What's on your Daily Viewing List? (4 Viewers)

[bujaki]

The Devil (YouTube) 1921. The screen debut of George Arliss. Once a lost film, now restored by the LoC. Arliss relishes the role of an evil "entity" who sets out to prove that evil can win over good, and decides to wreak havoc on the lives of two couples. However, the power of prayer (and a cross) will always vanquish evil and poor Arliss is consumed by flames. Somewhat creaky and Arliss would go on to bigger and better successes. Edmund Lowe looks so young as one of the hapless victims.
The Serenade (Stream) Recorded by The Victor Herbert Society a few years back, this provided some good, old-fashioned fun with solid singing and a totally ridiculous libretto. B'way way back then.
The Years Between (YouTube) 1946. Daphne Du Maurier's play transfers to the screen with a great cast headlines by Valerie Hobson and Michael Redgrave as a married couple separated by WW2. She's "widowed" and takes up his seat in Parliament. Husband reappears as she's about to remarry; wants things to be as they were before the war, as if the years between hadn't happened.
Spring Parade 1940. An old TV transfer, a far cry from Bill Everson's very good 16mm print. What a charming film this is. Koster works his magic with Durbin, aided by Joseph Valentine's cinematography and a great cast. What a pity that this film can't see a legitimate release due to legal reasons!

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

Tonight:

 

[Matt Hough]

"Charming" is the right word for Spring Parade. It was the one Durbin picture I hadn't ever seen after searching for it for such a long time, and when I stumbled across the entire movie on YouTube, I watched it twice because I enjoyed it so much.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Hunger Games
Originally Released: 03/23/2012
Watched: 01/19/2021
4K UHD disc via Panasonic DP-UB820

On the eve of a presidential inauguration in the United States, it felt like an apropos time to revisit this series, about a future where North America took a very different path.

It is a tremendous adaptation; it neither assumes the audience has read the book nor underestimates the audience's ability to keep up without being spoonfed everything. The Hunger Games was a children's book, but Gary Ross doesn't make a children's movie. PG-13 movies have a tendency toward consequence-free violence, since the MPAA's ratings criteria penalize blood and gore but not the guns and knives that cause blood and gore. This is one of the more brutal PG-13 movies I've seen; the violence is never consequence-free. In telling the story of a society that has become so twisted that it murders children to create compelling spectacle for reality TV, the filmmakers don't let the film's audience have the same level of detachment. With the exception of a handful of key cutaways, the entire movie is told from Katniss's perspective and does a great job letting us feel what she's feeling.

Physically, Jennifer Lawrence was miscast. Katniss Everdeen in the books is a wiry 16-year-old who looks closer to 14, thanks to a life spent running in the woods and malnourishment from courting starvation in order to keep her sister from starving. Lawrence is too tall and too robust, and a twenty-year-old who looked her age. That costs something in terms of the horror of seeing a child thrown into this situation. On the other hand, Lawrence's performance is without fault. Every single choice she makes as an actress in this movie feels exactly right. It's an incredibly complex role with a lot of different facets, and Lawrence nails all of them.

Josh Hutcherson is also terrific; Peeta is both foil and confidante to Katniss, and his performance provides a stark contrast in terms of energy as well as warmth and steadiness that counterbalances Katniss's fierceness.

Amandla Stenberg, as Rue, was the closest an actor has ever come to perfectly embodying the character I pictured in my head. She has relatively little screentime with which to make the audience love Rue, but she makes the most of it.

Woody Harrelson, on the other hand, didn't look anything like the Haymitch Abernathy I pictured in my head. But now I couldn't imagine anybody else in the role. Just a perfect pairing of actor and role, delivering the humor while understanding the pathos and trauma that drives it.

President Snow is one of the great irredeemably loathsome cinematic villains, and Donald Sutherland embodies him with refined understatement and lethal precision. A lot of evil dictators in movies are flamboyant madmen, at least as responsible as the hero opposing them for their defeat. Snow is not mad; he is an embodiment of what you get when intellect and logic are divorced from moral reasoning.

