Last (x) movies you saw (II)

Satyricon 1970 Federico Fellini

Lavish production that starts out very homoerotic and camp and seems to relish in it.
A portrait of debauchery possibly.
I haven't seen that much Fellini but I think this is a style he is well known for though earlier work doesn't really go there as much.
Very spectacular.
THink I'll watch some more of his over teh next few weeks. Don't remember seeing this before .

I checked through some of the maaterial I mentioned above, downloaded another subtitles for Le Bete Humaine and that has the gaps corrected. Covers the 2nd part of the Zola quote for starteers and I thinnk it covered more of the coversation. Like taht wasa weird choice to skip it which I really don't get.

I like your first impressions. Reminds me of when I went to a video store that had a criterion wall, and I'd pick out a random movie from it every week.

La Beaute Du Diable 1950 Rene Clair
GOt a working version of thsi that had subtitles stay in sync . So watched it this evening. Quite fun. MIchel Simon starts off playing the aging Faust then becomes Mephistoles hosted in a replica body and acting a few years younger. Do like a bit of MIchel Simon so must get around to watch Boudu saved from drowning.
It's Rene Clair so you know it must be quality. & yeah did enjoy it.

Lola Montes 1955 Max Ophuls
THis appears to be Ophuls last film and it was cut up nastily by the studio on release., Then gradually reworked back to the original intended film which this most resembles.
Max Ophuls so pretty lavish.
This tells the story of the Irish dancer through the means of a lavish stage show that a travelling circus guy has devised which links back into various vignettes from lola's past. That circus guy is played by Peter Ustinov speaking fluent French which was one of several languages he spoke. Very interesting guy, must reread the memoirs.
I was reminded during watching this, is Lola Montez the first woman that Flashman seduces in the late 60s film of the George McDonald Fraser character or am I misremembering tha
Anyway, beautiful film and i think I am becoming a fan of Ophuls' films.

currently got Rififi underway will say more on taht later.

Rififi Jules Dassin
French crime caper of a dirty realist bent. Introduces a team of underworld figures lead by a recent excon who set up a caper then have to deal with the consequences.
I wonder if there were concessions needing to be made to morality of the time. Don't have square brackets on this phone so can't explain without spoilers.
Though always seems like Sex is less of an issue than in the US or UK or at least that is my understanding of films from those places.
Had thought a director called Jules Dassin would be French from looking at the name but he was a blacklisted yank. I should probably know the name already since I've seen a few of his films.
Didn't realise the same guy made Never On A Sunday which I grabbed last night so will watch before long. Also Topkapi which I enjoyed as a child.

Love Bound (Hill, 1932)
Sixteen Fathoms Deep (Schaefer, 1934)
Moscow Nights (Granowsky, 1934)

Capitolfest 18
Man Hunt (Lang, 1941)
"Blue Blazes" Rawden (Hart, 1918)
The Trial of Vivienne Ware (Howard, 1932)
Madame Spy (Neill, 1942)
Show Girl (Santell, 1928)
She Wanted a Millionaire (Blystone. 1932)
Rich People (E.H. Griffith, 1929)
*Topper (McLeod, 1937)
The Pursuit of Happiness (Hall, 1934)
The Last Card (Veiller, 1921)
So This Is Eden (Rothman & Sarg, 1927)
The River Pirate (Howard, 1928)
Her Wedding Night (Tuttle, 1930)
*Duck Soup (Guiol, 1927)
Wandering Fires (Campbell, 1925)
John Barrymore Technicolor Test for Hamlet (1933)
Artists and Models Abroad (Leisen, 1938)
Dad's Choice (Howe, 1928)
His Nibs (La Cava, 1921)
Week Ends Only (Crosland, 1932)
Four Days Wonder (Salkow, 1937)
Katharine Hepburn Technicolor Test for Joan of Arc (1934)
The Shield of Honor (Johnson, 1927)

Zero De Conduit Jean Vigo
I've heard teh name fopr years but wasn't sure what to expect.or taht it wasa short bieng like 40 minutes long.
It shows the goings on in a boarding school in themid 30s. Where kids are plotting open resistance for getting detention,. So I was reminded of If to some extent and wondered if it might be anything of an influence. I am tryingto think what context I've heard the name in.
It has some surreal bits and some unreal biits.
BUt did enjoy it. I keep seeing Jean Daste appear in films from thsi era. He is here as the new master who arrives just as the kids are returning to school. He appears to be a bit of a gymnast and stuff or at least can stand on his head and walk on his hands. Also amuses the boys by playing at being Charlot's little tramp and whoever taht is in the football game.
Interesting film

Boudu sauvé des eaux 1932 Jean Renoi
Story about a tramp portrayed by Michel Simon being saved from drowning in teh Seine by an aging lecherous bookseller who starts the film by carryong on with his maid. I think I must have dozed off for a bit cos i missed the bit where Boudu is brought into the house and given a new set of clothes. He proceeds to act in a bizarre way being absolutely crassly ill behaved in the house.
MIght rewatch this for that bit. I wasn't as into this as i thought I might be. Bits of it verge on the rapey if not doping more than that. & its seen as a good thing. So gosh attitudes may have changed in 90 years.
Not sure how well this conveys the message it is trying to . Cos I'm not sure what that message is or am being blind to it cos it's not something I want it to be. Seems to want to show that classes don't mix. So maybe it's just a satire on bourgeois attitudes?

