This makes three movies I watched today - I really whoop it up when the Mrs. is away.
Man of the World (1931) I got this set of five Carole Lombard movies from the library in the hope of cracking the Lombard enigma. I have seen her most famous films and found her strangely unappealing. William Powell is an American scoundrel in Paris, Lombard is the sweet girl who makes him rue his evil ways. I can already see more interest and appeal to her here than I have ever seen before. Powell is always great, and this was before the Hollywood Ending was made mandatory so things don't always go they way you think they might. Wonderful gowns. 7/10
The Princess and the Warrior (2000) Directed by Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run; Perfume) A long, complex, emotionally intense romantic adventure. You can't even guess what is going to happen next in this unique story. I found it very easy to connect with the characters and felt like I had been put through the wringer when it was finally over but it was rewarding. A very good film for intelligent adults. Filmed in Wuppertal, home of the world's oldest monorail. 8/10
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Movies
Rome, Open City (1945) Friend Seth invited some folks over to watch this, Rosselini's harshly unflinching look at life under Nazi occupation. Strong stuff even now, and it must have been doubly so at the time, considering the general tenor of popular film in which the protagonist must survive with only a slight smudge on the cheek, not be horribly tortured to death or callously gunned down. A superior film. 9/10
After everyone else left and the wife went to bed we watched Starcrash (1978), to my mind the most enjoyable of all Italian post-Star Wars space opera. Economical and primitive, with no appealing characters but lots of bright colors and moving shapes. Relentlessly nonsensical and a welcome opportunity to appreciate the dubious talents of Caroline Munro and Marjoe Gortner. I smiled all the way through. 8/10 Thanks, Seth!
With my own wife on the opposite side of the planet for a week I can do whatever I want so this morning watched Home on the Range (2004). From the little I had seen of it I was afraid it might be too frenetic for my tastes, and its reception on release gave me the impression that it was in general a failure. On the contrary, I found it quite enjoyable and well-balanced. A simple "catch the bad guy, save the farm" story that never takes itself or anything else seriously, yet it becomes surprisingly touching during the sentimental musical interludes. A deliberate step back to classic Disney esthetics in character design and settings, with luminous - even glorious backgrounds. A cut above many more popular productions, and overall a well-contrived unity. Nice work. 9/10
After everyone else left and the wife went to bed we watched Starcrash (1978), to my mind the most enjoyable of all Italian post-Star Wars space opera. Economical and primitive, with no appealing characters but lots of bright colors and moving shapes. Relentlessly nonsensical and a welcome opportunity to appreciate the dubious talents of Caroline Munro and Marjoe Gortner. I smiled all the way through. 8/10 Thanks, Seth!
With my own wife on the opposite side of the planet for a week I can do whatever I want so this morning watched Home on the Range (2004). From the little I had seen of it I was afraid it might be too frenetic for my tastes, and its reception on release gave me the impression that it was in general a failure. On the contrary, I found it quite enjoyable and well-balanced. A simple "catch the bad guy, save the farm" story that never takes itself or anything else seriously, yet it becomes surprisingly touching during the sentimental musical interludes. A deliberate step back to classic Disney esthetics in character design and settings, with luminous - even glorious backgrounds. A cut above many more popular productions, and overall a well-contrived unity. Nice work. 9/10
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Movies
On Dangerous Ground (1952) Unusual "alpine" noir, Robert Ryan as the angry violent cop and Ida Lupino as the vulnerable woman who helps him find his heart. Ryan's furious violence reveals an almost sexual tension at times. Full of notable names on both sides of the camera, and plenty of familiar faces. Starts off in a night-dark rain-slick city and proceeds to an extended snowy mountain foot-chase. Exceptionally amusing appearance by Gus Schilling as Lucky, the twitchy informer, and Nita Talbot is super-luscious in her short scene as an underage b-girl. Overall a bit odd, but it goes in unusual directions and is fun to see. I was struck by the remarkable amount of cleavage the original poster art of Ida Lupino revealed, more than she ever possessed in reality. 7/10
Addendum: I failed to note the powerful Bernard Hermann score which contributes greatly to the pulse-pounding chases with literal "hammer and anvil" percussion. Should be on his greatest hits album.
