# 147 - In The Mood For Love

 

Here we have a movie and a director I have heard a LOT about but never gotten to.   My love of Hong Kong cinema is mostly around the action but films like this and those make me mourn for a Hong Kong I'll probably never see.

This is a masterpiece by Wong Kar Wai - it follows the stories of two neighbors in 1962 Hong Kong who realize their spouses are having an affair and come together in their own unique way.   There is a haunting poetry to how the director shoots, and this seems to be pretty common to all his films

I usually don't do this but I heard this was the middle of an informal trilogy, so I watched the first film (Days of Being Wild) and I plan on watching the third film (which I think tie it all together as the trilogy) at some point.   Criterion has released a Blu-Ray Set of Kar-Wai's greatest films, but interestingly there's no spine number to it so I'm not sure how many I'll get to in the collection themselves besides this and Chungking Express later one - but i'll probably watch the others for fun at some point.   In the meantime most of the films are on the Channel with the exception of the 3rd film in this trilogy which I'll have to go looking for (It's on Pluto - oh god, commercial central) - - might have to find a fast rental somewhere.

Anyways this is a great piece of cinema and some believe it to be one of the greatest films of all time.   It can be a tiny bit confusing as it fades in and out and some scenes are them acting out something they think will happen rather than what happens.    I'd like to give it another run at some point - and get to the commentaries and special features and deleted scenes.   There's a lot to unpack here and it's hard with the seminal work of a director and work back but hey, that's kinda what I did with Satyajit Ray so maybe someday :)

#146 - The Cranes Are Flying

 

NOW we're talking - :)  This is a great movie - this is what I wanted when I started this crazy enterprise :)

My introduction to Mikhail Kalatozov was the film Soy Cuba, which he shot 4 years after this one but took some of his long visual shots to the next level.   There are some great ones in here as well.   This is an anti-war film (which as one director pointed out is a bit jarring given our perception of what we thought the Soviet Union was like).   If someone asks me what my favorite film is based upon the shots and composition, I'd be very tempted to say Soy Cuba.  (With Russian Ark a close second, but the gimmick of one continuous shot does feel a bit strained at times.)

Mikhail was a cinematographer before a director, and so it's resulted in some crazy compositional shots - at times aerobatic and jarring, sometimes soaring and long inspiring shots.   

This film is about a young couple in love separated by WWII.   It especially focuses on the heroine who has to wait for news about her fiance and process that along with the trauma of a rape and marriage to the beast of a man who did it.   There's a lot here to unpack and because I have such an interest in Russia and WWII, it hit all my buttons.

Apparently this came out during a time called the Thaw, which was the restrictions lifted about Soviet Realism after the death of Stalin.   As I say, it does have very strong anti-war sentiments which goes against what we THINK we know about Russia, but Russia suffered nearly 35 million dead between it's armed services and civilians in WWII, so if they came out of that cautious about war, it's understandable.

Got a few good special features on this one - absolutely worth a 2nd watching and if you can find Soy Cuba, that one gets extra attention too. 

#145 - The Fireman's Ball

 

Man...I watched this 4 days ago - (watched is a strong word - it barely held my interest) - and I realized when looking for what's next I hadn't written the entry.

Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had understood it's partially a thinly veiled satire at Czech Communist Leadership and it was banned after the Russian Invasion.

As it was it was a slightly humorous farce but nothing that could really entertain me in any real degree - of course Milos Forman would go to America and do lots of other great stuff and win lots of awards - this was his last film in his native country.

Wasn't a good one for me - not terribly enjoyable - DVD is out of print in Criterion but it's on the channel

#144 - Loves of a Blonde

 

Only my 2nd Czech New Wave film - I think I expected a little more after Closely Watched Trains - (and we got another one to go) - kind of an interesting story about a woman in a town where women outnumber men 16 to 1 and she bounces from an absent boyfriend to a new one.