A Propos De Nice 1930 Jena Vigo
THis starts with a bit of animation of a few toys then switches to some travelogue like footage of events among the hoi polloi in Nice.
The footage keeps switching from the hedonistic lifestyle of the rich to things taht contrast heavily. Animals in a zoo, the poor in teh town and a few things p-lu sit has some other images taht are obviously staged like a woman changing clothes rapidly and winding up naked anda guy getting really bad sunburn.
NOt sure if teh soundtrack was the original sound you would have heard or done more recently. Its an accordion among other stuff.
Anyway yeah this was a nice way to spend 24 minutes. I think i may have seen it appear somewhere before but not sure.
BIts of it reminded me of the How To series so wonder if that was a conscious thing for the director of that

Moi, UN NOir 1957 Jean Rouch
Late 50s film about migrant workers living in the Ivory coast town of Treichville. Actually not sure how much of thsi was supposed to be people playing characters and how much was them playing themselves. Apparently had no artificial set ups or costumes or anything or at least if it did they were so inconspicuous as such that it looked like somebody just filming every day activity.
JUst realised that the director was a white guy so wondering if that makes this less authentic.
But ok film , semi moving, nice atmosphere. Interesting to see what the living experience was of people at the time., Would have prefered to see what people would come up with if depicting themselves. & now thinking the gaze of a white guy getting a young black woman to strip for the camera may be questionable. I don't know.
Enjoyed it anyway.

Then tried to set up Never oN A Sunday but the subtitles were out of sync. Appeared way before teh lines being spoken which is the opposite direction than I've encountered before.
I have now managed to get a copy from another source. This seems to be harder to get hold of than I would have thought. Thought it was a very well known film. Just not sure if I have seen it before, may have it partially confused with Zorba the Greek.
Anyway, great soundtrack and i will get to watch the whole film later.

Tirez le Pianiste 1960 Francois truffaut
Noirish film about a bar room pianist who has moved away from his more illustrious past because of a serious event. Not sure how much is spoiler etc. Anyway film shows hs past through flashbacks as he is currently dealing with a situation his brothers have got him involved in concerning a heist.
Beautiful moving film . I think i need to catch up with my Truffaut since what I remember seeing by him has been so good. Really should be at a point where I've seen most of him. Ah well will rectify that if I have the time and actually manage to work through everything I've just found out about from various European, Japanese and African cinemas.

La Noire de..... 1966 Ousmane Sembene
story of a young black girl hired asa maid by a French couple in Dakar in the mid 60s and brought to the Antibes when they leave her home town and country. She feels totally isolated and is being a bit abused by a very white privileged white employer who has just doubled her workload without telling her and doesn't seem to be thinking about it. She reacts very badly to this. I won't give further spoilers.
Anyway beautiful film, pretty sad and do wonder what the actress playing the female employer's take on things would be. How deeply this would challenge her preconceptions etc. BUt then again reminded of teh Theatre for Change here's attitudes to how the ywere expanding people's consciousness without reflecting on their own inherent prejudice.
Oh well , it works good and it is an early outing for an African director so I think it served is purpose. Has some interesting uses of location etc.
Glad I saw it.

Watched a bit of Umberto D too but I think I was again thinking it was too late to start into another film.
Well will get back to that shortly.

I love Umberto D. YOU WILL CRY.

A Quiet Place II (2020) 6/10
Borg vs McEnrore (2017) 7/10
*Thats My Boy (2012) 7/10
Kajaki (2014) 7/10
Rambo (2008) 2/10
*Bulworth (1998) 7/10
Do I Not Like That - The Final Chapter (1997) 7/10
The Prostitutes of Lyon Speak (1975) 6/10
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki (2016) 7/10
Woodstock 99: Peace, Rage and Love (2021) 6/10
Gaza (2019) 7/10
Belushi (2020) 5/10
Beat The Devil (1953) 7/10
Pig (2021) 8/10
Wanda (1970) 7/10
Sorry We Missed You (2019) 7/10
First Cow (2019) 6/10
WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (2021) 5/10
Pray Away (2021) 6/10
Welcome II The Terrordome (1995) 6/10
*Gimme Shelter (1970) 8/10
Black Bear (2020) 7/10
Greener Grass (2019) 7/10
Le Cercle Rouge (1970) 8/10

Soleo O 1967 Med Hondo
experimental film about a Mauritanina man arriving in France looking for work . It explores colonialism, racism etc in a way taht is still relevant 54 years later.
Really enjoyed it and want to see more by the director.

UMberto D 1952 Vittorio De Sica
Sad story of a pensioner struggling to survive on his pension in post war Italy. Fighting with his landlady who doesn't seem very sympathetic at all. UMberto D is the title character and his one real friend appears to be his dog Flike and the maid in the apartment he has a room in.
IT was pretty moving as you watch the protagonist facing an uncertain fate that is looming in an inevitable way.

started trying to watch Never on A Sunday again and the transfer didn't bring the subtitles I thought were hard coded onto it which si weird.

Yesterday I watched Fear Street 1994 and Moonstruck. There was an unexpected connection between them. body parts in bread slicers

Yaaba (1989) Idrissa Ouedraogo -
African film from the late 80s set in a village in an unspecified time where a young boy befriends an elderly woman that is accused of being a witch.
I couldn't see anything related to a current day world and it struck me that this could have been any time in a few hundred years. THere was no sign of recent technology so could just be that people were simply in a backwater village off the grid.
Anyway, quite moving I thought. Beautiful scenery and nice acting. Showed the interdynamics of village life .
I enjoyed it.

O Drakos/ The Ogre of Athens 1956 Nikos Koundouros
Greek film about a bank worker with a passing resemblance to a gangster which backfires on him one New Year's eve thanks to an a-hole landlord then a wayward policeman. Leads to him being introduced to the criminal underground and 2 nightclub singers with hearts of gold.
nNteresting film, quite funny in places. Showing mid 50s postwar Greece. INteresting to see rhumba big in Greece at roughly the same time it was sweeping Africa and had me thinking that maybe it was a possible lasting fad at teh same time rock'n'roll was taking off but not sure how on the pulse a popular film would be about music at the time.
Moving film possibly though to say why would mean spoilers.

