WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[charliechaplinfan]

After reading a bio of Marlene Dietrich I dusted off Stagefright and watched it again. I was more impressed with it second time around, it's quite different from other Hitchcocks and I love the setting of the theatre and the stage. Marlene is such a character as Charlotte Inwood and gets to sing a couple of songs. Apparently Hitchcock wanted her to be Marlene in the role. I find what really makes this movie is the English actors, Alistair Sim, Michael Wilding, Joyce Grenfell and not quite as much Richard Todd.

[MichiganJ]

I've been watching some films of Alejandro Jodorowsky and all I can say is….wow. And I thought Buñuel was surreal.

La Cravate (1957)--a short, silent and theatrically stylized love story about a woman shop keeper who deals in swapping heads. One day a nerdish man, in an effort to woe a woman, swaps his head for the He-man's head on the shelf. Then the shopkeeper becomes smitten by the nerdish head. Romance ensues…

Fando y Lis (1968) Fando and his paraplegic fiancée Liz search for the mythical paradise of Tar. Along the way they encounter lots of people and have many surreal experiences. Intense and powerful, but not for the faint of heart or easily offended. I was impressed that despite all of the surrealistic images there is an intelligible and very moving through line. Quite a visual journey, which I'm sure will be even better with repeated viewings.

El Topo (1970)--believe it or not, a Western, albeit, not the John Ford kind, but more like a Spaghetti Western as done by Fellini (probably while on an illegal substance or two). Violent as all get out, (Jodorowsky outdoes Peckinpah by a lot), but the blood and effects are of the way-too-red-as-to-be-entirely-believable kind. Still, not for the squeamish. The story is easy to follow, but Jodorowsky doesn't stay with a traditional three-act format and there's an abrupt change at about the half-way point. Still plenty of surreal aspects, and not a little misogyny, but the film is intense, challenging, and never ever boring.

[jdb1]

Mish, I hadn't thought about it in years, but I recall that El Topo was the talk of the town when it was released here. I never did get to see it, being put off by the reports of the violence therein. But maybe I can handle it now, looking at it as "art."

[MichiganJ]

Mish, I hadn't thought about it in years, but I recall that El Topo was the talk of the town when it was released here. I never did get to see it, being put off by the reports of the violence therein. But maybe I can handle it now, looking at it as "art."

Apparently it was a film championed by John and Yoko and was one of the films that started Midnight Movies here in the States.

The violence is intense, but almost comically so. You can see the squibs, etc., which helps to mitigate the impact a bit. I had a harder time with the misogyny, which was not so easily dismissed.

Still, I thought it very impressive and well worth seeing.

[charliechaplinfan]

A Marlene double bill, after Stagefright last night I watched A Foreign Affair, it was the first viewing for me, despite me being a Billy Wilder, Jean Arthur and Marlene fan. How inspired to pit Jean Arthur's madcap and batty congreewoman against Marlene's sultry chanteuse, both ladies are a solid advertisement for women in their forties. John Lund got fairly left behind with all the attention on his two ladies. This was one of Jean Arthur's last screen roles and one of her best, somehow I could believe that people in Iowa would vote for a prissy dame and Marlene played the kind of dame that she would have hated, a Nazi girlfriend. She did have one redeeming characteristic, she loved Captain Pringle and what he could bring her.

The idea of using post war Berlin for a comedy was a good one, the footage itself of the demolished city, the Reich Chancellory, The Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, it did give the film an eerie quality which was soon disposed off with the Congresswoman writing what she'd seen in her notebook.

It's a great Wilder film but to me it wasn't one of his better known ones but for me it will be one of his most appreciated ones.

[silentscreen]

I love Jean Arthur! She and Carole Lombard just can't be beat for solid, madcap performances! Their brilliant quirkiness always leaves me spellbound. I feel the same about Marion Davies-they are all pretty much the same type, but with their own distinct flair.

[charliechaplinfan]

You must see A Foreign Affair, Brenda, I'm sure you'd love it. I'm one of those people who love Jean Arthur's voice and mannerisms although I could see how they colud drive a viewer crazy.

