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Thread: Fishing from the Dead Pool

  1. #51
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    While I forgot to mention this one in the Obit's threads, Silvia Legrand died recently. Silvia was the less famous twin sister of Mirtha Legrand, the undisputed number one female star of classic Argentinian cinema. In 1968 she retired and became the hostess of a lunch TV talk show called Lunch with Mirtha Legrand which has now lasted over 52 seasons (yes, Mirtha is Highlander-level immortal and was still hosting it last year) in which she became more (in)famous for casually pushing right wing political agenda forward. The show and her standing as a conservative cultural icon sometimes make people forget that she was a wonderful actress who starred in genuine movie classics, often (like in this case) directed by her husband Daniel Tinayre. We recently had a short talk about melodramas with baby doll and boy, is Under the Same Face a perfect example or what? Mirtha plays Inés, a model for a clothes department store who has two confidants in life - her false friend and co-worker Susana and her twin sister Sor Elizabeth who is a nun. Susana introduces her to a man called Jorge who charms her and they begin a relationship. Jorge appears to have some difficulty getting a job and so begins to rely on his girlfriend's paycheck. We can all guess where this is headed - Jorge is a pimp (and his pimp nickname is "Bob") and a gigolo and eventually pushes Inés into high end prostitution, and of course Susana is another of his victims. In true noir fashion, the movie begins with the body of Inés being discovered and the police entering the church to interrogate Sor Elisabeth and we get told the story in flashbacks. Inés eventually meets a Spanish soldier on leave who is a good man and wants to take care of her, and so in the final twist of this convoluted tale...

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    Overall this is a really enjoyable "time artifact" movie. Both Legrands are competent actresses and the movie has a pleasant "ripped from the headlines" vibe, shot on location, which is wonderful as we get to see what life in Buenos Aires really looked and felt like in 1962.



    I had already watched all of Denise Cronenberg's collaborations with her brother, but the 2004 Dawn of the Dead... escaped my radar? I think it's more accurate to say that I was a film snob from a very young age and flat out refused to watch the remake of the 1978 George Romero classic. Which is stupid, because both films are as similar as they are different. While having roughly the same plotline, Zach Snyder's feature film debut aims to entertain and thrill, having none of the rich social and political subtext of Romero. In the original, the characters are stuck in the shopping mall and slowly begin to live an empty life which is supposed to mirror a regular, non-apocalypse consumerist lifestyle. There's no time for even this level of subtlety in Snyder's remake which moves from one set piece to the next. Its greatest ally is James Gunn's strong screenplay, which despite a few clichéd moments (I had to laugh every time the tough cop played by Ving Rhames reacted emotionally when someone brought up the concept of family) handles a rather large cast of characters deftly, providing each one with a solid dramatic arc in the relatively small screen time devoted to these things. The best three things about this remake? The opening, nerve-wracking 15 minutes, the zombie baby and the soundtrack. The worst part? It's shallow as fuck when compared to the original, but then again, it doesn't try to be a classic. I know Watchmen has its well deserved fan base, but this is still Snyder's greatest achievement.
    Last edited by Grouchy; 06-20-2020 at 05:51 PM.

  2. #52
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    I would have to rewatch his animated owl film to know for sure, but it's either that or the DotD remake as my favorite Snyder.
    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

  3. #53
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    Quote Quoting Peng (view post)
    I would have to rewatch his animated owl film to know for sure, but it's either that or the DotD remake as my favorite Snyder.
    I'll have to get around to it. I do still watch movies without people in it dying.

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    Another recent departure that went unmentioned in the Obits thread was Rosa Mar*a Sardá, a prestigious Spanish actress who plays one of many matriarchal figures in All About my Mother, Almodóvar's heartfelt 1999 masterpiece. Now this movie is really interesting because the late '90s were clearly a transitional period for the filmmaker. Almodóvar was at this point known for arty, zany comedies like Women on the verge of a mental breakdown. Whatever adult topics those movies dealt with, they always did so with an irreverent, light tone. However, from Live Flesh onward, I feel Pedro started maturing as a storyteller and structuring his stories and his whacked out characters within the Hollywood genre of melodrama and thus began the most critically acclaimed period of his career. All About My Mother's plot has its seed in the dialogue of The Flower of my Secret and extensively references A Streetcar Named Desire. It's a film about different trials experienced by mothers, from losing a child to not surviving birth to worrying about their offspring, and also a film about the transsexual experience and the dire consequences of a carefree youth. It's the brand of idiosyncratic storytellers that it's difficult to see any of this plot working in the hands of another filmmaker. There's a kind of miracle in the way Almodóvar draws complex, relatable characters with two or three broad strokes and conveys deep feelings with a single line of dialogue or a simple visual transition. And it's hard if not impossible to leave this wonderful film dry-eyed.



