#43 - Lord of the Flies

Here we go - a proper homicidal mob sorta movie

Like most people, I first read this book probably in middle or High School - the movie here is a pretty faithful rendition of the book - done by Director Peter Brook - it retains English roots, although I believe it's made by an American, and with very few exceptions or cut scenes, doesn't deviate from the source material except maybe at the very beginning.

Right off the bat I was reminded of "Night Of the Living Dead" - the opening reminds me of Night's closing, and some of the violent mob scenes in the latter half of the film remind me of the Living Dead - (side note - guess what's being released in a couple months on Criterion!) - It's a great film about the collapse of society and morals in a closed ecosystem - perhaps it loses some of it's teeth when reading it at a young age because I don't remember it hitting me like the story did this time at an older age but maybe that's the movie

Some really good use of music here - (which according to the special features was done in 5 hours) - Two melodies are dominant - one is a Choral piece sung and played at times when you get the impression that law and order are established, and some spooky stuff played when the tribe descends into the frenzy and madness around the campfire.

They really did a good job here of making these kids terrifying in the 2nd half of the film, and of course, by the end of the film their clothes are practically falling apart - There are a lot of special features and extras to this one, including a deleted scene, some scrapbooks of stuff that was shot and home video shot by the kids - (apparently to keep them busy - LOL) - it's a nice collection and if you like the movie, there's a great audio commentary as well by the director and producer.

It's a pretty good story and I liked this version a lot - I think I saw the 1990 version years ago but in my head this one feels superior - but who can say - either way, it's a classic and almost an art piece in the way it was presented and the story that was told - very good stuff

#42 - Fishing With John

I literally banged out these 6 episodes of an IFC/Bravo show at work tonight - a comedic take on fishing shows, featuring John and some celebrities he knows

The fishing is the background to put these characters together.   As a whole it works ok but there's definitely a better vibe between John and his friends William Dafoe and Dennis Hopper then there was with moody actors and directors

Not quite sure how this ended up in the collection but it's weird enough to justify being released SOMEWHERE - I won't lie - I watched some of it while doing other stuff - it's not shot on super high grade film, so it worked fine on the Ipad

special features include commentary from John - that may be more funny than the other stuff - it's fine for a couple hours though.

RB

Side Tangent - Musings on Star Wars

Since the last entry sucked SUCH dog balls....freaking Shakespeare - I figured with a week to go I'd do some writing in here about Star Wars

Star Wars is literally the first movie I can ever remember wanting to see at 5 years old - and here's what happened - in my 5 year old broken kid English - (hell,  not even 5 yet) - I said I wanted to see Star Wars

My mom asked why but in the end she took me to the drive-in and we watched it - except...I was pretty sure it wasn't Star Wars - in fact, my primitive reading skills soon confirmed we were watching A Star is Born

I still tease my mom about that - two years later i saw it on the re-release and it's amazing how much of the larger context of Empire and Rebels I didn't get but I got the core of Good Guys Vs. Bad - I don't think we ever played Cowboys and Indians - we played Stormtroopers and Han Solo's/Luke Skywalker's - Look - Luke wasn't as cool after the first one - so Han was generally who we played - but Luke GOT cooler

I didn't hate the prequels - in fact, I sorta liked them as much as the originals because I had backstory - info, I understood the context better - I had read comics and books - and for all the Jar Jar Binks shit, I liked them - I got uber excited for every Trailer - same with Episode 7

Except Episode 7 wasn't the same - it wasn't as good for me - partially because the context of the New Order and a Resistance didn't make any sense to me - (I have been told I'm not the only one to go WTF) - and the rehash of the original Trilogy plot - another planet killer - Han playing more like a cartoon hero than a scoundrel - I could have used a lot more of the moments between him and Leia when he was leaving. 

Rogue One was a return to form for me - and I'm starting to enjoy these blaster bolts that don't just drop a guy but hurl him across the room

In March of this year, my wife and I went on vacation to the far SW point of Ireland - Mizen Head - where no one was going cause it wasn't vacation season yet, but when you were living in Minnesota, Ireland is fine in March - at the nearly empty tourism office, the lady said we should go to Brow Head - (next Peninsula over) and that they had shot some of the new Star Wars there - I knew that Skellig Michael a hundred miles away was where they shot the ending so I was confused, but I understood later that this was Ep 8 that shot there - and most of the scenes I've seen in the trailer were shot on a cliff right there near some farmer's land most likely

I still get excited and I'm excited for this one - I'm hoping it feels more like a movie and less like an ADHD Director's therapy - because at the end of the day, Star Wars is my favorite film franchise and always will be, I suspect.  It almost makes me sad to think they may still be making movies in that Galaxy Far Far away after I'm dead and gone - but here's to Rey, Finn, and all the others trying to capture it for us - I wish it had been George Lucas' vision, but I'll take what I can get.

RB

#41 - Henry V

I WISH I could say I have been taking a while because I had stuff to do - but the truth is, I just hate Shakespeare - I literally fell asleep 5 times watching this movie and finally tried watching it DURING work on the Ipad just to finish it

There's some cool stuff here - the story starts on a stage a'la Globe Theatre and then moves out to some sets, and finally to the battlefield before closing back on a stage again - it was made during WWII, and no doubt the themes of unity between France and Britain were intentionally chosen for this story - the acting is fine - I just really hate Shakespeare - and that's kind of the high and low of it - maybe I'd like Kenneth Branagh's version better but even then I practically needed the subtitles to get 1/2 of what was going on

Anyways, this one is done - nothing to say but ugh and I'm glad it's over - I'm sure for 1944 it was the bee's knees but it just left me blah today

#40 - Armageddon

#40 - yah....ok

so I mean, it was a hit in the summer of 1998 - it was Michael Bay's 3rd film, and it foreshadowed his fast cut, little exposition, bang em blow up stuff that he would take to great heights in the Transformers films.   Those are films by the way, where I stopped watching after #4 cause I literally couldn't remember the plot of it - it was that forgettable

I just didn't like the movie that much - too long - too implausible - and I thought that summer's "Deep Impact" about a similar comet hitting earth was better, to be blunt.

I just streamed this on netflix - I guess there's special features but I'm just meh on this one, but I got it out of the way

RB

#39 - Tokyo Drifter

#39 is a slightly earlier film than our previous installment from Seijun Suzuki - another Nikkatsu film turned out in the sausage mill of 1960's Japanese B-movie cinema.

As Usual, Seijun gives it a twist of the surreal and gives it back to us - Another story of a hard-boiled Yakuza - (aren't they all, though?)   trying to go straight and being brought back in

The sets are some of the most interesting pieces in this film - many of them, such as the club, is more like an open sound stage or broadway stage with a few props in it - the lighting changes from time to time in the rooms - as if each scene gets it's own color

What I was amused to find from the special features was that they really skimped on the budget for this one so Seijun had to make do - it's easy to be creative when poor they said - LOL - but creative they were - this line from Wikipedia really says it all..

