuitous anymore, but simply a way of telling an audience about economic desperation and it's life and death consequences.

Glad to catch this one - it's Soundtrack album is a must have. Not noticed much in it's day, this film might just be a future stayer and classic cultural artifact.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/ZRGxYTdy/across2.jpg

Poor Things, which I saw today, was on my watchlist - thankfully giving me another push. I need it, because after nearly a month I haven't made much headway!

https://i.postimg.cc/QMTS8tbQ/poor-things.jpg

Watchlist Count : 446 (-4)

Next : Pale Flower (1964)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Across 110th Street.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/y6TSryS2/pale-flower-3.jpg

PALE FLOWER (1964)

Directed by : Masahiro Shinoda

Sometimes you approach a filmmaker and hit upon the one film where they're first experiencing cinematic mastery, and here we have Masahiro Shinoda's Pale Flower, a Japanese film noir experience that's extremely satisfying for any lover of cinema to watch. Our central protagonist, Muraki (Ryô Ikebe) is a high ranking Yakuza hitman who at the moment we meet him has been released from prison after a three year stint for murder. He's a middle-aged, serious sort who has his haunts, and is well known about the streets his gang virtually own - but only one thing manages to wipe the grey, expressionless boredom from his face. Saeko (Mariko Kaga). Saeko is sitting in a gambling den, being a lone woman playing Hanafuda with an attractive kind of intensity which lights up the whole room. As Muraki asks about her, returns, and introduces himself he becomes involved in an extreme but sexless relationship where Saeko not only wants to gamble for higher and higher stakes, but take more outrageous risks and invite danger to eke out a desperate trace of feeling alive. Muraki tries to satiate her need, and save her, showing her the one act that does take a person to the very peak of that mountain.

Exponents of film noir and cinema as an art form rather than a commodity often use cinematography and editing combined to create such gratifying shape and motion - Pale Flower is superbly stylish, always looking cool and pleasing the eye. It also sounds fantastic (as a topic that was heatedly discussed at Shochiku, Shinoda emphasised sound effects and score over dialogue - the film was even delayed 9 months until the controversy over that died down.) The gritty noir darkness combined with Japanese sensibilities brings out something unique here - a collision of very strict culture, Western influence, edginess and crime that bleeds into every scene. Despite that darkness though, there's a happiness to the Yakuza that underlines Saeko's desperate unhappiness - she's such an unusual character for a Japanese film, for she takes no notice of gender rules. While you might expect a Japanese woman to be punished for being that way, instead Saeko becomes popular and brightens up any gambling den she visits - and Muraki is drawn to her like a moth to a flame. She becomes an obsession. It creates a fascinating dynamic - especially when Saeko wants to go places Muraki doesn't.

I thought Pale Flower pretty masterly, and very enjoyable to just sit back and appreciate. I understand that all of the Yakuza would feel the way Saeko does if they were to go straight or be bound by feminine roles - which really tells you why they are what they are. There are some great scenes in this too. The car chase mid-movie, between two sports cars (one driven by Saeko, the other by an unnamed Japanese man whose reaction to being raced provides another highlight to the film) is a real joy to watch. The score is something else entirely - so unusual, dissonant and striking that it deserves a review of it's own, and is very much a component in the film's winning hand. Deadly games of cat and mouse through the murky, inky black streets feel intense - as does the strange attraction Muraki and Saeko have for each other. They're a cinematic couple who feel comparable to some of the great ones in movies - exchanging something that goes beyond physicality and sentiment. So - this is a film that's pretty important when talking about the Japanese New Wave, as is Shinoda. There was something about it that makes me think of Kurosawa's High and Low (made just the year previously) - so fans of that might be well advised to check this out.

Glad to catch this one - Criterion number 564, and on Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/65b1rwHb/pale-flower2.jpg

Watchlist Count : 445 (-5)

Next : The Innocents (2021)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Pale Flower.

[SpelingError]

I watched that one a while ago, so I barely remember it. I remember liking it quite a lot though.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/BQJzSMWf/inno.jpg

THE INNOCENTS (2021)

Directed by : Eskil Vogt

That was a hell of a thing. Gripping is the word I'd use, and I'd really emphasise it because I was held tight by The Innocents, and not let go until it finished. It started to have it's effect on me at a particularly unpleasant moment, when young Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum) who has moved to a large apartment complex with severely autistic sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad) drops a cat from near the top floor with disturbed child Ben (Sam Ashraf) - before going downstairs to finish it off. As unendurable as that is, it put me in a sickened mood which the film exploited going forward - because in one brief movement Eskil Vogt has told me a lot about these kids - especially Ben, who from that moment on takes on a menacing darkness which will only get worse as the film progresses. Where my expectations were misplaced was in that I thought all of these kids were going to turn bad - but this is really going to turn into a war between four children as Ben's supernatural powers (yeah - he can move rocks at first) expand, and spread through four children - Ida, Anna, kindly little Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim) and Ben, who puts Brightburn to shame.

What The Innocents does really well is make the fact that these kids start acquiring heightened supernatural powers feel absolutely believable. The kids mess around with them and play games, just as kids would - but at a certain point Ben starts lashing out, and he has many avenues to terrorize and hurt the other kids. Whoever can kill a cat the way he did could go on to kill people - and Ben can do this by possessing the minds of other adults, crushing the bones and organs of others with pure thought, or moving heavy objects at speed from a distance. Soon people start dying, and Ida, Anna and Aisha have nobody to depend on but themselves - a terrible circumstance for children. This is what makes The Innocents so tense, scary and riveting - kids don't often choose the most considered options, but somehow this battle feels epic and spiritual in scope once it hits it's strides. That's because Anna - almost completely disabled by her condition - has the most powers and seems to have a very strong inner consciousness. Vogt makes her seem great without taking away her disability, and I really liked that.

The Innocents is the most exciting new horror watch I've had this year (most likely soon to be remade in the United States) and I recommend it strongly to anyone who hasn't seen it. Quite a follow-up to Blind from Eskil Vogt (who in the meantime has penned some fantastic Joachim Trier films.) Beware if you love cats - I do, and that part of the film hurts. But still, like I said, it put me in that disturbed mindset that worked in the film's favour. Sam Ashraf is a little Damien - I don't know if he just looks that way, or if his performance darkened his demeanour that way, probably a little bit of both. Effects-wise the film is sparing and perfect, giving us a masterful visual experience which focuses a lot on the faces of the children, and the way they internally guide their efforts. Innocence mixed with a growing sense of becoming more and more lost - apart from Ben who descends into pure determined, murderous blackness. It's a lot of fun, but also just disturbing enough to make you squirm a little. It's what parents fear most when they send their kids out to play while living in these massive apartments - nearby, but really so far away. I really enjoyed The Innocents to the hilt.

Glad to catch this one - premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 74th Cannes Film Festival.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/RFDNQfqZ/innocents.jpg

Watchlist Count : 445 (-5)

Next : Sergeant Rutledge (1960)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Innocents.

[Takoma11]

Evil kids are about tied with torture porn in terms of horror subgenres I am absolutely not drawn to.

Though I have heard many good things about The Innocents (and that poster is fabulous).

[SpelingError]

Evil kids are about tied with torture porn in terms of horror subgenres I am absolutely not drawn to.

Though I have heard many good things about The Innocents (and that poster is fabulous).

What about Village of the Damned?

[WHITBISSELL!]

I watched that one a while ago, so I barely remember it. I remember liking it quite a lot though.I liked it too. This was around the time when I was hip deep in a lot of Japanese noir like A Colt is my Passport and Cruel Gun Story. Thank you TCM.

[Takoma11]

What about Village of the Damned?

Like, it's fine. Those are more spooky kids than evil kids, if you get the distinction I'm making here.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/vBgYjyBd/sergeant-rutledge.webp

SERGEANT RUTLEDGE (1960)

Directed by : John Ford

I've seen a fair few John Ford films, and I never really would have pegged him as progressive or anything other than a conservative, so I was interested in Sergeant Rutledge - the story of a black sergeant in the 9th U.S. Cavalry, Rutledge (Woody Strode) accused of raping a white girl and killing her father. It's a courtroom film in which the action consists of flashbacks, and it manages to work in a lot of the Western genre action Ford was famous for. The Defiant Ones - one of my favourite race relations films of the era, had been released just two years previously. Does this do as good a job? Well, it's very direct - and I didn't mind that, even though it'd be seen as a little heavy handed today. Most surprising is the way all of the black characters are treated and filmed in this - glorified at times, in a way I've never seen from a film made so long ago. The villains are basically the townsfolk ready to lynch Rutledge, automatically assuming his guilt because he's black and there's circumstantial evidence - more than enough for them. Of course the prosecutor - often mentioning this "black man" who committed a crime against a "white woman" - adds to that. The figure of fun is the judge presiding, Col. Otis Fosgate (played wonderfully by Willis Bouchey.)

As a film that deals with race, it isn't perfect. For me, even though the black soldiers were highly esteemed and portrayed as monumental heroes, the movie felt like it was first and foremost a white person's film in which the black characters appear. Lt. Tom Cantrell (Jeffrey Hunter), Rutledge's defense attorney, is the lead character despite the film's title. His love interest, Mary Beecher (Constance Towers) is credited above Strode's Rutledge, and even old screen star Billie Burke, who plays a small role, has her name in large type on the posters (while Strode's is tiny, down the bill.) One poster (not the one shown below) is significant because it makes Rutledge look white - the exact same hue as Cantrell - and when you read about the trailers and such, it's obvious the studio wanted to downplay the fact that this film was about race and a black man. Despite that, it tanked at the box office. Still - I admire it for not beating around the bush and acknowledging what it was like for black men accused of crimes like this. The race issue is openly laid bare, and talked about in a frank manner. For that, I think the movie is okay.

Okay - but was it good, considering it's a John Ford film? It's not one of his best, but the biggest surprise for me was how well the courtroom action, and various dramatic scenes, were structured and filmed. When it comes time for what seems like requisite Western action with battles against Native Americans (ironically depicted as savages), it feels like Ford himself is bored, and constructs those scenes in a very rote way. Rutledge himself is shot from very low angles, Ford going all-in as far as giving him a prideful, heroic, almost mythic status. He saves the regiment when it's against his personal interest, and is more honorable than the entire undeserving town put together. I've read that this late into his career, John Ford was trying to make up for the way he'd portrayed black characters in the past. I'd have to say he does this here in a very thoughtful way, using his talent at glamorizing heroes. The film also acknowledges what black people have had to go through persecution-wise, and that although Lincoln declared African Americans free people, it would be many, many generations before this is even partly true. That Rutledge would be assumed guilty, and treated harshly and unfairly. Sergeant Rutledge doesn't pussyfoot or hedge. It's not a really great Western, but it is a really great and frank film about race for it's day.

Glad to catch this one - one of the few American films of the 1960s to have a Black man in a leading role and the first mainstream western to do so.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/0NyKkZP2/rutledge.jpg

Watchlist Count : 444 (-6)

Next : Taste of Cherry (1997)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Sergeant Rutledge.

[Citizen Rules]

Phoenix I looked through all of your watch list movies and I must say you seem to have really great taste in watching what I'd call connoisseur movies. I haven't seen any of them, me bad!...except for the noirs you watched. Oh and I seen the John Ford film.

[PHOENIX74]

Phoenix I looked through all of your watch list movies and I must say you seem to have really great taste in watching what I'd call connoisseur movies. I haven't seen any of them, me bad!...except for the noirs you watched. Oh and I seen the John Ford film.


Thanks Citizen! - Yeah, I've actually been bowled over by the run I've had here of movies I've really enjoyed a lot. I guess a lot of that comes from reading reviews (there are a lot of great reviewers right here who I enjoy reading) and getting that telling urge that I'd probably like it. I owe a couple of recent great ones to you - Sweet Smell of Success and The Ox-Bow Incident. Both of those are all-time favourites now, on your recommendation. Most of the time, I don't remember who guided me to whatever film I watch from my watchlist. If it's a film anyone loves, chances are I've watched it because of what they said about it.

[Citizen Rules]

Thanks Citizen! - Yeah, I've actually been bowled over by the run I've had here of movies I've really enjoyed a lot. I guess a lot of that comes from reading reviews (there are a lot of great reviewers right here who I enjoy reading) and getting that telling urge that I'd probably like it. I owe a couple of recent great ones to you - Sweet Smell of Success and The Ox-Bow Incident. Both of those are all-time favourites now, on your recommendation. Most of the time, I don't remember who guided me to whatever film I watch from my watchlist. If it's a film anyone loves, chances are I've watched it because of what they said about it.I'm a fan of both of those especially Sweet Smell of Success, love that one. I thought it was neat that you say on your reviews, 'Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch (name of movie).' It's a nice touch. Maybe I'll see one of your films from this thread in the 33rd HoF. I of course enjoyed the last nom Picnic at Hanging Rock.

[PHOENIX74]

Like, it's fine. Those are more spooky kids than evil kids, if you get the distinction I'm making here.

I'm guessing The Omen and The Ring are okay but We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Good Son are right out.

[Takoma11]

I'm guessing The Omen and The Ring are okay but We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Good Son are right out.

Correct. (Though I've never seen The Omen, a fact that horrifies my sister, LOL).

Cruelty/sociopathic/psychopathic/sadistic behavior in kids isn't something I see that often in my work, but it is there at times and it is disturbing and emotionally exhausting to deal with and makes me very anxious. It falls under the category of "see it at work, don't need it in my entertainment, thanks!".

Trying to think of evil kid movies I actually like, I mostly draw a blank. I thought Cub was disturbing but good, and Who Can Kill a Child?. But I thought both of those stepped a bit outside the normal tropes I associate with the genre (animal cruelty, dead-eyed staring, etc).

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/43PbkHJk/Taste-Of-Cherry.jpg

TASTE OF CHERRY (1997)

Directed by : Abbas Kiarostami

Talk about transcendence. Taste of Cherry is more than that though - it's near-flawless filmmaking that works no matter which way you look at it. It's filled with abundant, rich meaning from every perspective. It cuts to our core, in an existential way and as importantly in a way which makes us examine our connection to others and the world itself. The plot is very simple to sum up : Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) has decided to end his life, but he's determined to find someone who will bury his body after he dies. To do this he tries to befriend, cajole, reward and otherwise influence people who are reluctant to participate in such a process. If you agree, are you not giving some kind of tacit approval for what he's doing? Or would a real friend agree to this man's dying request? In the meantime he drives these people around a desert landscape with little life to be seen for miles in any direction. A golden, vast space within which Mr. Badii endlessly searches. There's a vibrant orange beauty, and a gleaming, resplendent aliveness to the very earth itself, which exhibits no natural life at all - and that translates beautifully to film. It's size makes people look small - but it's nothing if there's nobody around to appreciate it.

Abbas Kiarostami of course manages to absolutely smash that 4th wall to pieces late in the piece, bringing himself and the film crew into the movie. I have my own interpretation as to what it means when this happens, and it added to my appreciation of this film. It's as if one character's decision and action splits the very fabric of the narrative itself, and brings us outside of what has been going on. Whatever your interpretation though, this is a common methadology of this filmmaker, and we almost expect it. I remember how well it worked in Close-Up (1990) and other Iranian films which have adopted this style. When I look at the sheer number of Kiarostami films out there, I'm taken aback however - and wonder if I should watch a great deal more before I say anything about his style and method. In any event - it's what I take away from the little I've seen so far. What it amounted to was an openness in which I was able to give the film an interpretation which fit perfectly with how I saw the film as a whole - others interpret it differently, but most leave the ending as an open question.

I connected with this film immediately, and loved everything it was doing - whether it felt painful, good, bad or bittersweet. Homayoun Ershadi - who Kiarostami discovered as an architect in Tehran out of the blue - does a surprisingly good job of embodying a person at the end of his spiritual tether. I found his interactions with suspicious strangers, and the terrible barrier he had to try and break through fascinating - especially the different way each person reacted to his request. I thought the cinematography and visuals were breathtaking, and the way they meshed with the themes and meaning of the film pure perfection. I felt the especially strong pulse of humanism flowing through the film paramount to it's being an absolute masterpiece. In fact, it has a feel of a master-work that belongs amongst the highest ranks of cinematic achievement. It's incredibly beautiful - exquisite in every way and a work of art I have the highest admiration for. I was completely taken aback by the way it shines - it's warmth putting your average cinematic output to shame. I only regret that I didn't find a way earlier to squeeze in how much I enjoyed taxidermist character Mr. Bagheri's (Abdolrahman Bagheri) soliloquy on how he was saved from suicide by the taste of mulberries and interaction with children, which could easily have been ham-fisted but instead is delivered in a way that worked as an affirmation of life of the highest order. Makes this paragraph unwieldy, but it touched me so deeply it must go mentioned. A truly great film, and I loved every minute.

Glad to catch this one - awarded the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. Criterion number 45 and in Steven Jay Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

5

https://i.postimg.cc/x1QfCsvV/taste-of-cherry.jpg

Watchlist Count : 447 (-3)

Next : The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Taste of Cherry.

[Takoma11]

I really owe Taste of Cherry a rewatch. I remember being so stressed out when I watched it (during grad school) and I SO didn't click with it.

[SpelingError]

I imagine Taste of Cherry would greatly improve with a rewatch. I kept going back and forth on whether the ending helped or harmed the film when I first watched it, which put somewhat of a bar as to how much I enjoyed it, but I imagine I'd click with it much more now.

[Wyldesyde19]

I aim to watch Taste of Cherry soon (as in, this year). But I’ve read that it sharply divides critics

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/RZdRPc3p/lady.webp

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1947)

Directed by : Orson Welles

Well, no matter how calamitous the final cut, there's always something interesting going on in an Orson Welles-directed feature. The Lady From Shanghai features the man himself along with his ex-wife, Rita Hayworth - hair short and dyed blonde, being as alluring as ever. Their marriage was kaput, and the pair struggle to ignite the film with enough chemistry to really convince, but Hayworth gives a good performance. The movie is only the jangly bones of what Welles intended - his cut ran 155 minutes, but after test screenings the studio pruned this to a scant 88 minutes, losing over an hour of footage. Much as he was to do later with Touch of Evil, Welles wrote a memo imploring some compromise - but it went unheeded. What we're left with is a really good film noir classic regardless - fascinating camera direction and sparks of brilliant invention were part of Orson Welles' allure, and that's something no amount of trimming could dilute. Welles plays Irish sailor Michael O'Hara - complete with thick accent - and it's his screen presence (which is magnified by Hayworth's) that makes the movie immediately interesting and grabs our attention.

O'Hara stumbles across Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth) taking a ride in Central Park, and is immediately entranced - but Elsa comes with a scheming defense attorney husband, Arthur Bannister (Everett Sloane - one of Welles' Mercury Theatre players.) Although O'Hara is allured, it takes much convincing to get him to sign up as a member of the crew on Arthur's yacht - and it begs the question, what's the catch? Why does Arthur want O'Hara as one of his crew so badly? To satisfy his wayward wife? Is Elsa up to something here? Well, once aboard we find that all of Arthur's friends and cronies are acting weird, and that O'Hara isn't in on the joke. He's attracted to Elsa, but at the same time it feels like he's a fly approaching a spider, and in any case he's constantly being watched. When fellow traveler George Grisby (Glenn Anders) approaches with a proposition you know it's bad news - and so does O'Hara really, but still - $5000. That's enough for O'Hara to start a new life with Elsa if she's on the level. I'm watching thinking that O'Hara is crazy for not running for his life every time that yacht reaches shore.

There's a lot of great stuff here. Famous from The Lady From Shanghai is the funhouse finale, with mirrors distorting what's going on, and giving conspirators wrong targets to aim at and shoot. It's a scene that has been often imitated - and Welles seems to have been very assured as to what he wanted from each shot, pulling them all off marvelously. His camera direction and inventiveness is something we could have done with a lot more - a shame he was shunned the way he was. The narrative, taken from "If I Die Before I Wake" by Raymond Sherwood King, makes for noir plotting that's complex enough to be interesting but simple enough to follow easily - all the while making it impossible to predict what's about to happen. Cards are kept close to everyone's chest, except for O'Hara, who is the innocent amongst all of this. Performances are up to snuff (I was especially impressed by Sloane) - and the only drawback is that I feel the missing hour plus. I'd be first in line if it were possible to conjure up the 155 minute version. There's enough magic to suffice however, and The Lady From Shanghai is definitely worth a look for any fan of cinema or film noir.

Glad to catch this one - included in Steven Jay Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/QtZvnDCm/shanghai.jpg

Watchlist Count : 446 (-4)

Next : Barbara (2012)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Lady From Shanghai.

[Wyldesyde19]

The Lady from Shanghai is pretty good, but I prefer The Stranger over it.

[Wooley]

https://i.postimg.cc/RZdRPc3p/lady.webp

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1947)

Directed by : Orson Welles

Well, no matter how calamitous the final cut, there's always something interesting going on in an Orson Welles-directed feature.

3.5

[CENTER]https://i.postimg.cc/QtZvnDCm/shanghai.jpg

[CENTER]Watchlist Count : 446 (-4)


Man, I wish there was a Director's Cut of this somewhere.
I thought there was a truly great film lost here. And still very seriously worth seeing.

[PHOENIX74]

Man, I wish there was a Director's Cut of this somewhere.
I thought there was a truly great film lost here. And still very seriously worth seeing.

My thoughts exactly.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/tJ3HxFCG/barbara.jpg

BARBARA (2012)

Directed by : Christian Petzold

Life in East Germany became a hot topic in the wake of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others, and Barbara's marketing leaned heavily into that. One thing you can tell when watching it though, is that this is being told on Christian Petzold's terms - and as such it is very evenly paced and sedate, without the powerful dramaticism of that earlier film. We see everything from the perspective of Barbara Wolff (Nina Hoss), and the only time we're outside of that point of view is at the film's very beginning, when fellow-doctor André Reiser (Ronald Zehrfeld) and Stasi officer Klaus Schütz (Rainer Bock) eye her up from a distance at the new small-town hospital she'll be working at since coming under stricter surveillance. To call that surveillance invasive would be an understatement - every time her flat is searched, Barbara herself gets a strip search and body cavity search. As one of her patients notes in succinct terms, this is a "scheiße land". There isn't anyone who doesn't want to escape their lot and live a life where they don't have to constantly watch what they say, who they socialize with, what they do, where they live or where they go.

Barbara's desire to leave means she's in no hurry to form new and lasting friendships at the place she's now working. André though, seems determined to break through her very hard outer shell - not knowing that all the while, Barbara's partner Jörg (Mark Waschke), who is now living in West Germany, is plotting her escape from the East. While a lot of Barbara's focus is on her relationship with André and Jörg plus the escape, there's another which deals with Barbara's relationship with the patients that come in for treatment - sometimes dragged in by police officers. There's pregnant Stella (Jasna Fritzi Bauer) - whose baby is destined to be taken away from her, and Mario (Jannik Schümann), who may well need surgery after a desperate suicide attempt. It's her compassion for these people that throw her whole quest for freedom into doubt and turmoil. That's the part of Barbara I found most interesting - it's more than Barbara suffering. A whole nation is. Those less fortunate than Barbara have no means of escaping - no lover waiting over the border. Is it right for her to just up and save herself - especially considering she's dedicated to helping people?

I remember Christian Petzold's Phoenix very well (that ending!) and while Barbara doesn't hit as hard, it's still very substantial and well filmed. It's full of scenes where we're just as stressed as the characters as to whether someone is watching at the wrong time. When Jörg's friend takes him to see Barbara, and the two are making love in a forest, the waiting friend is slowly approached by a car - and we all hold our breath. It's a harmless old man - or is it really? That paranoia is expertly created through careful editing, great cinematography and sound - working excellently together. Other than that, the screenplay (co-written by Petzold with Harun Farocki) is something to really admire. Life in the East is a slow drip of humiliation, drabness, fear, frustration and confinement. Petzold expands on it by having his characters tell detailed anecdotes, and quote novels - and those moments were also my favourite moments in Barbara. There's one about a horrifying mistake (helped along by East German scarcity) made by André that left two infants permanently blind - which is why he's practicing at this outpost. All in all, an excellent film about what escape really means for Barbara - one that can touch a nerve in anyone.

Glad to catch this one - winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival along with the "Reader Jury".

4

https://i.postimg.cc/HnSyLwCB/barb.jpg

Watchlist Count : 445 (-5)

Next : Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art (2020)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Barbara.

[WHITBISSELL!]

The Lady from Shanghai is pretty good, but I prefer The Stranger over it.I haven't watched The Lady from Shanghai but did watch and really enjoyed The Stranger. I'm pretty sure his character was meant to but I think Edward G. Robinson stole the show.

[Wyldesyde19]

I haven't watched The Lady from Shanghai but did watch and really enjoyed The Stranger. I'm pretty sure his character was meant to but I think Edward G. Robinson stole the show.
Robinson was always so good in his roles, so effortless, that he tended to get overshadowed by his flashier co stars.

[WHITBISSELL!]

Robinson was always so good in his roles, so effortless, that he tended to get overshadowed by his flashier co stars.By "meant to" I just felt it was a really well written character. Welles' Franz Kindler/Professor Charles Rankin might have been the centerpiece but Robinson's Mr. Wilson made the movie. Which is exactly what he did in Double Indemnity.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/7YvBgWBv/made-you-look.jpg

MADE YOU LOOK : A TRUE STORY ABOUT FAKE ART (2020)

Directed by : Barry Avrich

Any tale about fraud and misrepresentation seems to be emblematic of our current age. The era of fake it till you make it, wishful thinking, cheating and the general assumption by many that this is simply how the world works. For years, one of the most famous art dealerships in New York City, Knoedler, were making the bulk of their incoming profits through the sale of forged and fake artworks. Made You Look : A True Story About Fake Art examines the various personalities involved - and what's interesting is how there's a layered element to the scandal. There are the crooks - Glafira Rosales, Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz and Pei-Shen Qian - who made the art, and sold it to Knoedler on false pretenses. Then there's the funny layer that really interests me - the people at Knoedler who must have known something was up, but hushed it up and kept the process going to keep the huge amount of money coming in. One, Ann Freedman, was president of the gallery at the time, and is interviewed extensively in the documentary. She presents a familiar portrait of narcissism, denial and blame-shifting, and looks absolutely terrible in the process.

Made You Look is a lot of fun, because we get to see so many art experts in so many fields get egg all over their faces after authenticating various paintings that were in reality created by Pei-Shen Qian in a New York Garage. "Beautiful" and "Wonderful" are words that were bandied about, until the forgery was exposed - and we see that these same experts backtracked and denied saying what they did when their embarrassing errors were revealed in court. But before you think that those at the Knoedler Gallery were fooled by them - there were plenty of reasons to suspect the works were fake. When scientific analysis brought up all kinds of worrying questions, Ann Freedman was there to quash them, bury them and deny what was happening. I can understand that she was so invested in them being real that she could hardly face the possibility they were fake - up to a point. In the end this all proves that it's not about the creation at all - it's all about the creator. A work of great beauty and meaning from Fred down the street is worth ten bucks, while a splash and kick from Jackson Pollock is worth ten million. It's an eccentric game of fancy decorative autograph hunting.

In the end it spelled the end of a 160-plus year reign for a veritable institution, with the Knoedler Gallery's doors closing - shocking fallout from a shocking scandal. I really enjoyed the Netflix documentary about it though - access to Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz, Ann Freedman, Domenico De Sole and his wife Eleanore along with many more experts and those involved with the criminal proceedings who have the chance to either look really smug, guilty or simply surprised. I'm amazed at the leniency shown to Glafira Rosales and I'm in absolute shock that Ann Freedman is still in the business. Those with money can slip and slide out of things monumental in scale, while a poor person can end up sitting in jail over a minor violation. I'm surprised we don't have a system of fairness when it comes to justice - because of what it's definition is. I almost come to expect the rich walking away from stuff like this nearly unblemished. In the end, the world of high-priced art is such a showy, "look what I've got" business anyway. I respond better to those who are more "look what I did" rather than "look what I bought" - except of course for what Glafira Rosales, Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz and Pei-Shen Qian did. A good documentary to make up a double feature with Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Glad to catch this one - 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.0/10 on the IMDb.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/zGcBsR2T/made-look.jpg

Watchlist Count : 445 (-5)

Next : Nobody Knows (2004)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Made You Look : A True Story About Fake Art.

[Takoma11]

I absolutely loved Phoenix and quite enjoyed Barbara.

HERE'S (https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2292958-barbara.html) the short review I wrote of it.

And I also enjoyed Made You Look, though I felt that some missing interview subjects made it harder to get an overall picture of what was happening. My review is HERE (https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2270061-made_you_look_a_true_story_about_fake_art.html)

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/Hs5F1Km5/nobody.jpg

NOBODY KNOWS (2004)

Directed by : Hirokazu Kore-eda

It wasn't until fairly recently that I started watching Hirokazu Kore-eda's films - started off by the incredibly high esteem Shoplifters was held in, making it unmissable once I'd heard about it. I Wish followed, and Broker had it's release recently, meaning I could catch it in a cinema setting. Nobody Knows is one that has been much suggested, and on my watchlist for quite a while it seems. It is indeed worth all the encouragement and recommendations - in fact, I've never been as on board with his style as much as I am now - my expectations locked and loaded and ready to appreciate his area of expertise (obviously a point of fascination for him), which boils down to non-traditional modern Japanese family dynamics. This often means he's eyeing the dysfunctional and poverty-stricken ad hoc family - often at the point of disintegration, but always with a lot of heart and emotional resonance. Often it's broken homes, destitution and kids that have been left behind but are making the best of it. That's literally what Nobody Knows is about - a family of four kids whose mother has abandoned them, meaning they're fending for themselves.

Much of the film unfolds from 12-year-old Akira Fukushima's (Yuya Yagira) point of view - he's the one that's allowed to go outside and shop for the kids when mother Keiko (You) disappears for long stretches. The two youngest, Yuki (Momoko Shimizu) and Shigeru (Hiei Kimura), are forbidden to go on the balcony, because by tenancy agreement they're not meant to be there at all (in a really hilarious opening, the two young children are smuggled in via suitcases.) All four, including oldest daughter Kyōko (Ayu Kitaura), are not allowed to go to school, and are forced to look after the apartment, do the laundry, and feed themselves (often catering to an inebriated mother who staggers home late at night when she's there at all.) So we get a child's-eye view, but this is a child who has had to do some rapid growing up. As the film continues, the situation inside the apartment slowly deteriorates and we constantly wonder how bad things can get - always worse it seems. These kids are great - which is all the more shame they're being neglected the way they are. It feels like their hopes and dreams fade a little more, the longer they're adrift in the world. They don't want to report their situation to the authorities for fear they'll be separated.

Nobody Knows turned out to be really sad and sobering, but it's not a film that dwells on misery throughout - instead every small victory for the children gives us enough to recharge our hopes for them. No doubt we understand the fears they have of being separated - who wants to be forever removed from the comfort, love and care of their family? At the same time, it's obvious that the current situation can only be maintained for so long - and that disaster will be the inevitable result if nothing is done. Having watched a few Hirokazu Kore-eda films now this is exactly what I was expecting, and as usual that helped immensely with being in the right frame of mind to take it on. Nobody Knows is an absolutely brilliant film in which his style works flawlessly - it's a film that makes me want to go back and watch Shoplifters again, which is a film which also mingles that intense warmth of family with the unbearable sadness of a family fractured. A family is filled with love no matter how good or bad it is, which is what makes life in a troubled family that much harder - that love will hurt when hardship strikes. All very well said in this film, which I enjoyed a lot and think is marvelous.

Glad to catch this one - Yūya Yagira won the award for Best Actor at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival (the first Japanese actor to win that award.)

4.5

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Watchlist Count : 445 (-5)

Next : The Children (2008)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Nobody Knows.

[xSookieStackhouse]

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THE BRAND NEW TESTAMENT (2015)

Directed by : Jaco Van Dormael

The Brand New Testament's brand of humour didn't mesh with me, and since it goes really hard at it, I didn't have a very good experience with this movie. The idea behind the film is really great though. God is real, and is in fact an overbearing schlub (played by Benoît Poelvoorde) who lives in a spartan apartment in Brussels. He sits at his computer and makes up new universal rules such as "bread always falls on the floor in a jam-down position" and "the person you love the most will be the one you don't end up with" - but one day his put upon daughter, Ea (Pili Groyne) sneaks into his computer room, and sends everybody their "date and time of death" - so people end up living with a renewed sense of freedom, knowing that whatever they do, it won't matter since their death has already be pre-ordained. Therefore God's one purpose in life - to make our lives hard - is thwarted. Ea then escapes the apartment to gather 6 new apostles to help her write "The Brand New Testament". Once God discovers her acts of sabotage, he enters the real world for the first time ever, and discovers it's a tough place to visit.

I was looking forward to watching this film, but like I said - the comedy wavelength it was on happened to be a wavelength I don't connect with. Not connecting with what's meant to be funny in a comedy absolutely destroys a film - even if it's based on great ideas and is well made. I sat through each outrageous Amélie-like blast of comedy without any laughter or joy. I found it a little too energetic and forceful. The film's explosive pace and monumental use of farce and slapstick just kept me off-balance and never let me into the narrative or put me in a good place. So, it's one of those difficult situations where an antagonistic feeling builds whereupon the film isn't necessarily as bad as my negative feelings towards it. Whereas I'd normally be into any sense of whimsy and fun a movie might throw at me, with The Brand New Testament it just felt painful simply because of the chip I had on my shoulder.

I don't want to rip into this movie because it would sound mean-spirited, and I can see that most people really liked it. Either way, it doesn't really matter - because my entire experience boils down to me not finding it particularly funny. It looked great, and I was looking forward to seeing it - but no. Fantastic idea - but I really didn't like it. Any comedy that finds the inclusion of a gorilla a winning card (and there are a few) I don't like. That's one thing I've never really understood - why so many comedies add one to the mix, as if they're inherently funny. Poor Catherine Deneuve. Her character, Martine, falls in love with one - which is one of the many flights of fancy that did nothing for me. I was on a remarkable run with my watchlist films, and it came to an end with this one - a movie that my personal taste was diametrically opposed to.

Most critics (and I guess people) enjoyed this more than I did. Not my kind of comedy. Didn't like it.

2

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Watchlist Count : 444 (-6)

Next : What Happened Was… (1994)

kinda reminds me of the 90s tv show Harry and the Hendersons

[PHOENIX74]

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THE CHILDREN (2008)

Directed by : Tom Shankland

The kids are definitely not alright in this 2008 Tom Shankland horror film, where some kind of cosmic goo infects a group of children - turning them into homicidal maniacs. Two couples are celebrating Christmas together at a secluded property - both have two young children each. The film has to bend over backwards giving the little ones the upper hand - but the most believable advantage they have is the fact that the adults continually dismiss the fact that this could actually happen. You see people behave stupidly in horror films all the time - but there's groan after groan in store watching this, as a mother or father gets duped into believing their little angel is fine after all - and not about to stab them in the eye (which they totally are going to do.) Parents are pushed on sleds down steep hills into spikes, and have their legs broken like twigs on a jungle gym - fighting back won't be easy seeing as it's really against human nature to do so (unless you're a paedophobe.)

It's pretty obvious that watching a horror movie that involves violence being inflicted by and on children is especially hard to watch, and an uncomfortable experience. I guess that makes it effective in a "makes you squirm" sense - and to the film's credit the kid-zombie deaths aren't too drawn out, despite the fact that they are kind of brutal. It makes the term "little monsters" almost literal, and it's pretty easy to think "Just kill 'em!" - but when you consider what it would be like in the character's shoes, pitting you up against children you love and want to protect with your very life, it's not so easy. Tying them up would have been my preferred way to deal with the situation - but the film invents scenarios where that's not possible. While only mid-level gory, the movie does involve uncomfortable injuries and bloody mayhem. Tom Shankland knows how to build suspense and gives us tiny little slices of what the world is like from the point of view of the children's minds - all horror and hell-like fire from the pits of every ashen cracked surface on earth they see in nightmare-vision. Looks like cosmic goo just went and ruined Christmas for these folks.

I liked how Shankland (who also wrote the screenplay, with a story credit going to Paul Andrew Williams) gives us a sense of that duality children have in the pre-carnage part of the film. Kids can be angels - so innocent, cute, nice and beautiful. Kids can also be devils - annoying, prone to tantrums, demanding and extremely histrionic. As a movie though, I though this was okay, but not something I'd return to multiple times - one of those horror films that are good enough for one go-around. There are no special performances from the adults, but the kids have been directed brilliantly - and it's quite a talented bunch that were picked out for this film. I was hoping for something more Village of the Damned but got something closer to The Crazies, with the kids more snarly than spooky. It's okay. This was a decent horror film. The reviews for it when it came out were all really positive - but I think it failed badly at the box office (not sure how it went rental-wise.) Includes a couple of deaths to character's who behaved so stupidly they had it coming.