    Not every one of these can be a winner and it was definitively not an inspired choice to watch Chariots of Fire to homage Ian Holm. I wasn't expecting a particularly groundbreaking or dynamic film but still, among the big Academy Award winners of its time, this one sticks out like a sore thumb. I understand a movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark was not going to win the top prize in the early '80s but... Louis Malle (Atlantic City) and Warren Beatty (Reds) are talented filmmakers, there is no way this is better than their works. To make an extremely long story short, this snail-paced feature film decided the story of some students of Cambridge who are also runners and participate in the 1924 Olympics was worth telling. And I guess... it could have been? The crux of the dramatic conflict is that one of them is Jewish and the other Catholic and while they admire and respect each other as athletes, the former suffers discrimination while the latter is the clear favorite of the authorities. Ian Holm plays a supporting role as trainer Sam Mussabini, a last name which reminds me of the imaginary Italians Don Rickles used to conjure up. It's a fine performance but a shallow character. Basically the entirety of his personality is being a gruff Italian with a straw hat whose ethnic backgrounds allow him to empathize with the Jew guy. I swear I tried, but these were the most boring, aseptic two hours of cinema in a long, long while. Some awesome music is best enjoyed out of context, I guess.
    Last edited by Grouchy; 06-23-2020 at 04:16 PM.

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    Yes, I hadn't seen The Lost Boys! Joel Schumacher's 1987 classic is one of the most mentioned cult movies of all time, and it's not difficult to see why. It's a constantly effervescent movie with fun characters and memorable scenes. It's also a bit all over the place, which doesn't hurt. Kiefer Sutherland's antagonist is a curious vacuum of a character but he oozes coolness in every moment of his performance, particularly the worms scene pictured. The movie's winning cards are its '80s atmosphere and the casting. Dianne Wiest is particularly awesome as she usually is. It was also nice to see so many scenes set in a comic book shop with actual '80s comics and true nerd conversation. I don't know if the writer (Jeffrey Boam, who also penned Last Crusade and The Dead Zone) did that or if it was added during some later stage of the production, but if you were a comic book nerd in the late '80s you were probably so starved for superheroes on the big screen that those bits made your year. However, I don't think it's a truly great movie. I think I prefer Falling Down or Flatliners from Schumacher by a wide margin. My reasons? The comedy can get a bit too silly and towards the end the movie curiously loses all sense of direction. It ends on a special effects extravaganza and a throwaway one-liner that doesn't do what came before justice.





    I watched The Perfect Furlough for Linda Cristal, an Argentinian actress with a long career in Hollywood who died three days ago. Her most famous U.S. roles were in The High Chaparral and a series of westerns (including The Alamo and Two Rode Together) but her role in this 1958 sex comedy with Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh won her a Golden Globe, so I settled on that. Oh boy, this picture's storyline would make any feminist's head explode like in Scanners. The premise is that the military has some young soldiers stuck in an urgent unspecified mission in the Arctic, and they are growing crazy about the lack of women. The problem is that they can't get furloughed or the operation will fail, yet they're losing their minds from sex starvation. Janet Leigh, an army psychologist, has a curious idea - ask them what would be their perfect furlough and then make a lottery so that only the winner gets to live it and the rest will vicariously feel vindicated. Tony Curtis has seemingly grown obsessed with an Argentinian actress and asks for a trip to Paris with her. The military actually gets a deal with her agent and then Curtis tricks his way into winning the lottery and here's where the premise gets faulty - the point of the idea is that one guy gets laid and in theory, that will psychologically subdue the other raging beasts, but then the military gets all uptight about it and assigns Leigh to act as chaperone and stop them from fucking. You can all guess where that is going. This movie is just fluff. Blake Edwards was a director with a knack for careful composition and pristine comic timing, so most of it is watchable, but the basic plot is trite as hell. It's harmless and competent (modern audiences would sure gasp at the physical manhandling of Leigh) but not exactly good. To be honest, I'd never heard of Linda Cristal before but she's the highlight here. She's incredibly sexy as the feisty actress, and her manager is always forcing her to do everything by reminding her that he picked her from abject poverty in the Pampas. When he says he found her barefoot riding a jackass, she corrects him by saying it was a burro. Her and her entourage are the funniest characters in a film which is not really about them, which is why it ultimately fails to become a good comedy.
    Last edited by Grouchy; 07-10-2020 at 01:21 AM.