"Nikkatsu bosses had been warning Suzuki to tone down his bizarre visual style for years and drastically reduced Tokyo Drifter's budget in hopes of getting results. This had the opposite effect in that Suzuki and art director Takeo Kimura pushed themselves to new heights of surrealism and absurdity"

The movie was based around a pop song and this was the lead actor's 3rd film - (he was who the studio had queued up for the next film and wanted it to be a star vehicle) - He's basically, well, to me, unmemorable - but the sets and melody of the song are with me a couple days later -

there's some more excellent Seijun coming up so I look forward to it - this was a fun little side romp...
and much more interesting than the next film in the Criterion Collection 😑

#38 - Branded to Kill

So...this film was one I was looking forward to.   I'm a big fan of Noir, and the Japanese Noir, (like these movies that the Nikkatsu studio put out) are some of my favorites.   The first Eclipse set I ever viewed was "Nikkatsu Noir"  -

and I've seen a couple of Seijun Suzuki's films - but this is by far one of the most surreal and weird ones - LOL - in fact, it was so out there the studio fired him and he didn't work for several years.  There were some excuses and scapegoating in that firing of course.

The movie itself has almost no plot or exposition - merely a hitman trying to shoot his way to the number one spot - (they have a ranking in the film apparently - he's #3, and there's a mysterious #1, etc) - There's a crazy wife and the femme fatale, and some bizarre fetishes from the lead character, played by Joe Shishido - (he needs to sniff rice to get an erection...yes, you saw that correctly.)

Because he's not in the next film, I'll talk about Joe here.  Joe is...well, a guy who got some serious cheek implants - think chipmunk.   He was told he couldn't be a major leading star with his thin cheeks so he got these things that make him look like he has food stuffed in his cheeks, and ironically - also make it hard to smile or show facial expressions.   As a result in most of the films I've seen him in he is stern faced no nonsense Yakuza, but in this film, he has room to act out and eventually have a bit of a breakdown so they gave hi ma lot of flexibility on that.   It also helped they had to spit this script out in a hurry and there was a need to improvise some stuff. 

I didn't realize this till watching the special features, but at the time Nikkatsu was putting out a double feature every week - imaging a studio doing two films a week! - Like Hollywood, you had contract directors and actors who worked for the studios.  Nikkatsu did mostly the B-movie and Yakuza stuff that doesn't get seen a lot in the west but had massive appeal in Japan.

This film would probably benefit from a second viewing - I had to watch it over 3 nights and totally forgot about some killings in the opening that actually play a part in the later part of the film, but again, there's no exposition here really - like one writer said, you just assume at this point you know they're Yakuza, bad guys, and they have a code, etc...

but it is very creatively shot - Seijun reached for something bigger than another Noir film, and hit something close to Surrealism or New Wave - I liked it even if there were times where I felt like I was barely keeping up :)

RB

#37 - Time Bandits

So this is one of the few films so far I can honestly say I have seen multiple times, and that I saw it as a kid - it's a kid's film and more - Time Bandits

Directed by Terry Gilliam - (Monty Python and the Holy Grail - as well as lots of Monty Python illustrations) - it has the FEEL of a Monty Python film - the dry over the top British Humor, the at times outlandish sets and visuals - it's a very striking visual film, and there hadn't been a lot of kids films up to that point in recent years - more than any other this one takes it over the top

A young boy is caught up with a half dozen little people who work for the Supreme Being (God) and have stolen his map and are skipping thru time, stealing stuff and skipping off to another time and place before the crime was committed.   There are some excellent performers here by David Warner and Sean Connery, and the idea of a child's movie told from the point of view of a child worked because his costars - the adults shorter than him, never overshadowed him.

Some great special features - it wasn't QUITE as fun as I remembered it as a kid seeing it 3 or 4 times in the theater, but still a nice quick walk down memory lane.  I found out George Harrison had a hand in producing it and in doing some of the music.  (I doubt I was old enough to know who he was at the time) but interestingly enough I do remember liking the music and sitting thru the credits - no doubt because as a kid I'd watch movies two or three times and just rewatch them - LOL   (cheap babysitter)

Anyhow, its got that vibe that I think made it worthy of a Criterion release, and some special features including a making of from a design POV which is always good stuff and a horrible trailer I don't remember and some good commentary stuff.

anyhoo - back to adult films

RB

#36 - The Wages of Fear

For number 36 we have another Suspenseful film from Henri-Georges Clouzot - and boy is it a zinger - The Wages of Fear

taking a different tack than he would take two years later with Diabolique, this is about a group of down on their luck guys driving volatile explosives across South America to an oil well fire.

The first 40-50% of the film actually shows us the lives of the guys who have arrived in this South American Town where it's virtually impossible to get out without money - it tries to establish a dynamic between who are the tough guys, the good guys, and then it throws them into a life or death situation and you see those relationships and assessments get re-evaluated.

By the time the trucks get rolling, you think you know who is going to make it and who is going to have issues with their nerves as the drive goes along and it's an interesting dynamic to watch them flip around - it's also interesting to watch young vs. old - and experienced vs. new - (one character alludes to working in the Salt Mines for 3 years for the Nazis, which would probably age anyone by a hundred years)

I guess the film was edited partially for America - (not in this release) and I could see how a bunch of right-wing moralists looking under every rock for a Commie would be concerned that the oil company is American and seems to not put much value on life as it sends these guys out to deliver the explosives.   I'm sure the oil companies are relieved they didn't get bad P.R. - douchebags

but the tension in this second half you can cut with a knife as the trucks get underway - I know there were a few times I was holding my breath - great movie and I'll look forward to more Henri-Georges Clouzot hopefully later in the series

Both of these last two films, by the way, - I have really loved the lighting and the way they are shot - I don't know if I can put a finger on it - but he really uses the light and shots to build the suspense in a way that's very effective - almost film-noir'ish - good stuff

of course, several interviews and extras are on this edition, including a small documentary on what was censored for American audiences, and the print looks great in Blu-Ray

RB

#35 - Diabolique

Ah - another new Director - and another new story about a fascinating film.

Diabolique is a 1955 thriller directed by Henri-Georges Clouzet - Now I never heard of him but apparently he's a master of the thriller genre in France and this may be his best known work.

What makes this particularly fascinating for me is I had no idea how influential this film is.  Watching it, you are reminded of many elements of suspense thrillers, but many of them borrow from this - This is one of the first films to truly use some of these elements which would become so well known, and almost cliche, in modern Suspense thrillers.

The movie goes so far out of it's way to protect the ending that there is a warning at the end of the movie to NOT spoil the ending for friends coming to view it - so there you go - all I need to say is two women plot to kill the abusive husband of one of them and it goes downhill from there - LOL

I guess Hitchcock was so impressed with this he bought rights to the next book written by the author who wrote the story this movie was based on, and that became Vertigo.   There are also some interesting homages, or influences likely in Hitchcock's Psycho to scenes in this movie.   Of course, Alfred would become more famous, but he would try for years to match the level of suspense that this movie put out.   As film standards and audiences opened up, he would get a chance but at this time, French audiences were more open than American audiences.   (The two women are the wife and mistress, respectively, of the abusive schoolmaster - would that kind of adultery be given free reign among characters in a US movie?   Nah.)

Some great special features on the dvd including commentary on scenes, and film essays on the film and how Clouzet did his work where he was a kind of guy who was into ultra realism, even going so far as making his actors eat rotten fish in a scene where there is conflict over the Headmaster's decision to purchase mediocre quality fish.   Most directors would at least let them eat good stuff - I guess he was also a fan of 30 or 40 takes in some scenes.

Whatever you do, don't confuse this with the 1996 Sharon Stone version - ugh..

