Oh this is the film noir thing in WSM? My friend (who I went to see Since Yesterday last night with) was talking about it in the pub. If i wasn't away this weekend, I'd be really tempted to go.This weekend I am going to a film festival where will see some of the films on this list:
I’ve seen a few of these before so expect I’ll pick and choose, and some of these clash with each other. The Mexican noirs sound interesting but not sure if I’m up for four of them. Decisions, decisions.
The big heat
Point blank
To Have and Have Not
El Bruto (The Brute)
Nowhere To Go
Human Desire
Out of the Past
Aventurera (Adventuress)
The Night and the City
Blackmail Sound Version
Víctimas del Pecado (Victims of Sin)
The Big Sleep
Body Heat
Gilda
Llévame en tus Brazos (Take Me in Your Arms)
Don't Bother to Knock
Dark Passage
Blackmail Silent Version + Live Music
Double Indemnity
Key Largo
Scarlet Street
The Last Seduction
Festival Schedule | South West Silents
www.southwestsilents.com
Films you have seen at the cinema 2024
- Thread starter metalguru
- Start date
You'll need to post on here and tell us what you've seen.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I’m also festivalling at LIFF2024 for the next fortnight, so expect to be blitzed. Sorry not sorry.
Starting off low-key with two European domestic dramas and a Chinese sci-fi today, before going all in for Sci-Fi Day tomorrow, preceded by a breakfast screening of Singin’ In The Rain
Still battling with post-Covid fatigue, so may need to pace myself and not try to see EVERYTHING and to try to stick to one location a day instead of rushing between places on my bike.
Starting off low-key with two European domestic dramas and a Chinese sci-fi today, before going all in for Sci-Fi Day tomorrow, preceded by a breakfast screening of Singin’ In The Rain
Still battling with post-Covid fatigue, so may need to pace myself and not try to see EVERYTHING and to try to stick to one location a day instead of rushing between places on my bike.
Voley
🐀
The book of The Outrun is ace, too. She writes beautifully about Orkney and unflinchingly about addiction.
Shippou-Sensei
4:1:2.5
Currently in the cinema waiting for Super/Man the Christopher Reeve story to start.
Shippou-Sensei
4:1:2.5
That was interesting. A whole lot packed into 90min.
It tells a story and does it well. I did get some new insight into him.
It does feel very streamlined. For good and bad. The good is that it works as a movie and doesn't overstay its welcome and keeps the focus on him and his family.
The bad isn't terrible it just feels like they bring up stuff but don't really explore it. For example they bring up his advocacy for stem cell research but then leave it at that and don't say anything about how that turned out. They bring up his acting and directing career after the accident but don't talk about how those films were received.
Again this keeps things moving and keeps the focus on the family but I couldn't help feeling like I wanted more.
In a way it feels more like a film to introduce people to the story than for those who already know about it. However those who do know I still think will enjoy it.
Shippou-Sensei
4:1:2.5
Just read the Guardian review.
www.theguardian.com
Harsh but I get where a lot of it came from. I didn't find the score a problem but on reflection the CGI bits were a an odd choice. I got what they were there for. It wasn't a subtle metaphor but I didn't find them objectionable.
I notice the reviewer also wanted more. This time highlighting the selection of gay roles and theme in projects he picked. I'd have like to have heard more on that too.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story review – fascinating tribute undermined by bombast
The life of the actor who played Superman before becoming paralysed, told by his own children, is poignant enough so why the cod-mythic animations and pompous music?
Harsh but I get where a lot of it came from. I didn't find the score a problem but on reflection the CGI bits were a an odd choice. I got what they were there for. It wasn't a subtle metaphor but I didn't find them objectionable.
I notice the reviewer also wanted more. This time highlighting the selection of gay roles and theme in projects he picked. I'd have like to have heard more on that too.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Leeds International Film Festival 2024
Film 1
The Ties That Bind Us (L’Attachement)
Beautifully observed drama about the dynamics of attachment within a chosen family, challenging the age-old lie that blood is thicker than water.
Extremely relatable and quietly moving without being sentimental, mainly due to the naturalistic acting - the child actor, Cesar Botti deserves particular praise.
4 perpetual smoking Gauloises out of 5
Film 1
The Ties That Bind Us (L’Attachement)
Beautifully observed drama about the dynamics of attachment within a chosen family, challenging the age-old lie that blood is thicker than water.
