What classics did you see last week, June 18 to June 24?
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unex — 2 years ago(June 24, 2023 11:18 PM)
Gunga Din (1939)
Uncut Gems (2019)
In a contemporary review for Gunga Din cited by Wikipedia
they complain about too many remakes and sequels coming out of Hollywood
:
Up to 1938, the cinema industry was occupied with an erratic progression from its beginning in nickelodeons to its last phenomenon, screwball comedies. In 1938 the industry stopped going forward, began going backward. The retrogression took three forms: 1) a series of revivals of old pictures, from The Sheik to Dracula; 2) a series of remakes, from If I Were King to The Adventures of Robin Hood; 3) a series of disguised remakes and delayed sequels like Going Places, The Chaser, Tarzan's Revenge.
Nothing ever changes. -
spiderwort — 2 years ago(June 25, 2023 01:48 PM)
Too often sad but true. I think it's worse now though, just because of the monumental deluge of productions. And because people don't – or aren't permitted to – tell stories that are born out of their own experiences, which in some way would make them unique and personal.
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PygmyLion — 2 years ago(June 25, 2023 02:41 AM)
Holiday
(1938) - Cary Grant, Catherine Hepburn, Lew Ayres - 10
Smilin' Through
(1932) - Leslie Howard, Frederic March, Norma Shearer - Another WWI era movie - 7
The White Sister
(1933) - Helen Hayes, Clark Gable - WWI Italy tearjerker - 7
War Nurse
(1930) - Robert Montgomery, June Walker, Anita Page - Nurses at the front in WWI - 7
Play Girl
(1932) - Lorreta Young, Winnie Lightner, Norman Fraser - 7
Millie
(1931) - Helen Twelvetrees, Joan Blondell, Lilyan Tashman - 7 -
Rufus-T — 2 years ago(June 25, 2023 06:20 AM)
The Batman (2022)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877830/reference/
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1488589/reference/ -
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ZolotoyRetriever — 2 years ago(June 25, 2023 07:07 AM)
Watched these on Father's Day, courtesy of TCM programming:
The Courtship of Eddy's Father
(1963) [FTV]
Life with Father
(1947)
Father of the Bride
(1950) [FTV]
Later on TCM saw:
Bay of Angels
(1964) [FTV]
Pitfall
(1948)
No Marriage Ties
(1933)
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession
(2004) [FTV]
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael
(2018) [FTV]
…and lastly, DVR'd off of TCM last September, finally getting around to seeing it:
I Love Trouble
(1948) [FTV]
*FTV = First time viewing -
spiderwort — 2 years ago(June 25, 2023 02:08 PM)
Great list, Zolo. I have seen and enjoy a lot of those. And although I don't think it's a wonderful movie, for whatever reason
The Courtship of Eddie's Father
is a personal favorite.
I've got What
She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael
recorded, but haven't watched it yet. And I'm kicking myself for missing
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession
; saw the last few minutes of it and knew that I had missed something special (or so it seemed). Oh! I just found it on-line on TCM! Hate watching things that way, but it's better than nothing. Thanks so much for the reminder. -
ZolotoyRetriever — 2 years ago(June 25, 2023 02:35 PM)
The Courtship of Eddie's Father
was good enough, and I liked Glenn Ford's effort, but there were a bunch of times in the movie that I distinctly felt that Jack Lemmon would've been perfect for that role. Keep that in mind if you ever see it again.
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael
is excellent. Even if you don't agree with everything - or even anything - she wrote in her critiques, you can't help but applaud her taking a poke at various "sacred cows" in film.
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession
was quite an eye-opener. If seeing it on the TCM site is your only option, I would still give it a go. Worth it, IMO.
Of the movies on the list,
Bay of Angels
was the best… really well-done study of the effects of a serious gambling addiction on some peoples' lives.
The "worst" one of the batch was the last one,
I Love Trouble
. It's a B&W crime noir, which I suppose I should've liked (and Eddie Muller gave his usual thorough and informative intro & outro), but the plot is absurdly convoluted, as well as unlikely and improbable, and Franchot Tone playing a suave L.A. private eye was a stretch to say the least. Still, it's got its moments, with more than a few eye-candy femmes fatale, plus some nice location footage of 1940's L.A. thrown in to keep it interesting. -
spiderwort — 2 years ago(June 25, 2023 04:03 PM)
I haven't seen
Bay of Angels
, but with its cast, director, and your recommendation, I'll keep an eye out for it. I sometimes get overwhelmed these days though – too many films, too little time. I'm sure you can relate to that.
And thanks for the update on everything else, too. Very helpful info (though for me, Glenn Ford is still my guy in
The Courtship of Eddie's Father
).