Glad to catch this one - Tom Shankland won a Special Mention Award at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2009 for how well he directed those children.

3

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Watchlist Count : 444 (-6)

Next : The Hand of God (2021)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Children. (Apologies to Takoma11 for another 'Evil Kids' entry.)

[PHOENIX74]

JANUARY RUN-THROUGH

What a month (and a bit) of movie watching that was - 36 films all-up (plus a few incidental strikes), but only catching up around half a dozen spots on my watchlist - it seems that it's harder than I thought to make inroads, but I'm kind of excited about that. It means there'll always be great movies waiting on my watchlist to wade through - and doing this has led to what is probably my best ever hit/miss ratio I've ever known concerning me liking what I watch.

BEST OF THE BUNCH

3 films stood out as absolute masterpieces - all of them now rank amongst my favourites, and even though there were dozens of great films on this list so far, these are the champs

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BEST OF THE REST

These films stood out so much they can't go unmentioned - all of them impressed me a great deal.

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Here's hoping February will see me cross paths with some more that are up to this standard.

[PHOENIX74]

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THE HAND OF GOD (2021)

Directed by : Paolo Sorrentino

I know Paolo Sorrentino from his Oscar-winning Felliniesque (and you could say complete opposite of minimalist) film The Great Beauty, but I don't know much about him apart from that. I've seen Youth, but it hasn't stuck in my mind - and I've heard about This Must Be the Place, featuring a gothed-up Sean Penn - I'd like to see that, regardless of the mixed reviews it received. Well, this 2021 Best International Feature Oscar-nominee - The Hand of God - is an autobiographical piece for Sorrentino, although I'd never have guessed that to start out with. Much like Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths and Sorrentino's own The Great Beauty, this film ventures into the surreal and absurd, which is the last thing I'd equate with something that's autobiographical. Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti) stands in for Paolo Sorrentino - and the film starts with Fabietto's sexy aunt coming into contact with a divine person called the "little monk" (The munaciello) - legendary to Naples, which is where Fabietto's story takes place. We later learn that this aunt has psychiatric problems - so perhaps the encounter was all in her mind. I'd love to know if Sorrentino had an aunt that claimed she did have it though.

We meet the rest of Fabietto's family, a large one which includes his father Saverio (Toni Servillo) and mother Maria (Teresa Saponangelo) - and learn from the film the tragic fact that Sorrentino lost both of his parents in an accident when he was only 16. It's an event which has a jarring effect on the young boy - but one that makes him determined to follow his dream and become a filmmaker. The antics the rest of the family get up to are hilarious, and they make this a really entertaining feel-good story for the most part. One almost religious matter of importance to the boy is the soccer team that represents Naples - Napoli, and the fact that they manage to buy the greatest footballer going around at the time - Maradona. "The Hand of God" refers to a famous goal he once scored which was controversial at the time, for it looked like he may have used his hand to help score it. Family drama often clouds football games though, and although Maradona helps guide Napoli to glory, the death of Fabietto's parents means he's not the least bit interested anymore. It's all background noise to him by that stage.

There's a lot more to the film than that central, emotional core to the story. Like I said, the characters have real depth to them, and the way they behave makes for no end of amusement for us spectators. While Fabietto's aunt Patrizia (Luisa Ranieri) fills him with sexual yearning, it's the ancient upstairs neighbour Baronessa Focale (Betti Pedrazzi) he loses his virginity to (she considers it a gift she bestows on him - and considering the fact she's an old lady, the scene is surprisingly erotic.) I felt the film all-up was fantastic, and enjoyed it far more than I thought I would - you could almost call it magical. It's someone's life story writ large, with beautiful Naples the perfect backdrop to a story of this make-up. Fabietto has to build new relationships when his parents - his only true close friends by that stage of his life - depart the scene, and apart from smuggler and petty criminal Armando (Biagio Manna) he finds film director Antonio Capuano (Ciro Capano). The rest is history. Recommended film - I loved it.

Glad to catch this one - won the Grand Jury Prize at the 78th Venice International Film Festival. Nominated for that Best International Feature Oscar in 2022.

4

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Watchlist Count : 443 (-7)

Next : The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Hand of God.

[PHOENIX74]

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THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED (2005)

Directed by : Jacques Audiard

You don't see it very often, but The Beat That My Heart Skipped is actually a French remake of an American film - it's usually always the other way 'round, but the original was a movie called Fingers (1978), directed by James Toback, and starring Harvey Keitel. When the film started I assumed Thomas Seyr (Romain Duris) was a gangster - but he's actually a very (very) shady real estate broker. They introduce rats to tenements, chase squatters away and purposely smash up properties - all the while skirting French laws concerning property development. His father, Robert (Niels Arestrup), is in the same business, and occasionally gets his son to beat the hell out of tenants who aren't paying their rent. All of this changes when Thomas has a chance encounter with the person who managed his late mother's career as a pianist - who tells him that he had real talent himself, and offers to set up an audition. This has Thomas desperately brushing up on his skills, and neglecting all other areas of his life - in the meantime falling for his best friend and business associate's wife.

What I found different about this movie was the sense that Thomas was heading for disaster despite the fact that he wasn't doing much wrong as far as his life was concerned. Taking piano seriously at first seems like something of a pipe dream, but as he takes lessons with virtuoso Miao Lin (Linh Dan Pham) we see that he does indeed have great talent, and the lessons themselves have him open up more than he was when just working on the edge of criminality - he becomes a better person. I unexpectedly found myself on his side, and rooting for his success - but his ties to his father and his crooked real estate colleagues make this very difficult, which produces a lot of the tension we feel as the narrative beats become more pronounced and severe. We've all seen movies like this before, so we sense that something dramatic and monumental is going to come between Thomas and his dream. All he can do is keep fighting, and all we can do is keep watching.

Main star Romain Duris has a bad-boy Liam Gallagher feel to him which works for this Jacques Audiard film, and Audiard himself would go on to make what is probably his most renowned film after this - A Prophet (2009). Overall the director's output has been maintained at this high level for the majority of his career. He seems like the kind of filmmaker to have a stab at seeing every film he's made. Rust and Bone looks like it might be good, and I've already heard about Dheepan (it's on my watchlist.) This one was an enjoyable watch - I got to see Mélanie Laurent in a small role (she was in that 'minor roles' early stage of her career) and found main character Thomas a fascinating and complex mixture of good and bad. It seems that he's been led astray by his father and compatriots, but decides for himself to do something greater than be a lowly crook. Whether he can or not, it's a change that slowly wins us all over and provides the dramatic context for the shocks to come - making for interesting viewing.

Glad to catch this one - won the BAFTA for Best Film not in the English Language at the 2006 awards ceremony, and 8 César Awards.

3.5

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Watchlist Count : 444 (-6)

Next : The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Beat That My Heart Skipped.

[PHOENIX74]

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THE HITCH-HIKER (1953)

Directed by : Ida Lupino

"Get up!" - "Get down!" - "Get out!" - "Get moving!" The constant barked orders demand a rebuke, but Emmett Myers (William Talman) has the gun, and experience with killing. Roy Collins (Edmond O'Brien) and Gilbert Bowen (Frank Lovejoy) are just two guys who wanted to go fishing - and had the misfortune of picking the hitch-hiking Myers up. So it's "Be quiet!" - "Fix the radio!" - "Give me the keys!" - "Take off your clothes!" Okay, that last one was because Myers wanted to switch so the authorities might misidentify who the killer is if spotted - but it led me to some uncomfortable thoughts about the smell and discomfort of three guys in close proximity in the hot desert for so long. The last thing you'd want to do is put Emmett Myers's clothes on. Talman is uglyed up (props to the make-up team on this film) and when he sleeps he reminds me of a guy I once knew who had a glass eye. Whenever he slept it looked like he was still awake, because that one eye would be open - staring at you. It used to look freaky - just like Myers does.

All the way though The Hitch-Hiker I really wanted one of these guys to go for the gun. I know, it's so easy for me because my life isn't on the line - but Myers keeps on rubbing their nose in it. Chiding them for being inferior - for not taking what they want, like he does. He keeps pushing it - and the audience as well. There's no outlet for us - and it's like Myers is also disparaging the audience, whom I assume mostly participate in society and don't run around like maniacs robbing, taking, punching and killing. Every moment they do what this guy tells 'em to do is another moment he feels justified in crowing about how he's the smart one. "Change the tire!" - "Go to sleep!" - "Hide!" - "Give me that!" It exhausts us even though we only spend an hour with him - the endless hot desert we see making us really think of what it'd be like on the run across the hot, dusty miles with this guy constantly ordering us around - all the while having the power of life and death over us.

One of the most interesting aspects to The Hitch-Hiker is that contempt Myers has for his two victims, seemingly because they're not willing to risk their lives attempting to disarm him and take him on. You know at some stage the tables will probably turn, and it'll be interesting to see how Myers himself reacts. Will he still be the smart one? In the meantime this film (thankfully only 70 minutes in length) has a constancy which wears us down - Myers barking orders nearly non-stop through most of this film's running time. There's a tiny bit of police procedural to the moments we spend away from the threesome, but mostly we're watching these tense interactions - and waiting for any move Roy or Gilbert might make. There's a target practice scene which exemplifies all of the qualities I've defined - that tension, utter defeat and superior attitude from Myers. He doesn't promise the two guys freedom or reward either - being quite open about the fact that at a certain stage he might not need them anymore! On the way to Santa Rosalía, the game plays out in this edgy film noir classic - the first ever directed by a woman.

Glad to catch this one - it holds a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 43 reviews - not too bad at all.

3.5

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Watchlist Count : 444 (-6)

Next : Conspiracy (2001)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Hitch-Hiker.

[PHOENIX74]

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CONSPIRACY (2001)

Directed by : Frank Pierson

I feel quiet. I feel depressed. I just watched Conspiracy - a film about the Wannsee Conference, which didn't make the decision to murder all of the Jews in German-occupied Europe but made it clear this was to be done - each person attending in charge of a branch of government which would see it done. Reinhard Heydrich (Kenneth Branagh) tops the list of awful conspirators, Branagh winning an Emmy (he was also nominated for a Golden Globe) because his performance feels too real. A mixture of hatred and "pfft, so we're killing them? So what?" Treating the murder of innocent civilians on about the same level as killing chickens - the industrial scale that this was being done on almost comparable. Stanley Tucci brings us a taciturn and dour Adolf Eichmann - his only sense of positivity one in which he relishes doing his job well. Colin Firth is the practical and lawyerly principled Wilhelm Stuckart - annoyed because this Final Solution of the Jewish Question means the Nazis will be operating contrary to their own laws.

Many a reviewer has written a sterling, impassioned review of this film that says it all so very well. It's a daunting film to talk about, because to do so you're having to acknowledge one of the greatest crimes in human history - and there are no words that can do the feeling of horror justice. The way some of the conference members snort, snicker and chuckle as if this were some ordinary council meeting discussing adding a lane to a highway or requisitioning a park. The way some argue because the Final Solution is going to drain their slave labour workforce (I'd have them admit - for the Nazis there was never any shortage of slave labour when you consider those they found to be unworthy of being free.) The way they serve dinner mid-conference, at which point I felt sick - stuffing their faces while discussing death, disease and murder - all of which is of their own doing. I don't know how the actors all did it - maintaining that level of animalistic nonchalance at the thought of murder and general hubris must have been difficult.

So - this is really required viewing. We usually see the Holocaust at the point of the terrible work being carried out - but it's ideation is an important moment to study because listening to these guys talk makes me realise it could happen again. There are factors I recognize. The arrogance is one. The excessive pride and narcissism another. The lack of empathy, and embrace of nationalistic ideals. All it takes is for the wrong people to have the power to do it. Before it happened, the average everyday German never would have thought it possible that their own government would commit such terrible crimes. It's very interesting to note, at the end of the film, how many of those at the conference ended up free to participate in West German governance after the war ended. Not every participant in the Final Solution received the punishment they probably deserved. Thanks to Undersecretary Martin Luther (Kevin McNally) the minutes of the meeting weren't destroyed - so we know exactly how it played out. For conspiracy theorists - here's one that actually happened, and doesn't need to be dreamed up and spread online.

Glad to catch this one - winner of a BAFTA, Golden Globe and Emmy for Best TV Drama, Stanley Tucci and Kenneth Branagh respectively.

4

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Watchlist Count : 443 (-7)

Next : The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Conspiracy.

[Wyldesyde19]

Heh. A Miike film up next, huh? His films are generally hit or miss. Audition is great though.

[PHOENIX74]

Heh. A Miike film up next, huh? His films are generally hit or miss. Audition is great though.

Yeah, I love Audition.

[PHOENIX74]

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THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS (2001)

Directed by : Takashi Miike

The fact that Takashi Miike made The Happiness of the Katakuris around the same time he did Visitor Q made me a little nervous - not that I found the latter film unendurable, but it transgressed boundaries in a way that was extreme even for this director. The Katakuris has a much better balance of weirdness, horror and fun - it doesn't go for taboos as hard, instead injecting as much of the bizarre as it can while never straying too far from it's central theme about family. The Katakuris consist of a grandfather, mother and father, son and daughter and granddaughter - all living together while running the ‘White Lover's Inn' - situated on a former garbage dump near Mount Fuji. The bed and breakfast hasn't quite got on it's feet yet - the road that will be passing by hasn't been constructed, and whenever the Katakuris gets new guests they find some kind of way of dying. Afraid to taint their business by having to acknowledge these deaths, the Katakuris decide to bury the bodies nearby in an ever-expanding graveyard. (I have never seen The Quiet Family, so was unaware that this was loosely based on it.)

While not always even, or having any kind of rhythm, this film manages to mix together a concoction of styles that'll make your head spin. There's claymation which takes the place of what's going on at any random moment (a lot of fun), and when it's not claymation it's a musical number - all the while Takashi's sense of humour (and I'm almost afraid to admit this) pretty much lines up with mine, making a lot of the funny stuff 'laugh-out-loud' for me. The film is never serious, but at the same time it's beating heart - the love of family - is it's one truly profound and resplendent feature. As a refreshing change, the Katakuris aren't a completely dysfunctional unit but instead a loving family that has it's problems but overcomes them because the love between them all is never questioned or weakened. Whenever it comes time for one to make a sacrifice for the whole, most of them will put their hand up. One other thing I'm thankful for is the fact that none of them are sick or perverted - just unlucky.

Yeah - they all have their problems. The daughter (recently divorced) is the type who falls in love at the drop of a hat - and indeed she swoons over an audacious con-man, "Richard Sagawa" (Kiyoshiro Imawano) who claims to be a member of the British royal family. The son was troubled and a thief, but is trying to make a better go of it. The bed and breakfast might turn out okay - but the fact that the Katakuris are burying so many dead bodies makes this situation deliriously funny. As each one shows up we slip into musical territory which just increases that feeling - and that's where the film is at it's strongest. Sometimes we slide over into absolute lunacy, and that's where the film almost loses me here and there. The film starts in an absolutely bizarre manner - and as I watched I wondered if the entire film would be completely inscrutable - but everything waxes and wanes in The Happiness of the Katakuris. A bright and very Japanese mixture of music, comedy, horror, claymation and positivity. I liked it very much.

Glad to catch this one - won a Special Jury Prize for its director at the 2004 Gérardmer Film Festival and has received generally positive reviews from critics..

4

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Watchlist Count : 443 (-7)

Next : A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Happiness of the Katakuris.

[Wyldesyde19]

Ooh….A Tale of Two Sisters is pretty great.

[PHOENIX74]

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A TALE OF TWO SISTERS (2003)

Directed by : Kim Jee-woon

Well, here's a horror movie which is very layered, and about family in a sense - or at least family that no longer functions as what a family is meant to be. It's one of those movies that jumps in with characters obviously in the middle of going through something complex, leaving us to ask, "Okay - why the hatred here? What has happened?" (in medias res is the term I'm searching for.) Young Bae Su-mi (Im Soo-jung) comes home after having been away for some time with sister Bae Su-yeon (Moon Geun-young) - but friction with their step-mother Heo Eun-joo (Yum Jung-ah) is there the moment their icy eyes meet - there's no love lost, and it's obvious there's no immediate hope of reconciliation. The mood in the house is further soured by the fact that the sisters' father, Bae Moo-hyeon (Kim Kap-soo), is no longer sleeping with his wife - he seems distant and lost. Little wonder then that apparitions appear to Su-mi - and it's not only her. Guests also see the ghost of a girl in the house. Tempers flare when Eun-joo's birds are killed - but who killed them? It's a complex web of trauma, betrayal, rage and heartbreak under the most extreme of circumstances.

Once betrayed, you can't just smile, clap your hands and try to make friends with a teenage step-daughter - especially if that betrayal touches on the way that step-daughter's blood relatives have been treated. Some cuts don't heal - but the wounds the characters have in A Tale of Two Sisters are hidden at first. In the meantime, as we try to settle into the old house Su-mi is trying to settle in, the creaky floorboards and ghostly apparitions make that a tough ask. Thankfully this story isn't crammed with jump-scares - but it does have one doozy that completely got me (probably because I was thinking this film was above doing it) and also makes the most of what Asian horror is really good at : creepy damn ghosts. The two elements of family and a haunting don't seem to fit together, and it isn't until you've gone through the whole film and learned the story of this family that it all begins to make perfect sense. Some reveals you might guess - but don't worry - A Tale of Two Sisters has a stacked deck of them.

This is one movie that transcends it's horror roots and becomes something more of a tragedy - a really great drama is at the heart of everything we see that might frighten us, or keep us on edge. Despite being based on the "Janghwa Hongryeon jeon" Korean folktale, it forges it's own path and does a damn good job of giving us viewers a movie that you could watch several times if you like - finding new clues, and new ways to analyse the subconscious meaning of everything ethereal that we see. Once you know what's happened, it opens up to you on that level. At first though, the movie will tantalize you with mystery all the way through - mystery that can't be explained with one revelation, but many over the course of the film's last twenty-or-so minutes. The last scene, and last few shots, are absolutely brilliant - sound, vision and storytelling skill hitting upon something sublimely exact in how it hits your heart and mind. Very haunting, and very sad - tragic in every way, and in a way only filmmakers from this part of the world can summon up. One to think about long after it's ended.

Glad to catch this one - written about in much of my literature : Film Korea by Michael Leader & Jake Cunningham and Asia Shock by Patrick Galloway.

4

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The Holdovers was (kind of needlessly) on my watchlist, and seeing as I went to see it today, it's a bonus subtraction from the watchlist count. Yay.

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Watchlist Count : 442 (-8)

Next : The Little Foxes (1941)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch A Tale of Two Sisters.

[PHOENIX74]

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THE LITTLE FOXES (1941)

Directed by : William Wyler

Everything starts so nicely in The Little Foxes, with an extended family of Hubbards and Giddens in the American South sharing delightfully friendly breakfasts and convivial dinners where big business prospects are discussed. I thought, "Well, this'll be boring - niceties don't make for great drama", and sure enough, this film starts revealing all of the faults it's characters have, which are many and in a few cases criminal. Bette Davis features as Regina Hubbard Giddens, prospective owner of a new cotton mill (which will take advantage of the low wages offered in the area) who hopes to go in $75,000 for one third share, if she can convince husband Horace (Herbert Marshall) to go that route. Her brothers, Oscar (Carl Benton Reid) and Ben (Charles Dingle) have plans of their own if he refuses. Oscar's son Leo (Dan Duryea) works at the bank, and he can "borrow" $75,000 worth of Horace's railroad bonds, and return them before they're due and before Horace realises they're missing.

Regina sends her daughter Alexandra (Teresa Wright) to Baltimore to fetch her father, who is convalescing due to a heart condition he has. On the way she meets lively journalist friend David Hewitt (Richard Carlson) - who will be her love interest despite the fact that Oscar wants to marry her to his son Leo. The only other character of major interest is Oscar's wife Birdie (Patricia Collinge) - who he married for money, and whom he treats terribly. Birdie has been driven to alcoholism, and is a sad victim of the Hubbards' greed. Over the few days Horace is home, the scandal, greed, recriminations and criminal deeds provided me with enough drama to be very happy with The Little Foxes - a film which is scathing in the way it exposes the faults of money-focused cretins who care nothing for compassion, morals or empathy. Little wonder that Horace (who along with daughter Alexandra, Birdie and Hewitt make up the good side of the equation) is so ill, the way he's despised for his caution and altruism.

I don't know if the character flaws in these people were "little" foxes (they seemed pretty big to me) - but in the end Regina ends up going way too far in an explosive climax to the film. Everything plays out in a very enthralling manner, with Lillian Hellman adapting her own play, and writing scintillating dialogue that had me paying attention avidly. There was a rot to this family that belied all of the polite niceties paid on the surface, with unhappy marriages and sons and daughters pressured into being just as corrupt and scandalous as their parents. Alexandra intends to break this cycle, but Leo does exactly what he's told - Horace tries to fight it, but he's ill and can only go as far as his health permits him. He has a lot of power in a society that was still well and truly a patriarchy, but the scheming Regina (well played by Bette Davis) is wily and smart. I thought this film was well worth watching and deserving of the attention it got back in the day. A fine stately drama from William Wyler.

Glad to catch this one - nominated for 9 Oscars including Best Picture, up against the likes of Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon and eventual winner How Green Was My Valley.

4

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Watchlist Count : 441 (-9)

Next : Senso (1954)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Little Foxes.

[Wyldesyde19]

I think I’ve seen The Little Foxes.
Maybe….

[PHOENIX74]

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SENSO (1954)

Directed by : Luchino Visconti

Senso is described by some as one of the most beautiful movies ever made, so right there I have reason alone to see Luchino Visconti's tumultuous historical melodrama. It's certainly carefully crafted, with much attention to detail in both set decoration, art direction and composition. But none of that would mean anything if it weren't for it's searing story of lust, love, treason, dishonor and utter air-headed foolishness. It's set during the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866 - Austrian troops occupy Venice, and the Contessa Livia Serpieri (Alida Valli) along with her cousin, Marchese Roberto Ussoni (Massimo Girotti) are at an opera, participating in an anti-Austrian protest when Roberto hotheadedly demands a duel from one of the Austrian officers there, Lieutenant Franz Mahler (Farley Granger). Livia desperately tries to hose this down, for Roberto would surely die if the duel goes ahead - and this is how Franz becomes aware of the stunningly beautiful Contessa. She's in a loveless marriage to a staid aristocrat, and although she rebuffs Franz for a while, soon they're having a passionate affair.

So begins the romance central to Senso, and it's one that we can watch with reasonably open eyes. The Contessa however becomes obsessed with this man - her enemy - while at the same time trying to manage her life as a dutiful Italian patriot. The less she can see of him, and the more distant he gets, the worse her lovestruck emotions are. What plays out is certainly tragic, and I'd have applauded if I were in an audience - this is a wonderous movie with epic battle scenes, rich and splendorous locations and all the trappings of great 19th Century privilege. The costumes are impeccable, and Alida Valli's performance is tempestuously overwrought, energetic, and emotionally switched on from start to finish. You can tell when the film starts inside the La Fenice opera house that you're in for something visually magnificent. I want to go. Oh how I wish I was filthy rich and could just pick up, go to Venice, and check out that ornate, gilded opera house for myself - it's unbelievable. (This film helped with the reconstruction after the place burned in 1996 - what a horror, for that beautiful place to burn down.)

Thankfully the story and performances in Senso well and truly got under my skin - all of the visual power had a strong resonating, emotional and spiritual meaning to be appreciated with what we see. The final act is a bitter pill to swallow, but is also central to what the film is saying about lust, feelings, passion and the way love can be absolutely blinding, and also our complete downfall. Luchino Visconti is a very exacting director, and every scene is rich in detail and carefully mapped out - with attention to period authenticity. Watching someone blinded by love is like watching someone slowly die - you want to reach out and help somehow, but love is a madness with no easy cure. There's nothing you could say that would deviate Livia from her tragic trajectory. In the meantime, she's turned her back on her compatriots - making this doubly painful. For lovers of historical dramas, lush period cinema and operatic theatrics, then there's not much that can top Senso as far as the three combined go.

Glad to catch this one - #556 on Criterion, in Steven Jay Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die and on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list.

4.5

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Watchlist Count : 444 (-6)

Next : Riders of Justice (2020)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Senso.

[crumbsroom]

Another fan of What Happened Was...


yay



The fact that I never even heard of this movie a year ago feels shameful. It makes you wonder who many other great films have been completely buried over the years.

[Wyldesyde19]

Another fan of What Happened Was...


yay



The fact that I never even heard of this movie a year ago feels shameful. It makes you wonder who many other great films have been completely buried over the years.

I know this film has a lot of fans, but I couldn’t get into it. For one thing, o didn’t care for what the characters had to say because it all seemed so banal. It wasn’t really interesting. Just two sad, lonely people trying to connect but not knowing how to, and it should have worked, but the dialogue wasn’t especially good.

[PHOENIX74]

I know this film has a lot of fans, but I couldn’t get into it. For one thing, o didn’t care for what the characters had to say because it all seemed so banal. It wasn’t really interesting. Just two sad, lonely people trying to connect but not knowing how to, and it should have worked, but the dialogue wasn’t especially good.

A lot of the tension I got from the first act was from the first-date dynamics - which is sometimes like walking through a minefield. You're trying not to say the wrong thing with a person you know nearly nothing about - and as such those "wrong things" are at their least defined. A character will laugh at the wrong thing, and then have to hurriedly backtrack and make excuses. They'll have to accommodate something they only just spoke out against, once they learn how strongly the other one feels about it. I thought that tension had been honed to perfection in the dialogue - but it might depend on how much you want things to work out, or how much you identify with the characters. The specifics of what they're talking about don't matter much at all - it could be anything - but it's the way these two have to save themselves from mistakes, and adapt to what they learn from the other. That's what I got out of it anyway - I'm not saying that everyone should be the same. Once we get to Jackie's "What Happened Was..." story though, I thought it was a nice twist to the whole dynamic.

[Wyldesyde19]

Yeah, I think ultimately my issue was I couldn’t identify with the main characters at all. Aside from the dialogue, which seemed like it was trying to say something, but ultimately felt flat….the characters themselves didn’t do anything for me.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/HnLyyYPt/riders.webp

RIDERS OF JUSTICE (2020)

Directed by : Anders Thomas Jensen

This is why I love movies - you can head into a film feeling flat, and not particularly of the belief that what you're heading into will do anything to change that. I felt that way going into Riders of Justice, but when the credits started rolling I was excited about what I'd just seen, and in a positive frame of mind. I was on top of the world - because another film from my watchlist had impressed me a great deal. I'd had a lot of fun. Anders Thomas Jensen's mix of brutality and comedy struck a balance that ended up a perfect blend, and his film does more than that - it explores causality, chance and the way we search for meaning as a way of managing grief. It does this so well it could just about have been nominated for a Best International Feature Film Oscar. Jensen's films usually end up providing a lot of extraordinarily dark humour, and this is no different - Mads Mikkelsen, as always, makes for a superb straight man to be at the center of it all. Nikolaj Lie Kaas I recognise from the 'Department Q' films - and the rest of the Danish cast I'm not as familiar with.

The film starts off with the wife and daughter of Markus Hansen (Mikkelsen) being involved in a deadly train crash - his wife dies, but his daughter, Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg) survives. Markus has just served in Afghanistan, and is a man who's used to dealing with situations violently, so no matter what he tries he can't connect with Mathilde. On the train also was Otto Hoffmann (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) - he'd given up his seat for Markus's wife - and being an expert in probability he decides the the crash was no accident, mostly because on board was a man about to give evidence against the leader of the 'Riders of Justice' motorbike gang. Along with two of his colleagues, he takes this up with Markus - and all of them become embroiled in a deadly quest for vengeance and justice. In the meantime Mathilde is led to believe the men are counselors, and that Markus is working on his issues - instead of being on a killing spree. All throughout the film we deal with chance, grieving and the way we try to make sense out of the tragedies that befall us.

From Anders Thomas Jensen's filmography I'd only ever seen the excellent Adam's Apples, and in the meantime I'd kind of lost track. Coming back now to Riders of Justice, I kind of wonder why I haven't grabbed a hold of the rest of the films this guy has made. I mean, comedies as black as this one is are really my kind of thing, and Jensen has a sparkling wit - along with a knack for gathering the perfect cast. The movie also sparkles in the way it was shot, and the way we follow certain elements through the film which give us a window into causality. For example, the bike that was stolen from Mathilde which caused her to take the train in the first place - which was stolen specifically for one girl who specified to her grandfather that she wanted a blue bike. Many events like that led to the tragedy - it's a tapestry of cause and effect, with chance at the center of it all. Full of oddballs, moments of horrific violence, poignant scenes and a great story, I think Riders of Justice is a great addition to a Jensen's filmography. It's many different things at once, and therefore a pretty darned good movie.

Glad to catch this one - 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.5/10 on the IMDb - yet it still took me by surprise.

4

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Watchlist Count : 443 (-7)

Next : Cairo 30 (1966)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Riders of Justice.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/28TvRtXR/cairo.webp

CAIRO 30 (1966)

Directed by : Salah Abu Seif

Nothing ever really changes, though we'd like to think it will. Cairo 30, set in 1930s Egypt, has at it's core a group of characters who are either sticking to their ideals, or selling out. Ali Taha (Abdelaziz Mikewy), who believes in socialism and who will never cease fighting for the cause would rather die than work with the system. Mahgoub Abdel Dayem (Hamdy Ahmed) though - desperately poor and with a sick father at home, and with his studies at university nearly finished, is desperate. Then there's Ali's love, Ihsan (Soad Hosny) - the poorest of them all, and with a hungry family begging her to marry someone wealthy to save them. When Mahgoub is offered a government job which includes marrying Ihsan so an older man, a minister (Ahmed Mazhar), can have an affair with her, both Mahgoub and Ihsan will have to come to terms with what they're doing for a taste of the good life - which might not taste that nice after all. In the meantime, Mahgoub falls in love with Ihsan despite their marriage being a sham.

Cairo 30 is a strong film from Egypt, especially when it's posing questions about corruption and the fact that when one government or minister takes over from another, the system invariably invites the same dirty process to repeat itself. The melodrama can start to resemble a soap opera at certain times, especially during the film's overwrought climax - the tangled interpersonal situations of our characters often maximizing their unhappiness even when they get what they want. The choices for those who aren't already wealthy lead down two unfortunate roads - either hold to your principles and stay poor, downtrodden and persecuted or else sell your body and/or ideals, losing your friends and dignity as you come face to face with your own shame every night. The film has a very neo-realist feel to it, and promotes social activism as a way to ease the plight of the masses stuck in a never-ending cycle of poverty and injustice.

This film was based on a novel written by Naguib Mahfouz, but whatever the Mahfouzes and Ali Tahas of this world were hoping to inspire, it hasn't arisen yet. The Cairo of 2024 looks just as corrupt as the Cairo of 1933 - which gives a lot of the supremely hopeful Cairo 30 an air of naivete. Still - it's fair warning to those who think "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" is a fair enough compromise after three to five years of college and activism. There are some clever shots in this, and it's filmed and directed quite well - so when you add everything up it remains a classic Egyptian film (that shot when Mahgoub sits in front of the hunting trophy so it looks like he has the devil's horns when he agrees to get married is both overkill and wonderful at the same time.) Keep an eye out and you'll see many instances where shots are framed in relation to clues about wealth and poverty. It's not quite Mr Smith Goes to Washington, but remains a bright spot on the cinematic landscape from where it came from.

Glad to catch this one - Egypt's submission for Best Foreign Feature Academy Award for 1967 (it wasn't ultimately selected - no Egyptian film has ever made it to nomination stage as of yet.)

3

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Watchlist Count : 443 (-7)

Next : Closely Watched Trains (1966)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Cairo 30.

[Wooley]

A TALE OF TWO SISTERS (2003)

Directed by : Kim Jee-woon

This is one movie that transcends it's horror roots and becomes something more of a tragedy - a really great drama is at the heart of everything we see that might frighten us, or keep us on edge. Despite being based on the "Janghwa Hongryeon jeon" Korean folktale, it forges it's own path and does a damn good job of giving us viewers a movie that you could watch several times if you like - finding new clues, and new ways to analyse the subconscious meaning of everything ethereal that we see. Once you know what's happened, it opens up to you on that level. At first though, the movie will tantalize you with mystery all the way through - mystery that can't be explained with one revelation, but many over the course of the film's last twenty-or-so minutes. The last scene, and last few shots, are absolutely brilliant - sound, vision and storytelling skill hitting upon something sublimely exact in how it hits your heart and mind. Very haunting, and very sad - tragic in every way, and in a way only filmmakers from this part of the world can summon up. One to think about long after it's ended.

4

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This is one I really loved. I agree with you that it transcends and yet it still very much feels Horror. To me, a lot of times, when Horror movies transcend they end up leaving the Horror behind. This one does not.

[PHOENIX74]

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CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS (1966)

Directed by : Jiří Menzel

Closely Watched Trains is an absolute classic. Deliriously funny, yet so delicately touching and tragic - that describes watching young Miloš Hrma (Václav Neckář) become a man while working as a train dispatcher at a small station in occupied Czechoslovakia during the closing stages of the Second World War. His love is conductor Máša (Jitka Bendová - crazy Austin Powers girl name) - impossibly beautiful and carefree. Miloš though, is anything but - at his first attempt at lovemaking with Máša his equipment didn't function properly, leaving the young man at the end of his tether and attempting to leave this world. In the meantime war seems to constantly pass by the station - soldiers, equipment, partisans and the dreaded councilor Zedníček (Vlastimil Brodský) - as pro-Nazi as ever despite the fact that the Third Reich is crumbling in front of everyone's eyes. This all combines into some truly bittersweet cinema that counts as a truly great movie.

I never expected this film to knock me off my feet as quickly as it did, with Miloš Hrma's crazy family history (his hypnotist grandfather tried to stop the German panzer advance with the powers of his mind), and with successive generations of malingerers guiding him to his current posting - for becoming a train dispatcher means he won't have to do anything, just like his ancestors. His fellow dispatchers and station masters are either eccentric or oversexed, and there's so much fun to be had with them that what could have been a drab location-based drama becomes a sparkling comedic slice of life. All the while Miloš goes through that familiar process of finding his place in the world and gaining experience. I love the way Jiří Menzel gives us glimpses of the war and outside world as it passes everyone by - and it's as if everyone who works at the station has a slightly faded but at the same time accurate gauge on what is going on in the world and how the war is going. Máša passes by and is dazzling - like a girl I used to know.

Václav Neckář is so good in the lead role - a performance which shouldn't be overlooked, but one which can glide by unnoticed because he successfully gets us to forget he's just a performer. I really believed in what I was seeing - which must be the greatest compliment an actor can get. Many personality types populate the film, but it's central core consists of the undeniable awkwardness most budding young men have when they've only just left childhood behind the day before. Máša wants to make love with her uncle in the next room and within eyesight - and everyone else seems to be able to do it whenever and wherever - but you understand why Miloš suffers from the anxiety he does, because of his inexperience and shyness. As the film evolves, there are plenty of shocks and surprises in store for those watching - and I was left mouth agape by the finale which just knocks you over and leaves you stunned. Overall, there's so many reasons to praise Closely Watched Trains, but the main thing is seeing it and admiring the fine work done by Jiří Menzel. Wonderful, and all-encompassing.

Glad to catch this one - Criterion #131 and in Stephen J. Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film.

4.5

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I got out today and managed to catch Riceboy Sleeps - another film on my watchlist, so I'm making progress again!

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Watchlist Count : 441 (-9)

Next : Polytechnique (2009)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Closely Watched Trains.

[Wyldesyde19]

Polytechnique is very harrowing and among Villeneuve’s best.

[WHITBISSELL!]

Really liked Closely Watched Trains. I've only seen three Czech films (The Shop on Main Street, The Firemen's Ball and CWT) but enjoyed them all.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/T1Fq09Rk/polytechnique.webp

POLYTECHNIQUE (2009)

Directed by : Denis Villeneuve

We learn about school shootings by way of the media, and we're appropriately horrified for the most part - but I think everyone should have to go through the absolutely terrible experience at least to some degree, because it's too easy for most of us to just move on. Well, I think Denis Villeneuve actually succeeds in doing that via his approach here - he had the unenviable task to not turn Polytechnique (about the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre) into a horror film, or anything that could be described as glamorized or exciting. His straightforward technique gives us a feeling that we're there - especially when he opens the film with an unexpected moment of loud gunfire and violence, giving us as much of a fright as the terrified students who went through the ordeal. The film especially focuses on the experience of two different students - Jean-François (Sébastien Huberdeau) and Valérie (Karine Vanasse), both of whom get a before, during and after segment of the story. The killer (played by Maxim Gaudette) and his actions speak for themselves.

