skimpole
-
Posts
4,289 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by skimpole
-
-
theyshootpictures.com top 1000 movies 1974
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany #138
Celine and Julie Go Boating Jacques Rivette, France #178
The Enigma of Kasper Hauser Werner Herzog, West Germany #498
The Phantom of Liberty Luis Bunuel, France #504
Alice in the Cities Wim Wenders, West Germany #576
Lancelot du Lac Robert Bresson, France #634
Edvard Munch Peter Watkins, Sweden #672
We All Loved Each Other So Very Much Ettore Scola, Italy #801
Arabian Nights Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy #845
My Little Loves Jean Eustache, France #867
Jonathan Rosenbaum's top 1000 movies
Alice in the Cities Wim Wenders, West Germany
Benilde or the Virgin Mother Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal
*Celine and Julie Go Boating Jacques Rivette, France
La Guele Ouverte Maurice Pialat, France
Lancelot du Lac Robert Bresson, France
Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave Alexander Kluge, West Germany
The Phantom of Liberty Luis Bunuel, France
Reason, Debate, and a Story Ritwak Ghitak, India
Stavisky Alain Resnais, France
The Traveler Abbas Kiarostami, Iran
An asterisk (*) means the movie is one of Rosenbaum's top 100 movies. Note that dates are not exact.
-
1
-
-
1 hour ago, Bogie56 said:
Italy’s David di Donatello 1973/74 Best Picture winners included …
Italy’s David di Donatello 1974/75 Best Picture winners included …
Conversation Piece (1974) Luchino Visconti, Italy
Wikipedia says this movie was shot in English, though there is a dubbed Italian version. That makes sense, since Lancaster is the key character, and the movie consists of him talking with the other characters. Had it been considered a foreign language film, it would have been #7 on my list.
-
Last week I saw four movies. Valmont is beautifully shot with lovely set decoration and charming performances. Had Dangerous Liaisons not appeared a year earlier, and had there not been a prominent theatrical adaptation of the original novel earlier that year, people would undoubtedly have liked it much more. However, there were both such things, leading one to think why anyone would produce a version defined by having nicer protagonists. Seriously, what's the point? As such, the cast ultimately pales besides Dangerous Liaisons: Annette Bening acquits herself best against Glen Close, while Meg Tilly and Fairuza Balk are least impressive against Michelle Pfeiffer and Uma Thurman.
Settling into the sixth Mission Impossible movie, it occurred to me that I had forgotten the subtitle (Fallout), as well as the subtitle to the previous movie (Rogue Nation), and had forgotten most of that movie except Tom Cruise hanging on to a flying plane, and an elaborate scene where he has to get somewhere or deactivate something while running the risk of drowning. As it turns out, this movie is a bit more memorable: there's an elaborate, and very threatening fight in a bathroom near the beginning. There's also an elaborate chase involving helicopters over the Himalayas as a climax, complicated by the fact that Cruise can't simply kill the villain since he has to take the detonator he's carrying. Also there is an interesting, somewhat over elaborate car chase in Paris for the middle which is OK if not brilliant. Once again, the plot involves Ethan Hunt being accused, or framed of involvement in a terrorist conspiracy, and only way he can clear his name involves giving the terrorists what they want. Also this plans goes badly wrong, and Hunt has to find a way to solve it. I know variations of this happened in movies 1 and 4, and if I cared enough about the plots, it may have happened in 2, 3 and 5. At least this time the government officials who criticize Hunt are even more horribly compromised.
Something New is a silent movie with only one joke. But it is a surprisingly good joke and sustained over the 55 minutes it lasts. Basically Nell Shipman, director and lead actress, is kidnapped by Mexican bandits. And so the hero comes to rescue her (which he eventually does) and they (eventually) get away. The joke is that he does this by car, and he's doing this in a rocky, mountainous area where you'd have to be an utter idiot to drive. Given the reliability, or the lack of them, of 1920 automobiles, any drivers watching the film in its first run must have been terrified as how the car crawls over the landscape, thinking every minute the suspension will break. Shipman also shows some initiative as the movie goes on.
