Camo's 2018 Movie Log

Absolutely adored the direction on this and i thought it was a great idea but i wasn't totally on board with the execution. Think that the direction and writing of Veronica was a lot more compelling than Marķa Onetto's performance. She was unable to pull off a number of things i could tell she was supposed to which made it hard to get lost in her character, was too obvious that she was acting. She wasn't bad but with this type of role she had to be great as so much was resting on her and she doesn't say much throughout the film, sadly i think she missed the mark.

Don't see why we were shown it was a dog right away. Logically it had to be something other than a human because she only looked away from the road for one second, she would have seen a person standing there, still i don't see what was achieved by confirming it wasn't a human and that she is messed up for no reason immediately. Either way this makes us question her morals but keeping it ambiguous could help create tension and could allow us into her mindset more. The weight was somewhat taken off by denying that possibility. Due to this i was unable to engage with the first half of the film, with her discovering it was a dog halfway through things thankfully became more interesting as obviously it had to go in a different direction. Still i don't think it ever reached its potential even with a kind of interesting turn.

It was a solid enough watch though, i loved how it was filmed. My favourite thing about the way it was filmed was that everything was very up close and compact, gave a much better feeling of the walls closing in on Veronica than Maria Onetto herself did. There was very little free space in each shot there was always people and/or objects covering everything, made it all very cluttered. The scene i felt this most was the swimming pool one about an hour in, they enter quite a large room but they start walking towards the camera while at the same time the camera is slowly moving towards them giving the impression that everything was tightening, was very effective. If the central performance matched the excellent direction i think i would have liked this more.

Also watched:

One of the worst films i've ever seen.

Slightly less worse,

Solid. Was super into the martial law and afterwards read up on the real life instance of martial law in Canada just seven years before this was made which convinced Cronenberg to include it. Some of the acting was pretty bad though which prevented me from loving it.

Incredible. I had actually already watched this about seven or eight years ago and it didn't work for me that much then. Was really into troubled youth films at the time but somehow while i quite liked it i was bored at times. Saw the poster the other day and got an intense need to see it again for some reason. Thankfully i had forgotten most of it, it's amazing. So sad.

This was my fourth Lubitsch. First i watched The Shop Around The Corner and adored it, it's one of my favourite films. Had a much more mixed response to the next two: Ninotchka and To Be Or Not To Be, the former especially i didn't like much at all. This was pretty great though. I like how i always think these classic rom-coms are going to be the same thing and they never are. Thought this would just be your typical two mismatched people meet and fall in love with the expected types of ups and downs along the way, guessed the praise would be due to it being particularly funny. Definitely didn't expect two perfectly suited for each other thieves meeting and seemingly falling for each other in the first scene before one of them assumes a fake identity for a robbery they are planning and this fake identity being perfectly suited to the woman he was robbing. Except this isn't true at all it's a facade, same as the opening scene where the two thieves think each other are great figures of nobility before they see the thief in each other, it's a weird film and it's pretty awesome for it.

It's such an odd premise they make Madame Colet and Gaston really likeable and right for each other, Lily is the screechy villain you are rooting against which is insane since Gaston is just as bad as her. More than anything i was rooting for a good outcome for Colet, it's been a long time since i've connected with a character so much and i don't think i should have. She is an incredibly rich, pampered woman who isn't going to miss what they steal much and the authorities are going to make catching the thieves and retrieving her money a high priority, she is set there's not much risk here for her. Still i completely fell in love with Kay Francis and wanted her to get whatever she wanted and not to be hurt in all of this. The last 20 minutes were so good. This isn't that laugh out loud funny but it's very clever, my favourite thing about it might be that it feels like a serious drama for a while then you realize it was all just a set-up for the end joke. It looked so stylish and grand too, great watch.

Also this was my 50th 1930's film according to Letterboxd. Not including the various animated shorts i've seen from the 30's as i don't mark them watched. That's pretty decent before the 30's Countdown has even been announced.

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What a creepy film, awesome. I know a guy who much prefers this to Psycho and while i don't think i agree i get it, actually i'd likely prefer this had i watched it first. They are very different saying that; they are both about serial killers relased the same year but this was much more like Frenzy IMO and the only reason it's regularly compared to Psycho instead of Frenzy is the year of release. Following that IMO more apt comparison i think this was better as much as i like Frenzy. This is shockingly depraved for when it was released i can see why it was so controversial and damaging to Powell, must have been very shocking back then that a respected director like Powell had made and released something like this; Psycho is downright wholesome in comparison. Carl Boehm was great. As i've got older the Evil German trope has started to bother me with how frequently it shows up, but i think this can be forgiven for two reasons how close it was released to the war and the fact that they got an actual German unlike say Die Hard. There's also the fact that Mark is psychotic, he's severely psychologically damaged rather than evil. He was an unhinged sex killer and yet i still felt pretty bad for him, he gave off regretful vibes and you could see him as a normal person in some scenes. The obsession and doing it for the art angle was fascinating too. Some of the supporting performances weren't the best which was what held this back from a bit of a higher rating, Mrs Stephens especially what a ridiculous character and performance.

The two films i've loved from Powell so far have featured psychotic characters: this and Black Narcissus, there's of course a difference as this is entirely about one and Black Narcissus has a character snapping as it goes on and only going fully unhinged towards the end. Still it's an interesting coincidence, he has a knack for creeping me out think it's largely related to the imagery scattered throughout the films and colour/lighting choices just as much as the performances he gets out his actors and the subject matter. Powell has got to have the best track record of visually spectacular films. This is my sixth of his films (including four with Pressburger) and they all look unbelievable, even the ones i don't care for much could never be something i hate because they are so stunning. The scene Mark shows the home movies to the woman downstairs is one of the best scenes i've watched this year, jesus, the flitting between the black and white films and the vibrantly coloured room that's much better to look at but not something you want to due to Mark's unsettling reactions. The thing that surprises me so much about this is i've found a number of 50's/60's British Films fairly ugly, he's pretty much the sole exception and i don't think he has an equal in Hollywood from this era from what i've seen at least. Pretty great.

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