Last (x) movies you saw

The middle 5 really in any order, tho.

oh i forgot to count The Blue Angel; first or second.

Nah, Von Sternberg needed Hollywood's help.

Or at least their glittery resources.

what did Emil Jannings ever do to you?

cockadoodledoo

The Guardians of the Galaxy (Gunn, 2014) 6/10
To Catch a Thief (Hitchcock, 1955) 8/10
Two Days, One Night (Dardenne bros, 2014) 7/10

Tristana (Bunuel, 1970) 8/10
Throne of Blood (Kurosawa, 1957) 8/10
Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai Du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (Akerman, 1975) 9/10
Please Sir! (Stuart, 1971) 5/10
Boy Meets Girl (Carax, 1984) 6/10
Uzak (Ceylan, 2002) 8/10
Christmas Evil (Jackson, 1980) 7/10
Le Beau Serge (Chabrol, 1958) 7/10

Godzilla (2014) 6/10
Tati Danielle (7/10)
Gohatto (6/10)
The Dance Of Reality (8/10)

Have to add I thought the effects work and direction in Godzilla was stunning at times but the film needed to be more fun. Less human drama, more monsters slugging it out (in daytime, too, please!) next go-round.

bourne identity (liman, 02)
il bidone (fellini, 55)
lorna's silence (dardennes, 08)
grey gardens (75)
floating weeds (ozu, 59)
iron man (favreau, 08)
double indemnity (wilder, 44)
they all lie (pineiro, 09)
the bird with the crystal plumage (argento, 70)
bad lieutenant (ferrara, 92)

I've move The Blue Angel and Morocco up too.

Days and Nights of the Forest (Ray, 70) 7/10
Le Week-end (Michell, '14) 6/10
Devi (Ray, 60) 8/10

Boyhood (Linklater, 2014)
A Time to Live, A Time to Die (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1985)
A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1989)
King of the Children (Chen Kaige, 1987)

Two Days, One Night (Dardenne bros, 2014) - Cotillard held this, a story that wasn't as compelling once you got into it: repetitive conversations and reasonings, obvious ploys to liven these up (a scuffle!), other points in the plot were faulty: a suicide attempt in the afternoon then off again for another round of talks by eve, the secret ballot that wasn't secret.

Charulata (Satyajit Ray, 1964)

The Kentucky Fried Movie (Landis)- Fun enough. Z/A/Z is comfort food (at least until they turned, independently, to shit) and Landis handles stuff like the Enter the Dragon/Dr. No sequence well, if weirdly overlong. Biggest laugh of the whole movie for me was absolutely "IT WAS A DREAM OF EXTRAORDINARY MAGNITUDE" for no reason I can easily defend.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Nimoy)- I had an illustrated picture book of this as a kid that I got at a church sale (also: Back to the Future, which I also have not seen beginning to end, ever) and had no idea what the fuck was going on. This is only the second classic Trek movie I've seen (after Khan) and it's...alright. Kind of sadly programmatic, and Nimoy isn't great at handling big moments (Kirk's son dies to practically no effect except the unintentionally hilarious KLINGON BASTARDS KILLED MY SON), with the exception of that brief shot of the crew on a cliffside while the burning Enterprise falls through the atmosphere, but come on, you would have to try to fuck up a shot like that. But the chummy comedy stuff is great, and makes me really want to track down IV (that's the whales, right?).

*Dune (Lynch)- I love this goddamn movie so much. The screenplay is terrible, the producer-mandated voiceovers are worse than the similar ones in Blade Runner, the hamfisted exposition (like the introduction from Irulan, who then disappears for the rest of the movie and is never seen again) only obfuscates things more, and there are some shockingly bad performances from Brad Dourif and, as much as I hate to say this, Kyle McLachlan, but none of it matters. This is one of the five or so best production-designed movies I have ever seen, there's more than a little of the Eraserhead/Elephant Man Lynch (anything with the Guild Navigators, Giedi Prime, the disturbing in-utero shots of Alia) and it just conveys the awe and scale of the book far better than the "faithful" miniseries version could ever hope to.

