Last (x) movies you saw (II)

The Angry Birds Movie 2 out next month so you’re pretty much guaranteed a fourth

no emoji, no credibility

Whoa, for real??

The Mysterious Island (Hubbard, goat-glanding footage by Christensen and Tourneur, 1929)
A Ready-Made Maid (Hotaling, 1916)
Wholesailing Along (Boasberg, 1936)
The Informer (Ford, 1935)
Use Your Imagination (Mack, 1933)
Killer's Kiss (Kubrick, 1955)
Paths of Glory (Kubrick, 1957)
The Killing (Kubrick, 1956)
Pinched (Lloyd & Pratt, 1917)
Sunset Boulevard (Wilder, 1950)
*Mandy (Cosmatos, 2018)
The Grocery Clerk (Semon, 1919)

Hélas pour moi (Godard, 1993) - 5/10
World on a Wire (Fassbinder, 1973) - 9/10
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (Kurosawa, 1990) - 7/10
Heaven Can Wait (Lubitsch, 1943) - 10/10
Return of the Prodigal Son (Schorm, 1967) - 5/10
3 Bad Men (Ford, 1926) - 9/10
Pather Panchali (Ray, 1955) - 7/10
*George Washington (Green, 2000) - 8/10
*Close-Up (Kiarostami, 1990) - 9/10
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Huston, 1948) - 9/10
Gosford Park (Altman, 2001) - 9/10
Aparajito (Ray, 1956) - 8/10
*Origins of the 21st Century (Godard, 2000) - 9/10
*Je Vous Salue, Sarajevo (Godard, 1993) - 9/10
Black Sun (Kurahara, 1964) - 6/10
How Green Was My Valley (Ford, 1941) - 9/10
Thirst for Love (Kurahara, 1967) - 5/10
*The Kid (Chaplin, 1921) - 10/10

george washington got me so excited about green, what a weird career that guy has had

right? and I hadn't seen GW in a decade or so and it wasn't as good as I remember

i've avoided rewatching for the past decade for exactly the fear that'd be the case

Hey sic, how was Crystal Swan?

It’s aight. Significantly different feel between the two halves, which is a deliberate contrast, but it means that the building comedy & tension in the city-set first section dissipate entirely for the small-town-set last hour, and pretty much every plot element from the start gets left behind. (The latter half has different comedy & tension, but you’re starting from scratch.) Performances are good & the whole thing is plenty entertaining / admirable enough for a TV watch, if your local TV plays subtitled Belarusian films on a Saturday night, as Australia does.

Not enough was made of two major characters’ ideological dispute over techno vs house / rave music imo, but the same goes for most movies.

MUBI:

Nenette et Boni (Denis, 1996)
History Lessons (Straub/Huillet, 1972)
Moses and Aron (Straub/Huillet, 1975)

Cinema:

High Life (Denis, 2018) - not sure what to think of it, especially since its nearly two weeks since I watched it. Its so unfamiliar territory for her and us too (auteur theory sucks). I like that she went to that place but I am not sure how things fit in at all. Some SF tropes were used, but to what effect?

It’s aight. Significantly different feel between the two halves, which is a deliberate contrast, but it means that the building comedy & tension in the city-set first section dissipate entirely for the small-town-set last hour, and pretty much every plot element from the start gets left behind. (The latter half has different comedy & tension, but you’re starting from scratch.) Performances are good & the whole thing is plenty entertaining / admirable enough for a TV watch, if your local TV plays subtitled Belarusian films on a Saturday night, as Australia does.

― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Monday, July 15, 2019 5:53 AM (yesterday)

Not enough was made of two major characters’ ideological dispute over techno vs house / rave music imo, but the same goes for most movies.

― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Monday, July 15, 2019 5:56 AM (yesterday)

Ah, good to know - prob won't be playing on TV in NZ; I'm taking some time off to travel up to Auckland from the back of beyond to catch a few days of the intl film fest, and trying to figure out what's worth seeing around the Chinese films & Varda retrospective stuff I'm set on. Speaking of techno vs house etc, anyone seen Brian Welsh's Beats? 1994-set Scottish film w/teens attempting to attend an illegal rave. & on a Japanese front, anyone seen Ujicha's Violence Voyager or Nagahisa Makoto's We Are Little Zombies?

Hereditary (Aster, 2018)
The Girl on a Motorcycle (Cardiff, 1968)
T-Men (Mann, 1947)
Won't You Be My Neighbor? (Neville, 2018)
The Hitch-hiker (Lupino, 1953)
Paddington 2 (King, 2018)
The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (short - Lester, 1959)
Sylvia Scarlett (Cukor, 1935)
Midsommar (Aster, 2019)
*Blue Velvet (Lynch, 1986)
Babylon (Rosso, 1980)
Rebecca (Hitchcock, 1940)

Just watched Jessica Hausner's Lourdes (2009). It was kind of strange, a sweet, gentle story with an unexpectedly portentous quality. I loved it

now want to see Amour Fou and Little Joe

Amour Fou still one of the best of the decade.

