What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)
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redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
The Mouring Forest - First in a triple bill of Naomi Kawase films (not seen any of her work previously). This one has a man in a retirement community forming a connection with a young helper. Maybe I just was not in the mood but I did not find myself clicking with it at all. Hopefully I'll enjoy the other two films more.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
A Streetcar Named Desire
Brando and Leigh acting styles collide in classic Tenesee Williams melodrama from 1951. STELLAAAAA!
Brando and Leigh acting styles collide in classic Tenesee Williams melodrama from 1951. STELLAAAAA!
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
we rewatched The Prestige last night. I think it's my favourite of Nolan's, Bowies marvellous, shits on Tenet. Even the women had some actual character and agency of their own!
Just watched Bill and Ted. Really loved it.
It should have been terrible, everything about it, but it's so unpretentious and just as silly as the old ones. I'm really happy about that, I hate these reboots but this one actually did live up to the other two.
It should have been terrible, everything about it, but it's so unpretentious and just as silly as the old ones. I'm really happy about that, I hate these reboots but this one actually did live up to the other two.
It is a great film. I watched the Illusionist alongside it because it was overlooked by The Prestige but very similar in theme. Great films.
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Johnny Cool - 60s crime flick with a Sicilian gangster sent to the US to kill a bunch of people. Sadly after a good initially 10 minutes it rather loses it way, dawdling through a series of pieces that are supposed to make a plot. Probably the best thing about the movie is Elizabeth Montgomery who gives a good performance in the most interesting character role.
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
Dr. Zhivago.
David Lean, 1965 (BBC 4 last night). It all still works, even though it shouldn't, and even after all that's happened since. Omar Sharif is especially good, as is Julie Christie. Tom Courtenay's priggish intello-Bolshevik is also a good turn. They're really, most of them, English types playing Russians, like the red-faced Colonel of dragoons who gets his comeuppance at the hands of a band of deserters. Courtenay's type doesn't really exist anymore though.
"Happy men don't volunteer".
David Lean, 1965 (BBC 4 last night). It all still works, even though it shouldn't, and even after all that's happened since. Omar Sharif is especially good, as is Julie Christie. Tom Courtenay's priggish intello-Bolshevik is also a good turn. They're really, most of them, English types playing Russians, like the red-faced Colonel of dragoons who gets his comeuppance at the hands of a band of deserters. Courtenay's type doesn't really exist anymore though.
"Happy men don't volunteer".
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
A Couch in New York - A sort of romantic comedy by Chantel Akerman starring William Hurt and Julliette Binoche. He's a New York psychiatrist, she's a Parisian ballet dancer they saw apartments and a set of mildly comic scenes ensue. It's kind of interesting and not totally devoid of charm but it runs out of steam well before the credits roll
Matthias & Maxime - Xavier Dolan's latest, two best friends kiss for a film shortly before one is due to leave the country and find it brings up a conflict of emotions. I was not a big fan of Dolan's Mommy but thought this a much more subtle, interesting work. All kinds of points - class, sexuality, work, friendships - are raised through the relationship of the two central characters and the people in their circles.
Matthias & Maxime - Xavier Dolan's latest, two best friends kiss for a film shortly before one is due to leave the country and find it brings up a conflict of emotions. I was not a big fan of Dolan's Mommy but thought this a much more subtle, interesting work. All kinds of points - class, sexuality, work, friendships - are raised through the relationship of the two central characters and the people in their circles.
Reno
The In Kraut
I wasn't keen on Le Feu Follet, I didn't feel much for the main character. It felt like he was emotionally stuck in adolescence and the whole thing was too much of a wallow for me. Only Jeanne Moreau in her brief appearance brings some life to the film, the other characters I found interchangeable, though that was the point I suppose. It's very much of its time and I'm sure it felt more revelatory then.Interested to see what you reckon to Le Feu Follet when you get to it, Reno (not sure if you've seen it before). I found it unrelentingly bleak and depressing. Not one I'd watch again tbh.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Saw this when it came out (mainly for the director) and really liked it. Still did on a rewatch (it's on iPlayer). Loved the bleak greyness of it all. And that look between Mark Strong and Colin Firth at the Christmas party and then again right at the end.
On to the incest film tonight....
Reno
The In Kraut
Murmur of the Heart. Oh my, the 70s ! 
A lot of lines are being stepped over here, I really can't see this being made in today's climate, especially not in such a light hearted way but that's also what makes it fascinating. I quite enjoyed it even if all three brothers are such horrendous, entitled brats that I was hoping for some sort of comeuppance.
I can't help but draw parallels to Francois Truffaut's filmography, even if the order is different. If Lift to the Scaffold is Malle's Shoot the Piano Player, The Lovers is his The Soft Skin (with a dash of Jules et Jim) and Le Feu Follet is the inverse of The Man Who Loved Woman, then Murmur of the Heart is his The 400 Blows.
A lot of lines are being stepped over here, I really can't see this being made in today's climate, especially not in such a light hearted way but that's also what makes it fascinating. I quite enjoyed it even if all three brothers are such horrendous, entitled brats that I was hoping for some sort of comeuppance.
I can't help but draw parallels to Francois Truffaut's filmography, even if the order is different. If Lift to the Scaffold is Malle's Shoot the Piano Player, The Lovers is his The Soft Skin (with a dash of Jules et Jim) and Le Feu Follet is the inverse of The Man Who Loved Woman, then Murmur of the Heart is his The 400 Blows.
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T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
A Cure for Wellness. A New York corporation’s young executive is sent to a sanatorium in Switzerland to urgently retrieve the company’s CEO so he can rubber-stamp a vital merger. But the latter, together with the rest of the patients receiving treatment, says he’s happy there and refuses to leave, and the young man starts to realise things are not quite they seem. Oh, not by a long way.
