skimpole

The five movies I saw this week were much more enjoyable. Admittedly A Summer Place was as underwhelming as I expected (sentimental ending, underwhelming teen actors, complete lack of insight, non adulterous parents so horrible that one wonders how they ever got married). And the music theme is ripe for parody (Jasper on The Simpsons singing "This is the theme/from A Summer Place being my favorite). By contrast, The Grand Budapest Hotel is as witty and charming as the trailer suggests, and Ralph Fiennes gives a great comic performance. (And it begs the question of how it could possible lose the Oscar for set decoration.) The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug could be trimmed by twenty minutes, and people who read the novel may wonder why it is being turned into eight hours of movies. But I find it pretty fun and exciting, full of nice art direction. I'm not the biggest James Whale fan, but The Old Dark House is by no mean a bad movie, and it has Charles Laughton and Melvyn Douglas! Finally Le Joli Mai is a fine documentary about Paris in May 1962. Chris Marker shows how it's done.

Yes, thank you. There clearly hasn't been enough comment on Chytilova's work. I hope TCM takes the opportunity to rescreen Daisies. And if anyone can find interesting obituaries they should post them here. Here's one from the AV Video Club: http://www.avclub.com/article/rip-czech-director-vera-chytilova-202115 Here's the New York Times obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/nyregion/vera-chytilova-dies-at-85-made-daring-czech-films.html?_r=0 And there's a more informative one from the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/14/vera-chytilova

I've noticed that sometimes it's difficult to search past posts. I hope this change fixes things.

The four movies I saw this week could have been better. Fruitvale Station and The Selfish Giant are two movies about what the media likes to call the underclass. They are competent, but not brilliant, with the first one telling the old story about a troubled young man who needs to get his life in order before, in this case, it is abruptly ended by a transit cop. The second has an unrelievedly dreary Bradford setting, lots of swearing, very thick accents that in the print I saw did not have subtitles, and a generally gloomy story about two young teenagers being manipulated by a Fagin like figure with unpleasant consequences. On the one hand it is convincingly sordid. But as the movie goes one notices that the three older women are conventionally loving, and that one of the boys is uncontrollable in school, yet surprisingly adaptable as a young criminal. So, in the end, it's not entirely successful. Hell's Angels had Howard Hughes playing with airplanes. They're not bad, but the leads are very dull (Jean Harlow has more life as the cheap **** we're supposed to condemn than the other characters put together) and you have to wonder about a war in which one brother has to kill another. The best thing about I Love you Alice B. Toklas is the title. It's basically like an extended sitcom a few years before sitcoms could mention sex, but without the characters one enjoys watching on television. Sellers is wasted, the two women he sleeps with are both pretty vapid, and it's more of a time capsule where we see the first joke about marijuana brownies.

I saw six movies this week. It's interesting to compare with Million Dollar Legs with the other early Hollywood comedy about an imaginary country, Duck Soup. On the one hand Rufus t. Firefly is the Groucho Marx role, while W.C. Fields as president of Klopstockia is just pudgy and super strong. And Jackie Oakie isn't remotely in the same class as the other Marx brothers (or Margaret Dumont). And, as it turns out, the director isn't in the same class as Leo McCarey. But on the other hand the script (co-written by Joseph Mankiewicz) is frequently amusing. Women in Love is not entirely successful. Glenda Jackson does give an interesting performance, but it's her sister who's supposed to be the core of the novel. So there's a void at the core of the movie, not helped by Russell's well known preference for garishness over intelligence. The Sea Hawk, by contrast, is quite a fun movie. Short Term 12 has an interesting lead performance, and there is a parable about a shark and an octopus that has real power. But it's more competent than brilliant, and it perhaps reflects more on the cloistered lives of prominent movie critics that they thought it was so moving. Much better is You ain't seen nothing yet where Alain Resnais plays with the myth of Orpheus. But the best movie of the week is The Wind Rises a subtle movie of considerable quiet beauty.