  6. #56
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    Carl Reiner's lengthy career encompassed writing, acting and directing, and his 1979 comedy golden classic The Jerk seemed to unite all three. Here's my one problem with this movie. The same way other folks hate Will Ferrell, Mr. Bean or Jerry Lewis (while I unabashedly love those guys, as well as Myers and Sellers)... I've always really, really disliked Steve Martin. I'm not sure why, and I don't blame him for it, but he's never been my brand of comedian. This relentless comedy's appeal begins and ends with the empathy you feel towards his aimless character, and so my viewing experience might not be the most exemplary. The late '70s were unique for all genres of film, but in comedy, they gave us some of the wackiest, most anarchic examples (Love and Death, Life of Brian, Blazing Saddles) and this sits comfortably with that crowd. Reiner throws everything but the kitchen sink in, providing increasingly absurd laughs at the expense of its protagonist, a simpleton adopted by a black Mississippi family who leaves in pursuit of the American Dream. This is the type of movie where, if you're not a fan of one joke, three will pop up immediately to try your fortitude. I was a particular fan of one remark said by the Jerk to a missionary priest - "Father, you strike me as a religious man". Anyway, The Jerk's status as a classic means I don't have to tell you it's worth a watch, despite my lack of taste for Martin's screen persona.



    Tyrone Power's least famous daughter (the other one had a pop duet with her husband) stars as the daughter of alchemist Melanthius in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, a fantasy film that came late in Ray Harryhausen's career as an FX wizard. John Wayne's son stars as Sinbad. Now, I don't think Wayne Sr. was a particularly great actor outside of his collaborations with brilliant directors like Ford or Hawks, but his son is just a black hole of charisma altogether. Luckily, he's surrounded by a wonderful, energetic cast and stop motion animation that's simply magical. Outside of a few rough chroma keys, the effects in this Sinbad entry are one of a kind. There's a magical baboon present throughout the whole film playing chess and doing monkey business, and even while it's evident that it's not a real primate, the effect works just fine next to real people. This speaks to how finely tuned Harryhausen's craft was at this point. The plot is frankly not too shabby either. I haven't seen the other two Harryhausen Sinbad films (one from the '50s and this one's direct predecessor) and I'm not sure I will as of the moment, but I feel this works just fine on its own. There are some stiff dramatic scenes but it never takes too long before a monster shows up.
    Last edited by Grouchy; 07-10-2020 at 01:17 AM.

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    Now when it comes to Ennio Morricone, his work was so vast there were at least twenty classics of cinema left on my watch-list. I did end up watching (and in a couple of cases re-watching) five movies, but I'll choose to review The Battle of Algiers because it's the highest profile one I was still a stranger to. This 1966 war classic is directed by political filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo, who actually co-signs the soundtrack with Morricone! It's a harsh, gritty film with Neorrealist flourishes like having almost all of the revolutionary roles played by non-actors who actually related to the movement. The film attempts to present an objective, bird's eye view of the actions of the FLN, a military guerrilla outfit which aimed for the liberation of Algeria. The French government in turns applies torture and intimidation tactics to destroy the movement and although it succeeds by the ending of the dramatic rendition, a documentary epilogue reminds us that eventually Algeria managed to become independent from France. Pontecorvo seems to have endured criticism from all sides despite the participation of former FLN members, but, unsurprisingly, it was only the right-wing French government that banned the film for five years. Now, as an Argentinian, the frank depiction of guerrilla tactics and their subsequent gruesome hunting down by a military government is not alien at all, and I was more than a little surprised by the similarities with all that transpired in my country during the 1970s. It turned out I needn't be so surprised, since this very film was used by my military as a case study during Frondizi's government to squash guerrillas. Aside from all the History surrounding it, it's just a damned effective film, shot in gorgeous B&W with a clinical yet passionate eye. It demands full attention but it's ultimately very rewarding.



