#114 - My Man Godfrey

#114 - is a Screwball comedy - which apparently I didn't realize was, according to Wikipedia, is a subgenre of the romantic comedy that became popular during the Great Depression, and generally satirized the traditional love story.   Like I thought it was Steve Martin, Groucho Marx, W.C. Fields - Physical comedy.   Actually we kinda touched on this genre in The Lady Eve (#103) although I didn't realize that was the name for it at the time

As it turns out I didn't even envision the romantic part of the story till near the very end - I thought it was going somewhere else entirely but that's fine.

Gregory La Cava directed this 1936 film, and this is his only appearance - I haven't made any secret of the fact this may be one of my least favorite genres and periods for movies so I won't get back into that - there were definitely some good points of humor but if I'm checking 5 times to see how much time there is left on the DVD, then I'm not enjoying it a lot

It's got some interesting special features - it was nominated for a LOT of awards, and the blooper reel included has a lot of cussing which is kinda humorous and a reflection on how far these movies didn't reflect the reality of their time - hehehe

I'm not even going to summarize the plot - you can read it if you want on the back of the Blu-Ray or DVD cover but I will admit to being intrigued by the commentary track - I may have to throw it up in the background at 4x speed and get a listen

ok kids - next one is on the streaming channel so I won't have to wait as long - I am not sure what kind of luck I'm going to have as we're about to hit a big string of out of print DVD's but I won't cancel my Netflix or my Library card yet - LOL

RB

#113 - Big Deal on Madonna Street

Sorry it took so long for my five readers or so to get an update - (hi wife!) - Finally knocked this one out

If it was a better known film or director I'd have probably done better at getting it done - I had some queues - (never saw Friends the first time and had to rewatch) - and a great series called Une Village Francais which I will do a summary of when done.

This is a comedic heist film by an Italian Director I've never heard of with Italian stars who seem pretty famous but I've never heard of them either.   Technically the 2002 caper film Welcome to Collingswood is a remake but I've never seen it.

No special features, not even a worthy essay on the Criterion site - it sorta seems like a throwaway Italian film you get thru to get to Bicycle Thief, so I'm not going to go much further on in this entry except to say it was a little entertaining and not worth a rewatch, IMHO

RB

#112 - Playtime

AND with this I think I'm going to have to pick up the Tati box set next time there's a 50% off sale at B&N - liking this guy too much

Playtime is our 3rd film and last Tati film for a while - this is a visual feast, (originally shot in 70mm) that takes our characters, including a return of Mr. Hulot, thru the absurdities of modern life.   It's shot on massive sets with some fascinating camera work and in shots where there's sometimes 2 or 3 things going on.

It's interesting that Tati has gone this direction now more or less for two films, and the character of Hulot, rather than instigating the chaos of the first film now seems more likely to be a pawn in it.

There's two hours of Hulot and tourists wandering from place to place - like the other two films there's less plot and more just an almost vaudeville approach to the scenes - in this case it came close to surrealism, I feel like, but all in good humor.   I decided when I had a choice I was gonna have to watch on the widescreen TV as I hear there's just too much that can be missed on a smaller screen and I'd love to see the blu-ray of course.

Two scenes really struck with me - I've made no secret of my love for France and Paris, and this film takes place in Paris, but the whole time the skyline is modern towers and buildings - in a kind of joke at one point the woman is looking at travel posters, and each one is dominated by the same monotholitc Grey Office Tower - US, Mexico, Paris, Hong Kong - a sort of joke and commentary on how modern architecture is destroying the character of these places.   But what really got me is when the tourists are looking at "Modern Paris" there is nothing to distinguish it as Paris except 3 or 4 times, when a glass door swings, and you see the reflection of a famous Paris Landmark in the window, like Sacre Coure, The Eiffel Tower, and so forth - sometimes the tourists swing around as if to catch a glimpse of a ghost.

My other favorite moment was when a waiter rips his pants, and has to hide outside on the balcony.   Soon other waiters with damaged clothing, - a ripped jacket, torn shoe, tie dipped in sauce, come out and swap with him so that by the time it's over, he looks like he crawled out of a wrecked building, with all his clothes ripped and tattered.

Def. going to be getting the blu-ray's at some point - This has been an enjoyable excursion with a new director.

Also there are a lot of special features - there's a lot to this movie, the set design, how all the chaos was engineered and shots made, and it's a pretty interesting thing to go thru when I have some more time

RB

#111 - Mon Oncle

5 years later, we have Tati's first color film and the return of Mr. Hulot in Mon Oncle.   This is a different kind of story.  Instead of focusing on the banality of vacation life, we're seeing the banality of modernism.   The movie is almost a caricature of modernity although satire was the word I saw thrown around.

Huhot lives in a very rustic classical part of a French city - his sister and family live in a ridiculous modern art sort of house that looks nothing like the rest of the area.   The movie highlights some of the absurdities and joys of these two panes of glass.   One part that struck out to me is the rich couple discussing music and driving off to a fancy dinner club while Hulot and company stumble into and out of the local dive bar and you get the impression the lower classes, like the lower decks on Titanic, were a better place to party.

Huhot has a lot of interactions here with his nephew - (hence, the title - My Uncle) - and you def. get the impression the boy is latching onto a world outside the sterile world he lives in

once again a lot of the gags are visual, the dialogue sparse - and the sounds are sharply contrasted between an easy French Cafe Soundtrack and the harshness of a factory, with clangs, buzzes, dings, dongs, hammers, etc.  I guess this was his most popular film - and I must confess I didn't feel like it was filmed in 1958 - I thought it was more of a 60's or 70's film so the color and the photography are great.