I've been recently rewatching La commune (Paris 1871) and as one might expect, "La Marsellaise" plays a prominent role as an anthem. This leads me to ask about other uses of national anthems in movies, aside from the obvious example of Casablanca. The United States has several national anthems, one official and several other ones. One thinks of "God Bless America" being sung as the end of The Deer Hunter. And there are several movies that use "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" but none of them come to mind just this minute.

This is nice speedracer: I've wanted to see Damn Yankees and Bombhsell for some time.

From the Criterion website: http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3076-the-truest-tess

Two weeks ago, I only saw two movies, but this week I saw six. The Spy who Came in From the Cold is a fairly good movie, blessed with perhaps the best performance I've seen from Richard Burton. Museum Hours is an interesting museum, whose high point is a lecture on Bruegel. Naughty Marietta does tend to suggest that Jeanette MacDonald, so charming when directed by Lubitsch and Mamoulian, is less attractive when teamed up with Nelson Eddy. Lives of a Bengal Lancer is an interesting look at imperial military discipline, even if it isn't as sprightly as Gunga Din and may have been Hitler's favorite film. The Visit is perhaps twenty minutes too long and doesn't flow quite as well as A Separation, but it is still a very good film. Eat Drink Man Woman continues my long tradition of being unimpressed by Ang Lee. While it's not true that the movie could have been filmed anywhere--much of the English speaking world does not have a cuisine that filmmakers would trust viewers to sit through watching--except for a certain sexual reticence there's little that suggests Taiwan. Which may explain why Lee has two oscars and Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang have yet to appear on TCM. Dark Passage is an effective noir, with Bogart and Bacall giving good performances. I'm not really a fan of Noah Baumbach: I'd rather read his mother's film criticism than watch his movie about her divorce. Frances Ha is an improvement over the other two Baumbach movies I've seen. Greta Gerwig has a certain screen charm. But the movie isn't entirely convincing. It's sort of what it would be like if the actions of Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine didn't have any consequences.

I think most of this is fairly self-explanatory. After starting with several movies set in the Sahara, my first special challenge deals with cinematographer Boris Kaufman whose work not only covers L'Atalante and On the Waterfront, but who was also the brother of Dziga Vertov, the great Soviet filmmaker. It would have been very ironic if professional anti-communists had used that connection to make trouble for Elia Kazan. The second challenge consists of final bows, starting with the final Disney picture Disney was involved with, and then final movies by Lubitsch, Murnau, Bresson and Bergman. This nicely segues into a birthday celebration of Ingmar Bergman. Having started the previously evening with his final film, it ends with the film that he wrote the screenplay for, The Best Intentions, with the final shot involving his mother pregnant with him. Bergman was born on Bastille Day, but since the French Revolution didn't end that day, Tuesday is devoted to Paris' history. Starting in the middle ages, moving on to the reign of Lous XIV, it includes the premiere of La Marseillaise, on the idea that it would be an interesting idea to have a movie that actually liked the French revolution. It goes on to the nineteenth century, including the second Renoir movie, which is certainly the most charming movie ever made about an attempted fascist coup, as well as the TCM premiere of Peter Watkins' masterwork on the Paris Commune. We also have key works by Godard and Marker on the sixties, as well as La Haine, a key movie about Paris' troubled suburbs. What better to have in the summer than movies about snow and ice. We celebrate Ginger Rogers' birthday, as well as star of the month Jason Robards. On Thursday we have movies on the Spanish Civil War, which began on the 17th, as well as movies from James Cagney and our third programming challenge: the five best actresses of 1950. Friday starts off with movies about dictatorships and tyranny. Since it is Nelson Mandela's birthday, we include two movies about South Africa. Our Friday night spotlight is on imaginary countries, and after a day about repression and treason, we can look at the bright side of Shangri-La, Peopperland, Laputa and Middle Earth. Finally, we devote a day dedicated to showing the variety and strangeness of musicals. 1910s: 1 1920s: 3 1930s: 17 1940s: 8 1950s: 19 1960s: 13 1970s: 8 1980s: 7 1990s: 5 2000s: 3 Premieres: *Cries and Whispers* *The Best Intentions* *The Rise to Power of Louis XIV* *Le Joli Mai* *La Marsellaise* *La Commune (Paris 1871)* *La Haine* *Magnolia* *Animal Farm* *Yellow Submarine* Star of the Month: Jason Robards Friday Night Spotlight: Imaginary Countries Edited by: skimpole on Mar 9, 2014 4:33 AM