Mad psychological horror-mystery thriller, and I loved it.
Mad psychological horror-mystery thriller, and I loved it.
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Never seen this film but reading the plot Spanking the Monkey came to mind as another mother-son incestuous relationship.Murmur of the Heart. Oh my, the 70s !
A lot of lines are being stepped over here, I really can't see this being made in today's climate, especially not in such a light hearted way but that's also what makes it fascinating. I quite enjoyed it even if all three brothers are such horrendous, entitled brats that I was hoping for some sort of comeuppance.
The Trout - Isabelle Huppert and Joseph Losey team up. Huppert is a young woman you feels little but contempt for men, taking up and using one after another. Huppert and Jeanne Moreau both turn in good performances, and manage to keep you involved but the film seems to lack a real centre and there is nothing of the sinisterness of the Pinter/Losey collaborations. In fact it seems a bit of a shame that Pinter was not involved in the film as he may have been able to contribute that sharp edge that this needed.
Reno
The In Kraut
I suppose what I found shocking in Murmur of the Heart is that the boy (actor and character) was only 14 or 15 and he gets involved all sorts of sexual situations. Jeremy Davis in Spanking the Monkey was in his 20s.
For another mother son incest movie, there also is Bertolucci's La Luna with Jill Clayburg, which is terrible.
Indeliblelink
\......👁&👁......./
The Wonderful Lies Of Nina Petrovna [ Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna] (1929)
Silent melodrama about a love triangle between a high ranking army office, his kept mistress and a young army cadet. Simple story but very nicely done from director Hanns Schwarz. Brigitte Helm (most famous for Metropolis) in the type of role that Garbo would normally be seen in but Helm is great and gives a wonderfully passionate performance.
Silent melodrama about a love triangle between a high ranking army office, his kept mistress and a young army cadet. Simple story but very nicely done from director Hanns Schwarz. Brigitte Helm (most famous for Metropolis) in the type of role that Garbo would normally be seen in but Helm is great and gives a wonderfully passionate performance.
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Found it pretty unengaging tbh. Disappointing.
Reno
The In Kraut
Lacombe, Lucien, I had not seen this before, great film and my favourite so far of my at-home Louis Malle season. A barely educated peasant boy in WWII rural France, after being unsuccessful in joining the resistance, joins the collaborators instead. Then he becomes interested in the pretty daughter of his Jewish tailor. I found this thoroughly involving and it kept me on edge throughout. Controversial at the time as, many French people were still claiming that all of France was in the resistance.
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I just watched 'Knives Out'
Found it really annoying, I heard that it was good, it seemed very self satisfied and didn't really excite me
Cos I saw Toni Collette yesterday in 'I'm thinking of ending things' I've kind of fallen in love with her, but it felt like an off brand version of an ensemble genre film
Found it really annoying, I heard that it was good, it seemed very self satisfied and didn't really excite me
Cos I saw Toni Collette yesterday in 'I'm thinking of ending things' I've kind of fallen in love with her, but it felt like an off brand version of an ensemble genre film
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Agree with Sue this sounds really interesting. Going to have to try and watch it.
Reno
The In Kraut
From the brilliance of Lacombe, Lucien to the failure that is Black Moon. I've always been curious about this, as surreal dreamlike films are in my wheelhouse but suspected it won't be very good. This is exactly the film I was thought it would be. To be good at this type of thing you need a particular talent and sensibility like Lynch, Resnais or Zulawski. When directors who usually have work in a realist tradition like Malle try their hands at surrealism, they tend to fall flat in their face (Robert Altman with 3 Women is a rare exception but he had a few practice runs to get there). This tries hard but apart from the odd beautiful image, it never gets off the ground and it wore my patience thin. Still, great directors take risks and sometimes they fail. Malle never went there again.
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
I watched that ages ago, and I cannot for the life of me remember anything about it, except that I couldn't figure out what he hell it was about, and ended up taking hundreds of screen shots with the intention of going back to it and trying to piece together what it all meant.
That was twelve years ago
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
I found my viewing notes:I watched that ages ago, and I cannot for the life of me remember anything about it, except that I couldn't figure out what he hell it was about, and ended up taking hundreds of screen shots with the intention of going back to it and trying to piece together what it all meant.
That was twelve years ago
View attachment 232340
Reader, I never made it back from that tea break
ETA:
* I was practically in my twenties!
Reno
The In Kraut
So that the evening wasn't a write off, I went on to the next Louis Malle film Atlantic City. This one I love and have watched many times, though not for a while. Still great but maybe a little more sentimental than I remember. In the film Lancaster plays a former gangster who always was very low in the pecking order, but Lancaster very much is a movie star and legend. This makes it believable that Susan Sarandon would be attracted to him, but it makes him less credible as the looser he is supposed to be. One is always aware that Lancaster is a legend. A minor niggle though, otherwise this is a wonderful mixture of crime film and character study, its backdrop of Atlantic City between decline and (dubious) regeneration is fascinating. This also features the most deserved and satisfying death of a hippy.
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Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
It's a shocker. One thing is does do is make the accents in Snatch seem plausible. And as someone who rarely indulges in culture even I could see where he ripped off a number of scenes from. Had the potential to be a good film, but no, rather ungood for me.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
J Edgar, 2011 Clint directed biopic. There's an interesting story to be told about Hoover but don't think Eastwood quite captured it. DiCaprio is rather good and the film does briefly feature brilliant character actors like Stephen Root and Dennis O'Hare.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Great film , first saw it at the cinema and was enthralled by its poignancy
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