#175 - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

 

This is our third Terry Gilliam film after Time Bandits and Brazil and truth be told, a DVD I've owned for a long time - I sort of like Hunter S. Thompson and the occasional drug epic - and this is probably why - LOL

I also love Vegas - Normally I put stuff here that I can remember what the movie is about but I almost replayed this one from memory and what a great two hours it was :)

all I'll say is Johnny Depp nails HST, the highlights of the book are hit, and it's a great piece of work that'll have you saying stuff like "as your attorney I advise you try the meat lovers pizza"

all I really got to say on this

#174 - Band of Outsiders

 

This was the next film Jean-Luc Godard did after Contempt which is surprising...because it feels like this and the next few will be steps back into Black and White - it uses the formula he likes, which is a girl and a gun - LOL

It was interesting - I was mostly waiting for the heist part and it took a while to get to - it was a fascinating story and I did try very hard to keep my interest but a lot of it was small french talk - and it was a LOT - LOL but I also always love seeing old France and Paris - some of my favorite movies are things like the documentary La Joli Mai where you get to see Paris in the 50's and 60's which is when I would have wanted to go

but I like Godard for the most part - some of his stuff like Masclin Feminin are some of my favorites but he is experimental and doesn't always hit 100% to me - but I will look forward to Breathless again when it shows up

#173 - The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

 

Another one from Powell and Pressburger - (who I think we last saw in the Red Shoes or Black Narcissus - I forget which) - and the dude's name isn't Colonel Blimp so I don't know really what the title means other than that guy was in a comic strip, I guess

It's a bit of a romance/love story about a military officer who goes all the way up to WWII - somewhat satirical but at the time, during WWII when it came out, very telling.  Churchill didn't want it made, it was cut down for time when sent to the states and was generally an inferior print.   They tried to get Olivier to do it but the war department refused - in fact the British War Dept. refused to help at all which the joke is several uniforms were still "found" for use

the 2011 restoration restored 3 sets of negatives (I guess technicolor is for printing color on 3 b/w prints and then blending them) - and the restoration is insanely good and was overseen by Powell's editor and Martin Scorsese.

Honestly, when I saw the length I was a bit irritated but this is one of the films that flies by - it is beautifully shot, and goes on a time travelling journey of a man who serves in the Boer war, WWI, and is helping out in WWII.  It reminder me a bit of the Grand Illusion where you realize that in WWI, the officer corps of both sides were a lot more kind to each other whereas they try to make the point that to lose by not using the tactics the Nazis are using is a total loss - He falls in love, loses the girl, finds a near doppleganger and marries her - and when she dies, takes a driver that looks like his lost love and wife - and all three are played by Deborah Kerr at only 21 years old.  

It's believed by many to be one of the finest British films out there and in the sense that it captures the British spirit while still being entertaining, quite a show - the aging makeup they used was pretty good too for the lead - not so much for his friend but hey life goes on - :)

Anyways glad i got it knocked out in one sitting

#172 - Pépé le moko

 

As is usually the case - expect a streak of a few fast films now especially before the snow melts in Alaska.   I'm sorta wanting to buy some of the films coming up - (and own some of the ones in the future) but I'll probably rewatch them.

This is the style they call "French Poetic Realism" and Imogen Sara Smith has a good intro to it on the Channel.   It's also our 2nd film with Jean Gabin, who for all intents and purposes is like the Harrison Ford of French Cinema at this time - Insanely good and charismatic, and we saw him in ....The Grand Illusion (1) and we'll see him again a bit later as he's just that good - here he plays a fugitive hiding out in the labyrinth streets and corridors of the Casbah of Algiers who is lured out by a Parisian woman.

It's pretty good, was remade almost shot for shot in America with a lot of the same music and background, and was a pretty enjoyable film - although he plays a rascal, thief, and (probably) killer, you really feel for him - he's trapped in a huge prison of his own making in the Casbah, but it's clear that it can only protect him for so long with police and informants hounding his trail inside.