In the classroom where he began his rampage, the killer separated the males from females and then ordered the former to leave, under the threat of deadly force, which they did. How I wish those guys had of taken the chance to run straight at him and try to overpower the gunman - and so does Jean-François, who lives with the guilt after the tragedy. He wishes he'd done something more - and the ironic thing is, if he had he would have been conforming to the gender roles the killer was espousing, being a rabid anti-feminist. Would I have risked my life? I'm sad to say I would have been too frightened, and I'd have probably thought "perhaps he's just taking hostages" to soothe my troubled conscience. Seems like everyone there was a victim, with the survivors saddled with guilt and trauma. The sound of the gun is heightened in the film - so we hear a deafening crack every time it's fired. Comes across as absolutely terrifying, and something a person who was there would never forget.

Polytechnique was a frightening and really sad experience - I don't think it was a senseless movie just made for the sake of entertainment and exploitation. I think it puts the viewer in touch with what the victims of school shootings go through - both those actually harmed by a gunman, and those who try to help or flee. That's why I don't criticize what Villeneuve has done here - because I think it's necessary for people to understand what these kids (and teachers) have to experience and live with for the rest of their lives - and in some cases the death toll continues to climb as some commit suicide because they decide they can't live with what they've been burdened with. Any movie that puts us in touch with that is worth praise. The film is shocking, but it doesn't place any emphasis on horror, despite feeling very real and ghastly. Mostly what it does is remind us of how fragile we are, and how resilient we can be in our response.

Glad to catch this one - nominated for the C.I.C.A.E. Award at Cannes, and Denis Villeneuve's first 'post-sabbatical' film.

4

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Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : A Summer’s Tale (1996)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Polytechnique.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/C1pnfNZ9/summers-tale.jpg

A SUMMER'S TALE (1996)

Directed by : Éric Rohmer

Okay, so - this film is part of a four-film series called 'Tales of the Four Seasons' from Eric Rohmer - the third to be exact. I haven't seen the first two, but by the looks of it there's little if any interconnection between them. A Summer's Tale is quite nice - about a young man, Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) who likes to let fate decide his romantic future for him. But fate deals him a hand he never could have expected when he meets Margot (Amanda Langlet) - a waitress who he gets on so well with that they often walk for hours just talking. Although there's a spark there, Gaspard is waiting for his current girlfriend, Léna (Aurelia Nolin) to arrive in the seaside town of Dinard to be with him, and in the interim meets the beautiful and alluring Solène (Gwenaëlle Simon) as well. Gaspard has no idea who he should be with, and as he chops and changes the various girls become frustrated with him not just taking the plunge instead of hedging his bets. He's desperate for fate to swoop in and decide matters for him - but when he chooses another because one of the girls disappoints him, the new one feels like a substitute. Will fate give him an out?

The fact that this was filmed in the seaside towns of Dinard, Saint Malo and Saint Lunaire adds much sparkling warmth to this movie - idling around in these locations becomes intoxicating and I could very well imagine falling in love in such places. Although having three beautiful young women vying for your affections sounds like a young man's dream, you can tell that Gaspard is becoming more and more troubled as the film progresses - Melvil Poupaud not giving anything away as to how he's feeling aside from worried frustration, and the fact that he thinks over everything in his life very carefully. He's determined not to make the wrong choice, and unwilling to concede the fact that much of life is a gamble and you have to make your choice and stick to it - as fate prevaricates, so does he. Gaspard has something of an artist's temperament, and writes songs along with playing acoustic guitar. One of the shanties he makes up is really cool, and this adds another complex layer to the character - making him not as risible as he might sound considering the way he treats these three beautiful women - and they likewise often forgive him his hesitancy.

A Summer's Tale is full of interesting, probing dialogue - most of which comes from Gaspard and Margot as they walk about the environs of the town. These two people are at an age of self-discovery, with both having curious, intelligent minds. When you follow them, the bright visuals and their probing make for a movie that feels very alive with the boundless energy and enthusiasm of youth. Gaspard pretends he knows everything about who he is, but I sense that he's justifying his actions at times, without being wholly cognizant of why he does what he does - for he often acts at odds with much he's already said. He's somewhat crafty, as Margot notes. Margot seems like the person he really should be with, for it's only when he's with her that he relaxes, and acts naturally. They feed off each other's thirst for knowledge and understanding, and their minds are as one sometimes. If only Gaspard could be more decisive. I enjoyed this film - it flashed by in no time at all, and I always wanted to know what was going to happen next, while appreciating it's beauty and simplicity. Now I'll have to check out Rohmer's other 'Four Seasons' tales.

Glad to catch this one - screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Part of the Criterion Collection's 'Eric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons' - #1206.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/pL3z136c/summer.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : Begotten (1989)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch A Summer's Tale.

[crumbsroom]

Much like Ozu, I have a great amount of difficulty telling a lot of Rohmer's films apart from each other. They all seem to exist on the same vibe, frequently have interchangeable titles, and are all invariably very good to great. You can't go wrong with any of them if you like one. But it always poses the problem with me that I never know which ones I've seen and which ones I've yet to. I think I've seen that one. I'm sure it was very good (or maybe great)


Rohmer's the boss.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/J7Kw6CyL/begotten.jpg

BEGOTTEN (1989)

Directed by : E. Elias Merhige

Begotten is most famous for it's first scene - God disemboweling himself in jerky, spasmodic motions, drawing internal organs from within himself before he dies and Mother Earth emerging from within. E. Elias Merhige seems to have wanted to make this image as disturbing as possible, and he succeeds in form, motion and content - all fronts. The look of the film is as if it were centuries old, degraded and from a time and place almost incomprehensible to us. What follows after is the painful birth of life on Earth through ritual - one could almost suggest that this is a process that has been carried out countless times before, and the figures who herald each stage eternal beings with formless faces and unknowable motivations. The sound - repetitive and effective, gives voice to pain, horror, and a kind of natural process hidden within nature itself. You can only just make out what's going on, and that it's something horrible. But birth is painful isn't it? Pain is the foundation of life and evolution.

I must say, as much as I appreciate the work of art Begotten is, arthouse movies such as this are a harder artform to appreciate than, say, paintings. I mean, I can walk away from a painting when I'm finished, but Begotten kind of drags on, and on, as much as it's disturbing and interesting me. I think it works better if you don't sit down and watch the full 72 minutes from start to finish, but take moments and sections alone from time to time. It's a film that repeats, with every stage of this birthing process of life a slog, with some poor figure being dragged around, brutalized while in pain and distress, and undergoing some kind of ritual transformation. I respect it, but that doesn't mean I get a lot out of sitting and watching it. It gets to be a little like hearing about someone's dream in specific detail - and the film even looks a little bit like what we'd imagine a person's dream recorded on tape would look and sound like. That said, it's not something you will ever, ever forget in a hurry.

Rating this is really tough - I'm used to rating films relative to each other, but there's not a lot Begotten can be compared to really. As far as experimental art films go it's not only really good, it's one of the most famous - and probably one of the most viewed among mainstream film watchers. It successfully gives the viewer a feel of something that exists beyond human experience - in an almost religious sense. I don't particularly enjoy watching it for long periods. I was drawn into it by the ghostly image of God cutting himself with a razor blade - there's little as haunting out there than this vision of such a deformed, spectral being doing something as horrible in so horrible a way. It's hypnotic, and almost something you can't look away from. Definitely the highlight of the film, and an original and enduring vision. So, all-up, it is what it is folks - dredged up from the depths of one person's fevered imagination. A landmark film, but not for everyone - or even many perhaps.

Glad to catch this one - a film of enormous influence, especially once the internet made it possible for it to gain a wide audience.

3

https://i.postimg.cc/sDXYkqcS/beg.jpg

Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : You Won’t Be Alone (2022)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Begotten.

[SpelingError]

The opening is easily among the most disturbing images ever put to film. That can't be overstated. The rest of the film doesn't mean much to me though.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/YqqMgNZ6/alone2.webp

YOU WON'T BE ALONE (2022)

Directed by : Goran Stolevski

Macedonia - the 1800s. An old, burned shape-shifting witch known as "Old Maid Maria" (Anamaria Marinca) makes a deal with the mother of baby Nevena - once she's 16, she'll belong to the witch, and become one herself. Taken over by grief at this, Nevena's mother hides the child in a cave where she grows up feral, and with no knowledge of the outside world. When the witch comes to claim her and take her away, she's frustrated and angered by the girl's wonder at the world she's just now being introduced to. Taking on the guises of townspeople she kills, Nevena (Sara Klimoska) learns about humanity by experience, becoming enchanted by life and what it means to exist in the world. All the while, Maria taunts her and warns her that humanity will turn on her and crush her spirit. After all, it was her own people who took her and burned her many years ago. Can Nevena withstand the pain that comes with the wonder and magic of living a normal life?

Well - this movie was very Terrence Malick. As Nevena goes through life, taking on the form of this person and that (after savagely killing them mind you) she takes the time to lyrically describe what life is like - in that very enchanting Malick way. You'd have to say Goran Stolevski was inspired by Malick's work. What makes it very different is the fact that this is a horror film with so many entrails and so much blood that you wonder where it's all coming from. Why did Nevena's mother keep her cave-bound? I guess she was hoping the witch would never find her - but it backfires. Nevena exits into the world a mute child, and prefers patting animals to ripping their entrails out and feasting on their blood - as witches like Maria do. Watching Nevena "wear the skin" of and shapeshift into various townspeople (who's friends and family then wonder what's got into whoever it is Nevena is being) is one of the highlights of the film. You always feel Nevena is on the verge of being found out - and burned as a witch.

You Won't Be Alone was an enjoyable watch - a real celebration of life and love, seen through the eyes of a complete outsider. The Macedonians are pretty brutal, and life there hard (one woman, after giving birth, is immediately sent back out into the fields to work - not even given time to rest after labor!) But still - life is beautiful and tragic - it's to be cherished. Nevena gets to experience it as both a man and a woman - from many different perspectives, which is the uniqueness of her involvement with this world. These witches can turn into animals as well - anything dead they can possess the form of, which can be used to great effect. This was another in a line of features probably inspired by Robert Eggers' folk horror film The Witch, which provides us with an interesting glimpse of life long ago in a far away place. Life was tough, and often short - sometimes horrific - but worth soliloquising and speaking about with wonder.

Glad to catch this one - Australia's entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, but was not nominated.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/26xXDSh4/you-won-t-be-alone.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : The Fifth Seal (1976)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch You Won't Be Alone.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/yx31dxR6/fifth-seal.jpg

THE FIFTH SEAL (1976)

Directed by : Zoltán Fábri

Blackest night. Hungary 1944 - and the dreaded Arrow Cross Party have seized power. War rages across Europe, and a gathering of everyday, unimportant men get together at a tavern to drink and be merry. They aren't occupied by much more than simple survival until a wounded war veteran comes in and poses a hypothetical moral question - one that will eat away at each person there, and one that will suddenly become monumental when they're all arrested and face complicity in the Arrow Cross Party's crimes. The Fifth Seal is an extraordinarily weighty film that's not easy to forget, not easy to watch and asks probing questions of the viewer which might lead to it being a movie that keeps nagging away at the corner of your mind. This is cinema at it's most vital - far from just being entertainment. Something about it that I loved was that it's not here to deliver Fábri's political point of view, but instead just pose those questions that we daren't ask ourselves but really should.

The film is neatly subdivided into three segments, the first of which simply involves all of the characters talking to each other at the tavern, and the second when all of them leave to go home, whereupon we see how each character basically behaves by themselves. The final part is the brutal moment of truth for all of them, when they're picked up and badly beaten before being given an ultimatum. The pace is slow and deliberate, but there's little waste as we're constantly probing and deliberating various principles, coming across differing degrees of right and wrong as each character wrestles with their innate worth and moral fibre. The bar owner Béla (Ferenc Bencze) pays the fascists a steep price to leave his establishment alone, which angers his wife, who thinks it's wrong to be financially supporting such an evil organisation. A patron brings his mistress hard-to-get meat while his wife at home goes hungry. When directly confronted, each man frets as to how good a person he really is.

Thought-provoking and important, I think The Fifth Seal does a tremendous job at giving anyone who sees it much to think about. It's denouement is powerful, and unforgettable, and it's dialogue loaded with searching questions and interesting character-based observations. The performances in it, it's direction and overall make-up are up to the standard they need to be to not distract for a moment from it's sombre tone. Watching it kind of makes the other films I've been watching seem so inconsequential and light. Stands to reason - the people of Hungary had a tough time of it both during and for many decades after the Second World War. Such suffering can sometimes propel artists to go above and beyond in search of meaning and help them in trying to seek a definition of the human condition. I was hugely impressed by The Fifth Seal - it had a great effect on me, and I think it's a great film.

Glad to catch this one - the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/K82KBH6x/seal.jpg

Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : The Visitor (1979)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Fifth Seal.

[Wyldesyde19]

I have not yet watched anything from Fabri. I need to fix that eventually

[SpelingError]

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Fifth Seal.

I think that was me. Glad you really dug it!

Didn't Make the List (1/4)

21. The Fifth Seal (1976)

Tomóceusz Katatiki was the leader of an imaginary island, and Gyugyu was his slave. The powerful and careless Katatiki treated the poor Gyugyu with extreme brutality, but never felt any remorse as he lived by the barbarian morality of his age. Gyugyu lived in misery and suffering but found comfort in the fact that whatever cruelty happens to him it is never caused by him and he is still a guiltless person with a clean conscience. What would you choose, if you had to die and reincarnate as one of them?

This is the central question which hangs over the film. I've asked it to a handful of people over the years and have gotten pretty mixed responses across the board. While the question is unsubtlety a holocaust metaphor, the film doesn't opt for easy answers to the question, presents both sides to it, yet allows for the viewer to make up their own mind on which side to go with. While siding with the slave would be viewed as the "correct" answer by most, the film has enough courage to challenge the sense of comfort found in the "correct" option, while never giving the impression that it's trying to push you one way or another. It's aware that most people will try to avoid choosing the leader and gives them an extra degree of insight to ponder over long after the credits roll. While the ideas of the rhetorical question are impressive, the cast of characters, their roles in the war, and the way they're affected throughout the span of the day sticks with you as well. After all, it's hard not to watch the ending without feeling that the events of the past day have changed their entire outlook on what's right and wrong. Topped with some great hallucinatory moments, this is the kind of film which you don't forget about anytime soon.

Most likely to enjoy this: PHOENIX74

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/HLXrqygX/the-visitor.webp

THE VISITOR (1979)

Directed by : Giulio Paradisi

Have I just found my newest most favourite movie of all time? Okay, well...no. But still, The Visitor is a treat for someone like me, who likes the unusual and offbeat. Frankly, I don't know how it's flown under the radar the way it has - it has all the makings of a cult classic, and I'm sure it's fan base is still growing as lovers of the unconventional and the peculiar find it. It's 109 minutes of pure unadulterated madness on celluloid - a science fiction film with a low budget that has nevertheless been transformed into a wild and eccentric feature. There are no space ships, but plenty of floodlights. There are no laser beams, but there are many birds. What the film lacks in effects, it makes up for in star power. John Huston, Mel Ferrer, Glenn Ford, Lance Henriksen, Shelley Winters, Sam Peckinpah and Franco Nero all play major roles in this crazy movie which I think I'm in love with just a little bit. Although it's about an evil space entity being reborn on Earth, it owes more to 1976 film The Omen than it does to any science fiction film of it's day.

Zatteen (basically Satan) escaped from space captivity eons ago and fled to Earth. Taking bird form, the evil entity was fought and nearly defeated - but a small part of Zatteen remained, and is occasionally reborn. Kid Katy (Paige Conner) is the one - basically a brat at this stage, with telekinetic, magical powers. John Huston plays the space rustler tasked with defeating her - he always fights in an indirect manner and with a big smile - and he is super crafty. Lance Henriksen is Raymond Armstead, super rich and tasked with getting Katy's mother, Barbara Collins (Joanne Nail) pregnant, for she has a "magical womb" that has the power to give birth to Katy's space antichrist brother. Glenn Ford is Det. Jake Durham - tasked with finding out how Katy's toy bird turned into a loaded gun which shot Katy's mother in the back, paralysing her from the waist down - the point of which I know not. Shelley Winters is Jane Phillips - the maid. She hates Katy, and has a vague backstory. Mel Ferrer is Dr. Walker - in charge of the effor to get Barbara pregnant by any means necessary. Sam Peckinpah is Dr. Sam Collins - Barbara's ex-husband, and handy at performing abortions. Franco Nero is space Jesus, of course.

In The Visitor NBA games are pretty much decided when the basketball explodes. In The Visitor, Glenn Ford gets absolutely reamed by a foul mouthed 8-year-old girl. That's just the tip of the iceberg - but best of all is the general feel of the movie. Being primarily an Italian production, it has that very specific other-worldly atmosphere you find in Italian horror films, giallo and the like. The performances are all slightly askew to varying degrees, although none of them are particularly bad. It's main feature is the constant surprise - the "what did I just see?" The spinning. The lights. John Huston guiding space orbs using extraordinary facial expressions. Oh - and that score - Franco Micalizzi's constant refrain which hovers between exciting and slightly silly. The bonkers screenplay. The out-there cinematography. Such strangeness, in a film with so many A-listers in it, is hardly ever seen, and usually much talked about. In all my reading on film, I've never come across this for some reason. I absolutely love it - despite my rating. I mean, it's just a lot of fun, and although it's not a great film by any means, I think it beats boring hands down - and would be much fun to watch in a group setting.

Glad to catch this one - it's cult following gets larger and larger as each year passes I imagine.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/RZWkLLMv/visitor.jpg

Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : Parallel Mothers (2021)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Visitor.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/KYpXJZkq/parmothers.webp

PARALLEL MOTHERS (2021)

Directed by : Pedro Almodóvar

Guessing at what "Parallel Mothers" might mean gave me an idea that there would be two mothers in this Pedro Almodóvar film (correct) and that their experiences would in some way be identical to each other (incorrect) but other than that I had little idea what to expect. Turns out everything we see relates to a generation of Spaniards who were shot and buried in unmarked graves during the nation's civil war, many decades ago - and that I didn't see coming. There are generations seeking each other, and answers, and closure - and in the meantime there are new stories being written every day. For Janis Martínez Moreno (Penélope Cruz) and Ana Manso Ferreras (Milena Smit) it means giving birth at exactly the same time in the same hospital, and how that accident influences their lives, which become inextricably entwined in a whole variety of ways. Along the way events both tragic and wonderful become part of their generational story.

I haven't been a part of many a discussion about Pedro Almodóvar's work - but I'm getting to the stage where I want to seek out some interviews and discussions to find out about the strange circumstances that cause a man to write and direct so many movies that focus solely on a woman's point of view and on women's issues. Among the nervous breakdowns, 'talking to her', actually being transformed into one against a person's will, nymphomania, all about mothers, high heels, dark habits and The Flower of my Secret - here's a director who has embraced the feminine and built a body of work devoted to the opposite sex. That's a pretty brave thing to go out and do - you need some kind of confidence to speak so intimately on those terms. Parallel Mothers is no less faithful to that complete devotion, with both Janis and Ana single mothers and not at all averse to having same-sex partners. It goes all the way over to a female point of view.

So, did I enjoy it? Yeah, as much as I do a good movie. Almodóvar obviously loved the characters he created here, and if I were to criticize I'd say he had a little too much mercy for them in the ease with which they worked out their problems - seen in context with the grave that's unearthed, I'd have liked to have seen the need for more fight and drama. Still, on the whole there's a satisfyingly large scope, and many twists and turns (unexpected surprises and shocks) that make it an engaging flick at least. Penélope Cruz is right on the director's wavelength, and our eyes are unwaveringly drawn to her whenever she's onscreen - and she had a good deal of needing to dig deep for this role. If you love Almodóvar's work I definitely recommend it - like with most movies, I was hoping it would be extraordinary. Well, it was good - subdued, but bright and meaningful enough to be worth seeing at least the once.


Glad to catch this one - nominated for 2 Oscars - Best Actress (Penélope Cruz) and Best Score (Alberto Iglesias).

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/RFKJyLfY/parallelm.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : The Holy Mountain (1973)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Parallel Mothers.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/K8RTYBDN/holy-mountain.webp

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973)

Directed by : Alejandro Jodorowsky

I may not have the descriptive powers to give an accurate reflection of what watching The Holy Mountain is like - but since nobody has the descriptive powers to relate what enlightenment is like, perhaps it's fitting. Alejandro Jodorowsky's landmark film features a powerful alchemist (played by Jodorowsky himself) who leads a person matching the modern-day description of Jesus Christ and seven industrial tycoons to Lotus island so they can achieve enlightenment and together become one being. How that plays out is Luis Buñuel-like in it's surrealism - in turn making the viewer laugh, be disgusted, and otherwise intrigued by the meaning infused into an ultra-imaginative production and art design that's wonderful. Having a large budget to work with (some thanks go to John Lennon and George Harrison for this - in fact, George nearly played the role of the Christ figure) he wasted no time building fantastic sets and inventing mind-boggling props.

Dealing with the absurd is fun - let's admit it, that's where comedy and laughter come from. So Jodorowsky takes it as his right to play around with the comically ridiculous quite often in The Holy Mountain - but it's never at the expense of what he's trying to say. What is he trying to say? Well, it seems to be he's trying to say everything as an invitation for people to open their eyes and start their own metaphysical journey. Religion, politics, science, faith, philosophy, humanism, the occult, art, commerce, sex, death - liberal amounts of everything are squeezed in, often in a strange, inventive way. Some things are a little too much - the dog fight I didn't like, for it looked real. Some people might have problems with the exploding toads. Things that almost made it into the movie but didn't for various reasons was the cutting up of a real cadaver, a live birth and one scene which was a little too suggestive of paedophilia. Such is a film like this.

I thought The Holy Mountain was a fitting work of cinematic panache from someone of Jodorowsky's stature and mind. It's not the kind of film you can enjoy in any normal sense - you can't see where it's going, or anticipate any narrative developments - but as art, and as something beautiful that speaks to our inner contemplative mind it's worthy of great respect. If I'd seen it when I was younger, I'd have probably laughed at it - but now I laugh with it, because The Holy Mountain encourages us to laugh. It also encourages us to see. It's a kaleidoscope of visual symbolism, playing with nearly every belief system there is and redefining them. It's exciting to see our attempts to find the meaning of existence itself churned up, turned over, and given visual expression in this remarkable piece of work. It's the first Alejandro Jodorowsky film I've ever seen (I saw that documentary - Jodorowsky's Dune - a must see that) and I'm intrigued by how playful and inquisitive he is.

Glad to catch this one - fun fact : Before filming began, director Alejandro Jodorowsky spent a week without sleep under a Zen Master's direction and lived communally with the film's cast for a month.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/Znbpm6yZ/holy-mount.jpg

Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : Il Sorpasso (1962)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Holy Mountain.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/QtK6hVkk/Il-Sorpasso-2.jpg

IL SORPASSO (1962)

Directed by : Dino Risi

An early road trip movie - here we have extrovert Bruno Cortona (Vittorio Gassman) and introvert Roberto Mariani (Jean-Louis Trintignant) meeting, and slowly becoming good friends. (So strange seeing Jean-Louis Trintignant this young.) Bruno kind of sweeps Roberto up, and drags him out for a drive which ends up covering a fair bit of distance and as such we see much change of scenery. We kind of get to see the whole spectrum of Italy in the 1960s - during the economic boom known as the "economic miracle" - and the people who populate it. Today, we'd call it a bromance - the two become inseparable and the uptight Roberto tries to loosen up and take the dubious advice Bruno keeps handing out. It's hard to ascertain whether Bruno is one of life's winners or losers - he personable, gets on well with the ladies, is outgoing and has a lot of fun. His ex-wife though, feels sorry for him - perhaps because he's directionless and ultimately alone. Seems like this friendship is something both guys need.

I liked how throughout the film we can hear the thoughts of the quieter Roberto - all of the indecisiveness and worry, though I don't blame him - Bruno is a bit like a human tornado and you'd have to be a bit hesitant to go with him. Yeah, he's funny in that boisterous Italian way - though Gassman's hyperactive energy reminded me a little of Roberto Benigni, who is an actor I'm never sure whether I like or dislike. The kinetic frenzy of the film makes for lively viewing - Italians have a love of cars which transferred over to Australia, and the little Lancia convertible sounds great powering down the long roads, overtaking other vehicles, with Bruno interacting with just about everyone he sees. "Il Sorpasso" means overtaking in Italy, although it has a deeper meaning than just overtaking someone in your car - it means to get ahead of someone in all areas of life, in other words to do better than the guy next door.

A funny thing friendship - at first it looks like Bruno is going to drag Roberto places he doesn't want to go, but a bond develops between our two protagonists and deepens as the movie progresses. Bruno and Roberto manage to pack a few years into a couple of days with the sheer eventfulness of their drive. They both visit family, and as such both get to know a lot more about the other. I liked the dynamic. It reminded me a lot of the one in Alexander Payne's Sideways, as it mirrors the odd-couple pairing of Miles and Jack in that film, which may have been directly inspired by Il Sorpasso. It took a long time for this film to be rereleased in the U.S., but I think Payne saw it regardless, on a scratchy VHS bootleg. Now, it's well-regarded and part of the cinema landscape worldwide, after not even existing for such a long time to most of us. A very enjoyable romp that explores the good life, freedom, friendship and tragedy.

Glad to catch this one - # 707 on the Criterion Collection, and included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/SK1N5L4s/il-sor.jpg

Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : Terrified (2017)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Il Sorpasso.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/J0KsGQGB/terrified.jpg

TERRIFIED (2017)
(Aterrados)

Directed by : Demián Rugna

Voices down the drain in the kitchen sink, banging at night - a missing neighbour. Three things which combined spell trouble (well...the first one spells trouble alone) and on a quiet street in Buenos Aires there is paranormal trouble brewing. A mother loses her son, and then a while later his rotting corpse comes back from the grave - stumping police. A woman dies a death of unspeakable violence. Entities are captured on film. It looks like a great case for 3 Argentinian paranormal investigators who are hunting something specific - an unspeakable threat to human life, coming from somewhere beyond our imagination. Demián Rugna has made a film here that lacks a little cohesion, but nonetheless is full of really effectively spooky scenes. The horror effects are pretty good - with only the odd CGI effect failing to really make the grade. I'd say the screenplay needed a little more work - but there's fun to be had here.

Sometimes the spook factor in a film comes from simplicity and great dialogue. There's one scene in Terrified where the rotting corpse of a boy sits at a dining room table while two detectives confess to each other some of the strange things they've seen happen over the years. It's a great moment, and really effective without having to do anything outrageous. Is the corpse going to move? We're kept in complete suspense. Likewise the various ghouls that populate the film look the part and are effectively scary. All the while, we barrel down at a terribly rapid pace (I think I've got used to much slower movies over the past week or two) and flit from situation to situation and house to house. In the end three investigators will take a house each to explore during the same night - all the while leaving Commissioner Funes (Maximiliano Ghione) free to lend a hand as he sees fit. We basically see the events of this night from his point of view.

Every time I watch a horror film I'm hoping for the absolute best - so it's pretty common to feel a little let down when one doesn't meet those high expectations. Terrified falls down a little because as a whole it doesn't fit neatly together - the narrative jumping all over the place, and conclusion unsatisfying. The explanation as to what's happening in the film (sometimes horror is best left without one) is extremely perfunctory, and brief - at the same time diluting a little of the movie's power. A shame, because the scenes themselves are really well directed and work a treat. Most of them fully deserve to be in a better movie. Sometimes films suffer from budget cuts, or else a director-screenwriter is locked out of the editing suite - and sometimes it's just that the screenplay itself needed a tweak. On the positive side though - Terrified is still a blast to watch, and features plenty of extraordinary moments horror-wise - so many that it's really worth seeing. At least the once.

Glad to catch this one - In December 2018, it was reported that Guillermo del Toro intended to produce a remake of the film for Searchlight Pictures - but there's no sign of that.

3

https://i.postimg.cc/XqZt7m9z/terrify.jpg

Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : Frances Ha (2017)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Terrified.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/BQ1c9WTt/frances-ha.jpg

FRANCES HA (2012)

Directed by : Noah Baumbach

Frances Ha is the type of film that ordinarily wouldn't get this high a score from me, but I was so swept up in it's central character and the way she both lives her life and communicates, that I had to. And that's before I even get many of the references in it that went way over my head (I've never seen Mauvais Sang, so any recreation of any of it's scenes went by unnoticed this time around.) No, I was into the rich characters, of which Frances Halladay (Greta Gerwig) is one of the most infectiously likeable and fun I've seen in a long time. Up-front and honest, deadpan and funny, intelligent yet ditzy, she's a walking lifeforce who makes everyone around her look just a little mean, a little too serious, and a little less wonderful. Frances doesn't have it together - she's unsure of where she's heading in life, unable to even start a relationship and a little lost in the here and now. She's very much her own individual though, and that counts for everything. This film is simply a slice of her life, at age 27 - working as a dance instructor and hopeful apprentice, cultivating important friendships.

Noah Baumbach was skirting the mainstream. I really liked The Squid and the Whale when it came out - it was made on a $1.5 million budget and managed $11.2 million at the box office. Frances Ha cost twice as much to make and took in the exact same amount. I have a soft spot for While We're Young as well (Baumbach's budgets trended upwards dramatically after Frances Ha.) I'd have to say though that perhaps Frances Ha is the best film he's made, even including Marriage Story. It's a kinetic rush of a movie, photographed in beautiful black and white with an amazing soundtrack and a fantastic performance - I loved it, and I've become a Greta Gerwig fan overnight. This film is the gateway to having a true appreciation for her as an actress (all of her Oscar nominations have been for writing and directing) - an appreciation I have now. (I also liked White Noise - it inspired me to read Don DeLillo's novel. I like it a little less now I have read that brilliant piece of work, but still...)

So, I've finally seen Frances Ha - a big omission rectified. I think most of us can relate to it's central character - full of uncertainty in her 20s, but at the same time overflowing with life and energy. It was released on Blu-Ray over here on Umbrella's "World Cinema" label, which is really weird considering it's an American movie. I guess America is, strictly speaking, part of the 'World' - but World Cinema usually means foreign language films and the like. In any case - it's arthouse credentials are upheld by that fact alone. If I knew more about French New Wave films, I'd have spoken about all of the little nods and homages to them, along with the direct references and such. This film was made very deliberately in French New Wave style - but absolutely works for someone like me regardless of whether I can directly see that influence. It's just a terrific movie. I'll get it on Criterion eventually - if I won the lottery there'd be an influx of Criterion DVDs and Blu-Rays on a massive scale. Until then, I'll just enjoy what I can!

Glad to catch this one - #681 on the Criterion Collection and Greta Gerwig was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/yYdW8TRw/frances-ha2.jpg

Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Frances Ha.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/Fs78NfpS/beehive.webp

THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (1973)

Directed by : Víctor Erice

I might lack the ability of convey all that's great about The Spirit of the Beehive, but it made me feel like I was experiencing the childhood particular to this movie. It's because it's such a quiet, visual movie that allows you to explore it's locations in detail and also gives you time to think, and ponder how it relates to your own life. The plains and plateaus, and the rugged dry beauty of the landscape and decrepit architecture around the area of Segovia, Castilla y León - it makes for a fine backdrop. The movie begins with a travelling movie show giving the locals a chance to see Frankenstein for the first time - and the way it captures the imagination of the children, especially little Ana (Ana Torrent), is of great proportions. I had similar movie experiences at the same age, growing up in the era when Jaws and The Shining were first released. I'll never, ever forget going to see those movies, and how deep of an impression they made on me. That night Ana's sister Isabel (Isabel Tellería) tells Ana she can talk to the spirit of Frankenstein's monster if she closes her eyes and calls him.

I remember the boundless exploration that would go on when I was a kid - I was reminded by the sense of scale we get from The Spirit of the Beehive's cinematography. This film adds the pathos of war to the aura of growing up - Ana helps a young soldier during the Spanish Civil war when he hides in an abandoned property she and her sister sometimes visit. The year is 1940, and Franco's fascists have defeated the Republican forces who dreamed of a different nation. So, this lone man hiding from Franco's soldiers must fear death if discovered - but all Ana knows is that there's someone in need relying on her, and she's getting, through experience, her first impression of how the world works by what happens next. This all comes to us in dream-like, quiet, moody visuals with hardly any dialogue. I think it's really beautiful - and I have to emphasise that, because maybe I use that word too much. It's gloriously beautiful, the way the film dreams it's dream - in such a soulful way, as if pictures were words.

Ana runs away from home - as I would sometimes do in impetuous fashion as a small child (I had no idea of where I was going to go.) Here we get a recreation of some scenes from Frankenstein, and I'm again struck by how this film gets right inside the mind of a child. Like I said earlier - it's not easy for me to say exactly why. Adults do intrude, and we do hear dialogue - Isabel and Ana's mother, Teresa (Teresa Gimpera) writes to a friend, isolated by the war, and their father, Fernando (Fernando Fernán Gómez) teaches them how to spot poisonous mushrooms. But it's the hazy, moody, dreamscape of many vistas and the other various sights and sounds that transport one to a magical place. This is such a hypnotic movie - and everything about it feels exactly right. It's a minds-eye point of view that elicits feelings and emotions you never even realised were there. It's a record of a time and place when childhood was both magical and shattering - told near the end of Franco's reign. It's absolutely unforgettable - and a no-doubt masterpiece. A great work of art.

Glad to catch this one - #351 on the Criterion Collection and is in Stephen J. Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

5

https://i.postimg.cc/2yyjfjMj/spirit.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : After Love (2020)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Spirit of the Beehive.

[ScarletLion]

You have a very good and varied taste in film Phoenix74.

[WHITBISSELL!]

I really liked The Spirit of the Beehive. Ana Torrent was such a marvelous presence. She carried the movie on her tiny shoulders.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/SsTbsLVM/af-love.webp

AFTER LOVE (2020)

Directed by : Aleem Khan

Sometimes our loved ones suddenly die on us, leaving no time for confessions, goodbyes or last requests. In After Love it's Mary Hussain (Joanna Scanlan) who has to deal with the fallout from her husband's death, which has her traveling to France to meet Genevieve (Nathalie Richard) - his secret lover. What follows is a tale of deceit, grief and jealousy with Scanlan the prime factor in the movie's success - the camera hardly ever leaves her face throughout the film, as she digests her husband's secret life. Her grief is compounded and confused by everything she learns. Mary though, is learning all that she is by pretending to be the cleaning lady she's mistaken for when she arrives at Genevieve's doorstep - infiltrating the home of the 'enemy' and uncovering more than she ever expected to find.

After Love is interesting, because our central character is your average white British lady who has converted to Islam - which immediately had me curious. She's really embraced her role, and is pretty devout. It's another point of difference when she meets Genevieve, and adds to her mystery. Underneath that though, she's a kind of sad character. Genevieve doesn't know that Ahmed (Mary's husband and her lover) is dead - and keeps expecting to hear from him, all the while Mary skulks here and there, too afraid to drop any bombshells, and too intent on learning more. Joanna Scanlan is fantastic in this movie, and I'm surprised I haven't seen more of her (I remember her part in Girl with a Pearl Earring, a film I watched recently.) After Love is absolutely her film, and it's amazing how she lets us into her mind just though the way she expresses herself physically.

Bad decisions - pretending to be the cleaning lady is a shocker, and that's not even the worst of it. Mary goes and does things (with good intentions mind you) which'll make you scream in horror. It makes for a good film though - all of the repression that goes on has to come out eventually, and when it does you know it'll be explosive. After Love also has some nice visuals, with a recurring motif the white cliffs of Dover - which at first seem to represent the dividing line between Ahmed's secret life and his married one. It's a pleasant, probing drama - Aleem Khan's sole feature-length film to date, and I'd have to assume he has another in the works, despite the time period that has elapsed since he made this. It was to play during the 2020 Cannes Critics' Week, but along came the coronavirus, which scuppered that. It's a fine film.

Glad to catch this one - Joanna Scanlan won a Best Actress BAFTA, and Aleem Khan was nominated for his direction.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/nLWXDm36/after-lov.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : Jawbreaker (1999)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch After Love.

[Stirchley]

I really liked The Spirit of the Beehive. Ana Torrent was such a marvelous presence. She carried the movie on her tiny shoulders.

If you haven’t see Cria Cuervos, you should.