Sunday July 13, 2014 Nothing says the summer like the Sahara Desert! 06:00 AM *Beau Travail* (1999) Pyramide Distribution C-90 min Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Gregorie Colin D: Claire Denis P/S 07:30 AM *Beau Geste* (1939) Paramount BW-112 min Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston D: William Wellman P/S 09:30 AM *The Son of the Sheik* (1926) United Artists BW-68 min Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Banky D: George Fitzmaurice P/S 10:45 AM *Sahara* (1943) Columbia BW-97 min Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Bennett, Lloyd Bridges D: Zoltan Korda P/S Special Challenge#1: Cinematographer Boris Kaufman 12:30 PM *L'Atalante* (1934) Gaumont BW-89 min Michel Simon, Dita Parlo, Jean Daste D: Jean Vigo P/S 02:00 PM *On the Waterfront* (1954) Columbia BW-108 min Martin Brando, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger D: Elia Kazan P/S 04:00 PM *Baby Doll* (1956) Warner Bros BW-114 min Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach D: Elia Kazan P/S 06:00 PM *The Pawnbroker* (1965) Allied Artists BW-116 min Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald D: Sidney Lumet P/S *Special Challenge #2: Final Bows* 08:00 PM *The Happiest Millionaire* (1967) Disney C-164 min Fred MacMurray, Tommy Steele, D: Norman Tokar, LP PREMIERE 11:00 PM *Cluny Brown* (1946), 20th Century Fox BW-100 Charles Boyer, Jennifer Jones, Peter Lawford D: Ernst Lubitsch P/S 12:45 AM (Silent) *Tabu* (1931) Paramount BW-84 min Mahati, Anne Chevalier, D: F.W. Murnau EXEMPT 02:15 AM (Foreign) *L'Argent* (1983) Eos Films C-83 min Christian Patey, Vincent Visterucci D: Robert Bresson EXEMPT 03:45 AM (Foreign) *Saraband* (2004) Sony Productions Classics C-120 min Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Borge Ahlstedt D: Ingram Bergman EXEMPT Monday, July 14, 2014 Happy Birthday, Ingmar Bergman! 05:45 AM *Summer with Monika* (1953) Svensk Filmindustri BW-96 min Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg D: Ingmar Bergman P/S 07:30 AM *The Virgin Spring* (1959) Svensk Filmindustri BW-89 min Max von Sydow, Gunnel Lindblom, Birgitta Pettersson D: Ingmar Bergman P/S 09:00 AM *Autumn Sonata* (1978) New World Pictures C-99 min Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman D: Ingmar Bergman P/S 10:45 AM *Winter Light* (1963) Svensk Filmindustri BW-81 min Gunnar Bjornstrand, Ingrid Thulin, Max von Sydow D: Ingmar Bergman P/S 12:15 PM *Persona* (1966) Svensk Filmindustri BW-83 min Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson D: Ingmar Bergman 01:45 PM *The Seventh Seal* (1957) Svensk Filmindustrei BW-96 min Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Bengt Ekerot D: Ingmar Bergman P/S 03:30 PM *Scenes from a Marriage* (1974) Cinematograph AB C-168 min Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson D: Ingmar Bergman P/S 06:30 PM *Wild Strawberries* (1957) Svenk Filmindustri BW-90 min Victor Sjostrom, Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Anderrson D: Ingmar Bergman P/S 08:00 PM *Cries and Whispers* (1972) Svensk Filmindustri C-91 min Harriet Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Ingrid Thulin D: Ingmar Bergman Premiere #1 09:45 PM *Fanny and Alexander* (1982) Svenka Filminstitutet C-188 min Bertil Guve, Erland Josephon Gunn Wallgren D: Ingmar Bergman P/S 01:00 AM *Smiles of a Summer Night* (1955) Svensk Filmindustri BW-108 min Gunnar Bjornstrand, Eva Dahlbeck D: Ingmar Bergman P/S 03:00 AM *The Best Intentions* (1992) Samuel Goldwyn Company B-182 min Pernilla August, Samuel Froler, Max von Sydow Premiere #2 Tuesday July 15, 2014 As part of the French Revolution, Paris in history 06:15 AM *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* (1939) RKO BW-116 min Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, Cedric Hardwicke D: William Dieterle P/S 08:15 AM *Elena and Her Men* (1956) Warner Bros C-96 min Ingrid Bergman, Jean Marais D: Jean Renoir P/S 10:00 AM *The Rise to Power of Louis XIV* (1966) Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise C-100 min Jean Marie Patte, Raymond Jourdan D: Roberto Rossellini Premiere #3 11:45 AM *Le Joli Mai* (1963) Sofracima BW-155 min Simone Signoret, Yves Montand narrate D: Chris Marker Premiere#4 02:30 PM *La Marseillaise* (1938) SEDIF BW-135 min Pierre