I Just Watched...

[Belle]

Thanks for your enjoyable comments, Dargo!!

The title reminded me of something Emeric Pressburger once said when Conrad Veidt took the British film "Contraband" to the USA where it was re-titled "Blackout". Pressburger apparently said, "I wish I'd thought of that!"

Thanks in return here, Belle.

Your second paragraph here now has me wondering what Pressburger might've thought about the American re-title of his (and Mr. Powell's) film 'A Matter of Life and Death'?

(...I still remember my first television viewing as a teenager of that one back in the late-'60s and when it was titled 'Stairway to Heaven' for us Yanks)

I've been reading a biography about Michael Powell and haven't come across references to "Stairway to Heaven". Yet. I've always found the P&P (The Archers) films somewhat mixed and patchy. Loved "The Red Shoes" above all others and, of course, the Conny Veidt films (not yet The Archers), but "A Matter of Life and Death" and "One of our Aircraft is Missing" and "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" just didn't interest me. I found them improbable, often convoluted - and "Black Narcissus" was just amusing with the sexually frustrated Sister Ruth and her fascination with the bloodless and completely undesirable Mr. Dean. Sister Clodagh was unsympathetic; the whole film was just odd, IMO. However, I admired the somewhat gothic production design and absolutely stunning Technicolor.

[Dargo]

Thanks for your enjoyable comments, Dargo!!

The title reminded me of something Emeric Pressburger once said when Conrad Veidt took the British film "Contraband" to the USA where it was re-titled "Blackout". Pressburger apparently said, "I wish I'd thought of that!"

Thanks in return here, Belle.

Your second paragraph here now has me wondering what Pressburger might've thought about the American re-title of his (and Mr. Powell's) film 'A Matter of Life and Death'?

(...I still remember my first television viewing as a teenager of that one back in the late-'60s and when it was titled 'Stairway to Heaven' for us Yanks)

I've been reading a biography about Michael Powell and haven't come across references to "Stairway to Heaven". Yet. I've always found the P&P (The Archers) films somewhat mixed and patchy. Loved "The Red Shoes" above all others and, of course, the Conny Veidt films (not yet The Archers), but "A Matter of Life and Death" and "One of our Aircraft is Missing" and "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" just didn't interest me. I found them improbable, often convoluted - and "Black Narcissus" was just amusing with the sexually frustrated Sister Ruth and her fascination with the bloodless and completely undesirable Mr. Dean. Sister Clodagh was unsympathetic; the whole film was just odd, IMO. However, I admired the somewhat gothic production design and absolutely stunning Technicolor.

Yes, I'd say all of Messrs P&P's films are visually stunning. No question about this. And in the case of 'Black Narcissus', I've always felt very similarly to your above stated opinion of this film as well. And in regard to 'The Red Shoes', I've noticed over the years that it seems to be generally regarded a bit more highly by the fairer sex than by us men. The reason for this is probably self-evident. I will say that I've always admired the imaginative effects employed in it.

And now this brings me to the The Archers films you said never interested you. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest the idea that the reason they don't might have been because of their wartime/military theme. (let me know if I might be correct here)

You see, I've always very much liked those three films, and especially so 'Colonel Blimp'. In fact, this is probably my very favorite film by The Archers. When it comes to propaganda films, I dare say there has never been a more stylish or more entertaining one ever made than that one.

(...and would place it within my top ten favorite films of all time)

[Belle]

Interesting comments, Dargo. I don't mind good propaganda films, particularly P&Ps "49th Parallel". This genre isn't a deterrent for me because, in fact, I watched one today, "Wing and a Prayer" - which was very good indeed. "Wild Bill" Wellman was at the helm (pardon the pun) and it was predictably taut and well-directed. That always helps.

Many many fine war films have been etched in my memory and, of course, the greatest film of all time (for me) "The Best Years of Our Lives" had its very own post-war propaganda elements. "No collateral, no hill!" At 1min 10 here the most moving moment in this extraordinary film: every person on the side of good in WW2 could relate to this.