Extremely relatable and quietly moving without being sentimental, mainly due to the naturalistic acting - the child actor, Cesar Botti deserves particular praise.
4 perpetual smoking Gauloises out of 5
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
LIFF2024
Film 2
Escape From The 21st Century
Exhuberant and propulsive yet utterly incomprehensible Chinese time-travel action scifi comedy. The maximalist visual style kept it interesting but I couldn’t make head nor tail of the plot
2 bonebreaking Streetfighter 2 special moves out of 5
Film 2
Escape From The 21st Century
Exhuberant and propulsive yet utterly incomprehensible Chinese time-travel action scifi comedy. The maximalist visual style kept it interesting but I couldn’t make head nor tail of the plot
2 bonebreaking Streetfighter 2 special moves out of 5
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
LIFF2024
Film 3
Singin’ In The Rain
It was totally worth getting up early on a Saturday morning to see this free breakfast screening. I had a grin on my face through most of it. Gene Kelly is a god amongst men. Such a thrill to see this Technicolor spectacular on the big screen.
5 jauntily-placed baker’s caps out of 5
Film 3
Singin’ In The Rain
It was totally worth getting up early on a Saturday morning to see this free breakfast screening. I had a grin on my face through most of it. Gene Kelly is a god amongst men. Such a thrill to see this Technicolor spectacular on the big screen.
5 jauntily-placed baker’s caps out of 5
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
The Room Next Door
Almodóvar's latest is an English-language film, a two-hander with Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. A meditation on death and dignity, it is a little heavy-handed over the exposition in places, but the leads are both compelling and the writing is excellent. No easy answers are offered, but plenty of difficult questions are posed. By the end, it had completely won me over.
Almodóvar's latest is an English-language film, a two-hander with Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. A meditation on death and dignity, it is a little heavy-handed over the exposition in places, but the leads are both compelling and the writing is excellent. No easy answers are offered, but plenty of difficult questions are posed. By the end, it had completely won me over.
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
Film Noir festival Day 1
The Big Heat.
I had seen Fritz Lang’s classic noir before, but not on a big screen. Lee Marvin terrorises Glenn Ford’s homicide cop who at first is curious, then out for revenge after it gets personal. I particularly liked the domestic scenes early on with his family. They help to link in with his later relationship - and it is one doomed though it is - with Marvin’s downtrodden dame, as they work together to bring down the gangsters who have wrecked their lives.
Point Blank
This one was a new one for me. There was an introduction to the film that had been written specially by John Boorman discussing his memories of making the film and his friendship with Lee Marvin who waived his festive control. This was read to us by one of the organisers (reading between the lines John Boorman isn’t well enough to record a video introduction). Lee Marvin is suave as fuck as he gets revenge, rising through the hierarchy of the criminal enterprise he used to work for, all towards the end goal of his money. I found it quite existential, and wondered if the film was a fevered dream as he lay dying in Alcatraz. The sound and editing were incredible and the stark colours in what I assume must be the famous LA river scene were memorable.
The Big Heat.
I had seen Fritz Lang’s classic noir before, but not on a big screen. Lee Marvin terrorises Glenn Ford’s homicide cop who at first is curious, then out for revenge after it gets personal. I particularly liked the domestic scenes early on with his family. They help to link in with his later relationship - and it is one doomed though it is - with Marvin’s downtrodden dame, as they work together to bring down the gangsters who have wrecked their lives.
Point Blank
This one was a new one for me. There was an introduction to the film that had been written specially by John Boorman discussing his memories of making the film and his friendship with Lee Marvin who waived his festive control. This was read to us by one of the organisers (reading between the lines John Boorman isn’t well enough to record a video introduction). Lee Marvin is suave as fuck as he gets revenge, rising through the hierarchy of the criminal enterprise he used to work for, all towards the end goal of his money. I found it quite existential, and wondered if the film was a fevered dream as he lay dying in Alcatraz. The sound and editing were incredible and the stark colours in what I assume must be the famous LA river scene were memorable.
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
I am not a musicals fan but I watched that a few months ago one rainy Saturday and it absolutely filled me with joy
Anora - the Sean Baker film that is gaining rave reviews at the moment.
