Track the Films You Watch (2006) - Page 69

Mario Gauci · 01-01-2007, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Karlosi

BEST NEW 2006 FILMS:
Casino Royale
Rocky Balboa
Borat

BEST FIRST-TIME VIEWINGS FROM OTHER YEARS (In No Order):
East of Eden (1955)
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
North by Northwest (1959)
Belle de Jour (1967)
Dial M For Murder (1954)
The Devil's Brother (1933)
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
The Penalty (1920)

Joe,

I was wondering if you were going to pitch in with your 2006 summation and I’m glad that you did; I’m particularly pleased about your inclusion of THE PENALTY (1920), THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928), THE DEVIL’S BROTHER (1933), NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) and BELLE DE JOUR (1967) – who would have thought that you would be naming not just a Bunuel film but two Silents among your favorites of the year

?!

Mario Gauci · 01-01-2007, 12:28 PM

Re: Michael's end-of-year list, here's the choices I'm most pleased with:

1. Napoleon (1927) – I can’t believe Michael watched this before I did

!
2. Big Business (1929)
3. Un Chien Andalou (1929)
4. Waterloo Bridge (1931) - I still haven’t picked this set up, dammit

!
5. Alexander Nevsky (1938)
6. Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
7. A Man Escaped (1956)
8. Throne of Blood (1957)
9. The Young One (1960)
10. Viridiana (1961)
11. Yojimbo (1961)
12. The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
13. Cet Obscur Objet Du Desir (1977) - this is how you get around that ****** thing, guys

!
14. Ran (1985)

I can't help but feel proud and contented with all the Bunuel-lovin’ goin’ on around here

!

Incidentally, I’ve only just initiated my middle-aged manager (who happens to be a B-movie buff) into the world of Bunuel by giving him copies of L’ AGE D’ OR (1930) and THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY (1974); obviously, I’m aware that they are probably Bunuel’s most extreme movies but, that’s just me, I do everything the hard way. Anyhow, I won’t know what he thought of them before Wednesday…

Bill McA · 01-01-2007, 01:32 PM

Stealing a page from SteveGon...

2006 in Review

Total films viewed for 2006: 852

First viewings: 660

Favorites of the year (picked three films per month):

January:
Repast (Meshi) (1951|Mikio Naruse)
Her Lonely Lane (Hourou-ki) (1962|Mikio Naruse)
The Approach of Autumn (Aki Tachinu) (1960|Mikio Naruse)

February:
Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (2004|Ross Kauffman, Zana Briski)
Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company (2005|Allan King)
Sudden Rain (Shu-u) (1956|Mikio Naruse)

March:
The Man with a Movie Camera (Chelovek s Kino-apparatom) (1929|Dziga Vertov)
V for Vendetta (2006|James McTeigue)
My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro) (1988|Hayao Miyazaki)

April:
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Moartea Domnului Lazarescu) (2005|Cristi Puiu)
The Best of Youth (La Meglio Gioventù) (2003|Marco Tullio Giordana)
Eureka (2000|Shinji Aoyama)

May:
The Set-Up (1949|Robert Wise)
Saraband (2003|Ingmar Bergman)
S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (S-21, la Machine de Mort Khmère Rouge) (2003|Rithy Panh)

June:
Genocide (1981|Arnold Schwartzman)
Deadly Is the Female (Gun Crazy) (1949|Joseph H. Lewis)
Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Joshuu Sasori: Dai-41 Zakkyo-bô) (1972|Shunya Ito)

July:
The Beautiful Country (2004|Hans Petter Moland)
Aurore (2005|Luc Dionne)
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (Warum Läuft Herr R. Amok?) (1970|Michael Fengler, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

August:
Young Thugs: Nostalgia (Kishiwada Shônen Gurentai: Bôkyô) (1998|Takashi Miike)
Identification of a Woman (Identificazione di una Donna) (1982|Michelangelo Antonioni)
A Geisha (Gion Bayashi) (1953|Kenji Mizoguchi)

September:
Taxidermia (2006|György Pálfi)
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Hei Yan Quan) (2006|Ming-liang Tsai)
Princess (2006|Anders Morgenthaler)