    Another recent death was that of Rosario Bléfari, actress, poet and lead singer of the Argentine rock band Suárez, of which I post the most famous album below. Her most iconic role was as the titular Silvia Prieto in a key movie of my country's independent cinema. I wasn't actually sure if I had watched it and it turns out to my embarassment I hadn't. In fact, The Magic Gloves was the only Mart*n Rejtman I had seen. And his style, although it grew more refined (this movie is exquisitely framed but sounds kind of rough, in keeping with its indie production values - Rejtman has gone on record saying many of his writing choices were marked by his wish to be able to film the movie as quickly as possible with his friends), remained pretty much the same, marked by aimless characters, monotone line deliveries and absurdist plots. Silvia Prieto wakes up one morning and decides to quit smoking weed and significantly alter her life. During a trip to the coast she steals an Armani jacket off an Italian tourist who later tracks her down and reveals a fact that becomes endlessly disturbing to her - there are two women called Silvia Prieto in the Buenos Aires phone book. This film is enjoyable for many reasons and, like Battle of Algiers, it also ends in a delightful documentary scene, a meeting between a group of real-life Silvia Prietos. But for me this 2020 experience with the film was like taking the DeLorean to what Buenos Aires looked, felt and smelled like in 1999. I was just a little kid but so many small details - the phone books, going to a friend's house to play a VHS tape, even the alarm clocks and newsstand books and magazines - conspired to make me absolutely nostalgic of those years. Plus a lot of it takes place in the neighborhood of Palermo, which will never again look like this due to gentrification and its identification with the film and TV industry, to the extreme of having a few blocks be practically re-named these days as Palermo Hollywood. I don't know what movies (if any) can do that for you guys.

    Last edited by Grouchy; 07-10-2020 at 04:11 AM.

  8. #58
    I'm the problem it's me DFA1979's Avatar
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    The Battle of Algiers and The Jerk are two movies I should have seen by now.
    Blog!

    And it's happened once again
    I'll turn to a friend
    Someone that understands
    And sees through the master plan
    But everybody's gone
    And I've been here for too long
    To face this on my own
    Well, I guess this is growing up

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    In my earlier review of Coffin Joe's Awakening of the Beast, I mentioned how the director compared himself ironically with more prestigious Brazilian filmmakers, like Anselmo Duarte, whose The Given Word won the Palme D'Or and was the first South American film nominated for an Academy Award. Its leading man Leonardo Villar passed away recently, and what a performance he gives! This 1962 social drama follows the misadventures of Zé do Burro, a simple rural farmer who made a promise to Santa Barbara to drag a giant cross by foot to her namesake church in Bahia if she spared the life of his donkey. I don't know if North American Christians do this kind of thing, but anyway, the donkey survived and so he dragged the cross to the church at great pain, escorted by his embittered wife. He arrives in the middle of the night and after sleeping on the ground (while his wife gets acquainted with a local low-life and pimp) requests a meeting with the head priest to explain the situation. There's just one problem, and the priest won't bulge on this one - he made the promise to candomblé goddess Iansá, not to the Catholic saint, but for Zé they are one and the same. I loved that the whole conflict rested on this very true detail - that slave religions like orisha often blended themselves with Christianism to escape prosecution, and so to the believer there is no conflict here, while to the priest it would be like defacing the Church. Zé refuses to leave the stairs with his cross and as the citizens, police and newspapers get involved, the situation escalates. Yes, this is one of those great fixed location dramas, like Dog Day Afternoon, based on the ongoing ramifications of a stalemate conflict. And frankly Duarte's work doesn't pale at all in comparison to a Sydney Lumet film. He wrote the screenplay based on a theater play by Dias Gomes, but this is cinematic as hell, with crisp black and white cinematography and brilliant performances and characters.