Renoir, Lisa Delamare D: Jean Renoir Premiere#5 04:45 PM *Children of Paradise* (1945) Societe Nouvelle Pathe Cinema BW-190 min Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur D: Marcel Carne P/S 08:00 PM *La Commune (Paris 1871)* (2000) 13 Productions BW-345 min D: Peter Watkins Premiere #6 02:00 AM *Masculin-Feminin* (1966) Anouchka Films BW-103 min Jean-Pierre Leaud, Chantal Goya D: Jean-Luc Godard 03:45 AM *La Haine* (1995) Canal BW-98 min Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde, Said Taghmaoui D: Mathieu Kassovitz Premiere #7 Wednesday July 16, 2014 Happy Birthday Roald Amundsen, or what better for the dog days of summer but snow. And ice. Plenty of Ice 05:30 AM *Nanook of the North* (1922) Les Freres Revillion BW-79 min Allakariallak, Nyla, D: Robert Flaherty P/S 07:00 AM *Conquest of the Pole* (1912) Pathe Freres BW-31 min George Melies, Fernande Albany D: Georges Melies P/S 07:45 AM *Way Down East* (1920) United Artists BW-145 min Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess D: D.W. Griffith P/S 10:15 AM *With Byrd at the South Pole* (1930) Paramount BW-82 min Rear Adm Richard E. Byrd No Director credited P/S 11:45 AM *The Thing from Another World* (1951) BW-87 min Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, James Arness D: Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks P/S Happy Birthday Ginger Rogers! 01:15 PM *Roxie Hart* (1942) 20th Century Fox Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou D: William Wellman P/S 02:30 PM *The Gay Divorcee* (1934) RKO BW-107 min Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Edward Everett Horton D: Mark Sandrich P/S 04:30 PM *The Major and the Minor* (1942) Paramount BW-100 min Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland D: Billy Wilder P/S 06:15 PM *Stage Door* (1937) RKO BW-91 min Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou D: Gregory La Cava P/S Star of the Month Jason Robards (born this month) 08:00 PM (Star of the Month Jason Robards) *Julia* (1977) 20th Century Fox C-118 min Jason Robards, Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave D; Fred Zinnemann 10:15 PM *Tora! Tora! Tora!* (1970) 20th Century Fox C-145 min So Yamamura, Tatsuya Miyashi, Martin Balsam, Jason Robards, E.G. Marshall D: Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda, Kinji Fukasaku P/S 12:45 AM *Once Upon a Time in the West* (1968) Paramount c-166 min Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda D: Sergio Leone P/S 03:45 AM *Magnolia* (1999) New Line Cinema C-188 min Jason Robards, Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Melora Walters D: Paul Thomas Anderson Premiere#8 Thursday July 17, 2014 Remembering the start of the Spanish Civil war 07:00 AM *The Spanish Earth* (1937) Contemporary Historians BW-52 nub Orson Welles narrates D: Joris Ivens P/S 08:00 AM *For whom the Bell Tolls* (1943)Paramount c-170 min Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman D: Sam Wood P/S 11:00 AM *The Spirit of the Beehive* (1973) Elias Querejita Producciones C-98 min Ana Torent, Isabela Telleria D; Victor Erice P/S Happy Birthday James Cagney! 12:45 PM *Blonde Crazy* (1931) Warner Bros BW-79 min James Cagney, Joan Blondell D: Roy del Ruth P/S 02:15 PM *White Heat* (1949) Warner Bros BW-114 min James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien D: Raoul Walsh P/S 04:15 PM *Footlight Parade* (1933) Warner Bros BW-104 min James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler D: Lloyd Bacon P/S 06:00 PM *One, Two, Three* (1961) United Artists BW-109 min James Cagney, Arlene Francis, Horst Buchholz D; Billy Wilder P/S Special Challenge#3: the Best Actresses of 1950 08:00 PM *Sunset Boulevard* (1950) Paramount BW-110 min Gloria Swanson, William Holden D: Billy Wilder P/S 10:00 PM *All About Eve* (1950) 20th Century Fox BW-138 min Bette Davis, George Sanders, Anne Baxter. D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz P/S 12:30 AM *Stromboli* (1950) Bero Films/RKO BW-107 min Ingrid Bergman, Mario Vitale D: Roberto Rossellini P/S 02:30 AM *In a Lonely Place* (1950) Columbia BW-95 min Gloria Grahame, Humphrey Bogart D: Nicholas Ray P/S 04:15 AM *Annie Get Your Gun* (1950) MGM C-107 min Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern D: George Sidney P/S Friday July 18, 2014 