ILX Film Club, The (1924-2019)

https://i.imgur.com/Qb9ILTr.jpg

The Maltese Falcon, John Huston, 1941
Morbsies #62

By gad, sir, you are a character, if you don't my saying so!

Bogart looks a bit weird in that poster?

I suspect it's a promo shot for High Sierra, for which I think he sported a crew cut.

Too formative for me to evaluate disinterestedly. I guess Peter Lorre's performance is problematic on at least two levels but it also just rules, love Joel Cairo.

I know Lorre and Greenstreet got paired on a couple of films but they really should have gotten a Thin Man-like franchise.

This one is also available on archive.org here in decent enough quality though not sure if it is available everywhere.

"Make Way for Tomorrow, Leo McCarey, 1937"

Screening of this at the BFI on the 24th, as part of the Ozu season.

When Astor, Greenstreet, Lorre, and Bogart are together, it's glorious.

Good thread: Best Villain in "The Maltese Falcon"

i recently saw elisha cook in corman's haunted palace, and i was reminded of what a limited character actor he was. same character in almost everything he was in, and when he did television he'd usually mug for the camera the same way in everything. His filmography still has some amazing highs: Maltese Falcon, Hellzapoppin, The Big Sleep, The Killing, Rosemary's Baby.

Don't forget his crazed drumming in Phantom Lady!

So this was excellent, of course, though very confusing for the first half hour - but I enjoy being confused so that's no bad thing. Enjoyed the ambiguity about truth/lies and moral/immoral, even if it did come out on the side of good, not even Bogie made it through with his soul unblemished. And yes, "'You... you imbecile. You bloated idiot. You stupid fat-head you!"

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The Lady Eve, Preston Sturges, 1941
Morbsies #85

The greatest movie of all time.

finished one above this

the horse scene

I saw this at a local revival on July 4 weekend...it'd been years since I'd seen an audience have such a good time. Stanwyck and Fonda are infallible; Fonda plays convincingly dense. And with Charles Coburn, William Demarest, Melville Cooper offer impeccable support.

Just finished this, finally. What an absolute joy! Can't think of when I last loved a film so much first viewing. Feel like I'm going to be coming back to this again and again.

hugs

Anyway, bit late but probably less to say about this one.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Citizen_Kane_poster%2C_1941_%28Style_B%2C_unrestored%29.jpg

Citizen Kane, Orson Welles, 1941

Morbsies #19
Sight & Sound Critics #3
Sight & Sound Directors #2

pretty good iirc

Never heard of it

Obligatory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PyAO91qArI

Never heard of it

Also obligatory

https://tedhicksfilmetc.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/rosebud-was-his-sled2-peanuts.jpg

I think with Citizen Kane it does help to watch a ton of Hollywood movies from the years preceding it - and not just the acclaimed masterpieces - to see how wild what he was doing on a formal level was.

"Make Way for Tomorrow, Leo McCarey, 1937"

Screening of this at the BFI on the 24th, as part of the Ozu season.

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Good to see older people being front and centre of a film.

I found this script with edits fascinating. Welles removed Kane's lines that tried to justify his behavior. Reminds me of Joyce cutting the narrative voice out of the Dubliners stories.
https://www.wellesnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Citizen-Kane-3rd-Revised-Final-Script-With-Overlay.pdf

!!

Smoother and more natural: Welles added hundreds of small edits and additions that created more natural speaking and focused communication between characters. These changes also often resulted in opportunities for overlapping dialogue, a device that increases the realism of conversations; overlapping dialogue would become a trademark of Welles’ direction.

Some additions are more realistic as the result of Welles making them longer and more detailed. For example, in the scene of Susan Alexander rehearsing in a pathetic singing lesson with Signore Matiste – a scene in which it becomes painfully obvious that she cannot sing – every version of the draft scripts showed the scene begin with Susan singing for a few seconds, Matiste stopping her, and Kane then interrupting.

