#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 -