Despots, Dictatorships and Dystopias 06:15 AM *Cry the Beloved Country* (1951) London Films BW-103 min Canada Lee, Sidney Poitier, Charles Carson D: Zolta Korda P/S 08:00 AM *Island of Lost Souls* (1932) Paramount BW-71 min Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi D: Erle C. Kenton 09:15 AM *The Scarlet Empress* (1934) Paramount BW-110 min Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe D: Josef von Sternberg P/S 11:15 AM *Animal Farm* (1954) Halas & Batchelor C-81 min Maurice Denham D: John Halas, Joy Batchelor Premiere#9 12:45 PM *Brazil* (1985) Universal C-143 min Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Michael Palin D: Terry Gilliam P/S 03:15 PM *A Dry White Season* (1989) MGM C-97 min Donald Sutherland, Janet Suzman, Marlon Brando D: Euzhan Palcy P/S Very unhappy birthday Vidkun Quisling: two tales of treason 05:00 PM *The Tall Target* (1951) MGM BW-75 min Dick Powell, Adolphe Menjou D; Anthony Mann P/S 06:15 PM *To be or not to Be* (1942) United Artists BW-99 min Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack D: Ernst Lubitsch P/S Special Friday Night Programming: Imaginary Countries Tonight: a Note of Hope 08:00 PM *Lost Horizon* (1937) Columbia BW-132 min Ronald Colman, Edward Everett Horton D; Frank Capra P/S 10:30 PM *Yellow Submarine* (1968) United Artists C-85 min The Beatles D: George Dunning Premiere#10 12:00 AM *Castle in the Sky* (1986) Studio Ghibli C-126 min Keiko Yokozawa, Mayumi Tanaka, Kotoe Hatsui D: Hayao Miyazaki P/S 02:15 AM *The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King* (2003) New Line cinema C-201 min Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortenson, Ian MacKellan P/S Saturday July 19, 2014 A Celebration of the Musical: Challenging the Boundaries Start off with sophistication 05:45 AM *Monte Carlo* (1930) Paramount BW-90 Min Jeanette MacDonald, Jack Buchanan D: Ernst Lubitsch P/S It's not just Americans 07:15 AM *Le Million* (1931) Films Sonores Tobis BW-81 min Annabella, Rene Lefevre, Jean-Louis Allibert D: Rene Clair P/S Let's try something offbeat 08:45 AM *Hallelujah, I'm a Bum!* (1933) United Artists BW-82 min Al Jolson, Frank Morgan, Madge Evans D: Lewis Milestone P/S Here's the other Powell/Pressburger musical 10:15 AM *The Tales of Hoffmann* (1951) British Lion Films C-128 min Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann D: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger P/S Add a touch of melancholy 12:30 PM *It's Always Fair Weather* (1955) MGM C-102 min Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Dan Dailey D: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen P/S All French! All Singing! 02:15 PM *The Umbrellas of Cherbourg* (1964) Madeleine Films C-91 min Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo D: Jacques Demy P/S Let's not forget the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals 04:00 PM *A Hard Day's Night* (1964) United Artists BW-87 min John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Wilfrid Brambell D: Richard Lester P/S Cinema's greatest fusion of music and vision 05:30 PM *2001: A Space Odyssey* (1968) MGM C-142 min Keir Dullea, Douglas Rain, Gary Lockwood D: Stanley Kubrick P/S The avant-garde meets high culture 08:00 PM *The Chronicle of Anna Magadelena Bach* (1968) Frank Seitz Film Production BW-94 min Gustav Leonhardt, Christiane Lang D: Danielle Hulliet, Jean-Marie Straub EXEMPT Concert films: not just point and shoot 09:45 PM *The Last Waltz* (1978) United Artists C-117 min The Band D: Michael Scorsese P/S Let's add some parody 11:45 PM *This is Spinal Tap* (1984) MGM C-82 min Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer D: Rob Reiner P/S The musical: still alive in the eighties 01:15 AM *Absolute Beginners* (1986) Orion C-108 min Eddie O'Connell, Patsy Kensit, David Bowie D: Julian Temple P/S Communism! A world class director! Surprisingly large amounts of nudity! 03:15 AM (Underground) *Red Psalm* (1972) Mafilm C-87 min Madaras Jozsef, Orban Tibor D: Miklos Jancso EXEMPT Sometimes smug libertarianism! Satan! Saddam Hussein! And, of course, Brian Boitano! 04:45 AM (Underground) *South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut* (1999) Paramount C-81 min Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Isaac Hayes D: Trey Parker, Matt Stone EXEMPT