During production, Welles made this scene much more realistic – and emotionally draining for Susan – by writing expanded instructions for Matiste to Susan, showing him desperately and unsuccessfully trying to coax a decent performance from her while Kane watches at the back of the room; only then does Kane intrude.
watches at the back of the room; only then does Kane intrude

Finished watching this again last night, think around the 10th time I've seen it and was expecting to have nothing new to say about it (as was the case in the 9th viewing) but actually there was loads I picked up on this time and it made me wonder how much I'd really seen before. So much in the way of little details which you'll miss if you look away for a moment - like when Susan says "you know what mothers are" and he nods and you know he's thinking about how he never really knew his mother.

I was impressed by how much of the cinematography was straight out of German expressionism - deep focus with close-ups and action in the background, the way the camera is always positioned so low, the stark lighting - that shot with the bird and the scream is straight from a surrealist film. The first section (the newsreel about his life) in particular is so packed with detail, especially if you've seen the film before. Never really paid attention to the shot of him on the balcony with Hitler before.

In terms of general themes, think I've always taken Citizen Kane to be about the corrupting influence of power and money (so is Citizen Kane ultimately an anti-capitalist film? etc.) but increasingly thinking this is just a convenient lie Kane falls back on towards his death, in fact Kane never has any principles to corrupt, even from the start of his time at the newspaper he is completely full of shit, lying and setting himself up as man of the people while he obviously doesn't care about anyone but himself. The statement of principles clearly never means anything at all, it's just an advertising gimmick. It's not that he gets more corrupt, he just slowly realises he can't use his money and charm to get everything he wants. The film is also a portrait of an abusive relationship, his emotional manipulation and barely supressed violence towards Susan are genuinely disturbing.

So yeah, glad I watched this again. And on to the one I should be watching this week.

Such a fun movie.

Kane is Gatsby, Reagan -- the archetypal Man from Nowhere who recreates himself into a brilliant charismatic nullity.

This In Our Time discussion on Citizen Kane is well worth listening to - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001g37l

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/CasablancaPoster-Gold.jpg

Casablanca, Michael Curtiz, 1942

Morbsies #102
Sight & Sound Critics #63

Another biggie, and not even worth looking for a youtube link.

Maybe the film with the most iconic lines that just keep coming and coming?
Brilliant film.

incredible

If you break it down, is it even the best role for each of the actors? I think of at least a half-dozen other Bogart movies first before “oh yeah…”

I can’t think of any other movie where the alchemy of movies itself is legit magical.

Big recommendation to go see it in a non-digital theater. Legit awestruck at how efficient it is at being the greatest movie ever.

I watched it in colour, and with a happier ending.

Pretty damn daring to release a film like this during the actual war.

Dunno about that, the US was already involved - plenty of examples of Hollywood productions attacking Hitler before the US joined tho (Chaplin the most obvious).

It’s been way too long since I’ve seen (and meh’d) this one. I owe it a rewatch

I was about to post basically the same thing. I don't know about y'all but I saw so many parodies and references to this before I ever got around to seeing the film that my exp was entirely postmodern—all those iconic lines were just quotations I'd already heard repeatedly. Very difficult to actually enjoy it under those circumstances, wish I'd managed to see it as a kid first.

Maybe the film with the most iconic lines that just keep coming and coming?

I watched it once with a friend who'd never seen it and all through the movie he kept going, "Oh, that's where that line comes from."

I love Casablanca unreservedly. I understand its weaknesses, hokiness, implausibilities, overheated melodrama etc etc, but it's still just so great. I agree that it might not be any of the actors' best roles — except maybe Claude Raines — but the whole is much greater than the sum. So many great little moments — "Liebchen, what watch?" "Yvonne, I love you — but he pays me" "Vultures, vultures everywhere"

It's a hoot.

Rains, sorry.

If I were a woman, and I were not around, I should be in love with Rick.

Claude Rains is really good in a David Lean film none of y’all seem to have seen called The Passionate Friends.

i've never found that the sense of "already seen thru endless references" has spoiled Casablanca for me, but i do ask myself if it's notably better than other well-crafted ensemble pieces of its era and i kinda think no it isn't exceptional