Movies

Spirits of the Dead (1968) Compilation film of Poe stories by three European directors. Vadim's is artsy, vague and tedious with lots of scanty costumes; Malle's is intimate and precise and it makes Bardot look like an actress; Fellini's is more intensely hallucinogenic than usual but is about his common topic of the torments of fame. Malle's is the most grounded, least trippy and mod of the three, and convinces me that I am going to have to break down and see some of his stuff. As a movie, it's not so hot but it is educational. 5/10

Note: it appears I have already seen Malle's Elevator to the Gallows and The Fire Within. I liked the former as an exceptionally well-balanced thriller, didn't care much for the latter since the protagonist is self-centered and unappealing and you just want him to kill himself like he says he is going to.

Movies

Panique (1947) An unpleasant, but perfectly innocent and relatively harmless, man becomes the target of intentionally malicious gossip and mob violence. A resounding condemnation of then-recent historical events, and overall a well-presented story. Michel Simon is always both repellent and attractive in all his roles and is perfect for this one. 8/10

Paycheck (2003) A nice little twenty-minute short story by P. K. Dick is padded out to a numbing action movie with car chases, explosions, people constantly crashing through windows while running and shooting, as well as lots of running and shooting, shooting while running, running while being shot at, and shooting at people who are running. You get beeping letters and whirling wireframe computer models before the credits are over!! That is a warning right there. Luckily someone would pop in every twenty minutes or so to explain the concept to us dumb schmucks who find anything other than running and shooting real tough to figure out - at one point using an apple in the explanation - I am beginning to take note of the "apple explanation" as a hallmark of quality filmmaking. Ben Affleck is the guy trying to understand the message he left for himself from the future, and he looks really good running. Rarely has anyone had such talent for the role of shallow hunk. The disparity between concept and presentation in this movie is amazing -I am sure Dick never could have imagined so many people crashing through windows in one of his stories. Kind of a chore to sit through all that crap. 2/10

Movies

I'm accumulating an uncomfortable backlog of things I need to get watched so I am really buckling down and getting the work done. Recently I have seen Murders in the Zoo (1933) and Doctor X (1932), both starring icily villainous Lionel Atwill, neither of which were worthy of note except for the latter's failure to make full use of its primitive Technicolor. Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) I watched because of the sort of praise Ebert has given it, and found that although there are quite a few naked women in it, and it stars the charismatic William Smith, it didn't get much of a rise out of me. Yesterday I stuck my nose to the grindstone and got four movies watched, starting at 6 pm and ending at 1 am.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010) Directed by Bresson, from the comics by Tardi. Globe-trotting adventuress rides pterodactyl through the Paris skies to snatch from the guillotine the only man who can revive the ancient Egyptian mummy who might cure her sister, catatonic with a hatpin through her skull. The re-creation of early 20th century Paris was splendid, and it is a fairly entertaining lite adventure movie that passes the time painlessly. What it cannot capture from the comics is Tardi's heavy line and simple yet dense composition which adds a different kind of intensity from any live action rendition. 6/10

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) Lushly produced Yellow Peril spectacular - one of the most completely ridiculous things I have ever seen. It must have seemed amazing at the time to see every bit of orientalia they had in the warehouse dragged out and jammed higgledy-piggledy into every scene regardless of race or national origin, along with Turbaned Nubians, atrocious sparking and clattering pseudotechnology, and Karloff and Myrna Loy faking deranged Asianity, bellowing such catchphrases as "Kill the White Men and STEAL THEIR WOMEN!." Most dreadful of all is the final scene in which we are shown what a "Good Chinaman" is - a smirking dimwitted ignoramus in a white jacket. Stupidly and horribly amusing. 6/10

The Girl on the Boat (1962) Starring Norman Wisdom, this is one of the far-too-rare films of a P.G. Wodehouse novel. As such it maintains a certain level of urbanity and wit. Wisdom's more working-class mugging lowers the tone a bit at times but on the whole it is mild and pleasant without being outright hilarious. A really good Wodehouse movie has yet to be made, though the BBC's various treatments have been uniformly charming. 6/10