The worldbuilding is tremendous, as well. District 12 feels like Appalachia in the 1930s; the people live hard lives that show on their faces, the clothes are all homespun and ragged. Modern technology is rare, existing only where it can serve a clear purpose in upholding the fascist social order. The sequels play up the industrial nature of District 12, which makes sense given that the district produces the coal that powers the rest of the continent. But the depiction here captures the sense of deprivation and want in a more acute way; these people aren't just cogs in the machine, they're what the machine tramples over. The contrast provided by the architecture, costumes, hair/makeup, and set decoration of the Capitol -- overwhelming extravagance, tasteless excess -- drives home the injustice of this system more than any exposition ever could. And the artificiality of the arena underlying its naturalistic surface is constantly punctuated. This isn't a Lord of the Flies-type story; it is bread and circuses to amuse the privileged and to keep the oppressed too fearful to revolt.

The budget for this first entry in the series was less than $80 million, and there are aspects of it that feel more like an independent movie than a blockbuster thrill ride. The characters and their relationships to one another, personally and politically, and always front and center. The violence feels neither gratuitous, nor cavalier. If this had been it, I think it would have been remembered as one of the great socially conscious science fiction films, alongside movies like Logan's Run, Soylent Green, Jurassic Park, and Planet of the Apes. Given its critical and commercial success, it's instead remembered as a great launch for one of the more thoughtful and consistent young adult movie franchises.

 

[TJPC]

I had no interest in these movies at all, but I was in a big box store and saw the Blu ray boxed set for a very reasonable price and picked it up. I thoroughly enjoyed every movie and have now watched them all twice!

 

[Mike Frezon]

I had no interest in these movies at all, but I was in a big box store and saw the Blu ray boxed set for a very reasonable price and picked it up. I thoroughly enjoyed every movie and have now watched them all twice!

What's NOT to love about Jennifer Lawrence!

 

[Mike Frezon]

I have always loved the musical Camelot.

I grew up listening to the original Broadway cast album (over and over again). I have seen numerous local productions. The only video recording in my collection was the 1982 HBO special starring Richard Harris and Meg Bussert. And one of the things I had NEVER seen was the 1967 feature motion picture starring Harris and Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero. Because everyone always told me how bad it was.

I eventually picked up a cheap copy of the 2012 Warner Blu-ray. And tonight was the night Peg and I watched it (she had never seen it either...and loves it more than I do!). She had been jonesing for some Camelot the last couple weeks.

What a stinker. Three hours of stink! Horrible casting. Horrible singing. An overly drawn out melodramatic story. Everything about it felt...off. Peg noted that all the funny lines of the stage musical fell completely flat in the film.

The picture looked nice in spots, very grainy in other parts. The sound was pretty good with directional fx and a nice stereo music score.

But in terms of content--and the telling of the tale of King Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot and the Round Table...not good.

Even the poster sucks.

 

[HawksFord]

It's Gary Cooper week here. There is one we had never watched, but we started with two films we had seen but not in a long time.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) — There was a time in the late 70s and early 80s when I was catching a lot of old movies on late night television. I fell in love with a bunch of Frank Capra films then including this one. Cooper plays a small town guy who inherits a lot of money and goes to the big city. He is great here playing a character who is naive but with hidden depths. Jean Arthur is always a delight; here she is a cynical reporter who discovers she has her own depth of character. The values in this and other Capra films really made an impression on me when I was trying to figure out what it meant to be a man. We watched this on the recent 80th anniversary release.

Sergeant York (1941) — Of course, I love this Howard Hawks directed bio-pic. Cooper again plays a seemingly simple character who discovers he is capable of much more than others thought. There's a very good supporting cast with Walter Brennan as a country preacher and Margaret Wycherly as York's mother. My wife is not much of a fan of war movies, but she loved this one because it's really about Alvin York the man and not not York the WW1 war hero. We watched this on the new Warner Archive release which looks great.

Ten North Frederick (1958) — Compared to the first two, this film, based on the John O'Hara novel, was a disappointment. Cooper doesn't seem to quite fit the character particularly in the earlier scenes, the script seems unfinished, the characters are not fully drawn. It's not a bad film and it's certainly worth watching at least once, but it all feels incomplete. We watched this on a Twilight Time blu-ray.