October:
The Departed (2006|Martin Scorsese)
Retribution (Sakebi) (2006|Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Stromboli (1950|Roberto Rossellini)

November:
The Machine to Kill Bad People (La Macchina Ammazzacattivi) (1952|Roberto Rossellini)
Little Children (2006|Todd Field)
Blackout in Rome (Era Notte a Roma) (1960|Roberto Rossellini)

December:
1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse) (1960|Fritz Lang)
The Man Who Laughs (1928|Paul Leni)
Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922|Fritz Lang)

Michael Elliott · 01-01-2007, 03:10 PM

12/30/06

Vengeance of the Mummy, The (1973)

Spanish horror film has Paul Naschy playing three roles including a mummy who returns to life after 1000 years to seek vengeance and regain his long lost love. Sadly I had to view this in a poor quality, P&S, English dubbed bootleg so hopefully someone will release a legit, good copy. The film was simply decent but it's hard to judge without seeing it in its true form. Jack Taylor co-stars and steals the show but Naschy is okay in his duel human parts. His turn as the mummy isn't a total success but it's an interesting performance. The American dub has the mummy constantly moaning, sounding like he's in a porno so this gave off some unintentional laughs. The violence level is quite high with several throat slashings and head crushings.

Sex is Crazy (1981)

Extremely bizarre Jess Franco flick about an actress (Lina Romay) who puts on sex shows with a story involving aliens who kidnap girls and knock them up. The first gag is that the women, due to the super sperm, can deliver 600 babies an hour. The second gag is that real aliens see this and decide to get in on the action. This is probably the best sex comedy I've seen from Franco but I had to view it in Spanish without any subs so with subs I might like it even more. Romay, when she's not showing off her sex talent, can be very funny with a light comic touch and she gets to deliver that several times throughout the film. The sex scenes are all very soft and it's rather funny seeing Franco, a sex director, show why "sex is crazy" to look at. The alien make up at the start of the film is cheap but very effective looking. Original title: El Sexo Esta Loco.

Chatouilleuses, Les (1975)

Silly but entertaining sex comedy from Jess Franco set in Central America. The story revolves around four prostitutes (including Lina Romay, Pamela Stanford) who are on the run from a group of bandits and hide in a convent pretending to be nuns. The film runs a very short 63-minutes, which is just about right since we mainly get comedic sex scenes involving the four girls trying to sleep their way out of trouble. There are also countless lesbian scenes and Franco certainly knows how to shoot these and make them very erotic. The print I viewed was in French only and was P&S so hopefully a remastered version will show up at some point.

Love Camp (1977)

No one does the WIP genre better than Jess Franco and once again he delivers the sleaze and nudity. A group of women are kidnapped and taken to a remote jungle where they are forced to sleep with soldiers who are fighting the "revolution". No only must they put themselves out they also have to deal with a sadistic lesbian warden (Nanda Van Bergen). When you go to watch these Euro WIP films it's best not to expect an Ingmar Bergman type drama. What you can expect is a lot of naked women, wacky dialogue and stupid torture scenes and that's exactly what Franco delivers here. All of the women are watchable and the film's 74-minute running time flies by. The torture sequences here are quite tame and laughable compared to other Franco WIP films.

Death Smiled at Murder (1973)

Joe D'Amato directed this extremely bizarre and downright confusing film that tries to mix gothic horror with the giallo. I'm not exactly sure what the hell the film is about but it goes something like this. After a carriage wreck, a young woman (Ewa Aulin) is left without her memory so she stays with a husband and wife who both take a sexual liking to her. There's also a strange murderer going around and there's also a weird doctor (Klaus Kinski) who is trying to create a formula that will bring the dead back to life. Before long, the wife kills the young woman but soon she reappears. Is it a ghost or something else? As I said, this film makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There are several other storylines that I could have included in the plot but I'm not exactly sure what they had to do with anything either. D'Amato does a good job with the cinematography, which added with the music score makes for some nice atmosphere. Aulin is easy on the eyes and delivers the best performance in the film but overall this thing it too much of a mess to really enjoy. The film's pace, although gets quite tiresome after a while.

