#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