Sorry for the megapost, got some catching up to do, and I've been quite a busy watcher recently.
4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days - An extremely tense story. Set in Communist Romania 1987, it's about a young college student in search of an (illegal) abortion, and her roommate who goes FAR beyond the call of duty to help her. The film is really gripping, with a sense of dread around every corner, helped by the minimalist style. The cinematography is mostly handheld, documentary-style, and there's no music whatsoever, all of which puts you right in the moment with the feeling the anything can happen, and the worst probably will. Stark and unsettling. Rating: 8
Leningrad Cowboys: Total Balalaika Show (rewatch) - Okay, so it'll never surpass Stop Making Sense as the world's best concert film, but it's still pretty awesome. Absurd, surreal, funny, catchy, spectacular and just a lotta fun. I'd love to visit Finland, they seem like they have a great sense of humor over there. I hate having yet another substandard Facets DVD in my collection, but with so few Kaurismaki movies available in this country, I'll take what I can get. When's he gonna do a new movie, anyway? Rating: 8
Atlantic City - A crime thriller/romantic drama, a little lackluster but redeemed by its heartfelt, bittersweet ending. Burt Lancaster is terrific as the delusional, wannabe big-shot... Susan Sarandon is merely passable, but she's saddled with an inconsistent, poorly-defined character. It's rather amusing that Wallace Shawn plays a waiter here, and a diner in Malle's next film (My Dinner With Andre). Rating: 7
Lola Montes - Max Ophuls' final film displays all the magnificently choreographed camera movement that I've grown to expect from him. And the circus framework is an interesting device that allows for a lot of spectacle. But frankly I found the whole thing kinda dull, and didn't feel at all engrossed by Lola or her activities. There's a hint of a feminist idea here, but Ophuls seems reluctant to commit, alternately portraying Lola as a free-spirited heroine and a passive victim of male-dominated society. I was excited to see Oskar Werner, albeit in a very small role. Nice cinematography, but so far the weakest film I've seen from Ophuls. Rating: 6
La Ronde - Having just watched the relatively boring Lola Montes, I wasn't looking forward to any more Ophuls. But this one turned out to be quite different. It's a light, funny, sexy romance/comedy with a clever plot device. It follows the amorous exploits of ten couples, each including a member of the couple preceding it... eventually returning to the original pairing. As so it turns, a bit like a carousel, as the title refers to (amusingly, the carousel breaks down when one of the characters experiences impotence). Anton Walbrook plays the narrator/ringleader/Greek chorus, often popping up to intervene in some small way. The cast includes a number of familiar French faces, most notably Simone Simon, Simone Signoret and Jean-Louis Barrault. The film has many intriguing facets... not just the symmetries, but also the asymmetries. For example, some couplings include references to the previous one, and some don't. Two of them even show the now-abandoned member in his or her state of jiltedness. Most of the couples are introduced by Walbrook (e.g., "The Actress and the Count") but not all of them. Ophuls is working with what appears to be a formal structure, but doesn't mind bending the rules once in a while. It's interesting to see how each person functions in two different relationships, themselves always being consistent in character but placed in a different context. And at this point I hardly need to mention that the photography is fantastic. The whole thing is quite delightful. The other Ophuls film that really impressed me was Leibelei, and it's perhaps worth noting that both were based on plays by Arthur Schnitzler. Schnitzler also wrote the story that Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut was based on... and Ophuls was Kubrick's greatest influence. And so it turns, a bit like a carousel. Rating: 9
A Ship Bound for India (rewatch) - Despite having 10 other movies waiting to be watched, I'm sticking with my commitment to watch at least one Bergman per week. This is his third film, but the first that one could really call "Bergmanesque." It's straight drama, dealing with normal human problems like frustration and inadequacy. The script isn't nearly as sophisticated as his finer work (although I should mention that my copy is missing the last 3 minutes of subtitles) but the emotional foundation is there, and the photography is really quite good. Rating: 7
Triviatown - An amateur documentary about the world's largest trivia contest, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. The contest lasts 54 hours, questions are read over a local radio station and teams have the length of two songs to phone in their answers. The teams are AT THEIR HOMES, SURROUNDED BY COMPUTERS AND REFERENCE MATERIALS. This is the dumbest fucking way to run a trivia contest that I've ever seen. Because the teams have access to so many resources, the questions are, by necessity, ridiculously obscure. One question required intimate knowledge of a game on the back of a cereal box. This is NOT what the fun of trivia games is all about. It's not about who can LOOK UP the goddamn answer, it's about who KNOWS it already. Ken Jennings didn't win umpteen rounds of "Jeopardy" with a laptop at his side. There's not much drama or controversy going on besides a few minor incidents, so really the film is mostly just the different teams talking about how they want to win. (In a strange twist, the commentary hints at a major controversy, one that you'd never notice or guess from watching the film... but they say so little about it that I have to wonder if it was just a joke). On top of that, the production value of the film is shoddy... passable enough for an amateur doc, but quite obviously low-budget. The bottom quarter of the screen is constantly covered with a black bar that occasionally displays the name of the person speaking. I guess they couldn't figure out how to superimpose titles with their $19.95 editing software from Wal-Mart. Rating: 5
Splendor in the Grass - A bit corny and a trifle dated, but mostly moving and surprisingly racy melodrama from Elia Kazan about young love and sexual repression. I had very low expectations for this film, but found it had a very Sirkian quality, Written on the Wind in particular. Kazan doesn't have Sirk's eye for color or composition, but he handles the drama very well, keeps the pace moving, and tackles some controversial and slightly subversive subject matter. This is the first movie with Natalie Wood that I've really liked. Warren Beatty, in his first film, manages to avoid being pigeonholed as a James Dean knockoff. Rating: 8
The Duellists - I didn't take the time to listen to the commentary so I can't say for certain whether or not Scott was influenced by Barry Lyndon, but at any rate he carries on the spirit of Kubrick's work quite well. The lighting and cinematography is gorgeous, and the story is very compelling. Keitel plays Feraud, a persistent madman who continues to challenge fellow Napoleonic office D'Hubert (Carradine) to a series of duels over the span of decades. Scott keeps almost all of the narrative focus on D'Hubert and his attempts to lead his own private life despite these potentially fatal interruptions... leaving Feraud as a shadowy, Terminator-like enigma. Carradine actually isn't very good, but the other elements of the film hold up very nicely. Not as good as Barry, but one of Scott's better pictures, especially impressive for a first feature. Rating: 8
Do the Right Thing (rewatch, Blu-Ray) - While my trashy neighbors are firing off an apparently endless supply of fireworks, how appropriate that I'm watching one of the most explosive films of all time. I remember 20 years ago, leaving the theater and debating the movie with my friends. And still I debate with myself while watching it... it raises questions, perhaps unanswerable questions but ones that continue to provoke and fascinate. Not all of Lee's choices are good (his penchant for giving characters cutesy "street" nicknames like "Mother Sister" and "Buggin' Out" has always bothered me) and I think he even misinterprets his own work at times, but that only serves to make it all even more intriguing. It truly is one of the great American films, an "important" work that also happens to be enjoyable to watch.
