Expanding Horizons (1 Viewer)

[Andrew_Sch]

The King of Comedy
:star: :star: :star: /:star: :star: :star: :star:
Not your typical Scorsese fare, but still quite good. DeNiro and Bernhardt were both mildly frightening and frighteningly pathetic. I'm a big fan of ambiguity, which makes the ending perfect for me. Glad I saw it, but wouldn't want to watch it again.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Nice write up on Anatomy Bruce. I've been meaning to check this out for some time, and your post reminded me to put it on my Netflix Queue.

Re King of Comedy, I just placed my order for it yesterday, and can't wait to get it. I think it is quite re-watchable myself.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Have you guys seen Fuller's last film Street of No Return?

Technically the answer is yes, though it has been a good many years—thanks Steve for the comments, it’s obviously time to revisit.

BTW Bruce, you might like to watch The Big Red One. Fuller was a vetern of the 1st Infantry Division during the war and this is his ‘big’ WWII movie. Probably the most money he have had to make a movie—it is somewhat spoiled (many of us Fuller fans think) by some editing decisions made by the studio, but it is well worth watching. Lee Marvin stars as the ‘seen-it-all’, tough-as-nails sergeant.

 

[SteveGon]

Spirits of the Dead (1967)
Directed by Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, and Federico Fellini.
A trio of Edgar Allan Poe stories are adapted to the screen by three great directors:
Metzengerstein - Jane Fonda plays a hedonistic young Contessa who falls for an equestrian cousin she once scorned. When he rebuffs her advances, she concocts a petty revenge that turns tragic. Then a mysterious black stallion appears in her courtyard...
Directed by Roger Vadim.
William Wilson - Alain Delon plays the titular character, a sadist whose vicious fun is constantly foiled by....William Wilson, doppelganger at large! The best of the three, IMO. Directed by Louis Malle.
Terence Stamp is Toby Dammit, a movie star who is slowly going mad with the realization that he doesn't deserve his fame. So how did he achieve it? And why is he being haunted by that girl in white? This one is a typically surreal effort by Federico Fellini, much more brazen in tone than the other two tales. Still, as part of the whole, it works nicely.
It's been said that this film, with its tales of punished amorality, was made in response to the loosened mores of the sixties. I suppose you can look at it like that, and while it does give the film some subtext relating to the time in which it was made, I prefer to just sit back and enjoy Poe's macabre vision.
:star: :star: :star:
And Then There Were None (1945)
Directed by Rene Clair.
This is a superb adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel Ten Little Indians. Well, that isn't the original title; for that you'll have to check out the sole special feature on the DVD.
Well, you know the story...
Rene Clair directs with supreme grace and the great Walter Huston heads an excellent cast. It don't get much better than this!
:star: :star: :star: :star:

 

[SteveGon]

Quatermass (1979)
Directed by Piers Haggard.
Note: this review is of the 240-minute version, not the truncated U.S. cut.
Also known as The Quatermass Conclusion, this British telefilm brings us the final chapter in the career of Professor Bernard Quatermass.
It is the near future and society is disintegrating. Gangs shoot it out in crumbling cities where power is in short supply. Young people all over the world are desperate for an answer. To that end they have formed the cult of the Planet People. These cultists believe that if they congregate around mystical spots like Ringstone Round in England, they will be whisked away to another, better, world. Into this mess comes long-retired space scientist, Professor Bernard Quatermass.
Far above the Earth and its societal woes, U.S. and Soviet spacecraft are engaged in a historic coupling. Quatermass (John Mills) has been invited to appear on a talk show where he will discuss the event with his peers. However, he is more concerned with finding his missing granddaugter than extolling superpower politics. But all of this is forgotten when a mysterious malfunction destroys both spacecraft, killing all aboard. What happened? Quatermass and his newfound associate Dr. Joe Kapp (Simon MacCorkindale) are determined to find out!
In an age where Hollywood glorifies the paranormal and either demonizes or ignores science, programs like Quatermass are a breath of fresh air. Scientists are the heroes here, and it is their science that provides salvation. Meanwhile, those who hold to spurious beliefs are the fools and they pay the ultimate price for their willful ignorance.
Quatermass isn't for everyone. It's long, talky, and unrelentingly grim in tone - the world depicted here is bleak (think Mad Max) and the death toll reaches into the thousands. The plot is also rather obtuse - I won't even try to discuss the specifics of it. Suffice it to say that a death beam from outer space is wreaking havoc on Earth and only Quatermass and company can stop it...
:star: :star: :star:

 

[JohnRice]

A rebel! A troublemaker! A radical!
He must be destroyed!

