ILX Film Club, The (1924-2019)

anyway

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Black Narcissus, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1947
Morbsies #106
Sight & Sound Critics #169

Sausages!

one of my top 3 Archers, i guess, as if that meant anything. suitably gothic too

Believe this was Jean Simmons’s follow-up role to Estella in Great Expectations. #onethread. What a one-two punch!

Guess something called Hungry Hill was in between.

I could not believe this film when I saw it first! So lurid! I love it! The absolute number one sex-mad nun movie imo.

I still find it slightly odd that people were shocked by peeping Tom after this

I'm literally shocked just thinking about the scene with the lipstick. Shocked!

And stunned as well, no doubt.

I still find it slightly odd that people were shocked by peeping Tom after this

― plax (ico), Saturday, 2 December 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Yes, it was there all along.

le peeping Tom c'est moi

I’ve long assumed that the ending influenced Vertigo but I don’t know if Hitchcock ever said as much.

never thought of that but very reminiscent I agree!

Whole thing is on youtube and in good quality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDm7GEnhh0I

Good point about Vertigo. Never thought about it consciously but feels like I felt it before.

I recently revisited the somewhat famous exchange when Truffaut poses a question that is a variant of his “British cinema is an oxymoron” hobby horse and Hitchcock’s response is quite cagey. He sort of dances around it and doesn’t agree necessarily but he doesn’t put forth any counterexamples either.

Black Narcissus was excellent, the minor quibbles I had with Colonel Blimp and Matter of Life & Death entirely resolved, such a beautiful film, so full of unspoken subtext and ambivalence about any western morality. And astonishing what Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron can do with just a look.

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Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica, 1948

Morbsies #200
Sight & Sound Critics #41
Sight & Sound Directors #20

stressful

not bad iirc

Love it. One of the greatest for a good reason.

I owe it a rewatch, but there are so many Rossellini movies I still would rather see first

i don't really get it. the moral circle is too neat and i would prefer to watch literally any rossellini movie but also i want him to get the bike back.

The Bergman collaborations were eye-openers for me about a decade ago, so it's hard for me to return to what was for decades readily available.

I liked this film a lot better when I saw the original ending, where he and his son team up to burn down the entire neighbourhood of the real bicycle thief.

No need to critique Bicycle Thieves in comparison to Rossellini. Italian neo-realism has stood up v well.

I watched:

Napoleon (Gance, 1927)
Daughters of the Dust (Dash, 1991) - find that early 90s soundtrack score has dated badly but otherwise there are some beautiful images. This was through MUBI so needs a proper big screen watch.

The best observation in Mark Cousins’ History of Cinema series is when he points out a moment in the Bicycle Thieves where the little boy nearly gets run over while crossing a busy road - you don’t get much more realist than that, but De Sica doesn’t make a big deal of such a happy near accident.

not making a big deal out of almost getting run over is the minimum bar for realism if a movie's supposed to be set in Rome

Paris, Texas (Wenders, 1984). Pretty successful translation of his road movie schtick to the US, with an excellent cast and score.

Let's get this restarted

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The Red Shoes, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948
Morbsies #282
Sight & Sound Critics #67
Sight & Sound Directors #72

Love it, tho I haven't seen it in years. Not my favorite Archers film — a bit portentous iirc — but beautiful to watch.

Haven't seen it yet but it was the favourite film of a prick I used to share a house with, called Jacques. Will try not to hold this against it.

Not my favorite Archers film — a bit portentous iirc

That's my conclusion

Any P&P from this run is a candidate for "best British movie ever," basically. But this one is the one I feel the most strongly about, and I can't imagine that changing as I get older.

it definitely sometimes is my favourite P&P

As with the other P&Ps, the criterion remaster is up in full on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fmI_8MwNeI

Not my favorite Archers film — a bit portentous iirc

That's my conclusion

― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, January 2, 2024 4:28 PM (two hours ago)

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8b/df/27/8bdf2798db7e447ea6d1da6bc7ea098d.jpg

i don't really get this film. the shoes are red am i missing something else.

every time i read something about how good it is its like 'its in technicolor'

The Archers stumble a bit in this when they try to make overarching commentary on what it means to be an artist. I also have the same issue with Powell's Peeping Tom.

i love peeping tom. the artist as pervert is a much more fun analogy

i always think about the line about 'the blind live in the rooms upstairs' when my neighbours are making noise although this is probably quite ableist

plax otm

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I absolutely love the Kate Bush song this film inspired

Wow Lermontov and Craster are both fucking dicks.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Late_Spring_Japanese_Poster.jpg

Late Spring, Yasujirō Ozu, 1949
Morbsies #39
Sight & Sound Critics #21
Sight & Sound Directors 62

THE GREATEST

I may lean a tiny bit more toward An Autumn Afternoon these days, but that's just because I'm getting really flipping old now