Some of the shots here are really extended - a dialogue shot can go for 10-15 minutes (or a party shot) - with cuts back and forth between the speakers - Milos Forman, of course, would come to the US and do some legendary work - (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Man on the Moon, amongst others) - but we probably won't see these actors/actresses again except in another film out of Czechoslovakia.   (Thank God for Spell check)

it was an interesting film and not a bad way to spend 88 minutes but I won't be getting the DVD anytime soon.   I think when I see New Wave, I automatically associate it with French, but each movement had it's own styles - what I can say is that apparently this was a lax time in some of the authoritarian tendencies of the Eastern Bloc and that gave this particular New Wave a chance to flourish before crackdowns later

#143 - That Obscure Object of Desire

 

What we have here is Luis Bunuel's last film that he directed.   The story starts with a man fleeing a woman and dumping a bucket of water on her head as they leave the train station - he then begins to explain what exactly lead him to that spot.  - (reminds me a bit of Agnes Varda's Vagabond in which we almost see the ending first) 

The story is of a wealthy French man falling for a young Spanish woman who switches between teasing and rejecting him.   What makes this film especially interesting is that the director swaps out the young woman unpredictably at different times, since for some reason his first actress gave him grief, he decided to continue the movie with not one, but two new neophyte actresses.  Carole Bouquet will show up again later in a Bond Film but otherwise most of these actors/actresses are unfamiliar to me. 

It was an enjoyable story - half Drama/half Comedy - worth the Blu-Ray I suppose and all it's special features but I got a less feature heavy Canal+ version to watch.

Good times.

#142 - The Last Wave

 

#142 returns us to Peter Weir - (Picnic at Hanging Rock, but neither of these would be my favorite PW film - that's no doubt Dead Poets Society)

even reading the description I couldn't quite guess what I was getting into - an Australian Tax Lawyer tries to defend some Aboriginals from a manslaughter charge and ends up having odd visions.   This is actually to some degree what Peter Weir was going for, the idea that an odd white collar middle class man would start having strange end of the world visions and how the heck did that work out.

Quite a lot of suspense in this one - more than I was expecting - and it's a good film - right up with with Picnic for it's spookiness, and a young, young Richard Chamberlin who I saw a bit in the 80's but not since.   

Good film and enjoyable, if a little enigmatic

#141 - Children of Paradise

 

This took me WAY too long to get to - I usually get some stuff done when the spouse is out of town and she finally took a couple days - the length didn't help, and neither did my tepid response to 8 1/2 back in July, but when it was over I found that I had greatly enjoyed it.   It did take a couple nights as it's easy to doze off in the chair on this kind of film at midnight, but surprising, by the 2nd night, I was so taken I roused myself at one point and got my 2nd wind to finish the last 2 hrs.

This is a romance of sorts on the scale of Gone with the Wind in France - A woman (probably a prostitute although I never considered it during the film) is pursued by several actors, lowlifes, and high society types.    There is a great deal of acting from the stage, where one character puts in a stellar performance as a mime.    I didn't realize the extent to which this was considered one of the greats of French Cinema until afterwards.

There's some other very interesting trivia in here.   All her suitors are based on actual historical figures, and of course, the idea this was started in Vichy France and completed after the Allies liberated it makes for some good stories - the idea that it was going to have to be two 90 minute films under Vichy rules, and the fact they added some already shot stuff hoping they'd be able to complete it under Free France, and how one character had to be reshot because he was accused of collaboration - even the lead actress got in trouble and got her head shaved and incarcerated for a few months because she had an affair with a Luftwaffe officer in Paris.

But at it's core, it's a poetic and powerful film - shot on an epic scale, with scenes outside the Boulevard of Crime (really, it's named after the theaters that showed a lot of crime stuff) packed full of extras and festivals and outdoor performances.   This is one of those films I would get a Blu-Ray of for the special features or spend time on the commentary for, and I may just to do it because I'm sure there's some great stuff in there.    As it turns out there's a lot of good stuff right now on the Criterion Channel for this one.

One last note, apparently the translation isn't quite great - it's not so much Children of Paradise as it is Children of the Gods - (roughly) - the Gods are the reference to the theater viewers in the upper balcony seats, so it's almost like Children of the Theater or something - anyways - I turned out to enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would so that's why we do this!

#140 - 8 1/2

 

Starting to get a little worried - lately the viewings have been feeling more like work or an unpleasant chore that drives me to my cellphone instead of paying attention.

This (along with Wild Strawberries) are quintessential Art House films - among the top of the genres, by world renown directors - but they're just not holding my attention

I've said before I'm a bit hit or miss with Fellini - this one was  a miss - I appreciate the surrealism but aside from some interesting compositions, the story wasn't there - it's a bit schizophrenic and I guess I wish I just had a straight forward story without 50% flashbacks or dream sequences. - Looking ahead I'm seeing some good stuff so I'll push thru, but the viewing was not the most engaging for me and I watched it over 3 nights struggling to get my attention.

