What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)

[DotCommunist]

yeah i saw it at the time it came out....i didnt love it then, but that doesnt mean much, i was a lot younger....but i wonder how that holds up...what do you think?
i really dislike jude law which is a barrier for me

that 'what the fuck did I just watch?' feeling you described, I remember that as the credits rolled on eXistenZe. Recon it would hold up for sure. 'Death to the demoness allegra gellar' is a phrase stuck in my brain deep.

 

[trabuquera]

Vikings: Valhalla the latest (and possibly last?*) bundle of it which came out on Netflix at the weekend. Law of diminishing returns is definitely at work here, even as the budget has (or seems to have) burgeoned. Scope is now far wider even than in previous series taking in England, Paris, Norse country and Russia; this batch also skips about to Normandy, Sicily, Cyprus and Byzantine Constantinople. (Varangian Guards doncherknow). There are lots more flashy clothes and more gold and sweeping sunlit vistas, and even more fight scenes, sixpacks and pecs and gratuitous sex. But there is no sense of myth, mystery or decent writing in it any more. Or any actual thinking about the clash of worldviews or amusing culture-mismatch episodes. Just lots of macho scrapping - and not all that dramatic fighting, either. This used to feel like a weirder, more goth/pagany historical epic with a genuinely dark 'n gloomy Scandi atmosphere full of omens and portents and mysteries. Now it just feels like a video game (Assassin's Creed maybe?) with a crew of interchangeable antagonists with recognisable combat styles but absolutely nothing to say for themselves. Script is painfully dire. Still got some nice moments and perfectly pretty to look at but it just doesn't engage the brain or heart as its more rough 'n ready earlier series could do so well. And certainly none of the mythic resonance and sort of transcendence the first in its line could conjure.

* or maybe not the last, since why spend time hinting on the early lives of Godwin of Wessex and William the Conqueror if you weren't about to follow through later?

 

[Epona]

that 'what the fuck did I just watch?' feeling you described, I remember that as the credits rolled on eXistenZe. Recon it would hold up for sure. 'Death to the demoness allegra gellar' is a phrase stuck in my brain deep.

I love the film, fully agree with the "what the fuck did I just watch?" feeling being central to the experience.
Have seen it several times and still love it.

 

[imposs1904]

Alan Bennett's 'Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf' (1978)

Directed by Stephen Frears, and starring Neville Smith with a scene stealing performance from Thora Hird.

I'd forgotten how brilliant this was.

If you get the chance, hunt this down.

 

[redsquirrel]

Melbourne Cinematheque season on Italian screenwriter Suso Cecchi D'Amico, who worked with pretty much all the top Italian directors from the neorealist period onward, including some of the big names here. Her list of credits is outstanding but the six here are:

L'Innocente - First up Visconti, this adaptation of a work by D’Annunzio (the fascist prick) with a philandering husband tormented by jeaoulsy when his wife falls in love and becomes pregnant. it is not quite in the same league as the best of either Visconti or D'Amico's films but it there are some top set pieces.

La Signore Senza Camele - An early Antonioni film, about an actress who star takes off only to be used by the men in her life, as well as by the film industry. It's not one of the films that he's know for but frankly I found it and the other Antonioni film in the season (below) far more engaging and interesting than his classics. There are characters with real emotions here.

Violent Summer - this is really top notch, it is 1942 and Jean-Louis Trintignant is the son of a fascist boss trying to avoid the war. He meets an older war widow Eleonora Rossi Drago and they fall in love and begin an affair. The disconnect from the war that is in their lives in the resort town is paralleled by their love affair - the tension is ratcheted up until it all comes crashing down.

I Magliari - hard to say how this film might be classified, there is a certain neorealist feel of the story of Italian salesmen struggling to make ends meet in postwar Germany, but it also has elements of black comedy and drama. Belinda Lee is excellent as the wife of the German boss who falls in love with the naive Italian worker.

Le Amiche - the most enjoyable Antonioni I've yet seen, again it has real people interacting, revolving around the lives and loves of a set of five women. Eleonora Rossi Drago stars again as the visitor from Rome that gets involved with a set of friends in Turin, and with the drama starting from the attempted suicide of one of the group.

The Passionate Thief - Great farcical comedy starring Anna Magnani, Toto and Ben Gazzara. The action all takes place on new years with Magnani (a bit part actress) trying to have a good night, Totò is her old comrade who's been recruited to assist Gazzara pick pockets. There is a whole series of misunderstandings, mistakes, and circumstances that cause all three to go from one unfortunate situation to another.

 

[redsquirrel]

Also

Hotel Reserve - very early outing for both James Mason and Herbert Lom, an adaptation of an Eric Ambler story. Sadly not even Mason can rescue this mess, which cannot decide on whether it wants to be a comedy, a thriller or what. Not funny and not tense.