This was excellent. It's an unusual mixture of a film: a bit like Josh and Benny Safdie's take of Pretty Woman perhaps combined with the sensibility of Jim Jarmusch circa 'Stranger than Paradise'.
I'd be surprised if this doesn't become a cult classic in due course.
This was excellent. It's an unusual mixture of a film: a bit like Josh and Benny Safdie's take of Pretty Woman perhaps combined with the sensibility of Jim Jarmusch circa 'Stranger than Paradise'.
I'd be surprised if this doesn't become a cult classic in due course.
blossie33
trailer trash
Last night I went to see a film in the Doc'N Roll festival series about the band Steppenwolf, I'm familiar with the music but didn't actually know much about them.
I guess I thought they were American but they were actually a Canadian band and two of the members, singer John Kay and one time bass player Nick St Nicolas were born in Germany, interesting background to their lives. They also spoke to the ex member about him coming to write the classic Born to be Wild for them, actually after he left the band.
I guess I thought they were American but they were actually a Canadian band and two of the members, singer John Kay and one time bass player Nick St Nicolas were born in Germany, interesting background to their lives. They also spoke to the ex member about him coming to write the classic Born to be Wild for them, actually after he left the band.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Film 4, the first in Sci Fi Day
The A-Frame
Tonally uneven low budget scifi, mixing earnest cancer drama with Cronenbergian body horror
2 cat’s ballsacks out of 5
The A-Frame
Tonally uneven low budget scifi, mixing earnest cancer drama with Cronenbergian body horror
2 cat’s ballsacks out of 5
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Film 5
Scifi Day #2
Jupiter
Riveting and tense coming-of-age drama/conspiracy thriller about a girl whose family is caught up in a doomsday cult similar to Marshall Applewhite’s Heaven’s Gate
4 purple comet flares out of 5
Scifi Day #2
Jupiter
Riveting and tense coming-of-age drama/conspiracy thriller about a girl whose family is caught up in a doomsday cult similar to Marshall Applewhite’s Heaven’s Gate
4 purple comet flares out of 5
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
Day 2 of the film noir festival was Saturday. I managed 6 out of 6 films.
To Have or Have Not. Arguably not a film noir, and I had seen this before, but a lot of fun. A zippy script which is just a little bit Casablanca in the Caribbean. Love the chemistry between Bacall and Bogart. And Walter Brennan as the drunk crew mate is entertaining, walking like a puppet on a string.
Human Desire. Fritz Lang, Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame reunite but this is no Big Heat. Ford is a train engineer back from the Korean War, falling for an unhappily married woman. Needless to say this causes problems when she asks him to murder hubby. Felt like this was a step down from The Big Heat. I don’t find Glenn Ford very likeable.
Out of the past. I thought I’d like to see it on a big screen as a fan of the rural setting of this one. Some show stopping scenes, but in hindsight I wish I’d seen Adventurera in the other to try something different.
Night and the City. Two words that sum up noir. Absolutely love this look at postwar seedy London. Richard Widmark is a hustler desperate to hit it big, and picks wrestling, setting him against Herbert Lom who controls the action. But the real stars here are the bomb sites and the cast of underworld characters. The final shot on the bridge is perfect.
Victims of Sin. This was one of the Mexican noirs they were showing and is part of the rumberas sub genre which blends film noir themes with dancing and rumba music according to the screen notes available. Part of the reason i watched this was it gave me enough time to get back to the hotel for dinner, but I had also asked the organiser if I was only going to watch one of the four, which one, and he said this one.
Definitely the hipsters choice - Matthew Sweet the radio 3 presenter / cultural commentator was taking this one in. The plots are based around the women who work in the nightclubs - dancers, bar girls, sex workers. These are our heroes which I suppose is subversive for the time. Anyway this one is about a dancer who takes in an abandoned baby and her struggle against the evil pimp whose baby it is and who threw the baby in the bin. It was fantastic.
One exceptionally filthy number along the lines of “put it in, darling, no not quite like that, move it about” which had everyone in hysterics, that and the dancing between the star and one of the Afro-Cuban musicians would have been a problem under the US production code. I’ll be watching more of this genre certainly.
Last of all for the day I watched Body Heat. I’ve not seen much neo-noir. This was steamy, raunchy, had Ted Danson dancing and then a killer twist at the end. Quite a way to end the night.
