Random 10: Random Films for Comment - Week 6 (and what happened to Week 5?)

I also have to REALLY REALLY recommend the ILF pull this week.

Sneak peek at the directors over there this week: James Whale, Walerian Borowczyk, Bertrand Tavernier, Jacques Becker, Woody Allen, Ridley Scott, Federico Fellini, Bill Forsyth, Stanley Kubrick, and Andy Warhol.

The White Sheik is severely underrated Fellini. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's not his best, but I really love his early work, and this is his feature debut as a solo director. Criterion recently issued a great DVD of this, and I'd buy it if I had money to spare. I believe it also features a cameo appearance of Cabiria, from the eponymous Nights of....

Blair Witch Project - my cello section leader in high school was the sister of one of the producers, whom I later met. It's a shame that the movie is complete crap - what was everyone thinking? I saw it in the theater and all I could say was that I don't think I've heard that many "fuck"s in a film I saw projected since I watched Out for Justice with half of my fourth grade class one summer night back in 1991.

Putney Swope is in my top ten independent films of all-time. Paul Thomas Anderson stole the firecracker scene in Boogie Nights from it (Downey even has a cameo as the record exec in PT's film). More importantly, it's a great roast of advertising, commercials, race, corporate culture, and popular culture as programmed through the TV. The whole thing is in black and white except for the commercials Putney devises. He has an unforgettable voice that seems near tracheotomy, and the commercials are to die for. ("No shit?") REQUIRED VIEWING. REQUIRED IMMEDIATE VIEWING. GO AND GET A COPY IN YOUR HANDS NOW.

I love the voting scene in Putney Swope. It is one of the most brillant things sequences filmed. Of course, evey member of the board votes for the person that they think is least likely for someone else to vote for. So the votes are read in perfect timing, Elias. Bissinger. Swope. Swope. Swope. Swope..... Swope......... Swope........ Swope.

i have seen five of these movies

The Keep I remember when this came out, but I've never seen this, and you don't hear many Mann fans going on about it. Curious. Anyone?

Shaft Nice coat.

The Hot Spot Some people seem to rate this as a sort of self-conscious noir, but I've never been able to make it very far.

The Blair Witch Project Since it was filmed in Maryland, I saw one of the very first public screenings, and I can't tell you how effective it was, seeing it in a crowded theater before all the hype got too nuts. I then interviewed the directors over lunch, and when my first question was about antecedents to this film, their faces just fell in a way that I totally didn't understand at the time. I hadn't seen The Last Broadcast then, and once they realized that, they perked up considerably, like men who had dodged a bullet.

Putney Swope This is one of those movies I am embarrassed to say that I've never seen.

i liked blair witch when i saw it, thought i have no interest in ever seeing it again. i just find the woods in general pretty fucking scary!

shaft is godawful boring. you can turn this one off after the theme music is over.

good god if walerian borowyzck's 'blanche' isn't one of the top ten movies I ever saw.

how do you pronounce "walerian borowyzck"?

valerian borovitz or valerian borovitch?

have you seen 'blanche', amst?