12/31/06

Goodfellas (1990)

The greatest film of the 90s. The greatest mob movie ever made. One of the all time greatest films ever made. For me, all three of these ring true and I was someone shocked when I realized that I hadn't watched this throughout the year already. I went nearly a full year without watching it, which is probably a record since I first discovered the movie back around 1991. At the time I probably watched this a couple times a week so going a full year was, well...shocking. Either way, the more and more I see this film the more I think to myself that it very well could be the great film ever made, technically speaking. The way Scorsese keeps the camera constantly moving is something so incredibly beautiful that it comes off quite poetic. The music selections, as with all of Scorsese's films, are brilliantly put together with the action on screen and this is especially true during the frantic ending. The song selections mixed with the fast editing really shows the drug induced mind of Liotta. The performances by the entire cast are incredible. Even the minor players with no dialogue come off very realistic as if Scorsese was personally directing each of them to get everything done right. The screenplay, again, is just terrific with the right amount of drama and comedy. I've probably seen this film well over 30 times now and it never gets boring and like all masterpieces, it actually keeps getting better.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The greatest horror film made and in my opinion it's one of the four greatest films period. While Frankenstein might be the better horror film, I feel this sequel goes all out with black comedy, drama, fantasy, sci-fi elements and so on. Every genre is pretty much covered in this rather wickedly weird film from James Whale. I think the entire film is a moral tale about tolerance and Whale gets this point across in various scenes but the most famous one is the scene between the monster and the blind hermit. For my moment, this is perhaps the greatest scene in any movie. The power, beauty and love behind this scene makes it quite remarkable and refreshing each time I see it. Then there's Karloff who, once again, gives one of the greatest performances in film history. The way he brings this monster to life was remarkable in the first film but it's even more amazing here since there's a lot more emotion to the part.

Michael Elliott · 01-01-2007, 03:15 PM

Yearly totals:

682 Films Viewed (including 3 repeats)
573 First Timers

Hmm....I guess my film viewing goals of 2007 will be more silents, more foreign classics I've missed and early black cinema.

Sandro · 01-01-2007, 04:10 PM

December Recap

41 films seen, 29 for the first time

Best films seen for the first time (out of

)

Fires on the Plain

1/2
Fanny and Alexander

1/2
Spirit of the Beehive

1/2
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man

1/2
In Her Shoes

1/2

Brian.L · 01-01-2007, 04:39 PM

December Recap

Movies seen: 35 (First timers: 34)
Average rating = 2.41/5

Finshed off the year by seeing a bunch of mediocre films. "Children of Men" was fairly great, however. And I finally saw "It's A Wonderful Life", on Christmas, no less.

ALL RATINGS OUT OF

(FIVE) STARS

First time viewings in bold.

12/01- Stripes (1981)

12/01- K-Pax (2001)

12/02- Rent (2005)

12/03- Sahara (1943)

12/03- You, Me and Dupree (2006)

12/03- Miami Vice (2006)

12/04- The Omen (2006)

12/06- Scoop (2006)

12/07- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

12/09- An American Haunting (2006) ZERO STARS
12/09- On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

12/09- Burden of Dreams (1982)

12/10- Simone (S1m0ne) (2002)

12/10- Lady in the Water (2006)

12/11- Eat Drink Man Woman (Yin Shi Nan Nu) (1994)

12/12- The Notorious Bettie Page (2006)

12/12- Mysterious Skin (2005)

12/14- Gods and Generals (2003)

12/15- The Siege (1998)

12/15- Children of Men (2006)

12/16- Beerfest (2006)

12/16- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

12/18- Ask the Dust (2006)

12/20- Down by Law (1986)

12/21- P.S. (2004)

12/22- World Trade Center (2006)

12/23- The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la Peur) (1953)

12/24- Jackass Number Two (2006)

12/25- It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

12/27- The Wicker Man (2006)

12/28- Rocky Balboa (2006)

12/30- The Last Kiss (2006)

12/30- Snakes on a Plane (2006)

12/31- Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

12/31- Family Plot (1976)

Favorites (first timers): Children of Men, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Burden of Dreams, It's a Wonderful Life