Addendum: I failed to note the powerful Bernard Hermann score which contributes greatly to the pulse-pounding chases with literal "hammer and anvil" percussion. Should be on his greatest hits album.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Recent Viewing
The Golden Compass (2007), The Tale of Despereaux (2008) Two pretty fair quest-fantasy books given a severe beating with the "Excessively Detailed CGI" stick. The Golden Compass has some tasty gadgetporn and likeable characters, and I found it at times interesting and engaging. The Tale of Despereaux is another exploration of the connection between rodents and soup. Surprising moments of brilliance amid a sea of "enh." Sometimes stylization can carry an emotional moment far better than an intricately detailed overcrowded muddle of spectacle. Both 4/10
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Movies
TV Double Feature:
Blacula (1972) Vampire cheapie is made slightly more interesting by its ethnic setting and lovely Denise Nicholas. Provides the unique spectacle, never again repeated to my knowledge, of a cruising gay black vampire. Cameo by Elisha Cook Jr. as a needlessly one-handed morgue attendant - the kind of deal where one sleeve has to be four inches longer because he's got a prop prosthesis on over his hand - who unfortunately does not re-appear as a needlessly one-handed vampire morgue attendant as I had hoped after his demise. Worth seeing once so you can say you did. 4/10
Some Girls Do (1969) British-made attempt to re-introduce 1930s action hero Bulldog Drummond as a swinging super-spy opposed by a feeble villain and a dozen robotized bikini babes with artificial brains. Even Robert Morley's five minutes onscreen are uninteresting, thanks to the aimless script. Minor distraction is provided by mediterranean locations and the mildly diverting sight of young women of average figure in bright orange bathing suits carrying machine guns. A sleep aid. 2/10
Blacula (1972) Vampire cheapie is made slightly more interesting by its ethnic setting and lovely Denise Nicholas. Provides the unique spectacle, never again repeated to my knowledge, of a cruising gay black vampire. Cameo by Elisha Cook Jr. as a needlessly one-handed morgue attendant - the kind of deal where one sleeve has to be four inches longer because he's got a prop prosthesis on over his hand - who unfortunately does not re-appear as a needlessly one-handed vampire morgue attendant as I had hoped after his demise. Worth seeing once so you can say you did. 4/10
Some Girls Do (1969) British-made attempt to re-introduce 1930s action hero Bulldog Drummond as a swinging super-spy opposed by a feeble villain and a dozen robotized bikini babes with artificial brains. Even Robert Morley's five minutes onscreen are uninteresting, thanks to the aimless script. Minor distraction is provided by mediterranean locations and the mildly diverting sight of young women of average figure in bright orange bathing suits carrying machine guns. A sleep aid. 2/10
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Movies
Moon (2009) The kind of SF movie where SF stands for Science Fiction, not Space Fantasy or Silly Fairytale. The best Science Fiction is about what it means to be human, and this is an excellent example. Intelligently presented and technically precise. 9/10
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Funny
Somebody says I wrote this once:
We never used to have humor, we had to laugh at tragedy. Used to go down to the Golden Age Home and wait for someone to die, just to have a chuckle. A funeral was as good as a variety show to us. Some days there was nothing to laugh at but the weather. A good stiff breeze blowing and we thought we were in a Vaudeville house. Even then we sometimes had nothing to laugh at but earthworks, a ditch maybe, or a wagon rut. A slight elevation or declivity was as good to us as any of your modern comedy routines. Pile up a bit of sand, and do our best to make merry. Even then we were lucky to have that. I recall the time we found a rabbit track, didn't we howl then. Many a time I spent the day giggling over a pebble or a bit of a twig no longer than your thumbnail. A slight discoloration or unevenness, even a barely perceptible stain would do us fine for a laugh or two. No we didn't have much but we made do.