Might be worth getting a box set someday - guess we'll see - anyways - got one more Tati to go in this set of films -

#110 - Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

for our next 3 films, we have the comedic presence of Jacques Tati as Monsieur Hulot, a sort of slapstick character - (at least in this film)

I have never heard of him before this film, but Tati was well known and loved in France - he makes films with a lot of physical gags - I saw comparisons to Chaplin but based on what we've seen he reminded me a lot of W.C. Fields.

This is his 2nd film, and his first with this character Hulot who we'll see again in the next two pictures - it's sort of a plotless string of gags and humor but it's enjoyable, and finally we're back on the streaming channel so I can not have to deal with waiting for DVD's - hehehe

The complete box set wasn't released till the 700's - but we'll get half of it out of the way here - something else interesting was that I watched the 1978 restoration - where Jacques had cut out about 12 minutes from his first film - I guess he was like George Lucas - sorta re-editing and recutting his work until later in life.

This is just a fellow going on holiday in a sleepy seaside tourist town where he has a string of misadventures - good stuff - Curious to see how the character goes in the later films - I might add too the dialogue is pretty sparse and that's fine - but it goes to show how much of this humor is meant to be drank in with the eyes as opposed to hearing it.

RB

#109 - The Scarlet Empress

ach - my dvd for this one had problems - sure looking forward to seeing these on the Criterion channel again instead of DVD's with flaws

This is part of a 6 movie set (or will be released as such) - of a great collabration between the sultry and erotic Marlene Dietrich, and the director Josef von Sternberg, who introduced her to America thru these 6 films.   This one was the 5th

This is an entertaining if a bit campy film about the rise of Catherine the Great, probably told just a bit ahistorical and 1930'ish.   But lord, the sets - a macabre and twisted world is constructed here - the sets and scenes and costumes are both garish and ghoulistic, cramped yet expansive - and as Marlene's daughter put it - this was the one time she had to compete with the set for attention.

I always get a kick out of seeing the 1700's characters speaking with perfect American L.A. accents - not pretending to be Russian or even medieval.   

I gotta say, I would probably be interested in the Blu-ray and absolutely want to see some more of their films together - I assume they'll be later on in the collection but in this case, this was added to the box set years after it's initial release - the only special feature was an interview with Marlene from 1971 but honestly, my DVD had a couple crucial scuffs on it that resulted in me having to find a download copy to catch a 3 minute skip at the wedding and humorously the last 4 minutes of the film

anyhow this is really good - I might get another one in before the weekend but it looks like we're getting a burst of Jacques Tati films - 3 in a row, so hey something new on the way

This was visually an incredible film - I'll save my other thoughts on Marlene for future posts as this one was literally, I think, the first film I've seen her in - can you believe it?

#108 - The Rock

Yeah...I had a basic copy of this I got my hands on - the DVD supposedly has a shitton of extra features - but I didn't care - not sure why Michael Bay is in the collection again - sorry

I literally just had this on in the background while doing some tedious work - it's a decent action movie - that's it - don't really care otherwise - moving on

RB

#107 - Mona Lisa

Didn't mean to get this far behind - sorry - think it's been a few weeks

#107 was a bit of a concern to find on Netflix before we got the Criterion Channel up and running - a Neil Jordan film starring Bob Hoskins and in her debut role, Cathy Tyson. 

Bob is a small-time gangster out of prison who gets the job of driving around Cathy Tyson, a high class call girl.    I thought both actor and actress were perfect for the role -  It is a little interesting that she also reminds me of Dil, the transgender character from Neil's film a few years later, The Crying Game - (sorry if I spoiled that for you) -  The story goes on with conflicting feelings about who the characters are and how they feel about each other. 

The song, Mona Lisa, by Nat King Cole, is all over the soundtrack, and in a way, it's perfect for Cathy's character.   Like the Mona Lisa, she isn't an easy character to read - you don't know if she loves you, is using you, or wants to shoot you - like the famous painting to some degree, we don't know what she's smiling about or what the mystery is behind the character, but it doesn't take long for us to start rooting for Bob Hoskins - (as George, the center of the film as Neil puts it) - to hopefully get the girl and get out of the business.

The CC has the director's commentary which i'd like to come back to and in one of those funny twists, because the film takes place in the 80's, we get some Genesis soundtrack as well which I did NOT expect - :)

A nice film - and I guess Bob was up for an Oscar but lost to Paul Newman - not in print on Criterion anymore but maybe out on blu-ray or up for a re-release at some point

RB

#106 - Coup de Torchon

#106 is an adaption of a West Texas pulp novel adapted for 1930's West Africa - An interesting tale about a local policeman who is pushed over the edge and begins taking his revenge

The interesting part of this movie is it reminded me of another film about a lawman gone bad, "The Killer Inside Me"  - what's really interesting is both that book and this one are written by the same author - he seems to have a certain frame of mind with this sort of writing. 

Neither the lead actor nor the director have popped up on my radar before but they appear to have quite the body of work in France - perhaps we shall see more of Bertrand in the future - it is one of those movies that at first gets you to sympathize with the main character - (like the Micheal Douglas character in "Falling Down") - you're considering the possibility that the first people this guy kills probably had it coming - and maybe another one - and then it starts to spiral

Kind of a cool DVD - an alternate ending is described - but it's out of print - so do the Netflix or library route

#105 - Spartacus

#105 has so much going on - a Hollywood epic, produced by a star who felt slighted over losing the role of Ben Hur, directed by an influential director who was unable to retain final control, and thus disavowed the film, and written by a man who essentially broke the Blacklist of Hollywood in 1960 with this film, and his name finally credited as the screenwriter for the first time in 10 years.

