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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Foyer (Ismaïl Bahri, 2016)

The Pirates of Blood River (John Gilling, 1962)

The Devil-Ship Pirates (Don Sharp, 1964)

Alice (Woody Allen, 1990)
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Chinese doctor Keye Luke offers a series of “natural herbs” to NYC housewife Mia Farrow who has some aches but mostly suffers from heartache.
The Terror of the Tongs (Anthony Bushell, 1961)

Regarding Henry (Mike Nichols, 1991)

Indefinite Pitch (James N. Kienitz Wilkins, 2016)

The City of the Dead aka Horror Hotel (John Moxey, 1960)


A witch (Patricia Jessel) who was burned at the stake 300 years earlier and a college professor (Christopher Lee) are participants in a human sacrifice.
The Woman Who Wouldn't Die aka Catacombs (Gordon Hessler, 1965)

Lake Dead (George Bessudo, 2007)

Under Fire (Roger Spottiswoode, 1983)

Bashu, the Little Stranger (Bahram Beizai, 1989)
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Young Southern Irani Bashu (Adnan Afravian) loses his family and home during the Iran-Iraq War and travels to the northern part of the country where he doesn’t fit in because of the darkness of his skin and his language, although one mother (Susan Taslimi) seeks to care for him.
Everyday Black Man (Carmen Madden, 2010)

Peculiar Penguins (Wilfred Jackson, 1934)
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Dead Heist (Bo Webb, 2007)
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Colliding Dreams aka The Zionist Idea (Joseph Dorman & Oran Duvasky, 2016)


The history of Zionism as told by both the Jews and the Palestinians in one of the most even-handed treatments on film.
Wise Girl (Leigh Jason, 1937)

Blue Chips (William Friedkin, 1994)

Mr. Church (Bruce Beresford, 2016)
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Piccadilly (E.A. Dupont, 1929)


At a London nightclub, a Chinese dishwasher (Anna May Wong) becomes a dancing sensation which leads to a deadly love triangle.
__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Sidney Lumet, 2007)


Master director Lumet (currently 83 years old) makes a modern version of a Greek tragedy, involving an NYC family where everyone wishes they had done things completely differently from the way they did. Although the acting is very good, the story veers far too close to self parody for me. I believe the chief culprit is the actual script, which begins with a solid premise but proceeds to extend it so far to the nth degree that you almost can believe that you are watching a spoof. The problem is that this film is almost completely humorless.

Both Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke, playing respectively, the stronger, older brother, and the younger, weaker one, are believable within character, even if I eventually decided they were just pawns of the script. Marisa Tomei gives one of her best performances and is still damn sexy. I even enjoyed Albert Finney, even when he seemed to go into zombie mode, but I guess that is the film's point. I don't really want to get into the plot, but needless to say, it involves a crime which goes horribly wrong and turns a dysfunctional family into a much worse one.

Lumet can still shoot a film interestingly, even when his technique seems almost invisible. He has a way of knowing how to move the camera or time an edit, and he shows no signs that his director's eye is going feeble, but I have to feel that, even though he is a super bright and obsessed filmmaker, that he let his love for a questionable script blind him to most of its flaws. Lumet does present the film in a fractured, Quentin Tarantinoish style, and although it enables some of the surprises to be delayed, I'm not sure that it actually improves the narrative. No matter what I think though, this is a solid acting showcase. It's just too bad that some of the more extreme elements couldn't have been toned down or that the film didn't have a modicum of wit. I suppose that would have gone against Lumet's operatic intention to shoot for the moon, but this film is a critic's darling, so I'm probably the one who screwed the pooch. Anyway, I much prefer Michael Cacoyannis' Iphigenia when it comes to Greek tragedy.

