#52 - Yojimbo

#52 is a classic - utter and complete classic - it has inspired copycats in the west - (A Fistful of Dollars and Last Man Standing) - it made an international superstar out of Toshiro Mifune and continues the great collaborations between him and Akira Kurosawa.

I'm going to do something a little different here - I'm not going to talk about the film yet

I'm going to talk about a time when I had seen Seven Samurai, and had bought the boxed set which included that, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, and the Hidden Fortress.

Also I was semi homeless - living out of a friend's spare bedroom - and drinking heavily - I also had a band practice space which had a small couch but not much band practicing.

And I went out and bought one of those combo DVD/TV units - and I'd walk 3 blocks to the store, buy some rumplemintz, walk back to the practice space, and watch these DVD's on the 4:3 little TV which I put at the end of the couch, and I'd drink to excess and watch samurai movies.   I think I watched them all twice

Later on, after I quit drinking, I'd find refuge again in a two week theater run of Samurai movies in Town.  Right when I was beginning my sobriety, I would play video games or watch TV or (meh) smoke weed - but early on there was a two week stint of Samurai movies at the University's Theater, where I got to see Yojimbo on the big screen, as well as other classics like Sword of Doom and Hari-Kiri, which may be my favorite Samurai film of all time.

So the genre has a special place in my heart - they're my westerns - I still want to go to Japan but the wife is too paranoid about radiation so I'll probably never get to go - but I'd go on a tour and I'd look at famous Japanese history from the 1600-1850's

It's a deeply entertaining film - the music, cinematography, and action are top notch - it looks great on a Blu-Ray and I even listened a 2nd time with the commentary because Stephen Prince brings a lot to it, and will tie it together with the next film, a sequel with the same character, who Mifune would also play a variation on a couple more times in future cinema - just as Clint Eastwood would play a different "Man With No Name" character in some of his later westerns.

It's a great film - I wish everyone could enjoy it in the theaters again

RB

#51 - Brazil

#51 is a 1985 picture meant to evoke 1984 in a comical, almost satirist kind of way - it probably would have been OUT in 1984 if there hadn't been such a heavy conflict between the Studio and Terry Gilliam - LOL

Half the story of Brazil is told in the drama between a studio head and the director as to what kind of film was going to be put out and what kind of happy/sad ending it was to get - as it stands...this is the director's final cut - and bears his image of what he intended - Terry Gilliam did a couple shorts between this and Time Bandits, but this was his next main film. 

As far as films go - it's a little plodding - I'm sure the effects in 1985 were killer - I can understand if some folks walked out bored or just having W.T.F. syndrome - I found myself drifting a bit but as a whole thought it was an interesting film

the idea of being trapped in Bureaucracy is interesting - as that's basically the vise that grips all these characters and all they do - it actually reminded me of a totally unexpected film coming up later on, "Ikiru" where the inertia of trying to get things done in the govt. cause a rebellion in a civil servant - but this is meant to be funny, comedic, and oppressive at the same time, and it pulls it off fairly well

One could easily imagine a remake for today but I'd prefer not - LOL  - this kind of film can only be made once and they did a pretty good job - I'd watch it again with friends

Lotsa special features - it's not on filmstruck and I got stuck with a 1999 box set in 4:3 and not incredibly good detail, but the jest of it came thru

honestly, I've really been waiting almost the whole blog since I started for #52 - so that helped me get this out in a hurry :)

#50 - And The Ship Sails On

#50 - (well, we've skipped 3 but official #50 on the spine)

I can't sugarcoat this - I thought this was a boring film - I think I'm going to sigh every time a Fellini film comes up at this rate - I thought the story was dull, the effects unimpressive - and maybe there's something about European Life revealed in here that I missed, but as a whole I was so bored I almost fell asleep in broad daylight watching it -

Not much else to say about this one

RB

#49 - Nights of Cabiria

Ah yah...my second Fellini film - I thought it was my first but forgot he directed Amacord which I watched about 14 months ago - THAT film stuck with me as one of my initial fav's - so much so I almost bought the blu-ray

THIS ONE - took some time to get into - I guess it's one of the last of Fellini's Neo-Realism films before he got more into his surreal style.  I honestly struggled to get into it the first two times and had to stop (and go to bed) about 1/4 and 1/2 way in but then I finished it up and got a lot more sympathy for the protagonist in the second half.

Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, plays Cabiria, the prostitute with a heart of gold? in this film - she brings an almost vaudeville approach - (others have said Chaplin) to the character.  It made it a little hard for me to find sympathy for her early on, although the first scene in the film is a hard luck one

the DVD is out of print on Criterion - the film is currently on Filmstruck - as I was able to find it at the library, I can confirm there are some interesting interviews, clips on restoration, and commentary on a scene which was deleted from the initial print and readded a few years later - (and in this edition, before I knew it had been deleted, which is a decision I don't disagree with the producer on) - some interesting early clips where the character briefly appeared in a 1952 film, and the like.   It won't be my favorite Fellini film, but now that it's done I can say I'm glad I watched it, and I have another one in the barrel which I guess might make Fellini my most watched director up to this point BUT we also have some more Kurosawa coming up too.

Not a bad film - just takes some time to get into and if you're tired, watching a film with subtitles that you're not terribly into is a good way to fall asleep in the lazy-boy - good times

#48 - Black Orpheus

#48 is a visual and musical tour de force I never heard about - Black Orpheus -

disclaimer - I think it's like one of FOUR Orpheus movies in the first couple hundred Criterion releases but I'm betting it's the most original  (Edit 12/26/2018 - this comment uh, didn't age so well - all of the Orpheus films were sorta out there - LOL)

The story is a South American take on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice in Rio De Janeiro at Carnival time - While I think they caught a lot of the atmosphere they maybe didn't do enough to truly capture the city except from the Mountains.   I think this movie could have done for Rio what Summertime did for Venice - but what I DID learn was that it did bring Bossa Nova music out of Brazil to a wider audience and that's got to count for something - I also heard it was Barack Obama's Mother's favorite film but that he personally had issues with it when he went to go see it with her

There is a beauty and life to this film that's hard to beat - The Color is excellent, the actors are very telegenic, and the music is awesome - music infuses the background of the whole movie and the child actors bring a strong sense of levity and joy to the film

some great special features, interviews, etc - it was a Brazil/France co-production - and as such there is some controversy - some folks feel it's an outsider's take on Brazil and glorifies the poverty of the folks there - but as a colorful and beautiful film it cannot be denied that it's a fantastic film