The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame IV

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I don’t know how everyone feels about this, and too late for this time I’m sure. A cool thing for these might be for whoever wins to pick their favorite nom into the official HOF.



I don’t know how everyone feels about this, and too late for this time I’m sure. A cool thing for these might be for whoever wins to pick their favorite nom into the official HOF.
By favorite nom, do you mean a film that you nominated, a film someone else nominated for you, or any film which was nominated in here?
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By favorite nom, do you mean a film that you nominated, a film someone else nominated for you, or any film which was nominated in here?
I was thinking a film you nominated but definitely could be your fave nom in general.



The Scarlet Empress: I will definitely be willing to give this one another shot if it gets another restoration. It plays like a lush epic but all of that has been lost visually unfortunately. That could change my mind about the film but it also wasn’t a very well put together narrative. It’s not playful or funny. There’s really no suspense. Sorry to whoever nominated this, but it wasn’t for me this go around.
How dare you crap on a HoF winner!

The only time I've ever won a HoF, it had like 5 members

What surprises me most is that you didn't think it was playful




I was thinking a film you nominated but definitely could be your fave nom in general.
I'm not in this HoF as you already know, but that could probably work. If someone wants to do it, go ahead I say.



How dare you crap on a HoF winner!

The only time I've ever won a HoF, it had like 5 members

What surprises me most is that you didn't think it was playful

Man, I wanted so much more of Dietrich chewing up the scenery. There was a moment or two, but not nearly enough.





High and Low (1963)

King Gondo:That's enough! You're not paid to think!

The plot: A shoe company executive has plans to take over the company. The day before he finalizes the very expensive deal his son is kidnapped and held for ransom. Well, it turns out his kid was not kidnapped but his chauffeur's son was mistakenly abducted. Great little early twist and I love how it created the conflict which was the grab of the first hour.

The first hour is great. Mifune does a wonderful job as the conflicted Gondo. If he pays the ransom, his life is screwed. If he doesn't pay he's uh, kind of a bad dude and his life is screwed. What would you do? It also keeps you guessing as to who did it and why which leads to the second part of the movie.

After the first hour the movie shifts to the detectives hunt for the kidnapper. Now, this isn't bad by any means, in fact it's very good but it doesn't have the inner conflict elements which I thought was the strength of the first act. The investigation leads to some pretty seedy areas and this part of the film is were Kurosawa gets to really have some fun from behind the camera. Those glasses were bad ass and I loved the ending - the final scene.

First non-samurai film I've seen from Kurosawa and it's a winner!



A few of the other films I've seen:

Field of Dreams - I love this movie but I'm a baseball fan which I think helps. Maybe not, though as I know a lot of baseball fans who hate this movie. It's a bit sappy but it does tap into some of the most basic things I love about the game. Sometimes just throwing a ball back and forth in the back yard is all you need. I even visited the Field of Dreams back in the day which, according to a pretty popular travel website, is the best thing to do in Dyersville, Iowa. Color me shocked!

Onibaba I also liked quite a bit. You can take your Michael Meyers, Ghost Face, Jason masks and shove 'em! Onibaba has the best mask!

Viridiana was my introduction to Buneul and I loved it immediately.

When Harry Met Sally... is my favorite rom-com, a genre I am a huge fan of. "Mmmmm, can't get enough of 'em" - Heathers (1988). I really do like it though.

Tootsie is another winner. Haven't seen it in years but it does have one of the more memorable lines of any movie I've seen -
Producer: "I'd like to make her look a little more attractive. How far can you pull back?"
Cameraman: "How do you feel about Cleveland?"



When Harry Met Sally is also my favorite romcom, and since Raul brought it up a couple of days ago, I wanted to share this special episode of my podcast where I analyze specifically the scene when, well, Harry meets Sally.

Thief's Monthly Movie Loot - Special Episode IV (When Harry Met Sally...)
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Check out my podcast: The Movie Loot!



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
The Cranes Are Flying

I'm not sure I can do much of an analytical review of this film, it was just too emotional. I'd say it's one of the saddest films I've seen, but there are so many sad films, especially about the war. I don't know that it's sadder than Forbidden Games, for example, but it's in that sort of league.

The main actress in this film was excellent, she was just luminous and did a lot of acting just with her eyes.

It was a good looking film, with some interesting angles and close ups. Unfortunately the copy I watched did not seem to be the best quality, which is a shame, I'm sure there's a cleaned up version out there somewhere.

A very good film and a good nomination, thank you!



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Taste of Cherry



Risky pick. I've had my fair share of sourness with Kiarastomi as it's been quite hard to connect with him. While it did continue to be hard to connect here, there was some sense of beauty and admiration in the filmmaking here. I loved that the third person he talked to about doing the job was once in his shoes and I loved that mulberries "saved" the guys life. I loved that guys positive tone. I loved the end where we were left to think of what had actually happened. There was a lot of beautiful imagery throughout the film.

But the film did lag a lot and was quite a slow burn for a 100 minute film. I feel as the minutes go by I appreciate the film more and more, yet strangely I didn't feel that a lot while I was actually watching it. That makes the rewatch potential of this pretty intriguing. For now, I'll just have to keep thinking about it.




Taste of Cherry



Risky pick. I've had my fair share of sourness with Kiarastomi as it's been quite hard to connect with him. While it did continue to be hard to connect here, there was some sense of beauty and admiration in the filmmaking here. I loved that the third person he talked to about doing the job was once in his shoes and I loved that mulberries "saved" the guys life. I loved that guys positive tone. I loved the end where we were left to think of what had actually happened. There was a lot of beautiful imagery throughout the film.

But the film did lag a lot and was quite a slow burn for a 100 minute film. I feel as the minutes go by I appreciate the film more and more, yet strangely I didn't feel that a lot while I was actually watching it. That makes the rewatch potential of this pretty intriguing. For now, I'll just have to keep thinking about it.

Someone picked that for me last time, and that's all I have to say about that.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
sent ya a link in comments Thursday
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