RB

#34 - Andrei Rublev - (and Filmstruck)

Lots to go thru here - let's get started

My first Russian film for the collection as I recall - and ironically one that wasn't shown in Russia for years for it's depictions of faith and other uncomfortable ideas to authoritarianism

This is the second film by Andrei Tarkovsky - and I know he's going to pop up again so I'll save that for another time

This is quite simply a beautiful film about the life of a famous Russian Icon Painter - to be fair, much of it is episodic and dramatized - (i.e. probably fictional) but it still tells a good story of a man trying to bring beauty to a time and place that was anything but.   One of the things I picked up along the way of researching this movie was how it tried to accurately depict life and situations in the 1400's in Russia, and it did occur to me while watching it that living then would have really, really sucked

There's a lot of scenes that could have been talked about, but I think the one that sticks out to me is Andrei recounting his impression and story of the Passion of the Christ - what makes it unique is that as it is acted out, it is done so with Russian Peasants, in the dead of winter, with a Russian looking Jesus.   It's those little things that make you rethink sometimes the story you think you've heard a hundred times before

Of course, there's some excellent overhead shots and stuff that no doubt would be done with a drone today - the introduction makes no sense to me, but then again, that's part of the fun :)

now - the downside - lots of good features here on the DVD - Audio commentary (didn't catch if it was the whole movie or just certain scenes but some great in depth technical commentary) - and it's the 205 minute "director's cut"

Having said that - there is a 186 minute cut out there that Tarkovsky said is his true version - I did some compares and aside from a few extra gory scenes that might have been removed - (they killed a horse in this film - but they got it from the slaughter house that day so it was a goner either way)  - I don't THINK the missing scenes added anything to the overall story.

So onto my second issue - the DVD is 2.35 to 1 but it's actually framed in a 4:3 window - so that means if you have a 1.85-1 TV you end up with a 2.35-1 letterbox compressed in the 4:3 space.

That brings me to the last part of my title - I decided to sign up for a trial of Filmstruck - let's face it - now that I'm not in the cities anymore, there's a lot I won't be able to easily get besides Netflix - AND...in some of these cases where I"m looking at DVD's from 1999 the streaming quality exceeds the DVD

AND my final point - (not to beat a dead horse - AUGH) - the Filmstruck edition was the 186 minute edition and is SUBSTANTIALLY cleaner than the DVD print - someone got this thing cleaned up for blu-ray quality and that's what Criterion is streaming right now - wasn't even close - the DVD had lots of print scratches and the streaming was almost flawless - SO at some point maybe they'll release it on Blu-Ray - the DVD also had those blocky subtitles that I don't really like looking down for away from the screen

BUT otherwise - a great movie - the 3 hrs seemed like, well, 2 - LOL -

Side Tangent - Russian Ark

I recently found this on my Sling TV in High-Def - I have it on DVD but a quick check showed the hi-def was better and it's out on Blu-ray - my copy will be in next week :D

This SHOULD be a Criterion film, IMHO - but in any case, it's a splendid piece of work - Roger Ebert gave it four stars, and at it's core, it's a story told in a single, continuous 90 minute camera shot.  The story itself is very interesting, and apparently was concocted specifically to showcase the Hermitage, the famous Palace/Museum in St Petersburg, Russia.  Two strangers wonder from room to room and find themselves bouncing around from time to time - the 18th century in one room, modern day tourists in the next, attempting to discern why they have found themselves in this strange predicament.

There are some beautiful music scenes and performances, and some humorous Russian inside jokes, like the guy who's following them everywhere like a slightly incompetent KGB agent.  I just think as a whole, it's probably my favorite Russian movie, and it came to mind as I was getting ready for Andrei Rublev....

So there you go - if you have Sling Blue, it should be available in HD as desired -

#33 - Nanook of the North

#33 is the silent classic "Nanook of the North"  - He wasn't really called that and a chunk of this movie is staged or filmed using traditional behaviors that the Inuit had stopped using by 1920 - (they were hunting with rifles by then) - but nevertheless, it's a classic.

I spent a few years up north with Alaska Natives - this way of life has gone but small traces of it remain here and there.  

From a film history standpoint, this is considered the first real historical documentary - so the idea that some stuff was staged, well, there were no guidelines for that sort of thing yet - nowadays though, reality tv is staging so much of this kind of thing anyways that the animals they catch would already be dead and frozen and brought out for the "kill" shot

it was interesting with a nice soundtrack composed in 1999 to go with the silent film - there is a brief feature with his widow but not much else to this Criterion release

As a side note it's not in print by Criterion anymore but it's in the public domain, so the wayback archive has a copy of it - it's also on youtube - in fact I'm not sure 100% of the source, but this copy seems like it's in even higher def. than the copy I got from my library -

In fact, in retrospect, I wish I had watched this on youtube instead of my DVD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoUafjAH0cg

RB

#32 - Oliver Twist

And we get the next David Lean film - another adaptation of a Dickens classic.  Alec Guinness does a wowzer transformation here as an old, withered up Fagin - (so much so they actually showed his performance from Great Expectations in the trailer to this film to contrast his transformation)

Speaking of that's about all there is in these two Criterion movies - the trailer and colorbars - no special features short of subtitles -

Good movies but I'm eager to get back to stuff I haven't heard of from outside English speaking stuff - and these 1940's films wouldn't be something I'd buy - but I got thru them

RB

#31 - Great Expectations

And so we come to the first of two Dickens adaptations directed by David Lean - (who we last saw in Summertime - #22) -

This was filmed right after the end of the Second World War, and has Alec Guinness in his first speaking role on screen - This seems like a classic of 1940's cinema - the music, the scenery, the characters - it all feels like it's in the right time and well done -

I just wasn't terribly interested - I have no terrible desire to rewatch movies or stories I've seen before and while Ethan Hawke and Gweneth Paltrow made a terrible Pip and Estella, by that point I knew the story well enough.   The Actress playing Estella did manage to come across as a detached lady of refinement.   She was probably my favorite character after the portly lawyer, Jaggers

It's not a bad film - many think it's one of the best ever - it just wasn't that interesting or exciting to me - I guess there was an inferior 1934 American version of Great Expectations (with the same actor playing Jaggers) but that this is regarded as the classic interpretation - so I'm glad I saw it

but truth be told - I coulda gone either way -

RB

Side Tangent - Library rents Criterion streaming

thought this was interesting

https://lifehacker.com/now-you-can-stream-criterion-films-with-a-library-card-1797516428

side note:   Having just left a city with 50 libraries and moved to a small town with one, I'll be having to netflix or borrow stuff in the future - which means sadly fewer of the special features...