We may have time to squeeze in one or two more Cooper films this week. I think it may be time for a re-watch of High Noon.

 

[dana martin]

today a Big plate of Spaghetti

 

[dana martin]

this evening, the Tiramisu

now, we really need those two Steve Reeves Hercules films to get a proper restoration, and physical releases!

 

[Mike Frezon]

A big change of pace for me and Peg tonight.

We opted for Rebel Without a Cause.

This is a film that would likely never interest us. But since it is featured in La La Land (arguably our favorite movie) we were moved to see what all the fuss is about. "I got the bullets!!" Plus the connection with the Griffith Observatory. In fact, we've seen La La Land so many times, the musical theme from RWaC seemed quite familiar to both of us!

It actually is my first-ever James Dean movie. I've never seen East of Eden or Giant either. Dean was good. I just kept thinking about the fact that Natalie Wood was just 17-years old in this movie. She really lit up the screen. And any movie that includes BOTH William Hopper & Dennis Hopper (19 years old!) has really got something going on.

All in all, I didn't really think the film held up all that well--though I can see why it was such a cultural touchstone in the mid-'50s.

 

[dana martin]

A big change of pace for me and Peg tonight.

We opted for Rebel Without a Cause.

This is a film that would likely never interest us. But since it is featured in La La Land (arguably our favorite movie) we were moved to see what all the fuss is about. "I got the bullets!!" Plus the connection with the Griffith Observatory. In fact, we've seen La La Land so many times, the musical theme from RWaC seemed quite familiar to both of us!

It actually is my first-ever James Dean movie. I've never seen East of Eden or Giant either. Dean was good. I just kept thinking about the fact that Natalie Wood was just 17-years old in this movie. She really lit up the screen. And any movie that includes BOTH William Hopper & Dennis Hopper (19 years old!) has really got something going on.

All in all, I didn't really think the film held up all that well--though I can see why it was such a cultural touchstone in the mid-'50s.

hope the both of you liked it, and yes she did light up the screen.

I don't think it was just that Dean was a cultural touchstone, but a whole new breed of actor, Brando, Newman all those that tried a more natural way, of getting into the character. Unfortunately his limited filmography only gives hints as to what his career might have become. Did he have talent; well, he was nominated for best actor, twice- posthumously. So those in the industry must have though so.

Lots of Television between 51-55, its a wonder no one has ever tried to compile a comprehensive collection of some of those broadcast, if either filmed or kinescopes.

 

[TJPC]

I might be in a negative mood tonight, but I have never been able to see what the fuss was about with James Dean or “Rebel Without A Cause”. I also find “Giant” unwatchable and haven’t dared to try “East of Eden”.

I did show RWAC to my high schoolers but they basically found it incomprehensible.

Wan’t Dean from TV originally? You’d think they would try to restore and market his kinescopes if they want more of him.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Originally Released: 11/11/2013
Watched: 01/20/2021
1080P Blu-ray disc, upscaled to 4K via Panasonic DP-UB820

This is a very tricky story, one that could easily seem to fall into the trap of sequels that simply repeat the formula of the successful first film. The structure is the same, and many of the major beats are the same.

But it's more like the first film taught us the rules that govern this world, so that the sequel could start bending them and even breaking them. The parallel structure draws the audience's attention to what is different, and it is in those differences that the impact Katniss Everdeen made in the first film is most acutely felt.

And this time around everything is more: more scope, more extravagance, more intrigue, more strategy. A very dangerous game is being played between two opposing ideologies, with very cunning moves and countermoves, some of which the audience is aware of and many more that only become clear in the movie's final act. There is a visceral horror that comes from pitting children against one another in a contest to the death. But the loss of that element is counterbalanced by an arena full of victors who have been playing this game for a very long time -- in some cases, longer than Katniss has even been alive. Katniss is the lightning rod at the center of everything, but she is not equipped to play this new game at the level of those who have been practicing it for years. The result is a movie where the most important developments are happening off screen, outside of our heroine's (and the audience's) awareness. That's frustrating the first time through, but it really rewards subsequent viewings.

