Last (x) movies you saw

francesco, giullare di dio (rossellini, 1950) 4/5
grin without a cat (marker, 1977) 3.5/5
in the belly of an architect (greenaway, 1988) 4.5/5
russian ark (sokurov, 2002) 5/5
the ghost and mrs. muir (mankiewicz, 1947) 3.5/5

Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith, 1919) - Wonderfully atmospheric, and a surprisingly brutal and emotionally intense story of two star-cross'd lovers. Lillian Gish is heartbreaking as the tragic waif-child, beaten by her racist father for falling in love with a Chinese immigrant. 5/5.

The Assassination Bureau (Basil Deardon, 1969) - A typically late-sixties British caper movie, albeit set in the Edwardian era. The head of a secret organisation of hired killers, Oliver Reed, has to dash across Europe avoiding being bumped off by his own hit men. Great comic performance by Diana Rigg, as the thoroughly modern Miss who accompanies him on his knockabout journey. 3/5.

The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011) - Beautifully judged character piece that avoids cloying sentimentality in delivering a devastatingly emotional story. 4/5.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin, 2011) - Loved the haunted, hazy vibe of this. Elizabeth Olson's quietly powerful performance floored me. 4/5.

Carnage (Polanski, 2011) - Started off silly, got sillier as it went along. Saved by the grade 'A' acting talent involved, who all clearly enjoyed the workout. 2.5/5

Chronicle (Josh Trank) - Risible 'found footage' nonsense. Three annoying dorks get super powers, put on a magic show and get nerd rage. Stick with Misfits. 1/5.

To Live and Die in LA (Friedkin, 1985) - A great LA movie, though one fixed very much in time by its Wang Chung soundtrack and the fact that it looks and feels like a grittier Miami Vice episode. 3.5/5

Young Adult (Jason Reitman, 2011) - Best use of a mixtape in a movie? <3 Charlize. 3/5

Anchoress (Chris Newby, 1993) - Based on the life of Christine Carpenter who became an Anchoress (a woman who, for religious reasons, voluntarily lives in a tiny walled-up cell in a church) in 1325. Slow, and moodily filmed in black and white, with lots of shots of either wide, bleak landscapes, or long, detailed close-ups. It's not without moments of levity, however, and the cast are largely good, especially Christopher Ecclestone. But Toyah Wilcox, surprisingly, almost steals the show. 3/5.

Oliver Reed was considered for the role of James Bond after appearing in 'The Assassination Bureau', instead they wheeled Connery out for a second go and then Roger Moore. Shame as he would have made an excellent Bond, urbane, charismatic a little thuggish.

The Ring (Hitchcock, 1929) - this is part of the Hitch fest that is going on at the BFI/various venues (this was screened at the Hackney Empire, the kind of venue that might have screened this back in the day). Couple of sequences really looked forward to the kind of thing he might be known for:

- at a party the jealous husband has visions of his wife's debauchery and infidelity - illustrated by this terrific juxtaposition of the distorted piano, swirls of faces in the crowd, and straight-ish pics of her dancing with another woman. He ends by screaming across a room of people talking - everyone's surprised, and the audience laughed so the comic effect was achieved.

- the boxing scene is amazing: sure Scorcese ripped this off for Raging Bull. Lots of weird angles and points of view (beneath the ref's legs).

And then the soundtrack was especially commissioned and played by Soweto Kinch. Certainly did the job - a couple of occasions I was happy to close my eyes and zone out of the film. At times it was too much of a concious re-creation, there was no space for anything too risky - apart from a bit of flute.

The film itself was lovingly restored - not sure how much of a scandal this was. At a time when it was hard to get a divorce, here was a story of a woman who carried on seeing a flame after she got married to someone else, and delays her final choice until the boxing match (the ring is a wedding ring as well as a boxing ring). So there is that dimension to contend with. You can see his misogny there from the beginning, and yet she is the master of her situation.

Would have been hilarious if there was a draw: two husbands?

The film had lots of solid comedy, and blighted by some racism.

