ILX Film Club, The (1924-2019)

Hugh Leonard, reviewing Holiday on the Buses gave the film zero stars out of four. Leonard added "This one should be buried in unhallowed ground".

I'll for sure chime in even if I haven't given the movie a fresh watch. (But I'll try my best to give each film a fresh watch.)

^ditto (except for this part)

I've been slowly watching the ones I haven't seen from the S&S top 100. It's only about 10 (though I might not see Peele's "Get Out" as I don't fancy it and it's obviously going to drop off next time).

Might extend it to the 250.

Another 40 on the rest. Would watch most of it bar Blue by Jarman. Fuck that shit.

Or Annie Hall.

Why Blue? I've always meant to "watch" that as I love a few of his other films.

xp Yeah this same project 20 years ago would have at least four or five Woody Allen films on the list, instead of zero.

I find Jarman's films to be pretty exasperating, and I feel I will hate it even when the subject matter is sad.

xp

i will try to participate, when i can! i find it really difficult to take part in film discussions, for various reasons, but i do enjoy watching them. i'm no kind of old-school buff but, due to the ilx influence (and using morbs' letterboxd list) i've seen a lot of the earlier films here, and within the last several months, to boot. it'll be nice to give them a rewatch so soon after my first encounter with them.

Sherlock Jr. is perfectly 45 minutes long

Or Annie Hall.
― xyzzzz

I'm probably one of the few (only?) people on here who was heartened to see Annie Hall show up. Not defending Woody Allen, just glad there are some people left who can make that distinction between the person and the film (easier with Rosemary's Baby/Chinatown, I think, just because they're so much better as films; also, Polanski's largely invisible, though he does have the cameo in Chinatown).

For some other thread, I know.

I think that this film club needs to do the On The Buses film trilogy to truly capture how it was in Ted Heath's Pre & Post EEC Britain.

I think we can all agree that the ending to Annie Hall is, in effect, a happy one

"just glad there are some people left who can make that distinction between the person and the film (easier with Rosemary's Baby/Chinatown, I think, just because they're so much better as films; also, Polanski's largely invisible"

I wouldn't watch a Polanski film nowadays either, Clemenza. I have no interest in supporting their work while these people are alive.

I think that this film club needs to do the On The Buses film trilogy to truly capture how it was in Ted Heath's Pre & Post EEC Britain.

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Friday, 10 February 2023 bookmarkflaglink

We just have to step outside for that, these days..

I’m in

I think we can all agree that the ending to _Annie Hall_ is, in effect, a happy one

Ugh, for some reason, I ventured outside this safe haven and ended up interacting with Jeffrey Wells. Not pleasant.

Yeah I'm in, tho can't promise to keep up every week - one objective I have this year is to watch more films from the rest of the world than US films overall and while these lists are varied and wonderful I fear they'd still land me on the wrong side of that in the end.

Why does ILX hate L'Atalante so much?

Is this true?

Yes, fuck all canal barges.

Alba can you tell which ilxors are hating I'll bully them for you.

Ha ha I was just making a glib comment after seeing the spreadsheet and noticing tha it placed relatively well in the S&S top 100s but nowhere with ILX.

I think that applies even more to Beau Travail but I was looking at the early films.

Gonna watch Beau Travail in a proper theater next week -- my first non-DVD/streaming experience w/it!

While everyone's gearing up, a reasonably engaging quiz:

Try this quiz - https://t.co/yyLpPtjiKP pic.twitter.com/fdHFKTXEpL

— DVDBeaver (@DVDBeaver) February 11, 2023

66/100. I raced through it, probably wouldn't have done much better if I'd taken my time (I either knew it or guessed--though I would have gone back and changed a few guesses based on subsequent answers).

more mainstream:
https://www.cinenerdle2.app/

68/100. Projectionist but no professor. But what's wrong with being a projectionist?

Wtf, I'm boycotting this quiz

Reasoning?

Putting professors above projectionists!

Ah!

96/100 and only because I accidentally put Jacques Rivette when I meant François Truffaut

Check out the big brain on Brad!

77/100 -- a couple of dumb mistakes on movies I've seen, a couple of lucky guesses on movies I haven't seen

71, though at least half were guesses.

(Some of them informed guesses, though.)