Unfortunately I didn't get the Criterion version of this one - there's actually some decent blu-rays out with some decent restored footage - I don't think I got the better of the two blu-ray's and none of the commentary that is on the Criterion disk.   A couple special features and deleted scenes are available, and some in fact was readded to the film, where Tony Curtis and Anthony Hopkins - (filling in for Lawrence Oliver who had passed) redubbed the audio.

Obviously this is typical of the big budget Hollywood pictures of the day, but the battle scenes are what stand out to me - especially the movement of formations -  To take 4 or 5 minutes to show the Roman formations marching into place - the giant blocks of men organizing and reorganizing on the field is something you just don't normally see.

Anyhoo I hadn't seen it - a little long at 3 hrs even with an intermission but a piece of cinema history.

#104 - Double Suicide

#104 is another funny screwball comedy - ok just kidding - what do you think it's about?

Here we have a 1969 film adapted from a 1700's stage play - the actual start of the film show puppeteers and puppets getting ready in a modern day setting, and then when the story starts we transition to live actors - but in an interesting twist, the puppeteers are still present thru the film - manipulating people - moving them towards their doom, occasionally looking distressed at the events being unfolded, and possibly serving as a...metaphor that we are controlled by forces beyond ourselves?   Not sure about that but it's what I thought when I saw it.   Perhaps it's duty and obligation and tradition controlling these characters as much as the puppeteers

A young paper maker wants to save a prostitute, while not alienating his wife - (both women are played by the same actress, Shima Iwashita, who is ALSO the director's wife - which is another interesting statement with layers) - in the end the merchant and the prostitute run away and kill themselves so they can be together forever before she's bought by another merchant - and there's some family weaving in and out of the story

I struggled a bit to get into this one but got there eventually thru my love of most Japanese cinema from this period - I even went back and rewatched the intro where the actor SEEMS to see their bodies like on the cover, at the bottom of a bridge with the puppeteers - there's just a bit of surrealism in this and the sets are more stagelike than other sets but it was a fine film overall

#103 - The Lady Eve

The Lady Eve is a fun little comedy - Barbara Stanwyck is the con artist gone good, and Henry Fonda is the innocent rich boy taken for a ride

Never heard of this film or Preston Sturges before but he did well here - I would be remiss in pointing out the character Barbara plays doesn't just seduce Henry Fonda but the rest of us as well.   Her inflate/deflate/inflate flirting is enough to leave any poor guy stymied.   I don't wanna say too much else cause to be honest, I don't wanna spoil it - but I'm just glad it wasn't another rich person melodrama like that batch of three we had back there with Sirk and the like

#102 - The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

This is one of those funny instances where I was gone a while, didn't check to see what the film was about, and sorta went thru confused until I went back and read some stuff where I found out it was supposed to be a Surrealist sort of film - I thought it was more of a well, upper middle class problems film again like some of the stuff we saw a few films back

It's an interesting French Film - I guess I don't quite see the Oscar worthiness of it but there - I might like some of his other stuff but as a whole it wasn't bad but it didn't captivate me - it was just something I had to get thru I'm afraid.

this batch of the 100's aren't on the Criterion Channel yet so I'm forced to Netflix my way thru them - this DVD is out of print - I guess there's a 2nd disk I didn't get with a documentary about the filmmaker -

I wish I had something more positive to say about this one but it's mostly a meh to me - it's about some upper middle class folks trying to get together for a dinner, with constant interruptions and problems, and interspersed with dream sequences that trick you until the dream is revealed that it's part of the waking world

good times

#101 - Cries and Whispers

Disclaimer:   I'm not sure I'm going to be the biggest fan of Ingmar Bergman.  To be fair, I'm most catching some late output so far - it's going to be interesting to see what some of his earlier films are like but this one almost made me feel relieved it was only 90 minutes.

It's not a BAD film - it's one of the most realistic depictions I've seen of family caring for someone who's dying - (I say this having gone thru hospice with family twice) - it's shot in beautiful colors, but I dunno - it was just a little slow for me - I timed it and there's 9:40 before the first dialogue is said - (though some words are written in there)

A woman is dying, and her two sisters and servant are there to care for her in her last days - they all have a deep dark secret they're carrying (which is shown in flashbacks) - and they're all in the process of dealing with the grief before and after their sister's death.   I got it on blu-ray so it was killer picture and it had his favorite Liv Ullmann, who we saw in Autumn Sonata, and will see in much of his later work.

These domestic house pieces just don't do a whole lot for me though - i guess I'll have to see some more of his stuff - I know people rave about him and want to buy his 25 film box set but right now I'd have to take a hard pass.

It is well acted, the actress Harriett Andersson, who plays the dying Agnes, really puts on a heck of a performance here.   It just wasn't a film that drew me in, which is too bad cause I know a lot of people like it.

RB

Side Tangent - thoughts on the first 100

I wrote this for Reddit where I enjoy talking about the Criterion films but it makes sense to post it here too.

About 4 years ago I decided to start watching the Criterion Collection in order of release - I have a blog - justanothercriterionblog.blogspot.com - where I would list my brief musings - this is NOT expert reviews - in fact it's amateur hour over there but at least it lets me catalog where I'm at and what I thought of it.

