ILX Film Club, The (1924-2019)

I found Duck Soup more theoretically amusing than actually laugh-inducing, though I enjoyed the "mirror" scene a lot.

Oh, I meant if you've watched any Sturges, Hawks, etc.

yeah I like Duck Soup and will likely show it in class but it has as many misses as hits. The brio of the thing gets it by.

My discovery this week is how solid Animal Crackers and Monkey Business are. I'd kind of written them both off as unpolished and patchy but there's loads of great stuff in both.

Oh, I meant if you've watched any Sturges, Hawks, etc.

― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 3 July 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Like Bringing up Baby. Not seen anything like enough though.

Today was Duck Soup day, think I have worked out why this one seems like a step up. Previously I considered it basically on a par with Horse Feathers, but with a weaker ending. But while I still loved Horse Feathers yesterday I have to admit there's a 20-minute stretch (the piano lesson / scene on the boat / failed kidnapping / start of the football game) which is a bit sub-par, especially the bit on the boat, Thelma Todd is mostly excellent, but in that scene she and Groucho are tonally completely off. Whereas in Duck Soup you've got Margaret Dumont, who is never anything short of perfect as a foil.

But Generally Duck Soup just doesn't have any of those weaker sequences, in fact the mirror scene (I think my favourite) is placed at the same point in the story as the sagging section of Horse Feathers. In the previous four films they vacillate between having no real plot at all and having a plot acted out by Serious Actors with the brothers intruding. In Duck Soup they are central to the plot, and people don't ignore them, someone even starts a war because Groucho has been so rude to him, and that just feels right.

Also should note that Zeppo is barely in this one, you can already feel he's halfway out of the door. While I do feel sorry for him, it's never really worked out, and just inserting him as the romantic lead was never going to work.

The ending, then. Last watch I felt it was too rushed, this time it felt just right, I just wanted more! less than 70 minutes is not enough.

Watched A Night At The Opera last night, have seen many times before and was wondering whether it would be worse in context. the MGM pictures (I've just discovered) have this reputation for getting away from the core Marx Brothers product and wasting time on extravagant musical numbers, etc. And yes, several huge musical numbers (including the titular opera of course) and proper actors doing a proper plot, and the spirit of chaos has definitely been dialed down several notches. But it turns out I still love it. The musical numbers are spectacular, the atmosphere of the song on the boat and Chico & Harpo vamping after is an incredible bit of cinema. Then there are so many brilliant scenes - the contract, all the people in the cabin, moving the beds in the hotel, just all the mad things that happen during the opera - the bigger budget only makes these better. The only thing I would say is a step down is the pace of some of the dialogue, Groucho keeps pausing between lines, or saying things that aren't jokes, "I was looking forward to this breakfast" for example. But it's only a minor gripe, I still think it's as good as Duck Soup.

https://www.originalposter.co.uk/uploads/366726100444794_mainphotos.jpg

L'Atalante, Jean Vigo, 1934
Sight & Sound Critics #34
Sight & Sound Directors #46

I had given up checking, but the whole thing is available on youtube it seems.

Still regard the moment 9:10 into the movie where Dita walks the length of the barge at dusk, her white bridal gown gleaming against the dark, industrial backdrop, as one of the great magical moments in early cinema

Man, was Michel Simon ever young??

Towards the beginning of this it felt so idyllic - ppl building their own happiness outside of the strictures of polite society, it reminded me of the movie Holiday and also of the Moomins. But at the same time, lord, so much bickering! I was left uncertain whether to take the final scenes as a happy ending or the continuation of a vicious circle.

A friend brought this film up yesterday, unrelated to this project, and he had misremembered it as a silent film. Which is weird in one way because it is very chatty but there are def a few sequences that feel like silent cinema.

The underwater sequence!

Yeah, it's beautiful. Also a film stuffed with sexuality and sensuality in a way that Hollywood, even Pre-Code, would never have gone for.

It's a fantastic film.

Loved this

Don't we get a new one? And Camaraderie's thoughts on L'Atalante?