Lone.Wolf.&.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972. Kenji Misumi
Japanese samurai film about a disgraced royal executioner going Ronin. This was teh introductory film though I assume the characters had been around as manga beforehand.
Quite enjoyable especially if you like OTT effects of blood gushing from people etc. Cartoony which reflects the story origins in manga I guess.
I have another few of these to watch at some point.

My Fuhrer 2007 Dani Levy
Satire about a Jewish actor being roped in to help Hitler make a speech towards teh end of the 2nd world war.
Ok I thought. Possibly too sympathetic a Hitler

Antigone 1961 Yorgos Tzavellas
British release of the Greek version of a classical play telling the story of teh next generation of Oedipus's family .
It has Irene Papas in the title role and looking rather iconic. I was reminded that she had a role in Guns of Navarone which I then found out was the same year.
NIce version I thought, though I was a little reminded of some of the Dr Who's historical dramas though I don't think the scenery shook as much in this. & it may have been more authentic.
Yeah, glad i watched it. May give Electra a blast this week too.

started trying to watch Mandabi a 1968 African film but couldn't get the subtitle to work right.
Same with La Vaquilla a mid 80s Spanish film which i think is set during teh Spanish Civil War but same thing happened. Stuck trying to get subtitles synched and them drifting out of sync. I've seen teh contents of an SRT now so wonder how editable they are . & if timing is easily connected. Looks like there are lines of text controlling intervals but not sure how easy it is to get that in time. Drag, looked like it could be interesting.

Il giudizio universale 1961 Vittorio Di Sica
early 60s all star cast satire . God decides taht it's time for the last Judgment apparently out o fthe blue and starts announcing it is going to start at 6pm. There are a series of vignettes about people in Naples reactions to the news.
Some of it is quite amusing. There are a couple of very dodgy race based jokes which give things a weird taste now. Would have preferred not to see them appear in the film cos I would prefer not to think of this director as thinking like that. But maybe it is just of the time. I don't know, found out some stuff about anti-black racism in current Italy over the last year which is uncomfortable.
Damn wanted di Sica to not go there.
Interesting idea, not heard about anybody else working with similar though maybe it needed a heavily Christain background to think in terms of it.
I was trying to work out if people were just overdubbed in it since it does have roles by American actors apparently speaking very fluent Italian quite speedily.

Intruder in the Dust 1946 Clarence Brown
I thought the list i got this suggested from was films with black directors and cast though that doesn't seem to be true here. Juano Hernandez plays one of the main characters whose actions set the plot rolling though I think the actual protagonist is going to be the young white guy he sends off to get his lawyer uncle to act as his lawyer.
This had a lot of racism in it , hinged on it, used racial terms and a very white gaze . Though I think Hernandez's role is very sympathetic. The young black guy who is one of the helps in teh house that the white protagonists lie in is portrayed in a bit of a derogatory way though he does seem to have some agency most of the time even if he does comment on that not being true all the time.
Anyway good film I thought and one that could benefit people fro seeing around now. Though maybe the message has been given elsewhere. I think this wa pretty early for it to be conveyed though.
It's based on a William Faulkner novel which is in turn based on a real incident apparently.
Has a lot of use of the n word which I don't remember seeing before though I would think those films that got onto the tv when I was a kid would probably be ones that didn't include that word. So wonder what percentage of films did use language like that without thinking since it was probably prevalent at the time.

Rough Necking (Stevens, 1934)
His Wife's Mistakes (Arbuckle, 1916)
Daybreak (Feyder, 1931)
Monte Cristo (Flynn, 1922)
House of Horrors (Yarbrough, 1946)
She Loved Him Plenty (Jones & Del Ruth, 1918)
Damsels and Dandies (Pratt, 1919)
Kidding Kate (Sidney, 1923)

Val (2021) 3/5
Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) 3.5/5
Ticket of No Return (1979) 1/5
*Being There (1979) 4.5/5
His Motorbike, Her Island (1986) 4.5/5
*The Party (1968) 3.5/5
*Body Heat (1981) 3/5
*Mind Game (2004) 4/5

Cadaveri Eccellenti 1972 Francesco Rosi
Crime investigation featuring an Italian beat down police detective who seems to be a bit world weary and things trying to work out why a group of top judges have been assassinated. Very good I thought, not seen an Italian version of this genre before i don't think.
Enjoyed it, kind of fits in with things like Parallax View and other contemporary films from the US at the time. I think it was a paranoid time.
Worth watching. I think I started watching it thinking it was more satirical or something but it is very atmospheric .

Blood of Jesus 1941 Spencer Williams
Religious film or at least one using a religious theme. A devout woman married to a non believer has a near death experience where she experiences having died and headed towards the road to heaven.
THis was a black made film with an all black cast which I think was the first one from the era I have seen. Seem to be a few of these around on youtube etc.
Some nice touches, pretty B but not sure what budgets people would have had to work with at the time.

started watching Killer of Sheep which I need to get more into.

Watched the 2nd Lone Wolf and ub film which was cool. Stupid gore that remains really unconvincing but quite funny.
This has the Lone Wolf up against a bunch of female assassins as well as a group of 3 brothers. I think a version of the 3 brothers appear as Strontium Dog enemies at times , assuming that's a bit of a near straight lift.
I have the full series of these. So will probably get through them before too long.

Mikres Aphrodites 1963 Nikos Koundouros
A film about several groups of people crossing paths in 200BC in the wake of a drought. Looks really good. Dialogue is presumably a little self consciously experimental/existential.
I gave up on it last night and went to bed after 1st half hour but may give it another try.