I started doing this cause I realized I was locked into a certain genre and I loved movies so much I had to branch out - I started this right as I got to the end of watching all the films of Satyajit Ray. I decided to start doing this with an eye to opening myself to new directors/films/ideas.

By and large I netflix'd or libraried but when I got to Andrei Rublev and it's Art House Release (which seemed, uh, lacking) I went to Filmstruck for a lot of stuff - it's also great they have some of the discontinued DVD's on the site - Andrei Rublev's restoration and re-release is something I look forward to checking out cause the red disk version seemed a bit primitive and overstretched/low resolution compared to what Filmstruck had. I'm glad we have the Criterion channel now as well but I am just now starting to get to it's movies.

some thoughts on the first 100...

Favorite Surprises?

the 400 Blows

Amarcord

The Naked Kiss

The Wages of Fear

Black Orpheus

Good Morning

Vagabond,

The Harder They Come

Kwaidan

Do the Right Thing.



all these films I might never have gotten to if I hadn't started this project - All of these were for the most part totally new to me - (in most cases same with the directors) - and I really appreciated them. Some of them I ended up buying for my own collection afterwards. I have especially picked up a fondness for French New Wave i didn't know I had and have watched some of the rest of the collection out of sequence - (I'll watch it again, when I get there)

Favorites to return to? Kurosawa - specifically Seven Samurai and Yojimbo/Sanjuro - seen and owned multiple times but on Blu-Ray they are a treat.

Favorite new director? Probably Agnes Varda. Cleo was really good but Vagabond was really a powerful film and I look forward to going further. Also this is only my 2nd Ozu film I've seen with "Good Morning" and I'm looking forward to a lot more of him.

Biggest "huh?" - PROBABLY Fishing With John - an entertaining 6 part series but something I thought might be a little odd for the collection - no offense to John Lurie on that one - in fact, I still smile at one of the episodes

Film you'd have to pay me 10k dollars to watch again? easily Salo - as well as the two Warhol Presents films - (Feast for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula) - in fact - I skipped these 3 initially and just went back and watched them as I was getting close to 100 for completion's sake - Actually the Warhol films weren't the worst but I mean, they were kinda bad - LOL

Salo - I literally split screened with a video game so I could avoid the most disgusting parts to some degree.

And probably the Magic Flute - I hate Opera and hated this one - I grinded thru them all but on this one I think I started writing my review 10 minutes before it ended - LOL

WHAT AM I LOOKING FORWARD TO IN THE NEXT 100? - Let's see...

Initial scan we're getting a LOT of Kurosawa in this next batch including a couple I haven't seen - excellent - - Tokyo Olympiad, the Adventures of Antoine Doinel - (well I watched them once but will watch again) - Monterey Pop - but there's a LOT here I don't recognize or know much about and that's half the fun.

Talk to you guys again at 200

#100 - Beastie Boys Video Anthology

First off let me say this was one of the most frustrating ones to do - first disk from Netflix was broken - the one copy in the Twin Cities Library System was out, and it hasn't made the new Criterion Channel - I almost just broke down and bought the mofo cause I knew where there was a used copy

THEN you have to get disk 2 separately so that's another week - anyways....moving on

What we have here are 18 of the Beastie Boys best videos - (I feel like we're missing something - Fight for your Right and No Sleep till Brooklyn SHOULD be here) - but it is what it is

Lots of good stuff here - I was glad I recently watched a documentary that featured them in one of it's episodes so I got some history and context I didn't know

We have Sabotage, by Spike Jones, Intergalactic, by MCA (Adam Yauch - one of the three who passed away in 2014) and a lot of other stuff - these guys liked running and splicing multiple cameras together in some of their stuff and they just have a goofy energy in most of their videos that make this really a great collection

Personally I was watching a lot of music videos in this time and Sabotage is probably my favorite

where this collection really shines are in the extra features - almost every video has multiple alternate angles and takes - in videos where they're playing to 4 or 5 cameras at once, you can select a view of just one camera the whole video - there's also extensive remixes for every song and some other funny and comedic features - they're also unedited videos so some stuff trimmed for MTV shows up here.

it's just a really good example of what you could do - I remember when DVD's came out and people were like "you can have alternate views, etc" but that is almost NEVER used - but here it's used to ridiculous effect - also commentary tracks by the band, directors - each video has at least two commentaries - I think this was a good choice for #100

Now I should be able to use the Criterion Channel for a bit - I will have some family trips in May and I might be watching on an Ipad but I'll try to get some more in - I'm also going to type a summary of the first 100 for Reddit and I'll link here -

UPDATE - link here - https://www.reddit.com/r/criterion/comments/bgnqem/finished_the_first_100_selections_of_the/

That was a long time to get thru 100 selections - :) - hopefully I'm keeping up with the releases

RB

#99 - Gimme Shelter

#99 - a classic Rock and Roll documentary.   it's fascinating that this movie, which was supposed to document the Rolling Stones on their US tour in '69, inadvertently ended up capturing a moment that most define as the end of a generation - the free concert at Altamont in Dec, '69 where a young man was stabbed and killed.

The film starts off with concert footage, and then flashbacks post Altamont where the band is watching some of the footage and sound shot - there are recording sessions at Muscle Shoals, a couple performances by other acts, but the last 45 minutes are about Altamont - much of which we see was going to hell before the Stones took the stage.

