My 2024 Watchlist Obsession!

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

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.




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

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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.




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

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

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IMDb
Letterboxd

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

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Excellent movie & book (Washington Square).

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

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.




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

Black Girl is great

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.




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

Black Girl is excellent. Seen it twice.

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

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.

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".




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

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.




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

I want to thank this thread for being consistently great.

I love the first half of Le Chat, but 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.

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.




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

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

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

For what it's worth, there wasn't any , if that's what your concern is.