15th Hall of Fame

Glad you liked it CR as I was afraid you might hate it. I think the ending makes sense of everything that happens before; it at least did for me. That includes the actions and personality of the girl. As far as her little adventure with the cab driver, I thought it was just illustrating what a dirty and dangerous world it is.

It really was a fascinating story, which I though was cool. It caught my attention from the get go and I was always interested. I don't hate the ending and yes it did make sense, but I would have done something less dramatic like this:

I first watched this about 20 years ago, didn't remember it, but remembered that I enjoyed it. I watched it for a second time for the 40's countdown, thought it was excellent, but didn't vote for it because it didn't stay with me. My opinion has only gone up with this viewing and I now think it's probably Hitchcock's best. I believe in the love story even though it happens so quickly, and that's the key for me to getting into the rest. What can I say; superb technically and performance wise with a great twist. I bought into everything that happened. It's just a great movie, and possibly the biggest competition for Out of the Blue in this Hall of Fame.

Glad to hear you liked it. I'm very curious what my second rewatching will be like after some 15 years since the first and only time I've seen it. I remember being very impressed, so I guess I'll see if Rebecca remains in my Top 10.

I liked the romance a lot, too! It was sweet. Joan Fontaine is a serious babe. I noticed there was this almost abstract suspense cue when the boat rope/tackle room was exposed (door open showing inside) in that little cabin house where Rebecca would go to be with her lover. Did you happen to pick up on that? I'm wondering if I just imagined it. It was subtle, but the music swelled up and I looked around the screen to see why, and only saw that room semi open for inspection, when wife #2 was looking for a leash for her dog and that loony old man was hanging around.

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I don't remember exactly but I did feel some suspense there.

That's definitely a suspense bit! The rope even made me think of Rope.

In the Mood for Love Faa yeung nin wa (Kar-Wai Wong, 2000)
Imdb

Date Watched: 02/24/18
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: 15th Hall of Fame, nominated by @Thursday Next
Rewatch: No.

In the Mood for Love is an very sensual film. The colors, the fashion, and the music all work splendidly to create a work of art that is incredibly arousing (as the title would suggest) and yet contains no sex. From a strictly asthetic standpoint, the film is absolutely stunning and the brilliant hues, beautiful patterns, and skillful cinematography were more than enough to hold my interest through its rather brief runtime.

Unfortunately, however, I felt very little for the characters themselves and was emotionally unaffected by their inability to be together. I don't doubt that the fault in that lies with me, however, and even with that disconnect this is a film that I admired.

+

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out of the blue 1980 director dennis hopper



this one did it for me. it was handled kind of f#cked up with some of the diting, esp the jail visit scene. kind of awkward and rushed emotionally but i didnt care. hopper plays a drunk verbatim. his perversions and temper remind me of my own father. linda manz was a revelation in a lot of ways. she was tough but so vulnerable. she sucked her thumb with teddy even among seedy stranggers out to harm her but in the end she got away.

hoppers skill as a technician was exactly what this script needed. his attention to detail is astounding, was astounding,. the stream of consciousness, picking up on little things like the truck has to go but the drums and guitar can stay. i know elvis, i know all about elvis. what a heartbreakign movie. and a strange movie. sick and twisted but a really funny movie too like when they all were getting f#cked up. i think that was all real. he just let the cameras go. the wife mom did smack to cope with the dysfunction. those parent fell down. complete failure. i wish there was a happy ending but oh well.

@Citizen Rules.

If I am not mistaken, I think the dad wanted his male friend to have sex with the daughter while the mother stood by in another room. She (the mom) didn't want her daughter to be a "dike".

The Elephant Man



This is a very heartfelt film that tugs at the emotions of what it is like to live. John Hurt as John Merrick AKA The Elephant Man gives one of the most moving performances that I have seen on the screen. I had seen this movie prior, and rated it well enough, but I was far more engaged and attached to the film this time around. I felt for his character and I felt like the film did a good job portraying the value of any human life.