 

[SteveGon]

Just to clarify that incendiary little phrase (before someone takes it the wrong way), it was written in response to the many times in movies where I've seen science get one-upped by the paranormal. Perhaps the filmmakers think it's cute or awe-inspiring, but I find it downright insulting.
I Want to Live! (1958)
Directed by Robert Wise.
Petty criminal Barbara Graham (Susan Hayward) has lived on the wrong side of the law all her life. One day, it catches up with her. Framed for a murder by two acquaintances, she is consequently sentenced to death and it is the spectre of the gas chamber that instills in her a newfound appreciation for life. But as the fateful day approaches, will the govenor come through with a stay of execution?
This fact-based account would have you believe that Graham was indeed framed, but I doubt that the reality of the situation was ever that clear. What is clear is that she made her fair share of mistakes. Mistakes that cost her dearly. Susan Hayward won an Oscar for her performance and it was well-deserved. It's not easy making a character like Barbara Graham sympathetic, but Hayward pulls it off. Robert Wise's taut direction is nicely complimented by Lionel Lindon's fine black and white photography and it's all moved along by Johnny Mandel's jaunty jazz score.
:star: :star: :star: 1/2

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Eraserhead
directed by David Lynch

- cinematography
- animatronics

- ?
Movie Score: D+
Film Score: B
Overall Score: C
I've seen four David Lynch films, and they consist of Mulholland Drive, Dune, Blue Velvet, and finally, Eraserhead. There's one thing I've found in common with all of them, and that is he takes the normal, everyday things and adds a dark/off kilter tone to them.
The story is basically about a guy named Henry and his life in what looks to be an industrial part of town. And that's as normal as it gets.
Using the process of simplification, it's easy to tell what's going on in the movie. It's his choice of visuals and moments you have to kind of wonder about. Henry knocks up his "girlfriend" and their unwanted child is representd by some weird E.T. monster. Granted, that's one of the coolest monster creations I've seen, although I know film fanatics of Lynch would probably be pissed at me for making that comment.
The "meet the parents" scene is straight out of a picture of 50's life, just with that David Lynch touch of eccentricity.
The dancing fat cheeked woman in the radiator can elicit numerous interpretations. The way I see it looking at how longingly Henry looks at the radiator, he's dreaming of a better life, or less a better outcome. The girl is singing of heaven (of course, a flawed dream considering her cheeks). And the infamous falling fetuses? They look more like sperm. And look at how the girl crushes them. It's as if Henry wished he hadn't impregnated his girlfriend.
So you're left with a pretty straightfoward story whose narrative is overburdened by borderline, pretentious symbolism. It's a pretty plain movie in the guise of arthouse with its visuals and whatnot.
Definitely not my cup of tea. Having seen his other work, I wonder exactly how somebody seeing Lynch for the first time with this film equates weird = brilliant film making. There, I've said it, weird does not equal brilliant.
Granted, I haven't seen Begotten though.

 

[SteveGon]

Very true. Still, Lynch is a very good director and Eraserhead features the most realistic depiction of dream imagery ever put on screen. Hmmmm, is that oxymoronic?

 

[Dome Vongvises]

SteveGon said:

Eraserhead features the most realistic depiction of dream imagery ever put on screen. Hmmmm, is that oxymoronic?

I disagree. It's the most realistic depiction of nightmare imagery ever put on screen. But I get what you're stabbing at. Naw, it's not oxymoronic.

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
Very solid and somewhat charming film. At first, I was sure I was going to hate it. Michael Gambon is perfectly boorish and overpowering and those traits start the film off rather uneasily. But, as it goes on, you understand he is perfectly oblivious to his faults and how they make others suffer. So, you almost pity him for being so clueless. Almost. As the owner of a popular restaurant, he is able to dictate his will on all those who enter...and he does gleefully. The one person he cannot suppress totally is his own wife, played by Helen Mirren. His overbearing nature drives her to have an affair with a bookish patron of the restaurant and much of the film is about their cavorting and eluding Albert (Gambon). By the time the end rolls around, the pity you may have felt for Albert has disappeared and well, the ending is just deserts for him, pardon the pun.
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover :star: :star: :star:
Bruce

 

[Paul_D]