Billion Dollar Brain
one of Michael Caine's Harry Palmer films. Wish I'd concentrated on it a bit more instead of flitting around the flat.
What I saw was pretty cool. Karl Malden as a conman/agent and Ed Begley as a Texan billionaire anti-communist.
1967 and I think it felt like it.

^^Directed by Ken Russell! And one of the last appearances of Francoise Dorleac (Catherine Deneuve's sister.)

Green Card (Peter Weir, 1990) 1/5
Tess (Roman Polanski, 1979) 2/5
The Basketball Diaries (Scott Kalvert, 1995) 2/5
Biutiful (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, 2010) 3/5
Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966) 3/5
Rock Of Ages (Adam Shankman, 2012) 0.5/5
21 Jump Street (Phil Lord, Chris Miller, 2012) 1.5/5
Radio On (Christopher Petit, 1980) 2/5
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin, 2011) 2.5/5
Super (James Gunn, 2010) 4/5

the sailor who fell from grace with the sea (lewis john carlino, '76) 3.5/5
snow on tha bluff (damon russell, 2012) 3.5/5
marina abramovic: the artist is present (matthew akers, 2012) 3.5/5
the last run (richard fleischer, '71) 3/5
hopscotch (ronald neame, '80) 3/5
mean streets (scorsese, '73) 5/5
mildred pierce (curtiz '45) 2/5
housekeeping (forsyth, '87) 4/5

Margaret - really quite bad, but compelling nonetheless
Man With The Golden Arm - have been meaning to see this at years but was a little underwhelmed
Moonrise Kingdom - not bad
Streetwise - great
Beasts Of The Southern Wild - Had a lot of problems with its view of poverty, cloying soundtrack, but (mostly) loved the way it was shot

Margaret - on #teamfoxsearchlight with this one
The Heartbreak Kid/A New Leaf - Elaine May double bill - never taking an Ian Penman film rec seriously again

Hara Kiri - Miike remake. Prefer the subtlety of the Kobayashi original. Miike's hand a little too heavy on this one. I felt like standing up and shouting "Ok, we get it!" during some scenes.

High Plains Drifter - Strange film. Almost Altman-esque in its baked early 70s California kookiness but redeemed by Eastwood's presence.

Jackie Brown - again and again. Blu-ray this time and as great as ever.

Antarctica - Sad Japanese film about Antarctic expedition and lost sled dogs. Didn't see it coming and I cried. One of Vangelis' best scores.

>Hara Kiri - Miike remake. Prefer the subtlety of the Kobayashi original.

!!!

the original is so good though it will be difficult to resist seeing an update

The Human Condition (can you believe it? I didn't see the ending coming. and yet the entire 10 hour long film is simultaneously the ending of the film.)
Deconstructing Dad (excellent documentary on Raymond Scott by his son. almost uncomfortably personal at times, yet it makes for an unusually powerful film because it's so loaded, and as you can imagine the access to his home movies / photographs is unbeatable so the film is chockfull of amazing archival footage, I will probably watch this again)
Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers - The Power of Myth episodes I - III
Horrors of Malformed Men (pretty silly, a little boring, nowhere near as a good as Blind Beast)
L'amour braque (<3 <3 <3 Zulawski)

Hey Milton if you haven't already rent the Jos. Campbell lectures that exist on dvd. Forget the title at the moment but well worth it.

The only aspect of Green Card that made me laugh (i had seen it way back when it was released, i was 13) was the skillful application of make-up to put some expression or emotion on andie mcdowells face. what a shit actress.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild - Had a lot of problems with its view of poverty

how so? I liked it a lot

Jiro Dreams of Sushi: 2/5
Wanderlust: 1/5

My Week With Marilyn (2011): 2/5
Rampart (2011): 3/5
Gilda (1946): 3/5
Moonrise Kingdom (2012): 4/5
The Grey (2011): 4/5
The London Rock'n'Roll Show (1973): 3/5
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2011): 1/5
The Asphalt Jungle (1950): 4/5
Bill Cunningham's New York (2008): 3/5

My dad recommended The Grey. Expected this silly adventure movie but should have known better: my dad has insanely good taste in movies. (Cue: ILXORs hating this movie and saying it's actually a dreadful movie. lol). Anyway I thought it was rrreally good.

