Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame VI

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CODA (2021)



All I knew going in was that it won best picture and that it was filmed in Gloucester.

For me right off the bat this movie has one major thing going for it and one major thing going against it.

On the positive side, I have an extra affinity for movies set or made in Massachusetts. I'm a big fan of movies like The Town, The Departed, Good Will Hunting, and many more. Gloucester is about 45 minutes north of Boston. I'm there twice a week for work and have been many times on personal time. The bar in the movie is Prattys; I've delivered there and I've drank there. What's really strange to me is that I never knew they were filming in Gloucester, but it's probably because these days I'm usually done and out of there by 9am. Berklee School of Music is a couple of blocks from Fenway Park and I lived at a hostel around the corner for a short time when I first moved to the area.

On the negative side, movies with characters who can't or don't talk frustrate me. I understand the characters are usually deaf, but it's all about the time it takes to communicate. I'm not sure why this is, but even when there's a character who doesn't have a disability, but refuses to talk even for a short period of time, it drives me bananas. On the other hand I'm a big fan of stutterers so go figure. I ended up not being bothered by it in this movie, and I think a big reason why is that they didn't feel the need to translate everything. That was an interesting and smart decision.

For the first 5 or 10 minutes I thought I was going to dislike this movie. I now believe it was all about perception. Even for much longer it felt like I was looking for negatives. I was thinking it seemed more like a made for TV after school special than a best picture Oscar winner. I still kind of think that, but that doesn't mean it can't be great. I was thinking that it's not much of a story and that they just threw in some people who were deaf, but I certainly changed my mind with that. People that know me here know that I'm really just a softy, and what can I say, it completely won me over. Every single character is just so damn likable and it ended up being the 3rd movie in 2 days to bring tears to my eyes. There was one moment that particularly blew me away. It was when the family was watching her sing, and suddenly we got to know what it felt like from the father's perspective when everything went silent. Wow, I loved it.

+



Well at least that Jazmín person waited ~6 months to copy the review. If they'd been posted around the same time it might unintentionally look like paid positive reviews, or bots being used to inflate the film's score. Funny that they showed up back-to-back now though.



I thought Coda was solid, with a pretty great ending. The conversation around it will always be kind of divisive because of it being a BP winner. That’s kind if a bummer I think because there’s nothing wrong with being just a solid, easy to watch movie.
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I thought Coda was solid, with a pretty great ending. The conversation around it will always be kind of divisive because of it being a BP winner. That’s kind if a bummer I think because there’s nothing wrong with being just a solid, easy to watch movie.
I think we're on a long run of winners that are mostly terrific, but not enduring classics.



In 20 years, I think the only one of the last dozen or so BP winners I'm going to still remember vividly is Parasite. I mean, I've already forgotten everything about Moonlight, and it completely slipped my mind that The Shape of Water and Birdman even won, and I was legitimately surprised to see them on the list just now haha.



I was looking forward to The Shape of Water, especially after Doug Jones hyped it up at a convention I attended. But then our theatre was months late getting it, and I think it only did because it had been nominated for the Oscars at that point. So I think the extra anticipation due to the wait, and the added expectations played against the film in the end since I was ultimately disappointed. It was still a good film, but wasn't one of my favourites that year.



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I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
The Shape of Water is a favourite of mine but I slightly wish it hadn't won the Oscar because it sets it up for a backlash and/or the weight of expectation.



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
The Quiet Man

While watching this I was reminded quite a bit of How Green Was My Valley (for obvious reasons). But although the valleys are greener, I didn't enjoy it as much. The 1950s are not my favourite decade. Two of the things that often crop up in 50s films which annoy me are overwrought 50s film music and overbearing 50s sexism and this film is unfortunately burdened with both of these things throughout.

The whole thing was full of sentimental nostalgia for an idealised Ireland with rolling hills and quaint white cottages. A time when men were men, who dragged their wives around the countryside before going down the pub for a pint. I didn't really buy into the romance or the conflict between the couple. After being so keen to move into his family's cottage, I didn't understand why he was so dismissive of her wanting her family heirlooms. It was more of a comedy than a drama and most of the humour didn't really work for me, although some of the supporting characters like the priests were occasionally amusing.

I watched it on dvd but it seemed poor quality. I'll try not to judge the film because of that, but the terrible painted backgrounds in some scenes were poor either way. And yet sometimes it looked good, with saturated colours. There was one scene in which the two main characters are courting and kiss in the rain that was particularly memorable.



I forgot the opening line.