I did get a Roku recently and will add filmstruck after a period of studying where I'm working on a work certification - it'll be my reward if I pass - I've been upset ever since they dropped the collection on Hulu

#30 - M

If that ain't the shortest movie title ever, I don't know what is :)

We have here a Fritz Lang film - his first with sound - (He had done Metropolis just 4 years earlier, and that was silent as were the ones that he did in between) - it's a masterpiece of German Cinema, and on most top 100 lists of great film watchers.  There are some early strains of film noir here - and I guess it's not that unusual a film for what was called the Weimar era, the Republic that was leading Germany right before the Nazi's came in

So I didn't quite know what we had here - There are virtually no protagonists - just a child murderer on the lam from both the Police and the Criminal Underworld - the plot is simple enough - but one of the great things about this film was Lang's use (or lack thereof) of sound as a painter using it for the first time - it reminds me a bit of how Kurosawa got to use color for the first time in a Samurai film (Kagemusha) - you get a LOT of it

Some scenes are shot without sound - I guess it was partially because sound equipment was expensive, but Lang uses it to great effect (Police sneaking around setting up an ambush for example) - and the work of Peter Lorre, especially in his closing monologue, with the camera lingering on him for extended takes is one of the most famous monologues of cinema.  There is also a musical theme (whistling) designed to lead you to understand when the main character is close even when not on camera

The Blu-Ray extras were fascinating - one included a documentary of the physical history of the film - this film was banned 3 years later in Germany after the Nazi's came to power - and there were French/English versions of the film, that quite frankly, didn't do Peter Lorre's final monologue justice with the extra cuts in it.  No one knows 100% what the initial director's cut was cause it was sliced and diced a few times and when the original negative was found, it was missing a reel

But it's a classic and good to see finally - it was Peter Lorre's breakout role and the one that jumpstarted his career - and he and Lang would both go on to flee Germany and have strong careers here in America for many years.

#29 - Picnic at Hanging Rock

Wow - could the blog finally be updated?   Yes it is - finally -

After 6 weeks of more or less getting moved and getting a house ready to rent, I had two hours tonight to sit in my new living room, and watch this blu-ray on my TV on a new stand several feet above the floor elevated like a real movie screen -

And what a movie it is - a 1975 Australian ...I don't know whether to say Mystery, Thriller, or Horror film - Right off the bat the film tells you - several schoolgirls go missing at a Picnic at Hanging Rock on Valentine's Day 1900 and are never found.   The rest of the film is that day and the weeks that follow, the effect on the townspeople and those who last saw the girls.

The two cast members that  stand out are Miranda, played by Anne Louise Lambert.  I don't (and probably never will) know her for any other roles than this one, but as the teenage angel of the group, her performance, especially the unspoken parts, are entrancing and enchanting.   She is, as one review puts it "Venus coming into being" -

This is in stark contrast to the other main character......the site of Hanging Rock itself - a stark foreboding place (made much more so by the music of Zamfir, the pan flute virtoso in the soundtrack) - This is an outcropping of volcanic rock teeming with dangerous life and wonder, and it is in the maze of volcanic caves and rocks that the women vanish without a trace

The contrast between these Victorian (and virginal) women in white to the stark towers with ancient faces that seem to stare back at you is almost terrifying - suddenly you find yourself having the heebie jeebies in the dark and having to turn on the light to finish the movie :)

Peter Weir directed it - and he also directed three of my other favorite films, two of which I keep in my DVD collection - Dead Poets Society and Master and Commander:The Far Side of the World - (the other film was Witness) - This was one of the masterpieces of his early career, and a masterpiece of Australian cinema, from what I understand.   Def. worth your time.   The Blu-Ray I saw had several special features, and I heard there's even a copy of the novel in one of the most recent releases as it's out of print.

On a side note - this has been remade into a 6 part television series for Australian TV which I understand is going to star Natalie Dormer and will also be released in the United States - THAT will be interesting - there is a small degree of Freudian sexuality that slips out here and there and I suspect the remake will like most films, make the innuendo and sly hints ridiculously overt and explicit but hey, what the hell - Maybe I'll watch it when it comes out

RB

Side Tangent - Celluoid Man

I haven't updated the blog in a few weeks - those freaking Warhol movies threw me off my game - I tried watching Flesh for Frankenstein a couple times and just gave up - ugh.   Add to that me working on a professional certification and moving to Eau Claire, and time of two hrs a pop just hasn't been there.

But in the meantime, I came across another gem on Netflix called Celluloid Man - it is a documentary about a film archivist called P.K. Nair who almost single handed built up India's National Film Archive.   In the process, he saved several Indian films destined for recycling shops where the silver nitrate would be taken off the film stock and sold.   Of course, there's also the age old enemies of moisture, damage, rust, etc.

It was great to see a film again about a guy who loved films so much he'd watch them four or five times a day - he worked out of the Film and Television Institute in Pune, and was building up the archive one reel at a time.  Apparently there were times where if a film on loan came in, he made a pirate copy - (we archivists don't like that word, he said) - and he built up a library of almost 12k films, 8k were Indian.   Some were incomplete or were cut up and had to be figured out how to be reconstructed

He would watch them with students who wanted to be directors, cinematographers, actors, writers, and had a projectionist who wouldn't quit till the last roll was sometimes shown at 3am.  They'd show up at 630am to watch a series of clips for films that had been censored - it was just something to see what a love for film archiving looks like.  Who knows how many times he saw Rashamon or Bicycle Thieves and got to discuss it with other people.

We also saw a bit of the cost - his daughter telling us he wasn't a father in the traditional sense, but now that he was old and slowing down they had a relationship like friends - (not father and daughter) - and you get the sense he isn't a fan of digitizing images - He thought something was lost in that - but of course, we can't all have temperature controlled archives of film canisters lying around.

He wanted to make films but never made a single one.  Arguably he had a bigger impact on film, and certainly Indian film than any one director.   He SAVED these images.  What a wonderful treat.

RB

#28 - Blood for Dracula

see entry #27 for why this is here and empty right now

--------

EDIT - 3/30/19 - I knocked both this and Flesh for Frankenstein out while playing a game just to have them and get them done - I guess they were shot back to back to a degree that Udo and one of the other main characters from Frankenstein basically finished that movie, cut their hair shorter, and went right into this one.

very similiar to Flesh, this one features some gratutious sex, gore, horror, and humor.

when watching movies with accents this thick I almost want subtitles but evidently they weren't even on the Criterion disk I had scrounged up back two years ago - (I made a temp copy which I will now delete - I know I got it from the Library system but neither of these were easy to find - of course now I'd probably Amazon Video films that I can't find that are still out there like "The harder they fall"

It was a pretty weak take on the Dracula theme as a whole - but so was Frankenstein - but they're done and the blog is updated -

I have one more I'm sorta not looking forward to but I will get on with it shortly I suspect

#27 - Flesh for Frankenstein

Honestly I don't think I can watch this or Dracula (#28) right now

They're just BAD....

I'm going to put "placeholder" blog entries in here - at some point I'll get to them but I'd rather move on for the time being

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UPDATE 3/30/19 - in an attempt to clean out the baffles, as it were before #100, and because I'm 3 days away from my next film coming in, I finally watched this one -

I didn't know whether to be repulsed or laugh at this thing - I remember it being called a cult classic growing up - (and I had no idea who Andy Warhol was - basically he had nothing to do with this but as a presenter.  Basically we have a gorefest of a sexually explicit film.   The Baron is played by the well known actor Udo Kier - (Lord, his IMDB is crazy big) - but as a whole, this is one I wanted to just get out and get it done - then I gotta do Dracula and probably the unspeakable one but I will get thru it. 

not even gonna update the twitter - LOL

#26 - The Long Good Friday

First funny trivia of note - I almost watched this on Good Friday, which would have been a hoot :D

This was a clever 1979 British Gangster film I had never heard of, starring Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren (in the youngest role I've seen her in so far) and for a little extra boot, Eddie Constantine, who was our detective from Alphaville - (#25) - so he shows up twice in a row

It's a pretty good gangster whodunit with a 70's soundtrack and some pretty thick accents - the Criterion release is out of print - but the DVD I got from the Library had some extra features including an excellent documentary about the making of the film with all the principals, the director and the writer.