I can imagine the conversation studio heads had when developing Roman J. Israel Esq: "It has Denzel Washington concerned about the African-American community." "We've done that." "He's also a lawyer concerned about losing his soul." "We've also done that." "But this time he has Asberger's Syndrome." "All right I admit we haven't done that. But should we bother?" As it happens the issues raised are vaguely and shallowly presented, and the thriller that the movie eventually gets around to doesn't amount to much. True, the director of Michael Clayton liked it. But since the directors of the two movies are brothers, people who don't have to share Thanksgiving dinner with them can reasonably be more skeptical.
-
1
-
1
-
-
1. Celine and Julie Go Boating Jacques Rivette, France
2. The Enigma of Kasper Hauser Werner Herzog, West Germany
3. The Phantom of Liberty Luis Bunuel, France/Italy
4. Scenes from a Marriage Ingmar Bergman, Sweden
5. My Little Loves Jean Eustache, France
6. Alice in the Cities Wim Wenders, West Germany
7. Fear Eats the Soul Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany
8. Arabian Nights Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy/France
9. Lacombe, Lucien Louis Malle, France
10. Lancelot du Lac Robert Bresson, France
11. The Traveler Abbas Kiarostami, Iran
12. Still Life Sohrab Shahid-Saless, Iran
13. Stavisky Alain Resnais, France/Italy
14. Electra, My Love Miklos Jancso, Hungary
-
1
-
-
21 hours ago, TopBilled said:
Here's a review I posted last week:
Ms. Caraway was not the only female elected to the Senate in the 1930s. The year Columbia Pictures made MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, there were three other women in the Senate. So that's four women who should have been seen in the Senate chamber scenes of this film. But they are not there, not even on the sidelines or in the background.
Actually three other women served in the Senate in the second half of the thirties. But the three didn't serve at the same time. They served for terms less than 11 months (1936-1937), five months (1937-1938), and two months (1938-1939). The first two were appointees, the third won a peculiar special election for a two month term.
-
1
-
-
Now it's 1989. Here is Best Adapted Screenplay:
Kenneth Branagh, Henry V, based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare
Oliver Stone Ron Kovic, Born on the Fourth of July, based on the autobiography of the same name by Kovic
Roger L. Simon, Paul Mazursky, Enemies: A Love Story, based on the novel of the same name by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Hayao Miyazaki, Kiki’s Delivery Service, based on the novel of the same name by Eiko Kadano
Ron Clements, John Musker, The Little Mermaid, based on the story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen
And here is Best Original Screenplay
Woody Allen, Crimes and Misdemeanors
Cameron Crowe, Say Anything…
Chu T’ien-wen, Wu Nien Jen, A City of Sadness
Abbas Kiarostami, Homework
Kira Muratova, Aleksandr Chernhyk, Sergei Popov, The Asthenic Syndrome
-
Now it's 1988. Here is Best Original Screenplay:
John Cleese, Charles Crichton, A Fish Called WandaMarcel Ophuls, Hotel TerminusHayao Miyazakai, My Neighbor TotoroTerence Davies, Distant Voices, Still LivesTheo Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra, Thanassis Valtinos, Landscape in the MistAnd here is Best Adapted Screenplay:George Sluizer, Tim Krabbe, The Vanishing, based on Krabbe's novel The Golden EggIsao Takahata, The Grave of the Fireflies, based on the short story of the same name by Akiyuki NasakaChristopher Hampton, Dangerous Liaisons, based on his play Les Liaisons Dangereuses and the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de LaclosDavid Cronenberg, Norman Snider, Dead Ringers, based on the novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack GeaslandJean-Claude Carriere, Philip Kaufman, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, based on the novel of the same name by Milan KunderaI have not seen Running on Empty (original) or Gorillas in the Mist (adapted) -
Now it's 1987. Here is Best Adapted Screenplay:
Alan Parker, Angel Heart, based on the novel Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg
William Goldman, The Princess Bride, based on his novel of the same name
