#79 - Six Short Films

and now we have six short films - (one silent) that comprise the bulk of the shorts work that W.C. Fields did in between his main films -

they're kinda hit and miss for me - one was so funny - (The Golf Specialist) that I asked my wife to watch it with me - a couple others weren't nearly as humorous and seem to just be like The Bank Dick, short vignettes stitched together from 2-3 routines - the physical humor was especially good in The Golf Specialist

This one is out of print but several of the films are in the public domain due to copyright renewal screwups and can be easily seen on YouTube or the internet archive so if you like the guy go looking cause you're not violating the law to watch them

The DVD had no special features but it does have subtitles if you like those on your english flicks - somedays I feel like my hearing is going so bad it doesn't hurt to have them :)  Or maybe it's the quality of the sound on these old chestnuts

allrighty - thanks W.C.

#78 - The Bank Dick

And now Criterion introduces to one of Vaudeville's enduring characters - W.C. Fields - I won't get too much into the bio of stuff here except to say that the next 6 short films are on a DVD and cover the silent period up to this film, which was possibly his best known and near the end of his career

it's physical humor, with a bit of verbal in there - the W.C. Fields caricature is well known - drinks like a wino, hates women and children - gin blossoms on the nose and the "oh, yesss" line often used. 

This is just a short 70 minute movie with two or three little sketches stitched together but in it the fellow has a string of good luck thru no help of his own and ends up being the hero a couple times. 

To me, W.C. Fields was a cartoonish character in Bugs Bunny films - I honestly haven't seen anything he's done up til now - I'm sort of not looking forward to the six short films but I'll knock them out in the next couple days - the disk is at the library

Otherwise, an ok film from an actor near the end of his long and varied career - good for 1940's humor but somewhat dated today.

meh - even he'd be the first to say he's not Bardot - LOL

#77 - And God Created Woman

#77 is the film that made Brigitte Bardot an International star.   ...and God Created Woman was directed by her husband, and it's mostly a vehicle for her, it feels like.  I guess the term "sex kitten" was coined for her after this film - LOL

I think it's my first Bardot film but she didn't fit the image I remembered - when I looked at Google, I realized my image was the 60's sexpot star she had become - whereas here she maintains at least in part, a fresh innocence, even if she doesn't act like it.   It reminds me of the early Elvis, where he started out as an "aw shucks" kinda fella only to use it to his advantage just a few years later.   Or maybe a very early Marilyn Monroe when there were still traces of Norma Jean left in her early performances.

It's a decent film - it makes St. Tropez look good, as in the film it hasn't quite become the jet-set tourist destination yet.  I guess it was a bit risque for it's time and they had to have US cuts of the film that protected the decency of Americans - ha

I got to watch this on my wide screen monitor and it looks great in 2.35:1 ratio - the DVD doesn't have many special features - a quick restoration piece - that's about it - but hey - sometimes these get re-released with a lot of special features

up next - a LOT of W.C. Fields - not sure about that...he's no Brigitte Bardot -

#76 - Brief Encounter

#76 is a Noel Coward play dramatized for the screen - This is a charming tale of unconsummated love between two married people directed by David Lean who we last saw in the two Dickens Adaptations of Oliver Twist and Great Expectations.

I'm starting to think I don't like this time period very much - the 1930's and 40's British films - (Remember "The Lady Vanishes very early on?" seem to bring a sort of odd cultural reference to them I don't like - I guess it makes sense that a guy who likes French New Wave would be unimpressed by overwrought Melodrama with Orchestral Soundtracks. 

I have more David Lean/Noel Coward on the way but thankfully not till the 600's - I liked Summertime but this stuff - meh - I guess it is really well liked, famous, and popular but it just didn't do anything for me - until next time I guess.

#75 - Chasing Amy

big ol' #75 - man...that's a lot of movies - (well, technically only 72 since I skipped 3 but maybe I'll go back)

I saw this when it came out probably in the late 90's - I am almost certain I was barely if at all familiar with Kevin Smith's first two films other than he shot Mallrats here in a far suburb of Minneapolis - (I thought Mall of America but no, Eden Prairie mall, according to google) - Kevin makes crazy films and I love that, especially his characters in this "View Askew" universe.

I was looking at the special features that were with this disk (which I didn't have - I got a blu-ray off netflix and it's discontinued) - and it seems that this is his first real attempt at trying to make a personal film as opposed to Clerks and Mallrats - and by this point he's starting to get the craft down.

I like Kevin Smith - I loved Dogma and Jay/Silent Bob strike back, but for some reason these earlier films don't feel the same - but it was fun to see this one again with 20 some years and soundtrack by Dave Pirner, who was riding some pretty serious career success with Soul Asylum around the time.

and Joey Lauren Adams just kills it as Amy - Jason Lee is phenomenal as well and you can see why Kevin liked using him in so many films, right?

the Criterion essay by Kevin Smith is pretty cool to and that IS on the website so def. read that if you're gonna watch this one - I guess I was just too far out of the loop at the time to realize what a success his first film was and how hard the 2nd one got hammered - reminds me of Paul Simon after he had his commercial flop in "Hearts and Bones" - you have a clean slate and no expectations for the next one and for Kevin Smith, it was this film - and for Paul Simon, it was Graceland

allrighty - maybe Netflix or the library can get me one more before Saturday night.