The Thirteenth Chair (Browning, 1929)
*Shot in the Excitement (Miller, 1914)
Felix Goes West (Messmer, 1924)
Experimental Treatment of a Hemorrhage in a Dog (Painleve, 1930)
Charlotte et Son Jules (Godard, 1960)
Junkopia (Market et al, 1981)
The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (Lester, 1959)
Bucking Broadway (Ford, 1917)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (Roeg, 1976)

The Standoff At Sparrow Creek is one of the best and most surprising movies I’ve seen all year. Highly, highly recommended. May remind you of The Thing, Reservoir Dogs, or Glengarry Glen Ross, but it’s very much its own slow, patient thing. It’s on Hulu.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Capra, 1939) 7/10
*Risky Business (Brickman, 1983) 8/10
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin (Scorsese, 2019) 7/10
*Popeye (Altman, 1980) 6/10
Walk Softly, Stranger (Stevenson, 1950) 6/10
Born to Be Bad (Ray, 1950) 6/10
The Elephant Man (Lynch, 1980) 8/10
*Coraline (Selick, 2009) 7/10
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (DeNicola and Mori,, 2012) 6/10
City for Conquest (Litvak, 1940) 7/10

*Accattone (1961, Pasolini) 9/10
Young at Heart (1954, Douglas) 6/10
*Swing Time (1936, Stevens) 8/10
Battle Cry (1955, Walsh) 5/10
Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979, Rosi) (TV) 8/10
The Crush (1967, Olmi) (TV) 8/10
A Bread Factory Part Two: Walk with Me a While (2018, Wang) 7/10
A Bread Factory Part One: For the Sake of Gold (2018, Wang) 8/10
Il Posto (1961, Olmi) 9/10
Kaili Blues (2015, Bi) 6/10

The Train (1964) 4.5/5
Tropicalia (2012) 2.5/5
Mickey One (1965) 3/5
* 20,000 Days on Earth (2014) 4/5
* Einstein's Brain (1994) 4/5
* Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) 4.5/5
Gaslight (1944) 4/5
* Payday (1972) 4/5
Domestic Violence (2001) 4.5/5
Solar Walk (2018) 2.5/5
Police Story 2 (1988) 3.5/5
Police Story (1985) 4/5
808 (2015) 2.5/5
* Do the Right Thing (1989) 5/5
Total Recall (1990) 4/5
* Gremlins 2: the New Batch (1990) 3.5/5
* A Brighter Summer Day (1991) 5/5
* Thunder Road (1958) 3/5
The Miami Showband Massacre (2019) 3/5

Fast Color comes highly recommended as a great YA sci-fi afrofuturism metaphor

Nenette and Boni (Denis, 1996) 7/10
*Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion (Anno, 19970 8/10
History Lessons (Huillet, Straub, 1972) 6/10
Another Dawn (Bracho , 1943) 5/10
Jessica Forever (Poggi, Vinel, 2018) 7/10
*Beau Travail (Denis, 1999) 10/10
Semi-Auto Colors (Medina, 2010) 7/10
88:88 (Medina, 2015) 8/10
Idizwadidiz (Medina, 2017) 8/10
Our Time (Reygadas, 2018) 9/10
A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery (Diaz, 2016) 8/10
Out 1: Noli Me Tangere (Rivette, 1971) - fuck idk

Well done on watching Diaz and Out 1 and staying alive to tell the tale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4hpgDMxkQ8

Perfect Bid (Wallis 2017 7
The End of Evangelion (Anno 1997) 7
The Stranger (Welles 1946) 3
Crawl (Aja 2019) 7
Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone (Anno 2007) 4
Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion (Carducci 1992) 6
Yesterday (Boyle 2019) 5
Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood (Tarantino 2019) 6
Dumb and Dumber To (the Farellys 2014) 6
The Wrecking Crew (Karlson 1968) 3
Behind the Curve (DJ Clark 2018) 5

Le Samourai (Melville, 1967)
*Groovie Movie (Jason, 1944)
Dragnet Girl (Ozu, 1933)
Sing, Sinner, Sing (Christie, 1933)
Poor Cinderella (Fleischer, 1934)
24 Hours in the Life of a Clown (Melville, 1946)
The Circus Queen Murder (Neill, 1933)
Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood (Tarantino, 2019)