    I didn't know what this documentary (108) was about, and it's what I actually enjoy about doing this thread - just pick a random film from the vast amount of cinema from the ages and dive into it, zero expectations. It certainly paid off here. I was entirely unaware of this History, but 108 is a slang term for "gay" in Paraguay, both as a pejorative and adopted by the gay community. It all dates back to a list published by the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner in 1959. After radio host and dancer Bernardo Aranda was killed in his house in an arson incident, the Paraguayan police arrested homosexual men, tortured them to make them name other homosexuals and then arrested them, subsequently publishing a list that outed them to the entire country. Apart from this physical and social punishment no serious charges were ever brought up against any of them, and Aranda's murder remained unsolved. It is the belief of some of the survivors interviewed in this outstanding doc that Stroessner's closeted gay son (!) was the actual killer. But what's really personal and irreplaceable is the perspective brought by director Renate Costa. She was the niece of one of the 108 outed men, and begins the documentary after his death, trying to dig out more about his past. Far from being a History lesson about this morbid episode (which is another documentary that should be made if it hasn't already), Costa's film is more of a chronicle of her investigations, and many of them consist of talking to her hermetic father, who's a devoted Christian and enthusiastic homophobe. It's fascinating how this man is able to compartmentalize his filial relationship in a way that makes his brother's gayness (which cost him so much grief) something of a flaw to be overcome, as if he was a bad drunk or a lottery addict. Anyway, the film has a lot to say about a Christian society closeted in all ways, but it's never didactic - it's a first person journey with the filmmaker through the painful history of her uncle, whom she remembers as a fun guy to be around even if the rest of the family didn't allow him to hang out with the kids all that much.

    EDIT: These films are available with English subtitles here and here, respectively. Unfortunately the doc is a little out of synch - there's another video which doesn't have that problem but it only has Portuguese subtitles.
    Last edited by Grouchy; 07-14-2020 at 06:01 AM.

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    For Kelly Preston I watched Twins from 1988, yep, I hadn't seen this Schwarzenegger/DeVito comedy. Anyway, I enjoyed this. The screenplay is certainly no Tennessee Williams, but Schwarzenegger was just beginning to dig into his acting and comedy chops and no movie has ever benefited from not starring Danny DeVito. They carry the entire story about misshapen twins, one of them left in an orphanage where he grew up to be a street-wise scoundrel and the other the muscular naive virgin who grew up with a scientist on a Caribbean island. Twins is pleasantly wacky, but the two main performers are the only reason to care, they make even the schmaltzy bits work. Arnold's unexplained heavy accent is always a laugh on these earlier movies. The best part is how little we, as an audience, care about that detail. The story could have been more polished, it's a funny case of there being too many villains and none of them being quite distinctive, but... who cares, really.



    The Ordeal (2004) is a Belgian movie, yet I believe it, for all purposes, should be considered a prime example of the New French Extremity. It visually resembles Gaspar Noé, features the late Philippe Nahon in the pictured role, and... it just oozes cruelty, refined, thrilling violence and troubling subtext. This is a hardcore piece of work. It begins very low-key and in fact most of it is a very slow burn, with working class crooner Marc Stevens performing at an old people's home and then driving his way through rural Belgium in his beat-up track which, of course, breaks down on just the precise spot for him to meet some truly fucked up locals. But their fucked-upness, while obvious to any genre fan, is not apparent to Marc from the start, which makes for some suspenseful viewing. This film has some crazy, surreal scenes and is kind of brilliantly directed by Fabrice Du Welz, who really gets the most out of the widescreen format. This is one that kept me glued to the screen - even if the story's structure is loose and the ending somewhat random, man... it's intense. The dancing inside the bar... You'll only know what I mean once you've seen it.
    Last edited by Grouchy; 07-14-2020 at 08:35 AM.

  11. #61
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    It's insane that Twins works, but damnit it does.

  12. #62
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    I'm always amused by the fact that the composer of Twins, Georges Delerue, composed the music of several movies of Truffaut, Godard, Resnais, Malle and Bertolucci.