I guess this was Bob Hoskins breakout role - the film was made and then bought by George Harrison's film company (Handmade Films) for release in 1980 - Helen is excellent here in a role as the Gangster's Moll, (and much more) - We also get just the briefest peek of Pierce Brosnan here in his first feature film role.

The British Gangster genre isn't well known to me - (neither is the Italian American Mafia genre.  I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen any of the Godfather Trilogy ever) - but as a film it kept you guessing up to the end and engaged you with it's fast pace and I enjoyed it thoroughly - the Soundtrack reminded me of one of those Golan-Globus productions of the 1980's - just a little over the top like someone found their first synthesizer and cranked it up but it worked.

The one shot I really liked is at the end but I won't discuss it just in case you want to see the film :)

RB

#25 - Alphaville

This one was interesting - a Futuristic Sci-Fi Noir film out of France - Did not see that coming...

Long story short - you have a society (Alphaville) run by a sentient massive computer, and folks working against it while the AI subverts emotions and thoughts in the populace, etc

Lots of inspiration here for other futuristic films - I thought I would like it more than I did but I was tired when watching it, struggled to understand totally what they were going for, and in the end found myself reading the Wikipedia entry to be sure I understood what happened.

I did like some of the hotel scenes which were massive tracking shots of 2-4 minutes including a trip in an elevator - (which was shot from an adjacent elevator with a glass wall) - the entire film plays out on a conventional background with futuristic lingo that reminds me of the bad fiction I used to write in grade school - But...not a terrible film but def. not one I'd buy for myself  - I didn't love it and often found myself checking how much longer I had to go before I was done

the Criterion edition is out of print and had no special features to speak of anyways

RB

#24 - High and Low

Wife is out of town so I was able to fit one more in - now I gotta wait for Netflix again or la Library

So Kurosawa is one of my favorite directors - I've already done my entry on Seven Samurai and what an excellent film it is, and I have at least one book on Kurosawa in my library.  However, after an aborted attempt at watching all his cinema thru from beginning to end, I gave up after the first Eclipse series and stuck to his Samurai and period pieces, as these were my favorite genres.

Of course, while I had not seen THIS film, he does do an excellent job with contemporary period material as well, including the magnificent Ikiru which I will get to later on in this blog someday.

Here we have a detective/crime flick - a kidnapping of a wealthy executive's son has occurred - except it later turns out it's his chauffeur's son - Thus begins a terrible morality tale as not only does the boy's life hang in the balance, but several other lives could be ruined if the ransom is paid.  Kurosawa takes us on this journey with two of his principle actors, Toshiro Mifune, as the executive Kingo Gondo, (what a name with Western connotations, eh?)  and Tatsuya Nakadai as the inspector in charge of the case.  Although the film runs 2 hrs and 20 minutes, it moves at a brisk pace.   As I understand it, this was based on a Western Cop novel from 1959, (the 89th precinct series called King Ransom) but of course, this is not the first time nor the last that Akira will borrow from Western sources for his material.

Some things that stick out to me - the title in Japanese is Heaven and Hell, and you get that - the executive lives high on a hill overlooking the poorer parts of Yokohama, and almost like a feudal lord, towers above them on a hill where they could virtually see into his living room.   He has servants, drivers, and a substantial share of stock in the company he is attempting to acquire.   The Hell, of course, is the lower depths of Japanese society.  One scene in particular reminded me of Night of the Living Dead, with heroin addicts standing up shakily as if to devour prey that walks inside.

There is also a club scene of Americans both Black and White dancing and partying together in a way I don't think you'd have seen in an equivalent American film in 1963, but maybe the younger generation in their Rock and Roll movies might have seen it.  I guess cause it's so rare in these early 60's films it jarred me just a tiny bit although desegregation of the Armed Forces had occurred by then.

What I also note is that Gondo, for all his executive excesses, is really a salt of the earth kind of guy - he is fighting other executives because he wants their shoes to be better quality, not cheaper - he can repair and fix things with his own toolkit, probably the only one of the executives to ever have real experience working with his hands

Gondo doesn't come across as a guy this deserves to happen to, and in the end, you don't walk away feeling the villains had some nobility or statement they were trying to make thru their suffering at the low end of society.   I have read essays where they speculate he was trying to reply to the "nihilism of the then-rising Japanese New Wave" which you would see in the Noir cinema and Seijun Suzuki a little later in the 60's.

In any case, this film is near the end of Kurosawa's principal output (the stretch from the 1950's to 1970)  - he would only do about 3 more films between this one (1963) and 1980's Kagamusha, which brought him back to international fame at the end of his career.  During this time he would suffer a career flop, a suicide attempt, and a job directing a Russian film after Japanese funding dried up for him.   In any case, it's a great modern style Japanese Detective film and a worthy entry in the Kurosawa canon

My Netflix leaves out the 2nd disk - (A headache I'm going to remedy in the future by looking for library editions again) - but there's the Kurosawa documentary "It is wonderful to create" which is with most Kurosawa films, talking about the film on the DVD - an audio commentary by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince and some interviews with Mifune and other actors.   This is such a pretty film in 2.35 to 1 - but dont' just take my word for it - check out the trailer at criterion.com

#23 - Robocop

Ok...first off - I really don't understand how this got in the Criterion Collection - I mean...not really but this is our third film of the last four to be in the mid 80's and I guess it's considered a Cult Classic but I remember it as actually being a hit - but then I was probably a freshman in high school

So this is MAYBE the first time I remember seeing very close to the time it came out - I probably saw it on HBO or the like cause I wasn't 17 and couldn't see a rated R film - In my memory, it was just another sci-fi robotic movie like the Terminator/T2 series - (in fact, I might have seen this with my mom and her husband who took us to see the original Terminator)

One today can see the parallels to modern society - The Corporations taking over public services and providing inferior service - (such as the recent expose on private prisons by by the publication Mother Jones) - I mean, it's a cool movie - and I got to see an MGM blu-ray edition of it - but I dunno - to me it's not Criterion worthy - in any case, it's out of print now so meh - but readily available in other editions by MGM and the like - and it is on blu-ray which is what Netflix gave me

some special features for this DVD have made it to other editions - It is extremely bloody and violent - and I'm not sure if I saw the uncut version (that could have gotten an X rating) or some of the less gory stuff - but anyways it was #23 and I knocked it out - and now I'm going to take a walk in the sun :)

There's a lot of commentary on this film on Wikipedia - and a ton of good trivia in the IMDB site so I won't get too deep into it here but hey, it's a fun film on an afternoon - to this day I still haven't wasted time with the remake - so there you go

RB

#22 - Summertime

This was a beautiful film, shot almost entirely outdoors in Venice - it's no wonder that tourism doubled in the years after, or that the Director, David Lean ended up getting a 2nd home there where he stayed part of the year.

A lonely secretary goes to Venice, in the form of Katherine Hepburn -there she ends up falling for an Italian who sweeps her away, but of course there must be tragedy in these things - I had never heard of the film before now, but it definitely inspired me to want to go and see Venice for myself.

According to source, 90% of this was shot outdoors - Venice is front in center the entire film and you are immersed in some wonderful scenic shots in what must be one of the most romantic cities in the world.