The Devil-Doll (1936) The hit of the evening, yet another gem I have managed to miss for decades. Lionel Barrymore makes use of a mad scientist's invention to get revenge on the men who destroyed his life. Rafaela Ottiano as the scientist's wife and heir to his madness is outstandingly bizarre as she carries on the dream of one day reducing all living creatures on earth to ONE SIXTH THEIR SIZE. With no will of their own, miniature humans are controlled by Barrymore, by remote mental influence, to carry out his vengeance. The effects, inserting small humans and animals into the scene, are extremely well done considering the technical constraints of the day. Also notable is Barrymore's convincing disguise through most of the film as an old woman. Bizarre in conception and execution, it's exactly why I plow through all that other crap - for a transcendent experience like this. 10/10

We can make the WHOLE WORLD small!!!

Movies

Petlya Oriona [Orion's Loop] (1980) Soviet science fiction of the Metaphysical school. A shipful of cosmonauts and their android replicas investigate an apparently deadly ring of energy approaching earth and encounter difficulty in communicating with an advanced non-human race. Co-written by cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov. Kind of interesting at times but not very exciting. This was the first film I have ever seen from the Odessa Film Studio. 5/10

Movies

Byleth, el demone dell'incesto (1972) Costume psychodrama of a 19th century noble seemingly possessed by a murderous and incestuous spirit. Really just a skin flick and an excuse to indulge the passion of that era and nation, of depicting a mysterious figure in black stabbing naked women to death. Even that is muddled and vaguely executed, like everything else in the film. Apparently seeing an actor and actress supposed to be brother and sister making out was intended to be startling. 5/10

Movies

I'm a Cyborg, but That's Okay (2006) Eccentric and imaginative Korean romantic comedic fantasy. A young woman believes she is a cyborg and wears her grandmother's false teeth when she talks to other machines, and she finds understanding and love in the mental hospital. That is just the skeleton on which a very entertaining and well-executed film is built. Bright, colorful, inventive and fun, with fantastic and realistic elements seamlessly blended. 8/10

Addendum: Re-watched it with Donna, and it was well-received. Not as light as it first appears, and unconventional in every way.

Movies

Hiroku Kaibyoden [The Haunted Castle] (1969) Another version of the story filmed in 1958 as Mansion of the Ghost Cat. This version is from a classier studio and is a straight-ahead costume spook story of samurai days. The beloved pet of an unjustly slain vassal becomes a vengeful demon to punish the murderous lord of the castle. While it builds quite a bit of tension by keeping almost all of the action in claustrophobic night-dark hallways, with characters floating in isolated spheres of dim light, it really doesn't compare to the earlier version for imagination and sensation. Has its moments but you definitely want to go with the earlier one. 5/10

Echappement Libre [Backfire] (1964) Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and a Triumph Spitfire convertible made of gold wandering around the mediterranean. Sort of a heist movie so you can figure how it's going to end up. Never really makes a whole lot of sense, builds chemistry between the characters, or becomes very interesting. Passes the time painlessly, and is not challenging. 5/10

Movies

Il gatto a nove code (1971) Also known as The Cat O' Nine Tails, this is Dario Argento's second film, and the first I have gotten Donna to watch. Strangely, it is also the first of his films I ever saw, unknowingly viewing it in Buena Vista Colorado while on vacation with my mother. I don't recall what we thought of it at the time, but half a dozen scenes have stuck with me ever since, when many other movies have passed from my memory. Rather an over-elaborate muddle but filled with promise. Though his films came to indulge in far too much blatant stabbing and raping than I care for, one feature common to them all is that you can never, ever guess what will happen next. This one featured a baffling burglary at a genetics lab (and a completely off-the-wall "explanation" of the XYY chromosome idea) which leads to one murder after another, to be solved by blind puzzle-enthusiast Karl Malden and reporter James Franciscus. Argento movies often seem to be drawn out way too long, leaving one quite weary at the end, especially with the soundtrack (Morricone in this case) devolving into grating shrieks at tense moments, and there are plenty of tense moments. None of his movies are truly great, but all have a touch of greatness to them, being genuinely imaginative and innovative in both story and film technique. 7/10

Addendum: It should be noted that there is one scene shot in the composing room of a large newspaper, featuring dozens and dozens of linotypes. I always like to see linotypes in a movie.