Mark Peploe, Bernardo Bertolucci, The Last Emperor, based on the autobiography From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi by Henry Pu Yi
Lasse Hallstrom, Reidar Jonsson, Brasse Branstrom, Per Berglund, My Life as a Dog, based on Jonsson's novel of the same name
Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, Gustav Hasford, Full Metal Jacket, based on Hasford's novel The Short-Timers
And here is Best Original Screenplay:
John Boorman, Hope and Glory
Jeffrey Boam, Chip Proser, Innerspace
Abbas Kiarostami, Where is the Friend's Home
Woody Allen, Radio Days
David Mamet, House of Games
-
Now it's 1986. Here is Best Original Screenplay:
Eric Rohmer, Marie Riviere, The Green Ray/Summer
David Lynch, Blue Velvet
Andrei Tarkovsky, The Sacrifice
Richard Fire, John McNaughton, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Robert Bolt, The Mission
And here is Best Adapted Screenplay:
Richard Burridge, Absolute Beginners, based on the novel of the same name by Colin MacInnes
James Cameron, Aliens, sequel to the movie Alien, directed by Ridley Scott
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, A Room with a View, based on the novel of the same name by E.M. Forster
Charles Edward Pogue, David Cronenberg, The Fly, remake of the movie The Fly directed by Kurt Neumann
Bruce A. Evans, Raymond Gideon, Stand by Me, based on the novella "The Body" by Stephen King
I have not seen Crocodile Dundee, My Beautiful Laundrette (original), or Crimes of the Heart (adapted)
-
theyshootpictures.com top 1000 movies 1973
Amarcord Federico Fellini, Italy #72
The Spirit of the Beehive Victor Erice, Spain #107
La Maman et la Putain Jean Eustarche, France #111
Touki Bouki Djibril Diop Mambety, Senegal #291
Scenes from a Marriage Ingmar Bergman, Sweden #409
Day for Night Francois Truffaut, France #411
The Holy Mountain Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mexico #744
Ludwig Luchino Visconti, Italy #803
Jonathan Rosenbaum's top 1000 movies
Martha Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany
The Mongols Parviz Kimiavi, Iran
La Maman et la Putain Jean Eustache, France
Narita: Heta Village Shinsuke Ogawa, Japan
Nathalie Granger Marguerite Duras, France
*Parade Jacques Tati, France
Salome Carmelo Bene, Italy
Touki Bouki Djibril Diop Mambety, SenegalAn asterisk (*) means the film is one of Rosenbaum's top 100 movies. Note that dates are not exact.
-
3
-
-
I saw four movies last week. BlacKkKlansman is an interesting and in many ways serviceable Spike Lee joint about the first black police officer in his Colorado city who decides to investigate the Klan. Having accidentally given his real name to the man he telephoned he has to convince a Jewish colleague to impersonate him as part of the investigation. Adam Driver, as the colleague, does a good job as does Jasper Paakkonen as the most sinister of the Klansmen and Topher Grace as David Duke. There's a certain weakness of rhetoric, with Stokely Carmichael appearing giving a speech doing his trademark more charisma than brains. Where are my Children? may have been directed by a woman and an argument for contraception. But it doesn't wear well a century later, what with its seduced and abandoned subplot, belief that women have abortion for frivolous reasons and obvious name (Malfit as the abortionist).
Peking Opera Blues is one of the more successful action films of 1986, with the plot of three women in Republican China trying to help the national good over warlord factions. It's expertly edited, well paced and shot, notwithstanding the lack of acrobatics later seen in Once Upon a Time in China. It also does well with the limitations put upon it. Chinese cinema at the time, whether Communist or non-communist, was fairly puritan in its tone. So the fact that two men who hang around and help the two women don't become love interests actually works in giving the women more autonomy. (The movie ends with the five riding off in different directions.) The Unknown Girl is another fine Dardenne brothers drama about the Belgian precariat, if not quite up to the high standards as their previous two films. In this case a doctor ignores a buzz at her clinic door an hour after closing, only to find out soon after that the inquirer was the title character in question, and she died violently shortly afterwards. Adele Haenel gives an especially good performance as the doctor as she tries to find out who the victim was.
