32nd Hall of Fame

Depends. I'd like to give @Siddon @jiraffejustin @cricket and @edarsenal the chance to finish


But I'd also be damned if I said this hasn't been a long ass HOF.

I just have Departures left, if I can't watch it all tonight, I'll finish it Saturday morning latest

Looking to get my last two watched tonight and tomorrow.

Blow-Up (1966)

Blow-Up is very much a non-traditional film. It's like a collection of scenes that are loosely tied together in which a fashion photographer gets caught up in a murder mystery....well not really much of a mystery. The truth of the matter is you don't watch this film for the plot, youwatch it for the incredible visuals. It's like walking through an art gallery in swinging london times. And while I am a big believer that films should have a narative and I'm typically not a fan of Antonioni's work this one I liked.

This film has a stangout performance from Vanessa Redgrave. All the models in the film are good and they look alike as well that gives the film a bit of surealist tint to it. Most of these people don't really matter in the larger scope of things...the victim is basically just a shell of a person some sort of proxy for a plot. But like I said I enjoyed this one.

B+

Dial M For Murder (1954)

Well this movie is complete fiction...who the hell would want to murder Grace Kelly. Grace had five movies come out in 1954...one of which she recieved an Oscar for (The Country Girl), one of which is considered an all-time classic (Rear Window), and this one which was meant to be in 3-D but turned into something much more.

The story of Dial M for Murder is that of a tennis pro who decides to cash in on his wifes money by having her murdered. He enlisted a disgraced college friend named Swan where he bribes/blackmails him into doing the deed. Things go wrong and the story unfolds as a twisty pulpy goodness.

First thing I need to talk about the film is the look, the film basically takes place in this one apartment. It's an elegant place where Hitchcock makes it feel like it's own character. Many of the objects in the film seem to have their own personality. This is top notch production design...Hitchcock also blocks this film with brilliance...the final shot in the film where each character is revealed tells so much about them and the way their lives/personalties are. The performances are incredible. Ray Milland is a charming bastard, Grace is a dutifull wife and everyone else is just so polite and mannered. It's a great juxtaposition of the graphic violence (for the fifties).


This film is borderline perfect


A+

The Girl who leapt through Time (1983)

The girl who lept through time tells the story of a girl who goes back in time to try and same a boy from falling shingles. Frankly this film had a lot of problems for me...it's overly sentimental the score was just drowning out much of the film. The special effects were mixed between very well made and just terrible. I couldn't connect with the characters and wished the story ended 40 minutes earlier...because their was so little to grasp onto. I liked the animated version of this story but I also felt like this is something I've seen from Japanese cinema many times before and this just felt like a low bar extra waste of time.

The lead actress was fine...everyone else was forgettable I'm never going to think about this film again.

C-

Dial M for Murder

I had somehow forgotten that I had already seen this, so I was confused while watching it that I could remember it. Maybe I am just losing it, but that is beside the point. 1950s color Hitchcock murder mysteries are like a cinephiliac comfort food. You easily get wrapped up into all the bullshit with the planning, the execution, and investigation. It's all very silly, yet never really feels like it while you watch. Hitchcock and co get you right up on the action in this film, you feel like you are in the same room. It was filmed in 3D, but I never thought about that a single time during the film, which is actually in its favor. I am not interested in the 3D gimmick, so it's nice that the film can stand on it's two legs outside of the gimmick. Everyone has already said it, but Grace Kelly looks great, but the costumes and set all look very nice and classy. I've also seen a lot of comments, not just here, but also on letterboxd about how a husband could want to kill Grace Kelly... but I also heard a pretty wild comment from a guy I work with the other day that caught me off guard "For every pretty girl, there's a guy who is tired of f*cking her."... so, uh, I guess that guy might kill his wife at some point.

I have two write-ups to go, but I have finished all of the films and sent my ballot in. I'll get my last two write-ups in shortly.

I owe a write-up for Departures but I sent my ballot

Departures

Not quite Koreeda. Gets pretty close to oversentimentality, but due to personal experience parent/child relationships involving a death get to me, so I was sucked in by the end. I am curious how I would feel about the acting if I spoke Japanese and was able to pick up on the nuance of the language, because there was time where I was worried it was getting a little hammy before it was reined back in. The music was nice. It would probably help to understand exactly how frowned upon working in that industry is in Japan, so I would know if the reactions he received were realistic. Overall assessment: Not quite Koreeda, but worth your time.