"The Red Shoes" is very much loved and admired by Martin Scorsese who says it's the greatest colour film ever made, alongside Renoir's "The River" (I think MS actually contributed to the costs of restoration of the former). The artistry in that film is simply magnificent; the love sequences with Vicki and Julian Craster did drag and I felt these hindered the film, but overall it wonderfully captured the 'artistic temperament' in the theatrical world. Anton Walbrook was never better as Lermontov, in my opinion.

I'm glad you enjoy "Blimp". I've tried, really I have, but to no avail. The film just didn't set me on fire.

Another war film, "The Bridges of Toko-Ri" (Perlberg/Seaton/Robson) is a very fine film indeed, because it raises issues to do with courage and sacrifice. And doubt!!

[Dargo]

...Many many fine war films have been etched in my memory and, of course, the greatest film of all time (for me) "The Best Years of Our Lives" had its very own post-war propaganda elements. "No collateral, no hill!" At 1min 10 here the most moving moment in this extraordinary film: every person on the side of good in WW2 could relate to this.

Always nice to run into a fellow TBYOOL admirer here, Belle. I've stated many times myself over the years that this film is MY all-time favorite as well.

And yes, while Roman Bohnen's acting and line reading in that scene you posted is guaranteed to bring a tear one's eye or a lump in the throat, it of course is just one of many scenes in this great film that's sure to do the same.

(...in fact, in Al's banquet speech scene you referenced above and especially the look of admiration that Myrna Loy gives Fredric March after he completes it, would be another instance that is always sure to give me this sort of reaction)

[Belle]

Dargo, yes the citation scene is just one of many. I think this is the most moving scene, however, because Fred's father is a down-at-hell alcoholic and his son's bravery is the only thing he has left of personal pride!! "Hortense" he cries to Gladys George and, by a miracle of direction, she doesn't look at Fred's father as he reads the letter and she gets up and moves away, unwilling to show her tears. Wyler; what a director!! What a man!!

The film also made important points about the next kind of war likely to be fought on a grand scale; nuclear. Thanks to Hoagy at the piano with the handicapped Homer we were able to see him toss off the idea of nuclear war in a glib, but simultaneously terrifying, manner. A devastating throw-away line.

The cinematography of Toland; so much to love and to praise.

Monochrome is the medium for me, across the board. I'm in the same corner as the Coen Brothers on this. The spouse asked me the other day why I prefer monochrome and I replied "because I love the artifice of the cinema medium; I love the texture and hues of monochrome film and I love the idea that it's the medium as much as the film itself which is so attractive. With colour I never really get a sense of that 'distance', that artifice, if you get my meaning. And, of course, you get to see the cinematographers' art more readily in black and white. What started as a cheaper means of producing motion pictures morphed into an artform all by itself.

There are staggering exceptions in colour, such as Vittorio Storaro, but it's still monochrome for me.

[Belle]

I just watched "The Man in the Net", Michael Curtiz, 1959, Alan Ladd. Wouldn't exactly call it 'noir', but more likely a whodunnit of Hitchcockian proportions. Strong supporting cast of children, which made the film very unusual. Ladd was a gentle, somewhat under-rated actor and he was effective as the passive husband and victim in this film. Curtiz's direction is pretty sharp, and there's the usual suspension of disbelief which one has to engage in these kinds of films. But I felt the film was 'small' in scope and would more easily have lent itself to television. It was predictable in that Carolyn Jones wasn't a strong, leading actor and it was obvious she was going to be bumped off because she didn't have the charisma to last the full distance of a film.

[laffite]