It's hard to watch this footage and see the level of chaos and carnage going on in front of the performers - they're just trying to play a gig and you have fights, beatings, and violence going on in front of them and on stage - this was 4 months after Woodstock, and it had some of the same organizers and some folks thought this was gonna be West Coast Woodstock.

it's pretty clear that some of these folks were pretty deep into the drugs by this time - one of the most chilling scenes to me is where the camera holds on a Hell's Angel just off stage from Mick, slowly freaking out.   You worry what he's going to do when two other HA's take him off the stage and you're just watching this thinking - shit - this really happened. - you can see the whole scene in a couple spots on YouTube.

Of course, the titular moment comes when the young man, Meredith Hunter, is stabbed - they play it back for Mick Jagger - He did have a gun, and they show him that too in the footage - it's clear between the two or three Stones seeing the footage that they're in shock about what happened.

But this was the end of a decade - the end of peace and love and community - the drugs got harder, the world got harder, and this was a moment that was supposed to encompass the best - a dream, and it went south - and it's a hell of a thing to see

Lots of essays and some extra features, commentary, a radio broadcast, and outtakes are available.

On a side note I am getting the Criterion Channel so we'll see how many of these show up and how many I have to keep Netflix'ing and library'ing - LOL - I do like Blu-Ray when I can get it

#98 - L'avventura

I caught this one on blu-ray and was in a hurry to turn it around so I sent it back after I watched it and checked out the DVD at the library for special features - LOL

L'Avventura is a bit of a mystery - a woman vanishes on a boat trip but what's interesting about the story is for 30 minutes the story focuses on the woman - she is the center of our attention and our viewpoint into the world, so when she vanishes, all the ancillary characters suddenly become our focus and we're left a bit lost - which was the intent I believe - it's an unusual film for 1960, and it had a profound influence that I'm just now learning about.

As a whole, there's some beautiful scenery of southern Sicily,  and the story kept my interest.   In a way it felt a little like the Douglas Sirk movies I just went thru - this is sort of a bored upper class movie, like those were, and you get the impression that there's not much keeping some of these people going besides sex and obligation.   A young woman married to a man over 50 quickly finds a way to seduce a 17 year old, and the missing woman's fiancee and her best friend are soon hooking up while they're searching for her - I'm not sure if that's an Italian thing or not but anyways...

I'm going to go thru the special features, there's like an hour documentary - I have never heard of the director or any of the actors/actresses and I guess it took a bit of a beating at the Cannes film festival but it redeemed itself later on. 

Pretty good - maybe worth a 2nd runthru with the commentary on DVD but I'd speed it up - at 2hrs 20 minutes it does seem a little long - LOL

RB

#97 - Do The Right Thing

Number 97 is one I hadn't seen before - in part cause I was in High School and a million miles away from Brooklyn, NY - (literally - like - a few years ago White Supremacists moved into my home valley thinking it was a refuge - that's how far I was from Urban America)

A nice change from the last two - it feels powerful, relevant, and I GUESS controversial for it's time?   It seems tame to what would come after it - Boys n the Hood and West coast Gangsta rap -

it's one of those movies where it's a portrait of life for a day in a neighborhood in Brooklyn - it's pretty much shot on the same one block (since renamed do the right thing way in honor) and as the day goes, tensions in the neighborhood elevate till there's fallout.   I've read a couple essays about this film, including one by Ebert and I fell into the same trap most white viewers did when watching this -  this film is pretty old so I'll give away a spoiler or two below

If you've seen the film, you know that one of the neighborhood characters gets killed by the cops after a fight, and the neighborhood starts to riot against the guy he was fighting with, the white owner of a pizza shop in a black neighborhood.  I found myself wondering why Spike's Mookie would start the act that sets off the riot by tossing the trashcan thru the window.   But then I forgot that yes, his friend died minutes before by the cops, and the other instigator in the fight - (if not the one who called the cops) was the owner of the pizza shop - over pictures on the wall, no less.   Had Sal handled things better, the fight would have never occurred.   Some speculate Mookie was retaliating - some that he was turning the mob on the movie so it didn't focus on the people anymore but the way he walks away from Sal and sons as the crowd starts in suggests to me he wasn't gonna make a stand for him.

When the movie closes it puts two quotes up - side by side - Martin Luther King, Jr talking about the need for non violence, and Malcolm X talking about the need for self defense.   It's almost up to the viewer to decide whether what Mookie and the neighborhood did was right or not.   I like that - I like leaving a moral judgement up to the viewer instead of spelling it out (like I heard was done with an alternate ending where Sal and Mookie make peace after the riot) -

Did Mookie do the right thing?   there ya go -

#96 - Written on the Wind

Another Melodramatic tale of the rich and famous (this one apparently based on a true story) - Sirk had a gift for Melodrama.

I did like this one a bit better than all that Heaven allows - the setup seems a bit more plausable - an unhappy oil family, alcoholics, and unrequited love is a bit more sell-able than "we can't get married - what would my country club friends think"

I won't get too deep into the story or plot - it's in print, it has Lauren Bacall and Rock Hudson doing Lauren and Rock - and it has an ending that gets your attention, esp. the last shot

But what sticks out to me is the supporting actress, Dorothy Malone, who won an Oscar for this film - before I knew that, I was already impressed with her performance as the seductress sister, Marylee.

She plays a character capable of great yearning, lust, sensitivity, but with a pretty wild and crazy side and I think she has some of the best scenes in the film personally.