*Alphaville (Godard, 1965) - 10/10
*Jackie Brown (Tarantino, 1997) - 9/10
The Ascent (Shepitko, 1977) - 5/10
I Was Born, But… (Ozu, 1932) - 6/10
Intolerance (Griffith, 1916) - 10/10
Judge Priest (Ford, 1934) - 7/10
*The Old Place (Godard, 2002) - 10/10
I’m Hungry, I’m Cold (Akerman, 1984) - 10/10
Save the Tiger (Avildsen, 1973) - 8/10
The Long Gray Line (Ford, 1955) - 8/10
*Vivre Sa Vie (Godard, 1962) - 9/10

The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941) - 8/10
To Have and Have Not (Hawks, 1944) - 8/10
*Through a Glass Darkly (Bergman, 1961) - 10/10
Juvenile Court (Wiseman, 1973) - 10/10
The Life of Oharu (Mizoguchi, 1952) - 8/10
She’s Gotta Have It (Lee, 1986) - 9/10
*Broken Embraces (Almodóvar, 2009) - 9/10
Apu Sansar (Ray, 1959) - 9/10

+ 2 Image Books

watched Peckilnpah's Ride the High Country for the first time in a long time. It really neatly bridges the gap between Anthony Mann-type westerns, moving into the territory of what Peckinpah would later accomplish. His camera movements really stand out here. The gun battles come at the end and are predictably more in line w/earlier westerns which is to say less stylized albeit extremely skillful, but the wedding sequence is a tense comedy of horrors that really shows Peckinpah's interest in darker territory. McCrea is really good and charming and tragic, Randolph Scott I guess always struck me as a stiff but here he's incredible as this charming but dangerous and somewhat duplicitous man (that's not much of a spoiler, his first scene gives a bit of it away). Mariette Hartley is incredible here.

The Hammond brothers are a pretty stellar bunch of villains.

Save the Tiger (Avildsen, 1973) - 8/10

I think the new Tarantino swipes from this. The scene in which Brad Pitt picks up a Manson girl hitchhiker recalls Jack Lemmon's similar experience with a young hitchhiker here. Similar themes in both films too, though Save the Tiger is much richer.

Death Walks at Midnight (Ercoli, 1972) 7/10
Midsommar (Aster, 2019) 8/10
Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone, 1968) 9/10
Spider-Man: Far From Home (Watts, 2019) 5/10
The Abominable Snowman (Guest, 1957) 7/10
The Hound of the Baskervilles (Fisher, 1959) 7/10
Scars of Dracula (Baker, 1970) 6/10
Moses and Aaron (Straub-Huillet, 1975) 9/10
The Dead Don't Die (Jarmusch, 2019) 5/10
Island of Terror (Fisher, 1966) 6/10
The Long Gray Line (Ford, 1955) 7/10
The Horror of Frankenstein (Sangster, 1970) 5/10
I Drink Your Blood (Durston, 1970) 7/10
The Last Run (Fleischer, 1971) 7/10
Maniac (Carreras, 1963) 5/10

I loved Save the Tiger as a teenager, and still found it very period-atmospheric last time I looked at it (maybe 10 years ago), and Lemmon's big "Don't sell me America" speech memorable (if a little...writerly). Hadn't thought about the Once Upon a Time connection.

Saw The Godfather and Chinatown recently with my older kid. She liked the former but, while appreciating what makes it good, did not ultimately enjoy the second one.

Save the Tiger (Avildsen, 1973) - 8/10

I think the new Tarantino swipes from this. The scene in which Brad Pitt picks up a Manson girl hitchhiker recalls Jack Lemmon's similar experience with a young hitchhiker here. Similar themes in both films too, though Save the Tiger is much richer.

― Josefa, Thursday, August 1, 2019 11:15 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Good call! I had some minor deja vu during this scene in the Tarantino and this is definitely what I was thinking of

Miracle Mile (De Jarnatt, 1988) 7/10
Bastards (Denis, 2013) 8/10
The Wolf of Wall Street (Scorsese, 2013) 5/10
The Headless Woman (Martel, 2008) 7/10
Berberian Sound Studio (Strickland, 2012) 5/10
No Fear, No Die (Denis, 1990) 7/10
Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino, 1992) 4/10
The Duke of Burgundy (Strickland, 2014) 8/10
Annabelle: Creation (Sandberg, 2017) 2/10

heads up that "Them That Follow" is garbage. Great cast, searching for a better movie and not finding it. Walked out when it became clear Chekhov's axe was gonna get a workout.

