ILX Film Club, The (1924-2019)

Is it called "Sunset Boulevard" or "Sunset Blvd."? Nobody seems to have a definite answer on this, so going with the poster.

Oh it's okay. A bit too desperate to please.

Fun film, essential viewing for a hypothetical course about Movies About Movies.

I’m sure there was a point in my early cinephilia where this was a for-sure top 10 all-timer, before I’d seen many other noirs, or gothic thrillers, or satires … or really all that much other classic Hollywood. So I guess what I’m saying is, as a gateway film to other great things, it’s not bad

the Nancy Olson parts set my teeth on edge, but the Holden-Swanson scenes still kick. The last sequence earns the pathos.

In Oscar Wars, which I finished yesterday, the author notes how Bette Davis, Gloria Swanson, and Judy Holliday -- the Best Actress frontrunners and winner -- were all trapped and ruined by their most famous roles.

I wouldn't say that about Davis?

It's OK but yeah just wouldn't care to rewatch SB.

I have watched a couple more films for the first time in the S&S top 250.

The Thing (Carpenter, 1982)
Twenty Years Later (Coutinho, 1984)

The latter is using half-finished footage from a film -- which the filmmakers couldn't finish at the time -- about a peasant leader's murder, as the military junta comes to power in Brazil. Some of the interviews of the people this leader knew: wife, friends, enemies are powerful though it's bizarre this is in the top 250 and Guzman's Battle for Chile didn't make it. The young ones who voted for it must really like pomo-y games.

I wouldn't say that about Davis?

― plax (ico)

I direct you to Another Man's Poison, The Star, and, I know I'm an outlier, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?.

<3 buster keatons cameo

Enjoyed this a great deal. The only Wilders I'd seen before were Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, both of which are favourites, so guess I should check out some more. Did not realise quite how noir this one would be, surprising as it's really not that kind of a story for the most part.

Barely beneath the surface here there was a lot of thought about transactionality in relationships and how people live lives as a series of compromises, just the kind of messy stuff that usually gets glossed over in order to make a simpler plot, and that was the heart of it for me - and why the ending (as brilliant as it is) seemed to be from a more predictable film. Her being a deranged delusional primadonna is less interesting than her struggling to deal with the reality of her life.

Stanwyck makes that all plausible.

Swanson, surely?

"i saw this film at the bfi once and immediately after it ended someone turned around and said 'cracking film, absolute classic' and unfortunately i hate it now"

Me after watching:

To be or Not to be (Lubitsch, 1942)

--

Also watched:

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (Greaves, 1967)
Paris is Burning (Livingston, 1990)

Muttering 'this is fine' to the docs I am catching up on in the S&S top 250

https://i.imgur.com/negLbxY.png

Víctimas del Pecado (Victims of Sin), Emilio Fernández, 1951

Morbsies #381

Great film. Saw this @ the bfi two years ago and it got to be the most surprising randomish thing I saw there.

Never heard of this one.

Victims of Sin just announced for the Criterion Collection, I see.

Hope they can get it out in the next couple of days. it is on youtube but with no subtitles.

Almost eerily timed

Shoah (Lanzmann, 1985). Watched part two, many years after part one.

Who could argue with this? It's unforgettable and moving. There is a problem to Lanzmann's interviewing technique. Maybe it's just the notorious scene with the barber where he turns the screws on someone who... wasn't brave enough to say no? But then he probably wouldn't be alive to make it to be interviewed like this. But it's also a once seen never forgotten scene.

I have hacked together a way of watching this film - downloaded from youtube and found some subtitles to add. Not ideal but it's working, will report back tomorrow.

Here's Richard Brody's response to Pauline Kael's infamous dismissal.

xp are you talking about Shoah? I watched it on YT. The subtitles were fine?

I will Google that piece, Alfred. Your link is taking you to something about Kurosawa?

lol sorry, I didn't clear my ctrl-p. Here: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/shoah-at-twenty-five

Camaraderie is talking about Victimas del Pecado

Lol OK yes, it's been a long day

(thx Alfred, weird piece that turns into a Kael rant)

Her negative review was a massive discussion point in 1985, I've read.

There was another, contemporary, review that replied to her Shoah review, by J. Hoberman.

I’ve never read that one in full but probably should

He ends by quoting her: "Lanzmann could find anti-semitism anywhere", adding "maybe even at the New Yorker".

So, Víctimas del Pecado, what a wild ride this was. Like a hays code free film noir, but also a musical (the musical numbers are just fucking incredible, mambo, son, mariachi and more - and actually performed by some of the characters as much of the action takes place in a night club) and I dunno a soap opera? The plot follows no structure I've ever seen, if I wrote a description (don't want to spoil, so won't) then 50% would be crammed into the last 15 minutes. It's a deeply moral film but really not scared to show characters doing awful things, within five minutes of the start you have a live baby put into a trash can for example, and it's not really giving anything away to say the woman doing this suffers no consequences besides a brief flash of guilt. The characters are all very broadly-drawn, but also have a good deal of depth and nuance when you look at them closely. Not sure if I actually love this or if it's just a window into a different world of film-making, but absolutely sure that the musical numbers are all-timers. Thanks whoever voted for this as their favourite film of all time, I will look into getting the Criterion DVD when it comes out.

Whole thing is here, without subtitles, and with an annoying popup thing on the screen every five minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5mRVW66ebI

man brody bodies kael in that essay. salute

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Singin%27_in_the_Rain_%281952_poster%29.jpg

Singin' in the Rain, Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952

Morbsies #38
Sight & Sound Critics #10
Sight & Sound Directors #53

Seen this around ten times already, you all probably have too. These are the next five if you don't want to see it again:

Ikiru
Ugetsu Monogatari
Madame de...
Tokyo Story
La Strada

Ikuru (better known as Singin' in the Snow

That list reminds me that a lot of the World Cinema Classics of the 50s are films I respect rather than love.

xp Not forgetting the British remake, Grumblin' in the Miserable Pissy Rain

Ikiru
Ugetsu Monogatari
Madame de...
Tokyo Story
La Strada

5 of my fave films

The Earrings of Madame de... has resided in my top ten for almost thirty years.

I've never watched Ikiru, maybe now is the time.

I have also seen Singin' in the Rain many times, but I'm always happy to watch it again. When I first saw it I got antsy and bored during the long dance sequence, but I've come to look forward to it. It used to feel out of sync conceptually with the movie, but it eventually clicked with me that it is a celebration of how far the medium had advanced and evolved in just a few decades of color and sound.

(plus also obviously it was a massive Gene Kelly flex at the height of his powers as a movie star and director, he could do what he wanted)

Don and Cosmo are one of the truly great gay couples of the Hollywood golden era

I've watched SITR many times at home and shown it in class, but the silent sequence still strikes me as long and boring.

just learned that the "famous zip girl of the screen" Zelda (very jazz age) was played by rita moreno. although her introduction scene gets stolen by a shouting extra.

https://www.tcm.com/video/1525509/singin-in-the-rain-1951-movie-clip-that-famous-zip-girl

also little thing i missed: she's clearly dating the old guy for his money, but the announcer says "zelda's had so much unhappiness, i hope this time it's really love"