Favorite Viewing of The Month?

Cold Case Hammarskjold is a good doc. Tender Mercies is ok
Haven’t seen the other 3.

I think Ebert sums up my feelings on Tender Mercies pretty perfectly.


Tender Mercies is a Rip Roaring, Swashbuckling, Middle American Adventure For the Ages!!

March:


French CanCan
After Life
Dune Part 2

March:

Charade (1963)
Toy Story (1995)
The Super Mario Bros Movie (2023)

Man oh man - here we go. I've been dedicated to watching great movies this year, and as such I've watched (mostly for my watchlist thread) the following beautiful works of cinematic wonder : Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Man With a Movie Camera, Cléo from 5 to 7, Le Bonheur, Vortex, It's Such a Beautiful Day, Black Rain, Great Freedom and 20 Days in Mariupol.


I can't go without mentioning all of the other films that generally wowed me : Enys Men, The Iron Claw, Smile (1975), Oslo, August 31st, Perfect Days, Miracle in Milan, The Novice, May December, Aferim!, Le Grand Amour, Two Half-Times in Hell, The Suicide Squad, Late Night With the Devil, The Butcher, La terra trema, Vagabond, The Devil in a Convent, The Teachers' Lounge, Leave Her to Heaven, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Koyaanisqatsi and the 'not-quite-a-film-but-I'm-including-it limited series Baby Reindeer.

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1) All Night Long (1962)
2) Home From the Hill (1960)

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IMDb
Letterboxd

A stellar month!

In no particular order, the best first time viewings of this month are as follows:

Castle of Sand
The Spirit of the Beehive
Captain’s Courageous
Twenty Four Eyes
Asako I&II
Birth
Ministry of Fear
Happy Hour
The Heart of the World

Last month was a case of quality over quantity. I only caught four movies and with the exception of Cannibal Terror, which is still an awful good time, they were all excellent.


So it boils down to Infernal Affairs, Aftersun and Lilya 4-ever. Hmmm...Gotta go with Lilya 4-ever with Aftersun a very close second.

Twenty-Four Eyes is a heart test. If you don't cry, you have no heart.

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San Franciscan lesbian dwarves and their tomato orgies.

Shout out to Le Havre, which I also gave 5 stars to. Plus got me excited for a director who I haven’t watched anything from yet.

My winner is a very underrated movie in an all time greats oeuvre though. This Happy Breed is an absolutely fantastic working class folk drama. Amazing script, and a possible new favorite.

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Letterboxd

#JusticeForHamilton

I watched 107 films last month. My favourite first time viewings of April 2024:
(all rated 8/10 or higher)

Grummy (2021)
The Debut (1977)
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (2023)
Abigail (2024)
Challengers (2024)
Our Friend (2019)
Regrouping (1976)
Caged (1950)
#Blackmendream (2014)

My favourite rewatches:

The Kid Detective (2020)
But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)
Vampire’s Kiss (1988)
Under the Silver Lake (2018)
The Last Seduction (1994)

All I watched this month was Sunset Boulevard. However, that movie was an easy 5/5 as this movie was a real treat from the dialogue to Gloria Swanson and William Holden’s performances. I was not expecting what I saw when I watched it as Norma Desmond was probably one of the most intimidating characters that I have ever seen in a movie. Then the twist at the end shocked me despite expecting it as I never knew that William Holden was going to be narrating the actions from Heaven. Overall, Sunset Boulevard is now my favorite noir and probably the best of the three Wilder movies that I have seen which says a lot considering that I loved Double Indemnity and The Apartment.

Attachments

 

This movie is big, it’s the quantity of pictures that became small.

April '24:

Elevator to the Gallows: A French noir classic that reminds me of this joke: "how do you make God laugh? Make a plan."

Line Goes Up - The Problem With NFTs: A comprehensive documentary about the dissatisfaction with our financial system that led to the rise of cryptocurrency, NFTs, etc., and how this system became even more insidious. It's long at 2+ hours, but it's never dull. You can watch it on YouTube.

Beauty and the Beast (1978) - A Czechoslovakian and much darker version of the tale than the Disney ones, but no less beautiful.

For rewatches, I most thoroughly enjoyed Kiki's Delivery Service.


For new movies, thanks to the noir rankings, I watched Pickup on South Side, and Moonrise (1948). Both amazing movies. There are others, but those two stuck with me the most.

I didn’t cry, but it certainly was heart rending. The tragedies she endured were awful!
And that scene where she leads the students like the head of a train was so adorable! Truly a masterpiece!

May '24:

The Cremator - As dark as a dark comedy can be about a crematorium owner in the Czech Republic during the country's Nazi occupation.

Le Havre - Aki Karusmaki's funny and life-affirming comedy about a shoeshiner trying to hide a young African immigrant from the authorities in the titular port city.

Black Girl - Short but definitely not sweet, it's as damning a movie about colonialism in Africa you'll ever see.

This month (May 2024) D.W. Griffith's Intolerance and E.A. Dupont's Variete became immediately top 10 silent films for me!!

I watched 89 feature films plus 22 short films this month. Favourite viewings:

What Is a Woman? (2020)
Women Reply (1975)
Forbidden Zone (1980)
Heidi (1937)
The Secret Garden (1993)
Unfrosted (2024)
Welcome, or No Trespassing (1964)
Bad Lieutenant (1992)
Hair (1979)
Adult Adoption (2022)

For a first watch my favorite was The Breaking Ice