Now I have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Two more days to go.

And now I have Monday

Well I've got Sunday down: six more days to go.

I noted that the entry for A Hard Day's Night doesn't include Ringo Starr. Nice to finally see The Pawnbroker as well as several Rene Clair movies.

Alain Resnais has died. Here is the New York Times obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/movies/alain-resnais-acclaimed-french-filmmaker-is-dead-at-91.html?smid=fb-share And here's Richard Brody at his New Yorker blog http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2014/03/in-memory-of-alain-resnais.html#entry-more And Glenn Kenny has an interview with him here: http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2014/03/alain-resnais-1922-2014.html Not to annoy Ricardo Montalban fans, but if he gets a TCM tribute shouldn't Resnais get one?

What I'm struck by is that it starts at ten past, instead of the more common fifteen.

Just to be clear, we can make a schedule for May 2014?

How does theyshootpictures.com rank the best picture winners? Let's take a look 33. American Beauty #944 32. Out of Africa #882 31. No Country for Old Men #815 30. An American in Paris #670 29. Titanic #661 28. All Quiet on the Western Front #599 27. Rocky #590 26. Forrest Gump #548 25. The Silence of the Lambs #537 24. The French Connection #534 23. Rebecca #505 22. Ben-Hur #495 21. Amadeus #441 20. The Sound of Music #384 19. West Side Story #349 18. Midnight Cowboy #346 17. The Bridge on the River Kwai #330 16. Schindler's List #309 15. Unforgiven #291 14. How Green was My Valley #290 13. It Happened One Night #280 12. The Deer Hunter #188 11. The Best Years of Our Lives #187 10. On the Waterfront #157 9. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest #135 8. All About Eve #109 7. Gone with the Wind #102 6. Annie Hall #92 5. The Apartment #61 4. Casablanca #37 3. Lawrence of Arabia #22 2. The Godfather, Part II #20 1. The Godfather #7 The following movies have appeared on the top 1000 in the past, but not anymore (#34-49) Dances with Wolves From Here to Eternity Gandhi Hamlet In the Heat of the Night The Last Emperor The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King A Man for All Seasons Million Dollar Baby Mutiny on the Bounty My Fair Lady Ordinary People Platoon The Sting Tom Jones You Can't Take it With you The site has a top 250 movies of the 21st century which ranks the best pictures of this century as follows: The Hurt Locker #22 No Country for Old Men #31 Million Dollar Baby #42 The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King #61 The Departed #76 The Artist #132 Gladiator #159 Argo #164 The King's Speech #170 Crash #249 Chicago, Slumdog Millionaire but NOT A Beautiful Mind have appeared on this list in the past. Wings and Crash are also on the top 1000, but they're not the best picture winners.