A few days ago I watched Kurosawa's adaptation of The Lower Depths, based on a Maxim Gorky play, it's very stagey at first but Kurosawa manages to bring the characters to life using inventive editing and his great cast of actors, they include an old drunk actor, a gambler, a thief, a prostitute, a cobbler and his dying wife. All are destitute and living in a shed rented off the landlord who pretends to be a friend to them yet robs them blind. A beggar shows up, a benevolent man, who tells the drunk of a cure, listens to the prostitutes tales, comforts the dying woman, counsels the thief.

Kurosawa had a great set built across his studio from which he colud film wither side, he filmed with inventive diagonals and angles that trapped characters heightening their despair. There's comedy and social commentary here, it's not a good film to view if you want an introduction to Kurosawa, for that look at Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Rashomon but it explains more about the man Kurosawa was and what he was trying to achieve in his film making career.

This is also one of the most accomplished parts that Mifune ever played and he played many very well, his thief in the Lower Depths has more anger and tenderness, more capacity to love and fear of rejection, it's a great portrayal. Thanks Nancy

[Birdy]

I saw Grey Gardens, the movie, with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore as Big and Little Edie Beales. I had seen the documentary of the same name which depicted the lives of this madcap, captivating mother/daughter duo. Cousins of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, their lifestyle diminished to a closed and ramshackle situation. Jackie helped them restore the Hamptons summer house (where they lived alone for decades in varying states of chaos with raccoons and cats) and avoid eviction. Their spirit in their quirky costumes, living situation, personalities and interactions made their story a cult classic. The new movie captures this spirit well and it adds the backstory and remainder of the biographies. Grey Gardens itself was eventually sold and restored. There are websites and products lines related to the Beales and the estate.

"You can always take off the skirt and use it as a cape. So I think this is the best costume for today."

You can't write this stuff.
Anyone else fans?
Birdy

[MikeBSG]

I took my son to see "Iron Man 2" yesterday and we had a great time. I think it is as good as the original.

I really liked Mickey Rourke as the bad guy. He was outstanding. His attack on Tony Stark/Iron Man at the racetrack was a first-rate action scene. Not only did we see the two guys fighting, but we saw the reactions of the other characters, which then fed into what they did for the rest of the film.

The movie's script was well designed. Stark/Iron Man had "heart trouble." He had to fix his mechanical heart before it killed him, and he had to straighten out his personal life as well. The hero and villain also had to deal with memories of their fathers. The hero's father ultimately left him a positive legacy, while the villain's father only left him with bitterness. In short, this was a far better constructed movie than "the Dark Knight."

The cast was superb. I really liked Scarlett Johansen in this, and Paltrow was superb as Downey's girlfriend. (Indeed, the relationship between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts is far more interesting than the love plots in any other superhero movie.) Gary shandling did a fine job as a jerk of a senator.

I never cared for Iron Man as a comic book character, but I really like the movies. Odd.

[feaito]

Yesterday I revisited "Kings Row" (1942) with two American friends, one of whom is a fan of ex President Reagan. He was pleased to see him in his most famous role ("Where is the rest of me?"). A true top-notch production with a superb cast, cinematography, sets, score et al. Grand time. And you get to see four beautiful and talented actresses from the '40s, the irresistible Ann Sheridan, sweet Betty Field, commanding Nancy Coleman and gentle Kaaren Verne. Plus Harry Davenport, Claude Rains, Charles Coburn, Maria Ouspenskaya, Judith Anderson.... BTW, the star of the film, Bob Cummings is one of the great unsung actors of Hollywood's Golden Era; he starred in so many excellent films!: "It Started With Eve" with Deanna Durbin, Hitchcock's "Saboteur" and "Dial M for Murder", "The Devil and Miss Jones", "The Lost Moment", "Princess O'Rourke", "Flesh and Fantasy" (the episode with Betty Field is my fave one), "Sleep My Love".....Never a dull moment with Bob (Like old reliable Fred Mac Murray I feel he's an underrated talent).

