What Classics Did You See Last Week (June 15–June 21)
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unex — 9 months ago(June 22, 2025 12:08 PM)
The Right Stuff (1983) - Rewatch. The semitrue story of the breaking of the sound barrier and the Mercury 7 astronauts. I'm a big fan of this movie but on rewatching it I notice that like the real space program interest does wane as it goes on. I find it more entertaining to watch them develop the space program than to actually fly the missions.
The Sound Barrier (1952) - The untrue story of the breaking of the sound barrier from David Lean. Good movie, interesting to watch with The Right Stuff because you see the similarities in test pilots and their wives, particularly in blaming the man instead of the machine. They had an implicit notion of "the right stuff". There are lots of allusions to space as if that was the next logical step after the sound barrier which is also neat. -
spiderwort — 9 months ago(June 22, 2025 01:49 PM)
I haven't seen The Right Stuff since it was released, but I remember enjoying it a lot. It would be interesting to see it again.
And I haven't seen The Sound Barrier, how I do not know, given my love for all things David Lean. But I really appreciate your comments about it and will keep an eye out for it in the future. -
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spiderwort — 9 months ago(June 22, 2025 02:03 PM)
First viewings:
The Earrings of Madame De… / Max Ophuls
(1954). When a woman (Danielle Darrieux) sells her earrings to pay a gambling debt it leads to a string of betrayals. Another brilliant film by one of my favorite directors. I’m so glad I finally got to see it. Great script and cast. Highly recommended. (On MAX)
The Flowers of St. Francis / Roberto Rosellini
(1950). St. Francis of Assisi sends his followers out into the the world to spread God’s word. This beautiful Rosellini film with a screenplay written by Federico Fellini, incorporates humor and maintains a consistent lightness of touch, which makes it unlike so many other religious films, but in ways it is perhaps even more spiritual. What an amazing director Rossellini was. Highly recommended. (On MAX)
Bearing Witness: Native American Voices in Hollywood / Clara & Julia Kuperberg
(2024). A documentary about how Hollywood long portrayed Native Americans as “villains,” glorifying Manifest Destiny and hiding genocide. Finally, in the 1960s and 70s with films like Little Big Man and Soldier Blue they became humanized and even the massacres they endured were shown. It’s a subject that has too long been overlooked, as has the subject of Native Americans in general, which thankfully this documentary delves into as well, along with other contributing factors like the war in Vietnam, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice, and the rise of the American Indian Movement, ultimately resulting in the evolution of Native American films that are made by indigenous artists themselves. It’s a deeply meaningful, historically significant film, which should be seen. (I watched it on TCM, but I’m not sure where you can find it now, though I believe it can be purchased on DVDs.) -
unex — 9 months ago(June 22, 2025 02:16 PM)
The Earrings of Madame De… / Max Ophuls(1954). When a woman (Danielle Darrieux) sells her earrings to pay a gambling debt it leads to a string of betrayals. Another brilliant film by one of my favorite directors. I’m so glad I finally got to see it. Great script and cast. Highly recommended. (On MAX)
This is a great movie. Stanley Kubrick was a big fan, so much that he recreated the scene of Vittorio De Sica dancing with Danielle Darrieux for Eyes Wide Shut. -
PygmyLion — 9 months ago(June 22, 2025 09:47 PM)
Dallas
1950 - Gary Cooper, Raymond Massey, Ruth Romaine - solid western movie. **1/2
I Know Where I'm Going 1945- Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesay, Pamela Brown. Powell and Pressburger film. Joan Webster (Hiller) heads off to marry a rich husband on Kiloran in the Hebrides (Scotland), but she runs into Torquill McNeal (Livesay) on the way… One of my favorites. ****
So Long at the Fair
1950 - Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde, David Tomlinson - Mystery -Victoria Barton (Simmons) with her brother Johnny arrive in Paris for the 1889 Fair. During the night Johnny totally disappears, even his room disappears. Can Victoria with th help of George Hathaway (Bogarde) solve the mystery. - ***1/2
Deadline at Dawn
1946 - Susan Hayword, Paul Lukas, Bill Williams - Mystery - June Goffe (Hayward) helps a young sailor (Williams) to find out the truth behind the death of a woman he was with when he passed out, and will probably be accused of murdering - by the time his bus leaves at dawn - ***1/2
Morocco
1930 - Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Adolph Menjou. Adventure. ***1/2
Suddenly
1954 - Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, Nancy Gates, James Gleason - John Barron (Sinatra) is planning on assassinating the President, can the local sheriff (Hayden) stop him. ***
- Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesay, Pamela Brown. Powell and Pressburger film. Joan Webster (Hiller) heads off to marry a rich husband on Kiloran in the Hebrides (Scotland), but she runs into Torquill McNeal (Livesay) on the way… One of my favorites. ****
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spiderwort — 9 months ago(June 23, 2025 01:27 PM)
I share your love for
I Know Where I'm Going
, P.L. It's a wonderful film with outstanding performances by Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey and marvelous direction by Powell & Pressburger. Haven't seen
So Long at the Fair
, but I wish I had. Will see if I can find it. And I haven't seen
Morrocco
either, but of the others I quite enjoyed
Deadline at Dawn
. -
JohnnyBoy — 9 months ago(June 22, 2025 11:32 PM)
https://thecineviewer.com/picnicathangingrock.html
https://thecineviewer.com/thebostonians.html
https://thecineviewer.com/thelegendofhellhouse.html
https://thecineviewer.com/across110thstreet.html
https://thecineviewer.com/lesdiaboliques.html
https://thecineviewer.com/thekillingofsistergeorge.html
For tons of movie reviews, 60+ genre lists, best of the year lists, and other content, check out:
www.thecineviewer.com -
NZer — 9 months ago(June 22, 2025 11:53 PM)
The Shiralee. Great Australian film about a swaggie and his daughter exploring the great outback of Australia together after he finds his wife in bed with another man. He uplifts his daughter and they take off. It's heartwarming and brilliant. This is is The Peter Finch version.