Cinema:

Our Time (Reygadas, 2018)
Victims of Sin (Fernández, 1951)
Daguerrotyes (Varda, 1975)

MUBI:

Bastards (Denis, 2013)
Fish Child (Puenzo, 2009)
Fortini/Cani (Straub/Huillet, 1976)
From the Clouds to the Resistance (Straub/Huillet, 1979)
Mauvais Song (Carax, 1986)
Attenberg (Tsangari, 2010)
Knife + Heart (Gonzalez, 2018)
Adoption (Meszaros, 1975)

Victims of Sin is 2019's most wonderful discovery so far - it really felt contemporary to see a sorta rounded-at-times portrait of sex work in terms of it being simply boring work with no saviours, in a company with the co-workers who look out for each other or step over, improving or worsening each other's working conditions, depending on the day and direction of travel. There was a lot of tension there to portray it in different ways -- not least because the script just went at breakneck speed, from one thing to another, with no room to think about what it was presenting (narration-wise). I wondered if Bunuel's mexican years also made a mark, quite a few surfacey surrealist touches (the Mariachi band) and the dancing sequences were something else too, that need to portray dancing in a brothel as work, but also as something that brings pleasure (not so alienating) to the worker (and then there is the complicating gaze of the male camera). Cinema is seldom this fun when a baby is left in the thrash (it is rescued later on).

Other than the Straubs on MUBI keep delivering. Their portrait of Franco Fortini is probably one of the best portraits of an artistic life that has been damaged by life and politics and the period. Tsangari's Attenberg was really powerful at times in its portrait of a dying father in hospital (which inevitably hit a nerve for me), and its searching ways to also keep playing on the edges of the situation and its grief. It hit a couple of -- shall I term it realist -- decisions by the end that I didn't much care for, but it had a good run.

enjoyed the immersion into the strange world of Hard to Be a God, it was really fascinating, but ultimately there was too much chaos for me

I used to have a Blu-Ray of Hard To Be A God but gave it away. I think I'm gonna buy it and watch it with the sound off like video wallpaper (the same thing I do with Miami Vice and Mad Max: Fury Road).

Saw it twice in theaters, good times

I thought Booksmart was excellent. Yeah, sort of similar to Superbad, but I liked this one better.

In Heaven There Is No Beer? (1985)
Ronin (1998)
Shoplifters (2018)
Brasilintime (2006)
Midsommar (2019)
Can You Ever Forgive Me (2018)
Eighth Grade (2018)
Jackie Brown (1997)
The Thing (1982)
La Strada (1954)

Didnt see any of the ilx discussion of Eighth Grade, but surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I really appreciated how it stayed low key with the plotting. I kept worrying it was going to turn melodramatic and shittily "tackle" cyberbullying or suicide or guns or w/e, but it was just a week or so in the life, which I v much appreciated.

EIGHTH GRADE (2018, written & directed by Bo Burnham, starring Elsie Fisher)

yeah looking forward to reading through it today

My "on deck" list... anybody want to push me one way or the other with these as the best place to start?
Body at Brighton Rock
Dogman
Styx
O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization
Sword of Trust
Safari (Ulrich Seidl)
Ray and Liz
Knife and Heart
Lorna's Silence

Seeing a bunch of short movies about death in a cemetery tonight for my birthday

Mission: Impossible (1996, De Palma) 6/10
Gate of Hell (1953, Kinugasa) 8/10
*The Train (1964, Frankenheimer) 9/10
*Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991, Meyer) 7/10
Maidstone (1970, Mailer) 4/10
Nitrate Kisses (1992, Hammer) 8/10
Generations (2010, Hammer, Carducci) 7/10
A Monkey in Winter (1962, Verneuil) 7/10
Wild 90 (1968, Mailer) 5/10
Days of Wine and Roses (1962, Edwards) 8/10

July/August

Midsommar (Aster, 2019) 6/10
*The Dogs of War (Irvin, 1980) 7/10
Lianna (Sayles, 1983) 8/10
Dial M for Murder (Hitchcock, 1954) 7/10
Nico, 1988 (Nicchiarelli, 2017) 7/10
*The Dirty Dozen (Aldrich, 1967) 8/10
Salvatore Giuliano (Rosi, 1962) 8/10
*Miami Vice (Mann, 2006) 7/10
Us (Peele, 2019) 7/10
Stand Up Guys (Stevens, 2012) 4/10

Not sure if Christopher Walken is playing a senile old guy or playing Christopher Walken in "Stand Up Guys". The film is twice as bad as you would expect.

Just Maine Folks (O'Neil, 1912)
Switzerland the Beautiful (1934)
Cross Fire (Brower, 1933)
Un Chant d'Amour (Genet, 1950)
Rhythmus 21 (Richter, 1923)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Worsley, 1923)
The Brig (Mekas, 1964)
Guns of the Trees (Mekas, 1961)
Project Gutenberg (Chong, 2018)