RB

#74 - Vagabond

#74 is another great Agnes Varda film - These are the first two films of her's that I've seen and I know I have a few more down the line, but these first two are really stellar - I bought a copy of the first Cleo disk on sale last week - (not part of box set, so no special features) but maybe at some point I will get that.

In one sense the two films are similiar - they follow the path of a woman as she wanders thru the world, but whereas Cleo was a 2 hr snippet in Paris, Vagabond is a few weeks of a woman wandering the French Countryside

The very first scene sets you up for the downer - her body is found in a ditch - the rest of the movie then proceeds to trace her steps of the last few months as she came into contact with people.   The film cuts from her to the people talking like in a documentary to the camera about their impressions of her.  What is striking is the mystery of this woman - she is and remains an enigma throughout the film.   One scene that strikes me is after a particularly bad incident, she is sitting looking at seven postcards- they are random sort of pictures and you wonder their significance - in another she pulls a small painting out of her pack that has gotten ripped - perhaps it was stolen but a strange thing to carry on the road.   These things are never explained.  They show a brief bit of her as she explains she had been a secretary in Paris, but at this point she has totally turned her back on the system.

There is one character in the film that suggests her fate - he says all the wanderers he knew either quit or died cause the loneliness got to them and they fell into drugs and alcohol.  I think that's what happens here - you see her slowly get worse and have a tougher time of things, and watching her, you feel incredible sympathy and the whole time you're stuck knowing her fate as her life plays out

I will probably have to buy this box set - wonder if it'll ever make Blu-Ray - great great film

RB

#73 - Cleo from 5 to 7

Allrighty - that's more like it - French New Wave, with Paris as a supporting character -

Agnes Varda is a director I FEEL like I should know more about - she's put out quite a body of work over the years but this is the first film of her's I've seen - another film of her's is up next so we'll get to that -

This is almost a real time - (a' la 24) film of two hours of a woman's life as she is awaiting results of a medical test - we see how a woman in Paris were catcalled 24/7 and essentially controlled by the men around them, and I think this is what Agnes intended - The Film follows her from stop to stop, but what strikes me is how much of the atmosphere around her is also captured and how it must have been spontaneous, as opposed to planned on set.  There is one scene in particular where she and a friend are driving in an open top convertible, and as they go by everyone turns to stare, and while it's easy to imagine they're staring at her, I think they're staring at the cameraman in the vehicle/trailer AHEAD of them as they just film live in the streets of Paris

Guilty pleasure - I often try to find identifying parts of Paris (streets, corners, restaurants) and google map them just to see how they look today - sometimes it's only slightly changed, which I love about Paris.

let's face it - I'll always have some favorites, and this kind of dialogue, live driven film will always appeal to me more than musicals - in fact I'm going to see if I can maybe find it used somewhere - there are some special features I couldn't get to - (thanks filmstruck) such as an actual motorcycle ride down the spots where the movie was filmed, that I think would be incredibly interesting to watch.

That's all for now - wife is out of town for a week - but availability thanks to Roku fucking me over is going to be limited to what I can scrounge out of the library, Netflix, or the internet - pisses me off to no end that Roku cancelled filmstruck right as I couldn't renew for one more month thru other means - just a total bullshit move - I'll never sign up for a service thru Roku again - they fucked their commission over on that

EDIT:  - a month after I wrote this I finally got a Library copy that included the special features, including one of my favorites, a tracking shot thru the Paris shooting (well a bumpy tracking shot) but also some great remembrances from Agnes and Corinne from a 2005 documentary - where I learned among other things, that they shot the movie sequentially, and there's a small error in the last shot that I totally overlooked - LOL

#72 - Le Million

Another musical...oh goodie...

I mean at least this one was shorter - I am sure there's a lot to be said for the history of it - a film where the director used sound and music to great effect in ways that wasn't done before - a cool opening scene that melded from stage to miniature and back to stage that is hard to beat...

I just don't like many musicals - (or opera) - with the obvious exception of the brilliant Blues Brothers - (think it about it - it is a musical)

It's a nice French film, and at least it WAS short - the music wasn't memorable but the story was somewhat comical and yes, it does have echos of Chaplin, who I guess was sued at one point by this Film Company for comparisons to another of Clair's films and "Modern Times" - that's really the vibe I got from it - Chaplin film in French.

I think the next one has some echos of French New Wave - I'll take what I can get at this point - as long as it's not another musical

wasn't a bad film - just didn't like it much

#71 - The Magic Flute

Just gonna lay this out for you - I hate opera, and I did NOT like this movie - sorry, Ingmar - maybe next time.

I'm actually writing the review in the last 15 minutes before it ends - that's how much I want it to get over - ach -

ah well - they can't all be Seven Samurai.

RB