# 163 - Hopscotch

 

Never heard of this one before - a comedy which I guess is having fun with the heavy spy genre of the 70's and 80's.   Honestly, not a lot I want to say - it was fun and entertaining and I am reminded of how good Walter Matthau is and it's fun to see a very young Sam Waterson when I'm used to him being the 70 year old DA in Law and Order.

Basically Walter Matthau plays a spy who they try to assign to a desk and he bolts and starts writing a spy tell-all which sends all the intelligence agencies after him in a manhunt.  This was pretty funny stuff and I liked it.   I was too young to hear of it before of this but I guess it was well known.

I didn't think there was anything super extraordinary about it but it's here, it's number #163, and it was fun

#162 - Ratcatcher

 

#162 is Ratcatcher, by Lynne Ramsay.  I had seen it somewhere at sometime - trailer in the indie theater, VHS or DVD at the video store.  I don't remember exactly but very little of it stuck with me initially besides garbage :)

The film takes place during garbage strikes in Glasgow in the 1970's, and follows the character James thru the tenement slums and characters in the area.   Within the first few minutes, a tragic death shapes him and for the rest of the film, seems to shadow over him and foreshadows over and over what seems like a bottomless pit that drags you down.   Obviously as a much older person, with more resources I'm able to get a better feeling for what the character is going thru here.   In many ways the whole film and setting remind me of "George Washington" a few films back in which the location is such a powerful character you just see it as best supporting actor.   No one here is thriving - everyone is just barely holding it together.

It's a pretty good film I'd consider getting on Blu-Ray for the special features, of which there are the first 3 short films by the director, among others, interviews, and some good stuff.   They must have acquired this only 2-3 years after it came out and it's been one of my favorites so far this grouping of 100.

#161 - Under The Roofs Of Paris

 

Ok....so Rene (sorry for the missing accent) Clair - a French film director who transitioned from Silent to Sound with this film.   We'll see him once more in the 600's but for now these are his 3 main works that he transitioned to sound with

Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)
Le Million (1931)
A Nous la Liberte (1931)

It might have been nice to have seen them in chronological order but this is what we got - (2, 3, 1) so let's talk a bit about it.

This is his first sound production - it starts with singing and music, and this kind of makes sense to me because this film more than the others felt like it had a lot going on with no dialogue - whole minutes of just people moving with no talking - I'm guessing he was making the transition but still fell back on using the action to tell the story than the words.

It's a fun little romance - He uses the full height of his 4-5 story set sometimes, showing life in the tenements of Paris.   And like A Nous la Liberte, it's entertaining in a Charlie Chaplain way.   These are going to be some of the early masterpieces of French Cinema, and they've been slightly cut, as Rene went back to his films in the 50's and made some edits, but it didn't hurt the story to me at all.

Each film had a shorter, silent film by Clair attached to the DVD, but I didn't feel very motivated, TBH - not there for me. - was a bit of a struggle to get thru these as is.

I'm sure they were masterpieces for their day, but like many things, harder to really get into in the 21st century - glad I watched them but not overwhelmed or anything.   

It's essentially a will they/won't they get together romance with lots of comedic obstacles thrown in the path.   I'll leave it to you to see how it turns out.

#160 - À nous la liberté

 

So this is one of a pair of Rene Clair's films - they actually sandwich Le Million (number 71 - a film I am sad to say I literally cannot remember) - it was a fun little musical comedy but nothing to really draw me in.   I'm going to save most of my thoughts for the next entry since I watched them back to back over two nights  - 

It's a fun little humorous romp about an escaped convict turned businessman.  Things get rough when he is found first by his good friend and then by other individuals seeking to get payout to keep their mouth shut.  Anyways...we'll pick this up in the next entry.

#159 - Red Beard

Yes, I finally got around to the incredibly rich and awesome Red Beard! - (And the first post of 2024 - yeesh) -  I started it once, dozed off, and realized it wasn't holding my interest, so I gave things a rest and came back.

This is Kurosawa and Mifune's final collaboration.   Kurosawa took over 2 years to make it, blew a ton of money on an ultra realistic set that was almost never used, and had legit props in drawers that were never opened.   I suppose one could make the case that the extravagance and length of time it took to do this film is what hampered his future opportunities, but in any case, he had a magnificent run that started to wrap up here.

The film is set in 19th century Edo (Tokyo) and centers around a young up and coming doctor who finds himself assigned to a public clinic that covers the impoverished.   Over the course of 3 hrs, we learn more about his story, the stories of some of the patients, and the workers at the clinic.   We see his gradual transformation from a disgruntled doctor to a legitimate healer.   It feels a bit like a trope but in Kurosawa's hands, it's a masterful story.

It IS 3 hours, and doesn't get nearly as much action as some of the other films we've seen.   But it is one of his finest movies, his last in Black and White, and his last in the anamorphic widescreen 2:35 to 1 ratio.   It will take him years to make his next film, and from here on out it will be a bit of a struggle to get funding for his projects.   It's a bit sad to think of this as his last "great" film with Mifune, but there are other great films to come (7 more to be exact) and we'll get to some of them soon.

I may watch this again with the Audio Commentary in the background - I found myself very interested in what was going on behind the scenes on this film that took so long they actually did tours of the set some days with people on buses.

All and all a real excellent piece.

Side Tangent - Godzilla Minus One

 

I've been a tiny bit stalled on Red Beard due to it's length and my ADHD - someday soon I'll get it done.

IN THE MEANTIME, I've made a trip to a real theater again for the first time in a few week.   I've probably seen about 20 Godzilla movies from both Japan and America, and as far as a genre goes, I like them.  This one right here is probably the best one I've ever seen, hands down.

Long story short, it's another "reboot" which means it starts like there's never been a Godzilla before.  (This gets complicated - but basically, most movies are sequels of the 1954, or there were a couple stretches where they were sequels to each other, but by and large, until 2016's Shin Godzilla, all the Toho properties basically assumed Godzilla's first film exists and builds on that)

But what makes this unique is that this one takes place in the years right after World War II, in the late 40's.   The characters we meet in this movie are already struggling with PTSD, Trauma, and Survivor's Guilt before even getting to the monster.   They're living in burned out buildings in Tokyo, barely surviving, and working to do things like clean up mines after the war.   When Godzilla shows up they are already on the precipice.

I saw something on Reddit that really hit true with me - in this one you are rooting for Godzilla to be defeated.   In a lot of these, you root for Godzilla vs. another Monster or hope to see him back someday.  However, in this one, you grow attached to the characters, and that doesn't leave you.   There are moments where the theater is silent as a pindrop - it's really something to experience.

In any case, I think it's the best Godzilla movie I have ever seen, and it's worth a trip to the big screen one time if you can pull it off

RB

#158 - The Importance of Being Earnest

 yeah....this didn't do much for me - Not a big Oscar Wilde fan.   Honestly struggled to keep my attention with it and any attempt to write much up for it here is just filling space - I watched it - let's move on