Love is All You Need (2012) Danish., subtitles, some English) - Ida Hjort (Trine Dyrholm) home now after a cancer check up finds her husband boinking a young thing from work on the sofa. We want her to be decisive and throw him out but instead she looks dismayed and seems to accept, albeit reluctantly (thank god for that anyway) his excuse that he is under a lot of stress due to her illness. Her son and daughter, as well as her co-worker, already know that he treats her badly even without being aware of this most recent outrage.. Ida's daughter is getting married in Italy and she rams her car into another on her way to the airport that is driven by none other than the father of her fiance (Pierce Brosnan). The teleplay manages some saccharine music amid the fracas which is a giveaway although we already know something is up from the title of the movie. Much of the action takes place in Italy and it becomes a sort of Enchanted April but with balls. The two principles are continually at their villa balconies stretching and yawning while playing peek-a-boo flirtation games. There are some gritty subplots with jarring twists involving other members of the wedding party. A recurring theme among them is getting fed up and moving on. Netflix calls this a comedy but it certainly does not see so at times. The comedy is embedded within serious stiff. The aforementioned music is recurring throughout that seems to palliate the tone of the story when it gets too tough but that doesn't make it necessarily funny. I am becoming a fan of Trine Dyrholm, an immensely appealing presence. She has a face (a pretty one as you might guess) that is unusally expressive, even when registering the most common every day reactions. My appreciation of her was diminished only because the rapid-fire dialogue at times kept my eyes on the subtitles at the expense of an otherwise would-be happy and constant gaze upon her person. This is an enjoyable romantic not-exactly-comedy drama with some oddball elements. I almost rejected the movie early for fear of being subjected to a hard-core weepie but it wasn't so bad. The soundtrack made me a little nervous, though. This is the second collaboration of filmmaker Susanne Beier and Miss Dyrholm that I've seen recently (the other being In a Better World) and I may go back for more if there is any. //

***

[Belle]

Die Dreigroshenoper, Kurt Weill/Berthold Brecht/GW Pabst, 1931. Magnificent restoration of this classic German musical work:



Subtitles not available on this restoration as uploaded to YouTube but the songs are pretty well known.

[TikiSoo]

The cinematography of Toland; so much to love and to praise.
(snipped)
With colour I never really get a sense of that 'distance', that artifice, if you get my meaning. And, of course, you get to see the cinematographers' art more readily in black and white.

I agree with your statement about B&W taking you "out of reality" more than color in film, but that only lasts until your mind is fully concentrated in the story.

Photographers have had color vs B&W argument since there has been photography. Oh and the argument whether photographers are "artists" or just button pushers.

Viewers are often attracted to B&W more because the blacks and whites are "true" and contrasty, and color film rarely captures more than 10% true blacks/whites and mostly medium shades of colors. Predatory animals such as humans respond to contrast.

While many laugh at Natalie Kalmus' contribution as "Technicolor consultant", I understand the difficulty ensuring enough true blacks and whites using bright lights & color film.

[Cinemaspeak59]

Murder by Invitation (1941), from Monogram, could be called a poor man’s And Then There Were None. The lighting isn’t the greatest. The whodunit was a surprise, but disappointing. There are a few funny moments, and Sarah Padden, who plays an aunt with a vipers nest of relatives who want to inherit her money, has some nice lines. The best part: 67 minutes long.

[txfilmfan]

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2005)

I sometimes watch movies on my iPad, on the treadmill, in spurts, since I usually spend 25-30 minutes on the treadmill. Although I recently watched Poison (1991), I cannot even begin to write about that strange film yet. Will do so soon. But I just watched Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, a sweet movie with Joan Plowright and an excellent British cast.

Mrs. Palfrey is an elderly English widow who comes to London to live out her last years at the Claremont Hotel, because she liked the looks of the residential hotel in the adverts. It turns out to be a fairly dreary place (although the public rooms like quite nice, to me, anyway). The other guests are all old people in similar situations. It's kind of depressing, until Mrs. Palfrey takes a tumble in the street and is helped by an attractive young man played by Rupert Friend. The movie has been referred to as "Separate Tables meets Harold and Maude." Nevertheless a bond develops between Mrs. Palfrey and the young man, whom she passes off as her grandson, because her real grandson never comes to visit.

It's a touching story of connection between two lost souls. I found the busy-bodyness of the other hotel guests overdone, since English people of that generation would not be so forward. Also there is a tendency for everyone to come into a room whenever there's a conflict or outburst, which reminds me of the worst excesses of 1980s American sitcoms. Also, when they do show up, Mrs. Palfrey's daughter and real grandson are simply awful. It's hard to believe that this lovely woman's family would be so vile. But overall, the movie is touching, well acted, and easy to watch.

I saw this on Showtime about 15 years ago when it was in their rotation across all their channels. I don't recall it showing in the theaters. Shame it didn't get more attention on its release. It's fun identifying all of the older British actors, familiar to those who watch a lot of Brit TV or films.

[Fedya]

Runaway Daughters (1956).