76. About five films I did see and couldn't place grr

88. Nailed every one I knew, every guess I guessed wrong

Oh and messed up Spike Lee . Just couldn't place that image in that film somehow

84/100!

I guessed on most of the contemporary Asian stuff, which rarely payed off. And I got the Black female directors all switched around. The only film I've seen that I miscredited was Death of Mr. Lazarescu.

I just exchanged texts with my friend who actually is a projectionist but did not mention this quiz.

I got 89. several of them were guesses based on what I know about the filmmakers’ visual aesthetics or the time periods from the images. I got several directors mixed up - Mizoguchi and Kobayashi, Kazan and Wyler, Etrice and Saura and others. I guessed Larisa Shepitko’s The Ascent correctly only because I have recently seen stills from it on twitter, but I haven’t watched it. Also still have yet to watch Djibril Diop Mambéty’s films, a few of which are on Kanopy, or Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman

My projectionist friend told me about this yesterday:
https://framed.wtf

oh, it's a one-per-day thing, like wordle

Yes. I only started doing it yesterday.

But I like, I like.

Great film, one of his best

Agreed. Wish I had something interesting to say about it.

Sometimes there is nothing extra needed to say as watching the film does it well enough.

^this

based on the 5 or so bergmans i've seen, he's better at ordinary human stories than he is at fantasy

love wild strawberries so much

Finally watched Wild Strawberries, it took that long to arrange dual English/Chinese subtitles and get some time to sit down together with my wife, as she is very keen that I don't watch Bergman without her.

So yes, absolutely loved that, connected with me even more than The Seventh Seal. Something about the wistful memories of trying to break crippling emotional repression and make a connection with other people - that's a topic that I can find endless depth in.

So great, isn't it?

Yeah, instant favourite.

I remember it as good, but am conscious of needing to refresh my memory, not least because 73.56% of reviews of Jay Kelly in the past month or so draw comparisons.

So this is a biggie

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Vertigomovie_restoration.jpg

Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, 1958

Morbsies #1
Sight & Sound critics #2
Sight & Sound directors #6

There has been a degree of pushback to the hype but yes it's a massive film

*raises hands*

For the pushbike? I mean I get it, but it's such a deep, rich movie. Belongs in the Surrealist canon

Pushback. Excuse my fucking phone

Better than The Searchers for sure.

I've seen it maybe six times, but am going to show it to the kids, we will see if that adds a new perspective.

going to refer to pushback as pushbike from now on.

Lol I corrected it for my first post and then missed it second time round.

I don't really care if it's come to overshadow other Hitch, which I don't really think it has, but I think there are legit reasons why it's become such a critical touchstone

And having said that I was thinking that for the last two or three years my most obsessive Hitchcock thinking has been about the scene in Psycho where Marion is pulled over by the beshaded cop

Last film from that S&S list I watched was The Piano on the iPlayer. I coincidentally watched The Bad Lieutenant, both of which have a stressed out, naked Harvey Keitel.

I was mystified by it in my teens, unimpressed in my twenties, and begrudgingly started coming around to it in my thirties. Now I adore it.

My bruv got me the Jeanne Dielmann blu ray for my birthday:D

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) is now in the public domain

Watched Vertigo a few times over the last two weeks, think it may be up there with my all-time most watched now (Pelle Svanslös probably at number one still) - but don't know if I have any more to say about it, just everything about it kind of astounds me even now, but especially the cinematography and the sound design, is there any better out there? Think my favourite moments are probably the dream sequence, Midge saying "stupid! stupid!" to herself and of course that final shot of him standing on the ledge at the church with his hands outstretched. How does that play out at the cinema, people who have seen it there?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Touch_of_Evil_%281958_poster%29.jpg

Touch of Evil, Orson Welles, 1958

Morbsies # 66
Sight & Sound Critics #108

Never seen this one!

So much fun -- a nightmare with indelible dialogue and performances.

Saw the Director's Cut during its '98 theatrical run, and then numerous times since then. Never saw any of the other cuts that sometimes get packaged with DVD/Blu-ray releases, because why would I bother? This one is perfect--my fave Welles.

