Movie Tab II

I thought you were a fan of Head, Mark? Unless I'm getting it mixed up with something else.

Edit: I think I am, although I know you think Five Easy Pieces is great. I know SC loves Head though.

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I saw Head at the theatre in 1968, and I helped Sarah with a critical essay she wrote about it for film school. I've seen it a lot and like it well enough. I watched "The Monkees" on TV every week when it was originally on.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Interesting, I quite like The Monkees, I never realised there was a TV show with them.

God I feel old.

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Letterboxd

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966) -
Unser Willi ist der Beste (Werner Jacobs, 1971) -
Das kann doch unsren Willi nicht erschüttern (Olaf Olsen, 1970) -

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"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room."

Nice Girl? (William A. Seiter, 1941)

Viva (Anna Biller, 2007)

The Better 'Ole (Charles “Chuck” Reisner, 1926)

Snowden (Oliver Stone, 2016)

NSA computer surveillance expert Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) leaks the agency’s classified documents to the press because he believes the government’s use of the material is morally corrupt.
Grand Central Murder (S. Sylvan Simon, 1942)

Sun Song (Joel Wanek, 2013)

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Home (Jono Oliver, 2013)

The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)

The Odessa Steps sequence – a perfect example of montage.
God’s Country (Louie Malle, 1985)

Facing Your Danger (Edwin E. Olsen, 1946)

The Country Teacher (Bohdan Sláma, 2008)

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Urban Cowboy (James Bridges, 1980)

Houston oil refinery worker John Travolta’s wife Debra Winger makes love to the mechanical bull at Mickey Gilley’s nightclub.
If You Don't, I Will (Sophie Fillières, 2014)

Grandpa Called It Art (Walter Hart, 1944)

The Battle of Chile: Part I (Patricio Guzmán, 1975)

The Battle of Chile: Part II (Patricio Guzmán, 1976)

President Salvador Allende’s democratically-elected government is overthrown by a coup d'etat which left strongman Augusto Pinochet in charge.
Grigris (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2013)

Luxo Jr. (John Lasseter, 1986)

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I’ll Be Yours (William A. Seiter, 1947)

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Murderers Among Us (Wolfgang Staudte, 1946)

Immediately after WWII in bombed-out Berlin, concentration camp survivor Hildegard Knef and military surgeon Ernst Wilhelm Borchert share the same apartment, but he learns his commanding officer (Arno Paulsen), who ordered the shooting of over 100 Polish men, women and children on Christmas Eve 1942, lives nearby.

Telstar: The Joe Meek Story (Nick Moran, 2008)

The Unbelievable Truth (Hal Hartley, 1989)

Carson City (André de Toth, 1952)

Ghostbusters (Paul Feig, 2016)

LBJ (Santiago Álvarez, 1968)

Gideon of Scotland Yard (John Ford, 1958)

Thunder Over The Plains (André de Toth, 1953)

Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960)

I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)

It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)

Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1934)

Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock, 1945)

HyperNormalisation (Adam Curtis, 2016)

Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire (Tony Palmer, 1974/2010)

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 1949)

The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)

Mechanic: Resurrection (Dennis Gansel, 2016)

The Man From Laramie (Anthony Mann, 1955)

Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)

Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)

Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)

Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954)

Building up too much of a backlog to keep these hidden forever, go ahead and ask me any questions about my ratings...

Not so much a question as I'd just like to know your thoughts on Neon Demon.

A film like this, its style of cinema, does not appeal to me one bit. When I watch it now, in between the films of Ford, Mizoguchi, Hitchcock et al. I find it to be no where near the level of those films.

It felt like a nothing film. An empty two hours, nothing happened, I cared for nothing, and its "message" or what is was supposed to be satirising was blatantly obvious within five minutes, once that had become evident it was clear that NWR's only objective was too push his satire of the darkness of the world he was investigating way too over simplistically through disgusting images. It is the empty cinema, dark images, with neon tints, with disgusting content. Where is the interesting camera work, editing, staging etc.?