Although I didn't know David Lean by name, I certainly know several of the movies he would make after this one - The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, etc...his last five films would be big long epics - this was his last short film, but he captured a time and place in Venice that probably doesn't exist anymore except in the romanticized imagination and for that I am grateful

AND, hey, i was a little surprised to find the morality of this film to not exactly be Ozzie and Harriett - Adultery plays a role here - and while some parts were censored for certain countries, the full effort is here.  

I could say a lot about Katherine Hepburn's performance, but the truth is, this is really the first film I've seen her in that I've paid attention to - No doubt though if this film were made today, it'd feature a much younger woman than Kat, who was near 40 by the time she did this film.   Today's filmmakers have no respect for middle-aged actresses - Katherine here does give the impression of the spinster who used to believe in love and doesn't anymore - and she does it with very little dialogue, which is something most modern filmmakers and actresses wouldn't pull off well, IMHO

This DVD IS still in print although it really has no extra features to speak of - maybe someday they'll release a restore HD version - the city of Venice alone would make it worth the effort

RB

#21 - Dead Ringers

Sorry for the delay - took a week off to go to Ireland, and life, bills, etc -

so I know OF Cronenberg's work - but I haven't been conscious of having seen stuff that's he's directed till now - I went back to IMDB and I have seen some of his films, but I think this one is more representative of the kind of stuff I think of him for.

IMDB calls him the king of venereal horror or the Baron of Blood although this was much more of a suspense film than a gruesome fest.  I guess his earlier work was famous for having some pretty grotesque scenes of bodily horror.  But as the Criterion Essay puts it, David eschews his usual work portraying the disintegration of the body for a different take on the disintegration of the mind.

The biggest thing that stands out about this right away, obviously, is the incredible Jeremy Irons.   One can imagine playing a complex character, but playing two different characters, trying to leave a mark and technique for each one, while allowing for the occasional muddying of who is Elliot and who is Beverly is a difficult challenge that Irons rises to.  It's a fascinating film about a man's descent into obsession and drugs and what it does to his twin brother, who up till now has been the sophisticated one of the pair.   To rewatch it again, and watch how the brothers start out and end up is to watch a roller coaster go off the rails

I was a bit surprised at the turn of the third act, but there was a lot of this film that kept me on the edge of my seat - I enjoyed it quite a bit even though I tend to not like these 80's US films that dominated the early years of the collection

I was unable to find a Criterion DVD for this one - (out of print) - SO...you're outta luck - there's a list of some features on the website and there are always essays about the films at criterion.com - so go check it out - there's also some interesting trivia there about how Jeremy WAS using two dressing rooms, one for each character, until he realized part of the suspense was wondering which brother was which and brought them together.  It also discusses the method he used to get a different energy out of each brother as in all other respects they were completely identical

RB

Travel delays

Been on vacation for a week in Lovely Ireland - I'll get back to the movies shortly - I'm also going to watch some more Irish movies and yada yada yada

#20 - Sid and Nancy

I saw this two days ago from a different company's DVD release - I had some busy going on and didn't get the review written

It's a biopic about Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy - a pair of codependent drug addicts, one of whom just HAPPENED to be in the Sex Pistols - :)

It's a cool movie - some nice shots - I always had a thing for the Chelsea Hotel and they shot live there but I'm not a fan of the music and some drug movies can take you into the trip, and some can't - this one tries but it can't - there are some wonderful shots though that make you go whoa, like the fire in their hotel room or several of their closest scenes, such as the accidental (as portrayed) stabbing or the cab ride at the end

I mean, it's a good film and I had seen it before, but I dunno - you've seen one self-destructive rock star you've almost seen them all, know what I mean - still a decent film, though - but out of print on Criterion now

#19 - The Shock Corridor

#19 is the Samuel Fuller film he made before The Naked Kiss  - (which was the last movie we reviewed) - It's a slightly different take - about a journalist who goes undercover into a mental hospital to find the identity of a killer and win the Pulitzer.

There's some stellar scenes in here - One is of an African-American who thinks he is a white segregationist  (driven mad by pressure brought upon him trying to INTEGRATE into a school where he was harassed) - in one scene he's giving a vicious speech about the dangers of the "Negro" and Tim Robbins said later that Fuller told him he didn't write that speech.  It was lifted from the congressional record.    That's just a LITTLE renegade there :)

Another scene which I had been cued in on from the Naked Kiss DVD was the scene where he has a clear mental break and thinks it's raining in the hall - but for me the scenes that stuck out were the long conversational scenes between him and the inmates who may have seen the crime - There's just some wild creative dialogue flowing there - and all three of the men he interviewed, whoever they were then, cracked under pressures and strains we would all by sympathetic to I think, to some degree.  

Of course, this is pulp fiction to a degree - real people don't go mad or go thru what some of them did - but I do remember the story of one of my favorite songwriters, Townes Van Zandt, who went thru such intensive shock therapy in his early 20's that he could no longer remember his childhood, so there was SOME hell going on back then

Sadly, this is a very old print of the DVD, so there were no extras,  unless u want the colorbars in a black and white film :)  but Criterion has re-released it with another interview with Constance Towers (who had a leading role in this film) and you can always find most of the film essays on the site

Speaking of old, 7 of the next 10 films in the list are out of print - so suffice it to say, there won't be a lot of extras there either - and Robocop?   What the frack - but we'll work our way thru the list with a deeper appreciation of this American Director, Writer, and Producer in our repertoire now

#18 - The Naked Kiss

Now THIS is why I started watching these movies and writing about them - I wasn't familiar with Fuller's work - (except for probably The Big Red One) - and I'm not really familiar with any of Hollywood's classic cinema.   I've seen a lot more Toshiro Mifune than John Wayne.

This movie comes at you swinging out of the gate (literally) - watch that opening scene 2 or 3 times and you get a whole new appreciation for it.   A prostitute (played by Constance Towers  - leaves her pimp and settles in a small town where she walks away from the trade.   She finds a new career, a new love, and comes to realize there is no paradise in the world she walked away from, but not necessarily any in the one she came to

Samuel Fuller - man...what a traditional American Director - in the special features, he reminds me exactly like a Hollywood B-film director - (the films come across a little bit as such, but much better quality - he wrote, produced, and directed this film and a lot of his films) - several of the special features in my DVD are interviews with him and are def. worth the time to watch to get a feel for the director and to imagine how much fun it must have been to work it.  I see traces of Hunter S. Thompson in him - a bit of newspaper crazy and he wrote an excellent story

The Actors and Actresses are for the most part, unknown to anyone but serious cinema junkies  - I certainly didn't recognize any of them, but they did a great job within the confines of 1960's censorship to tell a story of the "Lower World" as he told it and one woman's attempt to rise out of it and maybe keep a couple others out as well -

My next film is also a Fuller film, and if I get a chance, there is an Eclipse series with the early films of Sam Fuller which I may try to get in there.   There is an excellent essay about a person who wrote the book on Fuller trying to identify WHY people like his films - and there is an honesty to them - a simple honesty, as Constance put it in her DVD interview extra.   I understand he was also a large influence on French Cinema and their French New Wave - I could see that - perhaps that is why I like this film so much -

Special props to this film for that crazy jazz soundtrack, which really contributes to the vibe of the film in certain scenes.  - Special features include 3 documentary clips with Samuel Fuller, one with the lead actress, and based on some of the tootage in them, this film has gotten an excellent restoration - suffice it to say that I'm looking forward to a lot more of Sam's films in the future