KIller of Sheep 1977 Charles Burnett
story set in Watts about a slaughterhouse worker trying to cope with family and things.
Quite great I think.
NIce picture of the time with a pretty good blues soundtrack

Mandabi 1968 Ousmane Sembene
A money order which the title refers to causes chaos for a poor man in Senegal who may be overly proud.
This was one of the films i was having trouble with subtitles with. I wound up getting a new set which fit the time a lot better bit left several phrases untranslated.
Anyway kind of good. Loved the music and seeing the way that people were dealing with the overlap of cultures. Also that everybody was out to make money off this guy.
Same director as Black Girl which was 2 years earlier than this. This is in colour and mainly set in Senegal though it visits Paris to show the sender of the money order. The main character's nephew.

Django 1966 Sergio Corbucci
Franco Nero as the titular hero dragging a coffin across the borderlands of US/Mexico. I thought this might be another take on Red Harvest buit doesn't quit ego there. It gets into the mud, there's a lot of that in this film.
Quite muddy, quite black humoured and possibly a bit nihilistic.
Seemed to have an anti racist against Mexican message initially but not sure how well it sticks with it.
I think there is a sequel and Return of Django is not just an Upsetters lp isn't there?

Killer of Sheep is all time
http://live.staticflickr.com/2170/2533477571_9c0722f9ed_b.jpg

Emperor Tomato Ketchup 1971 Shûji Terayama
weird groovy transgressive experimental film with a great soundtrack.
Has some very odd bits in and gets into some areas that probably wouldn't be acceptable today. Nudity and things involving kids would probably be heavily frowned on. & do actresses get stunt nipples for things like this.
Anyway glad i got to see this.

started watching le Bete Humaine again but after ahving subtitles exactly right I found tehy drifted away from sync . So need to find a 3rd set of them or a new videofile. Shame , I was just getting into the film after an attempt a couple of weeks ago.

Lumumba 2000 Raoul Peck
The dramatic version of the story of the Congolese leader, the same director did a documentary version 9 years earlier which i need to get hold of.
Not sure if I am seeing faces I recognise or not since this is francophone. May be people who have since crossed over.
BUt good film and I want to see a few more of this director's after having seen his Exterminate All The Brutes earlier this year.
I have his Fatal Assistance/Assistance Mortelle about Haiti on the memory stick already. So need to get to that.

shame that dogmask image from Killer of Sheep appears to have disappeared or had its link cut. Pretty haunting odd image so it was.
Assume that the director just saw a kid walking around in a halloween mask or similar and thought he'd include it.

Hyenas 1993
A local woman who has become rich in her absence returns to her bankrupt backwater Senegalese hometown and causes chaos.
I'm not sure how realist this is supposed to be. Works quite well asa narrative and does have some quite great imagery. Mainly seem sto take place in the shop of her ex lover who also runs a bar.
Enjoyed this, not familiar with all the tropes of African cinema and just educating myself at the moment but also working through some other traditions from other areas so may not be able to derive a full picture of specifically African cinema. Also I think that as with all other things there is unlikely to be a monolithic one take on what should constitute cinema across a full continent. Seeing some good stuff along this journey anyway.
This seems quasi dreamlike in places and i assume it is heavily allegorical though not entirely sure what for , but am not up to date with Senegalese history of the time. I know its west coast will have been heavily colonised etc and there was some pretty fine music coming from there a few years before this film Etoile De Dakar are so sublime.
Anyway I liked it so you may. Its a bit later than a lot of things I have been watching recently but not sure that parameter is fixed. I think I was trying to check out the roots of African cinema but it's a big continent so going to have a lot of films coming from it. Maybe I'll get a decent grounding at some point but maybe that is just overstretching things especially if I am looking at so many other areas traditions of film. Will have fun expanding my knowledge while i have the time and access to do so though.

Baie Des Anges 1963 Jacques Demy
A young bank clerk gets introduced to gambling and goes overboard. wins money, loses money, gets involved with a beautiful older lady who is a lot more committed to gambling to an addictive point.
I'm not sure how long this is supposed to take place over. Was it a film version of an earlier fiction taht took place over a longer period . It just seems that it takes place over something like 3 days which would just be crazy to have the interpersonal interrelation displayed wouldn't it? Otherwise seems to be trying to be semi realistic though I'm really not sure. I guess a film is inherently a fiction even when portrayed as otherwise, any point of editing adds a little subjectivity or fictionalisation doesn't it?
Anyway, nice moving film which looks great and engages one for an hour and a half. Got some good snippets of music on teh soundtrack too.
Ah well looks cool but i wouldn't use it as a lifestyle guide.

Twin Peaks: The Return (7.0)
The Calling (5.5)
The Larry Sanders Show (S1-S6: 10.0)
Nomadland (8.0)
Stillwater (5.0)
Old (1.0)
Better Call Saul (S1-S4: 7.5)
The Night House (6.0)
At Close Range (5.5)

The Black Cauldron (Disney co., 1985) 5/10 possibly seen before as a small child
Hellraiser (Barker, 1987) 6/10 in appreciation rather than enjoyment
Moonstruck (Jewison, 1987) 6/10
It's Such a Beautiful Day (Hertzfeldt, 2012) 8/10
Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words (2015) 4/10 way too much about her boring kids
The Green Fog (Maddin, 2017) 6/10
Ralph Breaks the Internet (Disney co., 2018) 4/10 i have now seen every disney animation studios film
Fear Street: 1994 (Janiak, 2021) 6/10
Fear Street: 1978 (Janiak, 2021) 4/10 doing a classic slasher right after a revisionist/parody slasher wasn't a great idea

also all of father ted and a bunch of columbo episodes

Old (1.0)

is the one point for Mid-Sized Sedan

A good question. Stupefied that it's gotten some positive reviews; I sat there thinking, "This is conceivably the worst mainstream studio film with at least a tenuous connection to quality (The Sixth Sense, I suppose) I've ever seen." I think the point is because (0.0) looks like an attention-getting rating.

