ILX Film Club, The (1924-2019)

I've been privately working on catching up on the missing films from these polls; this could be fun, though, after looking at the spreadsheet, I'd be skipping the movies I haven't seen that only made the list due to someone here listing it at #1 on their ballot.

think there are only something like 15 of those in any case, we'll see how you feel when we get to Holiday On The Buses, but this project is very much a hop on, hop off deal.

Hugh Leonard, reviewing Holiday on the Buses gave the film zero stars out of four. Leonard added "This one should be buried in unhallowed ground".

I'll for sure chime in even if I haven't given the movie a fresh watch. (But I'll try my best to give each film a fresh watch.)

^ditto (except for this part)

I've been slowly watching the ones I haven't seen from the S&S top 100. It's only about 10 (though I might not see Peele's "Get Out" as I don't fancy it and it's obviously going to drop off next time).

Might extend it to the 250.

Another 40 on the rest. Would watch most of it bar Blue by Jarman. Fuck that shit.

Or Annie Hall.

Why Blue? I've always meant to "watch" that as I love a few of his other films.

xp Yeah this same project 20 years ago would have at least four or five Woody Allen films on the list, instead of zero.

I find Jarman's films to be pretty exasperating, and I feel I will hate it even when the subject matter is sad.

xp

i will try to participate, when i can! i find it really difficult to take part in film discussions, for various reasons, but i do enjoy watching them. i'm no kind of old-school buff but, due to the ilx influence (and using morbs' letterboxd list) i've seen a lot of the earlier films here, and within the last several months, to boot. it'll be nice to give them a rewatch so soon after my first encounter with them.

Sherlock Jr. is perfectly 45 minutes long

Or Annie Hall.
― xyzzzz

I'm probably one of the few (only?) people on here who was heartened to see Annie Hall show up. Not defending Woody Allen, just glad there are some people left who can make that distinction between the person and the film (easier with Rosemary's Baby/Chinatown, I think, just because they're so much better as films; also, Polanski's largely invisible, though he does have the cameo in Chinatown).

For some other thread, I know.

I think that this film club needs to do the On The Buses film trilogy to truly capture how it was in Ted Heath's Pre & Post EEC Britain.

I think we can all agree that the ending to Annie Hall is, in effect, a happy one

"just glad there are some people left who can make that distinction between the person and the film (easier with Rosemary's Baby/Chinatown, I think, just because they're so much better as films; also, Polanski's largely invisible"

I wouldn't watch a Polanski film nowadays either, Clemenza. I have no interest in supporting their work while these people are alive.

I think that this film club needs to do the On The Buses film trilogy to truly capture how it was in Ted Heath's Pre & Post EEC Britain.

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Friday, 10 February 2023 bookmarkflaglink

We just have to step outside for that, these days..

I’m in

I think we can all agree that the ending to _Annie Hall_ is, in effect, a happy one

Ugh, for some reason, I ventured outside this safe haven and ended up interacting with Jeffrey Wells. Not pleasant.

Yeah I'm in, tho can't promise to keep up every week - one objective I have this year is to watch more films from the rest of the world than US films overall and while these lists are varied and wonderful I fear they'd still land me on the wrong side of that in the end.

Why does ILX hate L'Atalante so much?

Is this true?

Yes, fuck all canal barges.

Alba can you tell which ilxors are hating I'll bully them for you.

Ha ha I was just making a glib comment after seeing the spreadsheet and noticing tha it placed relatively well in the S&S top 100s but nowhere with ILX.

I think that applies even more to Beau Travail but I was looking at the early films.

Gonna watch Beau Travail in a proper theater next week -- my first non-DVD/streaming experience w/it!

While everyone's gearing up, a reasonably engaging quiz:

Try this quiz - https://t.co/yyLpPtjiKP pic.twitter.com/fdHFKTXEpL

— DVDBeaver (@DVDBeaver) February 11, 2023

66/100. I raced through it, probably wouldn't have done much better if I'd taken my time (I either knew it or guessed--though I would have gone back and changed a few guesses based on subsequent answers).

more mainstream:
https://www.cinenerdle2.app/

68/100. Projectionist but no professor. But what's wrong with being a projectionist?

Wtf, I'm boycotting this quiz

Reasoning?

Putting professors above projectionists!

Ah!

96/100 and only because I accidentally put Jacques Rivette when I meant François Truffaut

Check out the big brain on Brad!