We never used to have humor, we had to laugh at tragedy. Used to go down to the Golden Age Home and wait for someone to die, just to have a chuckle. A funeral was as good as a variety show to us. Some days there was nothing to laugh at but the weather. A good stiff breeze blowing and we thought we were in a Vaudeville house. Even then we sometimes had nothing to laugh at but earthworks, a ditch maybe, or a wagon rut. A slight elevation or declivity was as good to us as any of your modern comedy routines. Pile up a bit of sand, and do our best to make merry. Even then we were lucky to have that. I recall the time we found a rabbit track, didn't we howl then. Many a time I spent the day giggling over a pebble or a bit of a twig no longer than your thumbnail. A slight discoloration or unevenness, even a barely perceptible stain would do us fine for a laugh or two. No we didn't have much but we made do.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Recent Viewing
The Saltmen of Tibet (1997) Documentary. Four men take 160 yaks and walk for a month to a salt lake where they scrape up the salt and pack it into bags. Then they walk back. They don't have much to talk about except what they are doing. Pretty amazing to see, and puts one's own experience in a certain perspective. 7/10
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) When I read the novel Perfume by Patrick Suskind some years ago I felt it was a purely literary experience which could never be adequately filmed. I am happy to find myself mistaken. Critical response at the time of its release gave me the impression that it weirded them out, that the concept was too bizarre for them to like it. Not me because I like stuff weird - not just "look how zany or gross I can be" but "how did they even think of this" type of weird . I was as pleased with the unique conception of the book as I was the beautiful execution of the film. It's about a lot of things - a man who is in a sense an innocent in that he doesn't know the crimes he commits are wrong, the folly of trying to recapture First Love, and the underesteemed power of scent to affect our thoughts and emotions. 10/10
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) When I read the novel Perfume by Patrick Suskind some years ago I felt it was a purely literary experience which could never be adequately filmed. I am happy to find myself mistaken. Critical response at the time of its release gave me the impression that it weirded them out, that the concept was too bizarre for them to like it. Not me because I like stuff weird - not just "look how zany or gross I can be" but "how did they even think of this" type of weird . I was as pleased with the unique conception of the book as I was the beautiful execution of the film. It's about a lot of things - a man who is in a sense an innocent in that he doesn't know the crimes he commits are wrong, the folly of trying to recapture First Love, and the underesteemed power of scent to affect our thoughts and emotions. 10/10
Monday, January 11, 2010
Movies
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) Sometimes I feel like I must have fallen into this world from an alternate dimension. I just did not get this at all. Went right over my head. Am I brain damaged or something? Q/10
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Recent Viewing
Travelers and Magicians (2003) The only movie I have yet seen from Bhutan. A road movie with a fairy tale stuck in, kind of interesting, kind of nice to look at. The winding mountain road reminded me of long Sunday drives on the dirt roads in the Colorado mountains of my childhood, but with stupas and prayer flags added. 5/10
Bad Education (2004) A more serious, less fun, Almodovar film. Still very colorful and with the obligatory drag shows and transsexual junkies, but with a grimmer edge of blackmail, murder and pederasty by the clergy. As always, shows you things you never see anywhere else, but kind of a downer. 6/10
Pete's Dragon (1977) This must be just about the nadir of Disney Studios' fallow period. Starts off bizarre and disturbing and becomes simply dreadful. Much of the "humor" depends on drunkenness or pratfalls, and there is a startling Saloon dance extravaganza ending with plug-popping beer kegs orgasmically spewing gouts of foam over the frantically leaping crowd. Very little appeal in the music, the stars, or Don Bluth's creepy mumbling cartoon dragon. Minor appearance by Robert Easton salvages nothing. The best part was when I fell asleep. 2/10