To Have or Have Not. Arguably not a film noir, and I had seen this before, but a lot of fun. A zippy script which is just a little bit Casablanca in the Caribbean. Love the chemistry between Bacall and Bogart. And Walter Brennan as the drunk crew mate is entertaining, walking like a puppet on a string.
Human Desire. Fritz Lang, Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame reunite but this is no Big Heat. Ford is a train engineer back from the Korean War, falling for an unhappily married woman. Needless to say this causes problems when she asks him to murder hubby. Felt like this was a step down from The Big Heat. I don’t find Glenn Ford very likeable.
Out of the past. I thought I’d like to see it on a big screen as a fan of the rural setting of this one. Some show stopping scenes, but in hindsight I wish I’d seen Adventurera in the other to try something different.
Night and the City. Two words that sum up noir. Absolutely love this look at postwar seedy London. Richard Widmark is a hustler desperate to hit it big, and picks wrestling, setting him against Herbert Lom who controls the action. But the real stars here are the bomb sites and the cast of underworld characters. The final shot on the bridge is perfect.
Victims of Sin. This was one of the Mexican noirs they were showing and is part of the rumberas sub genre which blends film noir themes with dancing and rumba music according to the screen notes available. Part of the reason i watched this was it gave me enough time to get back to the hotel for dinner, but I had also asked the organiser if I was only going to watch one of the four, which one, and he said this one.
Definitely the hipsters choice - Matthew Sweet the radio 3 presenter / cultural commentator was taking this one in. The plots are based around the women who work in the nightclubs - dancers, bar girls, sex workers. These are our heroes which I suppose is subversive for the time. Anyway this one is about a dancer who takes in an abandoned baby and her struggle against the evil pimp whose baby it is and who threw the baby in the bin. It was fantastic.
One exceptionally filthy number along the lines of “put it in, darling, no not quite like that, move it about” which had everyone in hysterics, that and the dancing between the star and one of the Afro-Cuban musicians would have been a problem under the US production code. I’ll be watching more of this genre certainly.
Last of all for the day I watched Body Heat. I’ve not seen much neo-noir. This was steamy, raunchy, had Ted Danson dancing and then a killer twist at the end. Quite a way to end the night.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Film 6
Scifi Day #3
U Are The Universe
Excellent satirical Ukrainian nobudget scifi comedy about a spacecraft worker stranded in space with a Dad-joke telling robot after Earth literally blows up. Thinking he is the last man to ever exist, he hears another voice on the radio.
Darkly funny, but kind of optimistic despite being set in a world with no future.
Kudos for best needledrop of the festival so far: Desireless’ Voyage Voyage.
4 fist-pumping Eurobangers-playing-into-the-void out of 5
Scifi Day #3
U Are The Universe
Excellent satirical Ukrainian nobudget scifi comedy about a spacecraft worker stranded in space with a Dad-joke telling robot after Earth literally blows up. Thinking he is the last man to ever exist, he hears another voice on the radio.
Darkly funny, but kind of optimistic despite being set in a world with no future.
Kudos for best needledrop of the festival so far: Desireless’ Voyage Voyage.
4 fist-pumping Eurobangers-playing-into-the-void out of 5
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
I watched that last week and I’m still recovering from the rollercoaster of emotions - the high and then the long, long comedown. I definitely got Safdie brothers vibes. I’m not sure I can cope with seeing it again.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Film 7
Scifi Day #4
Tim Travers & The Time Traveller’s Paradox
Ingenious no-budget scifi comedy which manages to be entertaining, ambitious and coherent, and with a fraction of the budget of any bombastic nonensical Nolan enterprise
4 revolting multiTim orgies out of 5
Scifi Day #4
Tim Travers & The Time Traveller’s Paradox
Ingenious no-budget scifi comedy which manages to be entertaining, ambitious and coherent, and with a fraction of the budget of any bombastic nonensical Nolan enterprise
4 revolting multiTim orgies out of 5
furluxor
snake with a claw
I was less enamoured with Anora, having put it on my list called "Short of the mark". This was my impression:
"I feel that this would work in a double bill with Triangle of Sadness. It's funny in places, but its thinking about life is only skin deep. I thought the way stripping was portrayed (except for the pole dancing) was strong, as was the ending. But the guy was too cartoonish even for an Oligarch baby, and the fighting-searching part of the film is too long."