77/100 -- a couple of dumb mistakes on movies I've seen, a couple of lucky guesses on movies I haven't seen

71, though at least half were guesses.

(Some of them informed guesses, though.)

76. About five films I did see and couldn't place grr

88. Nailed every one I knew, every guess I guessed wrong

Oh and messed up Spike Lee . Just couldn't place that image in that film somehow

84/100!

I guessed on most of the contemporary Asian stuff, which rarely payed off. And I got the Black female directors all switched around. The only film I've seen that I miscredited was Death of Mr. Lazarescu.

I just exchanged texts with my friend who actually is a projectionist but did not mention this quiz.

I got 89. several of them were guesses based on what I know about the filmmakers’ visual aesthetics or the time periods from the images. I got several directors mixed up - Mizoguchi and Kobayashi, Kazan and Wyler, Etrice and Saura and others. I guessed Larisa Shepitko’s The Ascent correctly only because I have recently seen stills from it on twitter, but I haven’t watched it. Also still have yet to watch Djibril Diop Mambéty’s films, a few of which are on Kanopy, or Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman

My projectionist friend told me about this yesterday:
https://framed.wtf

oh, it's a one-per-day thing, like wordle

I will Google that piece, Alfred. Your link is taking you to something about Kurosawa?

lol sorry, I didn't clear my ctrl-p. Here: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/shoah-at-twenty-five

Camaraderie is talking about Victimas del Pecado

Lol OK yes, it's been a long day

(thx Alfred, weird piece that turns into a Kael rant)

Her negative review was a massive discussion point in 1985, I've read.

There was another, contemporary, review that replied to her Shoah review, by J. Hoberman.

I’ve never read that one in full but probably should

He ends by quoting her: "Lanzmann could find anti-semitism anywhere", adding "maybe even at the New Yorker".

So, Víctimas del Pecado, what a wild ride this was. Like a hays code free film noir, but also a musical (the musical numbers are just fucking incredible, mambo, son, mariachi and more - and actually performed by some of the characters as much of the action takes place in a night club) and I dunno a soap opera? The plot follows no structure I've ever seen, if I wrote a description (don't want to spoil, so won't) then 50% would be crammed into the last 15 minutes. It's a deeply moral film but really not scared to show characters doing awful things, within five minutes of the start you have a live baby put into a trash can for example, and it's not really giving anything away to say the woman doing this suffers no consequences besides a brief flash of guilt. The characters are all very broadly-drawn, but also have a good deal of depth and nuance when you look at them closely. Not sure if I actually love this or if it's just a window into a different world of film-making, but absolutely sure that the musical numbers are all-timers. Thanks whoever voted for this as their favourite film of all time, I will look into getting the Criterion DVD when it comes out.

Whole thing is here, without subtitles, and with an annoying popup thing on the screen every five minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5mRVW66ebI

man brody bodies kael in that essay. salute

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Singin%27_in_the_Rain_%281952_poster%29.jpg

Singin' in the Rain, Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952

Morbsies #38
Sight & Sound Critics #10
Sight & Sound Directors #53

Seen this around ten times already, you all probably have too. These are the next five if you don't want to see it again:

Ikiru
Ugetsu Monogatari
Madame de...
Tokyo Story
La Strada

Ikuru (better known as Singin' in the Snow

That list reminds me that a lot of the World Cinema Classics of the 50s are films I respect rather than love.

xp Not forgetting the British remake, Grumblin' in the Miserable Pissy Rain

Ikiru
Ugetsu Monogatari
Madame de...
Tokyo Story
La Strada

5 of my fave films

The Earrings of Madame de... has resided in my top ten for almost thirty years.

I've never watched Ikiru, maybe now is the time.

I have also seen Singin' in the Rain many times, but I'm always happy to watch it again. When I first saw it I got antsy and bored during the long dance sequence, but I've come to look forward to it. It used to feel out of sync conceptually with the movie, but it eventually clicked with me that it is a celebration of how far the medium had advanced and evolved in just a few decades of color and sound.