Gary Ross, who had adapted the first book so successfully, dropped out of making the sequence once he was confronted with the production timetable he'd have to meet. Of the names that were floated to replace Ross, Francis Lawrence was the most boring and safe choice. This movie makes a strong argument for the boring and safe choice. There is a cohesion between the first movie and this one that would not have been achieved by a bolder filmmaker. One of the most important areas of continuity is the in the music. I loved James Newton Howard's score for the first movie, and he builds on that work beautifully for this new film. Keeping on Philip Messina as production designer ensured wonderful continuity in important architectural choices, despite moving production from North Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia.

Terrific adult supporting cast, too.

I watched the Blu-ray despite having a 4K digital copy on iTunes because the UHD version inexplicably doesn't open up to 1.78:1 for the stuff in the arena shot in Hawaii with IMAX large format film cameras.

 

[TravisR]

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
...

I watched the Blu-ray despite having a 4K digital copy on iTunes because the UHD version inexplicably doesn't open up to 1.78:1 for the stuff in the arena shot in Hawaii with IMAX large format film cameras.

I remember seeing this movie in IMAX and at some point in the first hour and a half, I realized that there hadn't been any 'pop out' to IMAX so I figured that I had heard wrong about the movie being formatted for it and it ended up being a cool surprise when Katniss went into the games.

 

[bujaki]

The Ministry of Time: Season 4 (RTVE BD) 8 episodes. Spanish TV series about time travelers who travel through Spain's history in order to correct anomalies, making sure that the timelines are respected. Very good of its kind.
Détective (Kino BD) 1985. I tend to avoid Godard after he veers Maoist, but I gave this one a chance. It's a fascinating insight into his infuriating genius with so many visual, literary, musical and cinematic references; puns which are somewhat lost on a non-speaking French audience. It's a playful blend of a murder mystery, a Mafia debt, a boxing match, a pilot enmeshed in nefarious schemes, some sex, shootings, deaths: all amounting to nothing much, or maybe something having to do with love. It's Godard after all. Ravishing cinematography shown at its best in this transfer.
Hélas pour moi (Kino BD) 1993. I'm a glutton for punishment, so I undertook another Godard film, this one dealing with the Amphytrion myth. Zeus covets Amphytrions wife, Alkmene, and takes the form of her husband so he can lie with her. That union engenders Herakles, and none is the wiser. In Heinrich Kleist's play, which I admire, Alkmene is aware at the end of the ruse played on her, and her last word (the closing word of the play) is "Ach"!, which translates as Hélas pour moi, or Woe is me.
So Godard's film plays on the nature of love as divine, man as a manifestation of the divine, a lover's embrace as prayer, etc. Once again, the film is filled with multiple references to art, literature, music, puns and so much that one viewing is not enough. The cinematography is simply gorgeous as is the transfer.

 

[Thomas T]

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

Tonight:

 

[Matt Hough]

I watched the Norma Shearer movie Smilin' Through tonight from the TCM app. It's one of her movies I had never seen before. Yes, a melodramatic tearjerker, but everyone's trying very hard to be earnest and committed, so it's hard to find fault with it.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Peg and I continue our diversity in film tonight with a viewing of the 1998 Iranian film Children of Heaven. This DVD has been sitting on my shelf for so long I cannot even remember what prompted me to buy it. But as I was rearranging my media today, I decided "tonight's the night." I must've put my hands on dozens of titles that I have now sworn to get to in the next month or so!

Peg was skeptical. But the two of us were riveted throughout the entire 88 minute running time. The film is in Farsi (with English subtitles). And it is an absolute delight. Although the very end was a bit disappointing in the way the film ended (not the way the story ended), the characters' journeys were engaging.

After it was over I said to Peg how disappointed we often are in a movie's plot or the way a story is told. This film centers nearly solely on a young brother and sister who make the mistake of losing a pair of shoes and the story was completely fulfilling. If only all tales could be so simple (or, I suppose more accurately, so well told).

Wikipedia tells me the film was shot in Tehran for $180k. And after it was nominated for best foreign language film (losing to Life is Beautiful) it ended up with $1.6-million in box office.

Highly recommended.