I will come back if I change my mind on a second viewing.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed, 1948)


Classic Carol Reed thriller, made in between Odd Man Out and The Third Man, tells a seemingly-simple yet complex tale of a boy's interpretation of the world around him and how it affects Baines (Ralph Richardson), the butler who works for the boy's ambassador father. Phillipe (Bobby Henrey) is very inquisitive and looks up to Baines to give him advice and be his friend while his parents are away, especially considering that Mrs. Baines (Sonia Dresdel) doesn't like him playing with his "pets" and eating between meals. One day Phillipe follows Baines to a cafe where he meets attractive Julie (Michele Morgan), and although it's obvious that the two are in love, Phillipe doesn't really understand. This, combined with the fact that Baines tells the boy stories about how he used to work in Africa and killed a man, leaves a great impression on Phillipe, especially later when there's a death and the police are called in to investigate if it's a murder.

Reed use many of the same techniques he did in the other two films, especially his deep, shadowed cinematography and the disorienting camera angles. Here they work especially well to show the adult world through a child's eyes and eloquently suggest the gap between innocence and experience. Bobby Henrey is a very naturalistic performer, but it's unclear how much "acting" he's doing and how much he's just being himself. Ralph Richardson is a tower of strength as Baines and offers a sympathetic foil for not only Phillipe but for Bobby himself; they work extremely well together. When the police show up near the end of the film, it's enjoyable to see familiar faces Dennis O'Dea, Jack Hawkins and Bernard Lee (M from the Bond flicks). Carol Reed falls into the same category as visionary British filmmaker as his contemporaries Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell and David Lean, yet he's generally resigned to being known for The Third Man. This film, as well as several others, show that is a shortsidedness which needs to be rectified ASAP.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Female Trouble (1974) -




Not as disgusting as Pink Flamingos, which is a shame, because I expected something even sicker this time! Generally, this has the same cast, but isn't as funny. Divine is a great star, though.

The Naked Kiss (1964) -




100% pulp melodrama at its finest! Constance Towers is as sultry as possible and I love how cheesy this movie is! The children's song is beautiful, even though they aren't good at singing. PS: "the naked kiss gif" in Google Image Search. :O

The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) -




Early Hammer! A very solid sci-fi thriller. On to Quatermass 2 now.

The Getaway (1972) -




My second favourite Peckinpah! Steve McQueen is so badass with a shotgun!

Shock Corridor (1963) -




I may be overrating it, but of five Fuller films I saw, this one is my favourite! I mean, incest Constance Towers dream is the kinkiest thing ever. The color parts were incredible.

裸の銃弾 [Naked Bullet] (1969) -




Wakamatsu's take on gangster film is a great success! Elegant suit, shades, naked bodies, sex, torture, violence, color experimentation and nihilistic ending. Typical Wakamatsu, which means it's a great film! This made me remember my Wakamatsu binge I had a couple of years ago, when I watched some of his greatest movies. Same great atmosphere!
__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
La ciociara [Two Women] (1960) -




This is a very good De Sica film up until the church scene, which was a scene that left a mark on my psyche. Perhaps the most distressing scene of this kind in history of cinema.

Sciuscià [Shoe Shine] (1946) -




Another De Sica & Zavattini offering. A very good prison film on friendship in hard times!

Underworld U.S.A. (1961) -




I didn't enjoy it as much as other Fuller films, but it's still one helluva revenge flick with a great Godard-inspired ending.

L' homme du large [Man of the Sea] (1920) -




Very cool technically with some interesting visual experimentation and effective tinting. The story is somewhat lost somewhere by the way, though.

The Forbidden Room (2015) -




The latest in Guy Maddin's experimental extravaganza! A f*ckload of nested stories that open and are contained within themselves like a bunch of caskets. Some ravishing visuals and weird humour!

Brand Upon the Brain! A Remembrance in 12 Chapters (2006) -




Best Guy Maddin movie ever! So poetic and beautiful. The memory of Wendy all throughout the movie is the most beautiful thing ever, but then she appears and this guy worships her feet, Haha, WTF is this kinky sh*t.

狂走情死考 [Running in Madness, Dying in Love] (1969) -




Another Wakamatsu! This time all in colour with only one scene in black'n'white, or should I say black'n'blue (reverse of some of his other films that mainly in b'n'w had one, or two scenes in stunning colour). An interesting reinvention of the classic lovers on the run story with a new political dimension.