To me it is a faux film where the objective is to shock through content but does not utilise the form and filmmaking effectively enough for me to care about it in the slightest. For me this is a film easy to make: pick a subject, focus on its dark side, get some dark images where actors do/say nothing for two hours, throw in some really repulsive scenes in there. Shallow and inane, and at times I honestly think it becomes exploitative and misogynistic, even though that is what it is supposed to be satirising.

If I want to watch a film about a young woman becoming lost as she is consumed by the vicious world around her I'll rewatch Mulholland Drive.

Oh wow. So many films i want to see

I've been interested in watching Spellbound recently. Someone i know who has seen way more Hitchcocks than me thinks it is one of his ten best. Glad you liked Ugetsu as well. It was in the 10th HOF and i liked it alot, probably a bit less than you though i'd give it . Really want to re-watch it and see some of Mizoguchis other films soon.

The Neon Demon is something i've nearly watched multiple times and probably will before the year is over. With the reactions i've seen that are mostly just like yours and my 'meh' reaction to Only God Forgives i must admit i'm a bit put off.

I'm guessing you watched this since it had been nominated in the 40s HOF. Had you seen it before? Think it was the only nomination that i hadn't heard of.

I know right, I was on a bit of a filmwatching dry spell so I decided to go back to some of the best regarded classics I have been meaning to watch for a while to try and reignite it.

Suspicion is a great film, so many awesome little things that make it memorable: Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck needed to be in a lot more Hitchcock films, Michael Chekhov, a Salvador Dali dream sequence, focus on psychoanalysis and references to Shakespeare, Freud and more. I'd probably put it in his top ten.

I maybe slightly preferred Foreign Correspondent though, have you seen that? I thought it was like a European trial run version of North by Northwest.

Yeah, I've always been unsure but seeing as I watched a few horror films over Halloween I finally got around to it. Seems very divisive, people seem to either love or hate it, I would be interested in hearing what you think.

Monterey Pop (1968) -



KVLT. The sitar music towards the end by Ravi Shankar was the only logical conclusion to this film. Also, everybody in this film is high as f*ck, but also happy as f*ck.

Toni Erdmann (2016) - - CINEMA



This has way more Tokyo Story references than you would've thought. I ended up watching it FOR FREE.

Nostra Signora dei Turchi [Our Lady of the Turks] (1968) -



Poetry & surrealism. Some breathtaking visuals and interesting thoughts on faith and saints.

Prima della rivoluzione [Before the Revolution] (1964) -



What would've happened if Anna Karina were Italian and made Godard team up with Truffaut to make an Italian version of Last Year at Marienbad? This film, exactly.

Grandma's Boy (1922) -



Pretty kewl, but Lloyd has better films based on his meekness. Come to think of it, all his movies are the same plot-wise, but I still adore them.

I've also watched all Chaplin Essanay films. Pretty mediocre stuff, but there were two films I really liked.

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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.

Not yet. I remember it was nominated in a HOF here and it got pretty mixed reactions so it has always been on my radar. Think i'm going to try and see all of his 40s films before we finally do the countdown. Interesting about North By Northwest.

Also what did you think of the ending of Ugetsu? That was the main thing discussed in the 10th HOF, and i ended up digging up something about it not being the ending that Mizoguchi had planned that he was forced to put in a happy ending by the studio. Thought that was interesting, i couldn't find anything out about the ending he wanted to do or if he even said what it was though.

Foreign Correspondent is great!

Of course, I may have been the one who nominated it

Some very short remarks and personal ratings of films I've seen in the past few weeks (trying to be as strict as I can):


Cat People (1942) -
The story doesn't work completely as an interesting metaphor, but the brilliant filmmaking makes this an absolute joy to watch.

Spy (2015) -
Fun while it lasts, but extremely forgettable.

Kung Fu Hustle (2004) - +
Extremely entertaining, but a bit too weird and over the top in some places for my taste. Still a very unique watch.

