#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