Big Brown Eyes - Early Cary Grant vehicle directed by Raoul Walsh, a screwball comedy with crime elements. Grant is a NY policeman (not very convincingly, but he's got his charm so you can go with it) and he and his girl (Joan Bennett) try to capture a crime gang. It's not in Grant or Walsh's top drawer but the comedy and thriller elements are much better than Hotel Reserve, at 80 mins it sustains itself.

Pillow Talk - first of the Rock Hudson & Doris Day films that set the scene for future RomComs. Worth watching if you are interested in cinema as it is clearly so important while at the same time being far, far more dated than 30s comedies like Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, etc. Nor does it has the emotional depth and melodramatic charm of Hudon's work with Sirk from the early 50s. It is super slow, it may come in about 100 minutes, but it is a long 100 minutes, the jokes are sparse and all too often laboured - again in contrast to the great screwball comedies where they came at 100 miles an hour.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Stockholm Bloodbath
Erm, quite difficult to describe. Sort of historical drama (based on stuff between Denmark and Sweden in the 16th century), yet also a really dark comedy, played utterly straight. Presentationally in a similar vein to Plunkett & Macleane.

Like a Carry On version of The Red Wedding, but without mugging for the camera. Some really chef's kiss touches from director Mikael Håfström, and solid performances from the likes of Sophie Cookson, Emily Beecham and Kate Ashfield, great heel turns from Ulrich Thomsen, Jakob Oftebro and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard (plus supporting goons Thomas Chaanhing, Zámbó, Viktor Filep and Roland Kollárszky), and Claes Bang as a Blairesque mediaeval aristocratic headbanger. If you like your pantomime bloody, look no further.

 

[krtek a houby]

Filthy Rich & Catflap

1987 sitcom with Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer.

Lots of the usual silliness from Rik and Ade. Funnier than remembered, but not up to Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door standards. Fourth wall breaking, meta deconstruction of the sitcom, and some jokes that didn't age at all well. Some great cameos, mind.

 

[krtek a houby]

Nocturnal Animals

2016 thriller noir. Michael Shannon is outstanding in an outstanding cast.

Hard to describe without giving too much away. It's beautifully shot, the score is exceptional old school and it's also disturbing. If you like David Lynch, there's definitely a similarity.

 

[redsquirrel]

Can't say I really see the links with Lynch.

There is some playing around with narratives, and a relatively open ending but there is not the fantasy/surrealism.

 

[krtek a houby]

Can't say I really see the links with Lynch.

There is some playing around with narratives, and a relatively open ending but there is not the fantasy/surrealism.

Perhaps an inspiration? For me, it was the opening titles which had hints of the cabaret scene in Blue Velvet, and the story that bleeds into the reality, the nightmarish violence...

Anyway, needed something lighter after that, so followed it up with the 1925 classic - The Gold Rush. Chaplin's bread roll dance, Mack Swain's chicken fantasy and the cliff hanging house - absolutely brilliant. Georgia Hale takes on a somewhat clichéd role with dignity.

 

[rubbershoes]

Odette

Wartime SOE drama in which Anna Neagle has her toenails pulled out by the Gestapo

 

[inva]

Gosford Park
2001 country house murder mystery set in the 1930s and directed by Robert Altman. Not an amazing film but entertaining enough, I enjoyed the poisonous atmosphere and general working of the house more than the murder plot which was all very familiar stuff. Good cast although not Stephen Fry he was bad.

 

[May Kasahara]

Widows. Excellent Steve McQueen heist film that isn't really about the heist at all.

 

[redsquirrel]

Has Anybosy Seen my Gal - Douglas Sirk musical, well it is billed as a musical but there are only a couple of short numbers, it's more of a romantic comedy. Rich millionaire, Charles Coburn, goes back to the town he came from and gets involved, incognito, with the family of the girl he proposed to but turned him down, acting as the magic godfather along the way. Rock Hudson and Laurie Piper are the young couple. It's pretty formulaic and not a patch on the later masterpieces of Sirk but it is fun, has some good lines (mostly from Coburn) and does not overstay it's welcome

 

[The39thStep]

Villains (2019) . Enjoyable quirky comedy horror where a young couple who are into robbing make a major mistake into breaking into a remote house .

 

[belboid]

as mentioned elsewhere, I am catching up on classic heist movies I have missed, starting with

Uncut Gems - all very well done, Sandler is excellent, everyone else is certainly up to the mark. The setup is classic and the whole thing goes through pretty standardly, but stylishly.

