What happened to week 12 and 13?
I'm joining in for the 1960s, and will look around to see if I can catch up with a mishmash of other movies.
What happened to week 12 and 13?
I'm joining in for the 1960s, and will look around to see if I can catch up with a mishmash of other movies.
Three Outlaw Samurai is my 60's submission.
It's certainly entertaining, and pretty high on the violence (and Dutch tilts).
What makes this standout is that at first it starts out as being pretty cookie cutter, but the stereotypes eventually show that they aren't simply black-white caricatures but have a much more of a grey moral system. Plenty of betrayal, and the villains aren't only the kidnappers, but the government system that makes them desperate enough to kidnap someone. Good stuff.
I went with Day of Wrath for week 12. Slow camera and character movements provide much-needed room for processing this movie's abundance of thematic riches. It works exceptionally well from any temporal perspective: it's a finely detailed 17th-century period piece, produced during the Nazi occupation of Denmark (Jonathan Rosenbaum called it "one of the great Resistance films"), that used theocratic witch hunt fever as a metaphor for the oppression of women even before Arthur Miller turned his sights on McCarthyism with The Crucible. It doesn't elicit the overwhelming emotional response of Ordet, nor does it reach the level of The Passion of Joan of Arc in being a medium-defining landmark, but Day of Wrath shows a different side of Carl Theodor Dreyer -- underneath the veneer of cinematic control is a man burning with righteous anger. I've already seen a lot of great movies as part of this challenge, and this may be the best one yet. Four stars.
12. The Heiress (1949) - Its romantic and tragic, with the biggest asshole of a father ever for this young woman "spinster" Catherine who can't seem to get out of her shell to find a husband. Enter Montgomery Clift, dashing and accommodating, but ultimately out for himself. Olivia de Havilland is touching, memorable as she navigates this stressful scenario with two men in her life causing her to suffer pain and frustration. Clift opposite de Havilland is charming as her intended love. The sets and costuming are lovely, with emphasis on interior settings since the boxing-in of shy Catherine is a prominent part of the story. 8/10
Yess!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
The biggest talking point for me (and what I ask everyone I recommend it to after they have seen it)...
By the final scene, do you think Clift had truly fallen in love with her? Or was he still just after her fortune?
We watched Leave Her to Heaven last night. Thoughts incoming.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Leave Her to Heaven
"Ellen always wins". A line spoken by Ellen's uncle as she wins a swimming race against children. Both the line and the scene tell so much about what may be one of the most abhorrent characters I've seen in film for some time.
Gene Tierney's Ellen is strikingly, stunningly beautiful. Intelligent, well spoken, sexy. Cornell Wilde understandably falls for her immediately, her strange obsession with him adding to the allure of their relationship.
However Ellen's motives are narcissistic, and she ends up being what could be used in a textbook to show sociopathic behavior.
Leave Her to Heaven is stunningly beautiful. Gorgeous outdoor vistas, rich and colorful indoor sets, and evocative costume designs. The way Ellen's wardrobe changes and reflects her moods and emotions (or lack thereof) adds a visual layer that takes great advantage of its relatively primitive (but incredible) colour photography.
I don't want to give too much away because there are several twists and turns that new viewers will want to experience for themselves.
I adored this movie. I think it may be my favorite viewing of the year so far.
Haunting, shocking stuff.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Watched The Scarlet Empress last night. Will post thoughts later in the day.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Not really, when they first got together, it felt like they were in love with the idea of each other. I never felt like he was genuinely into her, though did care for her.Quoting megladon8 (view post)
The Scarlet Empress
My first experience with von Sternberg may not be a 10/10 masterpiece, but still has me clamoring for more.
First off...holy wow is this movie visually loaded. Nearly garish at times. Even the smallest scale scenes have costumes, sets and props that explode off the screen. Enormous, decorated dresses, detailed murals and wood and stone work, gargoyles and religious statues in every nook and cranny. This film must have been a costume / set designer's wet dream (or maybe ultimate nightmare).
