I Just Watched...

[Allhallowsday]

CROSSING DELANCEY (1988) Again.

[laffite]

One final way to sum up the first part of "The Power of Film" series....

Wow, I haven't heard that one for a long time. I listened intently.. During the late 80s I frequented a nice lounge bar in my neighborhood with a nice, dimmed, interior and this song was on the jukebox. That same old refrain one might say. I arose late in the afternoon and listened over coffee. Talk about those little things.

Thanks for this.

[laffite]

Wasn't The Boston Strangler [SHOT IN SPLIT-SCREEN], at least in part? I agree, no good. It is impossible to watch both screens at the same time. A minute detail might be overlooked. I wouldn't recommend this type movie, especially those with tunnel vision.

i CAN'T SAY AS I have never seen THE BOSTON STRANGLER.
Or people with only one eye, like pirates.

Looking ahead I notice that TBS will air on TCM on 13 Jan 430pm EDT

I don't necessarily recommend it as I haven't seen it, just a head's up here.

[TikiSoo]

Looking ahead I notice that TBS will air on TCM on 13 Jan 430pm EDT
I don't necessarily recommend it as I haven't seen it, just a head's up here.

If you're talking about THE BOSTON STRANGLER movie starring Tony Curtis, it may not be a 5 star movie, but I enjoyed it.

[Lorna]

so, i think about 2 years ago, I read about a movie called LE CORBEAU (ENGLISH: THE RAVEN)- a French film that was made in 1943 while France was occupied by the Germans by HENRI-GEORGE CLOUZOUT (apologies for misspellings.) it is the story of a FRENCH VILLAGE (no references to the war is made, it could well have been set 10 years before) that is plagued by a series of mysterious POISON PEN LETTERS, and it caused no small amount of controversy as the cast and crew were seen as collaborating with the Nazis by making the movie, even though the film itself is apolitical and is more often than not, a rather conventional suspense thriller.



unfortunately the film is on CRITERION DVD, which means- like a certain number of titles- it is available ONLY on either CRITERION BLU RAY (DVD is out of print) or by subscribing to THE CRITERION CHANNEL. It is not on ANY streaming services.

I've been haunting AMAZON for all this time and finally found a used DVD at a reasonable price ($18) and bought it as a Christmas present.

I watched it last night, it's a good movie, and I liked it, but I would have liked it a lot more if it had not been so GD expensive and hard to find. Also there's not much in the way of bonus features, but that's standard for a lot of CRITERION DVDS i have owned or rented.

and this is where i go into a rant I used to go into back on YE OLDEN MESSAGEBOARDES and one to which I found very little support from the readership, but here it is one more time: CRITERION IS A DAMN RACKET and they piss me off.

I like the cover art, but outside of that, all they do is acquire a lot of good/interesting.significant titles that deserve to be seen and then package and sell them exclusively as RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE DVDS even though THEY VERY OFTEN LACK ANY KIND OF WORTHWHILE BONUS FEATURES (or any bonus features at all).

I especially hate the CRITERION ESSAYS, which are just 8 pages of text of someone's thesis, GOD KNOWS the reason people still buy DVDs is for all THE READING MATERIAL they include.

honestly, it's pricing (many) people's access to art out right of their hands in the name of pretension and exclusivity.

[Lorna]

it's been over ten years, but I am still GALLED by the fact that THE CRITERION DVD of THE SCARLET EMPRESS (1935) has NO TRAILER or PRODUCTION STILLS or MAKING OF or BIO of the makers, but it DOES HAVE A COLOR TEST PATTERN INCLUDED AS A BONUS!!!!!



A "BONUS" COLOR TEST PATTERN ON. A. BLACK AND WHITE. MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Allhallowsday]

AMERICAN BEAUTY (1999) Kind of wonderful, kind of clueless, hadn't looked at it for years. Everyone knows the abusive father nazi collector is a closet case... (Trope.) Uhm... nevermind.

[Lorna]

Clouzot's LE CORBEAU is indeed a good film, and to me it improved on a second viewing. The Nazis approved it because they thought it showed how awful the French people were. The French saw it as a film about France under the Occupation. Truffaut thought it captured the feeling of life under the Nazis very well, with everyone suspicious of each other and people denouncing each other to the authorities.