Good Time - the Safide Brothers' previous movie, with Robert Pattinson as the hood. He is superb. As is the score by Oneohtrix Point Never. The whole film is a cracker, bar perhaps the rather simplistic portrait of his 'simple' brother. Everyone else in it is great too. Poor Barkhad Abdi

 

[belboid]

actually, I'd started with

Now You See Me and the imaginatively titled, Now You See Me 2.

Which are definitely not classics of the genre and are, own fact, very very silly and only sporadically entertaining,

 

[May Kasahara]

We Are The Best! Delightful slice of Swedish teen punk life - very funny, superb naturalistic performances. Anyone who has ever been a bored teenager larking about with their mates will recognise themselves here and smile.

 

[DaveCinzano]

as mentioned elsewhere, I am catching up on classic heist movies I have missed

Some suggestions (probably nothing you've not seen or have on your radar, but still...):

• Heist (2001) - solid Mamet business with great cast including Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, Delroy Lindo, Sam Rockwell, Rebecca Pidgeon and (of course) Ricky Jay
• The Crew (2008) - flawed but interesting tale of different generations of Scouse thieves, based on Kevin Sampson's Outlaws
• 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out - drama-doc about a pair of hopped-up LA bandits
• The Great St Louis Bank Robbery - stodgy but methodical, noirish
• The First Great Train Robbery - a flash ring pull! Victorian thieves target Crimean gold aboard A MOVING TRAIN
• Welcome To The Punch - so close to being great (though it's not), but with numerous really good elements
• London Heist - commendably ambitious if ultimately unsuccessful one-last-job flick from Craig Fairbrass in write-produce-act mode
• The Captor AKA Stockholm - comedy-drama about the real-life bank job that led to the naming os Stockholm Syndrome
• Los Ladrones: La Verdadera Historia Del Robo Del Siglo AKA Bank Robbers: The Last Great Heist - imaginatively presented documentary about the execution of a massive robbery in Argentina by a cinematically bonkers crew
• Den Of Thieves - superficial and overly testosterone-fuelled but with nice touches, even if it does have Gerard Butler in it
• The Town - Boston boys on the rampage
• Le Convoyeur - much superior to Guy Ritchie's remake Wrath Of Man (even if it lacks The Stath)

 

[Orang Utan]

Have you seen The Delinquents, belboid ?
Weirdest heist movie eva

 

[belboid]

Have you seen The Delinquents, belboid ?
Weirdest heist movie eva

I'm assuming you dont mean the Kylie Minogue movie.

Nope, but now added to the list.

 

[Orang Utan]

I'm assuming you dont mean the Kylie Minogue movie.

Nope, but now added to the list.

Nah, Argentinian flick from a couple of years ago

 

[belboid]

• 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out - drama-doc about a pair of hopped-up LA bandits

there's a 1080 copy of this on YouTube, so that sorted tonights viewing.

Whenever I see Michael Madsen in a movie, I do kinda hope he dies by the end.

 

[bris]

Alan Bennett's 'Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf' (1978)

Directed by Stephen Frears, and starring Neville Smith with a scene stealing performance from Thora Hird.

I'd forgotten how brilliant this was.

If you get the chance, hunt this down.

I don't know that one. I'm a huge fan of the Stephen Friers film Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. I have a Laserdisc of it unfortunately it went the way of laser rot and is unplayable now. To the best of my knowledge it's never been released on Blu Ray or DVD.

 

[belboid]

I don't know that one. I'm a huge fan of the Stephen Friers film Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. I have a Laserdisc of it unfortunately it went the way of laser rot and is unplayable now. To the best of my knowledge it's never been released on Blu Ray or DVD.

mubi/obscure download sites are your friend

 

[redsquirrel]

We Are The Best! Delightful slice of Swedish teen punk life - very funny, superb naturalistic performances. Anyone who has ever been a bored teenager larking about with their mates will recognise themselves here and smile.

Moodyson is at his best when he's making comedies - both We Are The Best and Show Me Love are wonderful.

 

[DotCommunist]

Monkey Man- Dev Patel
Violent indian revenge film, pretty fckn good I'd say. A guy with the spirit of hanuman takes on a load of villains and a modi stand in. 9/10

 

[Sue]

Monkey Man- Dev Patel
Violent indian revenge film, pretty fckn good I'd say. A guy with the spirit of hanuman takes on a load of villains and a modi stand in. 9/10

I thought it was really good (and I'm not at all into action/revenge movies).

 

[DotCommunist]

I thought it was really good (and I'm not at all into action/revenge movies).

I'm a fan and this is the best of the genre I've seen in ages. Just really well done on all fronts. I Remember thinking at one point, during a particularly well done sequence 'why doesn't hollywood make them like this anymore?'. I will be seeking out more Dev Patel films anyway.