Beasts of the Southern Wild was ok and I also had a problem with its WPA-esque romanticizing of rural squalor.

I guess I can see that but I bought into it as being true to the characters' POV

crayfish are good though -- I'll give'em that

Starcrash (infamous Italian Star Wars ripoff flick starring David Hasselhoff and Christopher Plummer): highly entertaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Rh2pfdxPU

Really wanna see BOTSW but the minor critical backlash is already giving it the flavour of "this year's Precious."

wait waht

<3 star crash

xxxpost why only 2 out of 5 for Jiro Dreams of Sushi, polyphonic?

I really didn't like it as a documentary. The dude is great and his sushi looked delicious but it felt like a Ted talk or something, and there was very little content. Also hated the ridiculously portentous score. Seemed like a big missed opportunity.

Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston (2010) -- 3.5/5
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) -- 4/5
The Soft Skin (1964) -- 3.5/5
The Big Bounce (1969) -- 2.5/5 (generous)
L'enfance nue (1968) -- 5/5
The Bride Wore Black (1968) -- 3/5
George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011) -- 3.5/5
The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby (2011) -- 3.5/5
Take This Waltz (2012) -- 3/5
Neil Young Journeys (2012) -- 3/5

Looked at some reviews of the Halston documentary afterwards, and they weren't kind. The director's annoying (and rather inexplicable) ubiquity aside, I thought it was a pretty lively '70s film. And the music, along with all the disco, included the Stooges, Minor Threat (?!), and Dawn.

Richard III
Oslo, August 31st

The Shakedown (1929, W Wyler) 3/5
Alps (2011, Lanthimos) 3/5
Summer of Sam (1999, S Lee) 2/5
The Double Life of Veronique (1991, Kieslowski) 3/5
Man Bites Dog (1992, three Belgian guys) 3/5
Klown (2010, two Danish clowns) 2/5
Cure (1997, K Kurosawa) 5/5
Sacrifice (2010, Chen Kaige) 3/5
The Wanderers (1979, P Kaufman) 3/5
The Well-Digger's Daughter (2011, D Auteuil) 3/5
Elena (2011, A Zvyagintsev) 3/5
Knuckleball! (2012, baseball doc) 3/5

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) - 3/5
Eraserhead (1977; repeat viewing) - 4/5
To Catch a Thief (1955) - 3.5/5 for the movie, 5/5 for the blu-ray, which is stunning.
A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966) - 3.5/5
Shut Up and Play the Hits (2012) - 2/5
Woody Allen: A Documentary (2011) - 3/5
Neil Young Journeys (2011) - 2.5/5
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (2011) - 3/5
Weekend (1967) - 3.5/5
Miss Bala (2011) - 3/5

Here's what I watched in July. I'm sticking with my preferred letter grades. * denotes a re-watch.

Ace in the Hole (Wilder, 1951) B+
Wings (Wellman, 1927) B+
Super 8 (Abrams, 2011) C
*Rebecca (Hitchcock, 1940) A
*Everything You've Always Wanted To Know About Sex... (Allen, 1972) B
Anatomy of a Murder (Preminger, 1959) B+
Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2001) B
Dangerous Liasons (Frears, 1988) B-
Death Wish (Winner, 1974) C+
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Durkin, 2011) D+
Hugo (Scorsese, 2011) D-
Take Shelter (Nichols, 2011) B
*The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008) B

daughters of darkness (harry kumel, '71) 3.5/5
bad boy bubby (rolf de heer, '93) 4/5
comedy of power (chabrol, '06) 2/5
attenberg (tsangari, '10) 2.5/5
reflections of evil (damon packard '02) 3/5
what's the matter with helen? (curtis harrington, '71) 2.5/5
river of grass (reichardt, '94) 3.5/5
full circle/the haunting of julia (richard loncraine, '77) 3/5

