what are you watching in Spring 2024?

The existence of this thread:

Best board and why

Made me realise that ILF is a disappointing board compared to books.

But when you look at it the main difference is that we don't have a rolling watching thread, like we have rolling reading on ilb

We do have this thtead on ILE but I think ppl go into monthly updates whereas I think something more immediate would be nice

So here it is.

worked through six Boetticher/Randolph Scott westerns which was a real treat. was mainly familiar with Scott from his lovely turn in My Favourite Wife (and his "friendship" with Grant); while anti-psychological in the best way, there's such a strange energy he brings to these roles. Decision at Sundown probably the only one I would call inessential. the simplicity and affection for the form is amazing, Bazin puts it best when he says no one had previously captured the cinematic nature of horses so well. have followed up by pretty much mainlining other westerns since; probably the best of which has been Wellman's 'Westward the Women'.

in terms of new stuff, i was pleasurably perplexed if not enamoured with the human surge 3 and enjoyed a new Luke Fowler 3 min short the other week, A Visit with Robert.

I stopped watching Days of Wine and Roses after Lemmon's shtick in the first 20 minutes annoyed me.

This week I've watched The Settlers, Last Summer, and the Merchant Ivory doc.

Just saw the Renoir and KurosawA versions of The Lower Depths; while the Renoir was very enjoyable, it certainly makes you admire the Kurosawa more, for willfully rubbing his audience's faces in the dirt, and not compromising on the unhappy ending. Another thing: this is the same year as The Seventh Seal, and both centre nihilistically affirming dances at the end, weird coincidence. Probably the most stage-bound Kurosawa film I've seen, but that works in its favour, as the room comes to feel big enough to stand in for the world, and the few outside scenes don't particularly feel like an escape.

The Renoir version has that everyone-has-their-reasons vibe to its camerawork that I love.

As British as it could be: went to the BFI twice this week, first for The First Gentleman then Great Expectations. Picked The First Gentleman because it's directed by Cavalcanti, the Brazilian filmmaker who ended up settling in the UK; the fact that it has 12 checks on Letterboxd was also, I'll admit, a motivating factor. Anyway it's about the Prince Regent, portrayed here as a sort of Nero-like figure of decadence, making his daughter marry against her wishes...so to engage with it you kinda have to suspend your disbelief and accept that princess so and so getting married off to prince whatsisname instead of prince whatsisface is a matter of urgency. Once you accept that the film becomes an engaging potboiler, though it then also resolves itself and, I guess for historical accuracy, keeps going so you're kinda left thinking "why are we still here?".

I don't like Lean in general - bored to tears by his big epics, hate all that Noel Coward know-your-place stuff of their collabs, even Brief Encounter didn't do much for me. But Great Expectations, now there's something I can enjoy! I could perhaps attribute this to Dickens more than Lean but nah Lean def makes the most out of the material, so many cool gothic vibes.

I've also been making my way through a Dino Risi box. Unsurprisingly it's Il Sorpasso that's stuck with me the most - do ppl think the ending is a bit cheap? I've been vacillating.

Bodyguard Kiba 1 & 2 - So by the early 70's, the Japanese film industry had already been declining for a decade due to the appearence of television. This crisis was really brought home when Nikkatsu, one of the major studios, decided to concentrate entirely on "roman porno" - closer to erotic films than actual porn, but still a significant downgrade from their past glories. They did this because of course sex was something you couldn't show on television yet. Toei, the studio that did Bodyguard Kiba, went a different route, opting for violent, testosterone filled action cinema with likewise unbroadcastable gore, aimed at a male, blue collar audience. The most famous of these are Fukasaku's yakuza films, but that guy's an auteur in his own right and has had plenty written about him.

What I've noticed from watching less lauded Toei efforts like these and the Game series is something approaching a house style - these films always feel CRAMPED, like the viewer is about to bump into one of the characters if they move an inch. Lots of cheap, small apartments and dingy, darkly lit nightclubs. The camera's always placed somewhere interesting, often behind a screen, from a window, sometimes from the ceiling! These films really telegraph their low budgets, but at the same time nothing ever feels perfunctory, every shot is interestingly composed, though often enough the intent is lost on me.

I focus on the style because the story, well...the first one's damn near incomprehensible, just a sleepy stoned succession of drug deals, double crosses, violence. Second one makes a bit more sense, which in a way makes it less interesting. But it does have an element of discrimination against the Okinawan and Korean population.

To give this thread a better chance at survival, I've made a LB list for all films that ppl mention watching here:

http://letterboxd.com/reifferschizzle/list/ilx-what-are-you-watching-spring-2024/

Whirlpool (Preminger, 1950)

rewatched ball of fire. give me this over bringing up baby anyday, cooper and stanwyck in their most charming modes, character actors like Dan Duryea and S Z Sakall delivering the juice. best film that wilder came within ten feet of

man I've tried to like Ball of Fire. On my third pass I switched to The Lady Eve again.

I love Ball Of Fire and Bringing Up Baby both. Stanwyck angrily placing some books on the floor so she can reach to kiss Cooper is perfection.

Evil does not exist (Hamaguchi, 2023). Great film though for once too short: the ending tries to pull something along the lines of a magical realist trick that felt like a way of trying to end something prematurely. But I really loved almost evetything up to it.

The guy has a talent for filming conversations in cars too.

Just dropping in to say I saw Poolman and was delighted by it. It's a mess as a film but so lovable I was won over. The dialog at the beginning is so full of bizarre non-sequiturs it made me feel like I was stoned!