#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 :)  -

#9 - Hard Boiled

Somewhere, I heard a joke at an Awards Show in Hollywood where one of the actors was talking about John Woo's directing style - and basically, in broken english, he did an impression of John Woo

"You just run, I blow it up behind you - run - I blow it up!"

This movie had some of those moments - it's the last John Woo film before emigrating out of Hong Kong, and apparently as the turnover to Mainland China was wrapping up, the films got a bit more risque, a bit more gory, and so forth

I mean, it was a decent film - but it won't make my list of favorites this year - anything else, well, just go ahead and read about it online - I won't waste a ton of time tonight rehashing it-  it's a modern action flick, and it's sort of what I started watching this collection to get away from, so I won't have a ton of love for it - I can see why when just starting out they might add this just to get some Hong Kong Cinema in the collection - but I can see why they let them go out of print and let Dragon Dynasty take it over too

Chow Yun-Fat is the Cop this time - the good guy working with an undercover to take down the Triads running guns in Hong Kong - they shoot up a ton of shit, and the bad guys blow up a ton of shit - the end :)

#8 - The Killer

So, first off...just this disclaimer on #8 and #9 - both are John Woo films, both are out of print on Criterion, and I was unable to find those copies anywhere in my usual library channels.   They are currently distributed in the US by Dragon Dynasty, and this one was on Netflix streaming, so I broke my no streaming rule for this one.

John Woo is a Hong Kong director who came to America in the early 90's to do such films as Face-Off and Mission Impossible II - he has a distinct action cinema style which according to Wikipedia includes Mexican Standoffs, slow motion action, and lots of bullets.  Chow Yun-Fat is his principal actor in most of these.   The style that John Woo style pushed forward during this time was part of a group of films characterized by the term "Gun Fu" and "Heroic Bloodshed"

Truth is, the kind of stuff John was doing has infused it's way into our modern cinema so that this may not look as innovative or as interesting today as it did back then - but this was this highest grossing Hong Kong film in the States at that time up to Enter The Dragon.

As for myself, my favorite Hong Kong films have been the Martial Arts films - Shaw Brothers, Iron Monkey, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - that sort of thing but I have caught a few modern day Hong Kong films as well - (Infernal Affairs is my favorite) - and this is a really good movie I probably would have gotten around to seeing someday

The usual anti-hero with honor is trying to do one last job to help someone he wronged on what was supposed to be his previous last job - he's got Cops and former Employers in the Triad gunning for him - (get it, gunning? - sorry) - and the bullets and blood are flying everywhere - I do find some of these movies amusing in their use of firearms and the protagonist's ability to just bounce back from 2-3 bullet wounds like their muscle and bone and sinew aren't screaming in agony.   I've fired a few guns in my day too and the whole two-fisted approach isn't the best way to hit a target, but boy, does it give you a lotta action.

This and the next film I'll be watching (Hard Boiled) were among Woo's last before going to America - he's also an accomplished producer and writer.  Chow Yun-Fat is probably best known by me for his role in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. which was  the film that turned me on to Wuxia Martial arts films and was, in fact, his first Martial Arts film.    He had already turned out several flicks in the early 80's before John Woo got ahold of him.  Hong Kong in the late 80's and 90's turned out some excellent cinema, and this is a great entry -

Pay attention to foreshadowing and Christian imagery in this one - Woo is a Christian, and without knowing that I suspected it while watching the movie - good stuff - just don't expect them to waste time trying to reload when they can always just pick up someone else's gun and keep shooting :)

RB

#7 - A Night to Remember

Finally, a film that I know a bit about before I watch it - no  "what the hell is this going to be about" this time :) - In fact, I think I saw this years ago and read the book

So, #7 features our biggest star to date - the ol' gal herself, Titanic - We had some delay here, as my library copy turned out to be unplayable - so I did it via Netflix

The thing that sticks out to me about this film is it's superiority, IMO, to the 1997 James Cameron version.  The primary reason is because there is so much manufactured and fictionalized drama in the Cameron version, you just get the feeling it was important for Leo and Kate to be the big stars.  

There was enough drama, tragedy, and fear this night for the story to stand on it's own, and not need some corny romantic redemption drama written into it for the sake of selling a story to Americans - it's probably an American thing - the British version done here does it in one of the best ways, I think.   After the briefest of exposition to some characters we'll see in the film, the Titanic gets underway and strikes the iceberg about 35 minutes into the two hour film which gives plenty of time to watch the crew, passengers, and ship play out their final moments

Little trivia note - this was the last Titanic film to be shot in Black and White - (wikipedia lists about 18 films, ranging from utterly fictional "Raise the Titanic" to silent films made less than 2 months after the sinking for which no prints are available) - It was based on Walter Lord's book, written at a time when interest in the Titanic was at an all time low.

As usual there are some special features, but alas, Netflix only sends the main disk - There's a commentary with a couple Titanic writers and illustrators, and as I understand it, a fine Documentary - might be worth trying to check out of the library a second time just to see the extra features.

A great film that just flew by timewise - a terrible tragedy that will keep me from EVER getting on a cruise ship

RB