RB

#17 - Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

yah...it's not happening, folks

I got the disk - I've looked at the trailer, I've read essays on it - and I skimmed parts of it, and I understand the historical and cultural significance of this movie and part of me really wants to try and watch it

I'm not alone - Roger Ebert owned it but never watched it - I recognize several film critics think you can't be a serious film watcher if you don't see it - it's on the list of 1001 movies you must see before you die...

but I do this blog and watch these movies for my enjoyment - and I don't think I can watch a two hour sexual torture filled film where many of the nude actors/actresses are under 18 -

if I were to get Spiritual as a Christian, it's that what you put into your life is what you get out - and personally, despite my love of cinema, I can see nothing in this film that would come back to me in a positive way

as a last ditch attempt to wrap my head around it, I read this essay by a film critic going to five other film critics to ask their opinion - they were 3-2 for watching it but he still didn't do it

you can find that one here

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2011/10/04/salo_five_film_critics_on_why_you_have_to_see_it.html

so I'm going to let this one go and dive instead into Samuel Fuller in a day or two - I recognize the right of this art to exist, but I recognize more my right to not watch it.

read the plot on wikipedia if you want and then make a decision - but I just can't do this one - sorry, guys

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EDIT 3/31/19 - watched it - actually I played a video game while I had it going on the side and could easily tune it out - absolutely nothing in there redeeming or worth talking about IMHO - good riddance

#16 - Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island

And so we come to the conclusion of the epic Samurai Trilogy with Duel at Ganryu Island.

Actually, out of the three movies, this probably has some of the least swordplay - the duel at the end is a mere 3-4 minutes - in history, this was two of the best known (and undefeated swordsmen) of their time.   Musashi would go on to do other things, including fight in other battles with armies and help wipe out a Christian Community in the south - (dick move there, Mushshi)

In this film, Mushasi Miyamoto is challenged to a duel by the swordsman in the previous film, who was a famous swordsman in real life by the name of Sasaki Kojiro - In the movie, he challenges Mushasi who initially accepts, but then goes off for a year to live in a village to protect it from Bandits - at the end of the year, he returns north and sails off to Ganryu Island to have their duel.  The actual history however, is a bit varied, contradictory, and complex

But this is cinema - and it wraps up a couple loose ends with the characters, and leaves you feeling like you've watched the formative years of Japan's greatest Samurai hero, even if again, as mentioned previously, it's a dramatized account based on a novel

To summarize, the Criterion extras are pretty sparse on this set - there are some 10 minute commentaries on each film about the real life events of each one by William Scott Thomas.  There are some film essays, and the original trailers but that's about it - it seems like a lot of these early Criterion films only get the good extras upon rerelease in a new version as a lot of the old editions I'm finding only have things like color bars :) - but anyways, I own these blurays and will be hanging onto them

RB

#15 - Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple

The second movie of the Samurai Trilogy takes our characters Musashi's battle with a famous sword school three years after the events of the first movie.   Musashi has learned that he is strong, but not zen enough to truly be a Samurai - This movie focuses on his growth during that time, and his engagement with the Yoshiaka Sword School

In the meantime he crosses path with another master, who seems bound and determined to let Musashi reach his peak potential before challenging him to a duel - These two will face off in the third movie.

A few brief words today about Toshiro Mifune, the main character - One could argue he was the Clint Eastwood of the Samurai Genre, and this was his "Fistful of Dollars" - A versatile actor we last saw in Seven Samurai - (made the same year as this movie) - Toshiro probably did more for the "wandering warrior" genre than anyone and these movies were what started that off -  In fact, one could say that he DID inspire Clint Eastwood, as Mifune's portrayal of a hired gun coming into town between two rival gangs was done first in Yojimbo (1961) than before Clint Eastwood in "A Fistful of Dollars" three years later.

Toshiro can play a wild man, a composed doctor, a gruff samurai, or any number or chracters and is probably the best known Japanese actor of his time to western audiences.

His most famous collaborations are with Akira Kurosawa, and they made 16 films together before having a falling out - Their movie "The Hidden Fortress" was an inspiration for George Lucas and Star Wars, and it's said on the Wikipedia page that Lucas offered him either the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi or Vader but Mifune turned him down.

As someone who's seen a lot of his films, it strikes me how much his acting change from film to film - you see a film with Tom Cruise, you know you're getting Tom Cruise - he's the same guy whether in Risky Business or Mission Impossible - the same delivery, mannerisms, voice, etc-  Same with Clint Eastwood - you're getting "That archtype Clint Eastwood" no matter what film he's in

With Mifune he doesn't really have an archtype - he would look for something,  maybe insignificant, like scratching himself, and use that to define the character, and he would change the character from film to film - aside from his voice, (which is strong and gruff) - he often changes how he presents himself so much that you do feel like you're looking at a different actor and a different archtype - he is most famous in his Samurai persona, but even those change from film to film - He has also done an excellent job in what were contemporary films of the day as well with no trace of the wild man Samurai in films like "Japan's Longest Day" where he plays the the War Minister, Amani at the last days of World War II

Mifune improves any film he's in, and it's no surprise this trilogy was the film that gave him (along with his Seven Samurai performance the same year) - a boost to his career

RB

#14 - Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto

Now we begin the Samurai Trilogy, directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and staring Toshiro Mifune as the larger than life legend of Japan, Musashi Miyamoto.

First off, I bought this blu-ray edition at the 50% off Criterion sale that happens at Barnes and Noble from time to time - I expressed in Seven Samurai my love for Samurai Cinema, and in fact have probably seen every Samurai film released by Criterion, and more than a few of them first on the big screen before the DVD's were released - but I watched this trilogy the first time several years ago, right as I was starting out and I'm pretty sure I didn't have as good an appreciation for it as I have now

Instead of blowing my entire night typing everything and not having anything for parts II and III, tonight, I'll just talk about Musashi - Musashi Miyamoto is probably the most famous samurai in Japan - (in fact, he's often just known as Musashi - if you say that name, people will know who he is)

He was renown as a master swordsman, a very cultured and gifted painter and poet, and writer of "The Book of Five Rings" - a master text on Samurai and Martial arts.  He fought 60 duels and never lost one.   There is a chance he is romanticized a bit - there are stories of his famous duel on Ganryu island being fought after some folks worked over his opponent and that he came and went in such a way he could immediately flee with the tide after the battle, but I digress

What you may be interested in knowing is that there have been over 100 films done on Musashi, and this trilogy is based on a novel - (rather a serialized story with about 1000 chapters in the newspaper) - the movie follows that novel closely, but the novel does NOT follow the real life events of Musashi very well - a lot of this movie is invented but hey, that's what makes a good story.

In the first movie, we see Musashi molded from a wild villager to a disciplined Samurai who leaves Kyoto knowing he has much to learn - He gets help along the way, especially from a Zen Monk named Takuan who makes the Mother Superior in Blues Brothers look like Mother Teresa - There are some love interests and some friends who either aid or distract him along the way - but this movie is like the first movie in a Superhero Trilogy like Iron Man - it establishes the character and shows us where he came from.   It is a transformation in awesome Eastman Color (rare for most Japanese movies of this time) - but the novel was like a Japanese version of Gone With the Wind, and some of the color and music do remind me of that setup - it's a fairly traditional story, without a lot of Samurai gore and blood, but plenty of action.