Touki Bouki 1973 Djibril Diop Mambéty
A student and her cattle herder boyfriend attempt to escape boredom and lack of money in Dakar to get to Paris and swell times etc in experimental movie. Seems a bit dreamlike in places so may make a close parallel to some European cinema of the time. A bit trippy and otherworldly, like.
Interesting soundtrack choices which I'd like to know more about. THis came heavily reccommended to me and I would repeat that recommendation to you. Quite funny in places too.

The Mack 1973 Michael Campus
Blaxploitation. A former revolutionary type survives 5 years in jail and comes out seeking some forms of revenge and beco0mes a pimp.
Wardrobe is pretty great, soundtrack is pretty great.
Cops are bastards of course as are some of his rivals.
This tries to present the main guy as a principled fellow who is looking out for the community or is at least deluding himself taht he is. Which doesn't quite tally with his treatment of his women. NOt sure how normative this would be and so on.
Looks good anyway.

La Bete Humaine 1938 Jean Renoir
Film based on an Emile Zola novel about a train driver who is the descendent of generations of alcoholics and thereby has a very violent streak. Which is not a very realist view of things. This does try to be pretty realist though and it shows a love of teh trains being depicted.
jean Gabin is teh star alongside Simone Simon as the love interest and Julien Carette as his fireman.
THis took me several goes to get through since the subtitles came seriously adrift from sync. I kept getting it in sync and then found it way out again, think I went through 4 different sets of subtitles too. Wound up with the subtitles way ahead of what was said but persevered to the end eventually.
Shame cos it is a nice film. THough the premise does seem overly melodramatic.
Beautiful film anyway.

Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. 1946 Spencer Williams
A black theatre troupe take a trip to the carribbean. One of them has a bigger ego than others.
Interesting to watch this and wonder what normalisation processes are going on. Who is seen as worth emulating and so on.
I'm not sure so far, may need to watch this a couple of times. Can't tell if Gertie is thought to be sassy or overbearing .
Must have been rewarding to see a character that was somewhat reflective of oneself on the screen anyway.

Got home pretty drunk last night and bunged on both the beginning of this and most of

Rome Open City 1945 Roberto Rossellini
Story about Italian daily life under Nazi occupation . Reflecting Italian civilians, italian resistance and Nazis.
I think I will watch this back through later since i think I wasn't giving it enough attention

Open City has an amazing ending but I can't remember much of the rest of it.

I treasure La Bete Humaine for the freshness of its outdoor scenes.

Vacation Friends is stupid but funny. I admire John Cena's turn toward violent, drug-fueled anarchy in his movie roles. Between this and Suicide Squad he's become someone I'd actively choose to watch in a movie.

Light House Love (Delmer, 1932)
Ocean Swells (Stevens, 1934)
Take the Stand (Rosen, 1934)
Story Conference (Mack, 1934)
The Dancing Millionaire (White, 1934)
Radio Dough (Boasberg, 1934)
The Sunbeam (Griffith, 1912)
Nevada (not that John Waters, 1927)
The Green Knight (Lowery, 2021)
What Happened to Jones? (Seiter, 1926)

Emitaï 1971 Ousmane Sembene
Story about an African village in Senegal during the First World War. First all the young men of the village are volunteered to fight for teh French in the war in Europe. Then the French come backj to seize most o fteh food taht's been grown to feed the village for the War Effort. Revolting picture of colonisation and how expendable those colonised are seen to be.
I need to have another look at David Olusoga's The World's War to see what he says about usage of colonial troops and food sources. I know he does have some scathing stuff to say about recruitment.

watched Dirty Gertie From The U.S.A. and Rome Open City through completely.
Dirty Gertie is by Spencer Williams who went on to p[ay Andy in Amos & Andy which I think was very popular in teh 50s etc.
INteresting film but the end seems to be tacked on or at least out of teh blue.
Rome open city is cool pretty realistic in places. Shows duplicity, gullibility, bravery and so on. Anna Magnani looking blooming tasty as ever. whoever is playing the German woman may well be a practising vampire in which case fair play for capturing her on camera.,

https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/data/13030/8d/ft709nb48d/figures/ft709nb48d_00003.jpg

I have probably posted this before but Giovanna Galletti's performance as the vampiric Gestapo agent in Rome, Open City is so damn cold and impressive.

Annette (Carax, 2021) 7/10
Coda (Heder, 2021) 6/10
Swan Song (Stephens, 20210 4/10
* BPM: Beats Per Minute (Campillo, 2017) 8/10
* Holy Motors (Carax, 2011) 7/10
After Life (Kore-eda, 1999) 8/10
* Die Hard 2(Harlin, 1990) 6/10
* Body Heat (Kasdan, 1981)
Fat City (Huston, 1973) 7/10

Since subscribing to MUBI recently:
Cleo de 5 à 7 (Varda, 1962) 9/10
Un Monde Sans Femmes (Brac, 2011) 6/10
Pickpocket (Bresson, 1959) 8/10
The Juniper Tree (Keene, 1989) 7/10

xp did you forget to rate Body Heat or was it that bad?

Cairo Station 1958
Realist film about vendors at the main station in Cairo. A newsagent semi adopts a simple minded lame orphan and has him work for him. He has a fixation on one of the soft drink sellers which is not healthy. I think the portrayal of mental conditiions is a bit archaic but it is 60+ years old.
Good film, not sure if I got the full cut.

Black & White iN Colour 1976 Jean-Jacques Annaud
A group of French ex pat colonists in early 1915 discover there is a war on a little after the fact thanks to a bunch opf newspapers appearing in a package sent to a scientist who is living at the trading post. They decide to put a local platoon together and enlist the local native tribe members to join up with tehm to go and fight the Germans who live in the vicinity. The Germans have better technology and better military training for teh natives tehy have enlisted.
Kind of fun film I guess.
I was looking for films based in Africa during the First World War at the time I was reading David Olusoga's The World's War and i think this was one of theh titles I saw at the time but didn't watch until today. Interesting , shows the pointlessness of some local attempts ta aiding teh war effort.
Oddly this was a film that had initial titles in English so it presumably got a British release though it didn't have hardcoded subtitles apart from some for translating song lyrics from both the local tribal language and French. NOt sure why taht would be.