Hannah and Her Sisters (Allen, 1986) A
Days of Thunder (Scott, 1990) F
Feed The Kitty (Jones, 1952) A-
To Catch a Thief (Hitchcock, 1955) C
The Age of Innocence (Scorsese, 1993) A-
The Adventures of Tintin (Spielberg, 2011) B
I Can Hardly Wait (White, 1943) B-
One AM (Chaplin, 1916) D+
High Steaks (Deitch, 1962) D+
Batman (Martinson, 1966) B-
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Gilliam and Jones, 1975) B-

You didn't find Batman's shark-repellent gambit thrilling?

I dunno...the shark explodes and later a porpoise nobly hurls itself into the path of a torpedo to save Batman and Robin. This movie is hard on sea life.

Mesrine: Killer Instict (2008) B
Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 (2008) B-
Melancholia (2004) A-
Paranormal Activity 3 (2001) C+
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) B+
Drive (2011) B-
Drag Me to Hell (2009) C+
Galaxy Quest (1999) B+
The Candidate (1972) B-
Madagascar 3 C+

Oops, Melancholia and Para 3 are obviously 2011. Pardon the typos.

The Candidate is literally one of my 20 or so favourite films ever. I'd be interested in hearing your problems with it--to me it's a perfect film.

last two weeks or so

7th Voyage of Sinbad, the (1958, Juran) B
Mission Impossible III (2006, Abrams) B
Paul (2011, Mottola) B
Grey, the (2011, Carnahan) C-
Dark Knight Rises, the (2012, Nolan) B
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008, Stoller) B
Brave One, the (2007, Neil Jordan) C+
J. Edgar (2011, Eastwood) D
Melancholia (2011, Lars von Trier) D
Greenberg (2010, Baumbach) C
Bronson (2008, Refn) A-
Big Trouble in Little China (1986, Carpenter) B

I'm completely with you on J. Edgar--thought that was as dreary a film as you could possibly make about such an immense and fascinating figure.

The Candidate is literally one of my 20 or so favourite films ever. I'd be interested in hearing your problems with it--to me it's a perfect film.

I dunno, felt glib. Peter Boyle is totally great and I'd tell anyone to watch the movie just for him, but the rest of it seemed pretty naive (or faux naive). This whole shocked, shocked view of power and corruption. And Redford didn't really know how to play it, imo.

I try to place the movie in the context of 1972, when things that are taken for granted today weren't then--The Selling of the President was only four years old--but even as judged against today, I'm continually amazed by stuff that happens which seems right out of The Candidate. (One example: I remember an early McCain ad in '08 that might just as well have been Crocker Jarmon.) But the same complaint was raised by Stanley Kauffmann at the time, so maybe it already was a bit dated. Still, I never get tired of it.

One AM (Chaplin, 1916) D+

jer, wtf

Outlander, thing about a space traveller landing in ancient Iceland and having to battle a creature that he'd transported.
He's along with a tribe (clan?) of Vikings and having to stave off attacks by a rival group that the creature had eradicated the village of.
Thought it was pretty good as a bit of hokum. Looking at IDBM it seems it had a far lower budget than it had expected to. I'd been wondering while watching it if it had been a theatrical release or made for TV or what since I saw it on Syfy.

Xpost

Well, it's not exactly the greatest Chaplin, is it? He's not really at the mercy of any external forces here, just his own drunkenness. Also, that's a pretty nice house--who wants to see Chaplin as some rich jerk?

saw 'beasts of the southern wild' last night and am mostly in agreement with admrl's assessment upthread

otherwise i think the only film i've watched recently is 'five easy pieces' which i really liked

The Raid Redemption: 3/5
The Doberman Gang: 3/5

killer joe (friedkin, 2012) 3.5/5
the naked kiss (fuller, '64) 3.5/5
rampart (moverman '11) 2/5
about cherry (stephen elliott, 2012) 1/5
peppermint candy (lee chang-dong '99) 2/5
je t'aime, je t'aime (resnais '68) 2/5