Jurassic Attack (2013) -




Dinosaurs are so awesome even a bad movie is almost passable if it has dinos. Well, almost. PS: It was the 4400th movie I rated.



So I started watching movies again after two very long and excruciating weeks.

Psychic school wars - Nerawareta gakuen (Ryosuke Nakamura, 2012)



A lot of scenery porn in a very conventional story of typically anime teenage love with a sci-fi storyline that is quite irregularly developed. I thought of Makoto Shinkai a lot while watching this. It's aesthetically overdone and very flawed in narrative with uninteresting characters, unexplored details and very obvious tropes, but there's some consistant charm in it that keeps it rolling.

Magical sisters Yoyo and Nene - Majokko shimai no Yoyo to Nene (Takayuki Hirao, 2013)



Again, a narration filled with tropes that are easily recognizable. But where Psychic school wars falls flat (keeping a consistant interest on characters and story, taking care of the pacing and narrative flow, delivering the aesthetical elements in the right way), this one succeeds. Simpler, yet more effective artstyle, and superb animation. The story is quite trite and predictable, but most of the time, this isn't even an issue. At times it reminded me a lot of some Miyazaki stuff.

GYO: Tokyo Fish Attack! - Gyo (Takayuki Hirao, 2012)



Well, it took me 100 minutes to become a fan of Hirao, and it took me 70 minutes to stop being a fan. Sounds nice. Hey, at least this one's short. But seriously, terrible at every level imaginable. Even as a spoof or a B-movie this one doesn't work, as it is rather boring and takes itself too seriously. The characters are some of the worst, most illogical beings I've ever witnessed, the morals are some of the most repulsive, and the story... well, let's just say that millions of fish invading land is far from being the most ridiculous thing of this movie.

Human desire (Fritz Lang, 1954)



A very solid noir, the usual visual feast from Lang and a great narrative with some minor yet quite annoying flaws (just what the hell is the deal with that trial). But it stands out above all due to one of the most sympathetic femme fatales, if you can even call Gloria Grahame's character that, I've ever seen. Grahame is the driving force of the film and the one that makes all of its events interesting, as well as a great performance and stunning presence. The acting is equally great for Crawford as the drunk and jealous husband, too bad that poor Glenn Ford can't go beyond correct and functional.

Sausage party (Conrad Vernon & Greg Tiernan, 2016)




How can you be lazy and tryhard all at the same time? Watch this movie for reference.

Seriously what a huge amount of wasted potential this was. It works reasonably well as a source of sadistic imagery, but as a comedy it is a constant stream of failure after failure, jokes that are not even jokes because they don't even have a punchline beyond the f-word spammage, the overly cheesy pun or the annoyingly predictable and forced double entendre thrown every two damn seconds. The storyline isn't any better, since it's just the same formulaic crap as always except with more graphic violence and more penis jokes, wasting a premise that had some actual interest if driven well.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Female Vampire (J.P. Johnson [Jesús Franco], 1975)
101 min.
The Demons (Clifford Brown [Jesús Franco], 1973)
100 min.
Above, Beneath and Beyond the Valley: The Making of a Musical-Horror-Sex-Comedy (No Director Listed, 2006)

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Russ Meyer, 1970)


Porn star Edy Williams rates another conquest a zero in this Roger Ebert-scripted epic.
Secuestro express (Jonathan Jakubowicz, 2005)

The Revenge of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher, 1958)

Fire Sale (Alan Arkin, 1977)

The Flowers of War (Zhang Yimou, 2011)


During Japan’s 1937 Rape of Nanking (China), American mortician Christian Bale encounters two groups of females at a church, and he becomes interested in helping both groups for different reasons.
I Am David (Paul Feig, 2004)

Apache War Smoke (Harold Kress, 1952)

Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982)