Otherwise I'm glad to be done with the melodrama for a while - while I wait for my next film I'm going to clear out the three films I never got to a couple years ago - the wife is out of town and this is the best time to do it cause I wouldn't want anyone to see me watching them - LOL

RB

#95 - All That Heaven Allows

#95 - I didn't feel it much - This is a 1955 Romance starring two big stars at the time, Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman.   It's a story of a May-December relationship, and I'm sure it seemed a little daring at the time.

It's shot well - I really liked the color - (some of that may be the restoration but let's give the cinematographer the credit) - but it's an American movie, a not all that interesting story or compelling characters, and a construct of modern society - (the country club) that is almost laughable by today's standards

I saw it on blu-ray of all things but at least it was only 90 minutes

This is the first of two Douglas Sirk films - - I'll do some reading on him before the next one and see what his deal is

RB

Side Tangent - Chez Nous

I just got my next Criterion Blu-Ray but as i was bored of English and American Romances, I figured I'd take a detour - I stumbled onto this one from TV5 Le Monde, part of the French channel package on Sling which I had signed up for because I hoped to understand French better by listening - by and large, it hasn't worked because most of their stuff doesn't have English Subtitles

BUT this one did - it's a fascinating movie - (that would have American remake potential easily) - A young woman is recruited by a far right political party to run for mayor - the Leader and Name of the party are thinly veiled versions of Marine Le Pen and the National Front - she also falls in with one of the more extreme elements of that party, and finds the consequences of being in neighborhoods where she may not be as popular

I enjoyed it - I know enough of French politics and culture where I wasn't lost, and it was made in 2017, so it was a pretty recent film - the English Title is  "This is Our Land" - the parallels to the US are almost mind blowing but then, faux populism is popular these days

Not sure how easy it is to find outside of the Le Monde channel - but thought I'd throw it on here because I enjoyed it quite a bit

#94 - I Know Where I'm Going!

And we have the next Powell and Pressburger film, made near the end of WWII, a charming romance that uses the western Isles of Scotland as it's set to great effect.

Didn't know about this film but it's pretty popular - it stars Wendy Hiller - (who we last saw in Pygmalion) - as a woman off to the Western Isles to marry her rich industrialist fiance, but is sidetracked by the weather.

The Dialogue here is pretty good - it stood out to me the way it flowed and the conversations, and like many a great oceanside film, the scenery makes a better set than any that could be built indoors - (I'm reminded of The Shipping News which was filmed in Newfoundland - same vibe to me)

Once it started up it flowed pretty good - there's a 30 minute making of documentary from the early 90's that's fun to watch to see where the film was shot - (a lot of the castles, exterior locations and so forth are easily seen and recognizable) -

Pretty decent considering I wasn't sure what to think of another romance especially one with this title that started so, IMHO, cheesy - LOL - but very quickly you get engrossed in the scenery, culture, music, and life of West Scotland - it's a very enjoyable film with not a few special features on the DVD including an audio commentary

#93 - Black Narcissus

I must confess to being a little amused at not knowing what this film was and expecting it to be similar to Black Orpheus in the sense of a Greek retelling - actually, it's kinda far from that - Nuns try to build a convent high in the Indian Himalayans, and the atmosphere and energy around them brings out various remembrances and transformations

In one sense, it's a very pretty film, well lit and well shot with very vibrant colors - on the other hand I'm a little distressed there was only one main Indian character in it - (Sabu) and the others were English with darkened skin, and the whole thing was shot on Pinewood Studios or in a Garden in England.   One would have liked to have seen more of the local and color of Indian actors.

On the other hand, for a technicolor film in 1947, it's very pretty - there's a lot of sexual energy in it from a couple of the main characters that goes unrequited, and Powell called it his most erotic film.   This is our third Michael Powell film - (The Red Shoes and Peeping Tom before it) and the next one is one of hs and Emeric Pressburger's as well.  So far they've all been pretty good, well colored stories and I guess he was fond of saying by shooting in front of paintings and glass he could get the view he wanted, but it's just one of those things - I def. picked out the effect in one shot with some shimmering in the scenes like the one displayed in the cover above.

Otherwise a nice surprise and probably my last one for Feb.

Side Tangent - They Shall Not Grow Old

I got a chance to see this film on Saturday Night - upon recommendations from the Internet, I saw it in 3D, which you would think would totally suck but Peter's team really knocked it out of the park

For those of you who don't know about this film - it's a commission for a documentary about the 100th anniversary of the Armistice of WWI.  In many ways, it reminds me of "For All Mankind" - the only voices are the voices of soldiers who gave their accounts after the war.   There is no outside narration.   Peter Jackson was given access to 100 hours of film archives to do what he could with it and right off the bat, he decided that he was going restore and colorize much of the documentary footage and move it to 3D

You start off with black and white - the stories of the boys going to war and then when they arrive at the front the film transforms into 3D and color and it literally made me go "whoa"   This is a labor of love and dedication, and it shows in the finished product - this was also the first time I saw a 30 minute "making of" documentary at the end of the credits so you got extra insight into how this was done.

One of my favorite aspects of this was that some footage that has been passed by previously by TV producers for bad color (over or under exposed) could get full technology treatment and restoration so that it's immediately visible.   One shot they showed look like a dark blob at night but upon restoration you see a daytime scene of an artillery crew going to town on the enemy, and you realize that this footage has never been seen really before now.

They also talked about the colorization process - and ironically, how the toughest part was probably grass and mud to get right - Peter Jackson even went to a sunken road where some of his footage was shot and took pictures of the same spot as it still stood to get a nice benchmark for the grass.

