ILX Film Club, The (1924-2019)

ugly jealous old women who take babies away?

a menace of our times imo

fwiw there is absolutely a terrible history of govt social services being paternalistic-to-outright-hateful to the working class in general and marginalised groups within it in particular, and adoption in particular is a huge can of worms within that context. griffith def not the guy to tackle that tho.

I mean he specifically says they are motivated by being too old & unattractive to attract men any more, right at the start of the film.

Those old caption writers sure did go hard back in the day

Anita Loos wrote the intertitles, so god only knows what DWG would have put there if unfiltered.

All else aside, I appreciate you giving it a fresh shot, caal

no worries, I need something to do while my wife sticks needles in me every weekend.

anyone else have a few hours to spare to see if you agree? fine if not.

It was good of you to take one for the team.

One Way or Another (Gomez, 1974)

This is simply excellent, it's in the top 250 of the S&S poll and a great example of how the poll has improved and isn't shit anymore as you get to see this strange documentary/normie narrative/agitprop hybrid from Cuba.

I think it's still on MUBI UK for a little while.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c7/Berg-Ejvind_och_hans_hustru_1918_film_poster.jpg

The Outlaw and His Wife, Victor Sjöström, 1918

Morbsies #1133

Youtube link

That's a good one!

Sjöström! I've only watched The Wind.

I've just got about half an hour left of this one, should have some thoughts tomorrow.

For UK readers, this is on Netflix, as part of that weird deal between Netflix and the Swedish Cinematheque.

does the one on Netflix have a soundtrack? the criterion dvd rips on YouTube are completely silent, this is the only one with sound and it seems to have been tacked on

No soundtrack, no. Nice looking copy tho.

Some good tunes on that YouTube one tho

For UK readers, this is on Netflix, as part of that weird deal between Netflix and the Swedish Cinematheque.

― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 17 April 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Good stuff lol, always wanted to check Sjostrom..

Well that was relentlessly grim.

I mean, it was still good. I think. but really not what I needed to see when I'm worrying about how to support my family over the next year, that's for sure.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Buster_keaton_one_week_poster.jpg

One Week, Buster Keaton & Edward F. Cline, 1920

Morbsies #947

I went through the Keaton shorts a while ago and this was really a big jump in quality when you watch 'em chronologically, one of his best imo.

Here's the youtube link

Yeah, a very enjoyable 25 minutes, every joke felt extremely well-crafted. Not really as ambitious as his longer films, obviously, but for what it is, it couldn't be much better.

It's been

you know I don't think I've ever heard that song. and yet I got the reference somehow.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/The_High_Sign_%281921%29_-_Ad_1.jpg

The High Sign, Buster Keaton & Edward F. Cline, 1921

Morbsies #630

I found this one to be a bit of a step back from One Week, which makes sense as it was actually filmed earlier and held back for some reason. A boilerplate silent comedy short plot - Buster is hired to protect a man from the mob and also hired by the mob to kill him, but of course there are plenty of brilliant stunts and set pieces to keep you entertained, and as it's less than 20 minutes there's no danger of boredom. Still nothing here as inspired as Sherlock Jr, The General or even One Week.

here's a youtube link

Tantalised by the 101 films on @SightSoundmag’s Hidden Gems list? @_edb’s pick, Claudia von Alemann’s ‘Blind Spot’ (1981), is now on @mubiuk. Here’s what Erika had to say about it: https://t.co/b59rDtKdqV pic.twitter.com/ql1eU1TTlc

— Arjun Sajip (@ArjSaj) May 2, 2023

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/92/Nosferatuposter.jpg

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, F. W. Murnau, 1922

Morbsies #833
Sight & Sound Critics #196

Youtube link

Would anyone be interested in some kind of watch-along stream for the public domain movies?

how would that work? like a twitch stream?

i don't know, to be honest.

Ok, so Nosferatu then. I had already seen this, a few times I think, but in memory it is much less absorbing than I found it this time. Think the restoration job and the soundtrack on the link above really make a lot of difference here. It succeeds where other Dracula adaptations fail because Murnau wisely cuts the interminable gentlemen's meetings, in fact the much weaker second half of the story is cut to less than 30 minutes, and that includes the famous bedroom scene. I don't think it's at all scary, think perhaps due to overfamiliarity.

What I have noticed this time around is the antisemitism, and am not sure how I missed it before. it's not just Orlok who's uncomfortably like a hideous Jewish caricature, the estate manager Knock (who doubles as Renfield) is also obviously coded as Jewish. so yeah, that's not great.

still there's a lot if great art here, most scenes are intricately set up and lit. shocked to find out that the restoration was needed because a court ordered every print destroyed, and it's a miracle it survived that when the majority of films from this era are gone forever. is this the first ever victim of a copyright troll (in the form of Stoker's estate)? probably someone can think of an earlier one.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Safety_last_poster.jpg

Safety Last, Fred C Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1923

Morbsies #1133

Youtube link

I have a blu-ray of this! But for some reason my allegedly region-free Chinese DVD/blu-ray player is insisting that it's the wrong region, so here I am watching it on youtube with the plebs, present company excluded of course.

Whole film is apparently embedded on the Wikipedia page as a webm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Safety_Last_(1923).webm

Heard something along the lines of Harold Lloyd's work was exhibited on TV less (I think due to rights issues?) and this accounts for his lower profile when compared to Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel & Hardy.

i do remember harold lloyd on tv in the uk, specifically watching it around my gran's. seemed to be always on. "hooray for harold lloyd"... possibly a clip show.

yeah, these, from 1977 - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2yaO_4_FwpkWNviqJsyrKIw16fVFT9YO

Yes, I believe that came up in the convo as well, the UK being an exception.

can't believe it took me so long to watch this in full.

the building climbing scene, of course this is just fantastic, just the sheer planning and imagination needed, nothing is wasted. enjoyed it as a thriller more than as a comedy.

the rest of the film is fine, if a bit weak. I know I've been spoiled a bit with all this Keaton & Chaplin, but Lloyd just doesn't quite have the same charisma, or the same quality of writing.

I dispute the notion of Lloyd lacking charisma

oh he has it, just not quite as much

ok, back to the main plot

https://i.postimg.cc/HL8sYCqW/18574.jpg

Man With A Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov, 1929

Morbsies #193
Sight & Sound Critics #9
Sight & Sound Directors #30

Should really post a youtube link. Very nice post-rock/jazz soundtrack from The Cinematic Orchestra.
Should also post some thoughts as I've now watched it three times, but that can wait for tomorrow.

I was looking forward to this as I've already used Dziga Vertov's sound collages in my mixes (in fact I structured my 1925 mix entirely around one) but was not ready for how deeply and immediately I would fall for it. I could say it's the way he frames the film with the audience / the orchestra / filming himself filming / his eye / stopping the action and showing the editing of the film we're watching / the intercuts of birth & death - but all of these I'm sure have been talked about a lot already, and are enough to make me admire the work. What I absolutely love about it though is the feel he has for editing at pace, the way the cuts build up and crash down like a symphony. So many shots feel so wildly ahead of their time too, every few minutes there's something I could swear I've seen referenced in 50s/60s/70s cinema.

Started watching The Unholy Three (1930), and think I will substitute this for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) which will surely be a bit less shit.

This short can represent 90% of Hollywood films in 1930.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH7XlG9j0xs

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front_%281930_film%29_poster.jpg

All Quiet on the Western Front, Lewis Milestone, 1930