ILX Film Club, The (1924-2019)

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.

I love Framed but I get annoyed every time a Marvel movie zilches my overall record

Will we be using this thread for discussion of films that are not on your list but are still, say, Morbius favorites?

Just the ones on the list, think there are several which wouldn't be there without his influence.

just downloaded sherlock jr, which i think just sneaks in as public domain. only i seem to have an entirely silent one and i can her neighbours clanking around

Looking through the list, some of my favourite directors, Louis Malle, Miloš Forman, Roy Andersson, Sidney Lumet, are either missing entirely or have a single entry, think this is probably A Good Thing on a personal level, more to explore, less so to those whose favourites are more well-represented I suppose, though otoh everyone likes talking about their favourites.

xp There are many different options for watching Sherlock Jr on YouTube with different soundtracks.

To your last post: that is sort of the whole good and bad of lists in a nutshell.

I've watched the first hundred.

For those who have MUBI, try to catch The General over the next 3 days before it gets yanked

I really am going to be forced to watch Holiday on the Buses huh

Whose first place vote was that?

Is Holiday on the Buses the same as Mexican Bus Ride?

Man those MUBI Leaving Soons are torture. I rewatched THE GENERAL recently and maybe still have it saved on my cable box so I think I will pass on that and watch a few others.

i never her.

finished Sherlock Jr as it was only 44 minutes long. (this was an archive.org download rather than youtube. ogg video in fact, only 100MB, 400x300 but perfectly watchable)

is that a recognised meaning of the work sheik?

yes -

2 usually sheik : a man supposed to be irresistibly attractive to romantic young women

lots of things that are now cliches, probably a lot different back in 1924. the suitcase jump kinda spoilt it - everything else was at least possible

THE GENERAL also avaiable in several other places, Amazon Prime, Criterion and... wait for it... Tubi. https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-general

Actually I have to be careful here as I have been fooled before. Oftentimes something will show up there as being on Amazon Prime but in fact it is only there with a subscription, a subscription to MUBI.

Is Holiday on the Buses the same as Mexican Bus Ride?

― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 12 February 2023 17:27 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I like to think so.

As Mark S likes to tell me, the first On The Buses film was the highest grossing film at the box office that year.

Pfunkboy was Holiday on the Bus's #1 vote

I knew it would be him, that wacky pfunkboy.

hes a menace

> I knew it would be him, that wacky pfunkboy.
> ― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai)

letterboxd, the vexing and sometimes OK film logging website

Ok, close enough to Monday.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Sherlock_jr_poster.jpg

Sherlock, Jr., Buster Keaton 1924
Morbies #480 Sight & Sound Critics #54
Youtube link

First time I'd seen this, I do have a complete Buster Keaton box set but am only halfway through it. Had to watch it twice as the story only made sense with the final scene (to be fair the fact that I had about 20 acupuncture needles stuck in me probably didn't help) - second viewing I found I could appreciate the whole thing, not just the astounding set-piece stunt scenes. Suppose the reason that this is the Keaton film of choice is not just the intricate plotting, the metafictionality of having the action take place on a cinema screen as a projection of the character's own life, represented as this grand, escapist drama is a brilliant conceit, and the final scene where he learns how to propose to his girlfriend by watching the couple on screen is just a great bit of cinema. Also recognised a few scenes from the 1980 documentary series "Hollywood" - including the water tower shot which broke Keaton's neck.

I loved it when I saw it in my 20s, just kind of drifted away.

On the Keaton thread, I posted about how perplexing Bogdanovich's Keaton documentary was.

What about it?

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.