[ScarletLion]

https://i.postimg.cc/SsTbsLVM/af-love.webp

AFTER LOVE (2020)

Directed by : Aleem Khan

.

It's a lovely film and as you say Joanna Scanlan is really great.

[Stirchley]

It's a lovely film and as you say Joanna Scanlan is really great.

Put it in my watchlist. I only know her from really funny comedic rôles.

[WHITBISSELL!]

If you haven’t see Cria Cuervos, you should.Thank you for the recommendation. I looked it up and watched the trailer and it looks really good. 100% on RT. :up:

[Stirchley]

Thank you for the recommendation. I looked it up and watched the trailer and it looks really good. 100% on RT. :up:

Better than Beehive, but who’s judging. Seen Cria innumerable times.

[WHITBISSELL!]

Better than Beehive, but who’s judging. Seen Cria innumerable times.Judging by all the awards it won and the reviews it does sound like a worthwhile watch. :up:

[ScarletLion]

Put it in my watchlist. I only know her from really funny comedic rôles.

She's Welsh too, So I'm naturally biased about her greatness.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/MGp5HG1F/jawbreaker2.jpg

JAWBREAKER (1999)

Directed by : Darren Stein

Jawbreaker starts off with a bang - three popular, beautiful teenage girls, Courtney Shayne (Rose McGowan), Julie Freeman (Rebecca Gayheart) and Marcie Fox (Julie Benz) play a prank on their friend Elizabeth Purr (Charlotte Ayanna), tying up and kidnapping her while wearing disguises to hide their identities. They bundle her into the trunk of a car and drive off - but when they open said trunk down the road, they discover that Elizabeth has choked to death on the jawbreaker Courtney shoved into her mouth. They decide to take her body back to her bedroom and stage the scene to make it look like attempted rape, but the mousy, uncool Fern Mayo (Judy Greer) discovers them, and is offered the chance to be made-over and also become part of the cool clique if she keeps her mouth shut. We'd broken so many taboos by this point that I was expecting a bit more from Jawbreaker than what I eventually got. It turns into your typical high school teen movie from that point on.

If anything was to get me onboard with another one of these movies, it had to be something different, and I thought Jawbreaker was going to get crazy and do that. Not only did it not, but the only other risqué scene in the film - a sex scene with Rose McGowan (a 26-year-old playing a 17-year-old) and Marilyn Manson - was so heavily cut down to avoid an NC-17 rating that it's barely there at all. Then there's all the tropes - the most egregious being the "ugly" girl (usually a beautiful girl with glasses/braces on, unkempt hair and baggy clothes) being "beautified" and becoming popular, but discovering popularity isn't the be all and end all of life. There are the attempts to drag each other's reputation into the gutter through nefarious means - with the difference being the fact that Elizabeth's death is now weaponized and used as a means to seek revenge over Courtney. Rose McGowan does imbue Courtney with enough evil to get the audience to hate her (the film would fail completely if not for that) - hers being the main attraction performance-wise.

Jawbreaker has a soundtrack with attitude and a hell of a premise to start with, but in the end shied away from being a complete taboo-breaker, partly due to the ratings board in the U.S. I'm not sure why I had it on my watchlist, considering I'm not a huge fan of high school movies that focus on mean, popular and vacuous girls. I think it was because a bunch of girls accidentally killing their friend and trying to cover it up sounds like it might be interesting. Unfortunately, this is more intent on studying what the girls do to be popular, and how mean they are to each other - in the meantime not fussing much with the whole central idea of the movie - ie, the murder. The movie is very colourful, slick and full of catwalk moments, along with having the aforementioned music to show off some style and fashion. Unfortunately it sorely lacks in imagination, and I'd be much harsher with my rating if it weren't as well packaged, and if it didn't have as promising a premise. It has attitude, and has a cult following, but I'll need more convincing before I'm onboard with it.

2.5

https://i.postimg.cc/dQbjgf00/jaw.jpg

Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : Revanche (2008)

Thanks to whomever inspired me to watch Jawbreaker.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/HW2qzw3n/revanche.png

REVANCHE (2008)

Directed by : Götz Spielmann

Through the ripples of time, vengeance can become a very complicated matter. That's especially true in this Götz Spielmann Oscar-nominated film where we ask the question - 'whose fault was the central tragedy in this movie?' The need for revenge is part of the grieving process for protagonist Alex (Johannes Krisch) - and as fate would have it, the target of his rage happens to be the neighbour of his elderly grandfather. This opens up a range of possibilities. Robert (Andreas Lust), is the man he wants to kill - a policeman wrestling with guilt and trauma. His wife, Susanne (Ursula Strauss), is unhappy and unable to conceive because of Robert, compounding his self-loathing. She hatches a plan to seduce Alex in the hopes he'll make her pregnant, not knowing that he's making plans to kill her husband. It's a tangled web alright, but through all of this Spielmann works through the issues related to the emotional complexity of the need for vengeance. Once you get to know the people you want to destroy, everything can change drastically.

The way Spielmann introduces all of the characters early, and draws them together, adds a 'fated' quality to the story. Alex's world is that of a much lower class to that of Susanne and Robert, which creates a contrast. Along with his prostitute girlfriend, Tamara (Irina Potapenko), he dreams of something better for himself - if only he had the money to go into a business venture offered by a cohort. How to get it? Rob a bank perhaps - as he reasons "Nothing can go wrong. I have a plan." His grandfather views him as a 'scoundrel', but we'll learn that Robert does have a heart - something that will become paramount at crucial moments in the film, but also something that makes his thirst for vengeance so powerful. He acts tough, but underneath there's an emotional layer which conflicts with this. The great thing about this film is that Spielmann highlights all of this very clearly, so that we know as the film advances what the characters are thinking and feeling.

In the end Revanche is a powerful film that's very straightforward narrative-wise, but at the same time complex and fascinating on a deeper level. It should strike every viewer that whenever a person thirsts for revenge, they should contemplate the fact that they never really know the bigger picture, and thus how justified the urge is. It's well written, and the performances make you feel like you're watching real people wrestle with their own personal torment. Eventually, you'll find sympathy for every character in the film - their humanity is highlighted and exposed to us. The film has a very nice pivot from the city to the Austrian countryside and forest as Robert becomes more isolated from other people - cut adrift by his own grieving process and troubled conscience. A very enjoyable movie that had me glued to the screen, surprised by every twist and turn in it's compelling story. Very much recommended viewing.

Glad to catch this one - #502 on Criterion and nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2009.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/sD08bGKs/revanche.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : Deep Crimson (1996)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Revanche.

[Stirchley]

https://i.postimg.cc/HW2qzw3n/revanche.png

REVANCHE (2008)

Directed by : Götz Spielmann

Through the ripples of time, vengeance can become a very complicated matter. That's especially true in this Götz Spielmann Oscar-nominated film where we ask the question - 'whose fault was the central tragedy in this movie?' The need for revenge is part of the grieving process for protagonist Alex (Johannes Krisch) - and as fate would have it, the target of his rage happens to be the neighbour of his elderly grandfather. This opens up a range of possibilities. Robert (Andreas Lust), is the man he wants to kill - a policeman wrestling with guilt and trauma. His wife, Susanne (Ursula Strauss), is unhappy and unable to conceive because of Robert, compounding his self-loathing. She hatches a plan to seduce Alex in the hopes he'll make her pregnant, not knowing that he's making plans to kill her husband. It's a tangled web alright, but through all of this Spielmann works through the issues related to the emotional complexity of the need for vengeance. Once you get to know the people you want to destroy, everything can change drastically.

The way Spielmann introduces all of the characters early, and draws them together, adds a 'fated' quality to the story. Alex's world is that of a much lower class to that of Susanne and Robert, which creates a contrast. Along with his prostitute girlfriend, Tamara (Irina Potapenko), he dreams of something better for himself - if only he had the money to go into a business venture offered by a cohort. How to get it? Rob a bank perhaps - as he reasons "Nothing can go wrong. I have a plan." His grandfather views him as a 'scoundrel', but we'll learn that Robert does have a heart - something that will become paramount at crucial moments in the film, but also something that makes his thirst for vengeance so powerful. He acts tough, but underneath there's an emotional layer which conflicts with this. The great thing about this film is that Spielmann highlights all of this very clearly, so that we know as the film advances what the characters are thinking and feeling.

In the end Revanche is a powerful film that's very straightforward narrative-wise, but at the same time complex and fascinating on a deeper level. It should strike every viewer that whenever a person thirsts for revenge, they should contemplate the fact that they never really know the bigger picture, and thus how justified the urge is. It's well written, and the performances make you feel like you're watching real people wrestle with their own personal torment. Eventually, you'll find sympathy for every character in the film - their humanity is highlighted and exposed to us. The film has a very nice pivot from the city to the Austrian countryside and forest as Robert becomes more isolated from other people - cut adrift by his own grieving process and troubled conscience. A very enjoyable movie that had me glued to the screen, surprised by every twist and turn in it's compelling story. Very much recommended viewing.

Glad to catch this one - #502 on Criterion and nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2009.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/sD08bGKs/revanche.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : Deep Crimson (1996)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Revanche.

Just put this in my watchlist & will be after you if I hate it. :)

[PHOENIX74]

FEBRUARY RUN-THROUGH


Another month full of surprise for me - 26 films all-up this time, which means the total count is at 62 films. That's one hell of a lot of watchlist movies to go through - and I've only caught up by 11, seeing as my watchlist tends to expand at about a film a day. Still, progress is progress, and I'm still surprised at how consistent the level of quality is here.

BEST OF THE BUNCH

Only 1 absolute masterpiece in February - but they don't come along very often, and perhaps the 3 I had in January is the exception instead of the rule. In any case, a lot of other movies came close.

https://i.postimg.cc/kgpGP3WM/spirit.jpg

BEST OF THE REST

All of these films I was terribly impressed with and found worthy of being all-time greats.

https://i.postimg.cc/MGnDzS49/senso.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/WbHR82Mn/close.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/5NvGBw2x/seal.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/15cBRMzN/holy-mount.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/wvp3B5M7/frances-ha2.jpg

There were many not mentioned here that I enjoyed to the hilt, and came very close to making the round-up.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/L5qjR6wD/deep.webp

DEEP CRIMSON (1996)

Directed by : Arturo Ripstein

Deep Crimson starts with farce, and then becomes progressively more heartbreaking, sad and difficult to face. It's a devastating movie that is so strange, because it had me feeling sympathy for the two monsters at it's core. Coral Fabre (Regina Orozco) works as a nurse - she's sloppy, not all that clean, eats too much and is lonely despite having two children. One day she answers a 'Lonely Hearts' advertisement in the paper, and meets Nicolás Estrella (Daniel Giménez Cacho). Nicolás is a con man who fleeces older, lonely women for money - but even though he robs Coral, she keeps coming back to him, and becomes more and more obsessively in love. Determined to help him keep doing what he does so she can stay a part of his life, she pretends to be his sister while he seduces well-off ladies. Her jealousy leads to murder after murder though, as both Coral and Nicolás descend into a hellish nightmare land, the blood on their hands eating away at their souls as they approach near-madness.

I was not prepared for the way this film played out - it's so comedically funny at first that my expectations leaned towards it being a lark, but it just becomes progressively more and more dark. It's a dramatization of the story of real-life "Lonely Hearts Killers" Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, who were known to have killed up to 20 people between 1947 and 1949. Coral Fabre is something of an unbalanced figure in the story - her disordered mind is something the screenplay makes amusing at first, but as soon as she gets her hooks into Nicolás she starts doing unconscionable things. Nicolás is a dirtbag, but he was never a murderer - his dominant trait is his narcissism. That's why his baldness is a trigger for unspeakable rage, or else fearful tears - every time he's discovered, it leads to a massive overreaction from him. These two people combined make for a dangerous concern for anyone unfortunate enough to come across them.

This movie left a deep impression on me - in the end I saw two sad characters that had gaping voids in their souls. These voids cannot be filled - not by anything, which is why they were both always going to be tragic figures. Regina Orozco and Daniel Giménez Cacho are both wonderful, with Orozco having comedic talent to match her drama. Although I found the opening quite funny, the movie gets so dark by it's end that it almost becomes too much to bear. Even the most horrifying monsters have a sadness to them - so much so you can feel pity for them even as you revile their crimes. Neither of these characters went out of their way to murder people - the situation, with one obsessive and the other greedy, simply led them down this dark alleyway of the soul. Arturo Ripstein and screenwriter Paz Alicia Garciadiego light the way for us in this Mexican classic, taking us beyond the point of no return.

Glad to catch this one - won eight Ariel (Mexican Oscar) Awards, and was Mexico's official submission for the 1997 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/0ykJ7Kgz/crimson.jpg

Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Deep Crimson.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/dtPBRBD9/julien.webp

JULIEN DONKEY-BOY (1999)

Directed by : Harmony Korine

I've seen Harmony Korine's Gummo, and I've seen Dogme 95 films before, so that gave me some idea of what to expect with Korine's Julien Donkey-Boy, though I have to admit to being extra intrigued as to what part Werner Herzog plays in this. Well - this is about a dysfunctional family, in the most extreme way that term can be used, and woven in, despite the dysfunction, is the love you'd find in most families around the world. You quickly learn why Julien (Ewen Bremner) is called 'Donkey-Boy' in the film's title - it's his looks, and the way he bays like a donkey when he laughs. Unfortunately, the film opens with Julien murdering a kid over a trifling matter - and it's this murder that casts a pall over the entire movie, as Julien has to hide what he's done, and deal with his ill-considered act alone. As the film progresses we also learn that he's impregnated his own sister. If you narrow down your focus to these two facts alone, you'd probably get the wrong impression about this film - most of it sees Julien and his sister getting by. In fact, Julien does volunteer work helping blind individuals - and you can tell he finds this work rewarding. At times it's so easy to forget the underlying pain that these struggling people feel.

Werner Herzog plays the father - and it's his mental instability that causes a lot of the pain his children feel. He pushes Julien's brother Chris (Evan Neumann) to be a wrestler, and a "winner" - his toxic masculinity oozing from his pores as he runs ice cold water from the hose over Chris and berates him for being a wimp, and not a man. Herzog though, I found hilarious - his random soliloquies about historical facts and his rambling talk gave me a lot of light relief. When he does interact with Julien or Julien's sister, Pearl (Chloë Sevigny) he can get pretty cruel and nasty. Grandma (Joyce Korine) never says a word, and exists as a background figure. The film doesn't really have a narrative - it's just fly-on-the-wall stuff as this family exists from day to day, interacting and in various modes of conflict or conversation. Even in this worst of families, there are tender moments and love - but this is a well and truly broken unit. It may have started to fracture when Julien's mother died - or it may be that there's mental illness here that has been passed down.

The film is grainy - it was shot in New York on MiniDV tape before being transferred to 16mm and then blown up to 35mm film. It's pretty much the stuff you expect with Dogme 95 projects. I thought it really worked well in exposing what keeps families together in the absolute worst of circumstances. It also keeps getting at the conflict in a person's soul - Julien wants to be good, and does so much good in the community, but at the same time he's impetuously killed someone for little reason. Who is a person when they're essentially good, but commit horrendous acts during moments when they lose control? Julien is meant to have untreated schizophrenia, but it's covered up well in the community, and this isn't the type of family to notice this and get help. Julien Donkey-Boy is a mix of beauty, ugliness, love and madness - with every component hard to separate from the others. It's like an explosion of thought and feeling that creates tangled webs that are impossible to untangle - and the film's conclusion is both devastating and powerful. The compassion that Harmony Korine has for his characters says it all.

Glad to catch this one - the first non-European film to be made under the Dogme 95 "vow of chastity".

4

https://i.postimg.cc/fLr3sXHL/julien-donk.jpg

Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : Night and the City (1950)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Julien Donkey-Boy.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/0jX1twQm/night.webp

NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950)

Directed by : Jules Dassin

Another great film noir - another great filmmaker. Jules Dassin had just made Thieves' Highway, and would make Rififi after this - so he was in top form. He'd also just left the United States because he was about to be blacklisted, his name being mentioned numerous times at the Committee on Un-American Activities - and as such Night and the City was made in London, and also set in London - Dassin making great use of the city's dark corners and bombed out ruins from the blitz. The story involves hustler and con-man Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark), and his attempts to build his own wrestling empire after convincing legend Gregorius the Great (Stanislaus Zbyszko) and his son Nikolas of Athens (Ken Richmond) to work for him. What he doesn't realise is that his own financial partner, and many other London players, are all working against him - determined to bring him down.

The great thing about character Fabian is his child-like enthusiasm for whatever he's doing, and his crazily boundless optimism and self-belief. Fabian believes that every scheme he latches onto is a "sure thing" - if only someone would front the money for him, he'd be living on "easy street" and make a fortune. He's never aware of potential pitfalls and the various cul de sacs, and always takes various short cuts and cheats that become future land mines. Richard Widmark seems born to play this character, his expressive, pale face looking like a kid on Christmas morning when on the verge of a big score. I ended up watching the U.S. version of the film, but I did end up checking out some scenes that are only in the British version - the two are quite different, and have completely different scores along with being edited from scratch each time. Some of the scenes in the British version expound on Fabian's never-ending trail of get-rich-quick schemes, and how they've all blown up in everyone's face.

The film features Gene Tierney as Mary Bristol, Fabian's long-suffering girl, along with Francis L. Sullivan as nightclub owner Phil Nosseross - Fabian's partner, and in the end nemesis. Googie Withers plays Helen, Phil's wife, who Fabian cons and basically ruins. The film runs at a breakneck speed and includes a lot of action, movement and excitement. The cinematography is first-class, plunging us into the pitch-black dead ends and the shadowed dungeon-like cold spaces of London. There's no such thing as the 'easy money' Fabian dreams of, only the shifty cons he uses to make a buck, or working for Nosseross by fooling people into going to his nightclub. Watching the movie is like seeing a car crash in slow motion - but still praying it won't happen. I mean, I kind of liked Fabian - or at least I would of if he'd only wake up and not be so self-destructive. I really enjoyed watching Night and the City - it was exciting, and a great film noir classic from Dassin. It's the fourth film of his I've seen, and I'm surely going to watch more.

Glad to catch this one - #274 on Criterion, and preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2004.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/rFv1PGm9/night-and-the-city.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : The Happy Ending (1969)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Night and the City.

[Stirchley]

https://i.postimg.cc/dtPBRBD9/julien.webp

JULIEN DONKEY-BOY (1999)

Directed by : Harmony Korine

I've seen Harmony Korine's Gummo, and I've seen Dogme 95 films before, so that gave me some idea of what to expect with Korine's Julien Donkey-Boy, though I have to admit to being extra intrigued as to what part Werner Herzog plays in this. Well - this is about a dysfunctional family, in the most extreme way that term can be used, and woven in, despite the dysfunction, is the love you'd find in most families around the world. You quickly learn why Julien (Ewen Bremner) is called 'Donkey-Boy' in the film's title - it's his looks, and the way he bays like a donkey when he laughs. Unfortunately, the film opens with Julien murdering a kid over a trifling matter - and it's this murder that casts a pall over the entire movie, as Julien has to hide what he's done, and deal with his ill-considered act alone. As the film progresses we also learn that he's impregnated his own sister. If you narrow down your focus to these two facts alone, you'd probably get the wrong impression about this film - most of it sees Julien and his sister getting by. In fact, Julien does volunteer work helping blind individuals - and you can tell he finds this work rewarding. At times it's so easy to forget the underlying pain that these struggling people feel.

Werner Herzog plays the father - and it's his mental instability that causes a lot of the pain his children feel. He pushes Julien's brother Chris (Evan Neumann) to be a wrestler, and a "winner" - his toxic masculinity oozing from his pores as he runs ice cold water from the hose over Chris and berates him for being a wimp, and not a man. Herzog though, I found hilarious - his random soliloquies about historical facts and his rambling talk gave me a lot of light relief. When he does interact with Julien or Julien's sister, Pearl (Chloë Sevigny) he can get pretty cruel and nasty. Grandma (Joyce Korine) never says a word, and exists as a background figure. The film doesn't really have a narrative - it's just fly-on-the-wall stuff as this family exists from day to day, interacting and in various modes of conflict or conversation. Even in this worst of families, there are tender moments and love - but this is a well and truly broken unit. It may have started to fracture when Julien's mother died - or it may be that there's mental illness here that has been passed down.

The film is grainy - it was shot in New York on MiniDV tape before being transferred to 16mm and then blown up to 35mm film. It's pretty much the stuff you expect with Dogme 95 projects. I thought it really worked well in exposing what keeps families together in the absolute worst of circumstances. It also keeps getting at the conflict in a person's soul - Julien wants to be good, and does so much good in the community, but at the same time he's impetuously killed someone for little reason. Who is a person when they're essentially good, but commit horrendous acts during moments when they lose control? Julien is meant to have untreated schizophrenia, but it's covered up well in the community, and this isn't the type of family to notice this and get help. Julien Donkey-Boy is a mix of beauty, ugliness, love and madness - with every component hard to separate from the others. It's like an explosion of thought and feeling that creates tangled webs that are impossible to untangle - and the film's conclusion is both devastating and powerful. The compassion that Harmony Korine has for his characters says it all.

Glad to catch this one - the first non-European film to be made under the Dogme 95 "vow of chastity".

4

https://i.postimg.cc/fLr3sXHL/julien-donk.jpg

Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : Night and the City (1950)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Julien Donkey-Boy.

Never seen this. Will put it in watchlist.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/Y2zzXwt8/the-happy-ending.jpg

THE HAPPY ENDING (1969)

Directed by : Richard Brooks

There had never been anything like the married bliss that was promised to young people in the generations before the late 60s and early 70s - no "happily ever after" like children read in storybooks. It didn't exist. The excitement dies, a man and woman grow familiar with one another, and attracted to other people. The work needed to keep a home and look after children gets harder and harder as each year passes, and people wonder where all that promise of the future went. All of this is just hitting Mary Wilson (Jean Simmons) as she plans her escape - but where is she headed? What will she do when she gets there? Mary's nonplussed husband is Fred (John Forsythe) - supportive, loving, but no absolute angel. Fred's main job is finding the booze bottles, and admonishing his wife for escaping into alcoholism. She's already tried to escape life altogether, because once she realised that this was as good as it gets, she became hopelessly depressed and completely despondent. She'd been promised so much more.

Watching The Happy Ending was nearly enough to drive me to drink. Melancholy Mary is a difficult customer - I can commiserate, but her self-indulgence and drunkenness comes off like she's childish and spoiled. I wouldn't at all feel the same way if this were real life - I'd feel concern, and sympathy for anyone suffering from depression. This is a movie though - one in which we wallow with Mary for nearly two hours steeped with disappointment, regret, longing, anger and numbness. Around her, couples are hashing it out - either working through the marriage or breaking free and having affairs. Both of these options seem like they don't fit Mary, so as she flies to Nassau with an old college friend and sees firsthand what taking a lover looks like (Lloyd Bridges as the hunk of man), there's no spark that registers she's found what she needs. Only that continual look of feeling lost. Of being cheated. Of life not conforming to what it was supposed to be. There's no consolation for it all being untrue.

So, The Happy Ending was way outside of my comfort zone - a 60s marital drama focused on the longing and needs of Mary. As a whole, I did think that it really captures depression in a nutshell - and I bet there weren't too many films that had done that up to 1969. In that way, it's a very progressive film. The way it's all presented though, with so many scenes looking like those old advertisements for cigarettes (see the pic above), felt a little old fashioned and unimaginative. It's a movie that's well and truly rooted into the 1960s, and not as timeless as those great films that never feel old. The music is sad and depressing, which I guess is what it's meant to sound like. Melancholy is the perfect term. Jean Simmons is completely believable in what must have been a tough part to play - she completely convinced me that she was depressed in a way that made redemption and victory impossible pipe-dreams. The lie exposed, and the happy ending consigned to childhood imagination. Please don't watch this movie if you're feeling glum.

Glad to catch this one - Jean Simmons was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award (Maggie Smith won that year, for her part in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.) The song "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" was also nominated for an Academy Award.

3

https://i.postimg.cc/W4qrR6n8/happy-ending.jpg

Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : A Touch of Zen (1971)

Thank you to whomever inspired me to watch The Happy Ending.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/LsqQm4rY/zen-2.jpg
"Nice try Lao Che!"

A TOUCH OF ZEN (1971)

Directed by : King Hu

I'm not supposed to like wuxia films, but A Touch of Zen is one of the best movies I've ever seen in my life - who knows, it might prove to be a gateway film for me. By the looks of this, King Hu is the Zen Buddhist of moviemaking, because he goes way out of his way to capture beautiful vistas and images that only appear on screen for a second at most - every moment of this film painstakingly perfected over 180 minutes. Some of the cinematography is awe-inspiring, and unbelievably inventive. The fight scenes and set pieces are no different - I haven't been on the edge of my seat for so long, and with A Touch of Zen I was falling off. The rhythm and speed is just right, and every move and countermove shows imagination and invention that I can only call inspired. Each stage of the film is entertainingly varied, and every plot twist a genuine surprise. The movie took 3 years to make, and that makes complete sense once you watch it - there has been careful attention paid to every second.

The story involves honorable outlaw fighters Yang Hui-zhen (Hsu Feng), General Shi Wen-qiao (Bai Ying) and General Lu Ding-an (Xue Han) on the run from an evil overlord - and the two powerful generals who command the armies looking for them. They meet a humble painter, who acts as the protagonist for the first segment of the film - Gu Sheng-tsai (Shih Chun), an average everyday klutz who nevertheless becomes the strategist for the outlaws. My favourite character though, is the insanely talented fighting monk Abbot Hui-yuan, played by Roy Chiao, who just happens to have played Lao Che later on in his career in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Those monks are so much fun, with their god-like fighting skills - but meet their match later on when the meet Commander Hsu Hsien-Chen - a near-invincible fighter that appears to have no weaknesses at all. The final half-hour is incredible - but really, this film has no real slow-down period throughout, and keeps impressing with visual rewards and filmmaking brilliance from start to finish.

Damn this movie was beautiful and entertaining - with artistry out of this world. It's obviously a complete masterpiece. Whatever I think of it's genre as a whole, I was captivated and moved - I had that feeling I have whenever I see cinematic perfection. That indefinable happiness I get from that unique human capacity to appreciate another person's creation. If you haven't seen it - then I can't recommend it enough, especially if you like this kind of stuff. I wasn't sure of where it was going at first, but then it opens up like a lotus blossom, and just as alluringly. I have to wonder what else is out there as far as King Hu is concerned - although I find it hard to believe that A Touch of Zen could be easily matched. It would make my Top 25 of the 1970s. I loved it's tribute to Zen Buddhism and feminism, and it's historical Ming dynasty setting. It's simply one of the best films I've discovered by inching my way through my watchlist.

Glad to catch this one - #825 on Criterion, #130 on Masters of Cinema, nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and ending up winning the Technical Grand Prize award.

5

https://i.postimg.cc/bwkF67Cc/zen.jpg

Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : Umberto D. (1952)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch A Touch of Zen.

[SpelingError]

I should revisit A Touch of Zen someday as I feel I'd rate it higher now. I remember being blown away by how the film built to an increasingly epic scope throughout its runtime, even with the pacing being unhurried in the first hour. The final few minutes are about as incredible of a culmination which I could've asked for.

[ScarletLion]

Umberto D is one of my very favourite films. Hope you enjoy it.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/pTDjc1gX/umbertod2.png

UMBERTO D. (1952)

Directed by : Vittorio De Sica

I approached Umberto D. with as much trepidation as I would an extremely scary movie in the dead of night - Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves is one of my favourite films, and possibly my very favourite foreign language film, but it usually leaves me an emotional wreck. Likewise, Two Women got to me - and I wondered if I was ready to go through this again. I forged ahead regardless, and let this movie work it's way into my empathetic regions. Each De Sica film feels fundamentally different from each other, and yet reaches that same depth - and cries out loud for a lack of common decency and the theft of someone's dignity. This time it's old Umberto (Carlo Battisti), his dog Flike (Napoleone) and the landlady's maid Maria (Maria-Pia Casilio) - Umberto has racked up debts to his landlady, and is close to being thrown out onto the street. He struggles to find the money, and finds it hard to subject himself to begging after the utter humiliation of hinting to his friends that he needs the money - hints rebuffed in an awkward fashion when they pretend not to notice his 'between the lines' pleading. Some friends.

Umberto isn't alone in his suffering - Maria reveals to him that she's pregnant, and that the father of her child could be one of two people. Both want to have nothing to do with the matter, and when the landlady finds out she's expecting she'll be thrown out onto the street as well. It brings these two characters closer together - a kind of shared anxiety about the future. Speaking of which - De Sica knows the audience will be constantly afraid that something will happen to Flike. He flirts with this throughout the entire film - when Umberto goes to hospital, he asks Maria to look after the pooch and when he gets back the doggie is missing. Ultimately, the movie charted a course of it's own and doesn't use this to cheaply manipulate our emotions by killing his dog and having Umberto weep while holding it's limp frame to his chest. Despite this, I was pretty much moved as much anyway by how everything plays out.

So, Italy was just about to experience it's economic miracle, good for Bicycle Thieves' Antonio Ricci in but I doubt there was a place for Umberto when it came - it's the bourgeoisie (which attracts so much scorn in this film) who will reap the benefits, and pensioners in debt will still get thrown out or forced out. I mean, how about the scene in this where another old man is at the dog pound, and finds out his best friend will be killed unless he can pay the 450 lira needed to have it released? I don't know if he was a pensioner - but there ought to be some relief for the poor so circumstances like that don't happen. How about some kind of rent relief for pensioners? The entire film starts with a demonstration of old people demanding an increase to their pension - and what's telling is the way this demonstration is broken up with force. There's not even any pretense to those in power listening. All of it feels relevant to any time period - and Umberto D. a classic that hits as hard as De Sica's other great neo-realist greats. I was once again left an emotional wreck.

Glad to catch this one - #201 on Criterion, in Stephen J. Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die and included in TIME magazine's "All-TIME 100 Movies".

5

https://i.postimg.cc/d0pP80sM/umbert.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : Everyone Says I Love You (1996)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Umberto D..

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/bwK2mF1G/Everyone-Says-I-Love-You1996-5.jpg

EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU (1996)

Directed by : Woody Allen

Whenever the collection isn't staring me in the face, I forget how many terrific films Woody Allen has made. Midnight in Paris, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Blue Jasmine, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Irrational Man, Zelig, Love and Death, Deconstructing Harry, Radio Days, Sleeper, Husbands and Wives, Bananas, Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex, Stardust Memories, Wonder Wheel, Take the Money and Run, Interiors and more. It's a ridiculous film resume, and with his 50th film, Coup De Chance, out now you can obviously discern that he's made so many there are bound to be a few absolute clunkers that don't really work. Not every single one can be brilliant. Well, Everyone Says I Love You certainly isn't brilliant. It's a film made from Allen's comfort zone - his narrative familiarity with wealth, high society, and love combined awkwardly meshing in this musical that not only has Allen slurping lips with a much younger woman, but using information gleaned from her therapy sessions to trick her into bed with him. All's fair to Allen - he's not exactly a "Me Too" icon.

This film came out in-between Mighty Aphrodite and Deconstructing Harry, both of which I'm familiar with - but I was completely unaware of it's existence. It had passed me by. It has a stacked cast - Alan Alda, Woody himself, Drew Barrymore, Goldie Hawn, Edward Norton, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and Tim Roth are the A-listers, but they have talented backing. They all sing (unrehearsed) to varying degrees of success (Woody whispers - an adroit tactic, in the meantime poor tuneless Julia Roberts falls flat. At the other end of the spectrum, Woody had to demand Goldie Hawn "sing worse" to match the everyday quality of singing - she was too good a warbler), but the master filmmaker's taste in music is simply far too old fashioned and way too staid for me. At times this music choice works, but at others the needed contrast is missing. Dennis Potter turned this kind of musical into a high artform, while Woody is simply Woody. The one big tick for me was his developing love affair with European cities, and as such we see plenty of Paris and Venice - two wonderful locations for this kind of film. The big negative was Allen's penchant for his characters to be ostentatiously, filthy rich in the most vulgar fashion possible.

The story, as loose as it is, revolves around an extended family unit, and the various romantic relationships that both blossom and die among it's many members. As already noted, the one with Woody is the one that made me the most uncomfortable - but as an added bonus we have Tim Roth's Charles Ferry, the only non-wealthy character in the film. Just out of prison, and obviously hopelessly corrupt and corrupted, he forces himself upon Barrymore's Skylar which prompts her to fall in love with him and dump fiance Holden Spence (Edward Norton). Look, it's all lighthearted and silly - but often there's an undercurrent in Allen's films that raise little red flags. I'd have much preferred to see Skylar beat Ferry up - which would have been funny (little fancy, demur rich girl beating up hardened crim) and more appropriate. I know - it's all about love in it's many guises, but it's love through Woody Allen's eyes. I can't afford to jet around to Paris and Venice on a whim, and if I force myself on somebody they probably won't fall in love with me. Using information gathered by snooping on therapy sessions to seduce someone is creepy. I do, however, have a song in my heart - so when Allen shows us what this could have been with the song and dance at the end - by the Seine - it's a little too late, but still appreciated because that's magic.

Glad to catch this one - nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the 54th Golden Globe Awards.

2.5

https://i.postimg.cc/Px97mWRH/I-love-you.webp

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Everyone Says I Love You.

[Stirchley]

Umberto D is one of my very favourite films. Hope you enjoy it.

I always cry when he loses his little dog.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/HW72F5QP/jim-jones.jpg

JONESTOWN : THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLES TEMPLE (2006)

Directed by : Stanley Nelson

When I hear about the Jim Jones saga from beginning to end, I keep hoping there will somehow be a different ending to it. That I won't be confronted with those horrifying pictures of hundreds of bodies laying in rows - mostly face-down, and crammed together. Still. Dead. Gone. So many bodies lined up together. This documentary, which tells the story of Jones from his childhood on upwards to what was basically a massacre, relies on the testimony of those who were right there amongst it all. Those who got away, and managed to reach the safety of the jungle without being cut down by the armed guards at Jonestown. Their haunted and haunting words - when the documentary ends, we're told who these people lost when it happened - sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters. Some saw their babies die in front of them, saw their wives frothing at the mouth after drinking poison. By the time Jones ordered his followers to die with him, he'd long crossed over into complete madness - spending his days broadcasting his wild, unhinged thoughts to his fellow community members in what was meant to be a paradisiacal place.

I have to say, this is a very good documentary for the way it covers the life of Jim Jones so comprehensively, and doing it via people who were direct witnesses to it all. Of course, it can only touch on some matters briefly, giving the impression that reading a book about all of this would be very interesting and much more informative. The interviews are excellent, and there's plenty of photographs and footage with gives us more insight into the man and his preaching - an oddball since childhood, it seems he liked performing services for dead animals he'd find, being obsessed with death itself. At first, when we learn about the congregation he gathers and the way he touched people - breaking down barriers regarding race, poverty, disability etc, he sounds positively wonderful. All love. Then, the first hint we get that something isn't quite right is when he's propositioning the young men of his congregation, and espousing certain sexual theories which seem odd at best. Pretty soon he's handing out punishments which consist of beatings, and forcing women to strip naked in front of everyone to teach them a lesson.

Although Jones was no doubt paranoid, I expect he really did have his enemies in the U.S., because you can't espouse socialism there so fervently without alarming some people. It was his crazy practices that led to scathing stories about him in the press - and this is what caused his flight to Guyana, to "Jonestown", which was under construction there. He was fleeing the country before he could be further investigated. The rest is history. Some of the accounts are amazing - such as the one from Congressman Leo Ryan's legal adviser, Jackie Speier - she played dead as the delegation sent to Jonestown fled, but a gunman walked to her and shot her at point-blank range. She survived to tell her tale. The audio from the mass suicide is still chilling - it never loses it's effect to absolute shock you. These people didn't want to die. They didn't want their children to die. Why, oh why, didn't Jones let whoever wanted to leave leave? Probably (and this is no doubt true) he feared a mass exodus. By this stage he was crazy, and his punishments and harsh regime meant what at first seemed a paradise had become a concentration camp. Sad stuff - but a great documentary.