Pépé le Moko - 1937

Directed by Julien Duvivier

Written by Jacques Constant & Julien Duvivier
Based on a novel by Henri La Barthe

Starring Jean Gabin, Lucas Gridoux, Mireille Balin
Line Noro & Gilbert Gil

This review contains spoilers

Watching early French films, you often see Algiers - it's surrounds and various people - such is the fascination which drew many a French story over to that locale. In Pépé le Moko we drift over towards The Casbah, in which our titular anti-hero resides. This isn't a "day in the life" - it's a story where his love for a woman and yearning to return home to Paris prove too great an influence, and where an unstoppable force meet an immovable object. It's a film that was good enough to have had two remakes trailing in it's wake just over ten years after it's release - but this original had the benefit of having Jean Gabin as it's lead. It proved to be another influence in a trend towards the creation of film noir, and just happens to be a very well made gangster film, pure and simple. There are shades of Casablanca, which was obviously inspired by a lot of what we see in this, and a shift in storytelling where the criminal isn't simply a dupe set up to be taken down, but a complicated character who earns the sympathy of an audience, despite his criminality. It's also a very enjoyable and engrossing movie to watch.

A team of police, both from France and Algiers, are discussing their consistent failure over the preceding two years to arrest Pépé le Moko (Jean Gabin), a man who has been protected by sequestering himself in The Casbah, where a mix of races and cultures live in crowded squalor, and where le Moko's friends and compatriots protect him. Although feeling as if he's the king of the underground there, it also happens to be his de facto prison, and the thief yearns for the familiar streets of Paris. Inspector Slimane (Lucas Gridoux) - both friend and enemy, knows this, so when Pépé falls in love with a beautiful tourist by the name of Gaby Gould (Mireille Balin) he finally has the kind of lure to really set a trap with. In the middle of all of this is le Moko's regular girl, Inčs (Line Noro) who is despondent enough at losing him to this breezy French girl that she may be willing to sell him out. If she can't have him, nobody can. If Pépé le Moko can't control these impulses and emotions they may just be his undoing. After all, his beloved friend Pierrot (Gilbert Gil) has already met the same fate because his emotions held sway over logic - allowing him to be betrayed.

The style of this film lends itself to the French Poetic Realism prevalent in the 1930s, and common to director Julien Duvivier's work. This realism didn't extend to shooting on location, but did go so far to create realistic Casbah slums in a studio near Paris, which neatly lend themselves to real Algiers footage, which is used and inter-cut into the film. Of course, Poetic Realism is fairly fatalistic, and there is no fairy-tale kind of beats in any narrative sense in Pépé le Moko - not in a romantic sense, and not in any kind of Robin Hood-like storytelling style. No matter how sympathetic le Moko might seem, he's in this for himself and has the cut-throat sensibilities of a real gangster. Also - just because our anti-hero has hidden himself amongst the poor Algerian rabble that populate The Casbah doesn't mean he (or the film) considers them as equals. Arabs are never really referred to in any sense, and when they appear in a visual sense, Gabin is usually throwing bottles at them or telling them to get out of his way. He considers himself king of a kingdom he wants nothing more to do with, and it's his constant yearning, grief and disappointments that set the tone for the film.

Jean Gabin himself is an irresistible presence in the film, and there's something about him in a visual sense that can give us everything we need to know in a look or gesture. There's his performance, but there's also just who he is and his general aura that's magnificent. You don't really come away from the film having noticed anyone else, because all of your attention is taken up by the French film star. I remember seeing him in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion (another example of French Poetic Realism) where he gave another great performance. Line Noro, as le Moko's Algerian girlfriend gets a lot to work with as an actress and really impressed me as well in what is ultimately a very sad role. Actors like Lucas Gridoux and Gilbert Gil have plenty to do, but I wouldn't necessarily recognize them again if I saw them in another French film. Jean Gabin is immediately recognizable, and I feel drawn towards his features. There is one scene though, where a singer and actress called Fréhel listens to a record (purportedly one of her own) as she sadly sings along with it, remembering the Parisian streets with tears in her eyes - it was very affecting. One of her songs would later feature in the film Amélie.