-
1
-
-
1. The Spirit of the Beehive Victor Erice, Spain
2. La Maman et la Putain Jean Eustace, France
3. Day for Night Francois Truffaut, France
4. State of Siege Constantin Costa-Gavras, France
5. A River Called Titas Ritwik Ghatak, India
6. Ludwig Luchino Visconti, Italy/France/West Germany
-
3
-
-
Now it's 1985. Here is Best Original Screenplay:
Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown, Brazil
Claude Lanzmann, Shoah
Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, Back to the Future
Agnes Varda, Vagabond
Juzo Itami, Tampopo
And here is Best Adapted Screenplay:
Elem Klimov, Ales Adamovich, Come and See, based on Adamovich's novel I am from the Fiery Village
Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Masoto Ide, Ran, based on the play King Lear by William Shakespeare
Jonathan Lynn, Clue, based on the board game invented by Anthony E. Pratt
Vaja Gigashvili, The Legend of Suram Fortress, based on the novella Tsiskan by Daniel Chonkadze
Kurt Luedtke, Out of Africa, based on on the memoir by Isak Dinesen and the books Silence Will Speak by Errol Trzebinski and Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller by Judith Thurman
-
Now it's 1984. Here is Best Original Screenplay:
Brian Grazer, Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel, Bruce Jay Friedman, Splash
L.M. Kit Carson, Sam Shepard, Paris, Texas
Leonordo Benvenuti, Piero De Benardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcali, Franco Ferrini, Sergio Leone, Once Upon a Time in America
William Kennedy, Francis Ford Coppola, The Cotton Club
Woody Allen, Broadway Danny Rose
And here is Best Adapted Screenplay:
Phil Alden Robinson, Henry Olek, All of Me, based on the novel Me Too by Edwin Davis
Paul Mommertz, The Wannsee Conference, based on the original protocols
Bruce Robinson, The Killing Fields, based on the article "The Death and Life of Dith Pran," by Sydney Schanberg
Sandy Kroopf, Jack Behr, Birdy, based on the novel of the same name by William Wharton
Peter Shaffer, Amadeus, based on his play of the same name
-
Now it's 1983. Here is Best Original Screenplay:
Ingmar Bergman, Fanny and Alexander
Steve Martin, Carl Reiner, George Gipe, The Man With Two Brains
Chris Marker, Sans Soleil
Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam), Monty Python and the Meaning of Life
Woody Allen, Zelig
And here is Best Adapted Screenplay:
Robert Bresson, L'Argent, based on the story "The Forged Coupon" by Leo Tolstoy
Philip Kaufman, The Right Stuff, based on the book of the same name by Tom Wolfe
Shohei Imamura, The Ballad of Narayama, based on the book Narayama bushiko by Shichiro Fukazawa
Oliver Stone, Scarface, based on the film Scarface: the Shame of a Nation directed by Howard Hawks
John Secret Young, Testament, based on the short story "The Last Testament" by Carol Amen
I have not seen Betrayal, Educating Rita, Reuben, Reuben (adapted)
-
22 minutes ago, Gershwin fan said:
The only ones I haven't seen are
1.) A City of Sadness
2.) A Separation
3.) To Live
4.) 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
5.) Eat Drink Man Woman
6.) In the Heat of the Sun
7.) Landscape in the Mist.
6 is the only one I haven't seen.
-
Now it's 1982. Here is Best Original Screenplay:
John Briley, Gandhi
Barry Levinson, Diner
Werner Herzog, Fitzcarraldo
Philippe Garrel, L'Enfant Secret
Ron Fricke, Michael Hoenig, Godfrey Reggio, Alton Walpole, Koyaanisqatsi
And here is Best Adapted Screenplay:
Constantin Costa-Gavras, Donald E. Stewart, Missing, based on the book The Execution of Charles Horman, An American Sacrifice by Thomas Hauser
David Mamet, The Verdict, based on the novel of the same name by Barry Reed
Roger Waters, Pink Floyd: the Wall, based on the album The Wall by Pink Floyd
Hampton Fancher, David Peoples, Blade Runner, based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Blake Edwards, Victor/Victoria, based on the film Viktor und Viktoria directed by Reinhold Schunzel
I have not seen An Officer and a Gentleman (original)
-
theyshootpictures.com top 1000 movies for 1972
Aguirre: the Wrath of God Werner Herzog, West Germany #97
Cries and Whispers Ingmar Bergman, Sweden #155
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie Luis Bunuel, France #158
Solaris Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union #228
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany #516
Fellini's Roma Federico Fellini, Italy #675
Jonathan Rosenbaum's top 1000 movies 1972
Aguirre, the Wrath of God Werner Herzog, West Germany
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie Luis Bunuel, France
Fellini Roma Federico Fellini, Italy
*Out 1: Spectre Jacques Rivette, France
Solaris Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet UnionAn asterisk (*) means the movie is one of Rosenbaum's top 100. Note that dates are not exact.