Cruella 2021 Craig Gillespie
prestory for the character famous from 101 Dalmations showing why she became what she is or the reinvention of that.
Weird sense of chronology and I think geography. I think it starts in 1961 and goes forward 10 years to somewhen around 1968.
Maybe that isn't as noticeable to people who haven't had 60s fixations and things but does seem not to really make sense.
Kind of groovy and fun and things and a bit knowing.
I enjoyed it for the most part though.
THough dunno about the invention of punk in school in whatever year that was. 61? & Bowie & the Stooges in 1968 or is it supposed to be early 70s? and a hint or 2 of punk .

Stella 1955 Michael Cacoyannis
Melina Mercouri's debut film where she plays a taverna singer and free spirit of the film title.
Sad film though it shows the extent of her free spirit and constraints presumably of the time. Wonder if things like the ending would be maintained if the film was made now. If gender imbalance has changed enough and so on, The film also hinges on things like jealousy and I'm not sure who comes out of this looking like they're living their best., BUt may reflect culture of the time I don't know.
Love the s/trk music. Hadjikadis is sublime.
Another Greek film where the subtitles are actually too fast when other things tend to be too slow. Or at least they turn up before the translated comment . Is that coincidence cos the other place I came across it was Never On Sunday. Thankfully got a different version of the same film that had the subtitles hardcoded. & then couldn't rewind. Not sure what the story is on that. if i tried to do so it kept going to the same spot in the film, timing totally messed up. Like its fixed on a landmark spot and is referencing from there not where i had watched to. ho hum.

Ascenseur Pour L'eschafaud 1958 Louis Malle
Thriller about an ex paratrooper who is having an affair with his boss's wife. He pulls a scam and makes his escape but when outside he notices an oversight so goes to return to the scene of teh crime to correct it, oddly enough this somehow gets corrected later anyway if you pay attention to the minor details in various scenes. When he goes to correct his mistake he leaves his car running and the hoodlum boyfriend of the local flower shop assistant goes to have a closer look at the car creating a 2nd plot. The boss's wife has been waiting for the ex-paratrooper who is otherwise stranded she spends a lot of the film looking for him.
I guess there is some level of atmosphere in the film and i has a famous improvised score by a Miles Davis band which it is famous for.
I'm not sure how classic a film it is. I even seem to have drifted off for 20 minutes when i was watching it so tried to catch that bit in a 2nd sitting. Or that is to say I fastforwarded to a bit I didn't recognise and it seemed to last about 20 minutes.
I think its well liked though.

Ali Fear Eats The Soul 1974 Renee Werner Fassbinder
An older German woman walks into an unfamiliar bar to escape the rain . A young Moroccan man comes over to talk to her. When she leaves he offers to walk her home. THings develop from there and she has to deal with the racism of mid 70s Germany.
Interesting film I guess. Interesting to see mid 70s attitudes which were presumably similar all across the First World and elsewhere.
I think the performances were decent. & i loved the music. Want to find out what it was especially that really liquid track that was playing when the group were playing whatever the game was in the bar later on in in the film.
Fassbinder appears as the slobby thuggish son-in-law who is first pictured being less than gentlemanly to his wife.

Baala 1978 Souleyman E Cisse
Film about characters in Mali in the late 70s. Hinghes around firstly a young porter who seems to be being heavily taken advantage of by his regular clients and then meets a young manager of a factory that makes waxed cotton fabric. Because of their interrelationship the young manager looks into the way workers are treated in his factory. Which annoys his boss who is having a negative relationship with his own wife.
It hung together quite well and had a pretty decent soundtrack. I liked the clothing design in this too.
& as a film it was quite good. Will check out more by the director since i have a couple more by him.

Bande A Parte 1964 Jean-Luc Godard
started watching this but I wasn't feeling it so may return to this shortly.
2 guys meet a girl at an English language course and decide to rob the place she lives in .
Think I will get back to this.

went onto
The Visit 1964 Bernhard Wicki
which is based on teh same play that the Senegalese film Hyenas was. THis is a European film with an international cast. I found the voices seemed to be processed . & the performances a bit stilted.
I thought I would compare the handling of the same source but again wasn't feeling it, may or may not get back to this.
which was when I looked through what i had on my memory stick and found

Battle of Algiers 1966 Gillo Pontecorvo
French language film by Italian film crew or at least Italian director, cinematographer and soundtrack writer.
Showing the liberation struggle for the country then colonised by France. A bunch of paratroopers lead by a war hero who has been in the resistance and Indochina and things have been brought in to defeat the FLN liberation group. Apparently forgetting that they had fought the Nazis to get to the point, though they do consciously address this did seem like becoming the oppressor is too easy for some people.

I don't think I had seen this before somehow, not sure how.
I think this was being shown quite regularly at the Scala when I was living in London.

MUna Moto 1975 Jean-Pierre Dikongue-Pipa
Sad story about a pair of lovers who want to get married trying to get money together to do so when the girl's father wanted a massive dowry including several comestibles and bottles of licquor and things.
Beautiful film I thought but pretty sad. Shows abuse of family dynamics and things. The guy has been promsed that his uncle will pay his dowry then something goes awry. Won't go any further into what cos taht would be a spoiler.
Interesting soundtrack which suddenly breaks into a biut of electric jazz that I think i recognise but couldn't quite place.

American Interior 2014 Dylan Goch Gruff Rhys
Documentary about teh ex Super Furry Animals singer's tour where he told the story of John Evans the late 18th century Welsh explorer who mapped teh Missouri while looking for a legendary Welsh Indian tribe descendents of 12th century Prince Madoc who had escaped Court intrigue by sailing to the New World apparently.
I've wanted to see this for a while but its been sitting incomplete on my torrent server for an age . So great, finally got to see it.