This was definitely an "acknowledged classic that blew me away" experience (to adapt a certain a thread title) when I saw it early in the century. I have a (possibly cheap and nasty) DVD, come to think of it, but don't recall watching whatever cut that is!

So well made, great entertainment. People talk about the ridiculousness of Heston's role, but they're all ridiculous, and that just heightens the movie's effects. It has kind of a wild energy.

To the end of his life Heston was bemused that this became his most lasting cultural legacy; he kept reminding people that he'd starred in Ben-Hur and The Agony and the Ecstasy, in part b/c he was shrewd enough to realize, according to his (excellent) journals, that Hank Quinlan became the tragic hero while he devolved into the straight guy with the dumb heroic dialog.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/Pickpocketposter.jpg

Pickpocket, Robert Bresson, 1959

Morbsies #146
Sight & Sound Critics #136
Sight & Sound Directors #93

I'm going to take this as sign to finally refresh my memory. I see the poster/cover a lot these days and it's been bookmarked on Kanopy forever. It was amongst the earliest Bresson I saw but the '00s are the distant past now. (For some reason I've been more compelled to revisit, say, Mouchette or Au hasard Balthazar etc. Possibly because of their more inherently sympathetic protagonists?! Or maybe just more frequent casual sightings on library shelves over decades.)

Okay, yeah, it's strikingly lean and handsome innit. Not least the actual pickpocketing sequences. One thing I didn't remember at all was that the decline and fall of this somewhat self-centred miscreant takes a fairly abrupt turn to “Ah Jeanne, what a strange path I had to take to get to you” etc. An uncharitable part of me thinks that feels slightly welded on, but it's not fatal.

Incidentally, Paul Schrader has lots of thoughts on this film. An early (two-part) take is conveniently transcribed here if you have the time: https://letterboxd.com/paulschradernot/film/pickpocket/

Another masterpiece by Bresson.

I show this often in class. My students pick up on its homoerotic overtones.

Been watching more films from the S&S poll. Only about 10-15 left (initially I hadn't seen about 40-50). Hunting them down on YT and other video platforms.

In Vanda’s Room (Costa, 2000) - this was stunning. Costa married something akin to Straub/Huillet with Rossellini to create something that has its own brutality with scenes of people who will never get out of the circle of hell that was made for them.
My Darling Clementine (Ford, 1946) - this was on iplayer and its beautiful.
Grave of the Fireflies (Takahata, 1988) - the anime counterpart to Cone and See?
Europa '51 (Rossellini, 1952) - Ingrid Bergman as Simone Weil. Real masterpiece and the couple's best film.
Where Is the Friend’s House? (Kiarostami, 1987) - simple, touching, beautiful to look at.

Haven't seen since I was the age of Alfred's students. I didn't respond to it much at the time, so I'm overdue for a rewatch.

Didn't find it on youtube or archive.org so found it on slsk - will watch in next few days. Also haven't seen it since I was a film student a quarter of a century ago.

So, turns out I hadn't seen it before, just a few scenes. As with A Man Escaped, that pure ascetic focus on the process of pickpocketing was wonderful, just completely entrancing. It was let down a bit by the plot, and the dialogue and especially the voice-over, all of which were fine but just not up to the standard of the pickpocketing. I know the largely dialogue-free film of his pickpocketing career only exists in my head, but it's still a favourite.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Northbynorthwest1.jpg

North by Northwest, Alfred Hitchcock, 1959
Morbsies #26
Sight & Sound Critics #45

Might watch this this afternoon with the kids, think I have seen it maybe five times before.

couldn't count how many times i've seen it. of course it's perfect.

Sometimes my favourite movie.

Watched it with younger son this afternoon - testament to what a film it is that it's from the 50s and more than two hours long, but he did not get bored once. Despite having seen it quite a few times, there was plenty I had forgotten, the Mount Rushmore section at the end was a lot longer than I remembered. Best performance I reckon is Martin Landau, only his second feature and consistently out-creeping James Mason.

Landau and Mason's double act is a delight, the most enjoyable part of the movie even tho it's maybe only 3 or 4 scenes

Funnily enough the last time I ended up watching it - when it comes on the TV I almost inevitably end up drawn in, whatever I had planned - I thought the Rushmore sequence was longer than I remembered too.

Landau playing a gay man without swish is itself a triumph.