(plus also obviously it was a massive Gene Kelly flex at the height of his powers as a movie star and director, he could do what he wanted)

Don and Cosmo are one of the truly great gay couples of the Hollywood golden era

I've watched SITR many times at home and shown it in class, but the silent sequence still strikes me as long and boring.

just learned that the "famous zip girl of the screen" Zelda (very jazz age) was played by rita moreno. although her introduction scene gets stolen by a shouting extra.

https://www.tcm.com/video/1525509/singin-in-the-rain-1951-movie-clip-that-famous-zip-girl

also little thing i missed: she's clearly dating the old guy for his money, but the announcer says "zelda's had so much unhappiness, i hope this time it's really love"

I find gene Kelly very off-putting and have seen this way too many times

Watched this yesterday and as always it's a complete joy. Remember when I was a kid my dad saying Donald O'Connor was the best, and being more familiar with silent comedy now I feel like I can really appreciate this. The energy Gene Kelly puts into the Broadway Melody section is also kind of astounding though. As a depiction of the birth of sound film there's a load this gets wrong, but as it was still fairly recent memory I suppose they probably knew but didn't care. It's probably been said a thousand times before but having these in chronological order really underlines how much this most famous example of a big studio musical also marks the end of big studio musicals - those Busby Berkeley dance spectaculars were already history, and this was Kelly's last major hit. I guess this is also the start of Hollywood looking back with nostalgia at its golden age, which it has been doing intermittently ever since. The timescale is bizarre though, the equivalent today would be a film set in the year 2000.

I don't mind Kelly's constant mugging to the camera, but I can understand anyone who finds it off-putting. I'm afraid I find Jean Hagen may be the weak link personally - her comedy performance is of course wonderful, but I just don't buy her as a silent movie star, she doesn't have that theatricality to her face. Kelly isn't 100% convincing either, but he seems to at least be trying.

If you want to see a spot-on parody of the problems with early sound film I can heartily recommend this short from 1930

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH7XlG9j0xs

Kelly's mugging helps his character, an insecu.re mediocrity

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Ikiru_poster.jpg

Ikiru, Akira Kurosawa, 1952

Morbsies #230
Sight & Sound Critics #157
Sight & Sound Directors 72

I'm at a loss: the one Kurosawa masterpiece I can't like. I can watch any number of Ozu films from this period about aging/dying men, though.

Great film

I’m with Alfred aside from the “only Kurosawa I don’t like” part. It’s no secret he’s not at the top of my list of Japanese masters (tho I do quite like his later ones), and in IKIRU’s case I just don’t think I ever get on the same wavelength of its tone. I had higher hopes for this one going in though, so the falloff might have been partially expectation-based

He's still the top of mine so that evens it out!

Love Ikiru, it's all about that long final scene with the dudes at the funeral getting drunk and angry and wondering how to Fix Things.

Yup, it is an amazing thing when the funeral comes on.

Kurosawa is a curious one. I liked to loved pretty the three or four I've seen but I never went onto obsessively track the other half a dozen or so down.

Kurosawa has like 30 films still available. and of those i think only one is out of print and hard to find (The Idiot)

First saw Ikiru as part of a Sociology Of Death college class in the late 80s. Not my favorite Kurosawa, but easily one of my fave watching experiences.

Finished this yesterday, in agreement with most of the above in one way or another, it's kind of tonally all over the place until the last section at the wake, when it finally all clicks this this is less a film about death, and more a film about bureaucracy. Also enjoyed the brief scene in the night club earlier on, I have some Japanese jazz from the era and it's really like nothing else.
His son is a prick.

Holiday is now available in full on YouTube

So is Ugetsu Monogatari

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Ugetsu_monogatari_poster.jpg

Ugetsu Monogatari, Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953

Morbsies #462
Sight & Sound Critics #90

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNPfl1dcTkI

Now that most of his great films have become available in the last 20 years, I have less time for Ugetsu, but it's a landmark of creepiness and erotic sorrow.

Not my favourite Mizoguchi but still devastating, timeless

Brilliant

The phrase I see a lot is “first among equals.” I submit that there should be a similar and near-equally laudable “second among equals,” which UGETSU probably is, alongside Mizoguchi’s late run

I don't want to do "better than" arguments, so I'll try very hard not to do that, but what a movie, what magic he crafted throughout his career but the 50s especially, fuiud

I've dug thru the source material cos it fascinates me and I'd confidently argue that - like Hitchcock for example - he made his sources his own and made them better. Ugetsu taps a bunch of veins at once, political personal, but the big point is it sticks with you, it transcends what it might be "about"

It's strange that the most memorable scene from this for me is where the "samurai" brags about his non-existent virtues to his young cronies. The ghost story stuff is a little vague by comparison, though it obviously made a big impression on Tarkovsky.