Z-grade juvenile delinquent picture from Samuel Arkoff and American International about three high school girls, each from a broken family but in a different way. John Litel and Anna Sten (!!) spoil their daughter and are even wilder than the daughter, the daughter's boyfriend Frank Gorshin (!!) ridicules her for it. Jay Adler's wife left him and he doesn't want his daughter to wind up a tramp like Mom, so he's angry she's seeing a 20(!)-year-old Army guy. And then the third girl doesn't have parents, or at least Mom's off on an extended honeymoon with Husband #3. Her brother returns from prison with a new girlfriend in Adele Jergens who manages a taxi-dance place down in LA. Eventually, way too late, the three girls leave for LA.

Hilariously bad, vacillating between trying to be lurid and trying to impart social messages about both parental neglect and juvenile delinquency. And it's filmed on an Edgar Ulmer-level budget. The only thing missing is there's no veiled hints that any woman anywhere in the proceedings is a repressed lesbian.

3/10 if you're grading on actual quality; 8/10 if you want a "so bad it's a riot" movie.

[Belle]

Runaway Daughters (1956).

Z-grade juvenile delinquent picture from Samuel Arkoff and American International about three high school girls, each from a broken family but in a different way. John Litel and Anna Sten (!!) spoil their daughter and are even wilder than the daughter, the daughter's boyfriend Frank Gorshin (!!) ridicules her for it. Jay Adler's wife left him and he doesn't want his daughter to wind up a tramp like Mom, so he's angry she's seeing a 20(!)-year-old Army guy. And then the third girl doesn't have parents, or at least Mom's off on an extended honeymoon with Husband #3. Her brother returns from prison with a new girlfriend in Adele Jergens who manages a taxi-dance place down in LA. Eventually, way too late, the three girls leave for LA.

Hilariously bad, vacillating between trying to be lurid and trying to impart social messages about both parental neglect and juvenile delinquency. And it's filmed on an Edgar Ulmer-level budget. The only thing missing is there's no veiled hints that any woman anywhere in the proceedings is a repressed lesbian.

3/10 if you're grading on actual quality; 8/10 if you want a "so bad it's a riot" movie.

I suppose the film - not matter how dubious - reflected the post-war zeitgeist in the USA. Growing manufacturing/materialism, a generation of absent fathers and the rise of juvenile delinquency, unwanted pregnancies and the cult of the teenager. Nicholas Ray did it better with "Rebel Without a Cause" (just to name one). This milieu gave rise to a myriad of B-pictures to fill programs in cinemas and, eventually, for television - most of which provided rivals to romances in cheap paperback novels (for which there has always been a market!). "Peyton Place", in the 1960s, was a more middle-class version of all of that; the teenagers grew up and this is what happened next!!!!!

[Swithin]

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2005)

I sometimes watch movies on my iPad, on the treadmill, in spurts, since I usually spend 25-30 minutes on the treadmill. Although I recently watched Poison (1991), I cannot even begin to write about that strange film yet. Will do so soon. But I just watched Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, a sweet movie with Joan Plowright and an excellent British cast.

Mrs. Palfrey is an elderly English widow who comes to London to live out her last years at the Claremont Hotel, because she liked the looks of the residential hotel in the adverts. It turns out to be a fairly dreary place (although the public rooms like quite nice, to me, anyway). The other guests are all old people in similar situations. It's kind of depressing, until Mrs. Palfrey takes a tumble in the street and is helped by an attractive young man played by Rupert Friend. The movie has been referred to as "Separate Tables meets Harold and Maude." Nevertheless a bond develops between Mrs. Palfrey and the young man, whom she passes off as her grandson, because her real grandson never comes to visit.

It's a touching story of connection between two lost souls. I found the busy-bodyness of the other hotel guests overdone, since English people of that generation would not be so forward. Also there is a tendency for everyone to come into a room whenever there's a conflict or outburst, which reminds me of the worst excesses of 1980s American sitcoms. Also, when they do show up, Mrs. Palfrey's daughter and real grandson are simply awful. It's hard to believe that this lovely woman's family would be so vile. But overall, the movie is touching, well acted, and easy to watch.

I saw this on Showtime about 15 years ago when it was in their rotation across all their channels. I don't recall it showing in the theaters. Shame it didn't get more attention on its release. It's fun identifying all of the older British actors, familiar to those who watch a lot of Brit TV or films.