Movies

Le beau Serge (1958) Claude Chabrol's accomplished first film. A young man returns to his hometown to find his old friend a cruel bitter drunk, and makes everything worse by trying to help. A movie of character, with the protagonist's errors encapsulated in the parish priest who blames the villagers for not letting him help them, instead of trying to find out what they really need. Has a fine nostalgic feel throughout, like a movie you have seen before but entirely forgotten. Just the thing for when you need to see a French semi-classic. 9/10

The Vulture (1967) Absurd British multigenerational-curse monster mystery, one of the few such set in Cornwall. After a vehemently unsuperstitious schoolmarm sees a human-headed vulture bursting out of an 18th century grave, brilliantined B-actor Robert Hutton, a visiting American Nuclear Scientist, comes to startling conclusions based on the scantiest physical evidence, bafflingly tying together teleportation by nuclear transmutation, and the bird-man worship of Easter Island. Broderick Crawford and Akim Tamiroff are the aging name actors dragged into this jaw-dropping, head-smacking absurdity. The script and dialog creep into the fringes of Ed Wood territory with their nonsensical non-sequiturs and bizarre leaps, as well as the dreadful acting from some tertiary characters. Tamiroff is one of my favorite unappreciated actors, and he certainly doesn't get much to work with here. They made the very wise choice of never providing a beauty shot of the idiotically conceived monster, but the attack sequences, when people get shoulder-grabbed by two big bird legs from above, are quite sufficient. Really quite astonishing at times, for all the wrong reasons, right up to the very last moment. Not a huge bulldada classic but definitely marbled with strong veins of it. Most normal people would not find it very watchable. 7/10 for screwiness.

Movies

El hombre perseguido por un Ovni (1976) Also enigmatically known as The Man of Ganimedes, this thrifty Spanish-made story of a man persecuted by a UFO is full of fun. Trippy light and film effects, NASA stock footage, gratuitous nudity and automotive excitement. Biomechanical humanoids from a flying saucer want to abduct this guy, so they steal his little grey Simca sedan and shove it off a cliff, then hoist it up with their saucer and ditch it IN SPACE, then chase him around and he fights with the yellow-blooded monstrosities a few times and eventually the silver-handed Master Controller in the motorcycle helmet with lights on it gets him on board the saucer to explain it all to him. Full of incident and bright color, wildly varying film quality and also some gratuitous nudity, which I may have mentioned, but pretty irrational plotwise. It's very important for this sort of film to have lots of extremely colorful bits, even if they are irrelevant or nonsensical - I mean ESPECIALLY if they are irrelevant or nonsensical. Just the type of movie that has me chortling with glee and exclaiming, "This is SO GREAT!" I salute semi-professional director Juan Carlos Olaria for a real good effort. Not really watchable by normal folks though, so 6/10.

He won't escape us with his car IN SPACE like this!

Movies

Crimen ferpecto (Ferpect Crime) 2004 - Extremely witty and original Spanish murder farce. Rafael is a department-store super-salesman and ladies' man who accidentally kills his boss and is blackmailed into marriage by the only witness - the only girl on the floor who wasn't attractive enough for him to notice. Very lively and imaginative cinematography, excellent characterizations and acting, with lots of laughs. Donna enjoyed it too. Good distraction for when you feel like you want to murder someone yourself. Outrageous colorful fun that goes places you won't expect. 9/10