The other thing that made this an especially appropriate choice to watch today is that it's so damn hot out, and the movie is supposed to take place on the hottest day of the year. Not that you'd know it from watching this Blu-Ray. Universal really screwed the pooch on this one, toning down most of Ernest Dickerson's yellow and red filters that give the film's look such a strong sense of heat (and rage). I have to admit the picture looks beautiful, sharp and detailed... but it profoundly changes the essence of the cinematography. At this point, I'm torn on whether I should keep it (the new retrospective documentary is quite entertaining) or if I should pick up Criterion's DVD again, which may not be hi-def but at least has the proper color timing. Rating: 9
Naked Among Wolves - Allegedly the first German film set in a concentration camp. I've developed a belief that no Holocaust movie should end on a note of hope, and this film breaks that rule. Furthermore, it really doesn't convey the brutality strongly enough (although it does attempt to). Other than that, I have no particular complaints... it's a tense story with some good characterizations and stark photography. Rating: 7
Aleksandra - I'm no expert on Russian Army regulation, but I question the plausibility of an elderly woman being allowed to visit her grandson at a military outpost, apparently not too far from battle. If the premise is somewhat hard to swallow (and who knows, maybe this kind of thing happens all the time) it at least provides a unique perspective on war, without being blatantly anti-war. Opera diva Galina Vishnevskaya provides a commanding performance, projecting a kind of dignified befuddlement that makes the soldiers react with amused irritation. As a Sokurov film, you can expect two things: unique visuals and a slow pace. The film's washed-out sepia tones are stunning, elegantly conveying the dry heat of the area, or the stillness of late dusk. There isn't much meat on these bones, and it's not as captivating as Mother and Son, but it does draw you in and makes some worthwhile observations. Rating: 7
Also on the disc, Sokurov's short Patience Labour (which doesn't seem to have an iMDB entry). A feverishly-edited look at professional figured skating, with particular focus on the harsh, rigorous training of small children. Nothing too special here. Rating: 6
Distant - I've had Nuri Bilge Ceylan recommended to me a few times, this is my first experience with his work (and, I think, my first Turkish film). Ceylan makes no bones about his influences: one of the characters talks about wanting "to make films like Tarkovsky" and even watches Stalker at one point (and in a comedic moment, switches to a porn tape after his visiting cousin leaves the room). And the film does run at a slower pace, although not extreme as Tarr or Tsai. It definitely whetted my appetite for more Ceylan... like Tsai, he touches on issues of isolation and longing, and does so with long takes of people in stasis, occasional humor and a sense of voyeurism. Still, my interest waned a bit near the end despite being really enthusiastic at first. I'm going to chalk this up to simple movie fatigue until I see more by Ceylan. Rating: 8
El Verdugo - This was the last movie in the top 300 of the TSPDT list that I hadn't seen yet, and my first by Berlanga. That was all I knew about it going in... I didn't even know that the title translated to "The Executioner," and even if I had, I probably wouldn't have expected a black comedy. It concerns an undertaker who marries the executioner's daughter, and then gets reluctantly roped into becoming an executioner himself. Reading comments by others, it seems that it's supposed to be a sharp critique of the death penalty. As an American viewer in 2009, I didn't get that from it, but in hindsight I can see it. It doesn't really change my opinion of the film either way (FWIW, I'm in favor of capital punishment, in certain cases). I thought it was very entertaining and the characters were quite funny, especially José Isbert as the elder hangman. Rating: 8
A Letter to Three Wives - I haven't seen too many Mankiewicz films, but the ones I have seen have all been solid, entertaining flicks. This is the best so far. It's got a terrific premise: a woman sends a letter to her three acquaintances, telling them that she's run off with one of their husbands... but doesn't say which one. Because the three are on a social outing, they have the entire day to think about it. Each woman has an extended flashback illustrating a potential weakness in her marriage. The letter-writer is never seen, but is constantly referred to as a rival in the flashbacks, and she provides the wry voiceover narration. The film doesn't break any cinematic ground (although the vocal effect when going in and out of flashback is quite odd) but the script is witty and incisive, the personal conflicts are genuine and compelling, and the performances are all very good. Rating: 8
I can't wait to see what my Master List looks like on the first page -- if I ever manage to find a way to get over there, that is.