I've never really been a fan of David Cronenberg. The few films of his I've seen have made me very uncomfortable. Horror of the mind and body seems to be his preferred theme and its a topic that he has explored deeply. I enjoyed Scanners. Rabid revolted me. I loved the The Dead Zone, but somehow it feels really dated now. The Fly really freaked me out, including making me feel physically sick. Videodrome puzzled me. Crash was just weird, and eXistenZ bored me. Thus it was with great trepidation that I began to watch...
Dead Ringers (1988)
Directed by David Cronenberg
There was a mini-interview before the film in which Cronenberg introduced the film, and spoke about how it differed from his others. The most intriguing part of the intro was when he remarked that all the special effects were designed to allow the brothers (both played by Jeremy Irons) to appear on screen at the same time, which I thought must mean that there wasn't any gore! My initial, frankly uninformed, mainly marketing led impression of the film was that it would be a surgical horror film filled with disformed people being operated on with strange and painful equipment. The posters and stills were all of Irons in blood red surgical gowns brandishing malformed steel intruments. It was to my surprise and delight that there was virtually no gore in the film at all. There is the occasional dream sequence, and one or two trips into the operating theater, but first and foremost this film is a tragic character study of identical twins, each whose destiny is bound by the other, grounded by an absolutely remarkable performance by Jeremy Irons. He plays both men, so similar and yet so different so well, that after 5 minutes of establishing the characters, you know instantly which one is on screen, even if they're wearing nearly identical clothes.
The film's most dramatic moments are also the quietest. Mainly centered around one brother's realisation that the other has taken one step closer to ruin. The emotional climaxes are not set apart visually from the rest of the film. Despite that, Dead Ringers does look very much like a Cronenberg film. The lighting and sets are very distinctively him. Perhaps the closest similarity with his main body of work is the terribly uncomfortable atmosphere that runs throughout. Watching the film makes you feel like theres an itch all over your body that you can't get at. Like there's someone else in the house with you but you can't see them. It's an air of sustained dread and foreboding that perfectly prepares you for the chilling end, yet at the same time heightens the horror of their story.
It was nothing like I expected and I'm really glad I saw it. Very highly recommended.
:star::star::star::star:

 

[Lew Crippen]

I just finished watching Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Flowers of Shanghi and I was just amazed. I knew nothing about this director (I think that he has made most of his films in Taiwan) and watched on a recommendation by my son.

Although the movie is about Shanghi prostitutes and their clients, it is a quiet movie, long on dialogue and short on action. All of the scenes take place in the various brothels, each one limited to just one room. The lighting is subdued with an red-orange cast (lamps and candles), the camera is mostly fixed, with only a few pans—no complicated moves. There are no long shots and no close-ups, so in one sense we never get to know any individual, but we do get to know, intimately the small set of ‘flower-girls’ and their patrons and the way their lives intersect and their business works.

Absolutely brilliant, if you can accept the pace and the style.

I plan on seeing many more films by this director.

 

[SteveGon]

Champagne for Caesar (1950)
Directed by Richard Whorf.
Beauregard Bottomley is a genius. He's got more degrees than a thermometer. What he doesn't have is a job. So how will he support his book habit? His attractive maiden sister? His souse of a parrot? Two words: quiz show!
Let's back up a bit. Beauregard makes his regular visit to the employment office where a clerk informs him of a job opportunity at the Milady Soap Company. After apologizing to the clerk for being such a bother, Beauregard rushes off in the hope of landing the job. But it so happens that Burnbridge Waters, president of Milady Soap Company, is a singularly daffy individual with a disdain for humor and intellectuals. When Beauregard makes an innocuous joke during their meeting, Burnbridge sends him on his way. Miffed by this, Beauregard decides to avenge himself. Now the Milady Soap Company owns a popular quiz show that doubles a contestant's money every time a question is answered correctly. Though he holds the program in contempt for its inanity, Beauregard decides that it's the perfect forum for his revenge. His ultimate goal? Forty million bucks! Enough to buy the Milady Soap Company and oust Waters. But if he answers one question incorrectly, he loses everything!
Champagne for Caesar is an odd duck of a movie. Released in 1950, it seems both quaint and modern in tone. Coming near the end of the golden age of comedy, that's not surprising. Ronald Colman is Beauregard Bottomley and Vincent Price is Burnbridge Waters. Though it's a bit jarring to see them in such brazenly comic roles, they pull it off with aplomb. Barbara Britton is Gwenn, Beauregard's lovely and lovelorn sister. Celeste Holm is Burnbridge's attractive ace in the hole. Art Linkletter plays Happy Hogan, the quiz show host and bane of Beauregard's existence.
"Mister Hogan, can I have your autograph?"
"Why do you want his signature? One X looks like another!"
:star: :star: :star:

 

[Brook K]

Lew, definitely see Goodbye South, Goodbye. Flowers is the first Hou film I saw and remains my favorite, but GSG is excellent. I've also seen Good Men, Good Women and The Puppetmaster but found both to be more difficult to appreciate, particularly after a single viewing. I've heard A City Of Sadness is great, but I don't think it's available on DVD.