Movies

La diosa arrodillada [The Kneeling Goddess] 1947 - Semi-coherent Mexican melo-noir starring Maria Felix, the most perfectly beautiful woman who ever lived. Off and on obsessive relationship is concretized when she realizes her married lover murdered his wife for her. This is a story of people who make the wrong choices and must inevitably suffer for them. Not such a great script but a top-notch production otherwise. Felix wears a different, astonishing and spectacular costume in each scene. She really is fantastically beautiful and the allure is enhanced by the fact that the kneeling goddess of the title is a full-size nude sculpture of her. I have been hoping for more of her films to be subtitled before I die, and believe she deserves greater worldwide recognition as an outstanding beauty and melodramatic actress. 7/10

Movies

Il Bidoni [variously The Swindle, or The Swindlers] (1955) Co-written and directed by Federico Fellini. Broderick Crawford is a con man running cruel swindles that rob poor people of their life's savings, and Richard Basehart appears as one of his associates. This shows the beginnings of his stylistic separation from the realist school and the development of his wandering narrative style. The more freakish aspect of his later work is undeveloped here, but characters and settings are slightly skewed. Interesting and entertaining overall, especially as one begins to think Crawford's character may be developing a conscience. 7/10

Movies

Visitors from the Galaxy (1981) Yugoslavian SF comedy - an aspiring author finds his characters have become real - a female robot, two space children and their toy monster which grows to startling size and goes on a beheading rampage at a wedding celebration. The destruction is always humorous and never gruesome, and there is a strange amount of nudity - a crowd of people seeking the aliens remove all their clothes to show they mean no harm, resulting in the unique spectacle of a cave full of naked people with flashlights looking for aliens. Surprisingly, on a shelf in the author's apartment is the model time-ship used in the Czechoslovakian time-travel comedy Tomorrow I Will Wake Up and Scald Myself With Tea reviewed here earlier. Fairly amusing throughout, and interesting to see the locations and settings on the Adriatic coast. 6/10

Horrors of Malformed Men (1969) Japanese film based on the writings of Edogawa Rampo. (I continue to believe that the unavailability of his work in English translation is a global conspiracy against me personally.) This is completely indescribable and one of the strangest things I have ever seen - and you know I am no dilettante when it comes to strange. 10/10

Movies

Burlesk Queen (1977) Gritty Filipino melodrama. Its star, Vilma Santos, later became a city mayor and is now a provincial governor. Very interesting to me for its scenes of barrio streets and snippets of variety acts on the stage. They seem to have been addressing the same issues as in the US 20 years earlier - attempts to shut down burlesque houses on moral grounds, with the theatre owner defending it as a true artform of the common people who are shut out of elitist amusements like opera and the symphony. Addresses some pretty serious life issues for the main character including her paralyzed self-pitying father and her unwanted pregnancy. Film skills displayed are a cut above the average, and some of the grimmest and most tragic backstage events are unnervingly intercut with the primitive gaiety of the onstage performances. I can't really recommend it as an entertainment, but I found it highly educational. 6/10

Z.P.G. (1972) I had read Max Ehrlich's novel The Edict and was looking forward to seeing this movie based on it - there was even a poster up at a local cinema - but somehow it never appeared. I later learned that its distribution was blocked by a reproductive rights organization of the same name. Now I have seen it. Highly unrealistic and imaginative dystopia in which people stand around in the dense smog listening to continuous public announcements, and their only form of amusement seems to be the museum of how life used to be before the Population Disaster ruined everything. So there is plenty of time to get all the explaining in that the audience needs to hear. People who violate the anti-breeding law are dragged to the nearest execution square and a helicopter flies in a plastic dome and drops it over them so they slowly suffocate. Entertaining sequences of a deranged mob screaming BABY! BABY! and hauling the little family to its dome of doom. Of course the protagonists are depicted as heroic for persisting in their criminality because babies are always good no matter how they ruin everyone else's life. I really liked the restaurant scenes with synthetic food in tubes and little bottles. Pretty ridiculous, but I am happy to have seen it at last. 5/10