Didn't regret watching it though.
"I feel that this would work in a double bill with Triangle of Sadness. It's funny in places, but its thinking about life is only skin deep. I thought the way stripping was portrayed (except for the pole dancing) was strong, as was the ending. But the guy was too cartoonish even for an Oligarch baby, and the fighting-searching part of the film is too long."
Didn't regret watching it though.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Film 8
Nickel Boys
Absolute genius - Remell Ross’ futureclassic Colson Whitehead adaptation - this was a unique and intensely rewarding experience, so it’s difficult to describe - an eliptically-told non-narrative story of systematic racial injustice, spanning decades, using POV sequences that are Peep Show-reminiscent but shot through with the intensity and luminosity of Moonlight, all interlaced with a collage of stills, archive footage, archival home video clips and a hypnotic score (by Scott Alario & Alex Sommers).
5 proxy grandma hugs out of 5
Nickel Boys
Absolute genius - Remell Ross’ futureclassic Colson Whitehead adaptation - this was a unique and intensely rewarding experience, so it’s difficult to describe - an eliptically-told non-narrative story of systematic racial injustice, spanning decades, using POV sequences that are Peep Show-reminiscent but shot through with the intensity and luminosity of Moonlight, all interlaced with a collage of stills, archive footage, archival home video clips and a hypnotic score (by Scott Alario & Alex Sommers).
5 proxy grandma hugs out of 5
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Film 9
Animalia Paradoxa
WTF did I just see?
Twas like seeing Jodorovsky & Svankmaer have an ugly fight about whether to make Eraserhead vs Riddley Walker or The Little Mermaid vs The Mouse & His Child, but get distracted by a Fallout sidequest interpreted by way of modern dance and a Drexciyan gamelan score. Unique.
4 writhing sparkly sacks out of 5
Animalia Paradoxa
WTF did I just see?
Twas like seeing Jodorovsky & Svankmaer have an ugly fight about whether to make Eraserhead vs Riddley Walker or The Little Mermaid vs The Mouse & His Child, but get distracted by a Fallout sidequest interpreted by way of modern dance and a Drexciyan gamelan score. Unique.
4 writhing sparkly sacks out of 5
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Known as Build My Gallows High in the UK. US does like its literal, non-poetic titles.
Great film whatever its title.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Film 10
Bird
Andrea Arnold’s new one, starring Nykiya Adams as a 12-year-old reluctantly growing up too soon, surrounded by adults who themselves are in a state of impoverished arrested development. Reminiscent of David Almond’s YA classic Skellig (perhaps deliberately so?).
I love Andrea Arnold.
She’s so good with young actors.
Love Robbie Ryan’s camerawork too Gravesend’s never looked so unappealing. The needledrops of 90s’ dadrock, unwelcome at any other time, are perfect here - never thought I’d hear Coldplay’s Yellow used to coax hallucinogenic slime from a vexed South American toad before. Pretty sure you can just buy it bottled online, from Goop.
There are elements of the film I want to talk about that involve spoilers, but that shall have to wait.
5 mephed-up-dads-snotsinging-Lucky-Man out of 5
Bird
Andrea Arnold’s new one, starring Nykiya Adams as a 12-year-old reluctantly growing up too soon, surrounded by adults who themselves are in a state of impoverished arrested development. Reminiscent of David Almond’s YA classic Skellig (perhaps deliberately so?).
I love Andrea Arnold.
She’s so good with young actors.
Love Robbie Ryan’s camerawork too Gravesend’s never looked so unappealing. The needledrops of 90s’ dadrock, unwelcome at any other time, are perfect here - never thought I’d hear Coldplay’s Yellow used to coax hallucinogenic slime from a vexed South American toad before. Pretty sure you can just buy it bottled online, from Goop.
There are elements of the film I want to talk about that involve spoilers, but that shall have to wait.
5 mephed-up-dads-snotsinging-Lucky-Man out of 5
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Had to give day 4 a rest as I did not sleep last night due to a surprise bout of toothache. Today, I unfortunately missed Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel, three new docs and a fun-looking UK drama about a transwoman’s evening out in London.
Don’t feel too bad though as I’m finally accepting the need to pace myself. Back in to it tomorrow.
Don’t feel too bad though as I’m finally accepting the need to pace myself. Back in to it tomorrow.