The Siege of Jadotville (Richie Smythe, 2016)
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Action-packed thriller about an Irish U.N. peacekeeping force in the Congo in 1961 led by Commandant Jamie Dornan who are forced to battle natives and European mercenaries at the start of a civil war.
Session 9 (Brad Anderson, 2001)

The Creeping Flesh (Freddie Francis, 1973)

Code of Silence (Andrew Davis, 1985)

The Pope of Greenwich Village (Stuart Rosenberg, 1984)


Cool maitre d’ Mickey Rourke (here swaying to Sinatra’s “Summer Wind”) has a future in the restaurant business, but his troublesome cousin Eric Roberts scotches that and gets him in trouble with the mob too.
Macabre (William Castle, 1958)
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Goat (Andrew Neel, 2016)

The Hard Ride (Burt Topper, 1971)

The House That Dripped Blood (Peter Duffell, 1971)
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A man (Peter Cushing) finds his friend’s head in a wax museum.



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Silent Hill (Christophe Gans, 2006) -

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (Eli Craig, 2010) -

Les avaleuses Female Vampire (Jess Franco, 1973) -
__________________
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room."



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Triangle (Christopher Smith, 2009) -
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El orfanato The Orphanage (J. A. Bayona, 2007) -

Hush (Mike Flanagan, 2016) -



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932) -




It's incredible how powerful these pre-code movies are! This one has Paul Muni (he gave a wholly different impression in Scarface) and is surprisingly faithful to the story it's based on (only two (?) changes!). Well, the real-life story had been happening at the time the movie was released and the book and the movie and the whole ballyhoo made around the case eventually brought Chain Gangs to the end. This film has an incredibly hard-hitting ending that will be very hard for me to forget.

Dark Passage (1947) -




Probably one of the best known noirs I still haven't seen. Wait a second, now I have! The first part is beyond exquisite with POV style shots (Montgomery stretched the trick to the limit with Lady in the Lake that was 100% POV!), dark atmosphere, face-freezer hallucinations and Lauren Bacall! Then it goes downhill a little bit, but only a little! What a fine film noir!

Gilda (1946) -




Another good noir, but I didn't love it as much as Dark Passage. The movie is built around the character of Rita Hayworth and don't get me wrong, as she is a nice broad, but she seemed to me more like a childish slut than the cold, calculating femme fatale I like to see in film noirs. I really liked the characters of Uncle Pio, who goes around calling Glenn Ford a peasant and the police inspector, who has a weak spot for love stories.

息子の青春 [Youth of the Son] (1952) -




The very first Masaki Kobayashi (yes, the Masaki Kobayashi) movie is a light-hearted coming-of-age melodrama! A fairly enjoyable film with some kewl scenes, but nothing more than that. Towards the end Chishu Ryu's character is introduced and he steals the show!

Heaven Can Wait (1943) -




Lubitsch, mon amour! When this started, I wasn't too sure about it, because the colour palette and overall mood heralded some sugary romance, but Lubitsch can do no wrong! As always, I found a comedy film more sad than funny, but wow, wasn't it a joy to watch it.

The Bunny Game (2010) -




Starts very, ekhm, 'promising' (it's available on YT, you can check it out - on your own responsibility!), but then turns psycho and becomes one of them snuff movie wannabe shockers. 100% MovieGal-core! The cinematography and especially the montage were quite good for this type of a movie, though!



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Seven Seas to Calais (Rudolph Maté & Primo Zeglio, 1962)

The Devil Bat (Jean Yarbrough, 1940)

Rolling Family (Pablo Trapero, 2004)

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (Joseph Green, 1962)
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Although his girlfriend (Virginia Leith) died in a car accident, a mad surgeon (Jason Evers) keeps her decapitated head alive [without lungs] and looks for a replacement body.
Stone (John Curran, 2010)

Jungle Gents (Edward Bernds, 1954)

Sleepless in Seattle (Nora Ephron, 1993)

Mothra (Ishirô Honda, 1961)