Glad to catch this one - won an award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary, 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and the Golden Gate Award for Best Bay Area Feature Documentary, San Francisco International Film Festival.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/dVnDLPQL/Jonestownposter.jpg

Watchlist Count : 441 (-9)

Next : Paradise : Love (2012)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/RCdWsyvz/paradise.webp

PARADISE : LOVE (2012)

Directed by : Ulrich Seidl

Around a year and a half a go I came across Ulrich Seidl's Paradise : Faith, and only then realised that I'd bumped into the 2nd installment of a trilogy - it was good enough though, to have me intrigued. I should have really started here, with Paradise : Love, because it's the perfect introduction to Seidl's examination of humanity from a unique German point of view. In this film we travel with middle-aged, overweight Austrian mother Teresa (Margarethe Tiesel), who has gone on something of a sex holiday to Kenya. Now, I don't know if that was the whole purpose of Teresa's trip - but for some of her friends, it is. They talk about their exotic lovers, and you can tell they're thrilled - but what it boils down to is male prostitution in the end. Teresa is hoping for something more, and because she's so willing to believe in the various overtures of the men plying their trade on the beaches, she tends to get suckered into thinking there's love in the air. With virile young men throwing themselves at her, it becomes intoxicating - and the lines between fantasy and reality blur.

The longer Paradise : Love goes, the more uncomfortable I get - and I mean that in a good way. There's a certain dynamic between these white German ladies and the desperately poor Kenyans that lends an air of servitude - so with them willing to do anything for the cash rewards that are coming, it becomes a horrifying spectacle. But my empathy also found cause to feel sorry for Teresa, who is so willing to believe that these men are seducing her because they find her attractive, and not because of the potential cash rewards that come with taking on these tourist "sugar mamas". Seidl has very purposely found the least attractive ladies for this film just so we know for sure that virile, attractive young men wouldn't ordinarily be fighting each other to get into bed with them. At one stage Teresa teaches one, step by step, how to be tender and loving when it comes to physical lovemaking, and then via that process fools herself. You can't buy love, or find it by ordering someone to gaze into your eyes.

I found this combination of race, age, beauty, money, power and the obsessive need to be loved, or have love in a person's life really intriguing. When we meet Teresa we see that she cares for a group of intellectually disabled people, and has a combative relationship with her daughter - there's no sign of a husband or lover. She's emotionally parched, only getting the love she needs through her work - which obviously isn't enough. Taking a character like that on a sex holiday to Kenya opens up all kinds of avenues to explore - and Paradise : Love explores them without fear of making us uncomfortable, surprised, shocked or a little repulsed. The whole system - with the men standing on the beach as if they're being bought and sold, while the wealthy white women sun themselves in the foreground, is a visual disparity that's unforgettable. It's this image that usually adorns posters for the film. This was a film that took me places I hadn't been before, and for that I enjoyed it a lot. I look forward to catching up with the second film in the trilogy again, and then finally watching the last - Paradise : Hope.

Glad to catch this one - it competed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, along with various others such as the Toronto International Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival and New Zealand International Film Festival.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/qMVSZJxN/love.jpg

Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : Tangerines (2013)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Paradise : Love.

[matt72582]

https://i.postimg.cc/RCdWsyvz/paradise.webp

PARADISE : LOVE (2012)

Directed by : Ulrich Seidl

Around a year and a half a go I came across Ulrich Seidl's Paradise : Faith, and only then realised that I'd bumped into the 2nd installment of a trilogy - it was good enough though, to have me intrigued. I should have really started here, with Paradise : Love, because it's the perfect introduction to Seidl's examination of humanity from a unique German point of view. In this film we travel with middle-aged, overweight Austrian mother Teresa (Margarethe Tiesel), who has gone on something of a sex holiday to Kenya. Now, I don't know if that was the whole purpose of Teresa's trip - but for some of her friends, it is. They talk about their exotic lovers, and you can tell they're thrilled - but what it boils down to is male prostitution in the end. Teresa is hoping for something more, and because she's so willing to believe in the various overtures of the men plying their trade on the beaches, she tends to get suckered into thinking there's love in the air. With virile young men throwing themselves at her, it becomes intoxicating - and the lines between fantasy and reality blur.

The longer Paradise : Love goes, the more uncomfortable I get - and I mean that in a good way. There's a certain dynamic between these white German ladies and the desperately poor Kenyans that lends an air of servitude - so with them willing to do anything for the cash rewards that are coming, it becomes a horrifying spectacle. But my empathy also found cause to feel sorry for Teresa, who is so willing to believe that these men are seducing her because they find her attractive, and not because of the potential cash rewards that come with taking on these tourist "sugar mamas". Seidl has very purposely found the least attractive ladies for this film just so we know for sure that virile, attractive young men wouldn't ordinarily be fighting each other to get into bed with them. At one stage Teresa teaches one, step by step, how to be tender and loving when it comes to physical lovemaking, and then via that process fools herself. You can't buy love, or find it by ordering someone to gaze into your eyes.

I found this combination of race, age, beauty, money, power and the obsessive need to be loved, or have love in a person's life really intriguing. When we meet Teresa we see that she cares for a group of intellectually disabled people, and has a combative relationship with her daughter - there's no sign of a husband or lover. She's emotionally parched, only getting the love she needs through her work - which obviously isn't enough. Taking a character like that on a sex holiday to Kenya opens up all kinds of avenues to explore - and Paradise : Love explores them without fear of making us uncomfortable, surprised, shocked or a little repulsed. The whole system - with the men standing on the beach as if they're being bought and sold, while the wealthy white women sun themselves in the foreground, is a visual disparity that's unforgettable. It's this image that usually adorns posters for the film. This was a film that took me places I hadn't been before, and for that I enjoyed it a lot. I look forward to catching up with the second film in the trilogy again, and then finally watching the last - Paradise : Hope.

Glad to catch this one - it competed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, along with various others such as the Toronto International Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival and New Zealand International Film Festival.

rating_4

https://i.postimg.cc/qMVSZJxN/love.jpg

Watchlist Count : 440 (-10)

Next : Tangerines (2013)


Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Paradise : Love.


I felt more for than anyone else, despite her intentions. A broken bicycle can be fixed, a broken heart, probably not. While I was watching, I wanted to "save" her.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/rpJJNfdf/tangerines.jpg

TANGERINES (2013)

Directed by : Zaza Urushadze

Two things I had to look up after watching this movie were what the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993) was all about and whether clementines were the same thing as tangerines. The first part of that equation is terribly complicated - there's no easy way to describe why the people in Georgia and Abkazia were fighting, which really suits this tale about war and killing. Who can ever tell why wars have to be fought? The second part is that clementines are kind of like tangerines - that one was pretty obvious. The farmers in this film grow 'clementines' which we're not as familiar with. If this film was called Clementines people would be confused - but Tangerines immediately register with English-speaking people. Given both to eat, it's doubtful we'd tell the two apart. Anyway - on to the actual movie. This film is about two wounded soldiers recovering in the isolated home of Ivo (Lembit Ulfsak). The worst of enemies, the Chechen mercenary swears vengeance on the Georgian soldier in the next room, who has killed his friend and compatriot. For the moment though, they are both too weak to get up.

Ivo is an old Estonian and last of his family to stay on in Georgia while the rest have returned to their home country. He's determined to see these two foes recognize each other as human beings, and will be tested to the utmost as other combatants pass through the area. The fighting is nearby, and as luck would have it the crucial time in which to pick the clementines is at hand - if he doesn't manage to scrape up around 50 or so helpers, he and Margus (Elmo Nüganen) - his neighbour and fellow farmer - will see the entire year's crop go to waste. Ahmed (Giorgi Nakashidze), the Chechen, has sworn to Ivo that he won't kill Nika (Mikheil Meskhi) in the house - but beyond that is fair game as far as he's concerned. The situation is charged with tension, but Ivo is determined to meet this with good humour, humanity and good old fashioned common sense. On the other side of all this though, to a Chechen a blood debt is not something that can be just shrugged off. It seems that the war has come to Ivo's house.

This film was made in Georgia, so there's a definite immediacy and authenticity to everything we see in it. This was a conflict that included "ethnic cleansing" and led to the departure of Georgia's Estonian population, who had immigrated there a century ago. There's a complexity to Eastern European conflict and migration that can quickly baffle - I still don't understand how the Chechens fit into any of this, but that's far from the point of this movie. Instead it wants to show us the transition of two men who have been turned into murderous maniacs back into what we'd consider two normal human beings again - but what will the results of this transformation be in an area where the conflict is red hot? That's where the surprises of Tangerines come in, any revelation of which would spoil the film. It's a film that I found a little nerve-wrecking, considering how close we get to the characters in it, and how dangerous their situation really is. Civilians and soldiers from both sides of the conflict living under the one roof is crazy - and Tangerines is just a brilliantly written film that's so impressive considering where it comes from.

Glad to catch this one - Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2015 (the year Ida won) as well as the Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe (won by Leviathan.)

4

https://i.postimg.cc/tJxH5Xft/tangerin.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : Ali & Ava (2021)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Tangerines.

[Wyldesyde19]

Tangerines is great. And the war was about ethnic cleaning after the fall of Russia

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/CKSVjhhr/ali-and-ava.jpg

ALI & AVA (2021)

Directed by : Clio Barnard

I'm at that age now where relationships mean both parties are bringing plenty of past experiences, scars and baggage along with the glow of new love. Clio Barnard's British movie Ali & Ava shows us how past trauma impacts the formation of a new relationship when a man of Pakistani descent, Ali (Adeel Akhtar) meets Ava (Claire Rushbrook) - a woman living in Bradford, notorious for it's racist, anti-social behaviour. The film isn't about race though - it's about people who are damaged finding love. Ali separated from his wife when she lost their unborn child - but the two still live in the same house, Ali downstairs and his wife upstairs. Belonging to a strict Pakistani family, Ali is too scared to confront them with the truth. Ava's husband died after she left him - he was an alcoholic, and viciously violent when drunk. Despite this, Ava's son Callum (Shaun Thomas) blames her for his father's death, and is outraged by the fact that she'd see another man, and that this man would be a Pakistani. The two meet when Ali picks up a young girl from the school where Ava works - and they hit it off when she reacts positively to his outgoing, friendly personality.

Claire Rushbrook and Adeel Akhtar really help unveil their characters' winsome traits, and their joyful interactions had me on their side from the get-go. Once there though, you're in for a fraught journey, with so much stacked against the love that grows between them. It seems that the entire family on both sides frown on the relationship - even without knowing how deep in the two of them are emotionally. Both differ only in their taste of music, but those horizons broaden both ways when Ava starts listening to Sylvan Esso's 'Radio' and Ali starts listening to Bob Dylan's 'Mama, You Been on My Mind' - Barnard making the music work both for the movie and in the movie at the same time. This film has a great soundtrack (and it's fair to mention that Ali is an ex-DJ turned property agent) and it's impressive how the music really works towards the greater whole. How often is it that music plays a big part of the initial spark a new relationship has? For me, new loves always equate to songs which were important to me at the time.

So, overall a love story that's right down to earth and real in a very basic way. Both Ali and Ava are people you don't ordinarily see in a love story when it comes to cinema. Way past their prime, with both their minds and bodies beleaguered by time - they look like the average everyday people you see in real life. In many ways, I liked it a great deal - so while not stupendously revelatory or incredible, this is still a movie I very much recommend and has my seal of approval. Love is love - and often fights an uphill battle against the prejudice of the people you know, your own fears and difficulties of circumstance. Still, it is a very strong motivating force by itself. Ali & Ava delves into all of that and more, and Clio Barnard's direction is completely assured. It's a nice looking film, making the most of the dreary mood Yorkshire can sometimes summon up by diversions into the serene whenever the camera can find it. There are lulls and flows - the rhythmic push and pull of love's sometimes troubled path, all wrapped in such a purposeful movie. A really good one.

Glad to catch this one - premiered at the 74th Cannes Film Festival in the Directors Fortnight section. Nominated for a Best British Film and Best Lead Actor (Adeel Akhtar) BAFTA.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/3ryS85BV/ali-ava.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : The Heiress (1949)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Ali & Ava.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/htNYF1b5/the-heiress.webp

THE HEIRESS (1949)

Directed by : William Wyler

Stupendous - I was blown away by The Heiress, and for many reasons. I mean, this film is powerful - it doesn't play around, and it's classification as a "romance" film can be a little misleading. The romance in The Heiress has at it's heart a question, and it's one which will poison everything it touches. The film is set in the mid-1800s, and the romance is between Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland) and Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift) - Catherine set to inherit a fortune from her father, Dr. Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson), and Morris penniless after spending his entire inheritance loafing in Europe. Is Morris after Catherine's inheritance? Dr. Sloper thinks so, but his daughter - shy, naïve and deeply in love - is sure that Morris loves her for who she is, and not her money. Catherine's Aunt, Lavinia Penniman (Miriam Hopkins), is a romantic, and does everything she can to help the two lovers get married. Dr. Sloper will go as far to prevent it. The results are what makes this film such a striking dramatic gem.

Olivia de Havilland won an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance - an easy decision, because it's the most remarkable one I've ever seen from her. In Danny Peary's 'Alternate Oscars' the author does what's rare - and gives his choice to the same person who won on Oscars night. The actress needed to do more than act shy, coy and reserved - Catherine Sloper is a woman in her 30s who has never been courted before, and has no social skills. She endures her father's subtle put-downs, as loving as he is, and is unprepared for Morris Townsend's attentions - her reactions, and her evolution as a character throughout the film are fascinating to watch. Montgomery Clift is good too - I've always really liked him as an actor and think it's a terrible shame he had to go and drink himself to death. He'd been in a car crash which left him in constant pain, and he turned to the bottle to help deal with that. At the time he appeared in this film, that was yet to happen.

So - no doubt, I loved this movie, and didn't want to say too much about it for those who haven't seen it yet. I went in completely blind and thought it was absolutely brilliant. I thought I knew exactly how it would end - and I was wrong, with the film going for a very hard punch instead of a soft Hollywood ending. It's based on a play with the same name (Augustus and Ruth Goetz adapted their own work for the screen), which in turn was based on the novel 'Washington Square' by Henry James. Some say this William Wyler film is the best version of the story, and I suspect that's true. The production design is excellent, as are Edith Head's costumes - while visually Wyler wanted to give the impression that we were watching a stage play. My admiration for the movie kind of leapt over all of it's technical achievements though - I simply became emotionally involved with all of the characters, and was swept along with the turbulent drama. I very highly recommend The Heiress to all those who haven't seen it. It's simply brilliant.


Glad to catch this one - Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Actress (won), Supporting Actor, Director, Cinematography, Art Direction (won), Costume Design (won) and Score (won). Criterion #974 and it's in Steven Jay Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/Vs3MTX4d/heiress.jpg

Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : Black Girl (1966)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Heiress.

[SpelingError]

I'm a huge fan of that one. Caherine's arc, mixed with the ambiguity over Morris's motivations, culminated in a perfect ending.

[Thief]

Yep. Saw The Heiress for the first time a year or two ago and it catapulted to the top. It's a big favorite.

[Stirchley]

I'm a huge fan of that one. Caherine's arc, mixed with the ambiguity over Morris's motivations, culminated in a perfect ending.

Excellent movie & book (Washington Square).

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/fy4bjNqD/black-girl.jpg

BLACK GIRL (1966)

Directed by : Ousmane Sembène

In Black Girl a depressed Gomis Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop) is being woken by her annoyed boss, Madame (Anne-Marie Jelinek), while she's shouting "This isn't Africa you know! This isn't Africa!" The implication is that in Africa people are slovenly, lazy and undependable - and the way this is expressed is probably common the world over. Whether "this isn't Mexico" or "this isn't Iraq" - the general gist is that "you're no long in a world where you're going to be respected as my equal" - the immigrant or foreigner is a sub-class of person. 'You're no longer in your country, you're in my country'. Diouana has fallen far even before Madame starts spitting venom at her though - she took on a job as a nanny for Madame and Monsieur (Robert Fontaine) but once she got to France she suddenly discovers that she's a 24-hour domestic servant. That's why she's depressed. People treat her as if she's some kind of exotic pet, and not a person. Madam takes offense when she wears nice clothes, and forces her to wear an apron to fully mark her as "the help" and not one of the family.

Ousmane Sembène introduces a fascinating object to this movie of his that has spiritual meaning - the mask Diouana brings to Madame and Monsieur as a gift, which she tries to take back, and which is eventually returned to Africa by Monsieur. This mask haunts him as he rushes to escape it's looming influence, with a kid wearing it and chasing him off. I loved the element of this mask - the cultural icon that looms over the entire film. I also liked the way we hear all of Diouana's thoughts as to her confusion over her roles while employed and her heartbreak at being treated pretty much as a slave. We spend most of the film very much ensconced in Diouana's mind - her hopes and dreams when moving to France and getting to job, and her slow descent into depression and despondency. This depression is taken for laziness by Madame, who treats Diouana coldly and cruelly. It's all filmed with enthusiasm and artistry by Ousmane Sembène, who started making films in Senegal once laws actually prohibiting black Senegalese making movies were repealed.

I guess I was a little surprised by the running time - not having checked beforehand how long the movie is. But hell, I'd much rather a film be too short than too long (if a film can ever really be described as being too short.) I really enjoyed every close-up on Mbissine Thérèse Diop's expressive face, most often with eyes brimming with tears. Leaving your home and trying to make a new life for yourself in a foreign country is really tough - but when you're treated as if you're not a real person, then it becomes unbearable. To contrast, we do flash back to a scene with Diouana and her boyfriend (played by Momar Nar Sene) which fleshes out her more natural mode of being. First Touki Bouki (which I watched in January), and now this. Seems that Senegal had a head start when it comes to Africa and filmmaking - and from the looks of it there's much, much more out there now to become aquainted with. Sembène was there early, and has a revered role as far as Africa and film go. Black Girl has a strong, beating heart and sense of aesthetic truth, real beauty and, most of all, a strong, powerful voice.

Glad to catch this one - Criterion #852. The first Sub-Saharan African film by an African filmmaker to receive international attention. Over the years since it's release, it has come to be seen as a classic of world cinema.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/02QBjzcM/Black-Girl-poster.png

Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : Winter Sleep (2014)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Black Girl.

[jiraffejustin]

Black Girl is great :up:

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/wB53HRDZ/win.jpg

WINTER SLEEP (2014)

Directed by : Nuri Bilge Ceylan

From the shortest film in my watchlist thread to the longest - Winter Sleep clocks in at an impressive 196-minutes, nearly four times as long as Black Girl. It didn't seem that long to me. It speaks to those who often wonder about what a truly selfless person is like - main character Aydın (Haluk Bilginer) would like to think of himself as altruistic, but uses his so-called sympathy for others as a way to bolster his self image and look down on the rest of the community. Aydın was once a famous stage actor, and now owns and runs an attractive hotel in Cappadocia, an historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey, as well as being a landlord for his other properties. We start to realise that not all is well between Aydın and the community at large when the child of one of his tenants throws a rock at his car one day, smashing the window. These tenants are behind on their rent, and as such Aydın's lawyers have confiscated much of their property. Living with Aydın is his sister, Necla (Demet Akbağ), and his much younger wife, Nihal (Melisa Sözen) - both often at odds with him.

The region Aydın's hotel is in looks gorgeous - a dream place to live, but there's a sense of sadness that permeates the walls. Necla and Nihal are lost there - their boredom and weariness of Aydın's pontificating slowly driving them away. During winter it seems that there are less people staying at the hotel - and each time someone leaves, it really feels like a sad occasion. Occasionally Hamdi (Serhat Kılıç) - the uncle of the boy who threw the rock - comes over to placate the landlord and virtually prostrates and demeans himself so he'll be looked kindly upon. It often seems Aydın secretly enjoys this. If all of this sounds pretty wearisome - especially in a move that goes for over three hours, then I've been giving the wrong impression. The excitement you get from Winter Sleep is in all of the conversations the characters have. Nuri Bilge Ceylan seems to have a Tarantino-like ability to make back and forth dialogue feel very real, exciting, interesting and compelling. Aydın is taken apart piece by piece - with characters both on his side and critical of him both doing the deconstructing and examination.

Winter Sleep is an excellent film, with a spark of originality that I'm always looking for in new films - I don't know of much that's really like it. There isn't another film out there that moves at a standstill pace and yet never once makes me realise that it's doing that - I was far too interested in the character of Aydın and what he represents. A person who does good in the community not because he cares, but because of how he can slyly brandish this and get a sense of prideful smugness out of it. The column he writes for the local newspaper is where his largest outlet is, often displaying a certain arrogance and being a big fish in a small pond. That said - it's not immediately apparent that he's that kind of person. He hides it well, even from himself. Every time he hears something which is at odds with the self-image he has of himself, he comes out fighting, and never relents until the image is restored. It's this aspect to his character that is completely destroying his wife, and it's this breaking-point that colours the final act of the film. Brilliantly written this, kept alive and vibrant by touching a nerve that is probably deep within us all. Definitely a recommended film.

Glad to catch this one - winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2014, along with the FIPRESCI Prize.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/rwzvMGTY/winter-sl.jpg

Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : Seven Days in May (1964)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Winter Sleep.

[Stirchley]

Black Girl is excellent. Seen it twice.

I may have seen Winter Sleep. In any event it’s in my watchlist.

[Wooley]

https://i.postimg.cc/fy4bjNqD/black-girl.jpg

BLACK GIRL (1966)

Directed by : Ousmane Sembène

In Black Girl a depressed Gomis Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop) is being woken by her annoyed boss, Madame (Anne-Marie Jelinek), while she's shouting "This isn't Africa you know! This isn't Africa!" The implication is that in Africa people are slovenly, lazy and undependable - and the way this is expressed is probably common the world over. Whether "this isn't Mexico" or "this isn't Iraq" - the general gist is that "you're no long in a world where you're going to be respected as my equal" - the immigrant or foreigner is a sub-class of person. 'You're no longer in your country, you're in my country'. Diouana has fallen far even before Madame starts spitting venom at her though - she took on a job as a nanny for Madame and Monsieur (Robert Fontaine) but once she got to France she suddenly discovers that she's a 24-hour domestic servant. That's why she's depressed. People treat her as if she's some kind of exotic pet, and not a person. Madam takes offense when she wears nice clothes, and forces her to wear an apron to fully mark her as "the help" and not one of the family.

Ousmane Sembène introduces a fascinating object to this movie of his that has spiritual meaning - the mask Diouana brings to Madame and Monsieur as a gift, which she tries to take back, and which is eventually returned to Africa by Monsieur. This mask haunts him as he rushes to escape it's looming influence, with a kid wearing it and chasing him off. I loved the element of this mask - the cultural icon that looms over the entire film. I also liked the way we hear all of Diouana's thoughts as to her confusion over her roles while employed and her heartbreak at being treated pretty much as a slave. We spend most of the film very much ensconced in Diouana's mind - her hopes and dreams when moving to France and getting to job, and her slow descent into depression and despondency. This depression is taken for laziness by Madame, who treats Diouana coldly and cruelly. It's all filmed with enthusiasm and artistry by Ousmane Sembène, who started making films in Senegal once laws actually prohibiting black Senegalese making movies were repealed.

I guess I was a little surprised by the running time - not having checked beforehand how long the movie is. But hell, I'd much rather a film be too short than too long (if a film can ever really be described as being too short.) I really enjoyed every close-up on Mbissine Thérèse Diop's expressive face, most often with eyes brimming with tears. Leaving your home and trying to make a new life for yourself in a foreign country is really tough - but when you're treated as if you're not a real person, then it becomes unbearable. To contrast, we do flash back to a scene with Diouana and her boyfriend (played by Momar Nar Sene) which fleshes out her more natural mode of being. First Touki Bouki (which I watched in January), and now this. Seems that Senegal had a head start when it comes to Africa and filmmaking - and from the looks of it there's much, much more out there now to become aquainted with. Sembène was there early, and has a revered role as far as Africa and film go. Black Girl has a strong, beating heart and sense of aesthetic truth, real beauty and, most of all, a strong, powerful voice.

Glad to catch this one - Criterion #852. The first Sub-Saharan African film by an African filmmaker to receive international attention. Over the years since it's release, it has come to be seen as a classic of world cinema.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/02QBjzcM/Black-Girl-poster.png

Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : Winter Sleep (2014)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Black Girl.

This was a 10/10 for me (or 5 popcorns), I thought this was one of the best movies I'd seen in a long time and went directly onto my imaginary list of The Great Films.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/zBx7p5c0/seven.jpg

SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (1964)

Directed by : John Frankenheimer

I grew up in the shadow of a rock-solid stable United States, with the cold war lingering but no cause for immediate alarm. It's hard to believe that there have been civil wars and revolutions in a nation so steadfast in it's way of conducting business. Seven Days in May imagines a moment in time where a plot exists to overthrow a democratically elected president and install a military dictatorship - and the way it plays out is perfectly believable. Fletcher Knebel's novel came out in 1962 - a time of crisis and a year when the United States and Soviet Union nearly went to war with each other. President Kennedy refused his generals when they pleaded he send American forces to invade Cuba - and no doubt some of them would have loved to seize the reins of power and do what they thought needed to be done. In this film it's President Jordan Lyman (Fredric March) signing a treaty with the Soviets to ban nuclear missiles - and four star General James Mattoon Scott (Burt Lancaster) who plans to depose him on the grounds that any such treaty would invite disaster. Those plans to overthrow the government are being kept secret, just waiting for the moment Scott can be sure to control all broadcasting and communication in the country.

Yes - it's a very nice political thriller with an ensemble including Kirk Douglas, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Martin Balsam and of course Whit Bissell - often in John Frankenheimer films. Douglas plays Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey, the man who starts to realise something is up when jealously guarded messages in code start to come to his attention, and a note alluding to troop movements and army bases nobody knows anything about is discovered. Once he informs the President the whole situation becomes something of a game of chess - his trusted advisors go out to investigate and start meeting deadly fates. Can General Scott get to the President himself? Any premature announcement by the President that a plot is afoot could be seen as delusional paranoia - he needs evidence. In the meantime, the careful machinations of the plotters continues apace. It's an intelligent, compelling movie in the tradition of great espionage fiction. While it doesn't have a memorable theme, the score (from heavyweight Jerry Goldsmith) is still exacting and on point.

It's nice to have finally watched Seven Days in May - I remember hearing about Kennedy's interest in the novel, and how he saw parallels with the friction he had with his Chiefs of Staff. I like how the love story fits into the story perfectly and is integral instead of feeling added on - with Casey seducing Eleanor Holbrook (Gardner) and finding dirt on Scott - which Eleanor misinterprets, and which Casey can't fully explain without giving the game away. I liked how there's a sense of time running out, with a Pentagon clock blazing in the camera's face from time to time. Frankenheimer was unfortunately denied permission to film establishing shots with Douglas entering the Pentagon, but sneaked in some of Balsam approaching the USS Kitty Hawk. The one thing that is perfect though is the casting here - with every role fitting each and every actor like a glove (it would have been cool if they'd have given the role of President Lyman to Ronald Reagan - not that this was ever on the cards. Reagan's acting career was winding down during this period.) In this day and age it would profit many an American to see Seven Days in May to catch a glimpse of how megalomania, populism and crisis can be a threat to democracy, and to realise that it really could happen one day if the good people of the U.S.A. aren't vigilant.

Glad to catch this one - remade in 1994 as The Enemy Within. Frankenheimer stated decades after making it that Seven Days in May was "among his most satisfying work".

4

https://i.postimg.cc/zXhQgKPx/seven-days.jpg

Watchlist Count : 437 (-13)

Next : Le Chat (1971)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Seven Days in May.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/SQ3JXdT1/cat.jpg

LE CHAT (1971)
(The Cat)

Directed by : Pierre Granier-Deferre

Well, this is certainly a heart-breaker - and the blame for that probably goes on the two heavyweight acting talents, Simone Signoret and Jean Gabin, who are simply wonderful in this. Julien (Gabin) and Clémence Bouin (Simone Signoret) are a married couple who have learned to hate each other over the years. Clémence though, still loves Julien as well as hating him, and seems to think there's hope if only she could break through the wall of ice that stands between her and her man. Julien, has given up all hope and just accepts that the love he once had for his wife is gone. His affections go towards his gorgeous pet cat - a stray he discovered one day, and one he spoils with affection and adoration. Clémence's jealousy regarding all of the love the cat gets and all of the anger and contempt she gets means this cat symbolises everything she's lost - and soon the focus of her rage narrows down to the blasted feline intruder into her life, and without realising what she's doing, her actions lead to a change in the status quo.

Love is something we often misinterpret, and at times we love people a lot more than we realise we do. Often we don't realise how much we really do love someone until they are gone. In Le Chat this love exists despite the fact that there's an equally strong seething hatred between the protagonists. One of the two has an outlet and the other doesn't - and this imbalance is the source of a tragic conflict between the two. Gabin's Julien exhibits a fatalistic, downcast kind of surrender to what he feels is inevitable. Signoret's Clémence exhibits a desperate, hysterical and emotional rage against time and what it's done to her marriage. Both find the answer to their problems in the cat that's central to this story, and both use this cat to relieve their respective woes. The cat might resemble hope to both characters in different ways. In the meantime, right outside their ramshackle home, bulldozers and wrecking balls are destroying the other buildings in their neighbourhood. It's as if the last vestiges of a world they once knew are being broken apart - and there's not much they can do about it.

I have to say, Le Chat hit me really hard in the emotional solar plexus, and it took me a while to recover. Watching these two old people suffer wasn't easy, but it seemed worth it in the end because of how satisfying it was to watch a really great film. The ending was perfect, and said everything I still needed to know about what had been going on between these two - even though some actions are hard to forgive. Signoret and Gabin are out of this world, and I can't get either performance out of my mind - such was my enjoyment reveling in what they can do. The shots of their little decrepit house amongst all of the empty space and destruction was a perfect visage for Pierre Granier-Deferre (of whom I've only seen The Widow Couderc with Alain Delon and Signoret.) The love and hate was both overwhelming - and recognizable as being two sides of the same coin. When you get married you'd think it impossible that one day you'd look at your spouse and feel nothing but seething rage - day after day. I blame a lack of communication, and definitely not the cat. Leave the cat alone.

Glad to catch this one - Simone Signoret won the Silver Bear for Best Actress, and Jean Gabin won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 21st Berlin International Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Golden Bear.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/zG8bfsJZ/chat.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : Human Capital (2013)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Le Chat.

[crumbsroom]

I want to thank this thread for being consistently great.

[SpelingError]

I love the first half of Le Chat, but killing the cat halfway into the film robbed it of its emotional core too early. I had trouble getting back into the film after that. Still though, the first half is a powerful representation of the ways jealousy can break relationships apart and the cat acts as a great catalyst (sorry for the pun) for them to release years of built-up hatred and affection both towards it and each other.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/zXwrGgVG/Human-Capital.webp

HUMAN CAPITAL (2013)

Directed by : Paolo Virzì

Human Capital is a phrase insurance companies use when it comes to figuring out just how much money your life is worth. A stinking old bum on the street with no immediate family is virtually worth nothing - but a younger guy raking in a 6-figure salary with an extended family who love him and a bunch of friends is worth a fortune. It goes against the principle of all of us being equal, but in a capitalist society we all know the truth - and many a film will set itself to contemplate how money and finance co-exist with morals, freedom and justice. There's no denying that money has an influence on all three. Paolo Virzì has made a film here that tells a story three times over, each time from a different character's point of view. We've seen this done quite a few times over the years, for example in Iñárritu's Amores Perros and 21 Grams, or to a certain extent Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. As each story unfolds we learn things that were briefly touched on in a previous story, helping to enlighten us on why certain events happen - and why characters are behaving the way they are. The backdrop is an Italy that was on the verge of an economic crisis, which hit in the years 2008 and 2009.

Dino Ossola (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is a middle-class real estate agent who crosses paths with high-class financier Giovanni Bernaschi (Fabrizio Gifuni) - the former's daughter dating the latter's son. They play tennis together and Dino finds out about an investment opportunity with a 40% return. The minimum buy-in is extremely high, but Dino secretly borrows 700,000 euros (it's against the law to use borrowed money in this way) - pretending to be wealthy. In the second story we follow Giovanni's wife, Carla (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) - a bored housewife who persuades her husband to buy her a run-down theater so she can renovate it and reopen - a coup, making her a name in the world of theater. That is, until a struggling Giovanni decides he has to sell it - on the eve of a grand reopening everyone is counting on. In the third story Dino's daughter Serena (Matilde Gioli) falls in love with a patient who sees her psychiatrist step-mother, but while helping take her drunk ex-boyfriend home a man on a bicycle is hit and killed - an event we see in the film's prologue, and one that will touch on the lives of all the characters we've come to know.

In Paolo Virzì's film everything has a monetary value. Dino's facile friendship with Giovanni costs a certain amount, as does Giovannis son, Massimiliano (Guglielmo Pinelli) being proved innocent of manslaughter. The life of the cyclist has a monetary value. Carla's entry into the world of theater has a monetary value. To a population that was hit hardest during the global financial crisis, there seems to be an obsessional introspection going on here - the price of being forever bound to a concept that seems at odds with justice, morals, pride and freedom. A concept that has put a price tag on all of these things. One that has put an exact dollar-specific price tag on our very lives and existence. In the film Dino has bought into an investment that's betting on the collapse of the Italian financial system - for everything to be okay for both families, the country has to fail. Their happiness is inextricably tied to the misery of many. What Paolo Virzì is saying in this film is really important, and the only black mark on this is that he's done it in a way that lacks a little originality. It's well made, and I can't fault any of the performances, which are above average all-round. While it's not at all boring, I found there to be a lack of surprise throughout.

(Remade in 2019 as an English-language film by Marc Meyers featuring Liev Schreiber and Marisa Tomei.)

Glad to catch this one - the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards (not nominated) and winner of various Silver Ribbon Awards and David di Donatello Awards.

3.5

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Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : Fat City (1972)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Human Capital.

[Stirchley]

I love the first half of Le Chat, but killing the cat halfway into the film robbed it of its emotional core too early. I had trouble getting back into the film after that. Still though, the first half is a powerful representation of the ways jealousy can break relationships apart and the cat acts as a great catalyst (sorry for the pun) for them to release years of built-up hatred and affection both towards it and each other.

Gosh, thanks for the warning. Will not watch this now. :eek:

[Stirchley]

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ALI & AVA (2021)

Directed by : Clio Barnard

I'm at that age now where relationships mean both parties are bringing plenty of past experiences, scars and baggage along with the glow of new love. Clio Barnard's British movie Ali & Ava shows us how past trauma impacts the formation of a new relationship when a man of Pakistani descent, Ali (Adeel Akhtar) meets Ava (Claire Rushbrook) - a woman living in Bradford, notorious for it's racist, anti-social behaviour. The film isn't about race though - it's about people who are damaged finding love. Ali separated from his wife when she lost their unborn child - but the two still live in the same house, Ali downstairs and his wife upstairs. Belonging to a strict Pakistani family, Ali is too scared to confront them with the truth. Ava's husband died after she left him - he was an alcoholic, and viciously violent when drunk. Despite this, Ava's son Callum (Shaun Thomas) blames her for his father's death, and is outraged by the fact that she'd see another man, and that this man would be a Pakistani. The two meet when Ali picks up a young girl from the school where Ava works - and they hit it off when she reacts positively to his outgoing, friendly personality.

Claire Rushbrook and Adeel Akhtar really help unveil their characters' winsome traits, and their joyful interactions had me on their side from the get-go. Once there though, you're in for a fraught journey, with so much stacked against the love that grows between them. It seems that the entire family on both sides frown on the relationship - even without knowing how deep in the two of them are emotionally. Both differ only in their taste of music, but those horizons broaden both ways when Ava starts listening to Sylvan Esso's 'Radio' and Ali starts listening to Bob Dylan's 'Mama, You Been on My Mind' - Barnard making the music work both for the movie and in the movie at the same time. This film has a great soundtrack (and it's fair to mention that Ali is an ex-DJ turned property agent) and it's impressive how the music really works towards the greater whole. How often is it that music plays a big part of the initial spark a new relationship has? For me, new loves always equate to songs which were important to me at the time.

So, overall a love story that's right down to earth and real in a very basic way. Both Ali and Ava are people you don't ordinarily see in a love story when it comes to cinema. Way past their prime, with both their minds and bodies beleaguered by time - they look like the average everyday people you see in real life. In many ways, I liked it a great deal - so while not stupendously revelatory or incredible, this is still a movie I very much recommend and has my seal of approval. Love is love - and often fights an uphill battle against the prejudice of the people you know, your own fears and difficulties of circumstance. Still, it is a very strong motivating force by itself. Ali & Ava delves into all of that and more, and Clio Barnard's direction is completely assured. It's a nice looking film, making the most of the dreary mood Yorkshire can sometimes summon up by diversions into the serene whenever the camera can find it. There are lulls and flows - the rhythmic push and pull of love's sometimes troubled path, all wrapped in such a purposeful movie. A really good one.