Foreign Correspondent! That means TCM Canada will get *two* opportunities to preempt it for something else!

Last Saturday I watched Onibaba for the first time, and I was struck by the lust the recently widowed Jitsuko Yoshimura showed when she ran for her liasions with her deceased husband's crony. Naturally this led me to ponder what are some great cinematic examples of the seven deadly sins. There are some complications about this. Greed and lust are vital to the plot of Chinatown but since mysteries work by keeping the plot opaque until near the end of the movie, the motives of murderers aren't really demonstrated on film. Gluttony: I haven't seen La Grande Bouffe, which supposedly is a masterpiece of this and lust and well. And of course, there's Mr. Creosote in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Daisies should get an honorable mention. Greed: Obviously, Humphrey Bogart goes too far in The Treasure of Sierra Madre. Nor does the search for treasure really bring out the best of the characters in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Sloth: One scene from The Last Emperor: Even though he's in a Communist prison, Pu-yi still has a servant ties his shoes. Chhabi Biswas can barely stir himself to do anything in The Music Room. Pride: Citizen Kane, obviously, and at a lower level The Magnificent Ambersons. Lust: One wants to distinguish from passion, or genuine sexual love, regardless of how illicit priests and mullahs may find it. General Turgidson in Dr. Strangelove is clearly lustful in an unerotic way. Jean-Pierre Leaud is the model of sexual selfishness in The Mother and the ****. Envy: Tony Curtis is clearly showing this all through The Sweet Smell of Success. Welles' Othello is probably the best treatment of Iago. Wrath: The twist Rachel Roberts gives when stabbing Richard Widmark in Murder on the Orient Express. Pete Posthelthwaite in Distant Voices, Still Lives R. Lee Emery in Full Metal Jacket. Peter Capaldi in In the Loop. Many movie murders are either committed while insane like Psycho, M, or are very well planned, like JFK, Goodfellas or The Usual Suspects. or are followed by regret, like The Godfather, Part II. But the fate of Paul Dano in There will be Blood and much of Jack Nicholson in The Shining are good examples of wrath. Edited by: skimpole on Feb 26, 2014 4:17 PM

I must say I thought Ship of Fools was quite dreadful, and I was wondering if its admirers had any response to Pauline Kael's withering review in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

I saw only three movies this week, though I rewatched Welles' Othello in preparation for seeing Olivier's version (only to find out that it wasn't broadcast in Canada). The Old Man and the Sea would have always suffered from Dwight MacDonald's evisceration of it as classic middlebrow literature. And I would think black and white and little music would suit the story better than the colour cinematography, score and lots of quotes from the book. One Night of Love is an interesting movie, with Grace Moore as an amusing actress and a better singer. Tullio Carminati is good too, even if he pales compared to Anton Walbrook's flawless Lermentov. Finally Onibaba is a a grim story of brutal war and desire, well worth watching, even if its mid sixties success in America was due to its nudity.

2003: 1. The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King 2. Oldboy 3. Finding Nemo 4. Mystic River 5. In America 6. Los Angeles Plays Itself 7. Looney Tunes: Back in Action 8. American Splendor 9. Crimson Gold 10. West of the Tracks I'd have to think what other English language movies would come next, since my runner ups include two from Korea, two from Taiwan, one from Russia and one from Italy. But I supposed Dogville and Lost in Translation would have to be somewhere. I must say I've never seen The Company which does seem worth watching.

It's been updated! No new movies in the top 100, but A Brighter Summer Day almost makes the top 100: http://theyshootpictures.com/