I liked it....enough said

#171 - Contempt

Good news crew - we're back - this was hard to find, OOP and not on Criterion Channel - lucky there was a channel that had it available on Roku but in preparation for this I also watched Breathless and the Netflix film ABOUT Breathless, Nouvelle Vague to get a better feel for Godard.

Don't got a full grasp yet - it's clear he enjoys his color and large shots and part of this film seems to be him experimenting with the new medium in which he watches the sudden dissolution of a marriage (Contempt for each other is where our title comes from) - and true to Godard, there's a woman and a gun - LOL.

Otherwise though Bardot does an incredible job - Godard trims down the sex kitten stuff a bit and had to put in a couple bare ass shots to satisfy distributors who wanted more of her body.   It's a good piece, Jack Palance, god bless him, had a hard time with it but overall did a great performance, the locale is spectacular and it's fascinating to see him experimenting with the stuff he's writing

I read someone say "overrated but worth watching" - not sure I'm qualified to say overrated but as my 2nd film so far after Alphaville (5th really as I've seen Breathless, La Chinoise,  and my favorite Masculin Feminin) - it does feel even more out there than some of the later stuff - I guess Ebert thought it showed his shortcomings and as such helped get him into stuff he could do better

Anyways Criterion sometimes has a Godard run of films including the extras they don't normally have so worth looking for

#170 - Trouble in Paradise

 Here's the deal - I watched it - I went in with a quasi open mind - it didn't hook me.

I appreciated what it was like to see a pre-code film (1932) with a fair degree of innuendo and hookups implied - but as far as romantic comedies go it did nothing for me.

So - just gonna leave it as one checked off and move on 

#169 - Jimi Plays Monterey & Shake! Otis at Monterey

 
Well, and we got these two performances as a bonus - Otis seemed too short (19 minutes) but they added some stuff to Jimi's where John Phillips talked about him and how he was flown over to play and how he got in a fight with Townsend over who was opening for who.   

To this day I'm still amazed by Jimi - he played Wild thing with the guitar behind his back near the end - I don't mean holding it behind his head - he just had it slung behind him like a rifle on his shoulder and only his right hand on the fretboard just hitting that shit like it was nothing - it takes me full concentration and he just thinks it - LOL.

I think the Jimi Performance is legendary, and I wish in some way they could have done more of these for some of the artists - but you know..we take the good stuff we can get

I knew I would look forward to this and blow thru it - I may watch it on the side today with the commentary 

#168 - Monterey Pop

 

And so here we go - got to see the movie.   I think the thing that struck me was it was edited way out of sequence, and that some of these acts were playing earlier or later than others.   In any case, it's a nice little clip of the counter culture at that time of the summer of love.  I think I enjoy the audience views more than the concerts sometimes.   At the beginning there's a girl asking if they've ever been to a love in before and how cool it's going to be etc...
 

Anyways Hendrix is obviously my favorite and I'm looking forward to the whole concert - I liked the harmonies of the Mamas and the Papas.   I get that they let Ravi Shankar play for like 3 hrs on the last day but I wish they could have edited that last 20 minute performance and put a couple other artists like the Byrds or Buffalo Springfield on but it's all good.   One doesn't hear too many Ragas in movies short of maybe a Satyajit Ray film.  (wonder when i get another one of those)

Anyways, it's a great window into a festival where they mostly kept the shit together, and just a ton of great outtakes to enjoy - and up next of course, the full Otis and Jimi at Monterey

#167 - Monterey Pop - (Boxed Set spine)

 So we're at this place again where the OCD in me wants an entry for every number, but the way Criterion changed things was the box sets get their own number - which means I have an entry with no movie but in this case I can talk for a bit beforehand.

I can tell you that when I was a kid they showed this on PBS and I didn't get around to seeing it but I saw promos for it a lot.   I also watched the Woodstock documentary a lot.   As a kid in the 80's I was more or less enamored with the 60's and especially the music.   I loved Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and they played here - (croz in two bands) although I don't believe they're in the movie.   I loved Simon and Garfunkel, and I loved some of the Mama's and the Papa's.   I first heard of Jimi Hendrix here and the way he lit his guitar on fire near the end.   So as I sit down to watch this I expect a lot of things I'll enjoy.  