The Browning Version (1951) - +
A film that goes right to the heart. A deeply felt drama that balances reality and optimism very well.

The Fugitive (1993) - +
A competent big, muscular action thriller that kept me very entertained, but ultimately doesn't amount to anything really special.

Police Story (1985) -
The action scenes are phenomenal and the rest of the film works too. Exhilarating watch!

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) - +
Great comedy! Loved it!

That Touch of Mink (1962) - -
If I wasn't such a sucker for Cary Grant, Doris Gray and stylish 60s sets, I probably wouldn't like this film, but I thought it was OK. Got some laughs too.

Born to Kill (1947) -
A very dark piece of film noir. My favorite films of this genre have some kind of warm relatibility to them, while this picture and its characters came across as purely cold. I still liked this film well enough, though.

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) -
Of course the film is trashy in a lot of ways, but it's also entirely unique and freaking AWESOME! Great filmmaking throughout as well.

The Omen (1976) - +
I'm not easily creeped out by supernatural stuff in films and I wasn't here either, but my goodness, this is a pretty great horror picture! Thrilling from start to finish!

Ghost Town (2008) -
I love Ricky Gervais, but I don't think he's used that well here. I didn't hate this, but it was extremely "meh".

De Premier (2016) -
Great build-up, pretty disappointing third act and an interesting last shot. Solid Belgian thriller!

The Handmaiden (2016) - +
An absolute blast! Erotic, twisty, thrilling... It's a spectacularly good effort from Chan-wook Park.

Tampopo (1985) -
I enjoyed this film sooooo much. It's full of cool and extremely funny distractions and they form a lovely balance with the warm story that's being told throughout. One of the best films I've seen this year for sure!

High Plains Drifter (1973) -
As good as a revenge film can get. There's an indescribable unique atmospheric side to this film as well, I think. Loved it.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) - +
Only better than High Plains Drifter in the sense that its main character is more deeply fleshed out and that its story is more deeply felt on an emotional level. It's a bigger, more ambitious picture. Suberb film!

The Roaring Twenties (1939) - +
The Goodfellas of the thirties! It's a rapidly told gangster film full of great characters and awesome events. Exactly my kind of picture!

Late Spring (1949) -
Ozu's style is absolutely irresistible to me. I cried at the end. The film completely worked for me.

Naked Lunch (1991) -
This is a pretty interesting film, especially after reading about William S. Burrough's life a little bit. I loved the overall style of this film and its music score a lot. I have a feeling that I'll appreciate this film even more after a second watch, now that I comprehend its content a little better.

Becoming Mike Nichols (2016) - +
Interesting watch about the start of the career of a creative genius. Mike Nichols is one of my favorite filmmakers of all time. I wish they made it a couple of hours longer and talked about the rest of his career too! I'd love to hear him talk in detail about Carnal Knowledge for instance.


Feel free to ask me about any of my ratings! The films I rated 4 or more are films I absolutely ADORED! They are the ones that gave me that special kind of adrenaline only great films can cause. I've put them in blue, so that everybody can spot them easier in my post and watch them if they haven't already!

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

Yeah I did see about that briefly. But I think you'll enjoy it. I would say that The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondent and North by Northwest would make a terrific man on the run triple bill. He starts off with the UK, then Europe, then the USA, getting more ambitious and defined each time.

What about it? I don't think the ending was really happy at all, and if your talking about a certain moment I don't think it would effect my thoughts on the film that much, by then the story and message is complete. Best thing about the film was the direction, how the camera told the story seamlessly and how the visuals were always striking and haunting.

Yeah I did see bits and bobs of that HOF but wasn't involved, but it's a great film for sure

I can see why some might be turned off by it. I liked it, but even I'll admit there were times I found it to be either too dull in its attempt to keep a certain artistic element, or it tried too hard to be eccentric. It wasn't altogether bad by any means, but for me the ending was its saving grace.