    And sure enough, the main theme is extraordinary:

    [+] closer to next rating / [-] closer to previous rating

    • Dark (S3) ✦✦✦½ [-]
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    • Ms. Marvel (S1) ✦½ [+]
    • Dark (S2) ✦✦✦✦
    • Moon Knight (S1) ✦✦½ [-]
    • Get Carter (Hodges, 1971) ✦✦✦½ [+]
    • Prey (Trachtenberg, 2022) ✦✦✦ [-]
    • Black Bird (S1) ✦✦✦✦
    • Better Call Saul (S6) ✦✦✦½ [+]
    • Halo (S1) ✦✦✦ [-]
    • Slow Horses (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
    • H4Z4RD (Govaerts, 2022/BE) ✦✦½ [-]
    • Gangs of London (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
    • We Own This City (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
    • Thor: Love and Thunder (Waititi, 2022) ✦✦ [+]


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    Because of animé dub legend Kenji Fujiwara I watched Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, a hell of a strange ride. Part Gothic vampire fantasy with traces of Bram Stoker's Dracula, part spaghetti western, part science fiction with steampunk spaceships... this is insane, a hell of a lot of fun and inspirational material for at least a thousand RPGs due to its intense and unique world building. Plus the music is awe-inspiring and heavenly. So far for the good stuff - and the rest is not really bad, it's just that my mind did wander a lot during endless exposition and I found the plot a bit too complex. I mean, I got the basics, but reading the Wikipedia summary afterwards made me realize a great deal went over my head. Maybe I've just became alienated to the animé style of storyboarding a conversation, even atypical examples like this one. This is a sort of sequel to Vampire Hunter D, although apparently the writer of the original novels disliked that one and consequently became the driving force behind Bloodlust. But anyway... did I mention there are vampires and rockets to outer space? And weird parasitic demons and all sort of outlandish shit?



    I truly love the Hollywood landscape of the '80s and '90s. You had all these smart thrillers everywhere, zero fireworks, focusing on good writing and charismatic performers. Gorky Park is one of those cross-genre movies. It can best be described as "Kremlin noir". William Hurt is a militia officer in Moscow who discovers frozen, defaced bodies in the titular park and immediately suspects KGB involvement. His investigations lead him down several paths - he runs across the late Brian Dennehy's character, a hard-boiled, two-fisted Polish-American cop who is the brother of one of the victims. He goes through the motions with a femme fatale involved in the Soviet movie industry. And he tests his wits against an impeccably dead pan slimy evil guy Lee Marvin, an American involved in the pelts thread. If you like gumshoe novels you'll like this film - it's as simple as that. The plot is not great and it runs into many clichés, but the Soviet atmosphere is a strangely brilliant touch. It also ends on an open, lyrical note.

  14. #64
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    I love Bloodlust. One of the best blind-buys of my life. Jaw was on the floor for entire film.

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    For great character actor (and kung-fu fighter) John Saxon I watched Tenebrae, a giallo which is important for Dario Argento's filmography in ways that weren't entirely apparent simply by watching the film. I'd coincidentally watched the Animal Trilogy not that long ago (Bird with the Crystal Plumage was the only one I'd previously seen) and expected more of the same in a genre I typically enjoy. I found that and more in a largely self-referential film about a Horror writer played by Anthony Franciosa who travels to Rome only to be stalked by a crazed fan who stuffs his victim's throats with pages from his latest best-seller Tenebrae. One has to chuckle when he's accused by a reporter of being obsessed with murdering women on his literature. The film obviously has a larger budget (and a prestige cast) and is the work of a more mature, assured filmmaker than Argento's earlier giallos, and there's a wonderfully gratuitous crane shot that's framed meticulously and is so random as to inspire genuine respect. But it was reading about the making of the film afterwards that made some of its intricacies and meta content pay off in unexpected ways. Argento had started his Mothers trilogy with Suspiria (a spectacular critical and financial success that made him a star) and followed it up with Inferno, which was as much a failure as the first one was a hit - although it's of course a cult classic now. He wouldn't complete the witchcraft trilogy, which was a concept conceived with his partner Daria Nicolodi, until Mother of Tears in 2007 already starring their daughter Asia. On this film, while her relationship with Argento was crumbling, Nicolodi was supposed to play a minor role but had to step up and play one of the lead characters when the original actress dropped off. Her blood-curling scream near the end was apparently not supposed to go on as long as it did and was more of a cathartic moment which Asia has gone on record identifying as something she witnessed that made her want to become and actress. It's certainly a memorable shot. Nicolodi's earlier intended role, by the way, is played in the final film by a transgender actress. Another curious detail is that Argento intended the film to exist in a near future, when a Holocaust of some kind (like a virus, I suppose!) had wiped out much of the world's population and so Rome has fewer people in it. But although Tenebrae certainly has a unique look and a focus on minimalist architecture, it appears Argento's futuristic ideas (and his work on those with his production designer Giuseppe Bassan) got lost in the jumble somehow and are not realized on the final cut, despite his insistence that they are there. Saxon's role is as the writer's editor, who is of course a suspect until he's brutally murdered himself, and if you think that's a spoiler you've never seen a giallo.