My favorite screen may be when Merrick recites Psalm 23. He is taken as a fool, but there is more to it than meets the eye and I'd be lying if I said the film didn't have it's teary moments. The bullying scene that leads up to the "I am not an animal" is so well done. The scene where he is put in the monkey cage is a bit upsetting, as is it when he is forced to drink the alcohol and kiss those girls

Also fantastic is the performances of Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Frederick Treaves. His chemistry and compassion for the elephant man made us all care that much more. He showed us what the value of friendship and guidance is through his terrific performance.

The film is very well made too. The use of black and white gives it a real feel for the story being told in it's real time and the scores are very on the mark. This is a film that is pretty much without technical flaw and it is indeed David Lynch's masterpiece IMO. It would certainly belong in a new top 100 for me. We have said this before but I pray @jiraffejustin finishes this HOF because I would like to see this worthy contender do well. Thanks for having me revisit it!

I didn't watch anything for this over the weekend since I've been trying to squeeze in some last minute viewings for the 2017 Film Awards. Once Wednesday hits it'll be back to this HoF though.

I have no idea what I want to watch next though. Also, I keep looking at the nominations and thinking that I nominated Aguirre, but that's not the case.

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I got The Station Agent DVD from Netflix and will watch it next weekend with wifey. I'll probably watch In the Mood for Love before then so that'll wrap me up.

The Station Agent will be my next watch which will probably be on Tuesday.

As a long time member of my watchlist, and 1 of just 2 movies in this Hall of Fame I hadn't previously seen, this was the nomination I was most looking forward to. Unfortunately, although I thought it was a good movie, that means it will also be my biggest disappointment. I almost had the feeling that this movie was trying to con me.

First I'll just mention the look of the film. I thought it looked great, but not to the level of groundbreaking all time great like I've been led to believe. The girl is always dressed well, the colors are strong, and light is used in such an important manner that I really started to notice it. There's a lot of lamps used to highlight what we're supposed to be looking at. Even when there are apparently no lamps present, light will shine almost magically on a subject, even in a darkly lit room. There's a quick shot of her in a dark cab at night, yet there is a light on her. Much of this felt like trickery to me. I don't mind that really, but it's something I did notice. I also noticed that the locations were dingy. File cabinets in the offices were rusty, and paint in the apartment was chipped and discolored. The film's ability to make these locations look appealing is the reason why I would still give the appearance high marks. I also think it's much easier to do in the close quarters that much of the film is shot in. There are no landscapes or other outside shots that take my breath away.

This is supposedly a romance film but there is no heat. I felt no sexual tension or chemistry between the two leads. In fact, I felt more passion between the cheating spouses when they aren't even seen. I was left with the feeling that the two faithful spouses were not consummating their relationship on moral grounds. I thought this was sort of bogus, especially since I felt nothing between them as I noted before. Beyond that, what they were doing was spending time together, comforting one another, and relying on one another. They were most certainly having an emotional affair, and depending on who you ask, that could be more damaging than a physical affair. I would have liked to have seen the film embrace that instead of trying to make me believe that either something more existed that I couldn't see, or that nothing of significance happened at all. Of course, given the circumstances, I give the two characters a mulligan anyway. However, I did not believe that the two needed to put up some sort of resistance to a physical yearning.

It may sound like I disliked the movie but that wasn't the case. Besides it's appearance, it has a nice overall style and fine performances with characters I did feel for. The score is fantastic and I swear I heard the main music before, at least before the violins kicked in. For a movie of this type, it is very tight and fast paced. I thought the best scene was the rehearsal, and I needed more of that emotion.

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You know, I never even noticed that. Though I'm pretty bad with names anyway haha.

She is constantly called "my wife" by Max in the novel, really got on my nerves. Like not when he's referring to her when he's actually talking to her; "Yes, my wife", "That's no problem my wife". Jesus.

Unless that's part of a regional dialect, I assume the intention is to force some sort of emotional disconnect. Du Maurier could've used terms of endearment like "darling" or "love", but she chose not to.

Still sounds way too weird though.