There has been some points made about the idea of altering this footage - Adam Gopnik wrote a piece for the New Yorker in which he addresses some of his concerns - I wouldn't call it criticism per se - I can understand the feeling - if this was, say, "Seven Samurai" - that was made 3D and colorized I'd lose my shit - but this isn't an artistic piece, it's documentary footage, so I really don't have a problem with seeing it as it would have been.

The other thing they did with this one was add sound - they had lipreaders come in - and ironically, a lot of the sound had to do with guys telling other guys - "Hey, we're gonna be on the movies" - LOL - but in the documentary there was some other great stuff discusses, such as them locating the form being read in one shot, where we finally know after 100 years what it was he was reading

I hope more of the restored footage makes it way to our screens someday - Peter Jackson's team restored all 100 hours, not just the 100 minutes they used, so at the least we should get pristine black and white prints into the domain soon I hope, but it's rare that I go to live movies, and even rarer still when they take my breath away and this one definitely did - and I'm not a 3d movie guy, so this was a special treat

#92 - Fiend Without A Face

Off Da - British B-film with some of the first real gore transmitted to film - other than that to me it was almost utterly indistinguishable from any other 50's Sci-Fi/Horror B-film and I've seen a few

This review would have been done last week but my first disk from Netflix was cracked - so no love there

Arthur Crabtree directed it - I don't recognize any of the actors, and although it's set at an American air base in a fictional town in Canada, it was all shot in England which is somewhat amusing

Mildly entertaining - otherwise - all good to move on

Side Tangent - Heartlands

Here's one of my favorite English films I'd like to see make it to a wider audience someday

Michael Sheen here plays a character almost unrecognizable from his Underworld Vampire persona he would play just a couple movies later.   He's just a poor sap who's wife leaves him for his Darts captain, and his road trip to go get her - well, a road trip on a 50cc moped.

It's been called an unusual sort of Road Trip movie, and I guess it is that - but I guess for me the character's realization that his life isn't what he wants it to be anymore, and his willingness to walk away from his repentant wife is what hit me hard.   As a young man, I always understood "Seize The Day" mentality of the Dead Poets Society - there was a part of me that was influenced by the Romantics like Byron, Hemingway, and so forth.

I'm getting older now, though - and as things start to slip, I think about Ulysses, by Tennyson - I think about how little I will leave behind and how much of a struggle it's been, and I think about getting on a moped in Vietnam, or India, or some place where the fear of being killed hasn't kicked in yet - I think about how I used to walk freely in the woods behind my house and how now I walk in fear of things like bears

it's a movie about transformation and I want one more myself - not quite sure yet how to get it

In any case, I bought this film for all things, the Kate Rusby soundtrack and cameo - she was my favoring English Folk Singer about 20 years ago - so of course I had to buy it.

I watched it tonight and I cried a bit - I find myself rewatching things I liked 15 years ago trying to get something back - might be time to go thru a few more.

#91 - The Blob

At 82 minutes, number 91 is a cult classic monster movie staring a young Steven McQueen (Steven - LOL) -

this is a pretty good fun Sci-fi monster romp - One can tell teenagers were made central to the story line like a surfer movie, and Steve at 28 made his first leading role here. 

I'm not gonna go to deep into it - there's two commentaries, and an interesting featurette with some behind the scenes - I remember reading years ago how the silicon blob prop was found in a bucket somewhere and the collector showed it.

what was interesting was the large number of set models a foot or two big hung at an angle where the silicon Blob prop was able to just ooze thru the foot sized models which is how they were able to create some decent special effects

Nice little break, and cult classic horror films are always a winner

RB

#90 - Kwaidan

Number 90 is one I will probably buy on bluray at the next Criterion sale at Barnes and Noble - it's just a beautiful piece by who is probably my favorite director from Japan after Kurosawa - Masaki Koboyashi

This is a collection of four stories of the supernatural, so you don't spend the whole 3 hours getting a drawn out story but some great shorter pieces - the Sets were so huge they had to be painted and built in an aircraft hanger, and it was one of the most expensive films of it's time - it's also Masaki's first color film, so he wanted to spiff it up a bit.  There are some well known actors here like Tatsuya Nakadai, Tetsuro Tanba, and Takashi Shimura - and a lot I've never seen before

all the stories have a bit of a twilight zone vibe to them, and they're based on the stories of as I understand it, a Greek Writer who emigrated to Japan and took a Japanese name - but you wouldn't be able to tell, as they have the style and feel of so many Japanese horror films, which is in and of itself a genre one could write a book about.

I won't touch on every story, but I want to touch on the longest, and centerpiece, Hoichi the Earless - this is a great piece (which could have probably been it's own film and I think took up 70 minutes) - it starts with the scene of a great sea battle which to my knowledge is the first Samurai sea battle I've ever seen, and interweaves with some closeups of a couple ships fighting with a painting that shows the thousands of ships that were at this battle - he was able to hereby do this one on the cheap with just a few ships - in this battle one clan is utterly wiped out

fast forward to a monastery nearby a few hundred years later, and a blind monk skilled in the biwa has mastered a song (100 parts - LOL) - that tells of the battle, and a ghostly apparition invites him to come and perform it for his Lord. - I won't get too much deeper into it than that but suffice it to say the gravitas and visuals of this story are some of my favorite of any film I've seen.  The music is excellent too, as well played Japanese Folk music can be very pleasing - (to me anyways)

there will be a few entries of Masaki's coming up, including my hands down favorite, Hari-Kiri - but also a 10 hour epic called the Human Condition.   I've seen all of these and there's also an Eclipse series I'm going to have to check out but this one I had never seen before - I will probably watch it one more time with the commentary going just to hear Stephen Prince's excellent work.   There are some other special features but I regret that Netflix only gives us disk 1 of these DVD sets.