Glad to catch this one - premiered at the 74th Cannes Film Festival in the Directors Fortnight section. Nominated for a Best British Film and Best Lead Actor (Adeel Akhtar) BAFTA.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/3ryS85BV/ali-ava.jpg

Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : The Heiress (1949)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Ali & Ava.

Haven’t heard of this, but will give it a try.

[SpelingError]

Gosh, thanks for the warning. Will not watch this now. :eek:
For what it's worth, there wasn't any actual animal cruelty on set, if that's what your concern is.

[Stirchley]

For what it's worth, there wasn't any actual animal cruelty on set, if that's what your concern is.

I didn’t think the cat would really be dead, but to think of it as dead is the same for me. Too depressing.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/tT0c86tK/fat-city.webp

FAT CITY (1972)

Directed by : John Huston

When you hear Kris Kristofferson sing "Help Me Make It Through the Night" while you watch Stacy Keach (playing old, past his prime boxer Billy Tully) stumble around his bare boarding room in his underpants, you're getting an accurate reflection of what Fat City is all about. Broken dreams, busting your guts out for peanuts, drinking yourself into a stupor (short term) and the grave (long term) and the ridiculously tough sport boxing is. John Huston liked the idea of making this film about a young up-and-comer and an old boxer trying to make a comeback because he was involved with boxing as a youth. Leonard Gardner adapted his own novel for the screen. Joining Keach was Jeff Bridges, fresh off his breakthrough success in The Last Picture Show. Bridges plays Ernie Munger - young and talented, but inexperienced. He never sees the low blows coming, and you could say he lacks a little drive - despite his enthusiasm. Tully is like an old shoe - beat up, tired, broken down and nearly always drunk. Despite this he slugs things out, and goes through hell just to keep the impossible dream going - for his life to really mean something.

The boxing scenes in Fat City manage to be both understated and phenomenal at the same time. I'll be damned if I didn't ride every punch - and perhaps that's because I cared so much about the characters, who really need to do well in the ring for it all to make sense. Up there with the boxing scenes are the barroom ones - with the added presence of Susan Tyrrell (who is wonderful) as the constantly soused Oma Lee Greer, who Billy hitches his wagon to. "You can count on me," is his constant refrain - everything comes pouring out once Billy gets drunk, as does the sorrowful lamentation from Oma whose man is now in prison. We see them at their lowest - but is there any amount of training, conditioning and good luck that will lift them any higher than their present station? Billy picks up work in the fields, harvesting various crops for basically loose change. He seems attracted to the gutter. Ruben (Nicholas Colasanto) gets him a fight with an old pro whose name seems big on paper, but who has some devastating health problems of his own.

The world of boxing seems ludicrous when you see how hard it is, and the lives of all the characters in Fat City are hard all-round. It's push and effort - sometimes for nothing. A broken nose and no reward. Covered in mud and the car's still stuck. An unwanted marriage because of an unwanted pregnancy. A paycheck down the drain in exchange for a night of being deliriously drunk. All some characters have to show for it is a cardboard box full of stuff, and a middle-finger from an ex. To contemplate all of this could easily be overwhelmingly depressing, but Huston puts many human touches in which give every one of his characters a certain amount of humanity, spirit, nobility and honor. When Billy says "You can count on me," he means it, even if at times he can't fully live up to it. In the ring there are no cheap and easy ways to get by. Huston makes sure the camera captures every single moment of what makes all of these characters worth exploring in minute detail, even if their lives are heading straight for the drain. It has a solemn yet winsome edge to it with enough moments of catharsis to relieve the relentless sadness. Keach's performance is remarkable - and this is an extremely good movie.

Glad to catch this one - Susan Tyrrell was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Oma in 1973.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/V6tr9rkK/fat-cit.jpg

Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : Beau Geste (1939)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Fat City.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/g2n26KMZ/beau.webp

BEAU GESTE (1939)

Directed by : William A. Wellman

I don't know if joining the 'Foreign Legion' is all it's really cracked up to be - nearly all of the men we meet in Beau Geste are desperate to escape once they're ensconced in the isolated Fort Zinderneuf. Michael "Beau" Geste (Gary Cooper), John Geste (Ray Milland) and Digby Geste (Robert Preston) have joined up to muddy the waters concerning who stole a near-priceless jewel belonging to their benefactor, who raised them as orphans. Isobel Rivers (a very young Susan Hayward) waits for John, who has just declared his love for her, to return. What we've got all up here is a pretty basic adventure story which is a remake of the 1926 silent version - itself an adaptation of P. C. Wren's 1924 novel. The beginning got my hopes up a little too high - it starts with a Mary Celeste-type mystery over Fort Zinderneuf being discovered full of corpses, lined up as if still defending the place - some of whom vanish while the fort is being examined. The bugler sent to investigate has himself vanished, and soon enough the entire fort is engulfed in flames. A tantalizing mystery that's set up - one that will be explained after we go back in time 15 years. I love mysteries like that - but they do lose their allure once you know exactly what happened.

From there on we're introduced to the Geste brothers as kids, watch them suddenly grow up, and get to know how strong their familial bonds are. Lady Brandon (Heather Thatcher) looks after them, but frets about their future as her husband, Sir Hector Brandon, is ploughing through all the money they have. The only bright spot is a valuable sapphire called the "Blue Water", which she hopes will be able to provide for the boys when they grow up. When Sir Hector sends word he's coming home to sell the jewel for more cash, it suddenly disappears - the thief is unknown, but has to be one of the boys. To allay suspicion on each other, they all join the Foreign Legion. I really like Gary Cooper - so it wasn't an absolute chore to sit and watch Beau Geste, and Brian Donlevy puts in a really great turn as the evil Sergeant Markoff - fond of executing troops for desertion, or otherwise doling out pain and torture. He thinks one of the Geste boys actually has the jewel on him, and as such is planning to steal it for himself. In the meantime I get to feel conflicted about watching a film where I'm meant to cheer on colonialists killing people who are probably within their rights to want the French to leave.

Yeah, times have changed, and remakes of Beau Geste have faded out. There was another one in 1966 directed by Douglas Heyes, and then there was the comedy The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977) directed by Marty Feldman (which is still the last, if you discount the TV series which came out in 1982.) The 'adventure' aspect to the story comes at the end - but half of the film is actually a drama relating to the ad-hoc family which the Gestes are part of. It at least provides some balance and context. Once in the desert though it's desperate survival under a tyrannical Sergeant in command (when the Lieutenant dies of fever), and even more desperate survival as the fort they're in is constantly attacked by the Tuaregs (no, not the toe rags silly.) As more Legionnaires die, the more hopeless the situation becomes and we get to see exactly why all of the corpses were propped up as they are in the film's beginning. Suddenly we remember and realise that there were no survivors - so what hope do the Geste brothers have? Do any of them get to survive and come home? Surely they won't kill Gary Cooper! A quality film for it's time - especially if you like Gary Cooper.

Glad to catch this one - Brian Donlevy was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Sergeant Markoff, and the film also scored a nomination for Best Art Direction.

3

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Watchlist Count : 437 (-13)

Next : Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Beau Geste.

[PHOENIX74]

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MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ (1971)

Directed by : John Cassavetes

Chronologically speaking, amongst the films John Cassavetes made, Minne and Moskowitz comes before he made A Woman Under the Influence (I was going to say just before, but three years separates the two - probably as Cassavetes was finding it hard to get funding for his films at the time.) Funnily enough, if Peter Falk were playing the Seymour Moskowitz role instead of Seymour Cassel, you'd almost be able to call this a precursor to that film. Gena Rowlands plays the same kind of slightly neurotic, at times outright crazy, lady - Minnie Moore - here in love with married man Jim (played wonderfully by John Cassavetes himself) who beats her when in a jealous rage. Minnie though, is the type of girl who hits back, twice as hard and with twice as many blows. Her friend sets Minnie up on a disastrous lunch date with Zelmo Swift (Val Avery), and when Zelmo creates a scene, in steps parking attendant Seymour Moskowitz to save Minnie and instantly fall in love with her - a love Minnie will try desperately try to extricate herself from for most of the movie. Just like with Mabel and Nick Longhetti in Under the Influence, these two don't quite meet eye-to-eye or mind-to-mind.

I loved this film because it never went in any direction I was expecting it to go - the originality and complexity of it's characters a mainstay of Cassavetes' films. From how it was presented to me at first, I honestly expected a traditional kind of love story - where both the Minnie and Mokowitz of the film's title would be on the same page, and feel the same way for each other. You can totally understand Minnie's uncertainty about the man who is pursuing her - their first date ends with him kidnapping her after nearly running her down with his truck. Any first date that ends with the lady raining blows down upon the man has it's success in serious question - but Seymour is certain that the true potential of their feelings are being sold cheap by a lady who is simply far from her comfort zone. The two go out together, but their outings often end in some kind of unusual catastrophe brought about by hurt feelings and Seymour's frustration at the object of his love continually turning cold on him. I had no idea about where it could possibly go - but watching Cassel and Rowlands perform this strange courting ritual had me spellbound.

The film is also constructed in a very unusual way - with not only establishing shots, but anything which might establish where we've jumped forward to in the story abandoned. Instead we take blind leaps forward and find ourselves oriented by what's going on - and it takes a few moments to gather up whichever new direction we're going in. I can't say whether this was an artistic choice or not, but I liked it. Val Avery's small part in the film just blew my mind - a man you'd want to escape by any means possible, but at the same time it breaks your heart that this guy is like this. The cinematography involved three different guys - I don't know why, but I thought there were some very unusual flourishes in how quickly the camera moved and panned that interested me. As if the camera itself was a nervous participant in what was going on. Close-ups don't just fill the screen, but exceed it's limits - getting in so very close and overwhelming the audience. It all adds up to an extremely exciting first watch, because all of this works so well, and because I enjoyed it tremendously. Unusual people courting in a considerably unusual way - but most of us are a little weird to some sort of degree. To see it here is to experience something new, and quite amusing - the best compliment a film can get. Something totally unique and kind of wonderful.

Glad to catch this one - Cassavetes was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen. Gena Rowlands was nominated for a New York Film Critics Circle Award.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/dVJ0Yn4P/moskowitz.jpg

Watchlist Count : 437 (-13)

Next : Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Minnie and Moskowitz.

[SpelingError]

I'm a huge fan of that one. From the Zelmo date on, I think it becomes one of the weirdest and complex love stories ever put to film. Minnie resigning herself to Moskowitz's advances (likely due to her age as she explains early in the film), while Moskowitz's mood swings and random frustration constantly test her patience time and time again, makes for a great character study. Minnie's date with Zelmo followed with her first encounter with Moskowitz is one of my favorite sequences in film. That said, Husbands is my favorite Cassavetes film.

[PHOENIX74]

I'm a huge fan of that one. From the Zelmo date on, I think it becomes one of the weirdest and complex love stories ever put to film. Minnie resigning herself to Moskowitz's advances (likely due to her age as she explains early in the film), while Moskowitz's mood swings and random frustration constantly test her patience time and time again, makes for a great character study. Minnie's date with Zelmo followed with her first encounter with Moskowitz is one of my favorite sequences in film. That said, Husbands is my favorite Cassavetes film.

I'll try to make Husbands the next Cassavetes film I see.

[SpelingError]

Also, all this Cassavetes talk may summon crumbsroom.

[PHOENIX74]

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BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES (2020)

Directed by : Junta Yamaguchi

Nagamawashi - low budget, one shot (or seemingly one shot) movies that push a concept to near-absurd lengths. The word means "long shot", but the term now stands for a subgenre that started with One Cut of the Dead in 2017. I remember being tickled by that long/single shot comedy, and the clever stunt involving a disaster plagued zombie film (and it's making) ended up being a huge surprise. Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is an even more clever concept created by another director making his feature debut - and I'm kind of crazy about it. There's a warmth to the comedy in this which mixes with it's high concept premise and everyday people who carry the story forward - and it all feels very in-the-moment, infectiously funny, full of infinite possibility and brand newness. Of course, this wasn't filmed via one long shot (if you see it, you'll understand how that couldn't possibly be achieved) but like some big budget, big name 'one shot' movies like 1917, it's the fact that it appears to be one long shot that's more important than the actual feat of achieving the shooting itself. What happens, happens in real time - which meshes perfectly with how real everything else feels.

In this film café owner Kato (Kazunari Tosa) suddenly finds himself beckoned by his future self - talking to him via his computer monitor, which is connected to the television in the café. The café happens to be temporally displaced two minutes into the future, which means café Kato can tell the version of Kato watching upstairs in his apartment where he'll find his guitar pick, and advises him to come downstairs so he can fulfill his obligations of informing his past self that this is happening. Throughout the film, those involved with this sudden temporal displacement will feel the obligation to fulfill the timeline responsibility of doing what their future selves did - I mean, who wants to find out what happens if a paradox is created? It could be bad - disastrous even. Now, if you're like me, you might be asking yourself what possible use a window into the future affording 2 minutes of fortune telling is - which is where this film gets clever, and then brilliant. Soon you'll be wrapping your brain in knots as Kato's friends all get into the act, and immediately start to test the limits of what's possible with this incredible new gift they have.

What unfolds is absolutely hilarious - Kazunari Tosa plays his part in such a droll manner, eventually coming to the conclusion that messing with the future like this can only end badly. In the meantime, his friends are trying to turn their fortune into some kind of monetary value. This creates plenty of 'chicken or egg' time loops - always an interesting concept. Kato finds himself in a kind of 'time fight' with two hoodlums, knowing in advance the successful tactics and objects he'll need when his friends watch the fight ahead of time. All of the players are exceptionally spry, bright, enthusiastic and perfect for the kind of film this is. The movie itself is an expansion of Makoto Ueda's short film Howling (2014), which introduced the basic concept and went for 10 minutes - Ueda ended up writing the screenplay for Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, but directing duties went to Yamaguchi. It was made for around $25,000 American - which might be the most mind blowing fact associated with it. The budget for One Cut of the Dead was at the same level, and it ended up raking in $30 million at the box office. Nagamawashi might be a subgenre, but it's good business - and seems to result in great movies.

Glad to catch this one - Winner of the Special Mention, Best Asian Feature and Fresh Blood Award at the Fantasia film festival and Fantasy Filmfest.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/LXzbq0xP/infinite.jpg

Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : Vigil (1984)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes.

[Torgo]

Glad you enjoyed Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes! I saw it last year and also loved it.

Junta Yamaguchi's followup, River, is also timey-wimey as the kids say and is just as well-received.

[PHOENIX74]

Glad you enjoyed Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes! I saw it last year and also loved it.

Junta Yamaguchi's followup, River, is also timey-wimey as the kids say and is just as well-received.

River looks like a whole load of fun - straight into my watchlist.

[crumbsroom]

Also, all this Cassavetes talk may summon crumbsroom.


Oh, no. Have I I been summoned again?

*rubs sleep from eyes*

Ya ya. Cassavetes is good.

[crumbsroom]

Also, Fat City!


I don't have enough good words. Enough good words have yet to be invented.


I was initially turned onto this movie when I read Harmony Korrine's top ten movies list about 15 years ago. And there were two others there which I thought were equally great: Pixote and Out of the Blue.


I, just like Harmony Korrine, can't recommend these movies enough.

[crumbsroom]

Double also, do you have Tender Mercy's on your obsessed over watch list?


Because that is one of those movies that just slips through the cracks, even though it was really well respected at the time.


It's a beautiful thing. It knocked my socks off. At least as far as a movie this quiet can knock anything off.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/66ncTpZc/vigil.jpg

VIGIL (1984)

Directed by : Vincent Ward

Here's a festival film if I ever saw one. I brought a certain mindset to Vigil that I could never shake. From the look of the images I'd seen, I thought it was a post-apocalyptic tale - and the film kind of held out that possibility to me throughout. Elizabeth Peers (Penelope Stewart) lives on an extremely isolated farm in rural New Zealand with her husband Justin (Gordon Shields), father Birdie (Bill Kerr) and daughter "Toss" (Fiona Kay) - and they talk of various calamities, like ice shelves melting, the land flooding etc. One day, while out traversing the property, Justin falls and is killed - but his body is immediately brought back home by a man named Ethan (Frank Whitten). It's not clear whether Ethan may even have had something to do with Justin's death, but soon enough he's insinuated his way into the Peers' lives. Birdie hires him to work on the farm in Justin's stead, and as Ethan starts to make inroads on a relationship with Elizabeth, Toss struggles accepting this "invader" into what was once a secure family unit. He may just be the key to her coming of age however, as he shares his spiritual insight and time with her.

Vigil has a doom-laden, dark colour palette, with all of the light drained from the various hues we see. It feels as though we're stuck in constant twilight. There's an oppressive feeling of extinction and isolation - a complete separation from humanity in a literal and figurative sense. Birdie and Ethan construct strange and absolutely useless contraptions while working on the farm, and there's little consistency in how everyone treats each other. That's why the film still had an apocalyptic feel to me throughout - it's hard to make any connection with how we commonly live our lives. Ethan and Birdie spend some time docking the sheep's tails - but that's the one and only time we see them doing anything that makes real sense. In the meantime Toss spends much time brooding, exploring and spying on what Ethan is up to - especially when it concerns her mother. The only indication we get that there are any other people out there at all is at Justin's funeral, which is attended by around a dozen other people. This is a film steeped in mystery, with a very strange soundtrack making everything feel even more awry.

This isn't the kind of film where there's a structured narrative playing out - it's a mood film. It's a film in which we see Ethan from the point of view of Toss - and how her opinion of him keeps evolving and changing. This also ties into her coming of age and puberty, and her isolation and lack of contact with virtually anyone other than her close family members and Ethan. There are no absolutes - even their time on the farm is constantly in question as Elizabeth wants to leave. Despite the ebb and flow of the various ways everyone is relating to each other, the somber, dark and almost morose feeling of loss and isolation pervades the entire film. Moments of joy are always quickly extinguished by the lonely sense of cold seclusion that permeates the trees and clouds. The ghost of Justin haunts the area, for Ethan's acceptance into the fold feels like the ultimate betrayal, despite the confused feelings of Toss and Elizabeth. Is this what coming of age was like the days before civilisation came to mankind? Is this the reason we felt compelled to create civilisation? Vigil doesn't answer any of those questions, but it very poetically poses them.

Glad to catch this one - the first New Zealand film invited to play in the competitive section of the Cannes Film Festival. Won Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Production Design at New Zealand's GOFTA Awards.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/Y9hQTVhD/vigil2.jpg

Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : Bellissima (1951)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Vigil.

[PHOENIX74]

Also, Fat City!


I don't have enough good words. Enough good words have yet to be invented.


I was initially turned onto this movie when I read Harmony Korrine's top ten movies list about 15 years ago. And there were two others there which I thought were equally great: Pixote and Out of the Blue.


I, just like Harmony Korrine, can't recommend these movies enough.

Pixote is already on my watchlist, so that's due up at some stage. I'm already a big fan of Out of the Blue (Kind of a shame, since a film like Out of the Blue would really fit in well on this thread.) I'm assuming you mean Dennis Hopper's directorial effort.

Double also, do you have Tender Mercy's on your obsessed over watch list?

I didn't have that, but it's long been at the back of my mind as a film I must see at some stage, so it's in there now. I was too young to appreciate it when it initially came out.

[crumbsroom]

Pixote is already on my watchlist, so that's due up at some stage. I'm already a big fan of Out of the Blue (Kind of a shame, since a film like Out of the Blue would really fit in well on this thread.) I'm assuming you mean Dennis Hopper's directorial effort.



I didn't have that, but it's long been at the back of my mind as a film I must see at some stage, so it's in there now. I was too young to appreciate it when it initially came out.


Yes, the Dennis Hopper one.

[Torgo]

https://i.postimg.cc/66ncTpZc/vigil.jpg

VIGIL (1984)

Directed by : Vincent Ward

Here's a festival film if I ever saw one. I brought a certain mindset to Vigil that I could never shake. From the look of the images I'd seen, I thought it was a post-apocalyptic tale - and the film kind of held out that possibility to me throughout. Elizabeth Peers (Penelope Stewart) lives on an extremely isolated farm in rural New Zealand with her husband Justin (Gordon Shields), father Birdie (Bill Kerr) and daughter "Toss" (Fiona Kay) - and they talk of various calamities, like ice shelves melting, the land flooding etc. One day, while out traversing the property, Justin falls and is killed - but his body is immediately brought back home by a man named Ethan (Frank Whitten). It's not clear whether Ethan may even have had something to do with Justin's death, but soon enough he's insinuated his way into the Peers' lives. Birdie hires him to work on the farm in Justin's stead, and as Ethan starts to make inroads on a relationship with Elizabeth, Toss struggles accepting this "invader" into what was once a secure family unit. He may just be the key to her coming of age however, as he shares his spiritual insight and time with her.

Vigil has a doom-laden, dark colour palette, with all of the light drained from the various hues we see. It feels as though we're stuck in constant twilight. There's an oppressive feeling of extinction and isolation - a complete separation from humanity in a literal and figurative sense. Birdie and Ethan construct strange and absolutely useless contraptions while working on the farm, and there's little consistency in how everyone treats each other. That's why the film still had an apocalyptic feel to me throughout - it's hard to make any connection with how we commonly live our lives. Ethan and Birdie spend some time docking the sheep's tails - but that's the one and only time we see them doing anything that makes real sense. In the meantime Toss spends much time brooding, exploring and spying on what Ethan is up to - especially when it concerns her mother. The only indication we get that there are any other people out there at all is at Justin's funeral, which is attended by around a dozen other people. This is a film steeped in mystery, with a very strange soundtrack making everything feel even more awry.

This isn't the kind of film where there's a structured narrative playing out - it's a mood film. It's a film in which we see Ethan from the point of view of Toss - and how her opinion of him keeps evolving and changing. This also ties into her coming of age and puberty, and her isolation and lack of contact with virtually anyone other than her close family members and Ethan. There are no absolutes - even their time on the farm is constantly in question as Elizabeth wants to leave. Despite the ebb and flow of the various ways everyone is relating to each other, the somber, dark and almost morose feeling of loss and isolation pervades the entire film. Moments of joy are always quickly extinguished by the lonely sense of cold seclusion that permeates the trees and clouds. The ghost of Justin haunts the area, for Ethan's acceptance into the fold feels like the ultimate betrayal, despite the confused feelings of Toss and Elizabeth. Is this what coming of age was like the days before civilisation came to mankind? Is this the reason we felt compelled to create civilisation? Vigil doesn't answer any of those questions, but it very poetically poses them.

Glad to catch this one - the first New Zealand film invited to play in the competitive section of the Cannes Film Festival. Won Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Production Design at New Zealand's GOFTA Awards.

4

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Watchlist Count : 438 (-12)

Next : Bellissima (1951)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Vigil.Nice! I first saw Vigil two years ago. If I somehow influenced you (and Takoma) to give it a chance...

As if you needed your watchlist to be any longer, check out Vincent Ward's Map of the Human Heart and The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey.

Your mileage may vary on his most famous movie, What Dreams May Come. To me, the visuals are incredible, but the rest is a mixed bag.

[PHOENIX74]

As if you needed your watchlist to be any longer, check out Vincent Ward's Map of the Human Heart and The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey.

Your mileage may vary on his most famous movie, What Dreams May Come. To me, the visuals are incredible, but the rest is a mixed bag.

I've seen What Dreams May Come and my opinion of it pretty much mirrors what you said. As for Human Heart and Navigator - in, and in! I should have a watchlist randomizer to at least give them a chance of showing up some time soon. Anyway - I'll get there.

[PHOENIX74]

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BELLISSIMA (1951)

Directed by : Luchino Visconti

There are a couple of good reasons to be excited about watching Bellissima - first the fact that it's directed and co-written by Luchino Visconti, and second it features the incomparable Anna Magnani, who appears as the main character. Anna Magnani is famous for that dramatic run through the streets of Rome, being gunned down by Nazis in Rome, Open City - and also for having to compete with Ingrid Bergman for the favours of filmmaker Roberto Rossellini. I was ready for some kind of upsetting drama, just because this was an old Italian film and every old Italian film I've ever watched has gone and ripped my heart out and stomped on it. I pretty much got that kind of movie, although I'd be loathe to give too much away here. The main body of the film involves Maddalena Cecconi (Anna Magnani) dragging her daughter, Maria (Tina Apicella), to film auditions, hoping that she'll become a child star. When Maria passes the first round and gets invited for a second audition, Maddalena gets carried away and starts to push Maria into dance lessons, a photographers studio and hair stylists along with allowing an acting coach to tutor her - unaware of the pressure and stress this is putting on her daughter.

Those parents - how we love to hate them. Pushing their kids to these limits for their own gratification, to some it qualifies as child abuse. Maddalena Cecconi doesn't quite qualify for that kind of judgement - she's a very excitable Italian woman (I hate to stereotype, but she's excitable in a very classically Italian way) who loves to talk and yell. When Maria passes that first audition she has stars in her eyes - everybody believes that their kid it the most beautiful, and this just confirms matters. As you see in the film, most of the other parents react in the same way. There's a lot of passionate conversation in Bellissima - nearly everything ends in yelling and argument. Even non-arguments end up with some passionate exchange. Anna Magnani turns Maddalena into a force of nature, with her poor daughter dragged around and very upset whenever trouble breaks out. She exists in the midst of a storm of activity and all of it because of her. There's no doubt though, that Maddalena cares for her daughter and loves Maria - it's just that the experience has been intoxicating for her. Her daughter is going to be a star.

Of course, the Cecconi family is struggling, finance-wise, in post-war Rome. Maddalena is spending much needed funds on hair styles, dresses, dance lessons, acting lessons and also giving money to one industry insider who is surreptitiously telling her he can pull strings (he's really after getting Maddalena into bed.) I could feel throughout that this was going to break my heart, because it was already moving me to feel so sorry for what celebrity culture and fame is doing to Maddalena and her family. In classic Italian neorealism fashion, many of the roles went to regular people, and not professional actors - film director Alessandro Blasetti also appears as himself. It has that classic look of neorealism as well. That's how I knew there was probably going to be a cruel twist - although I have to add that this twist might not be what everyone is expecting. Little Tina Apicella never appeared in any other film, and one has to wonder how she felt about having appeared in a Luchino Visconti film in her childhood days. Bellissima doesn't rise to the levels of Vittorio De Sica great neorealist classics, but it's a stirring effort, and well worth your time.


Glad to catch this one - it's included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved.

4

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Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : Ariel (1988)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Bellissima.

[PHOENIX74]

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ARIEL (1988)

Directed by : Aki Kaurismäki

You certainly don't have to be Finnish to understand the working class, societal norms and justice system and the way they can kick a man who's down every time he tries to get up. For Taisto Kasurinen (Turo Pajala), there's only so much he's willing to put up with before he starts fighting back - from his jail cell after a precipitous fall that was no fault of his own. After the mine he was employed at closes down, Taisto travels south, and is robbed of his life savings. Struggling to find work, he has the good fortune to spark up a relationship with metermaid Irmeli (Susanna Haavisto) - and sees the fact she already has a son as a positive. A ready-made family. But on one ill-fated, frustrating day, Taisto runs into one of the men who robbed him and lost him a fortune. As he delivers his telling vengeance, he's spotted by police - and is sentenced to over a year in prison. He could sit tight and do his time, but along with jail chum Mikkonen (Matti Pellonpää) he plans to strike back by escaping and booking a passage to some place "over the rainbow".

An Aki Kaurismäki film is one of the more distinctive types of movie you can watch - his straight-faced, deadpan style and constant cheeky comedic proclivity when it comes to his screenplays is something you don't find with any other filmmaker. His actors keep it very reined in, to the point of winding their emotions back to 'absolute zero' and simply sticking to the lines. A glance, an hilarious aside, a dry remark - there's a specific kind of working class poetry at work here. A moderation specific to anything that isn't focusing on the basics of the story. The basics are what are most important. Actions. Reactions. Decisions. Outcome. That's where the surprises come from in this film. You wouldn't expect someone like Taisto - with so little time to serve - to stage a daring escape, but he's found someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with. If he waits, he might lose her - and in any event, Mikkonen, his friend, needs to get out. Taisto's emotional expression comes through his deliberate actions, and not any soliloquy or passionate exchange of words.

I've seen a few Kaurismäki films now, and here he seems to have been entering what I find to be his most enjoyable phase of filmmaking (The Match Factory Girl came just a few years after this.) Kaurismäki himself seems to agree, calling Ariel the "best film in his career", even though I consider Match Factory my personal favourite. One element I haven't mentioned regarding this one is the kid, who serves as a reminder that the actions of Taisto and Irmeli have more than their own personal gambles and hopes in consideration when it comes to risk and outcome. It adds a much greater sense of gravitas to everything that happens, and at times keeps the viewer on edge. That small, quiet kid and the way he tells his mother to not even think of leaving him behind makes his precarious situation clear. As far as all of these characters go, I was backing them to the hilt, and I wanted to see them get the breaks that they so richly deserved - no matter how they got them. It made Ariel compelling, on top of the fun and wry amusement that's guaranteed from this filmmaker.

Glad to catch this one - released as part of a trilogy by Criterion, and in Steven Jay Schneider's '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die'.

4

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Watchlist Count : 439 (-11)

Next : After Life (1998)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Ariel.

[SpelingError]

I liked that one quite a bit. Here are some thoughts I wrote on it some time ago:

"The Match Factory Girl" is the only other film I've seen from Aki Kaurismäki and, while I wasn't quite sure what to make of it at the time, this film helped me to get a better grasp on his style of dark and deadpan comedy. In the first 15 minutes, Taisto loses his job, his father commits suicide, and his entire life savings are stolen from him. And that's only the beginning of his troubles! While Robert Bresson has a similar style of depicting characters suffering/being hurt repeatedly, both directors are able to depict this without wallowing in misery. From a stylistic standpoint at least. Throughout this film and "The Match Factory Girl", Kaurismäki mainly focuses on the reactions, or lack thereof, of the main characters. Taisto is stuck in a low-paying job, he's constantly on the move, and it's unlikely he'll ever dig himself out of his rut. In spite of every adversity he goes through though, he emerges from them seemingly unharmed. Which isn't to say he's devoid of emotions by any means (his dreams of finding a better future are made clear at a few points in the film), but that he's no longer 'impressed' by them. His misfortunes, though they clearly pile up and weigh on him, are an everyday reality for him. One scene, for instance, shows Taisto lying on a beach while his jeans and leather shoes are resting right smack in the water. It's a weird and uncomfortable position to rest in for sure, but he had already been through much, much worse at that point, so what's the big deal of getting his clothing wet? Given this, one could watch the film and laugh at Taisto's misfortunes, but I would argue this misses part of the film's point. Because Kaurismäki also displays a great deal of empathy for his struggles. He's stuck in the lower class, has little hope of improving his social status, and (like most people, I would imagine) wants to live a good life. Except bad decisions and misfortunes constantly ruin his dreams time and time again. Regardless of whether you've experienced the same misfortunes as him, his dreams and worries are all too relatable to not feel sympathy for his plight. But Kaurismäki never goes overboard with this since Taisto's stoicism prevents the film from dipping into sentimentality. I imagine Kaurismäki will be an acquired taste for most people since the contradictory elements of his style won't gel with everyone, but I think the tonal clash between the onscreen misery and Taisto's stoic reaction throughout it pair very well together.

[crumbsroom]

I was about to add Bellissima to my watchlist, but then it suddenly dawned on me that I watched it about three months ago.


Even now that I've significantly reduced the amount of movies I watch, I still appear to completely forget about half of them almost immediately.


I think there is a limit on how many movies you can fit in your head at one time. And I'm well over capacity.


I did appear to have given Bellissima a good rating though.

[PHOENIX74]

I was about to add Bellissima to my watchlist, but then it suddenly dawned on me that I watched it about three months ago.


Even now that I've significantly reduced the amount of movies I watch, I still appear to completely forget about half of them almost immediately.


I think there is a limit on how many movies you can fit in your head at one time. And I'm well over capacity.


I did appear to have given Bellissima a good rating though.

I think sometimes we forget to hit "record" in our brains. Either that or, to remember movies, you have to consciously recall them a half dozen times or so in the couple of days after you see them. Then they become more of a long term memory.

There's a couple of films that were on my watchlist that I've seen incidentally in recent days. I don't include those on this thread officially, but I like to note what they were. Session 9 and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. were the films. I'm at 438 - and I'm kind of stunned how long I've been around that mark.

https://i.postimg.cc/5tGPfx5j/sess.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/QdZhd3b4/god.jpg

[SpelingError]

I'd say I do pretty well with recalling movies I've seen, but I do wish I had the energy to review them more often as that would be a better way to recall how I responded to them as opposed to just looking up my ratings.

[PHOENIX74]

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AFTER LIFE (1998)

Directed by : Hirokazu Kore-eda

From the contemplative mind of Hirokazu Kore-eda (or, depending on who you're asking, Kore-eda Hirokazu) comes this extraordinary film - one which certainly touched me, because I'm the kind of person who finds memories my most cherished possessions. In it, we get to see a kind of afterlife waystation - almost documentary-style - where people, who have recently died, get to choose what they consider their most favoured memory from the life they've lived and have it re-enacted and filmed. They watch these memories, and spend eternity with them - the remainder of their life apart from the re-enacted memory forgotten. There's so much of it that makes a point of being unusual that it's easy to see what we're meant to gain insight from - giving us interesting ideas about what movies really are, and immediately sending us sorting through our own memories. Who can resist putting themselves in the shoes of these recently departed people? If you had one memory to pick, like these people, what would it be? Keep in mind - it's going to sum up your entire existence, as it's the only thing you'll know after you move on to the next phase of being.

There are no bright lights, spotless, glowing marble or winged angels - the afterlife in After Life looks positively Soviet, with spartan offices and decrepit rooms serving as the workspace for all involved. When the dead are interviewed, Kore-eda once against becomes a documentary-maker - filming them as if they were real, and telling their stories to us. Somewhat true in some cases, for the filmmaker interviewed many people in preparation and used some of these everyday ordinary people in the film. Camera angles and such shift right over into documentary filmmaking style. The memories we hear are varied, with each person seemingly searching for something very specific to them - happy childhood, love, adventure, calm or even memories that are shaded in darkness. There's a memory that sees a person as complete as they'll ever be - or as happy, as content etc. In the meantime, the people charged with working out the logistics of filming the re-enactments go about their business as if they're still alive, while in fact they've also passed on. I found it so interesting that in spite of the existence of taped portions of these people's lives, the focus was on these memories being adapted for film instead.

When we think of our lives by accessing our memories, aren't they like films? We don't remember our life in it's entirety, but instead remember the important moments and how they related to everything else. It's as if we've sorted out scenes that tell the story like a movie tells it's story. While the difference is that fictional films are make-believe, it's what they represent that matters. It doesn't matter that what we're watching isn't real - what matters is what it's meant to mean. All of this was swirling around in my mind as I watched After Life, along with the film's own story and narrative - and looking at it I have to say that Kore-eda is some kind of masterful genius for thinking up all of this and making a film so far from anything else I've ever seen or heard of. The meaning of a person's most cherished memory seems to be getting very close to how life can be summed up in total. I watched each person grapple with that in their own way, and how it related to those helping them along. It was profound, and I felt like applauding Hirokazu Kore-eda for having the courage to make this, and make it his own way. It was quite remarkable.

Glad to catch this one - Criterion #1089, it brought international recognition to Kore-eda's work after premiering at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival.

4.5

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Watchlist Count : 437 (-13)

Next : First Reformed (2017)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch After Life.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/MHX5P13D/first-reformed-ethan-hawke-amanda-seyfried1-h-2017.webp

FIRST REFORMED (2017)

Directed by : Paul Schrader

At a certain stage of my movie-watching life I developed something of a man-crush on Ethan Hawke, and for quite a while saw him as something of an industry outsider. He's nothing of the sort, getting pretty good roles since Alive in 1993 and being a bona-fide star since his breakthrough in Before Sunrise (1995) - cementing his status as a heavyweight from Training Day (2001) onward. Still, whenever he scored a great part in a good movie I'd think "Good for you Ethan. People will have to start taking notice of you now." Something about him made me think he needed the support. That he was always close to fading away. It's only in the last 5 years or so that I accepted that he's a household name, been nominated for 4 Oscars, and is still going strong. Although I'm still a big fan, my man-crush faded because he didn't need me anymore. When I look at the kind of roles he's always played, I find that some of the cause for me feeling the need to put my arm around his shoulder and buck him up is that he's always played outsiders. Men who are just hanging in there. Put-upon, dismissed, quiet and introspective, yet thoughtful, intelligent, and worthy of paying attention to. Once again he returned to this in First Reformed, as middle-aged Pastor Ernst Toller.