The storytelling doesn't have near as much attention paid to it, unfortunately. Much of the most interesting action takes place via text blurbs transitioning between scenes. The most glaring one is the change in Dietrich's character - her transformation from soft spoken girl to powerful, commanding woman feels like it should have been the crux of the entire film, but is instead mentioned in one of the aforementioned text blurbs, making her switch feel instantaneous.
Strange and tonally inconsistent performances abound, but their eccentricities make them addictively watchable.
As pure entertainment I found it fantastic. The film flew by, consistently visually delightful and filled with memorable and well acted characters.
I just wish the story had been told a little differently.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
WEEK 51: (Watch a movie from the Bruce Lee set) - I'll add more, as I intend to see them all over the Spring.
The Big Boss:
Amusing, simple story that's elevated by Bruce Lee.
The fight blocking actually shows fighting which seems to be a struggle in modern action movies.
Neat to see how charismatic Bruce Lee is right out of the gate in his first movie. "Commands the screen" gets thrown around too often for actors, but it applies for Bruce Lee.
The Hennessey scene is especially hilarious and kind of comes from nowhere.
Choosing between The Cranes are Flying, Kiss Me Deadly, and Elevator to the Gallows for week 13... I'm leaning Elevator to the Gallows.
Lean elsewhere.
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
Despite BD's warning, I went with Elevator to the Gallows for week 13. If an original Miles Davis score set to cool French visuals entices you like it did me, you won't be disappointed. But don't expect it to play with cinematic form like some of Louis Malle's nouvelle vague contemporaries -- really this is just some solid film noir, in which the lovers' extremely-typical slow-creep toward doom is as smooth as a steady stream of cigarette smoke. Three stars. Not bad by any means, but I would probably encourage others to lean elsewhere as well.
13. ...And God Created Woman (1956) - There's no story here. Its just Vadim making love to Bardot with the camera. Nice to look at but who cares!
4/10
Looks like we have all been watching some good stuff lately!
E - have you never seen any Bruce Lee stuff? Surely you've seen Enter the Dragon, no?
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Chinese Connection is also awesome.
Yes it is!
Man, I wish he had gotten to do more. Freaking incredible.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Its such a shame. Same with Brandon. His martial arts in Rapid Fire are INCREDIBLE.
Yeah, I've seen that, Chinese Connection, and Game of Death all before, but it's probably been over ten years. Definitely due for a rewatch.
Turns out I have an absurd amount of 60s Criterion movies on my watchlist, many of them Japanese.
Le Trou
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
The Big City
The Color of Pomegranates
The Face of Another
Theorem
Kuroneko
Jigoku
Ivan’s Childhood
Double Suicide
I'm leaning either Le Trou because it's been on my watchlist the longest, or Ivan's Childhood because I crave Tarkovsky. But I may end up doubling up this week -- so much I want to see.
Oh I'd love to hear your thoughts on Kuroneko!
Have you seen Onibaba?
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Yeah, watched it last year and loved it. Immediately decided Kuroneko would be next. I may lean away from Le Trou and toward that because Le Trou seems a bit similar to last week's movie, Elevator to the Gallows. But if I'm going to watch something Japanese, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is really calling out to me... Gah! Decisions!
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs and Teorema are both spicy.
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
I went with When a Woman Ascends the Stairs for week 14, and there it is y'all. The movie I've been waiting for. Not sure I'll ever be able to write much on this one -- I have so many thoughts and feelings swirling around -- but it's a dad-burned masterpiece. My heart just grew several orders of magnitude and simultaneously broke. Five stars.
14. The Color of Pomegranates (1969) - A film I've actually had a guy on a date tell me he wanted to watch with me. We didn't end up watching it together, so with that in mind and this recently inspiring a Lady Gaga video, I dove in. Visually stunning, captivating in every moment. I don't really know exactly what was going on, but did I enjoy it? Absolutely. Shocked I didn't get assigned this at any point in film school. Definitely recommend it! 8/10
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