You can watch it here:
https://www.filmboards.com/board/10050961/ -
spiderwort — 9 months ago(June 23, 2025 01:37 PM)
This one sounds really interesting,
@NZer
, but I'm unable to view it on this site (have never been able to watch anything here). But I'll see if I can find it somewhere else. I think I would probably really enjoy it. -
Rufus-T — 9 months ago(June 23, 2025 06:05 AM)
"The Chosen", Season 1 (2019)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5622316/episodes/?season=1&ref_=ttrv_ov_epl_sn
This is a highly regarded series that interpreting the journey of Jesus Christ. I have heard from Christian that this is one of the best depiction of Christ, and Season 5 just came out. so I am giving this a try. It is a bit confusing in the beginning like many series do. It started out that each episode delivered a topic. Altogether, the 8 episodes of the first season is about gathering his disciples. I don't know any of the actors. Jonathan Roumie played Jesus. Dallas Jenkins is the creator. The production value good but not superb, better than practically any Christian stuff I have watched.. I do like how the first season coming together. I will continue to watch.
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13433802/
I thought the first 2 A Quiet Place films were excellent. In those 2 movies, we were thrown into the middle of the crisis. This sequel, I hope will give us the origin. What we got is following an angry termiinally ill woman in New York City witnessing the arrival of the monsters. We just get to see her experience of escaping from them. There were no explanation whatsoever about anything. We don't even know her background and why she was so bitter about everyone. Lupita Nyong'o played the woman. She is a great actress, but the character is so bitter that sometime I wish the monster just take her and done with it which took away the suspense of the story. If you are looking for the connection to the Abbott family, you'll be disappointed. Michael Sarnoski directed this one instead of John Krasinski.
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer (2025)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35629774/
As the officers looking for a missing girl in Long Island, they uncover more dead body of other people all except one were female. This is a 3 part series, and a Very typical Netflix crime documentary. I was just having it on while I am doing something. It did got my attention.
Oddity (2024)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26470109/
A medium psychic trying to figure the death of her twin sister. This is one creepy supernatural horror. Not much gore, and almost purely atmospheric. Setting was quite good, though very dark much of the time. I like the story. Carolyn Bracken was very good playing both roles of the twins sisters. Directed and written by Damian McCarthy. This was only his 2nd feature films.
The Night of the Long Knives: Hitler's Rise to Power (2020)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12969328/
I heard about The Night of the Long Knives, particularly from the Luchino Visconti movie The Damned. I don't know much about it so I put on this French documentary which was dubbed in English on Amazon Prime. It was more interesting than I thought, and learnt of how brutal Hitler was to his friend Ernst Röhm.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27902121/
Very emotionally touching documentary about Christopher Reeve focus mostly about his role of Superman and his later accident. The one hero of the story was his wife Dana Reeve. The documentary includes interviews of his family, particularly his 3 children with two of them from his first wife. Also interviews from actors friends like Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Glenn Close. One thing I didn't know that he was a very close friend of Robin Williams. They were like brothers.
Challengers(2024)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16426418/
The movie started off with two men about to begin a tennis match in a tournament, and then the focus turned towards a woman in the stand. We then go back and forth in several time frame about a love triangle that got to the current situation. The flash back went all the way to when they were junior tennis players. Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor played the two guys, and Zendaya played the woman. It was very confusing at first, but make do make sense later on. So I do give Luca Guadagnino credit for the direction. The problem is the three people are so annoying that it was hard to like them. Maybe that is the point. That they are not likable self-serving people. The movie tried to use tennis as a metaphor in life. I thought Woody Allen's Match Point did a better job in that. I did not find the dialogue interesting either. The performance of two actors were very good, especially Mike Faist who I already like from West Side Story. Zendaya, on the other hand, she is the same broody face with a bitchy attitude every movie she's in. Same here. -
spiderwort — 9 months ago(June 23, 2025 01:49 PM)
Haven't seen any of these, Rufus (just don't watch many new films these days). But
The Night of the Long Knives: Hitler's Rise to Power
sounds really interesting, so hopefully I'll be able to watch that one. And I think I must see
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
, which I know is on Max. So thanks for the introduction to that. (Btw, I still haven't watched
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Appocalypse
; sometimes when I bookmark something on YouTube, it gets lost in the shuffle. But I will watch it sometime soon, I promise).