There are a ton of extra performances, and of course, the 2nd disk will go full Otis and Jimi which is gonna be fun.   I'm sure someone somewhere has made a massive cut of all the extra performances an just made a 3 hr film.   I always love music festival documentaries like Festival, Woodstock and this, because I never really got to go to one and I'm sure it would have been awesome.   

Anyways I could share my thoughts on this one because in some way the parts I did see, or the clips, DID have an influence on me.   It was a perfect festival really, which Woodstock would be the peak, and Altamont the decline.   I'm going to watch the movie now but wanted to spill a few thoughts on it first since I had the entry.

#166 - Down By Law

Hey...we're back with Down By Law, a fun little comedic film by Jim Jarmusch.   It's like one half prison film, one half Bayou road trip, and one half love letter to a New Orleans that I wonder if it still exists or ever did.

We got John Lurie (who we saw way back when from Fishing with John), Tom Waits, and Roberto Benigni playing some characters just close enough to themselves that they pull it all off really well.   I like Jim Jarmusch but haven't gotten to all his stuff yet.   Tom and John do a great job on the soundtrack here as well.

I won't get into it all a lot, because it is on one hand easy to explain, but very atmospheric and well shot.   There's a lot of extras on the Blu-Ray and although it took me a long time to get back on the wagon, once i did it went fast.   A fun movie and could totally make me a Tom Waits fan but man, I got too many other rabbit holes to dig first.

 

#165 - Man Bites Dog

 

Next we have this dark French movie from a trio of Film Students.  (Actually I think they're French Speaking Belgians.

When this started I freely admit I was kind of "what the hell is this and how did it end up in the collection" but as it went along I started to get it a little bit.   The film is about a "documentary" film crew who is following a serial killer, and documenting his exploits.   

Where the interest for many, and the lesson starts, is that they start out as onlookers but end up becoming basically accomplices.   It's one of those things we didn't think about in '92 when the film was made, but of course now, reality tv is everywhere, and you do wonder about how thin some of the lines for these guys.   

It's pretty graphic in a few spots and got an NC-17 rating so don't watch it with the kids, but it was more interesting than I gave it credit for in the long run.

#164 - Solaris

 

Wow....been almost a year - those 3 hr movies just sorta intimidate me and I need to accept and deal with it and break it up into two or three components.   As a result I got horribly derailed, but I probably watched 10 other movies in the collection that I'll end up rewatching at some point.

Ok, so we have Tarkovsky's Solaris, a pretty good if somewhat long sci-fi epic from Russia - we saw him back in Andrei Rublev, so it's been a while.   In fact, this was the move he did right after Andrei and it hadn't been released, so he needed money and this was a popular novel in Russia by a Polish author and so you have some very different genres at work here.   I saw the remake 20 years ago and honestly didn't remember really any of it, (I smoked a lot of weed back then - LOL) - so I was going into it a little cold.

I can see why many consider it one of the best sci-fi stories of all time.   The actress in particular who dominates the story (in the photo above) has an almost ethereal quality about her and Tarkovsky seems to think she outshined everyone else in the story but I would prefer to leave most plot points out of future reviews so I won't tell you yet who she is :)   I caught a bit of the commentary and I got the impression from it that the movie diverges a bit from the source book, but I was inspired enough to consider looking for the book in the future.

Anyways, I guess the question comes down for me to Did I enjoy it?   Yes.   Will I be able to get back on the wagon and knock more of these out?   I hope so.   We'll see

#163 - Hopscotch

 

Never heard of this one before - a comedy which I guess is having fun with the heavy spy genre of the 70's and 80's.   Honestly, not a lot I want to say - it was fun and entertaining and I am reminded of how good Walter Matthau is and it's fun to see a very young Sam Waterson when I'm used to him being the 70 year old DA in Law and Order.