Bad Education (2004) A more serious, less fun, Almodovar film. Still very colorful and with the obligatory drag shows and transsexual junkies, but with a grimmer edge of blackmail, murder and pederasty by the clergy. As always, shows you things you never see anywhere else, but kind of a downer. 6/10
Pete's Dragon (1977) This must be just about the nadir of Disney Studios' fallow period. Starts off bizarre and disturbing and becomes simply dreadful. Much of the "humor" depends on drunkenness or pratfalls, and there is a startling Saloon dance extravaganza ending with plug-popping beer kegs orgasmically spewing gouts of foam over the frantically leaping crowd. Very little appeal in the music, the stars, or Don Bluth's creepy mumbling cartoon dragon. Minor appearance by Robert Easton salvages nothing. The best part was when I fell asleep. 2/10
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Movies
We have seen some pretty good stuff lately like Shadows In Paradise (1986), an earlier Kaurismaaki film which was kind of talky - meaning it had like one third as much dialog as a normal movie instead of one tenth. We watched Santa Claus Conquers the Martians for Xmas and Donna agreed with my assessment that it is witty, colorful and inventive, and fun to watch. Then for new years we watched a double feature on TV of the Danny Kaye movie Wonder Man, which mostly caused me to sigh in dismay except for the great technicolor costumes, followed by Your Past Is Showing (originally The Naked Truth) - a 1957 British comedy starring Peter Sellers and Terry-Thomas which had all the laughs missing from Wonder Man and more. We laughed all the way through. It was a nutty story, very Wodehouseian in that there were lots of people plotting at cross-purposes and ruining each other's complex plans. VERY VERY FUNNY.
What I really want to do here though is bitch about BEE MOVIE. The Jerry Seinfeld Dreamworks animated Bee Movie. When the only quote on the front of the box is from Gene Shalit, LOOK OUT. This damn thing was conceptually wrong from before the credits were done rolling. They show a shelf with six shoes - bee shoes. Then another shelf of six shoes and a shelf of stacks of six socks - because bees have six legs. Then they show the bee, which has TWO ARMS AND TWO LEGS. Bees can fly, so they fly TO THEIR LITTLE BEE CARS which they then drive around in. There is a trial scene, with a jury that exists only for the characters to make speeches at because the judge just RENDERS A DECISION and ends the trial, with the jury doing NOTHING AT ALL. The main character can barely keep up with a taxi cab in one scene, but in another scene about a million bees can fly as fast as a jet airliner. If bees don't pollinate plants it makes them SHRIVEL UP AND TURN GREY because pollen is some kind of miracle powder that if you sprinkle it on a dead tree IT COMES BACK TO LIFE. Flower pollen, on a tree - the LEAVES of a tree. You'd think at some point in the creative process somebody who has fundamental basic knowledge would have stepped up and said DUBYA TEE EFF, MAN! Seriously, FOR GODS SAKE. It took me four sittings to get through this damn thing and I love cartoons. Love them. Would rather watch a cartoon than anything. Absolutely appalling. 0/10
What I really want to do here though is bitch about BEE MOVIE. The Jerry Seinfeld Dreamworks animated Bee Movie. When the only quote on the front of the box is from Gene Shalit, LOOK OUT. This damn thing was conceptually wrong from before the credits were done rolling. They show a shelf with six shoes - bee shoes. Then another shelf of six shoes and a shelf of stacks of six socks - because bees have six legs. Then they show the bee, which has TWO ARMS AND TWO LEGS. Bees can fly, so they fly TO THEIR LITTLE BEE CARS which they then drive around in. There is a trial scene, with a jury that exists only for the characters to make speeches at because the judge just RENDERS A DECISION and ends the trial, with the jury doing NOTHING AT ALL. The main character can barely keep up with a taxi cab in one scene, but in another scene about a million bees can fly as fast as a jet airliner. If bees don't pollinate plants it makes them SHRIVEL UP AND TURN GREY because pollen is some kind of miracle powder that if you sprinkle it on a dead tree IT COMES BACK TO LIFE. Flower pollen, on a tree - the LEAVES of a tree. You'd think at some point in the creative process somebody who has fundamental basic knowledge would have stepped up and said DUBYA TEE EFF, MAN! Seriously, FOR GODS SAKE. It took me four sittings to get through this damn thing and I love cartoons. Love them. Would rather watch a cartoon than anything. Absolutely appalling. 0/10
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