*James and the Giant Peach (Selick)- I have mixed feelings about this one. Selick is a genius, one of the best animators working today (I'd put him up there with Miyazaki and Brad Bird if it weren't for Monkeybone), but this feels too Disney-by-numbers in the relationships between characters and the god-fucking-awful Randy Newman songs. I keep telling myself "he was in Performance, he did some well-regarded stuff in the seventies" but I just can't stop hating him. And Richard Dreyfuss starts grating immediately, though I'm sure kids would find him funny.

*The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene)- for/in class. There is nothing I can possibly add to the nearly 100 years of writing and discussion on this movie.

*Coraline (Selick)- Love it. Everything in this movie just works perfectly, nothing lands wide of where it should be, and I'm still noticing little details every time I see it (like how unnerving the mouse circus scene becomes by animating the mice in a lower framerate).

Charulata (Satyajit Ray, 1964)

xyzzzz, what did you think of this?

ah, never mind, heading to the Ray thread now

it's a Labor Ray weekend!

Two Days, One Night (Dardenne bros, 2014) - Cotillard held this, a story that wasn't as compelling once you got into it: repetitive conversations and reasonings, obvious ploys to liven these up (a scuffle!), other points in the plot were faulty: a suicide attempt in the afternoon then off again for another round of talks by eve, the secret ballot that wasn't secret

the non-secret ballot was a plot point, not a plot hole; idk what an overdose of Xanax is likely to do to someone whose tolerance is already clearly quite high, didn't give that bit too much thought tho tbh

Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1983)
The Key (Carol Reed, 1958)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
*Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976)
Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

*Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (Herek, 1988) 8/10
I Am Divine (Schwarz, 2013) 7/10
Belle de Jour (Bunuel, 1967) 9/10
*The Spy Who Loved Me (Gilbert, 1977) 7/10
*The Sweet Hereafter (Egoyan, 1997) 7/10
Premium Rush (Koepp, 2012) 7/10
When Night is Falling (Rozema, 1995) 3/10
The Living Daylights (Glen, 1987) 5/10
The Big Clock (Farrow, 1948) 8/10
Boyhood (Linklater, 2014) 8/10
Moonraker (Gilbert, 1979) 5/10
*Meatballs (Reitman, 1979) 7/10

the non-secret ballot was a plot point, not a plot hole

Certainly a plot point: one of the votes was based on the assurance of a secret ballot. So why was everyone that voted for her waiting in the cafeteria after? Surely the eight that were working could work out the other eight were the ones who voted for her? Maybe it didn't matter as they got their bonus, but the guy who needed assurance was up for renewal later that year..

The way I read it, nobody really thought it would be a secret (she spent half the film telling people which way everyone else would vote!) and that's why the dude was worried in the 1st place, but he did the right thing anyway.

I didn't think this film was that great but it was kinda interesting re peer pressure but it was basically an episode of survivor if anyone remembers that

I'm recalling it differently: she might have mentioned a name or two of people who didn't mind, and some of them were phoning each other, but for most of the time she would simply say what the split was, and on one occasion when asked to say who were voting this way or that she said she couldn't give names.

You're probably remembering right tbh

i think she started giving names then when one pushy guy who was clearly against her wanted to know who was for her, she thought "hmm bad idea".

repetitive conversations and reasonings

i thought it did a great job of showing the entire gamut of legit & non legit reasons people had for shafting her. (e.g. I wanna help but I really really need the money, I wanna help you but I'm scared of the boss, I wanna help you but new patio!) In fact almost to the point where you could criticise it for too perfectly showing all points of view (and too perfectly timing them - three or four rejections then just when she'd lost all hope the guy at the football pitch).

Also the last scene might have made her too saintly, except it was utterly plausible - the boss's offer, and her reaction.

Anyway, fucking loved it.

Agree the last scene was plausible - for one the guy who might've lost the job if she accepted the offer was a man who voted for her.

More importantly - one thing this film was silent on was her depression. It actually looked like she wasn't that ready to go back, or if she did all the problems would have re-surfaced again. Her suicide attempt meant she had reached rock bottom, but she cried for help in time and I think in the end she was renewed - and by end of the weekend it really didn't quite matter whether she had a job or not. She told her husband she would start looking for work at 12, and I for one believed her.

Yeah it was basically a happy ending - the happiest possible, anyway.

Forgetting the Girl-UGH! Watched this on HULU and found it disturbing. It was painful to watch and predictable and I wasn't into the characters but I continued because it looked so Lifetime.

