What's on your Daily Viewing List? (3 Viewers)

[JohnRice]

Ad Astra (IMAX with Laser Projection!!) I'm in the Reggie camp. No reason to hate it.

Do people hate it?

 

[bujaki]

Do people hate it?

Go to the Ad Astra thread for vitriol.

 

[JohnRice]

Go to the Ad Astra thread for vitriol.

I didn't read everything, but I saw a common trend of "Sci-Fi should be this" and "Sci-Fi should be that" types of comments. I don't understand the insistence on jamming movies into limiting boxes like that.

 

[Matt Hough]

I found myself with some time later tonight to watch something since I forget to set the DVR for This Is Us. So, I watched Veronika Voss which has been sitting on my DVR for a couple of months. Very sad, mournful saga that, in light of its director's similar struggles with drugs, is more haunting than ever.

 

[Dave Moritz]

September 24th, 2019 Tuesday

The Shootist (1976)
HD DCP (Apple TV/iTunes)
Stereo

 

[Robert Crawford]

On Tuesday at the cinama:

 

[bujaki]

A Fine Pair (TCM) 1969. Rock Hudson, Claudia Cardinale. Totally unbelievable caper film. Occasionally amusing. Lifted by Morricone's score. Very old transfer.
3 by Frank Borzage from the big Murnau/Borzage at Fox box. All DVDs mastered from the best possible sources. I'd seen all these films before on the big screen:
They Had to See Paris. 1929. Borzage's first sound film starring Will Rogers, who fares very well in front of the microphones. The opening sequence of an oil derrick spouting oil and making Rogers a millionaire is brilliantly staged. The rest of the movie is enlivened by the likes of Fifi D'Orsay singing and shaking and making Rogers hot under the collar. It was nice to see young D'Orsay, a performer I first saw on stage (still singing and shaking) in 1972 in the original production of Sondheim's Follies.
After Tomorrow. 1932. Minna Gombell once again steals the show as the straying mother of our heroine. Josephine Hull, she of Arsenic and Old Lace and Harvey, playing Charles Farrell's mother. She, and economics, conspire against the young couple's marrying. It's all pre-Code, sensitively handled, gorgeously shot by James Wong Howe, and the leads make us feel their sexual yearning and pain.
Young America. 1932. More of a social drama, Warners style: How to save a potential juvenile delinquent. Early Spencer Tracy. The emphasis here is on the kids, and they are shot and directed with the sensitivity that will bear fruit in his 1934 masterpiece, No Greater Glory.

 

[dana martin]

 

[Dave Moritz]

September 25th, 2019 Wednesday

Local Cinema
Rambo: Last Blood
DCP
Dolby

This movie will be added to my 4K Rambo collection when it comes out!

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm working my through some TV series including Ken Burn's "Country Music".

Also, I watched on Amazon Prime the following film for the first time. A damn, good "B" film noir that was recommended by Eddie Muller.

 

[Robin9]

Yesterday I watched Quai Des Orfevres on a very good U. K. Blu-ray disc. Apart from a feeble and facile "twist" at the end, the film is excellent in every way: acting, sets, lighting, costumes, photography, mood and atmosphere. My guess is that most people will not find the surprise revelation of the murderer at the end as unsatisfying as I did, and I recommend this film and this disc to anyone who does not object to foreign films with subtitles.

Tonight I going to watch a Robert Crawford recommendation: How About You which arrived today.

 

[bujaki]

Summer with Monika (Criterion BD) 1953. Harriet Andersson enters Bergman's universe as a force of unbridled id. She provides young Harry with a summer of carefree passion which inevitably crashes against the reality of the world. My first encounter with this film was during my mid-teens, a TV screening in Puerto Rico. Then, a 35mm Janus print in NY during my early 20s; and last night. The Criterion disc is superb. There is some indication of damage in the source; otherwise, this transfer is a beauty. Andersson staring boldly at the camera is breathtaking.
A Touch of Class (Warner Archive BD) 1973. Glenda Jackson wins a second AA in this comedy-drama. I'd seen this when it opened but not since, so I'd forgotten how nuanced her performance is. Segal is very good as the philandering husband. The transfer is impeccable.
The Most Dangerous Game (Wicked Vision BD Zone Free) 1932. A limited edition German release of a 2K scan of this film which I first saw in NY in the early 70s. It was a very good 35mm print. I don't recall seeing it since, so this was a lot of fun; looked great too. Booklet is bilingual and both commentaries have subtitles.
1948 Winter Olympic Games at St. Moritz (Criterion BD) Excellent PQ marred by an annoying French commentator with a very sexist narrative.

 

[Doug Wallen]

Watched this one today. Liked it very much.

 

[HawksFord]

On Wednesday night, my wife and I watched The Strange Love of Martha Ivers on Blu-ray and then last night we watched it again with the commentary turned on. It's a terrific film noir and one that I have no memory of seeing previously. The cast is great as is the score. It's very well written and worth re-watching to see how early events set up what happens later. I know there are knocks against the transfer, but I have nothing to compare it to. Unfortunately, the commentary by William Hare didn't add much value.

 

[Robert Crawford]

On Wednesday night, my wife and I watched The Strange Love of Martha Ivers on Blu-ray and then last night we watched it again with the commentary turned on. It's a terrific film noir and one that I have no memory of seeing previously. The cast is great as is the score. It's very well written and worth re-watching to see how early events set up what happens later. I know there are knocks against the transfer, but I have nothing to compare it to. Unfortunately, the commentary by William Hare didn't add much value.