No - keeping us at arms length.

nearly finished with it! hold yr hosses!

yeah this was lovely, just re-watching as had missed a lot of the cinematography due to the lousy rip I posted above. it was an odd one as everything seemed kind of inconsequential at first, but as it built up and I became invested in their lives everything clicked. such rich, believable characters and such insight into their lives. it felt like I was watching the first french new wave film, so many parallels not just in filmmaking, but in the way it feels, the way it just immerses you in a world, that mix of social realism and fantasy.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/31/Scarlet_empress.jpeg

The Scarlet Empress, Josef von Sternberg,1934

Morbsies #605

Good one, though Sam Jaffe's performance needs adjusting to.

this one also is on youtube and looks to be in reasonable quality this time

Man, was Michel Simon ever young??

I watched Deux Heures A Tuer, a middling French murder mystery from the 60's, and he's in it basically still playing the same kind of role.

The first five minutes of this one alone, my god ... the dissolve from a suspended man serving as the unwilling clapper to a gigantic bell to Marlene's guileless ingenue enjoying a spring swing

There's not many pre-1940 movies where I get insistant about seeing it projected onto a giant screen, but this is prob #1

I enjoyed this a great deal, but also it was quite the cheese-fest, and really stagey, I never once forgot that this was a film set with professional actors doing their thing. Not exactly a disqualifying factor, but I just didn't find any of this with Shanghai Express. Some of the shots were of course terrific, that one long tracking shot of the wedding feast for example. But there were also some odd editing mistakes, especially towards the end, and the use of intertitles was a bit of an unexpected throwback.

What this all oddly reminded me of was early-to-mid-70s gothic horror Doctor Who serials, like The Monster of Peladon. Just something about the way it felt, and the non-theatening cartoon villain.

None of those things are negatives in my experience

Fair enough! Will stress that I did like it.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/The_39_Steps_%281935%29_-_poster.jpg

The 39 Steps, Alfred Hitchcock, 1935
Morbsies #374

Perfect in its way.

this one is also on youtube, albeit in non-restored quality, if anyone has any tipoffs about a better quality stream then please share.

This is, I think, my 4th viewing of The 39 Steps, will try my best to have some new things to say about it!

I generally don't have much to say about Hitchcock's British stuff except that The Lady Vanishes is by a fair distance my favorite

Lucky to have seen L’Atalante in 35mm once. I believe it was at the Cinefamily in Los Angeles

Agree Lady Vanishes is best, but 39 Steps is a good 'un too. Love that final shot of them holding hands.

John Buchan in general a rather dull writer, aside from all the bigotry - safe to jump straight to Ambler imo.

Watched this again last night, it is kind of throwaway nonsense, but done so perfectly, not a moment is wasted. I love how Hitchcock doesn't hesitate in throwing out all of the dodgy or nonsensical stuff from Buchan's book and cutting it down to the essentials, then adding the brilliant "Mr Memory" plot and of course Pamela. Everything works so well that it's no wonder he recycled the film twice (Saboteur and North By Northwest)

Just been given a much better-quality upload by the youtube algorithm, in case anyone wants to watch this.

This is the film that makes certain purists think he should never have crossed the pond.

What a weird opinion, especially considering how much, as Camaraderie mentioned, this is a blueprint for NBNW. What do these people dislike in the American work, not enough location shooting?

the level of sexiness in 39 Steps is off the chart for a Brit flick of its era

What a weird opinion, especially considering how much, as Camaraderie mentioned, this is a blueprint for NBNW. What do these people dislike in the American work, not enough location shooting?

― Daniel_Rf,

Residual snobbery for Hitch's crossing the pond.

Well the egg's certainly on his face leaving the powerhouse of creativity that was the British film industry of the 1930's.

Why do some people like Buñuel’s Mexican films more than his French films?

Have you seen Simon of the Desert? There's your answer

Simon is the best

It really is. I like a lot of his Mexican films but I love neo-realism so..

Wouldn't say I prefer them to his French stuff though.

Why do some people like Buñuel’s Mexican films more than his French films?

― Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs)

I'm not seeing this? He made more Mexican than French films, of variable quality.

Add another "some" if that works for you.

My question was kind of just really trying to make some kind of anology between Mexican Buñuel and British Hitchock, what was done with less gloss on a more limited budget in the native tongue.

Next you're going to point out that British and American English are the same language and Buñuel was Spanish, not Mexican.