next time bluray

RB

#89 - Sisters

It did take me a bit to get into this one but once it got rolling, whewwie -

A psychological thriller by Brian De Palma takes our #89 spot - and what a film it is - in one sense you can see where it's going but at the same time the way it gets there is a pretty good cinematic experience

Margot Kidder (who honestly, I only remember as Lois Lane) - plays a pair of sisters here - one sweet and wants to be a model, one is a bit more disturbed - a murder committed by one of them leaves us in the quandary of who did it, and we watch the investigation play out by a no-nonsense reporter played by Jennifer Page

De Palma has done a few films we've all seen - probably Carrie, Scarface - this one I think is his first real thriller, and he does a few more to follow.  The one I remember is Blow Out with Travolta.   Like I say it took a bit to ramp up but when it did it had my interest

still in print so the usual special features - a new 4k restoration - (I didn't see this on blu-ray though) - and so forth

good stuff - nice thriller

RB

#88 - Ivan the Terrible - Parts I and II

for number 88 - we actually have two films - Parts I and II were filmed about a year apart but due to the nature of Part II, it never saw the light of day for 12 more years and the third part was scrubbed.

Sergei sought to make a trilogy of the Prince who united Russia as Tsar, but Stalin saw overtones in the 2nd film he didn't like and as a result the enterprise was scrapped - I will admit the stories as a whole were a little harder to get into - I found myself checking the time on Ivan a lot, but visually it was a decent film - there is a transition to color for a celebration at the end of part II that provides new life to the party, and the descent of Ivan into a paranoid tyrant is fun to trace.

I'm sure part III would have had the battle scenes and conquering hero riding west, but we stop here at a point where he has put an end to a plot against his life and as such, end on an anticlimactic note - stupid Stalin is always ruining my films.

In any case both DVD's have a documentary on them discussing the films, which give a lot to the backstory of how they were made and so forth - so worth finding in the library if you can

RB

#87 - Alexander Nevsky

#87 is our 2nd Russian film - (after Andrei Rublev) - and it comes in a fascinating time - the height of Stalinist Russia, before the second World War - it's a pretty good film, IMHO - but definitely shows the times it was made in, with a little bit of propaganda/state line thrown in

There's a lot about the director, Sergei Eisenstein, in Wikipedia - these are his last films, and I guess this was his most popular - the historical figure Alexander Nevsky is shown in his great battle stopping the Germans, who conveniently seem to have icons and helmets very, very similar to Nazi Germany - LOL   - the pivotal point of the film is what must be a 30 minute battle scene that inspired many later battle scenes including the Battle of Aracourt from Henry V, the great final battle in Seven Samurai, and others we've seen up to here

The story itself only has a bit of plot - the Germans are coming, the Russian folk hero and peasants rally, and defeat them with the last lines being immortalized as print in the closing "He who comes to Russia with a sword will die by the sword" - wonder who that was meant to inspire or discourage - LOL

The funny part of all this is although the film was made in '38, and tensions between Germany and Russia were strained, the treaty of  '39 that divided Poland basically took the film out of circulation for two years until '41 when the Germans declared War on Russia, making this film very, very relevant again.

some pretty good orchestral music in here too, and there are some snippets from an earlier failed film he did, an audio commentary that seems pretty good, and other stuff that makes this one of the more feature heavy DVD's of the early period.

Interestingly, the website for Criterion puts this as out of print although the Wikipedia page does not but it may be in the Janus Film box set (most of which I have been unimpressed with due to their lower quality/transfers) - SO - if you want to see it, you might have to wait for the Criterion Channel or raid the library cause I think even my Netflix was not sure if it was gonna be around

of course, most of these are also on Amazon Prime for rental at $1.99 or so if you wish - in any case, it's a good film with a crude if effective and inspirational battle scene - :)

#86 - Eisenstein - The Sound Years

So now we're in this phase where the spine numbers for collections are listed separate from the films - LOL - I guess we did this with the Cocteau Orpheus Trilogy as well

all I can tell you about Sergei Eisenstein is what I've read in the Wikipedia and basically - we're about to watch his last 3 films, and he did them with the blessing of Stalin but the 3rd one went poorly so footage of the 4th film - (Ivan part 3) was destroyed - there you go

I got both these DVD's from my library so I'm excited to get started maybe later tonight or tomorrow

#85 - Pygmalion

It took me a while to get to this one - primarily because I'm just not a big fan of these 1930's English dramas, and because it was out of print but in the public domain

What we have here is a film adaption of a George Bernard Shaw play just a year before the start of WWII.   It actually ended up turning out to be a fairly entertaining story that I appreciated watching.  The theme of someone being pulled up or turned into someone they're not is a pretty common one - (Pretty Woman, Trading Places, She's All That) and in this one, we have two upper class Englishmen working to turn a Cockney flower girl into a Duchess.  The Scene at the ball has some of the most delicious tension I've ever seen in a film as they attempt to ascertain if they've been successful :)

The DVD is out of print but there are some public domain copies out there on youtube although this one seems much cleaner than those.