    If Saxon's role was unfortunately small on the film I chose to watch, Olivia De Havilland's work as The Heiress must be one of the juiciest performances ever made. I think it's a cliche of reviews of any film directed by William Wyler to point out how underrated he was, but I can't help it when you watch a movie by a guy who never gets mentioned in the same lines as the Fords and Hawks of this world, yet his work is so exquisite. It was unsurprisingly De Havilland who brought to the director's attention a role any actress would kill to play in a stage adaptation of a Henry James novel called Washington Square, which apparently the writer despised and tried to keep out of his collected works yet failed because it was a fan favorite. The story concerns a stern, authoritative wealthy father who intends to marry his only daughter Catherine (De Havilland) while systematically erasing her self-esteem by comparing her unfavorably with her deceased mother. When a suitor comes along in the form of Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), an idle, attractive young man who has no prospects in life after reportedly squandering his inheritance, the father is understandably suspicious but the usually reticent Catherine falls in love head over heels. The plot is as carefully constructed as it is unpredictable, and of course the (melo)drama rests on whether Morris is sincere on his displays of affection. This is, quite frankly, a masterpiece of parlor tension and high drama and I won't forget the final scene as long as I live. De Havilland is out of this world good, and the subtle nuances she adds to the character after a pivotal event mid-movie should be studied in drama schools every year. And of course Monty Clift was far from a shabby actor. Wyler directs the hell out of his sets with some expressive depth of field shots and makes an old stairwell almost a supporting character.

  16. #66
    I'm the problem it's me DFA1979's Avatar
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    I love Tenebrae. It doesn't pull any punches and is skillfully brutal. That ending is something else. I rewatched it months ago thanks to Shudder.
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    But everybody's gone
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    To face this on my own
    Well, I guess this is growing up

  17. #67
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    I hated Tenebrae the first time I watched it. Then I got it on a roulette and had to give a second shot...and enjoyed the hell out of it. I think the first time around I was just burnt out from watching nothing but horror for a whole month.

  18. #68
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    Alan Parker's Fame is probably bigger in Argentina than it is on his native UK due to a combination of factors - Melody was a huge hit over here (as well as in Japan!) and is a movie fondly remembered by an entire generation, and he made Evita, the Hollywood version (a musical, no less) of the life of Eva Perón. For myself, though, the movie by him I love has always been Angel's Heart which I "referenced" without decorum on my first short film, and also Mississippi Burning. Regardless, everything he made was notable for its gorgeous style and poignant themes, and I remember his last feature (The Life of David Gale) being quite talked about on its time. A lot of stuff has happened since 2003 and now watching Kevin Spacey in prison for rape and murder with aggressive editing that cuts the words "innocent", "guilty" or "death" over his close-ups has some added layers of meaning. Strangely enough, this didn't ruin any of the film for me. I guess Spacey is a good enough actor that I kept seeing the character and not him, and it makes me wonder how watchable American Beauty is these days. The plot concerns college professor and anti capital punishment activist David Gale who is convicted of raping and murdering his activist partner Constance (Laura Linney) and has a few days left to live. Journalist Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet), who has spent some unspecified time in jail for refusing to name a source related to child pornography, is sent to interview him and becomes gradually convinced of his innocence. In classical neo-noir thriller fashion, the plot alternates between the flashbacks that show how Gale's life became unraveled and the present, in which Winslet investigates the murder and finds out almost nothing is what it seems. I was constantly reminded of Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair, a '90s videogame which allowed you to direct your own film following Spielberg's on screen advice and starring Quentin Tarantino and Jennifer Aniston in the Spacey and Winslet roles. Every cliché that showed up in the fictional movie within the game is played straight in David Gale, including the final run, evidence in hand, against the ticking clock. What's curious about this movie is how often it gets cataloged as a serious drama about capital punishment in the vein of Dead Man Walking. If those were the filmmaker's intentions, well, he certainly failed because it's impossible to take this movie's plot so seriously. But as an outlandish thriller with a resolution that seriously strains even the most relaxed suspension of disbelief it's not all that bad. It's certainly stylish and has many memorable scenes and character moments. It's just too long for its own good and, like I mentioned, ends in a completely implausible note which, nevertheless, I guessed before it played out on the screen. It might not make logical sense as the resolution of a crime but, dramatically, I can sort of see why they went there, as strange as it is.