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Sophienoire — 2 years ago(June 28, 2023 10:34 AM)
a little late to the party:
The Lady Eve
(Preston Sturges, 1941) 9/10 rewatch
my (very short) review with lots of screen shots:
https://www.filmboards.com/board/t/Barbara-Stanwyck-is-mesmerising-in-The-Lady-Eve-(1941)-3457671/
Pure
(Lisa Langseth, 2010, Sweden) 9/10
my review:
https://www.filmboards.com/board/t/Alicia-Vikanders-incredibly-intense-debut-3457783/
The Shanghai Gesture
(Josef von Sternberg, 1941) 9/10 rewatch
my review:
https://www.filmboards.com/board/t/Von-Sternbergs-Noir-Is-Sheer-Madness!-Lmao-3458111/
Remember the Night
(Mitchell Leisen, 1940) 8/10
my review:
https://www.filmboards.com/board/t/This-Barbara-Stanwyck-movie-caught-me-by-surprise-3458297/
Children of Men
(Alfonso Cuarón, 2006) 10/10 latest of many rewatches
my review:
https://www.filmboards.com/board/t/one-of-my-fav-movies-of-all-time-3458375/
Asteroid City
(Wes Anderson, 2023) 8/10
my review:
https://www.filmboards.com/board/t/The-new-Wes-Anderson-movie-is-quite-good-but-not-his-best-3458946/
Night Must Fall
(Karel Reisz, 1964) 8/10
This was such an unexpected treat and I believe Reisz and Finney weren't entirely satisfied with the results, but if there is a film that begs for re-evaluation it certainly is this.
I can see Hammer style in it which had developed in the 1950s - the mansion on the skirts, the intruder in the house, skeleton in a suitcase literally, how Albert Finney and Mona Washbourne play their scenes together, a few shock-cut sequences - but this is unmistakably an Angry Young Man/Kitchen Sink/Free Cinema film, full of class resentments and conflicts, notably from Finney in a memorable performance. There are extraordinary scenes of nervous breakdown descending into madness in the final moments, almost abstract in their visual, white-on-white intensity. I think it's a remarkable film.
Pale Flower
(Masahiro Shinoda, 1964) 10/10
Based on a novel by Ishihara, this soul-searching Japanese neo-noir-drama about a gangster and a woman of mystery is more than a little mysterious, with a quiet despair, the hopelessness that their dreams will never come true and are essentially unrealistic. Although not particularly comparable, at least not on a plot level, Pale Flower put me in the same meditatively dark mood that
Raise the Red Lantern
or
2046
usually put me in. Pale Flower is mindblowingly beautiful and thoroughly emotionally powerful. It feels like being trapped in a not too uncomfortable but very somber nightmare. And it has one of the best endings in a film ever, when music counters a violent act in a stunning way. I can't stop thinking about it.
The Tattered Wings
(Keisuke Kinoshita, 1955) 8/10
Loved it. It's straight-up Japanese soap opera drama but a very quiet one where a gesture or an expression on the actors' faces speak volumes, raised above average by a great cast with the always great Hideko Takamine. It also has wonderful cinematography with lots of beautiful landscape shots especially during the train sequences. Here, writer-director Keisuke Kinoshita argues that people have a right to be with whom they love, even as society and family push them towards miserable conformity. Andre Gide's novel Strait Is The Gate that Fuyuko had loaned to Keizo when they were younger is kind of like an inversion of Tattered Wings' plot. Lots of references to the book are made in the film and even the movie's title is a reference.
Woman
(Keisuke Kinoshita, 1948) 8/10
A post-war Japanese film that kind of harkens back to silent and early sound cinema. In particular it reminded me of two masterpieces from those eras, Murnau's
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
and Jean Vigo's
L'Atalante- although I have to say that Woman is not nearly as timeless or memorable. It's still quite good, though.
Dancehall girl Mitsuko Mito gets an urgent message from her boyfriend (Eitaro Ozawa) to meet him at the train station. Soon after the two have boarded the train together, Mito realizes that Ozawa was the perpetrator of a heinous crime, robbing a family and stabbing a police officer while fleeing. As soon as she can she exits the train, but he follows her.
Most of the film is made up of scenes of the two wandering around beautiful but desolate landscapes, sometimes discussing their relationship or his crimes, but often just vibing with their surroundings. Story-wise, it may be thin, but it's a mood piece. It's often beautiful and quite sad. An underappreciated gem.
The Rose on His Arm
(Keisuke Kinoshita, 1956) 7/10
Keisuke Kinoshita directs this film about a juvenile delinquent who is caught between the positive example of his mother and the negative influence of his friends. This is 2nd tier basic stuff, with an uninteresting main character but a solid script and it looks gorgeous. It's just not my favourite melodrama from Kinoshita is all.
the sound of your racing heart
- although I have to say that Woman is not nearly as timeless or memorable. It's still quite good, though.
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spiderwort — 2 years ago(June 28, 2023 12:43 PM)
What a great week of viewing, Sophie! So many wonderful films, many of which I've seen (including 2 of my favorites,
Remember the Night
and
The Lady Eve
), and so many others I haven't seen, which also seem wonderful. I will add them to my list, especially
Tattered Wings, Pale Flower, Woman
, and
Pure
. Thanks for the wonderful reviews.