Missing

Pretty fascinating when you look up some info after the film and find out what information has been revealed since then. This was almost as much a horror film as a political thriller or anything else. When they go to the morgue, what they see is unfathomable. Someone making the film had to decide where to put bodies throughout the film, and I don't think I've ever said this about a movie, but one of the more effective elements of this film is where bodies were chosen to be placed. Sometimes you just needed one body somewhere on the street, but we wouldn't see it until exactly the right time for maximum effect. The frustration of dealing with bureaucracy was well represented and then made into a nightmare because it was a situation where you can't really just give up and walk away from like bureaucracy tries to make the average person do. And obviously it goes a step or two(hundred) past bureaucracy, with the corruption and U.S. involvement in a coup. Good nom.

I will have my ballot in before midnight and possibly a few quick write-ups. There have been some great films in this Hall and an endeared unknown gem - love when that happens.

__________________
What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

Sent my ballot in. I won't get the write-ups in tonight; it will be tomorrow.

Night all!

I'll be done in a couple hours I only have my nom and a write up for h-8

H-8 (1958)

Credit where credit is due if this Hall had a theme it was experimental genre breakers. The story of H8 is of a car crash between a truck and a bus in the 1950's. It opens with a docudrama type feel to it...and then the film moves onto covering and developing the characters in the two vehicles. We go through passenger by passenger not sure who is going to live and die.

This film comes from Yugoslavia which was I believe a communist country at this point. Communist art is kinda fascinating to see 80 years later. What's remarkable to me is all the modern influences the filmmaker took from (at this point). It was like he tossed a bunch of classics into a blender and what he came out with was very good. Obviously as anyone can see Wages of Fear is one of my favorite films...you have a little bit of that in this one. You also have a bit Bicycle Thieves with the relationship between the father and son in the truck. Finally and what's done very well is how the director goes full Hitchcock in the bus. It's a very impressive feat of film making to borrow so much and still make it your own.

In the end it's a powerful film, while the second act drags a bit. Every character is given a bit of a shine but not necessarily much variety...I did find this thoroughly enjoyable. I was also very impressed with the technical achievements, great scoring, solid cinematography and a very distinct look.

Very good nom
B+

Missing (1982)

Missing is the true story of a man who disappears in Chile during the coup. And this is the story of his father and his wife's attempts to find out just what happened to their son. They don't make them like this anymore. One of the things that makes the film so powerful is it basically starts when most films would climax. The entire first act is a white knuckle tension fest where you are on the ground floor of a country that is in the process of falling. What makes the whole thing so terrifying is the restraint. The death and destruction isn't played for mellodrama rather it's very matter of fact. The victims aren't heroes they are just trying to live knowing at any random moment they could be killed. And the world feels very much like this as you see the random bodies on the street, you are constantly hearing the gunfire in the distance.

But what I feel elevates Missing is the character work. Jack Lemmon is a throwback from the 50's...a man who believes in America, his son a hippie of sorts trying to live a new exotic life. Both men are confronted by the harsh reality that your politics don't really matter. Garvas does a great job in casting dozens of US officers who are menacing in their own way. They work in a bureaucracy and they slowly pick away at Lemmon's character until he becomes a broken man.

This is one of my favorite films from a favorite film maker.

A+

Solid finishes guys! Just need one ballot and Eds last couple write ups! Been a fun one and will be interesting to see the results. I have t tallied anything yet so I'm just as in the dark as everyone else!

I'll be kicking those write-ups through the day

Departures aka Okuribito(2008)

This is the unknown gem that I fell in love with. These beautiful, quirky, life-affirming films give me all kinds of pleasure. I think this one is a new record of how long I had joyful tears pouring out of me since it was a solid second half of the film, starting with the montage of various services he did as he became more and more in tune with this new life work. My favorite is the little girls with their grandma. That was wonderful.
The added pleasure was the moments of comedy within his first days of work and his reactions to all of it, along with the exquisite, precise, and loving care that is involved in the ceremony that opens the film and how touching that final scene is with the father who had left when he was a child. Full, happy tears at that point make for complete and full enjoyment of this film. It's an instant favorite.

H-8...

People make good travailers but are often bad companions.

It says a lot about a film when even the use of models for vehicles is quite readily accepted as a positive aspect of the overall experience.

I had a strong feeling I was going to enjoy this film when I found it, and while testing the link, I saw a scene introducing folks getting on the bus. Those tremendous little nuances in the exchanges that say so much more beyond and between the words of dialogue. Upon viewing, I was quickly engaged with the documentary-esque exchange of two narrators detailing the inevitable crash and setting the story as we meet and get to know everyone involved. The tension was very tangible, having become endeared to the characters beyond a fatality list. I was invested with every storyline of each passenger, and each of the drivers. My worry and concern built as the story evolved and the time drew near as the empty seats of those who would die were filled. Those final narrations focus beautifully on the losses and of the lives of those who survived. Quite brilliant.