Basically Walter Matthau plays a spy who they try to assign to a desk and he bolts and starts writing a spy tell-all which sends all the intelligence agencies after him in a manhunt.  This was pretty funny stuff and I liked it.   I was too young to hear of it before of this but I guess it was well known.

I didn't think there was anything super extraordinary about it but it's here, it's number #163, and it was fun

#162 - Ratcatcher

 

#162 is Ratcatcher, by Lynne Ramsay.  I had seen it somewhere at sometime - trailer in the indie theater, VHS or DVD at the video store.  I don't remember exactly but very little of it stuck with me initially besides garbage :)

The film takes place during garbage strikes in Glasgow in the 1970's, and follows the character James thru the tenement slums and characters in the area.   Within the first few minutes, a tragic death shapes him and for the rest of the film, seems to shadow over him and foreshadows over and over what seems like a bottomless pit that drags you down.   Obviously as a much older person, with more resources I'm able to get a better feeling for what the character is going thru here.   In many ways the whole film and setting remind me of "George Washington" a few films back in which the location is such a powerful character you just see it as best supporting actor.   No one here is thriving - everyone is just barely holding it together.

It's a pretty good film I'd consider getting on Blu-Ray for the special features, of which there are the first 3 short films by the director, among others, interviews, and some good stuff.   They must have acquired this only 2-3 years after it came out and it's been one of my favorites so far this grouping of 100.

#161 - Under The Roofs Of Paris

 

Ok....so Rene (sorry for the missing accent) Clair - a French film director who transitioned from Silent to Sound with this film.   We'll see him once more in the 600's but for now these are his 3 main works that he transitioned to sound with

Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)
Le Million (1931)
A Nous la Liberte (1931)

It might have been nice to have seen them in chronological order but this is what we got - (2, 3, 1) so let's talk a bit about it.

This is his first sound production - it starts with singing and music, and this kind of makes sense to me because this film more than the others felt like it had a lot going on with no dialogue - whole minutes of just people moving with no talking - I'm guessing he was making the transition but still fell back on using the action to tell the story than the words.

It's a fun little romance - He uses the full height of his 4-5 story set sometimes, showing life in the tenements of Paris.   And like A Nous la Liberte, it's entertaining in a Charlie Chaplain way.   These are going to be some of the early masterpieces of French Cinema, and they've been slightly cut, as Rene went back to his films in the 50's and made some edits, but it didn't hurt the story to me at all.

Each film had a shorter, silent film by Clair attached to the DVD, but I didn't feel very motivated, TBH - not there for me. - was a bit of a struggle to get thru these as is.

I'm sure they were masterpieces for their day, but like many things, harder to really get into in the 21st century - glad I watched them but not overwhelmed or anything.   

It's essentially a will they/won't they get together romance with lots of comedic obstacles thrown in the path.   I'll leave it to you to see how it turns out.

#160 - À nous la liberté

 

So this is one of a pair of Rene Clair's films - they actually sandwich Le Million (number 71 - a film I am sad to say I literally cannot remember) - it was a fun little musical comedy but nothing to really draw me in.   I'm going to save most of my thoughts for the next entry since I watched them back to back over two nights  - 

It's a fun little humorous romp about an escaped convict turned businessman.  Things get rough when he is found first by his good friend and then by other individuals seeking to get payout to keep their mouth shut.  Anyways...we'll pick this up in the next entry.

#159 - Red Beard

Yes, I finally got around to the incredibly rich and awesome Red Beard! - (And the first post of 2024 - yeesh) -  I started it once, dozed off, and realized it wasn't holding my interest, so I gave things a rest and came back.

This is Kurosawa and Mifune's final collaboration.   Kurosawa took over 2 years to make it, blew a ton of money on an ultra realistic set that was almost never used, and had legit props in drawers that were never opened.   I suppose one could make the case that the extravagance and length of time it took to do this film is what hampered his future opportunities, but in any case, he had a magnificent run that started to wrap up here.