Nobody's Daughter Haewon (Hong, 2013)
The Exterminating Angel (Buñuel, 1962)
Blind (Vogt, 2014)*
Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen & Coen, 2013)
Dhoom 3 (Acharya, 2013)
Moon (Jones, 2009)
Mauvais Sang (Carax, 1986)
Sans Soleil (Marker, 1983)
The Birth of Love, (Garrel, 1993)
Tras-os-Montes (Reis & Cordeiro, 1976)

Shorts:
Paris vu par Gare du Nord (Rouch, 1964)
The Afghan Alphabet (Makhmalbaf, 2002)

I wasn't a huge fan of Jealousy, found it a bit too 'sweet' for what should perhaps hit harder. But I liked Birth of Love. A bit similar plot, really, but the mood was much more developed, I found.

Tras-os-Montes is really, really something. A mix of docu-fictionary study of northern Portugal mixed with myths and legends, mixed with voice-overs on economic woes and emigration. Really weird, but def worth seeing. Reis inspored a whole school of Portuguese films, and it's somewhat like a Our Beloved Month of August.

jealousie was super boring & sucked i think. he thinks he's being super elemental & bressonian but it's just so dry, like who is making that movie anymore

The Grey Fox (9/10)
Pas sur la bouche (6/10)

Richard Farnsworth is so great in The Straight Story. Always wanted to see The Grey Fox...seems to be unavailable on DVD.

Mine's an mkv of a vhs rip, Clemenza, but I'd be happy to share if you want. Just PM me. Lovely film.

through a lens darkly - somewhat hokey connecting narrative but the curatorial selection of images of black men and women both behind and in front of the camera over the history of photography was amazing stuff and so many of those images were (perhaps shamefully) brand new to me

(xpost) Thanks a lot...I'm not sure what an mkv is; is it a file I'd be able to put on a USB?

it's a video file, so yes it should fit on a USB and play on most computers. Unfortunately I can't play them by burning to a disc and onto my DVD player like I can with AVIs

Guardians Of The Galaxy 7/10
Shoot The Piano Player 7/10
Los Olvidados 10/10
Toys 4/10
Public Enemies 5/10
The Iceman 4/10
R100 8/10
Only God Forgives 7/10

You were so-so on Shoot the Piano Player...one of my favourite films.

points now, why not

Gothic (Russell)- 6/10
Absurd Encounter With Fear (Lynch)- the point system fails me immediately
*Premonitions Following an Evil Deed (Lynch)- 7/10 (he totally broke the rules for this submission, right?)
The 3 Rs (Lynch)- 7/10
Absurda (Lynch)- 7/10
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Herzog)- 8/10 (the postscript with the crocodiles is beyond wonderful- this is the first Herzog documentary I've managed to see [yes really] so I'm not exactly on sure footing as far as rating this)
Ode to the Dawn of Man (Herzog)- 7/10 (totally worth it for the scene of Cave's soundtrack composer playing the cello for his baby daughter)
*Beyond the Black Rainbow (Cosmatos)- 6/10 (has huge problems, but I still like it well enough as film, ie celluloid, porn and for that soundtrack)
*Dressed to Kill (de Palma)- 7/10 (seemed lesser on re-viewing than other de Palmas have; I do love the ending, though, with the increasingly distraught old lady eavesdropping on the main characters' conversation, the dream fakeout's incorporation of both Angie Dickinson's shower dream and the angled mirror from the elevator murder, and especially the last shot reprising the endings of both Sisters and Carrie but casting Keith Gordon in the maternal role)

You were so-so on Shoot the Piano Player...one of my favourite films.

― clemenza, Sunday, 7 September 2014 14:39 (35 minutes ago) Permalink

A lot of things I liked about it (Aznavour, the internal dialogue) but something a bit sloppy about it too and the plot gets a bit out of hand imo. I enjoyed it though but I was expecting it to be better.

for me 7/10 wld be indicative of a high level of enjoyment

It is!