One of Hou's themes not apparent in Flowers, but in the other 3 I've seen, is how Taiwan's traumatic past affects its present-day citizens and culture. This can make the films rather dense for someone without much knowledge of either. I'm familiar with Taiwan's formation but after that know little about it outside of world politics.

I'll keep watching Hou, but based on what I've seen, I prefer Edward Yang and Ming Tsai Liang.

 

[Brook K]

The Big Doll House is a seminal women-in-prison film (I
think there's a double meaning in that) from my fav exploitation director
Jack Hill. Very fun, though like most Jack Hill, there are always surprising
moments of well-crafted drama. Features the scene-stealing Pam Grier in her
first real role, dynamite from the get-go, and also Jack Hill staple Sid
Haig having fun with a smaller role than usual. Doesn't ever reach the
quality of Hill's best films like "Coffy" or "SpiderBaby" but you get all
the trailblazing scenes that would become the staples of the genre - scanty
prison garb, shower scene, torture, bribing the guards, prison break, and
best of all, MUD-WRESTLING!!
I like snooty French cinema and Asian films too, but I can't tell ya the
last time I saw one with a decent mud-wrestling scene So make a night of
it and throw in its sorta sequel "The
Big Bird Cage" where you can find out what happens when women are forced to
work in a giant 3-story grain grinder machine thingy.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Thanks for the Hou recommendations Brook—as well as the mud-wrestling.

Never too old or jaded for that kind of entertainment.

 

[SteveGon]

Katzelmacher (1969)
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
When Joe Sixpack thinks of foreign films, Katzelmacher is what he imagines them to be like: disjointed, black and white, documentary-style films concerning sullen, aimless youths who sit around trying to impress the audience with affected posturing. Oh yeah, they talk a lot of shit. That's pretty much all there is to this film. Well, there is that Greek immigrant who has moved into their apartment building. His presence brings their xenophobia to the fore and the guys eventually muster up enough energy to kick his ass after some blatantly false rumors about him are spread around.
I'm glad I saw this film, if only to be able to say I gave it a chance. The problem with viewing Katzelmacher now is that its style has been so copied and satirized that it seems almost self-referential. Couple that with totally unsympathetic characters and you can call it a wash for me.
I should note that there are many people, far more knowledgeable about film than I, who adore Fassbinder. So I could be wrong...
:star: :star:

 

[Pascal A]

Hey, who stuck this great thread in an area that I normally don't visit? :b
Katzelmacher is very atypical Fassbinder, which is why I find it so fascinating. His association with Jean-Marie Straub (and obsession with Brecht) really comes through, as the film is highly reductive, spare, and muted, instead of his more florid and melodramatic signature style.
The interesting part about Katzelmacher is that he wrote the play (his first) at the last minute, after realizing that Straub's theatrical piece for the Action Theater (where Fassbinder was the creative director) was only going to be ten minutes long. In that sense, the play intentionally served to be a companion piece to Straub's deconstructionist piece, Sickness of Youth, which is part of the reason that the film is so unusually reductive.
Brook, regarding Flowers of Shanghai, the theme of Taiwanese estrangement is also there, albeit in metaphoric form. The entire premise of the film surrounds on this idea of created insularity from the outside world that, in essence, also reflects on the Taiwanese people's estrangement from their native homeland of mainland China.
As far as Hou's films are concerned though, his more recent offerings are even more distanced and stylized (Goodbye South Goodbye, The Flowers of Shanghai, Millennium Mambo) than his earlier films. But to get a feel for his search for Taiwanese identity, definitely The Time to Live and the Time to Die and A City of Sadness will be more direct in conveying this theme.

 

[Brook K]

Nice to see you here Pascal. And thanks for your further information on Hou

Katzelmacher was also only Fassbinder's 3rd feature (I think), he didn't really develop his more famous melodramatic style until around #7 or 8.

I actually haven't seen it yet. Kat, Rio Das Mortes, The Niklashausen Journey, and The American Soldier all sit unopened on my shelf.

Meanwhile my wife and I watched Bridget Jones's Diary last night. nuff said