In Part II I'll talk a bit about Mifune

#13 - Silence of the Lambs

This is another one of those films that was released briefly and then went out of print in Criterion's Catalog.   Of course, it's probably one of the most famous ones that had been released up till that time.

What can we say here?   Anthony Hopkins was voted #1 greatest villain by AFI's 100 years of Heroes and Villains - (Jodie Foster was hero #6) - Anthony created a character here that is a cultural reference today.   Dark, intelligent, infused with as much culture as barbarism, Hannibal Lecter haunts this movie and created an incredible portrayal.   Over the years other actors have picked up the mantle in prequels, but no one could do what Anthony Hopkins did with this character.

Jodie Foster shouldn't be overlooked either - She does an excellent job as Clarice Sterling, the rookie FBI trainee from West Virginia.  I would have liked to have seen her in the sequel, although by this time she was directing on her own and doing great things.  The two make a twisted odd couple, trying to hunt down a serial killer dubbed "Buffalo Bill".   The pace and tension keep you engaged even on a second or third viewing, although I guess Gene Siskel didn't like it very much.  

What I didn't notice or remember from previous viewings was Demme's use of closeups tight on the face during conversations.   Anthony, Jodie, Scott Glenn, and others all get a turn on that tight closeup where the head virtually fills the top/bottom of the screen. - it's an interesting way to film that is probably going for something I'm not smart enough to determine, but suffice it to say, Anthony Hopkins gets the best closeups, including one where he just made a snack out of someone's face and is beating someone else to a freaking pulp

And it was the third (and last, up to now) movie to win the big 5 Academy Awards - (as per Wikipedia, The Big Five Academy Awards are those for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay (either Best Adapted Screenplay or Best Original Screenplay).)  

This is a movie that absolutely deserves a place in the collection, but now is out of print and is distributed by someone else, so I won't get into the special features except I'm sure the commentary by Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, and Jonathan Demme is something to listen to.  

On a side note, I've enjoyed these last two movies, but I'm looking forward to going back to the more historical and obscure stuff.  It's nice sometimes though to revisit these classics - (which, shoot, is 25 years old now but it doesn't feel 25 years old to me :D) 

RB

#12 - This is Spinal Tap

Been fighting a delay on getting this one - Since the Criterion Release is out of print and was unavailable I went with a streamed copy - my Library is dragging their buttocks on getting it to me - I'm going to start rotating as many of these as I can on Netflix even though I may not get the 2nd DVD that comes with a lot of these releases - I also get more blu-ray's that way.

but hey....one of the top 100 movies of all time - a Hilarious rockumentary - (mockumentary?)

I don't even need to talk about this film's plot or characters - it's such a cult classic and hilarious - but a few points -

The movie was almost totally improvised - there are a few dozen hours of footage, some of which end up from time to time on this or the other DVD/Bluray releases

Most musicians of that time who have seen it - (and even some less famous ones like myself) can point to one or two points and say "Oh yah, that's happened to me" - Some of the stuff I recall is playing a high school gymnasium with 20 seconds of echo and kids playing basketball while we played, breaking a string, handing it to a roadie, and getting it back with all six strings WAY outta freaking tune, and filling in for a band and having their fans literally clear the room in like one song -

Roger Ebert gave it 4 stars -

There's 70 minutes of extra footage on most editions of the DVD, and apparently the Criterion version has a commentary with the actors not acting, with the newer dvd's have them doing the commentary in character which I would think is meh compared to hearing the real life stories behind this one

on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this an 11 - cause sometimes you get to 10 and you need a little more, and there you go - this one goes to 11

RB

#11 - The Seventh Seal

This one has been somewhat familiar to me for years - I think I first read about it in a book about cult movies, of all things, and saw it probably 25 years ago.  It's clear to me now that I remembered only the beginning and end of it :)

This movie put Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman on the international stage and his followup, Wild Strawberries, cemented it.  This is one of the first great international films to get worldwide acclaim, and probably the first Swedish one, to my knowledge but don't hold me to that

it's an Art house film - a very young'ish but world weary Max Von Sydow - (still going strong today, of course) - is coming back from the Crusades and into a land ravaged by the Black Plague.   Right off the bat, he meets the personification of Death and proceeds to hold him off by tempting him to a game of chess, with Max getting away if he wins, and time to finish one last task as the game goes along if he loses.

On his way to the castle, the Knight and Squire encounter a motley crew of actors, housemaids, fallen theologians, witches, monks, etc on their way to his castle.  

The story line is interesting but the big question - the one often repeated thru the film is "Why is God Silent?"  - Not many films can do this either literally or metaphorically - but it's my understanding all of Ingmar's middle period dramas focus on this kind of a story - That puts this movie into a rare place that one won't find in today's action-raction sock-em world.  (The new Scorsese film, Silence, based on a novel by Shūsaku Endō, will be another one if it's based on the source material closely) - as such it appeals to the lapsed Evangelical in me, having once gone thru several books on the subject - I'm not sure the film offers any answers for that, but at the least, it's very enjoyable to watch them being asked

There are images in this film that are parodied and replayed in popular culture still today, and of course, some of them are as old as the middle ages themselves. 

It's an excellent film with some great actors, and is one of the best art-house films out there - the Criterion DVD offers commentaries, documentaries, some follow up commentary after the film, where the film critic and commentator for the film, Peter Cowie, states outright that this film sent him down the path of being a film critic and even an optional audio track with English - (does any serious film watcher use those?   Maybe on a rewatching)

I've been looking forward to this one for a while, and was glad to watch it again as part of this project - def. one of the greats of international cinema

#10 - Walkabout

#10 - Walkabout is an Australian film by Nicolas Roeg.  This was his first time in the director's chair, and he walked out in the desert with 3 young actors, a 14 page script and lots of improvisation.   He was already an accomplished cinematographer at this point, and it definitely shows in this film   This is a visually striking film about two children stranded in the Outback who are rescued by an Aboriginal boy on his "Walkabout", or basically, a rite of passage into adulthood where the kid goes out and lives off the land.

I had never heard of this one or the Director.   It does a tremendous job of putting you in the wilderness, with almost as much time on the wildlife as on the actors.   There is a political message, and a message of, as Roger Ebert puts it, the Noble Savage and the crushed spirit of City Dwellers.   There is a sense of growth as they learn to survive in the outback, and as time goes on, you almost root for them not to be rescued and sent back to civilization, as one sees what civilization has brought to the wilderness.

I liked this film, and it looks great on Blu-ray, and is considered one of the great modern films of our time - I am surprised I hadn't heard of it up till now - The Criterion extras includethe female lead and director providing the DVD commentary and some documentaries with or about all three of the principal actors in the story  I must confess that I am generally more creeped out by the "Man vs. Nature" movies than I am by Man vs. Man or any other conflict out there.   I'd like to take the time to watch it again someday, but with Criterion releasing them faster than I'm watching them that's not looking too likely :D

tiny warning - there is some brief full frontal Female nudity in here from the principal actress who was 16 or 17, I think at the time - I guess due to her age they had to get an exception in the UK from film censors or else it would be illegal to distribute there, but point being - you might have to explain a few things if you let the kids watch it - it's the first Criterion release I've seen it in up till now.

On a side now, I'm very glad to have made it thru the first 10 films :)  -