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched A Wonderful Sunday another early Kurosawa film, a real gem and a social commentary on post war Japan. It's the tale of two ordinary young people who work throughout the week and only have Sunday to spend together, they're poor but honest and have only 35 yen (a paltry amount) to spend on their day together. They look around a new house, it's nothing special, an ordinary home but priced at 100,000 yen and way out of their league, they then hear of a rented room, they go to see it only to find that it is a miserable place, the man who rented it before couldn't afford his rent and now works in the office and sleeps in the bath, the money required for the deposit is too high. They go out again in the cold, it's winter, her shoes are falling apart, they both look inadequately prepared for the weather and calculate that they can't possibly get married and share a place, she lives with her sister, he lives in a friends room. They come across a baseball game, the man joins in, displaying an emotion other then despair. The mood lightens for a while, they go to the zoo, which has hardly any animals and they see a poster for a Schubert concert that they can afford. The jump on the train and run all the way from the station and join the queue just in time. The people before them buy all the tickets for the cheap seats and immediately offer them for black market prices. The man protests, he wants tickets for 10 yen the original price, he gets beaten up for his trouble. They go back to the man's room, his girlfriend uneasy, the man is forlorn and despairing, she cannot get through to him, she leaves and he finds her handbag, after a while she returns and they cry. Kurosawa pulls at the heart strings. Afterward their reconcilliation they go to a cafe and spend the rest of their money but the menu has been deceiving and they are 10 yen short, the man leaves his coat behind. They go to the bandstand and pretend to listen to the concert but cannot summon up enough strength to believe. Then the girl makes a plea to the audience watching, us, to applaud, I hope the cinema audience did, applaud and if we applaud enough the music will come and it does. The film ends with the pair agreeing to make a date for the next Sunday.

[charliechaplinfan]

A Wonderful Sunday is a remarkably moving film, there is comedy when the guy goes to a cabaret because he served with the guy who owns it, he asks for him by name only to get mistaken for a gangster who is trying to bribe them. They encounter a destitute war child. Kurosawa's remarkable storytelling abilities turn this relentless story of a poor ordinary couple desperate to get married, to honest to make money on the black market, their desperation is palpable, he makes the viewer really engage with the couple and the effect of the girl speaking to camera is an unusual one but you can see what he was trying to achieve, a statement on how ordinary honest Japanese were suffering at the time, perhaps also trying to shame the people who support the blackmarket. The ending is beautiful, as he the music slowly starts up, hopefully as a response to the people cheering in the cinema. It's remarkable cinema.

[srowley75]

Yesterday I revisited "Kings Row" (1942) with two American friends, one of whom is a fan of ex President Reagan. He was pleased to see him in his most famous role ("Where is the rest of me?"). A true top-notch production with a superb cast, cinematography, sets, score et al. Grand time. And you get to see four beautiful and talented actresses from the '40s, the irresistible Ann Sheridan, sweet Betty Field, commanding Nancy Coleman and gentle Kaaren Verne. Plus Harry Davenport, Claude Rains, Charles Coburn, Maria Ouspenskaya, Judith Anderson.... BTW, the star of the film, Bob Cummings is one of the great unsung actors of Hollywood's Golden Era; he starred in so many excellent films!: "It Started With Eve" with Deanna Durbin, Hitchcock's "Saboteur" and "Dial M for Murder", "The Devil and Miss Jones", "The Lost Moment", "Princess O'Rourke", "Flesh and Fantasy" (the episode with Betty Field is my fave one), "Sleep My Love".....Never a dull moment with Bob (Like old reliable Fred Mac Murray I feel he's an underrated talent).

This is a remarkably entertaining and moving picture that few people have seen but that nevertheless holds up very well. It's easily my favorite Ronald Reagan movie (though I don't really think of it as such - it's an ensemble film). Though it's a soapy narrative, it never approaches what I would consider camp territory (not that it would necessarily be a bad thing if it did...). And the ending is memorable and will leave you with a lump in your throat.

[feaito]

I agree heartily SRowley!

[MikeBSG]

I just watched "Samurai Banners," a 1969 film starring Toshiro Mifune and directed by Hiroshi Inagaki.

I really liked this one. I think it is much better than the "Samurai trilogy" they made in the Fifties.

Mifune plays a schemer who turns himself into the power behind the throne of an important clan. The clan becomes a regional powerhouse, but Mifune sacrifices all his own personal happiness along the way. And it all comes to naught.

The film covers twenty years, and Mifune is terrific. There are several big battles in the second half of the film, and in a way this film anticipates Kurosawa's "Ran." Very much worth a look. My only regret is that I couldn't see this film on a big screen.