There Will Be Blood (8.0)
Short Cuts (8.5)
Wish I Was Here (4.5)
G Men (6.5)
A Prairie Home Companion (6.5)
Showgirls (4.0)
Between the Lines (7.0)
The Life of David Gale (5.5)
Boyhood (8.5)
A Most Wanted Man (7.0)

Bunch of Elio Petri films @ ICA:

Investigation of a Citizen Under Suspicion (1970)
The Tenth Victim (1965) - really enjoyed the Kim Newman Q&A after this, he was funny and actually had insights that improved this for me. My issue was that this was a 'game show to the death' that has been done quite a bit and the satire makes the points I know quite well but yes I agree there was a lot of humour that marks this out.
We Still Kill the Old Way (1967) - this is an adaptation of To Each His Own, a novella by Sciascia I read years ago. Really captures the mood of 'the way things are/pointless to fight it' brand of Italian existentialism.

All three films are really a lot funnier than you'd think, coming from someone with a left-wing commitment (and actually a lot of those serious films were great). All of this is relevant and still very much with us, and given what is happening in Italy the local context might not be as hard to get a handle on..

Also he made films in different genres - usually I don't like directors that do this but he abstract the template and just uses it for his own ends that are quite far off from where he starts from.

so mad i missed The 10th Victim a couple weeks ago

Bulldog Drummond in Africa (Louis King, 1938)
Overlord (Stuart Cooper, 1975)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Charles Reisner & Buster Keaton, 1928)
Multiple Sidosis (Sid Laverents, 1970)
My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan, 1989)
French Cancan (Jean Renoir, 1954)
The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1946)
Masculin Féminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)
The 47 Ronin (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1941/42)

Broken Blossoms (Griffith, 1919) 8/10
Jaws (Spielberg, 1975) 9/10 rewatch
The Kirishima Thing (Yoshida, 2012) 7/10
L'enfant (Dardennes Bros., 2005) 8/10

The Firemen's Ball (Forman, 1967)
Blue (Kieslowski, 1994)
The Devil, Probably (Bresson, 1977)*
A Man Escaped (Bresson, 1956)*
Two Lovers (Gray, 2008)
Red Road (Arnold, 2006)
Of Horses and Men (Erlingsson, 2013)
Nymph()maniac (DC) (von Trier, 2013)
Humanity and Paper Balloons (Yamanaka, 1937)

Shorts:
Ulysse (Varda, 1982)
The Idle Class (Chaplin, 1921)
10/65: Self-Mutilation (Kren, 1965)

There's a Bresson retrospective in CPH. Good to see on 35mm.

I watched both Streetcar Named Desire and Double Indemnity this week after realising I hadn't actually seen either.
Not sure how I get to my age without seeing Streetcar. Think I was reminded by it having cropped up in that BBC4 series Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds' 1951 NYC episode mentioning it in relation to method acting and the Actors Studio.
Seems to be pretty decent and I do like Marlon's natty duds.

Not sure what triggered me to thinking about Double Indemnity. I think I had borrowed a Black Box Thrillers paperback that had it in from a library years ago but that's a couple of decades back at least so not sure why it came up now. Could just be that it was recently upped to TPB or Demonoid.
I think the book has a pretty surreal end which this doesn't but I won't give further spoilers.
I thought the dialogue was pretty great, can't think of anything especially just remember thinking wow at the time. Billy Wilder was the director.

The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958, Zeman) 7/10
What Price Glory (1926, Walsh) 7/10
Five Came Back (1939, Farrow) 6/10
The Lawless Breed (1953, Walsh) 6/10
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968, Greaves) 8/10
*Dry Wood (1973, Blank) 8/10
*Spend It All (1972, Blank) 7/10
The Naked Room (2013, Ibanez) 9/10
Hat Check Girl (1932, Lanfield) 7/10
*Popeye (1980, Altman) 6/10
*Fedora (1978, Wilder) 8/10
Starred Up (2013, Mackenzie) 6/10
*Flowers of Shanghai (1998, Hou) 10/10

Alice in the Cities (Wenders, 1974)
Paris, Texas (Wenders, 1984)
Diary of a Country Priest (Bresson, 1951)*
The Cameraman (Sedgwick & Keaton, 1928)
Colossal Youth (Costa, 2006)
A Perfect World (Eastwood, 1993)
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (Gordon & Parreno, 2006)
Boyhood (Linklater, 2014)

Shorts:
Diary of a Pregnant Woman (Varda, 1958)
Black Panthers (Varda, 1968)
Tarrafal (Costa, 2007)
The Rabbit Hunters (Costa, 2007)
O Nosso Homem (Costa, 2010)