Ernst Toller has a psychological disease caused by modern society - which is basically soulless, greedy, self-obsessed and hateful, with many knowingly being that way and wearing those negativities as badges of pride. He's let himself be part of that by accepting his role as pastor of the First Reformed Church in Snowbridge, New York as being nothing more than working as the caretaker of a piece of property. Few people come to hear his sermons, which sound passionless and rote. He guides people on tours, but never connects with them as human beings. His son died in the Iraq war - a senseless war, and that destroyed his marriage. He's physically ill as well, and starts writing in a journal as an attempt to find something within himself - a light in the darkness. The light goes on however, when he meets Michael Mensana (Philip Ettinger) - an environmental activist who is suffering his own despair, and his wife, Mary (Amanda Seyfried). It's only then that Ernst starts to fight back, and when he meets furious resistance he once again finds his passion - channeling it into something absolutely shocking. Will God ever forgive us for what we're doing to the planet and ourselves?

First Reformed is a real slow burn of a film that takes time to get us worked up - Ernst Toller's dour narration (basically a voiceover of what he's writing in his journals) is simply a bummer. He appears to be dying, preaches to a church that's nearly empty and lives in a world populated by a-holes. I don't know about other people, but I find that a little depressing. And the film keeps topping that off with more bad news - his son died, his wife is gone, the husband of one of his parishioners is depressed and suicidal. But at a certain stage this film begins to add the elements of urgency and illumination to the equation, which sets everything alight. Now the film starts to transform itself into something which strikes a completely different tone - one that we can certainly all get behind, but one that also carries with it elements of danger that create unbearable tension. One of the best things about film is that the viewer is completely powerless - we have to watch this situation resolve itself, and can do nothing about it. Whatever we're hoping to see when the film ends, we're only sure that it probably isn't going to be pretty. It will, however, be cathartic, surprising, meaningful and wrap the film up in a way that makes it a compelling statement about the world and us. Good for you Ethan - you found another fine role and did a great job with it.

Glad to catch this one - Oscar-nominated for Best Original Screenplay, and chosen by both the National Board of Review and American Film Institute as one of the top ten films of 2018 .

4

https://i.postimg.cc/bwyNv2Rz/first-reformed.jpg

Watchlist Count : 437 (-13)

Next : A Film Unfinished (2010)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch First Reformed.

[WHITBISSELL!]

Really liked First Reformed. Hawke's body of work of late is downright impressive. I thought he was great in Maudie.

[PHOENIX74]

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A FILM UNFINISHED (2010)

Directed by : Yael Hersonski

It was an idea the Nazis never followed through with - make a propaganda film inside the Warsaw Ghetto showing wealthy Jews living it up, while the less fortunate suffered and died around them. Of course, no Jews were living it up inside the ghetto - the Germans had to bring in actors, champagne, good food and nice clothes, all the while ordering those forced to take part into smiling and laughing - the person who laughed the least was made an example of, and soon all of the participants were laughing more than they'd ever laughed in their lives. All the while living skeletons, corpses, the diseased and other signs of forced overcrowding and deprivation were all around. The film, in the editing stages, was found in a storeroom that housed much of the Third Reich's shunted away reels of state-sponsored recordings. It ended up being an invaluable tool for many, as it showed first-hand what conditions were like, and what was happening at this stage in the process of what the Nazis were doing to these people. It's impossible to hide the fact that conditions were horrendous, and that these people were being thinned out already. Faeces piled in the streets, corpses on the sidewalks, kids dressed in rags with looks of madness on their faces - it's a vision of hell, and yet, rather incredibly, things were yet to get much worse for the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Yael Hersonski's documentary combines footage and interviews of ghetto survivors watching the film with recitals from the diaries of Adam Czerniaków (the head of the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish Council, who committed suicide when the deportations to the extermination camps started), passages from the testimony of Willy Wist at a Nazi trial, one of the camera operators on this operation - and of course the film itself, which is still shocking despite everything I've already seen through the years. For some reason, seeing this brutality, starvation and horror on what had once been ordinary city streets is beyond comprehension - and I can't understand how any German could see this and not immediately conclude that it was pure, and particularly severe, unadulterated madness. Those who were making the film got caught, I think, in a bit of a ironic loop. They wanted to show how good the conditions were in the ghetto, and set up the interior of restaurants serving huge helpings of the most delicious treats, dance halls with well dressed ghetto residents having the time of their life and theaters with everyone having a ball. But they also wanted to show "another side" to all of this - a kind of "typical Jewish greed creating misery" side which went on to show that actually, some people in the ghetto were being neglected to death. Hang on, neglected to death? Why weren't....and there you have it.

When you see the film, you can just imagine the realization dawning on the Germans who were trying to edit it together. It actually paints a damning picture not only of the fake "greedy Jewish" people hoarding the wealth, but the Germans themselves - who had obviously created conditions that were too cruel and unusual to justify in a propaganda film to their own citizens. Although the Germans may have been a little shocked by this film, they wouldn't even know that the so called "wealthy, greedy Jews" were an invention of the SS - and that all of the Jews in the ghetto were living in severely overcrowded, unhealthy, unsanitary conditions with virtually no healthcare, disease rampant, corpses on the street and harsh treatment from their overseers. The "wealthy" ones were giving up the diamond rings they'd kept a hold of for, at worst, a loaf of bread, or a piece of horse meat - at best ordinary food. The SS were so wrapped up in what they were doing that they nearly put out a film which actually showed the walking skeletons, dead children, filth and desperation - thinking they could blame the Jews themselves. They just caught themselves, realising that it wouldn't be logical, and that they'd stir more misgivings than create useful anti-Jewish propaganda. In the meantime, the film lay in that vault as one of the extremely rare records of life in the Warsaw ghetto. Much of the accuracy in modern films owes itself to it's existence. A disquieting documentary - for obvious reasons.

Glad to catch this one - won Best Documentary at the Satellite Awards, Emmy Awards, Sundance, Shanghai and Women Film Critics Circle.

4

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Watchlist Count : 435 (-15)

Next : Murmur (2019)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch A Film Unfinished.

[PHOENIX74]

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MURMUR (2019)

Directed by : Heather Young

Loneliness finds much expression onscreen - there seems myriad ways to create something which communicates that most hollow, sad itch. Murmur features protagonist Donna (Shan MacDonald), who finds herself doing community service at a veterinarian's surgery after a D.U.I. conviction. The job mostly entails mopping up various messes, but Donna sometimes finds herself walking a dog, holding a cat or helping shave a pooch about to go under the knife. She's estranged from her daughter, and seems desperate to contact her to update her on her attempt at sobriety - but her daughter has obviously reached the end of her tether, and isn't reachable. One day, almost predictably, Donna insists on taking one of the sick dogs home with her - she says she's made a connection, and will stay on top of it's health issues. This she does - Donna isn't drinking, is keeping her house and herself clean and in order, and is going to all of her jobs, physiotherapy (for a heart murmur) and driver's ed classes. Why not get a cat then, if a connection arises? Or a second dog? Or a third, and perhaps a hamster and guinea pig. As Donna struggles to make a connection in the human world, she soon finds herself queen of a burgeoning, chaotic, overflowing and somewhat worrying world of her own.

I have a good friend who's a Donna. There's always room for another sick animal, with it's special needs, vet bills, messes, work and needed love and attention. That's why a vet clinic isn't the best place for someone like Donna to be working at. You go to cat havens or dog pounds, do volunteer work, and then connect with kittens, cats, pups and dogs that are slated to be euthanized - feeling the strong urge to save them all. It's nearly impossible to feel dispassionate about it. For some lonely people, their pet becomes a major part of their emotional make-up and fulfills roles that are usually reserved for relatives and friends in other people's lives. Pets are good at that job too - they don't judge, they're always there and they're easy to live with. Nobody particularly wants to spend time with Donna - but her dog Charlie does, and she finds many animals at the vet clinic who are keen to share some warmth with her. There's no human being in Murmur who is particularly warm with Donna, and this precipitates her slide into giving in to the warmth of inviting new pets into her home. The urge to do that is even stronger than Donna's urge for the bottle. She's blind to the consequences of this, despite being warned in no uncertain terms - some needs are so strong they blind.

I thought murmur was a very good film at tapping into matters of the heart, loneliness, sadness and the need we all have to share love. It never wasted a shot, and kept it's core purpose at the absolute forefront throughout it's entirety - with Shan MacDonald balancing the subtle need to not to overplay her hand but still communicate the aching need she has inside of her. It's the kind of film that really grabbed me just through it's sense of quiet atmosphere and steady familiarity with what we're looking at. This was Heather Young's feature debut, and was an auspicious one considering the awards it has won - I very much hope she continues to develop as a filmmaker, and most of all gets the opportunity to make use of her obvious talent. I feel like this is a very humanistic filmmaker with a certain delicacy but also a forthright directness. There's nothing really easy about what this movie is all about, but all the same it was very easy to watch and satisfying in a visual and psychological sense. It was sad, for sure - but it's a sadness that awakens our need to comfort others, reach out to those who might need us, and forgive those who have done us wrong but still need our love. Any film that does that, is a good one in my book.

Glad to catch this one - won the Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize at the Slamdance Film Festival, and the John Dunning Best First Feature Award at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards in 2020 .

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/595JXnFn/murmur2.jpg

Watchlist Count : 434 (-16)

Next : The Old Dark House (1932)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Murmur.

[Stirchley]

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A FILM UNFINISHED (2010)

Directed by : Yael Hersonski

It was an idea the Nazis never followed through with - make a propaganda film inside the Warsaw Ghetto showing wealthy Jews living it up, while the less fortunate suffered and died around them. Of course, no Jews were living it up inside the ghetto - the Germans had to bring in actors, champagne, good food and nice clothes, all the while ordering those forced to take part into smiling and laughing - the person who laughed the least was made an example of, and soon all of the participants were laughing more than they'd ever laughed in their lives. All the while living skeletons, corpses, the diseased and other signs of forced overcrowding and deprivation were all around. The film, in the editing stages, was found in a storeroom that housed much of the Third Reich's shunted away reels of state-sponsored recordings. It ended up being an invaluable tool for many, as it showed first-hand what conditions were like, and what was happening at this stage in the process of what the Nazis were doing to these people. It's impossible to hide the fact that conditions were horrendous, and that these people were being thinned out already. Faeces piled in the streets, corpses on the sidewalks, kids dressed in rags with looks of madness on their faces - it's a vision of hell, and yet, rather incredibly, things were yet to get much worse for the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Yael Hersonski's documentary combines footage and interviews of ghetto survivors watching the film with recitals from the diaries of Adam Czerniaków (the head of the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish Council, who committed suicide when the deportations to the extermination camps started), passages from the testimony of Willy Wist at a Nazi trial, one of the camera operators on this operation - and of course the film itself, which is still shocking despite everything I've already seen through the years. For some reason, seeing this brutality, starvation and horror on what had once been ordinary city streets is beyond comprehension - and I can't understand how any German could see this and not immediately conclude that it was pure, and particularly severe, unadulterated madness. Those who were making the film got caught, I think, in a bit of a ironic loop. They wanted to show how good the conditions were in the ghetto, and set up the interior of restaurants serving huge helpings of the most delicious treats, dance halls with well dressed ghetto residents having the time of their life and theaters with everyone having a ball. But they also wanted to show "another side" to all of this - a kind of "typical Jewish greed creating misery" side which went on to show that actually, some people in the ghetto were being neglected to death. Hang on, neglected to death? Why weren't....and there you have it.

When you see the film, you can just imagine the realization dawning on the Germans who were trying to edit it together. It actually paints a damning picture not only of the fake "greedy Jewish" people hoarding the wealth, but the Germans themselves - who had obviously created conditions that were too cruel and unusual to justify in a propaganda film to their own citizens. Although the Germans may have been a little shocked by this film, they wouldn't even know that the so called "wealthy, greedy Jews" were an invention of the SS - and that all of the Jews in the ghetto were living in severely overcrowded, unhealthy, unsanitary conditions with virtually no healthcare, disease rampant, corpses on the street and harsh treatment from their overseers. The "wealthy" ones were giving up the diamond rings they'd kept a hold of for, at worst, a loaf of bread, or a piece of horse meat - at best ordinary food. The SS were so wrapped up in what they were doing that they nearly put out a film which actually showed the walking skeletons, dead children, filth and desperation - thinking they could blame the Jews themselves. They just caught themselves, realising that it wouldn't be logical, and that they'd stir more misgivings than create useful anti-Jewish propaganda. In the meantime, the film lay in that vault as one of the extremely rare records of life in the Warsaw ghetto. Much of the accuracy in modern films owes itself to it's existence. A disquieting documentary - for obvious reasons.

Glad to catch this one - won Best Documentary at the Satellite Awards, Emmy Awards, Sundance, Shanghai and Women Film Critics Circle.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/2j4W2kNs/film-unfin.jpg

Watchlist Count : 435 (-15)

Next : Murmur (2019)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch A Film Unfinished.

Put both of these in my watchlist. They both seem very good indeed.

[Citizen Rules]

A FILM UNFINISHED (2010)

I didn't know of this film but it sounds fascinating. Adding it to my watch list. Thanks for mentioning it Phoenix!

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/vTP4YyzP/the-old-dark-house.jpg

THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932)

Directed by : James Whale

Okay, so here's an interesting and unusual chapter in the annuls of horror that James Whale made sometime between Frankenstein and The Invisible Man - one that dabbles in comedy, making for an odd bird of a relic. It features Boris Karloff, fresh from his success as Frankenstein's Monster in Whale's 1931 smash hit - although it should be mentioned that Karloff had already featured in innumerable films up to that point. Here he's the mute "Morgan" - a monstrous brute who sets off on a rampage when he gets drunk. Also of interest are Melvyn Douglas, Gloria Stuart and Charles Laughton - all playing characters who (along with a couple of others) happen upon the wretched house of this film's title during a stormy night. With the deluge prompting landslides, even the uninviting house bodes well for them. The ghostly-looking but cowardly Horace Femm (Ernest Thesiger) is the man of the manor, and the crotchety Rebecca Femm (Eva Moore) his sister. Morgan is the butler. Horace and Rebecca are terrible hosts, but they never thought they'd be having to put up with the five young interlopers who end up knocking at their door.

I knew very little about this film when I ventured forth, so the frivolity and jokes caught me a little by surprise - this isn't a horror film about monsters or ghosts, but simply an extremely dysfunctional family as unprepared for the situation they're in as the guests are. Added to the two Femms we meet early, and Morgan, are the 102-year-old Sir Roderick Femm (played by a female actor - Elspeth Dudgeon) and the barking mad Saul Femm (Brember Wills), who proves the biggest threat to everyone when Morgan unlocks the door to his room and lets him out. Saul is a fire-obsessed maniac, who appears to be in a relationship with Morgan. This night of crazy antics actually makes for an interesting and entertaining film - it seems to have been made with a 'devil-may-care' attitude, and as such isn't as dry, sedate or typical as other films from this era are. One thing you'll notice right away is that it's pre-Code, with sexual allusions coming thick and fast, along with Gloria Stuart in stages of undress that would be considered scandalous in decades to come. The film itself has had an interesting history - and was at one stage thought 'lost' until it's rediscovery in the vaults of Universal in 1968.

Over the years we've become accustomed to the whole set-up - an old house, dark and foreboding, that normal everyday people are forced to approach because they're in some kind of trouble. This film was one of the inspirations for The Rocky Horror (Picture) Show, and I find that really interesting. I'd always assumed that was based on Frankenstein and other famous horror and science fiction films I already knew about - being completely unaware that there was a film out there that much more directly resembles Rocky Horror. I thought it was heaps of fun, and there are all kinds of moments where I thought to myself "were they alluding to homosexuality there?" James Whale himself was gay, and it would make sense that he might feel compelled to insert statements that weren't overtly obvious, but easily spotted all the same. Rebecca at one stage caresses Gloria Stuart's character, Margaret. Charles Laughton's Sir William Porterhouse is in a platonic relationship with Gladys DuCane (Lilian Bond) - seemingly for appearances sake. Anyway - it's fascinating, and the film was very worth visiting. The weirdness, the fun, the sheer campiness and chaos. The delivery of the simple line "Have a potato." There's a lot to like here, and I feel more complete having seen The Old Dark House.

Glad to catch this one - placed at number 71 on a Time Out poll of the best horror films. Priestley's novel was originally a social commentary on contemporary British class structures.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/MZnw7HFs/ol-dark-house.jpg

Watchlist Count : 433 (-17)

Next : Tickled (2016)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Old Dark House.

[SpelingError]

I really dug that one. I liked the vibes of the characters in the house being of various levels of weird and unpredictable, as opposed to them being straight up bad. One of my Discord friends asked me to stream it awhile back and, though I doubted that anyone would care for it, reactions to it were much better than I expected.

[Wooley]

I love The Old Dark House.

[WHITBISSELL!]

Another 👍 from me for The Old Dark House. And Murmur does sound very interesting so please forgive me for this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmgA5ef5K8s

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/FshcNBkq/docu2.jpg

TICKLED (2016)

Directed by : David Farrier and Dylan Reeve

Okay - so here we have some madness. One of those documentaries that looks like it's going to be looking at one thing, and then suddenly falls down a rabbit hole, through the looking glass - very, very deep down. At first I wasn't all that enthused to be watching a documentary that was purporting to be about "The world of professional competitive endurance tickling" - it just looked silly, and like a subject that would get old very, very quickly. Well, it does look at tickling as a fetish - it's part of what all of this is about - but this isn't about professional tickling, or tickling as a sport. David Farrier, a reporter in New Zealand thought it would be cool, or amusing, to write a story about online videos showing this 'competitive tickling' - and contacted the company running this, Jane O'Brien Media, requesting an interview. The company responds with a strangely combative email making an issue about Farrier's sexuality - a weirdly insulting one that you wouldn't expect from a media company organising a competitive sport. Farrier then partnered with television producer Dylan Reeve to take a closer look at all of this, and an inexplicable can of worms along with an army of lawyers suddenly sprung open - with Farrier, all the while, receiving weekly letters from 'Jane O'Brien Media' insulting him, and threatening him.

Now, Tickled isn't all that great as a documentary - it has more of an Hour and a Half News Investigation feel to it, which is absolutely what it is. That said, I'm so glad this is a documentary - because it seems that quite a few people got to see it, and for justice to be sweet this needed high exposure. Let me also say, I have absolutely nothing against tickling if that's your thing. I felt particularly uncomfortable watching the tickling that we're exposed to in this, but aside from one deep dive into one guy's tickle video studio - which earns him enough money to have had him quit his job and take it up full time - we aren't inundated with man on man tickling (which is mostly what this consists of.) If tickling is your thing, go for it. But why the hostile paranoia from Jane O'Brien Media? What are they hiding? Who is behind all of this? Is competitive tickling even a real thing? I can't tell you anything, because the fun of this doc is the finding out, and the twisted road that these investigative reporters go down. Will it have you going "whaaat?" Yes - with every new revelation, yes.

What this all boils down to is not letting bullies get away with threatening and deliberately trying to hurt people. Praise to all the journalists who continue on in spite of the threats they receive. I'd be as scared as all hell - especially if I were a New Zealander chasing a story in the United States when there are huge threats of lawsuits and fury spewing forth and encroaching on you. I'd never be able to just approach people on the street, or continue to ring doorbells and call people who are unlikely to treat you kindly. It helps having a sense that you are in the right, and that the law is on your side - but the stress of all this would seriously get to me. So kudos to David Farrier and Dylan Reeve for not only sticking to their guns, but deciding to take this up a level and start making a movie about their investigation. Some people will try to shut you up by burying you in legal issues, hoping that you don't have the money or will to fight them. Some people will try to shut you down by the sheer force of their unpleasantness. Some people - a very small proportion of us - are vermin. The fact that this is connected to tickling is one of those strange factors I can't really explain - just, watch this documentary, and see the layers peeled back.

Glad to catch this one - On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 120 critics' reviews of the film are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/85Vcw7h3/docu.jpg

Watchlist Count : 434 (-16)

Next : The Impostors (1998)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Tickled.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/8PvYZQQX/the-impostors.webp

THE IMPOSTORS (1998)

Directed by : Stanley Tucci

Slapstick throwbacks to 1930s screwball comedies and golden age silent films don't always do it for me, but I do love a great ensemble cast - and The Impostors has one of the best. Apparently Stanley Tucci called on all of his film star friends to appear in this, and as such we have Alfred Molina, Lili Taylor, Tony Shalhoub, Steve Buscemi, Allison Janney, Richard Jenkins, Billy Connolly and Woody Allen play major roles in the film. The two main protagonists are the Laurel and Hardy-like Maurice (Oliver Platt) and Arthur (Stanley Tucci) - two out of work, down on their luck actors who try to hustle a baker and end up with theater tickets instead of anything edible. They end up going to a version of Hamlet starring Sir Jeremy Burtom (Molina) as the Danish prince - an actor who proceeds to get drunk and ruin the production, after which Maurice berates him, causing a fight. Arthur and Maurice flee, ending up in a shipping container overnight, and waking up to find they are accidental stowaways on board an ocean liner. They pretend to be stewards, and get involved with various plots and dramas during the voyage.

Not everything works with The Impostors, but it's a film of many moments, and I have to admit that some of those moments worked for me. Billy Connolly is hilarious as the rambunctiously gay tennis player Mr. Sparks (with the firm grip) and Steve Buscemi had me laughing as the suicidal, despondent shipboard crooner "Happy" Franks. On paper, those two roles seem a little trite and reliant on very basic humour - but Connolly and Buscemi make them work by harnessing their respective talent, and playing to their strengths. Everybody seems to be having a lot of fun, giving the film a great deal of energy. Maurice and Arthur are two lovable pals, and while they don't always hit the comedic highs they're hoping to I think Platt and Tucci add enough charm for them to rub off the right way. Like I said before, I'm not the biggest fan of slapstick, but I do enjoy loving tributes and can appreciate what the guys are going for here. Shalhoub is the only performer I can really accuse of going too far, and he would have been better off not overacting the way he does in this. Most of the other supporting actors, like Campbell Scott (the son of George C. Scott) and Dana Ivey do really well also.

So, this is a really tough film to judge - because even though the laugh factor wasn't really high for me, I still enjoyed watching it. Seeing all of these greats do their stuff - almost like they've been called on by Tucci to take part in his school play - was entertaining at least. Also, most of the funny stuff was at least amusing if it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny, or as funny as it was meant to be. It felt like a great attempt, with heaps of charm and positive energy. I think a lot of the talent made the film a lot funnier than it was on paper, and I'd say that if you feel encouraged to see it just because of who is in it, then it might be the film for you. But if I tell you that Platt and Tucci, while charming, aren't as funny or gifted in comedy as they really need to be to carry the film along (especially in it's opening act) and that sounds like a deal-breaker for you, then it's not the kind of film you want to be watching. I got the most out of it when the two leads were interacting with the other performers - by themselves their act falls a little flat. The movie though, has a heart as big as a whale, and is as charming and sweet as a loving ode to the comedies of old ought to be.

Glad to catch this one - screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/brxWnZKQ/the-impostors.jpg

Watchlist Count : 432 (-18)

Next : La guagua aérea (1993)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Impostors.

[Wooley]

https://i.postimg.cc/8PvYZQQX/the-impostors.webp

THE IMPOSTORS (1998)

Directed by : Stanley Tucci

Slapstick throwbacks to 1930s screwball comedies and golden age silent films don't always do it for me, but I do love a great ensemble cast - and The Impostors has one of the best. Apparently Stanley Tucci called on all of his film star friends to appear in this, and as such we have Alfred Molina, Lili Taylor, Tony Shalhoub, Steve Buscemi, Allison Janney, Richard Jenkins, Billy Connolly and Woody Allen play major roles in the film. The two main protagonists are the Laurel and Hardy-like Maurice (Oliver Platt) and Arthur (Stanley Tucci) - two out of work, down on their luck actors who try to hustle a baker and end up with theater tickets instead of anything edible. They end up going to a version of Hamlet starring Sir Jeremy Burtom (Molina) as the Danish prince - an actor who proceeds to get drunk and ruin the production, after which Maurice berates him, causing a fight. Arthur and Maurice flee, ending up in a shipping container overnight, and waking up to find they are accidental stowaways on board an ocean liner. They pretend to be stewards, and get involved with various plots and dramas during the voyage.

Not everything works with The Impostors, but it's a film of many moments, and I have to admit that some of those moments worked for me. Billy Connolly is hilarious as the rambunctiously gay tennis player Mr. Sparks (with the firm grip) and Steve Buscemi had me laughing as the suicidal, despondent shipboard crooner "Happy" Franks. On paper, those two roles seem a little trite and reliant on very basic humour - but Connolly and Buscemi make them work by harnessing their respective talent, and playing to their strengths. Everybody seems to be having a lot of fun, giving the film a great deal of energy. Maurice and Arthur are two lovable pals, and while they don't always hit the comedic highs they're hoping to I think Platt and Tucci add enough charm for them to rub off the right way. Like I said before, I'm not the biggest fan of slapstick, but I do enjoy loving tributes and can appreciate what the guys are going for here. Shalhoub is the only performer I can really accuse of going too far, and he would have been better off not overacting the way he does in this. Most of the other supporting actors, like Campbell Scott (the son of George C. Scott) and Dana Ivey do really well also.

So, this is a really tough film to judge - because even though the laugh factor wasn't really high for me, I still enjoyed watching it. Seeing all of these greats do their stuff - almost like they've been called on by Tucci to take part in his school play - was entertaining at least. Also, most of the funny stuff was at least amusing if it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny, or as funny as it was meant to be. It felt like a great attempt, with heaps of charm and positive energy. I think a lot of the talent made the film a lot funnier than it was on paper, and I'd say that if you feel encouraged to see it just because of who is in it, then it might be the film for you. But if I tell you that Platt and Tucci, while charming, aren't as funny or gifted in comedy as they really need to be to carry the film along (especially in it's opening act) and that sounds like a deal-breaker for you, then it's not the kind of film you want to be watching. I got the most out of it when the two leads were interacting with the other performers - by themselves their act falls a little flat. The movie though, has a heart as big as a whale, and is as charming and sweet as a loving ode to the comedies of old ought to be.

Glad to catch this one - screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.

3.5

https://i.postimg.cc/brxWnZKQ/the-impostors.jpg

Watchlist Count : 432 (-18)

Next : La guagua aérea (1993)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Impostors.

I haven't seen this movie in 25 years because it felt like a film that I wouldn't enjoy as much on a re-watch.
I may need to correct that.
I thought this film really stood out. I had never seen Tucci or Platt and I have loved both of them since (I really thought Platt should have had a much bigger career after his roles in this and Diggstown and I actually enjoyed him a good bit in Lake Placid).
Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[PHOENIX74]

MARCH RUN-THROUGH


Another 31 films watched and reviewed during March which takes the overall tally up to 88 films on this thread already! I've had the stamina so far, so hopefully I can go on and keep it up. There are have been quite a lot of incidentals recently which I'll detail below - catching up on 2023 has meant that a lot of the films I earmarked on my watchlist have now been scrubbed off. In the meantime, I got a fair few really great movies seen in March.

BEST OF THE BUNCH

A couple of masterpieces in March, one that I expected to be great, and one which absolutely came out of the blue - I didn't even expect to like A Touch of Zen very much, never mind it being one of the best films I've seen in recent times and in contention for my top 10 best new watches when this year comes to it's end.

https://i.postimg.cc/L4Q7PqYc/zen.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/RZ2JJT4W/umberto.jpg

BEST OF THE REST

I see so many great movies here that sometimes it feels wrong to overlook so many, but out of what I saw these were worth pointing out most of all.

https://i.postimg.cc/Sxy7S4kg/crimson.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/c4Y0xqXt/the-heiress.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/T1fqKvn2/le-chat.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/sxMf9vYT/fat-city.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/nzZ0DmJt/minnie.jpg

As said, there were many others that I thought were terrific, and that I'll no doubt watch again some day. The proportion of good films to bad here is definitely weighted heavily in the 'good' direction. There have also been many incidental hits, like I said - knocked off my watchlist were :

https://i.postimg.cc/dVfSfDcb/bottoms.webphttps://i.postimg.cc/KjJy3F3m/knock.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/HkS4ZNXj/nimona.pnghttps://i.postimg.cc/XXSDvzQn/godzilla.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/tgcgM3Bh/enys-men.jpg

Which basically means my watchlist total is down to an all record low so far : 430!

In three months I've managed to cut it back by 20.

[Wyldesyde19]

Not a big fan of Fat City

[PHOENIX74]

Not a big fan of Fat City

I could have seen a different version of me getting weighed down by the somewhat depressing narrative and the amount of time we spend with some of the characters when they're completely inebriated, but overall it really touched me and I was greatly impressed by the performances in this.

[Wyldesyde19]

I could have seen a different version of me getting weighed down by the somewhat depressing narrative and the amount of time we spend with some of the characters when they're completely inebriated, but overall it really touched me and I was greatly impressed by the performances in this.

Maybe I need to rewatch it, but I didn’t care much for the acting.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/15JQWSvw/flight-of-hope.webp

LA GUAGUA AÉREA (1993)
"A Flight of Hope"

Directed by : Luis Molina Casanova

I landed in the rare cinematic landscape of Puerto Rico when I took on La guagua aérea, a film that wants to tell you about where it comes from and does so by taking a microcosm of Puerto Rican society and putting it on a flight from there to New York on one specific night : 20th December 1960. It's narrated by someone thinking back, and I never quite got which character that was - but I'm perfectly willing to concede it doesn't matter all that much. The American air hostesses are at times baffled, and at others terrified, by the behaviour of the various passengers who don't take anything they say very seriously (and anyway, rather unhelpfully, all instructions are in English.) As the flight progresses, a community atmosphere is fostered and before long there's a band striking up music and passengers are dancing in the aisles. At another stage, live crabs escape from one passenger's bag. These guys simply aren't quite cultured enough to have a good sense of flight etiquette, and it's only the two most educated passengers who shrink in embarrassment at their fellow countrymen - not that there's anything really bad about them.

So, this was really interesting in that I've never, ever seen a Puerto Rican film. Unfortunately there don't seem to be any good transfers of La guagua aérea around - but I was lucky that one generous someone has provided an English translation for those interested in seeing it. Various characters have their specific story - a favourite of mine being the "blind" man who is travelling with his padre and has the benefit of some considerable donations which he feels especially guilty about. I wonder why. There's the lady of the night who is looked down upon in her community by all the prudes and others who consider themselves superior. Mostly though, it's men and women looking for a chance to make some money, as there seems to be little opportunity at home. It's a short hop over the ocean, and in the middle of the night all of these specific people have booked the cheapest flight possible - they may not be rich or cultured, but there's a richness to all of them because they're spending a final few moments with people who won't discriminate against them, or treat them poorly.

The comedy in La guagua aérea didn't quite line up with what I find funny, and visually this was a headache to watch, but as a whole I thought this was an excellent film because the overall narrative and screenplay works at bringing out the deeper undercurrents at work here. The sense of community on the plane, and the love people have for one another when they're heading into a place where they'll be treated as inferior is stronger - even when nobody knows each other. On the plane bonds form quickly because of this. The story was strong enough to have itself carry over into a musical version that looks to be popular, and I'm happy to see that. I even wondered about how some of the characters went after they walked off into the chilly New York air - if they made that money to help their family back home, or if their trip to see relatives went well. How the Casanova of the flight fared with who he ended up not getting slapped by. This was short, and looks to have been a fairly inexpensive production (a toy plane had to do for those inserts) - I thought it was good enough as a little culture bubble to be exposed to briefly.

Glad to catch this one - I do not know much about it as information is limited and it seems to have had little exposure outside of Puerto Rico.

3

https://i.postimg.cc/hjtQSwrm/a-flight-of-hope.jpg

Watchlist Count : 432 (-18)

Next : Miracle in Milan (1951)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch La guagua aérea.

[crumbsroom]

Maybe I need to rewatch it, but I didn’t care much for the acting.


It would be on my shortlist of best acted movies of all time. Fittingly, right along side another boxing movie: Rocky. And then you can also probably throw Raging Bull onto that list. Something about boxing and acting (just not ****ing Million Dollar Baby)


I sometimes wonder how much my personal proximity to the kind of people who populate movies like Fat City, basically marginalized broken weirdos, gives me a bit of an edge on recognizing when a film nails these kinds of sadly beautiful but still very sad worlds. Fat City is the real deal. That is what the kind of life looks and feels and smells like. And Susan Tyrell should have a statue of her erected right in the centre of every dive bar all across the united states of america.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/qvft813m/miracle.png

MIRACLE IN MILAN (1951)

Directed by : Vittorio De Sica

Neo realism didn't just have to be about guys getting their bikes pinched and Nazis behaving badly - in Miracle in Milan we have the "neorealist fable" which builds a fairy tale around a group of destitute shantytown inhabitants who, upon oil being discovered under their rickety town, are about to be thrown off this revered little patch of paradise. You could call my use of the word "paradise" sarcasm, but these men and women really do love this home they've literally built for themselves out of a random assortment of discarded building materials. They even have their own national anthem of sorts - which you'll hear numerous times during Miracle in Milan. The central figure amongst all this is Totò (Francesco Golisano). Totò was discovered in a cabbage patch as a baby by the old lady Lolotta (Emma Gramatica) and raised as her own. In a wrenching piece of neorealist sadness, we see Lolotta die when Totò is only a little boy - a whole scene dedicated to him being the lone little mourner following behind her coffin. He grows up to be a kind, thoughtful, but somewhat simple-minded man who nevertheless has the organisational skills to bring the homeless together to build the shantytown they all start regarding as their precious home.

A transformation takes over the film once the landowner, Mobbi (Guglielmo Barnabò) decides to enlist an army of policemen to eject the poor squatters from his land. At this point Totò receives a magical dove from his grandmother who has descended from heaven - a dove which has the power to grant any wish Totò might have. All I could do from this point on was laugh - not only because the film actually becomes quite funny, but because I never ever expected a film considered to be "neorealist" to become so bonkers. Thinking about it, I realised that this whole scenario is pretty close to something I might occasionally dream about. A moment of wish-fulfillment. Anyway - all bets are off and the film simply embraces fantasy to the fullest extent it can. There's a surrealism to this that seems to anticipate the future works of Federico Fellini, and I was just supposing to myself that neorealism was breaking free and transforming itself into something very different. It even required special effects from American specialist Ned Mann. There's also a love story, with Brunella Bovo playing the awkward (but quite stunningly beautiful) love interest who becomes Totò's sweetheart.

"It is true that my people have already attained happiness after their own fashion; precisely because they are destitute, these people still feel - as the majority of ordinary men perhaps no longer do - the living warmth of a ray of winter sunshine, the simple poetry of the wind. They greet water with the same pure joy as Saint Francis did." Vittorio De Sica wrote that and it succinctly explains the whole ethos of Miracle in Milan - it's what the song the poor sing alludes to as well. De Sica, in neorealist style, had genuinely poor and destitute people play the parts of themselves in this movie - so it really is a slice of cold hard reality existing within a fantasy framework, which is very unusual. It's far more uplifting than the other Vittorio De Sica films I've seen - almost defiant. The poor are more in touch with nature and life than the rich, who hunker down inside palaces without getting their hands dirty. There's misery, of course, but there's also such a strong sense of community in this film, and it's true that these people take great pleasure in the little things. In the end, Miracle in Milan is a spectacle which is fun to watch, touching, funny, heartwarming, stirring and very different. Probably a must-see. I'm glad I saw it.

Glad to catch this one - 1951 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize Winner and BAFTA Best Film Winner.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/MpHx2gXG/milan.jpg

Watchlist Count : 431 (-19)

Next : Oslo, August 31st (2011)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Miracle in Milan.

[SpelingError]

It's far from the most racist film ever made by a long shot, but it has what's probably the most cringe inducing blackface scene I've ever seen in film. Especially considering the build up to it.

Aside from that, I really enjoyed it.

[PHOENIX74]

It's far from the most racist film ever made by a long shot, but it has what's probably the most cringe inducing blackface scene I've ever seen in film. Especially considering the build up to it.

Aside from that, I really enjoyed it.

Oh my goodness that moment - yes. I thought to myself, "well....I'll just ignore that moment." Good intentions, but obviously Vittorio De Sica and co weren't quite enlightened enough to deal with the issues at play there. Thank goodness it was brief and never alluded to again.