The film is set in 19th century Edo (Tokyo) and centers around a young up and coming doctor who finds himself assigned to a public clinic that covers the impoverished.   Over the course of 3 hrs, we learn more about his story, the stories of some of the patients, and the workers at the clinic.   We see his gradual transformation from a disgruntled doctor to a legitimate healer.   It feels a bit like a trope but in Kurosawa's hands, it's a masterful story.

It IS 3 hours, and doesn't get nearly as much action as some of the other films we've seen.   But it is one of his finest movies, his last in Black and White, and his last in the anamorphic widescreen 2:35 to 1 ratio.   It will take him years to make his next film, and from here on out it will be a bit of a struggle to get funding for his projects.   It's a bit sad to think of this as his last "great" film with Mifune, but there are other great films to come (7 more to be exact) and we'll get to some of them soon.

I may watch this again with the Audio Commentary in the background - I found myself very interested in what was going on behind the scenes on this film that took so long they actually did tours of the set some days with people on buses.

All and all a real excellent piece.

Side Tangent - Godzilla Minus One

 

I've been a tiny bit stalled on Red Beard due to it's length and my ADHD - someday soon I'll get it done.

IN THE MEANTIME, I've made a trip to a real theater again for the first time in a few week.   I've probably seen about 20 Godzilla movies from both Japan and America, and as far as a genre goes, I like them.  This one right here is probably the best one I've ever seen, hands down.

Long story short, it's another "reboot" which means it starts like there's never been a Godzilla before.  (This gets complicated - but basically, most movies are sequels of the 1954, or there were a couple stretches where they were sequels to each other, but by and large, until 2016's Shin Godzilla, all the Toho properties basically assumed Godzilla's first film exists and builds on that)

But what makes this unique is that this one takes place in the years right after World War II, in the late 40's.   The characters we meet in this movie are already struggling with PTSD, Trauma, and Survivor's Guilt before even getting to the monster.   They're living in burned out buildings in Tokyo, barely surviving, and working to do things like clean up mines after the war.   When Godzilla shows up they are already on the precipice.

I saw something on Reddit that really hit true with me - in this one you are rooting for Godzilla to be defeated.   In a lot of these, you root for Godzilla vs. another Monster or hope to see him back someday.  However, in this one, you grow attached to the characters, and that doesn't leave you.   There are moments where the theater is silent as a pindrop - it's really something to experience.

In any case, I think it's the best Godzilla movie I have ever seen, and it's worth a trip to the big screen one time if you can pull it off

RB

#158 - The Importance of Being Earnest

 yeah....this didn't do much for me - Not a big Oscar Wilde fan.   Honestly struggled to keep my attention with it and any attempt to write much up for it here is just filling space - I watched it - let's move on

#157 - The Royal Tenenbaums

 

#157 is our second Wes Anderson film and one of his most popular ones with a stellar cast.   There is such a unique style to his films.   I recently saw Asteroid City, so to compare these two films which are 20 years apart you still see the same oddities and framing and almost a storybook set.   

This is basically a family drama with a lot of oddballs.   To say more probably wouldn't do service so I'll hold up at that - my biggest issue with getting this done was finding a place to watch it since it's currently not on the Channel.

The only thing that I didn't like was that I guess Gene Hackman made it kind of hard on the Director.   He was hoping for fun and light roles to wrap up his career, and I guess he was berating Wes hard enough that Bill Murray (who has been in a number of his films) showed up on his days off to keep an eye on things.  Alternate fun fact, Bill was supposed to be in Asteroid City, but I guess he got sick and they had to sub with Steve Carell, which is fine too.

Anyways, it's a pretty good film from a creative director with a unique style.   I can't say enough how much I like that whether in music, film, singing, or whatever.   Someone who is able to do something no one else does or create what no one else thinks to create is always a winner in my book.   The first thought I had was oddly, Yasujiro Ozu, who has that unique way of filming with the characters speaking directly to your face.    No one else does what these directors do and apparently Ozu inspired Wes Anderson, so there you go.

See that was only a few weeks - not a year between entries :)