Re-watched Paul Schrader's Light Sleeper tonight via Amazon Prime. It's such an early 90s NYC time capsule it almost gave me vertigo. The cast is absolutely stacked with people who get one or two scenes, knock it out of the park, then vanish: David Spade, Sam Rockwell, Victor Garber, Jane Adams... If it wasn't for the overbearing songs on the soundtrack, it would be one of my favorite Schrader movies. Honestly, it still is.

Light Sleeper's soundtrack really ruined it for me. Pure Leonard Cohen-wannabe dreck.

Ta kokkina fanaria 1963 Vasilis Georgiadis
A film about the brothels in Troumba whose title translates as The Red Lights. Quite moving I thought , shows the love lives of several of those involved in one particular brothel on a street of them.
So a bit soapy possibly. One woman has a bit of an affair with a client she took the virginity of, one girl has been stranded in the brothel after having been jilted in a local hotel and is having to pay off a supposed debt to the madame and the pimp, one has been asked to marry a longterm client who agrees to adopt her son.
This wound up with the one copy of the film I could get hold of being a pretty large filesize, one of the largest I've come across at 2.4GB so had to have special provision made to clear space for it. So I watched it pretty much as soon as I had it on the memory stick or rather teh next day. Enjoyed it.

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm.Take.One 1968(?) William Greaves
Experimental film which was not released at the time and it seems that this version must have been worked up after that date. I sat watching it thinking it was odd that it featured parts of In A Silent Way as the soundtrack a year before it was released. I think it gives a date of 1971 in Roman numerals at the end as the version that has been restored too.
This basically shows several actors auditioning for a role for a supposed film which may or may not be actually being made as well as some focus on the film crew. I Think there wound up with 3 different film units being used to film each other.
Seems that the story being filmed is about a wife realising her husband is having a gay affair and challenging him about it.
IT looks like the film was not released at the time and only given a wider release when Steve Buscemi discovered teh film and got behind it in the early 90s. There wasa second part filmed in 2006 featuring the main 2 actors who were filmed as teh married couple. I haven't seen that bit.

Tabataba 1988 Raymond Rajaonarivelo
Village life is disturbed heavily by the Independence movement in post war Malagasy in 1947 as well as teh colonial backlash.
Short film at about 75 minutes. THis was the 2nd film I have managed to watch since finding an SRT translating programme. I think the translating works for the most part. Though it is obviously a machine translation and you do need to give it a bit of leeway and rethink phrasing in places.
Quite moving since the Malagasy attempting to rebel are stuck with really primitive weapons including wooden guns that are made effective by having bayonets attached as well as rocks being thrown and things.
Glad i saw this and managed to find the translation device.
Main character is a young ambitious boy who wants to be more of an adult and be more involved.

La ley de Herodes 1999 Luis Estrada
Mexican film about corruption.
An inept garbage dump manager is promoted to the role of mayor of a small backwater town through the agency of an old schoolfriend after the previous one has been decapitated by the locals after major grift. He is at first too honest to become involved in local bribery but then finds out how little funding he has without it and is told to try a bit of grift by the corrupt politician who had hi placed in the role.
He goes absolutely overboard .
KInd of amusing. Features Alex Cox as a Gringo engineer or conman who has conned the inept mayor into giving him a share of the graft over supposedly fixing a car that the mayor knows nothing about maintaining.

La ley de Herodes 1999 Luis Estrada

Saw this a million years ago, probably when it first popped up on home video. Had forgotten all about it until you described it.

Yeah. I should have added it seems like a Jim Thompson story. Cos that was an impression I was getting throughout.

Istoria mias kalpikis liras 1955 Yorgos Tzavellas
Slow omnibus film about the people who come in contact with a coin that a craftsman is conned into making . So includes 4 different stories , that of the counterfeiting the guy is conned into by an alluring woman pretending to be interested in him, causing him to spend all of his own money in the process of making the coin. THat's followed by a story about a fake blind beggar who gets involved with a prostitute that is vying for his regular begging pitch he's introduced by having the counterfeit coin dropped in his hand. Next a young girl who finds the coin on the street after it has dropped through a hole in a pocket, she is the daughter of a poor whitewasher and gives a rich miser a rethink. Final story is about a pair of young newlyweds who have married in a hurry to move into a garret flat and pursue his artistic vision.
NOt sure about this film. Seemed really slow but I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. BUt not sure about how fast a Greek film audience would want things at the timne. Maybe its a cultural thing , not sure yet.

The Spook Who Sat By The Door 1973 Ivan Dixon
A black agent is trained but initially only usedas a clerk before being reassigned and starting a race revolution.
I kept falling asleep during this so need to rewatch.
Seemed pretty cool though.
I just watcheda Black History Walks thing on 20 Black Films that had been banned which tied in with a BFI program that's been going on for th elast 15 years, So thought I would stick this on since i had it and it was talked about. But realising the lack of sleep was catching up with me.

when that ended it flowed into the next film on my memory stick
Cooley High 1975 Michael Schultz
pretty good thing about a group of black teens and their time in and around and ditching the school of teh title.
Seems anarchic, energetic and so on . Probably has too many things happening in too short a time that would be morer realistically spread out over longer time but that's like telescoping time in film innit.
Took this off about half way thropugh to go to bed.
Will get back to it though cos it is pretty great.

24 Hours To Live (Paul Anderson, but not either of the ones you're thinking of, 2017): Once again, the presence of Ethan Hawke proves to be a guarantee that what seems like a trashy genre movie will in fact be much better than expected.