[PHOENIX74]

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OSLO, AUGUST 31ST (2011)

Directed by : Joachim Trier

Silence pervades the air following this film, and it's a silence I find hard to break - even just by putting my thoughts down by typing them. Joachim Trier presents us with a complex protagonist - Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie) is simple enough if you define him as a drug addict, which you can most assuredly do, but drug addiction is often a symptom in itself. What drove Anders? We meet him at the 10-week mark of his rehabilitation, a severely depressed young man with regrets and no direction in life. On 30th August Anders has a day's leave from the rehab clinic, and he'll spend this day reconnecting with people from his past, and going for a job interview. By watching him do both we learn more about his character, his past history, and the frustrations of a man who, at the age of 34, can't stand the thought of having to start his entire life over again from nothing. His parents are selling the family home to pay for his rehab, and his sister doesn't want to see him. The conversations he has with his friends, and his job interview, do little to alter the course he seems inextricably on.

Props to Anders Danielsen Lie in this film - it's definitely a performance you could call a tour de force, and I'm happy to have spent more time with him after seeing The Worst Person in the World and Sick of Myself. An actor on the rise, who also happens to be a musician and medical doctor! Say what? Yes, Anders Danielsen Lie actually practices as a GP between film roles, which is mind blowing if you ask me. Next up I guess he's going to win a Pulitzer, make a great scientific discovery and become the President of Norway. Anyway, as far as depression goes, this captures the mood perfectly - it can actually be quite trying, especially if you really want Anders to find a better outlook for himself. It's not as if he doesn't go looking, but the trouble is that he goes looking in all of the places he's already familiar with - which is understandable, and makes us realise that we're all inextricably tied to our past. Will he find something to cling on to? Can he start something anew, or is he destined to only find what he knows? The answers are never easy, and seeing the opportunities in life you've wasted especially hard.

Joachim Trier hasn't created this study of depression anew - this is an adaptation of Le Feu follet (Will O' the Wisp/The Fire Within), a famous novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle about a First World War veteran who falls into despair after leading a decadent life. In both the novel and this film the main character has a desperate need to make some kind of connection with another human being, and it's these moments that define Oslo, August 31st. Anders can never really "connect" with any of the people he comes into contact with, despite him knowing most of them. The job interview scene is especially painful to watch, because it's rich with possibility and we learn that Anders is an extremely intelligent individual. For some, by the time we get to the end of the film they won't like this character all that much - I was conflicted myself - but as a fellow human being he deserves empathy all the same. Joachim Trier and Anders Danielsen Lie present him to us already wounded, and as we learn more about him it's up to us whether we judge him or not. I do think though, that anyone struggling with addiction and depression deserves compassion - and this film reminds us of that beautifully.

Glad to catch this one - premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. It won the Best Film and Best Cinematography awards at the Stockholm International Film Festival.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/KzcS6bZM/oslo2.jpg

Watchlist Count : 430 (-20)

Next : Smile (1975)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Oslo, August 31st.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/G2xJ6X3z/smile.png

SMILE (1975)

Directed by : Michael Ritchie

Beauty pageants can almost satirize themselves, and that's something Michael Ritchie seems to have understood while making Smile, shooting his film around a real pageant held at Veteran's Memorial Auditorium in Santa Rosa, California. Doing so has produced a movie that mostly resembles a Robert Altman film in style and satirical content, although it seems much more rigidly controlled than that director's freewheeling movies. Most people compare this to Nashville, because narrative-wise we end up following so many different characters down their own personal long and winding roads. Head judge, Big Bob (Bruce Dern) might be a used car salesman, but he's surprisingly idealistic when it comes to these pageants, which he's often involved in. The pageant's executive director, Brenda DiCarlo (Barbara Feldon) is all icy efficiency, often being at odds with her husband, Andy (Nicholas Pryor) who is an alcoholic, and worrying about a ritual at the local chapter of the U.S. Junior Chamber where he has to kiss a dead chicken's rear end. In the meantime high school student Little Bob (Eric Shea) is hoping to surreptitiously take pictures of the contestants undressed and sell them to his fellow students. Tommy French (Michael Kidd) is a once-famous choreographer who is now slumming it, teaching the girls dance routines.

I have to admit that I expected that this film would be much more stupid than it ended up being - instead of silly jokes, Smile works hard at being a smart satire with well-defined characters and clever humour. (The way one of the male hosts delivers instructions prohibiting the flushing of sanitary napkins down the toilet had me onboard right away with this film's intentions.) You expect cheap gags from where this film sometimes goes, but instead it surprises you. An insanely young Melanie Griffith is one of the contestants, along with Annette O'Toole, but Dern gets the most screen-time - he's an actor who I'd mostly seen as an old man, until recently seeing him in a whole host of roles pre-Coming Home, including 1964 film Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. I'd rarely seen Barbara Feldon in anything other than the Get Smart series as Agent 99. The performances were great, but this film belongs to screenwriter Jerry Belson, and of course Michael Ritchie - I don't think there was much ad-libbing. The talent segment of the film is absolutely hilarious, but it never gets too carried away with itself - the use of that good old Charlie Chaplin song "Smile" gives it a bittersweet edge, matching the overall tone.

Reading some of the other reviews related to Smile uncovers even more that I didn't quite grasp the first time around - and that may be because it cuts sharply into American culture and sociology in an expansive way, taking this far beyond beauty pageants in general. I think perhaps seeing this through American eyes would have had me noticing more of that. Regardless, when it ended my thoughts were centered on the fact that this was such an incisive, intelligent and savvy movie. It couldn't quite find it's target audience on release, but in the years since it has become a solid cult classic. An exposition of Americana that I had never heard of before, but really should have, and yet another movie I'll probably champion from this moment on. It was crazy how United Artists decided before releasing it that it wouldn't do much business, with Ritchie himself trying to bring attention to a movie that was only released in a handful of theaters with hardly any promotion. It's only now slowly starting to gain the appreciation and audience it deserved, although critics at the time praised it. I thought it an excellent film that I'm already looking forward to seeing again.

Glad to catch this one - the film has an approval rating of 100% based on reviews from 17 critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

4

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Watchlist Count : 430 (-20)

Next : Great Freedom (2021)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Smile.

[WHITBISSELL!]

A big :up: for Smile. And it's funny how you mentioned Robert Altman because the film this most reminded me of was Brewster McCloud. That and maybe Cold Turkey (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066927/) for some reason.

[crumbsroom]

Smile is ridiculously overlooked as is, honestly, Michael Ritchie (Downhill Racer, Fletch, Smile, Prime Cut, The Candidate, Bad News Bears). That's enough quality stuff that it's making me reconsider all those bad reviews I read about his The Island when I was a kid (which I thought had the best movie poster I'd ever seen and, yet, I've still never seen it because of its terrible word of mouth)

[Citizen Rules]

https://i.postimg.cc/G2xJ6X3z/smile.png

SMILE (1975)

Directed by : Michael Ritchie

Beauty pageants can almost satirize themselves, and that's something Michael Ritchie seems to have understood while making Smile, shooting his film around a real pageant held at Veteran's Memorial Auditorium in Santa Rosa, California. Doing so has produced a movie that mostly resembles a Robert Altman film in style and satirical content, although it seems much more rigidly controlled than that director's freewheeling movies... That caught my attention, that and that cast, can't say I've seen many films with Barbara Feldon in it.

[crumbsroom]

It might also be time to track down Ritchie's Semi Tough, since it looks to have been made when he was making mostly great things.

[WHITBISSELL!]

Semi Tough was pretty good. I preferred the Dan Jenkins novel (definitely not saying it was better! :shifty:) They changed a lot of it around so they could lampoon the then current New Age and self-help obsession involving EST (Erhard Seminar Training), and Rolfing. They called it Pelfing (Structural Integration) after Lotte Lenya's character Clara Pelf. Bert Convy plays this smarmy guru type pushing his own brand of self-awareness called the B.E.A.T. program. They also throw in something called Movagenics which involved Robert Preston creeping along the floor on his hands and knees.

It's actually pretty good satire but I don't think the Jenkins novel was the right framework for it.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/4dpX6vTD/great-freedom.jpg

GREAT FREEDOM (2021)

Directed by : Sebastian Meise

When the allies liberated the German concentration camps near the end of the Second World War, not all prisoners were actually freed. Homosexuals, under the notorious Paragraph 175 (made more severe by the Nazis) were shuttled from camp to prison to serve out the remainder of their sentence. Although East Germany reverted to the pre-Nazi version of 175, West Germany kept the provisions the Nazis had introduced until 1969, when some, but not all, provisions were repealed. Paragraph 175 lasted until 1994 before it was repealed completely - it had stood since 1871. Hans Hoffmann (Franz Rogowski) plays one of those concentration camp victims who were taken straight to prison in Great Freedom. From 1945 to 1969, we see his various incarcerations, his lovers inside the prison, and his relationship with long-term inmate Viktor Kohl (Georg Friedrich), who at first reacts violently to having to share a cell with a "pervert". The prison guards are determined to stamp out any chance Hans might have of experiencing love and comfort, even at times of severe emotional distress. All the same, even within the walls of such a prison, it can't be completely extinguished.

Count me as one person who had no idea about Germany's strict anti-gay laws and how they were enthusiastically enforced during most of the 20th Century. The most striking moment in Great Freedom comes from us learning that despite surviving the camps, Hans is still being punished - this even shocks the hardened Viktor. Every time Hans is released after serving his time, he's followed, filmed when he's with other men, and brought back to serve more time. It's interesting to note that his great loves and losses occur behind bars, and that the deepest most sincere bond he ever has in his life is with Viktor, whose bigotry slowly wears away over the course of decades. I was fascinated by Franz Rogowski's performance, I'm a huge fan of Christian Petzold's Transit, and it was illuminating to see how much range the guy has. He's gentle, and it's a gentleness which offsets itself against the brutality of a system where the gentle, kind man is being punished and the brutalizers are the supposed "good guys". Hans never lashes out, although he loses it when thrown into solitary confinement so soon after suffering inside a concentration camp.

In the meantime Viktor is a really nice representation of German society as a whole, having a slowly changing attitude - he starts the film almost ready to kill Hans, but eventually softens that stance when he feels pity. He watches how alone Hans is at first, and then learns that he's a survivor of the camps - something he's awestruck by. That doesn't mean he suddenly loves his cellmate though, and Hans suffers from a lack of tact at times, which provokes Viktor into violence - setting the two back somewhat. Overall, the film is most successful when accessing our emotions, our empathy earned by the sincerity Sebastian Meise teases out of Rogowski - especially his tenderness when he's with a lover. It culminates with a whole series of scenes in the films final act that take us to the limits of our two main character's endurance. The film is also interesting visually with what it does with light and darkness - always potent as symbolism. It tops this all off with a final scene as unexpected as it is meaningful and expressive - everybody watching forced to contemplate it's meaning outside of the scope the film had up until that point. A neat trick to finish off a great film.

Glad to catch this one - won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, and was shortlisted for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

4.5

https://i.postimg.cc/L5ST6NbX/great-free.jpg

Watchlist Count : 429 (-21)

Next : Two Half-Times in Hell (1961)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Great Freedom.

[Thursday Next]

I thought Great Freedom was very good and Franz Rogowski was excellent.

[PHOENIX74]

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TWO HALF-TIMES IN HELL (1961)

Directed by : Zoltán Fábri

Zoltán Fábri is just as unrelenting in Two Half-times in Hell than he is in The Fifth Seal - there's no search for a silver lining here, and there are situations that the human spirit is powerless to overcome. He leaves us in no doubt - being under the thumb of an autocratic military dictatorship means nothing prospers. To Hungarian political prisoner Ónódi (Imre Sinkovits) football is absolutely sacred, so when he's ordered, in 1944, to organize a team to play the Germans for Hitler's birthday celebrations he takes his task seriously, without thinking of the wider ramifications. He does ask for extra food, and that this team can train instead of doing the work that is slowly killing him and his compatriots - and the Hungarian authorities agree. This soon separates Ónódi from the rest of the camp, who are desperate to share in his newfound ability to feed himself properly and rest - and these divisions disrupt the unity born from shared suffering. Not only that, the selected team have an opportunity to escape, seeing as they only have one guard lazily overseeing their daily training. Colluding with the Germans, taking benefits his suffering comrades won't have and dealing with his recalcitrant team show him that the sacredness of football means absolutely nothing during wartime.

Fábri makes many other inroads topic-wise during the course of the story. Ónódi is told to avoid conscripting any Jewish players if at all possible, but he finds himself stuck with only eight before deciding he'll have to ignore this suggestion. He finds a man called Steiner (Dezső Garas), a relentlessly bullied Jewish prisoner working in the rock quarry who says he plays left field - but when training starts Ónódi finds out this man lied to him, and can't play at all. Turns out Steiner was on the verge of dying, and Ónódi has to choose whether or not to report him, which would mean his sure death after all. It begs the question, which is raised often - Ónódi has the chance to save prisoners on the verge of death, but how many can he save and yet still put together a team viable enough to entertain the Germans? What happens when a guard demands most of their extra food as a bribe to save another well-respected prisoner from execution? Is agreeing to do this at all demeaning, and can it be counted as collusion or collaboration? What will happen to them after the match is finished? What would the enraged Germans do if they won?

I have to say, after seeing the American remake, Escape to Victory (just called Victory in the United States and other regions) I was not expecting something as dour, grim and dark. John Huston's movie simply sets itself to inspire cheers and entertain, which it does marvellously. Two Half-Times in Hell is your dose of reality after that crowd-pleaser, and it gives an audience a lot more food for thought, even if it inspires more tears than cheers. The final act really speaks to me because it's so much more meaningful - and it doesn't let us forget that we're in the midst of a Hungarian Labour Camp during a time when the Germans occupied their wavering Axis ally. This film was inspired by an event called "The Death Match", and although the official legend of that event is a Soviet myth, there was some truth from which it was created. If that's not a time for serious contemplation and acknowledgement of suffering, then perhaps there's never a time for it. I really have to say that it kept me questioning the rights and wrongs concerning every character in it, and that I was moved by it's earnest sincerity and power. It's another excellent film from Zoltán Fábri.

Glad to catch this one - it won a critics' award at Boston Cinema Festival 1962, and of course inspired Escape to Victory/Victory and The Longest Yard.

4

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Watchlist Count : 429 (-21)

Next : Le Grand Amour (1969)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Two Half-Times in Hell, and SpelingError, who found it for me.

[PHOENIX74]

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LE GRAND AMOUR (1969)

Directed by : Pierre Étaix

I have to admit to having been charmed by Le Grand Amour even before finally watching it - since I was familiar with it's famous scene of director/star Pierre Étaix (as Pierre) and his compatriots driving down rural French roads in their pajamas, using their beds as cars. It's one of the more famous moments in French cinema - a fantasy born of new love, as this married yet stifled middle aged man falls in love with his young secretary. Le Grand Amour plays around a lot with fantasy, memory and recollection - running through scenes a second, third or fourth time as circumstances change or someone changes their mind. I found it brilliantly funny - an impossible mix of sardonic humour and good natured fooling around, with the ridiculous often being played in a very straight manner. For example, we find out Pierre and his wife Florence (Annie Fratellini) are living with the latter's parents when Florence gets a call from her mother, and Pierre calmly but very deliberately walks downstairs, into the mother's room, and hangs up the phone. It's so matter of fact, as are many moments in this absurdist story of contemplated infidelity. Étaix is often waiting just around the corner though, to surprise us with something visually clever - it's the execution which seems effortless and droll.

I'd say a lot of what we see in Le Grand Amour is way ahead of it's time. It plays with the absurd without being absurdist - for example when Pierre (in his narration) contemplates all of the ladies he could have married, and then we see him marrying all of them at the same time. It makes perfect sense, it's just shown to us in a very silly and audacious manner. It's not only Pierre that gets into this act - when the old ladies who know him spot Pierre exchanging a nod with a young lady, their gossipy whispering to each other reinterprets the situation over and over until the final version of the story has Pierre and the young lady hop behind a bush for some quick lovemaking. Each change to the story we get to visualize, with every addition a funny twist on the one that came before. The narration is a lot of fun as well, with Pierre lamenting seemingly good fortune and being at odds with what we're seeing as real. I often found myself having a good laugh - and that goes double for every time Alain Janey (as Jacques) is giving Pierre his special brand of advice, and we see how that advice might go with a scene where Janey is now playing the role of Pierre.

There's something about Le Grand Amour that just made me feel really good, and if I might perhaps use the word "charming" in relation to this film or that too often, I'm forced to bring the term out again here, for that is surely the best word to describe it. In the wrong hands, a story about a middle-aged man yearning for the love of his very young secretary might have been a little iffy - but here there's no doubt that Étaix sees this situation as it really is. He has a great time fooling around with the men in this film - they are the ones who are the clowns in Le Grand Amour. I'm sure this film provided much inspiration for comedies which were to follow - and at 87-minutes in length it never gets to outstay it's welcome. I surely have more Pierre Étaix films to catch up with - sounds like his career had a sad and controversial ending, but there are three others that look like must-sees. One interesting fact though - Étaix featured in the unreleased Jerry Lewis movie The Day the Clown Cried, which is one hell of a thing to have on your resume. Anyway, I thought Le Grand Amour was terrific and exceedingly funny. There's so much more to see here than just that famous 'beds as cars' scene.

Glad to catch this one - nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival, and part of the Criterion Collection's Pierre Étaix set, Criterion #655.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/s22bVwvh/le-grand-amour.jpg

Watchlist Count : 429 (-21)

Next : All About Evil (2010)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Le Grand Amour.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/x82DdKBS/all-about-eve.jpg

ALL ABOUT EVIL (2010)

Directed by : Joshua Grannell

I haven't crossed paths with as much cheese as I used to see lately, though I'm fond of John Waters films, and All About Evil kind of resembles what a John Waters film would have been like if he'd been a horror filmmaker. This isn't John Waters though - this is Joshua Grannell, otherwise known as Peaches Christ, an underground drag performer who has somehow added horror filmmaking to his resume. We're hovering around Greasy Strangler levels of goofiness, although not quite at that level - and that often offsets how disturbing gory horror can be. When it's a little silly, it's not as disturbing because you're not fully buying into the reality of any situation. It does feel like it's paying tribute to the gorefests of old that nevertheless weren't good enough to cater to more than a niche audience (directly referencing the likes of Herschell Gordon Lewis film Blood Feast), mixing a little high-impact gore in with the camp performances and crazy narrative. We get the likes of Cassandra Peterson (who was once Elvira) and Mink Stole (John Waters regular) to add cult status to the roster of performers - most of whom are younger talent.

So, the movie is about Deborah Tennis (Natasha Lyonne), who runs the Victoria Theatre, an ailing establishment left to her by her late father. It means everything to her, as does screening late-night horror movies for her sparse audience. Her cruel mother wants to sell the place, and during a confrontation Deborah kills her with a pen, making a ghastly scene which is recorded by CCTV, and then accidentally played back to an audience waiting to see Blood Feast. Thinking it's a short film promoting the theatre, they love it - spurring Deborah on to make more "horror shorts" using real victims, and real murders. Fan Steven Thompson (Thomas Dekker) is at first a big supporter, but when his date goes missing and he comes under suspicion, he begins to put the pieces together. In the meantime, along with her old projectionist Mr. Twigs (Jack Donner), Deborah builds on her success by recruiting the psychotic Worthington twins (Jade and Nikita Ramsey) along with a dirty street urchin. Will she be stopped before performing her greatest work yet, a Jonestown-like massacre of her entire fanbase? Will the pile of rotting corpses (along with the victims still dying) in the attic finally draw enough attention to impede her plans?

Throw in Patrick Bristow as a television interviewer, and that's what you've got. A reasonably fun time that almost feels like a light-hearted look at horror as a changing genre. What becomes important to Deborah's fans is how real and explicit the violence is, and what's important to Steven is the genre itself, and the fact that Deborah is that rarest of breed - a female horror director. To Deborah's projectionist it's just the fact that the show is going on, and movies are being made and enjoyed. Horror has to adapt to suit cultural mores, break taboos, and get a group of people to share an intense experience - all of it taken in the spirit intended. To Deborah though, it's an outlet to repay years of being looked down upon, name-calling, financial distress and neglect. She probably thinks the audience shares her grievances. This offbeat look at horror is a horror film itself - and while the inward gaze is most often simply goofy and trying to be funny, sometimes a film can say just as much while still lacking the gravitas. A real mixed bag, but there's enough here to warrant a "check out All About Evil" to lovers of cheesy, goofy horror comedies.

3

https://i.postimg.cc/QtrX7rPM/all-about-evil.jpg

Watchlist Count : 431 (-19)

Next : Aferim! (2015)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch All About Evil.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/R0Vf2pPL/aferim.jpg

AFERIM! (2015)

Directed by : Radu Jude

Ouch! This story sure has a sting in it's tail - you never know what you're going to get when you descend into a faraway land from quite a time long ago, and here we're in early 19th Century Wallachia, Romania, following what can be loosely termed as a "policeman" and his son as they hunt down an escaped slave. Costandin (Teodor Corban) is a rough, ungentlemanly fellow who delights in thinking up as many insults possible for whomever he's talking to, but his manner is befitting the filthy, superstitious rabble he's often confronting. His son, Ionita (Mihai Comanoiu) has a more gentle nature - which is something he's working hard at grinding away, for life in Wallachia during the early 1800s is hard, and grim. The dark-skinned slaves in the area are known as "crows", and have short, brutal lives which amount to nothing but laborious servitude, hunger, pain and weariness. The slave Costandin is looking for, Carfin (Toma Cuzin) has been accused of stealing from his boss, Boyar Iordache Cîndescu (Alexandru Dabija) - but the truth is that the Boyar's wife seduced him. Carfin strongly suspects that the Boyar will kill him if he's returned.

The most enlightening moment of Costandin's trip for me is when he and his son encounter a priest on the road, and they take a moment to "educate" themselves by asking him questions - it seems a priest is thought of as all-knowing. He asks if crows are actually human beings, and I was gladly thinking the priest was enlightened when he confirmed that they are God's children and human. But unfortunately, in his very next breath, the priest informed Costandin that Jews aren't human before launching into a diatribe explaining why. This priests knowledge, in the end, consists of various superstitions, garbled nonsense and falsehoods which Costandin and his son accept as greater wisdom. All that aside however, deep down this bounty hunter-type fellow and his son both have a sense of what is morally right and wrong, which we see naturally stirring when they inevitably have to spend time with their quarry. Despite all of the prejudice, and the way this slave has been cast into the lowest rungs of society, when forced into close proximity with Costandin there's little malice. Obviously Ionita is the way he is because he has a free-thinking father.

Radu Jude has done a great job here taking us back in time - while watching Aferim! my suspension of disbelief came very easily. The costumes overall were fantastic, and there was a lived in feeling to every ramshackle village, hut, or stone house - everything filthy and at times disease-ridden. I liked how the Boyar's place wasn't magnificent opulence but messy, dirty and fly-ridden comparative wealth. The Boyar's hat (an işlic) was really something else (and from what I read, the type proves that he was from a lower, third rank of nobility.) The black and white photography is superb, and very expansive while favoring the social structure by giving precedence to the characters with a better standing. Overall this was an exceptional film that brings us an extraordinarily authentic look at a time when life truly could be defined as a constant struggle, where morals existed but had no bearing on how day to day decisions were made. Harsh and unrelenting, but interesting as a comparison to ourselves, and the world we've since made.

Glad to catch this one - it won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, and was the Romanian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.

4

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Watchlist Count : 431 (-19)

Next : The Novice (2021)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Aferim!.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/5tYbwy5T/the-novice.webp

THE NOVICE (2021)

Directed by : Lauren Hadaway

Sometimes it's fun to see films inspire other films - as if the cinematic landscape is a brush fire, and ideas travel by one ember setting the next branch alight. Through most of The Novice, you'll be forced to think of Whiplash - which is no bad thing, especially since this film has enough of it's own identity and originality to be seen as one that has been inspired, and not copied. Instead of drumsticks, Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman) has in her hands a pair of oars as she works herself into the Wellington College Novice Rowing Program. Dall is obsessively competitive by nature, and a compulsive perfectionist - needing desperately to achieve higher grades, and do more than those around her. Starting as a Novice, she puts so much effort into trying out and practicing that she vomits, wets herself, has dizzy spells and basically takes her body to the absolute limit. This, and the extra time she puts in, helps to elevate herself suddenly to the Varsity team where she's knocking elbows with seasoned pros, battle-hardened old-timers and experienced winners. Whenever she makes a mistake, she punishes herself and her intensity makes it hard for her to win friends, bond with her team-mates and be seen in a positive light. A destructive cycle has started.

A big difference between this film and Whiplash is that while there's much blood, sweat and tears (much of all three in a very literal sense) there's no maniacal coach or teacher pushing Dall beyond her limits. Instead, it's her own pathological disorders, neurosis and obsessive need that puts her in harm's way. We see early on that she's a cutter - so we know that all isn't well on the psychological front, and can draw a straight line connecting her academic tenacity to the way she pushes herself to become a great rower nearly overnight. In the meantime she meets Dani (Dilone), and the two begin an intimate relationship. The way we experience Dall's dizziness, blackouts, exhaustion and sense of motion comes to us through innovative use of sound, cinematography and editing - something that I thought the film did particularly well. I loved when Lauren Hadaway would put Dall in an isolated place with nothing surrounding her during practice - nothing but darkness as far as the eye can see. As a bonus, you will learn a lot about rowing, and what it takes to train to become a competitor in this gruelling sport.

I loved, loved, loved The Novice - you never know just how dark everything is going to get, and as the light fades and Dall digs herself further into a metaphorical pit you can feel the tension rising. You can tell that this isn't an inspirational sports movie, it's a movie about how unhealthy obsession is - and especially how lonely. It's a movie about how some people feel the need to achieve just to be accepted, or at least to feel as if they'll be accepted. It's a movie about how unhealthy it is not to listen to what people are saying, and taking good advice. Isabelle Fuhrman steps away from her childhood role in The Orphan here, and makes a statement as an actress capable of intensity on a variety of different levels, while still showing the vulnerability needed for this very specific role. I felt her pain every step of the way in The Novice - especially as she realized more and more that her fellow rowers all passionately hated her because she only obsessively focused on herself, and whenever she did catch glimpses of them, it was as rivals. The same drive that helps us to accomplish can also completely destroy us.

Glad to catch this one - it won the Best Actress award, Best Feature and Best Cinematography at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/HnxyFt3Z/the-novice.jpg

Watchlist Count : 433 (-17)

Next : La Terra Trema (1948)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Novice.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/rwCJZXyG/la-terra-trema.jpg

LA TERRA TREMA (1948)
"The Earth Trembles"

Directed by : Luchino Visconti

There's no escape from the chains of exploitation for the fishermen of Aci Trezza, a small village on the east coast of Sicily. The wholesalers who buy their fish conspire together to offer very low prices, making a mockery of way capitalism is meant to work as far as fairness and competition goes. This means that the back-breaking work the fishermen must put in ensures their survival - and nothing more. Young Ntoni Valastro (Antonio Arcidiacono) demands his family and the entire village do something - and in the end the Valastros mortgage their house so they can buy their own boat, salt their own fish and own their own operation. The price is high though, and the risk enormous. When their boat is severely damaged during a storm their lives are thrown asunder - unable, as they are, to pay their mortgage or continue fishing. It soon becomes clear that the system is so heavily rigged in the wealthy's favour that there can be no escape from the crushing weight pressing down on the fishermen, who risk their lives and break their backs toiling for their day's bread and a roof over their heads. In the meantime the wholesalers laugh, and laugh.

So, that was a tonic to cheer me up! Luchino Visconti really gets into the thick of Italian neorealism here, using non-professionals as actors (apparently they weren't fishermen though) and letting his film play out in documentary style. Visconti himself does a lot of narrating - and I wondered while watching it if he'd seen Mexican film Redes (1936), which is basically the same as this. There were times watching La Terra Trema that gave me déjà vu. There was no screenplay, and the film also had some similarity to a Theodoros Angelopoulos film in that the shots were very, very long. It's a simple story told over 160 minutes because there's no quick chopping or changing, and instead we spend a considerable amount of time contemplating each action, and familiarizing ourselves to each location. The Valastro's home is a filthy old stone house with cheap, bare furniture - and looking at it I realized that for me, personally, it would be uninhabitable. It shocked me to realise that this family were going to be thrown out, to live in even worse conditions. Watching real people in a real place is what neorealism is all about, and it gives you a perfectly authentic picture.

This was my third Luchino Visconti film, and another taste of how much fervor was in the air as far as communist ideals went in late 1940s Italy. The country was recovering from the self-destructive impulses of fascism, and had yet to experience the 'economic miracle' that would give the country as a whole self-confidence, even if it didn't help the poor that much (no big surprise there.) The Italian Communist Party partially bankrolled La Terra Trema themselves, but were unhappy with the final product because it didn't offer as much hope as they wanted it to. It was originally meant to be a propaganda documentary about Sicilian fishermen for the communists, but Visconti turned it into his long-awaited opportunity to adapt Giovanni Verga's novel I Malavoglia for the big screen. It's one great, long cry of despair, hopelessness and anguish - a melancholy lamentation for the workers around the world who are basically slaves to the work they must do in order to survive. Unlike Redes, it doesn't strike a propagandistic note, instead staying true to an artist's vision of a reflection on life - powerful, and confident in what it wants to say.

Glad to catch this one - it was named one of the top ten films of all time in a 1962 Sight & Sound poll. Included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved. It received the International Prize at the 9th Venice International Film Festival in 1948, and was nominated for the Golden Lion.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/FK7vYj9d/la-terra.jpg

Watchlist Count : 432 (-18)

Next : Atroz (2015)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch La Terra Trema.

[SpelingError]

I also liked that one quite a bit. It's up there with my favorite Visconti films.

[Stirchley]

https://i.postimg.cc/YSmLH2VP/oslo.png

OSLO, AUGUST 31ST (2011)

Directed by : Joachim Trier

Silence pervades the air following this film, and it's a silence I find hard to break - even just by putting my thoughts down by typing them. Joachim Trier presents us with a complex protagonist - Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie) is simple enough if you define him as a drug addict, which you can most assuredly do, but drug addiction is often a symptom in itself. What drove Anders? We meet him at the 10-week mark of his rehabilitation, a severely depressed young man with regrets and no direction in life. On 30th August Anders has a day's leave from the rehab clinic, and he'll spend this day reconnecting with people from his past, and going for a job interview. By watching him do both we learn more about his character, his past history, and the frustrations of a man who, at the age of 34, can't stand the thought of having to start his entire life over again from nothing. His parents are selling the family home to pay for his rehab, and his sister doesn't want to see him. The conversations he has with his friends, and his job interview, do little to alter the course he seems inextricably on.

Props to Anders Danielsen Lie in this film - it's definitely a performance you could call a tour de force, and I'm happy to have spent more time with him after seeing The Worst Person in the World and Sick of Myself. An actor on the rise, who also happens to be a musician and medical doctor! Say what? Yes, Anders Danielsen Lie actually practices as a GP between film roles, which is mind blowing if you ask me. Next up I guess he's going to win a Pulitzer, make a great scientific discovery and become the President of Norway. Anyway, as far as depression goes, this captures the mood perfectly - it can actually be quite trying, especially if you really want Anders to find a better outlook for himself. It's not as if he doesn't go looking, but the trouble is that he goes looking in all of the places he's already familiar with - which is understandable, and makes us realise that we're all inextricably tied to our past. Will he find something to cling on to? Can he start something anew, or is he destined to only find what he knows? The answers are never easy, and seeing the opportunities in life you've wasted especially hard.

Joachim Trier hasn't created this study of depression anew - this is an adaptation of Le Feu follet (Will O' the Wisp/The Fire Within), a famous novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle about a First World War veteran who falls into despair after leading a decadent life. In both the novel and this film the main character has a desperate need to make some kind of connection with another human being, and it's these moments that define Oslo, August 31st. Anders can never really "connect" with any of the people he comes into contact with, despite him knowing most of them. The job interview scene is especially painful to watch, because it's rich with possibility and we learn that Anders is an extremely intelligent individual. For some, by the time we get to the end of the film they won't like this character all that much - I was conflicted myself - but as a fellow human being he deserves empathy all the same. Joachim Trier and Anders Danielsen Lie present him to us already wounded, and as we learn more about him it's up to us whether we judge him or not. I do think though, that anyone struggling with addiction and depression deserves compassion - and this film reminds us of that beautifully.

Glad to catch this one - premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. It won the Best Film and Best Cinematography awards at the Stockholm International Film Festival.

4

https://i.postimg.cc/KzcS6bZM/oslo2.jpg

Watchlist Count : 430 (-20)

Next : Smile (1975)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Oslo, August 31st.

Loved this movie. Did you know that Danielsen Lie has a medical degree?

[PHOENIX74]

Loved this movie. Did you know that Danielsen Lie has a medical degree?

Yeah. He actually practices as a GP from time to time, which is really mind blowing. I've never known a high profile actor that has a medical degree and actually practices medicine in between acting roles.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/NjQQjzNd/atroz.jpg

ATROZ (2015)
"Atrocious"

Directed by : Lex Ortega

Ahh, memories of watching August Underground came flooding back as I watched Mexican horror movie Atroz, which grates along on a similar wavelength. It has it's main narrative, and then a 'found footage' element into which all of the gory snuff film shocks are stuffed. Frankly, it's not a very good film, but you couldn't expect this to be some kind of Ingmar Bergman masterpiece or Denis Villeneuve triumph really. It's a snuff film torture porn horror movie and as such it does well to actually have a narrative at all, as weirdly disjointed as it is. Yes, it's very gory, shocking and unpleasant. It starts out by informing us that 98% of the murders in Mexico go unsolved - which must really hurt anyone in Mexico who is watching this from prison after being convicted of murder. Tough luck. That isn't so far off the true statistic actually. Then, for some insane reason, we get a quote from Rudy Giuliani - a man whose quotes don't hold enough gravitas to open movies with, but whatever. Let's get this over with. Could Atroz shock me? Would it do anything neat, or clever? How would it compare to the Luchino Visconti movie I just watched? Silly questions, but movies as dumb as Atroz just suck all the air out of reviews sometimes.

I don't know - either these kind of torture porn horror movies are getting more graphic and upsetting or I'm getting softer in my old(ish) age. It's probably a bit of both. Although sometimes I like to pride myself on being able to watch just about anything, I spend a lot of my time while watching these films shielding my eyes from the horrors being subjected on them. It's either making a comment on homophobia, or is being homophobic - possibly both at the same time. I mean, it's hard to make these judgements. I'm watching a movie where ** information about the movie that is too horrible and explicit to include in one of my reviews has been redacted - this movie tries to be extreme and it certainly is ** It's all a bit too much for me. I've seen my father become less and less tolerant over the years, until in his extreme old age he now can't stand to watch the shower scene in Psycho. Is that my destiny? Maybe. Perhaps though (and this is way more probable), my trauma at witnessing the events in Atroz comes from the fact that they're extraordinarily sick things which the filmmakers are showing to freak the audience out.

One of the trailers I found on the DVD of Atroz was for a movie called American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore - where the gore looked so real I was hard-pressed thinking of a way it could have been done by FX artists. My mind starts to tease me - "hey, maybe it's real, man." Apparently it's a reimagining of a popular underground Japanese film series. Horror's repuation may not have improved, but it's progressed in it's own way. It's reached it's outer limits. What if, in the future, you can virtually murder an A.I. entity in a virtual world - and it feels absolutely real? That would be bad, right? Is watching Atroz bad, then? Surely, some sick person learns about films like these, and then watches them while getting off on the horror instead of being shaken up and disturbed by it. That's why we used to censor films, right? I don't know what's best. I got the vicarious thrill of being scared, revolted and shocked by the content in Atroz - so it did it's job as far as that's concerned. The paper thin plot, and last moment set-up and twist at the end, don't make for a good movie though. This was just a brutal, gory, messed up horror movie which delivered on the shocks, but not much else.

1.5

https://i.postimg.cc/sDNq9kT6/atroz2.jpg

Watchlist Count : 432 (-18)

Next : The Butcher (1970)

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Atroz.

[crumbsroom]

What are the other two Visconte films have you seen?


He's one of those well known directors, who is still somehow way overlooked.

[PHOENIX74]

What are the other two Visconte films have you seen?


He's one of those well known directors, who is still somehow way overlooked.

The other two I've seen are Bellissima (1951) and Senso (1954) - all three have been mighty impressive.

[Wyldesyde19]

With Visconti, I guess I need to watch his earlier stuff, because I like Ossessione but didn’t care for Ludwig or The Innocent much.
I heard his 50’s and 60’s films were his best, so I guess I should buckle down and watch those at some point.

[crumbsroom]

The other two I've seen are Bellissima (1951) and Senso (1954) - all three have been mighty impressive.


They're all good.


Even the couple I haven't seen, I'm sure.

[SpelingError]

1.5

Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Atroz.

Are you actually thankful?

;)