Jules Kruger and Marc Fossard provide cinematography which at times remind me very much of the film noir style that would come into vogue some time later - always there are distinct shadows and dark patches, and often you find characters set against bars, fences and shadowy prisons of darkness. Faces are often obscured - half in shadow. There's a lot of camera movement when our characters are on the move, and every such shot seems perfectly suited to the story, guiding our eyes in a way that those most expert of cinematic storytellers do to tell the story in a visual way. It was cinematography that pleased me in the way it moved, instead of what exactly it showed. The music from Vincent Scotto is what you'd expect from the period - different tones emphasized at different times in a way that thankfully wasn't too overbearing, as I've found some earlier cinematic scores to be. An Algerian influence obviously infused into it at times. Overall, the extensive high-definition digital transfer made from the 35mm restoration makes this a pleasure to watch these days in a visual sense.

So, overall I genuinely enjoy watching Pépé le Moko for it's historical perspective, as well as the satisfaction I get from Gabin's performance and the narrative from Henri La Barthe's French novel. (Also worth mentioning are the sets from Jacques Krauss, which provide a much richer and more realistic setting than you'd find in your average 1930s film.) It has it's share of iconic moments - take the one when Gabin's eyes meet those of Mireille Balin, then shift to her obviously very valuable jewelry, which she then deigns to hide with her hands, after which his eyes meet hers again and seem to suggest he's more interested in her than her wealth, even if he'd sized the moment up out of habit. I also have to mention the tremendously powerful noir ending, with le Moko's final few requests from Slimane, and his tragic final act which Inčs witnesses - all taking place as our anti-hero watches the Ville d'Oran slip away from the pier and start out to sea. That ending was absolutely perfect - and perfect endings are so hard to get exactly right.

Some of the casual racism, and the seeming acceptance of domestic violence as part of a natural way of life I could have done without. Fréhel mentions that she thinks she just has the kind of face men like to hit, and that she's tried changing it to lessen the frequency of the blows. Likewise, I found the way le Moko jettisons his girlfriend (with some annoyance) when he meets Gould difficult to swallow. But then again, you could say all of that is setting these men up for their deserved fall. They are crooks and scoundrels after all. Other than that, I'm very glad to have Pépé le Moko under my belt, and to have it sized up to the extent that I can read many of the steps Michael Curtiz makes in Casablanca as from a very familiar dance which has it's origins here - likewise film noir as a whole. It's a damn good movie - and one that keeps growing on me. 1937 was a good year for cinema, it seems, with several stylistically important films being released - ones that would have far reaching influence, and remain exciting to watch ever after. French Poetic Realism has some very agreeable aspects as far as I'm concerned.

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Latest Review : Le Circle Rouge (1970)



In Cold Blood (1967)

Probably the best made film I've seen so far in this PR. As I was watching it I realized just how near perfect this film is in it's direction, editing, cinematography and of course writing as this is based on the famous novel by Truman Capote. I didn't catch the name of the director during the film's opening credits so I guessed it had to be directed by one of the greats of the 1960s like John Frankenheimer or Robert Wise. After the movie was over I looked it up at IMDB and seen it was directed by Richard Brooks, a name that didn't ring a bell until I looked at his directorial credits...with such classics to his name as: Elmer Gantry, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Key Largo and more.

The choice to use black & white film in 1967 might seem like an odd choice but it works as this is set for the most part in 1959. It also work as the b&w makes this feel like history from the past, a cold look at a senseless crime. The film does a great job of making the two murders on the run seem three dimensional. They're just not thugs, they're messed up individuals who we learn of their abusive childhood through well placed flashbacks, police interviews with the fathers and recanting of their childhood memories. Those elements then elevates their story into a realism that's focused more on the individuals involved then on the actual crime they commit.

Acting was superb by the two killers played by Robert Blake and Scott Wilson.




I liked In Cold Blood, but it has pretty much left me of course.
I tend to forget most all movies over time, I might remember that I watched them and who was the star but that's about it. For me, sometimes the 'quiet movies' that don't have a kick in the stomach type scenes or big ending are my most favorites but then again there's not much to remember them by as time goes by. Even in HoFs the first films I see often impress me but months later by the end of the HoF I can't really recall why I thought the film was so amazing.



I tend to forget most all movies over time, I might remember that I watched them and who was the star but that's about it. For me, sometimes the 'quiet movies' that don't have a kick in the stomach type scenes or big ending are my most favorites but then again there's not much to remember them by as time goes by. Even in HoFs the first films I see often impress me but months later by the end of the HoF I can't really recall why I thought the film was so amazing.
I tend to remember character stuff, and more character driven stuff is usually my favorite, not surprisingly. Plot driven movies are gone, too often surprisingly fast.



Robert Blake playing a killer seems like a stretch but it's a good movie
He was tried for murder IRL. He was acquitted but it doesn’t seem a stretch to me.