Of the excellent supporting cast, Anna Massey is a standout. I've seen her on stage a few times, including as Goneril in King Lear with Anthony Hopkins, possibly my favorite among the many Lears I have seen. Of the many television shows I've seen her on, I particularly remember her as Laura on The Pallisers. She was the daughter of Raymond Massey and Adrienne Allen and sister of Daniel Massey, whom I've also seen on stage many times, most memorably as Lytton Strachey in Peter Luke's Bloomsbury. Bloomsbury was a great play which also featured Penelope Wilton as Carrington. Massey and Wilton were married shortly after Bloomsbury closed.


Anna Massey in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont


Anna Massey in The Pallisers, with Donal McCann

[Swithin]

Poison (1991)

I don’t know quite how to describe this film, which was Todd Haynes first feature film, loosely based on stories by Jean Genet. Senator Jesse Helms and other right wingers gave this film a bit of notoriety by complaining because Poison received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The film won the Grand Prize for Fiction at the Sundance Festival.

One afternoon, I was headed down to the gym, which is in my building. Since I had given up on Touch of Evil, I needed to choose a film to watch on my iPad, on the treadmill. A quick search on Amazon Prime led me to Poison, an intriguing-sounding film which gave me the impression that it was a gay horror film. As the film progressed, I recognized someone I know well. Then, I saw the actor John Leguiziamo, whom I don’t know personally but whom I had recently seen at a reception. Later into the film, I saw a third person: a woman I used to work with. So very few degrees of separation!

The film itself is odd. Three stories ("Hero," "Horror," and "Homo") are interwoven. At first, I thought they represented three stages in the life of the same guy, but I was wrong. They are totally separate stories, through interwoven in the course of the film. One of them is about a little boy who shoots his father, then flies out of the window. No one seems to make much of the fact that he flew out of the window. One of the neighbors says, "oh, I saw him fly out of the window." Another story takes place in prison and is the gay-themed story. Still another is the most horrific: a young scientist develops a potion, drinks it, then becomes a murderous leper. Everyone he touches becomes either a leper, or dead, or both. A strange woman becomes infatuated with him. She kisses his leprous face and becomes a leper. In an odd way, it all works to create a kind of dreamy atmosphere of mystery, the three seemingly disparate stories becoming interconnected with style. I was riveted, and watched it on the treadmill over three days. The most disturbing and horrific scene for me was the spitting scene, in the "Homo" story.





Here are some quotes from The New York Times review:

Richie, the unseen 7-year-old hero of "Hero," has been a bad little boy. He has shot his father to death and then, as his mother later reports, climbed onto a window sill and flown away. Just like that. Will wonders never cease?

"Horror," the second story, is a mock 1950's horror film about the brilliant scientist Dr. Tom Graves, known for his work on the molecular coagulation theory. When Tom accidentally drinks the liquid sex-drive he has so painstakingly isolated, he turns into a ghoul whom the tabloids call "The Leper Killer." With his face a mass of oozing pustules, desperate Tom roams the city spreading contagion and panic.

"Homo" is set in a French prison in the 1940's and is about John Broom, a handsome young thief, and his erotic obsession with Jack Bolton, a fellow prisoner. Like so many figures in Genet's writing, especially in "Our Lady of the Flowers" and "Querelle of Brest," Jack appears to be both John's mirror image and a creature of his masturbatory fantasies.

Uniting the film's three stories, which are intercut with each other as they proceed, and each of which is done in a different style, is the grim if fuzzily defined triumph of a Genet-like social outcast.

This character is portrayed with some humor in "Hero" and "Horror." In "Homo," he is a reminder of Genet's doomily romantic figures who have a terrible compulsion to kill the one who is beloved.

For all of the talk of Genet, though, the "Hero" segment of "Poison" owes far more to Woody Allen and "Take the Money and Run" than it does to the dreamy misanthrope of French literature.

In trying to get at the truth of Richie Beacon's terrible act, an interviewer talks to his nutty mother, his teacher, a social worker, a policeman and a schoolmate. Richie, they find, was a pint-sized manipulator, somewhat more deeply into fancy sadomasochistic games than the average 7-year-old suburbanite.