Princess Charming (Elvey, 1934)
A Cuckoo in the Nest (Walls, 1933)
Stage Struck Susie (Burns, 1929)
Walking the Baby (Scotto, 1933)
A Lady to Love (Sjöström, 1930)
Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, 1962)
Call the Wagon (Sidney, 1923)
You're Next (Perez, 1919)

The Sparks Brothers (2021) 2.5/5. I really like these guys, so it sucks that Edgar Wright nearly ruined them for me. Covering every album gets to be an interminable approach when you have to hear a bunch of random dorks and comedians who haven't seemed cool since 2005 weigh in with comments like "woah... great album cover."
* Le Cercle Rouge (1970) 4.5/5.
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) 3.5/5. Mostly for Jack Cardiff. Gets off to an interesting, trancelike start before lagging at times.
The Street Fighter (1974) 3.5/5
A Very Curious Girl (1969) 4/5. Caught this before it left Criterion Channel. An almost shockingly modern sex worker revenge fantasy with Bunuel-like satirical elements. Wish I had gotten around to the other Nelly Kaplan films they had up.
Croupier (1998) 4/5
Johnny Mnemonic (1995) 3/5

Shorts:
Washingtonia (2014) 3.5/5
A Running Jump (2012) 3/5. Mike Leigh short funded to loosely tie in with the Olympics that year.

Cooley High 1975 Michael Schultz
Events surrounding some schoolfriends in Chicago in 1964. Mainly black cast, I think most of the white people represented are cops and authority figures though most of the figures of authority in the film are black too.
Enjoyed it greatly, great Motown soundtrack, seemed like a life to live though everybody is just getting by. One of the character's mothers is depicted as very tired from having to work 3 jobs.
A lot of their behaviour verges on the criminal which backfires on them but won't go into any further details.
I think it is regarded as a classic film now for good reason. Worth seeing if you haven't already.

Borom Sarret 1963 Ousmane Sembene
Short film about a peasant on the outskirts of Dakar trying to make a living with a horse and cart. NOt sure why it didn't have an English subtitle available so I had to run it through the srt translator. & again not that conspicuous for the most part but still trips over grammar in a couple of places.
Moving film I thought, won't give spoilers but seems like Sembene has a theme of treating his main characters as needing to deal with futility. THought it was a great film anyway and have enjoyed all of his that I've seen so far.

MIracolo A Milano 1951 Vittorio De Sica
Magical semi surrealist fimm from Italy from the early 50s. A baby is found in the cabbage patch by an old lady who brings him up to the age of about 6 before dying. He grows up in an orphanage which isn't shown and then leaves at the age of maturity , walks out and has his bag taken by an absent minded beggar. Like stolen but seems like the beggar doesn't quite seem to recognise rules of property. He's given the bag and then lets teh orphan who is called Toto a place to stay on the local wasteland where a lot of homeless people live. The film shows the relationship between the homeless and the elements by having a little scene where they chase the little bit of sun that comes through the clouds around to get warm. Shortly later wind hits and blows the existing structures apart. Toto organises rebuilding and creates a more planned shanty town with streets and things. THis seems to make people a lot happier and there is a queue of people shown wanting to move in to the town. They are allocated places by Toto and his friends.
A little later 2 fat cat building tycoons appear and try to change ownership of the land . One of them appears to have a change of heart and walks away from the deal saying that everybody is a person after all . He will appear a bit later with a different opinion.
He tries to get the shanty town moved using a group of security whose uniforms look oddly like British bobbies. THere si a lot of chasing back and forth wit thsi group especially when Toto's mama appears from heaven with a gift.
Can't go any further into that without further spoilers.
Magical film as I said, quite heartwarming if you're into that kjind of thing. But again suffers from incidental racism, does at least show a black character for most of teh film but his fate is very very iffy. Overall glad i saw this .

Vivre Sa Vie 1963 Jean Luc Goddard
A young woman finds navigating life difficult, wants to break into the movies but is being lead astray. She winds up owing money to her landlady and is given the opportunity to go into prostitution. Which she does, she later meets an old friend whose circumstances have lead her into the profession though i thought she had been able to get back out.
She introduces her to her friend who has a better set up though it remains unclear for a while as to what this is , it turn sout to be a more organised set up with prostitution. This leads to the girls downfall eventually.
I'm not sure what to make of this, it seems to be trying to be consciously non judgmental about the act of prostitution and what the factors are involved are. But it tacks on a really dodgy ending.
It's Godard so for the most part it looks pretty good and it stars Anna Karina as the girl so it looks even better.
& it has the scene where the girl is dancing around the pool room Which I think I've seen elsewhere but had no context for. Was it even part of a title sequence for something?

I tried giving Princesas a spanish film on prostitution a go but found out that I didn't have subtitles for it. Then tried giving La vaquilla the film about the Spanish Civil War a go but found that the subtitles weren't being synched which si probably why I haven't already watched it over the last few weeks. Do want to get back to both. So looked through the memory stick and found

Ecstacy Of The Angels 1972 Kôji Wakamatsu
An early 70s experimental film with a lot of gore and nudity in. Has a semi coherent story about a bunch of underground revolutionary units trying to have a little wave of terror aiming to overthrow capitalist society with some explosives they've stolen from a Weapons Wearhouse they've broken into. Killing off half their unit on the way. & seriously disabling some of the survivors who stil insist on soldiering on.
So it's semi pornographic overacted stuff supposedly with a revolutionary message. NOt sure if i can recommend this beyond the soundtrack by Yōsuke Yamashita et al . They appear on the soundtrack doing a great Cecil Taylor impression which had me wondering if i knew the recording being used, and then appear in a nightclub scene which is cool.
I saw this on a list recommending japanese films so wonder what the list-makers criteria was. I think I had it on the memory stick prior to Emperor Tomato ketchup which I watched the day after having seen it talked about somewhere, possibly here.
May be of interest I guess. has a weird way of switching between black and white and colour and semi realistic acting and seriously over the top. I dunno.