The God of a remote island where Rolisca does atomic testing is a giant egg which hatches and eventually becomes a giant moth which destroys the Roliscan capital of New Kirk City.
The Corpse Vanishes (Wallace Fox, 1942)
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Valley of Fire (John English, 1951)

Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (Toshiya Fujita, 1974)

Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Fujita, 1973)

Lady Snowblood (Meiko Kaji) uses her sword of vengeance with pinpoint control.
Whirlwind (John English, 1951)
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Frankenstein Created Woman (Terence Fisher, 1967)

Rowan & Martin at the Movies (Jack Arnold, 1968)

Norwegian Wood (Tran Anh Hung, 2010)


A young man (Ken'ichi Matsuyama) reminisces about his first loves – here with a girl (Kiko Mizuhara) who is full of life, unlike the other girl (Rinko Kikuchi) he often remembers.
My Woman (Victor Schertzinger, 1933)

Hollywood Round-Up (Ewing Jones, 1937)

Hollywood Scout (No Director Listed, 1945)

The Killer Shrews (Ray Kellogg, 1959)


Mad scientist Baruch Lumet (Sidney’s father) creates huge shrews on a remote island, although they’re mostly just dogs with lousy makeup or in this case, a puppet.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert (1976) -




You may or may not know Marguerite Duras as the screenwriter of Hiroshima mon amour. Exactly 20 years later she directed India Song, which to this day remains her greatest monument. An autobiographical arthouse movie about the wife of a French diplomat and her unhappy and tedious life. Constantly in travel, taking part in many senseless banquets that only confirm the emptiness of her life. One could say that Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert is a sequel to India Song, but if you know the nature of these films, the very word sequel not only does not do them justice, but does not even fit them. Well, at least these two films are related thematically by Duras' alter ego Anne-Marie Stretter and have quite a lot in common when it comes to residual plots, demanding forms and peculiar orientalism.



In his infamous manifesto Venom and Eternity Isidore Isou postulated the end of cinema comparing its then contemporary condition to a 'fat pig that will explode'. He proposed far-reaching changes including, among others, a complete disjunction of sound and image. Although Venise/Calcutta maintains a slight connection between these two, the link is pretty distant and not so apparent. Most of the time the camera slowly floats through desolate houses and edifices, sometimes taking a walk outside portraying some trees, or a sea. There are no people in the movie except for about ten minutes towards the end when some familiar faces from India Song appear. However, it's very hard to tell whether it is some footage of them sitting motionlessly, or just a bunch of photos. Either way, it is very safe to say that, just like Chantal Akerman's Hôtel Monterey, Venise/Calcutta is a peopleless film. There's that constant voice-over as the viewer hears various people talking, but it is very hard to say if these are tangible human beings, or just phantoms of the past living in abandoned buildings that Duras is so eager to portray.

There are some beautiful poetic words in the narration. What really stuck in my mind was the voice-over talking about the shooting of Shalimar lepers and concluding the short story with the expression of 'leprosy of the heart', which probably refers to the people who commenced the shooting. In some other scene somebody asks 'what is this scent of flowers?' and gets the answer: 'leprosy'. Somebody else talks about leper bodies being burned on ghats. There's a long scene with the camera pulling back the corridor and the sun shining through the windows resulting in some breath-taking images. Then there's that scene of a sunset sky with India Song playing to it. The India Song's India Song is reused here, but not as excessively as in India Song. It's a beautiful composition that really adds a lot to the atmopshere of the film.

Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert requires some patience and imagination as the viewer has to believe a lot to open his mind and therefore get into the mood of the movie. The film has to offer quite a lot both inside its structure as well as outside of it as it creates the second front in viewer's mind. Ultimately, Venise/Calcutta, just like India Song, seems to be a bittersweet remembrance of the past that might've as well been just a dream, if not for the India Song that may be the only evidence of yore.



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Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer, 2009) -

The Invitation (Karyn Kusama, 2015) -
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The Woman in Black (James Watkins, 2012) -
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Gyeongseonghakyoo: Sarajin Sonyeodeul The Silenced (Lee Hae-young, 2015) -
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