Thank you, and- in retrospect- I'm sorry I let my rant about CRITERION get in the way of commenting on the film, which is really good and which I started rewatching this morning before I headed in to work and which I will watch again.

note- by coincidence, I looked down and saw I had laid the DVD case for LE CORBEAU beside the DVD case for THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (1935) and it occured to me that they are interesting companion films.

the really great thing about LE CORBEAU (no spoilers, I promise)- is that the ending delivers approximately four "revelations"-
one- the resolution to the anti-romantic subplot
two- involving the identity of LE CORBEAU is a big surprise
three- another involving the identity of LE CORBEAU is brilliantly OBVIOUS thoughout the ENTIRE MOVIE, it's just that the makers of LE CORBEAU don't give the audience time to sit and think about it- they keep throwing us into a series of interesting and lurid subplots.
four- the fate of LE CORBEAU is deliberately obvious in a CHEKHOVIAN way by hints laid quite cleverly throughout, and not in an obvious or heavy-handed way...

so, in the end, CLOUZOUT and CO. give us a sort of a chocolate box of different solutions, each stirred and tempered in their own meticulous way.

[Lorna]

I don't often says this, but it would be intriguing to see a well-done remake of LE CORBEAU, maybe even as a limited series, that does the same story but ALSO WORKS IN the NAZI OCCUPATION AND VICHY GOVERNMENT, maybe it even gets SUPER META and involves a FILM COMPANY working with the occupiers to produce a suspense thriller when the town is infested by the MYSTERIOUS POISON PEN LETTERS.

it should also be BLACK AND WHITE and GOTHIC AS F***, I want ARCHES and GARGOYLES and COLD, HARD, SLOPING FRENCH-CHATEAU STYLE ROOFTOPS!!!!!!!!!!

And AS A COMPROMISE, I'll allow for some FULL FRONTAL NUDITY since I know 21st century audiences demand it.

[Allhallowsday]

SPOORLOOS (1988) I stayed up late to revisit this one. There's nothing like it. The Hollywood version is junk.

[Masha]

I have been taking advantage of the multitude of new offerings on: TubiTV

Hopscotch (1980)
Red (2010)
Red2 (2013)
Kiss Me Kate (1953)
The Great Race (1953)
Libeled Lady (1936)

I have watched also all twenty-six seasons of: Doctor Who.

[Dargo]

SPOORLOOS (1988) I stayed up late to revisit this one. There's nothing like it. The Hollywood version is junk.

Did the same last night, Allhallows. Enjoyed it immensely. And as you noted here and as Alicia also mentioned in her wraparound comments last night, the Hollywood version made five years later (but which I've never watched) is generally considered to be far inferior to the Dutch original version. Alicia noting the tacked-on happier ending (explained in the final paragraph within that film's Wiki plot synopsis, btw) being a major reason for this. As it says in this same Wiki page for the American remake, with one film critic commenting: "The original was about the banality of evil, but the remake became about the evil of banality. It was a mess."

My only complaint with the Dutch version being that considering Rex was a fairly smart guy, what kind of outcome did he expect to happen after Raymond told him in order "to experience what Saskia had" years earlier, he'd have to drink the drugged coffee???!!! Couldn't believe he couldn't have put two and two together and figured out Raymond's plan for him beforehand and regardless how inquisitive he was.

(...I know I wouldn't have drank it, anyway...but yes if he hadn't, that very memorable ending to this film wouldn't have happened, of course)

[Allhallowsday]

...SPOORLOOS (1988) I stayed up late to revisit this one. There's nothing like it. The Hollywood version is junk.
...My only complaint with the Dutch version being that considering Rex was a fairly smart guy, what kind of outcome did he expect to happen after Raymond told him in order "to experience what Saskia had" years earlier, he'd have to drink the drugged coffee???!!! Couldn't believe he couldn't have put two and two together and figured out Raymond's plan for him beforehand and regardless how inquisitive he was.
(...I know I wouldn't have drank it, anyway...but yes if he hadn't, that very memorable ending to this film wouldn't have happened, of course)

Uhm, I think the film is about obsession...and Rex has a death-wish. Implausible, and indeed "banal".