A personal favorite film of mine! IMO, the Paramount DVD looks better than the Film Chest Blu-ray release. I might revisit the Blu-ray again on my new OLED as I can't remember that audio commentary and that's probably due to what you said about it.

 

[bujaki]

The Letter (WA BD) 1940. Wyler's direction and Tony Gaudio's cinematography are phenomenal. Steiner uses leitmotifs very effectively in his score. The acting honors, as far as I'm concerned, go to James Stephenson, as the attorney for the defense. His subtlety is something to marvel at. Too bad that the film is doubly compromised at the end by the stupid Code.
I first saw this film on TV (a mere child in the late '50s), saw it quite often as a matter of fact; but saw it last at MoMA in a nitrate 35mm print in 1973. This transfer is spectacular, btw. However, the previous year, at MoMA, I had viewed a gorgeous print of the 1929 Jeanne Eagels's version of The Letter, which told the story more economically, kept Maugham's original, starker ending, and had a powerful central performance. Therefore, as much as I admire the Wyler version, I also appreciate Jean de Limur's version and would not do without either one.
Sawdust and Tinsel (Criterion BD) 1953. Bergman's first collaboration with Sven Nykvist, and it shows. The score is also a departure, quite atonal in nature. The story is a tale of sexual, physical and moral degradation involving circus and theater performers, the lowest rung in 19th century social strata. Our leads attempt to escape are met with further humiliation and it all ends with quiet, though desperate, resignation. Most beautiful transfer.
1948 Olympic Games (Criterion BD) This segment begins with a 38-minute condensation of the St. Moritz Winter Games. The main difference is that this is the first Olympic shot in color, glorious Technicolor, and it is beautiful. Then the documentary moves on to cover the Games in London. It was exciting to hear Harold Abrahams voice (Chariots of Fire), a 1924 Olympic winner, narrating several segments. Given short shrift, after Riefensthal built it up in '36, was the Decathlon. event. Here the winner was simply announced and shown: the impossibly young (17 years old!!) and handsome, Bob Mathias, a Yank. At any rate, the PQ was amazing, with eye-popping colors.
The Set-up (WA BD) 1949.I had seen this amazing drama only once before, way back in the early '70s, in a luminous 35mm print. I noticed immediately the fact that the story played in real time (it cheats a little bit), but the clock at the beginning and at the end show the passing of exactly 72 minutes, the film's running time. I wasn't too familiar with the all the actors at the time, as I am now, so to watch all the performances last night was a revelation. Totter playing a good dame! Ryan playing a non-neurotic! Tobias playing such a scumbag! And then the editing and the camerawork! Wise at the helm! And the script! I had liked the film very much when I was in my early twenties, but now I just find it superb. And so is the disc.

 

[Robin9]

Unusually for me, I watched two films today. The first was Valley of the Dolls which I find interesting but unsatisfying. I reject 100% the orthodox assessment that this film is a piece of high camp garbage. Certainly the screenplay is devoid of subtlety and precision, and the three leading actresses have absolutely no charisma but the film is - for me at least - a good, enjoyable drama. I don't think "the dolls" are at all important and I'd like to see the film remade without any reference to pill-popping but with more sex and vulgarity.

The second film was Sea Of Sand and a more different film would be hard to find. This a is war in the desert movie and clearly influenced Play Dirty.

 

[bujaki]

Kaili Blues (Criterion Channel) 2015. Gan Bi's first feature film is a sometimes baffling exercise in storytelling that requires a lot of patience from the viewer; however, if one sticks to it, there are multiple rewards. First, it does make sense, though the story line travels forward and backward without visual cues. Second, it has a daring 40-minute-long shot that points toward his next experiment in his second feature, Long Day's Journey into Night, in which the 60-minute-long shot is in 3D! Patience is ultimately rewarded.
Dangerous Partners (TCM) 1945. After the heaviness of the Chinese feature I opted for MGM. A B effort pitting our mercenary heroes against a Nazi ring. Their amorality turns patriotic (not the Nazis, though I'm sure there are many good people among them, so I'm told).
Gone to Earth (Kino BD) 1950. The Archers' gorgeous paean to the British countryside and the pull between paganism and religion; the wild heart and straitlaced convention. No use wasting your time watching Selznick's bastardization, The Wild Heart. It makes nonsense of the carefully balanced original. I did watch both versions at MoMA in beautiful nitrate 35mm Technicolor prints, and though the Kino BD at times dazzles, it just can't compare. But this is all we're going to have, and it's better than nothing.

 

[HawksFord]

Gone to Earth (Kino BD) 1950. The Archers' gorgeous paean to the British countryside and the pull between paganism and religion [...]

We watched this one not long ago also on the Kino Blu-ray. It's so good. A Richard Thompson song brought to the screen. Or maybe "Beeswing" is a Powell & Pressburger movie turned to song. Either way, it's not to be missed.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Last night's viewing:

Not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but still not very good. I didn't feel as if I really learned anything of interest about Elton that I didn't already know. Seemed like more of a vanity project with the same old story about a troubled young musician whose comes from a dysfunctional family and leaps to the top of the charts only to develop problems with sex, drugs and rock n' roll. Bohemian Rhapsody, anyone? Or nearly any other rock biopic?