Lots of good special features - maybe a rewatch with the featured commentary will make it a bit better for me

RB 

#139 - Wild Strawberries

 

I'm not 100% sure I'm ever going to get Bergman - I know he's one of the greatest directors of the 20th century, but except for the Seventh Seal, nothing he's done has particularly moved me so far.

This is a story of an old widower reflecting back on his life during a drive to his son's place and University to receive an award.   There are some dream sequences, some reminiscing, and the like.   He starts out as a much worse man than he ends up, and some other folks show up along the way who remind him of what he's lost and found.

I wish it had reached me better - I was watching late at night - nearly fell asleep and basically watched it over 3 viewings - that's not a great way to do this, but it was just very tough to engage - dunno why - absolutely have to stop bringing my cell to viewings.

the Blu-Ray has a lot of special features but none were on the Channel but the movie itself I don't believe - (but I'll doublecheck)

RB

#138 - Rashomon

 ALL RIGHTY! - Made it to more Kurosawa and please let's leave the recent batch of English Melodrama and thriller for the good stuff.

TBH I was pushing thru Hitchcock for this - it's why I rushed so much this week to get them done.

I didn't realize this was the first real Japanese film to get an international audience.   It wasn't made for them but it did the trick.   As such there's probably not a lot I can or need to say about it but some things I didn't know.

This put Toshiro Mifune on the map but he was a virtual unknown before it.   Obviously even Harrison Ford had a couple films you didn't know about before Star Wars :)

The story is short and sweet - a bandit ambushes a samurai and his wife, captures him, rapes her, and afterwards the samurai is dead.   We know THAT much.   After that what is known and unknown is lost in one of several told versions of events by a woodcutter to a commoner and priest at a crumbling temple where they hide out from the rain.

TBH I have the DVD but haven't watched it since the first time.   It's been restored, and got some nice Blu-Ray extras, some of which are on the CC, but it's not the easiest film to really get a handle on and watch - but that's the whole point - the story is confusing, and incredulous, and you share in the confusion of the storytellers as they hear and relate multiple versions - of which we never truly learn the real one.

Almost everyone in the story will show up in future Kurosawa productions and the special features are great to watch as well

RB

#137 - Notorious

 

I liked this next Hitchcock film a little better - a Spy Noir film with the same two principals as the last one, Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.   

A woman who's father was a Nazi Collaborator is recruited to go to Brazil and sniff out what other former collaborators are doing.   Some nice tracking shots here and a good story/chemistry between the two actors.

There's some interesting stuff on the disk but this one I had to watch via streaming service with commercials so they're not available but I'd be interested to hear the 1948 radio re-enactment.

side note I think I can see why everyone was in love with Ingrid Bergman :)

# 136 - Spellbound

 

I had some stuff come up - mostly moving - cause you know - stuff moves.

Didn't really like this one - hard to keep my interest - another 40's Melodrama - we'll get out of these soon and into the good stuff

DVD looks like it has a lot of interesting extras on the website but it's out of print in the CC so as usual gotta come up with plan b's sometimes

On a side note, there's a lot to be found very easily searching Roku - Search for something and you probably WILL find it on a streaming app somewhere

Anyways - not much to say - strange young man shows up to run a mental hospital and has mental issues 

#135 - Rebecca

 

Ah, it's been too long - but we'll get thru a few good ones in the next few weeks I hope

Been moving, trying to get stuff done, etc - but anyways - here we go - I thought this was discontinued by the collection but maybe that changed recently - in any case it's on Bluray now with a ton of special features

What we have here is Hitchcock's first American film and the first of three we'll watch in this block.   I try to go out of my way to not inform myself of the plot on suspense films so that everything is agonizing and you never know what's coming.     I kinda feel like he's starting to come into the Alfred I know, as opposed to The Lady Vanishes or The 39 Steps, both of which we've covered here - (good lord, I had to reread the post I made 5 years ago to be sure I watched it - no memory of it) 

This one however, the lighting, suspense, story, were gripping - I'll go into the next two films the same way, I expect - waiting to see what the old fellow has got for us