    Sometimes a movie has such pop culture relevance that I genuinely wonder if I've seen it or I have just grown up hearing about it. It turns out I'd never seen Cocoon on its entirety, although I knew what it was about. It's certainly a worthy movie to watch in remembrance of Wilford Brimley, as he's arguably the protagonist and the most charismatic performer in it. It's also an endearing film that's simultaneously a bit of a complete mess. Being halfway between a serious sci-fi wonder a la Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a reflection on old age and a quirky Viagra sex comedy (which I guess is a novel sub-genre if there ever was one) is an enterprise which requires a lot of talent, and Ron Howard is not really up to that snuff as a director. Although he's had his sunny times recently (with solid real-life dramas like Frost/Nixon and Rush) Howard is usually a pretty bland director who lacks the flair and creativity an unusual story like this demands - one can only imagine what this would have been like with a very young Robert Zemeckis directing as was originally intended, but the financial failure of Used Cars put an end to that. Cocoon is about three old guys in a nursing home who regularly sneak into a private swimming pool next door. When the house with the pool is rented by a group of strange people (led by Brian Dennehy, also recently featured on this thread) the old guys again sneak in only to find large "cocoons" in the pool which revitalize their youth and charge them with life force. Simultaneously, Dennehy and Rachel Welch's gorgeous daughter Tahnee carry a somewhat puzzling sub-plot about them hiring a broke boat owner to carry the cocoons to the pool. It's very funny that this film won best special effects at the Oscars since the CGI has aged poorly by all standards. The story, however, keeps its unusual charm, thanks in no small part to the wonderful cast of old performers, including Maureen Stapleton and the real life couple of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. It's worth noting that Brimley was actually around twenty years younger than the character he played, but his look is practically ageless.

  19. #69
    Quote Quoting Grouchy (view post)
    I guess Spacey is a good enough actor that I kept seeing the character and not him, and it makes me wonder how watchable American Beauty is these days.
    I rewatched it a few years before the allegations about Spacey hit and it looked pretty bad already. My reaction was basically: Okay, I get why I liked this movie at fifteen, but why were grownups losing their shit about this movie in 1999?
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  20. #70
    One scene that might play differently now is the scene where Chris Cooper (who I believe is straight) playing a closeted homosexual makes a pass at Spacey (a closeted gay actor playing straight).
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  21. #71
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    American Beauty was never actually good.

  22. #72
    The Pan Scar's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Skitch (view post)
    I love Bloodlust. One of the best blind-buys of my life. Jaw was on the floor for entire film.
    I adore Bloodlust. Wasn't a huge fan of the first one, but I think I liked it a bit better on subsequent viewings.
    “What we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, er... an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks and that's all.”

  23. #73
    The Pan Scar's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Skitch (view post)
    American Beauty was never actually good.

    Never. Saw it.
    “What we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, er... an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks and that's all.”

  24. #74
    I'm the problem it's me DFA1979's Avatar
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    I thought The Life of David Gale sucked and I oppose the death penalty.
    Blog!

    And it's happened once again
    I'll turn to a friend
    Someone that understands
    And sees through the master plan
    But everybody's gone
    And I've been here for too long
    To face this on my own
    Well, I guess this is growing up

  25. #75
    Since 1929 Morris Schæffer's Avatar
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    Dead Man Walking is an incredible movie about the dead penalty. Or at least involves that topic in its story.
    [+] closer to next rating / [-] closer to previous rating

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    • Get Carter (Hodges, 1971) ✦✦✦½ [+]
    • Prey (Trachtenberg, 2022) ✦✦✦ [-]
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    • Better Call Saul (S6) ✦✦✦½ [+]
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    • H4Z4RD (Govaerts, 2022/BE) ✦✦½ [-]
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