-
1
-
2
-
-
I saw three movies last week. I saw Bloodbrothers because it had been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. The seventies saw a number of movies which sought to deal with Italian Americans. Bloodbrothers was one of those where neither the director, the screenwriter, the writer of the original novel, or the main star and focus of audience identification were actually Italian. You might think this was not a promising approach, and you would be right. As it happened, the director of Bloodbrothers, Robert Mulligan, had directed in 1963 Love with the Proper Stranger, a tale of two Italian-Americans played by Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen (!) united by the magic of unwanted pregnancy which got five oscar nominations (!!). LWTPS was not a good, or honest movie, but at least it had Wood and McQueen as a couple. Supposedly a tougher movie, Bloodbrothers just has most of Italian characters being really obnoxious. The dilemma the protagonist faces between the close, narrow minded traditions of his family and the more imaginative fulfilling choice that he's actually good at is as predictable as one might think. Even more irritating is that Richard Gere's (implausibly awful) parents, played by actors thirteen years older than him, look exactly like actors thirteen years older than him. This lack of credibility is especially irritating considering that paternal authority is the key theme of the movie.
Gilda Live is amusing, although the best skit is early on in the movie, and Radner, I'm afraid, doesn't have the energy or power that Bette Midler had in the same year's Divine Madness. Ironically the most telling joke is when one of Radner's characters is singing an ode to saccharin, claiming that men prefer thin girls with cancer to healthy ones with bulging thighs. Radner's own death later that decade from ovarian cancer is a nasty irony. Tanna isn't exactly a remake of Tabu, although it has a similar plot in that it deals with unfortunate lovers facing opposition from tribal authorities. It's OK, and if there's nothing here that's as memorable as in Murnau's work, there's considerable attention paid to authenticity. The film was shot in Vanuatu, and the characters speak the local language. One interesting thing is one might think the story told was very old, and then halfway through the movie one of the characters says he's seen Prince Philip. Later the lovers find a Christian village and this leads to the movie's funniest line ("Those people really freak me out.") and at the end we find it's 1987!
-
1. Cries and Whispers Ingmar Bergman, Sweden
2. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie Luis Bunuel, France
3. Solaris Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union
4. Aguirre: the Wrath of God Werner Herzog, West Germany
5. Red Psalm Miklos Jancso, Hungary
6. The Mattei Affair Francesco Rosi, Italy
7. Blaise Pascal Roberto Rossellini, France
8. Tout va Bien Jean-Luc Godard, France
9. Chloe in the Afternoon Eric Rohmer, France
-
3
-
-
Now it's 1981. Here is Best Original Screenplay:
Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, Time Bandits
Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn, My Dinner with Andre
Lawrence Kasdan, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Warren Beatty, Trevor Griffiths, Reds
John Guare, Atlantic City
And here is Best Adapted Screenplay:
Jerry Juhl, Tom Patchett, Jack Rose, Jay Tarses, The Great Muppet Caper, based on the characters created by Jim Henson
Jeffrey Alan Fiskin, Cutter's Way, based on the novel Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg
Sidney Lumet, Jay Presson Allen, Prince of the City, based on the book of the same name by Robert Daley
John Boorman, Raspar Pallenberg, Excalibur, based on Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Malory
Dennis Potter, Pennies from Heaven based on the his television series of the same name
I have not seen Arthur (original) or Ragtime (adapted)
-
Now it's 1980. Here is Best Adapted Screenplay:
Gerard Brach, John Brownjohn, Roman Polanski, Tess, based on the novel Tess of The D'Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson, The Shining, based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King
Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Airplane!, based on the movie Zero Hour!
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Berlin Alexanderplatz, based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Doblin
Jonathan Hardy, David Stevens, Bruce Beresford, Breaker Morant based on the play of the same name by Kenneth G. Ross
Here is Best Original Screenplay:
Jean Gruault, Mon Oncle D'Amerique
Bo Goldman, Melvin and Howard
Akira Kurosawa, Masatao Ide, Kagemusha
Ingmar Bergman, From the Life of the Marionettes
John Cassavetes, Gloria
I haven't seen Brubaker, Fame, or Private Benjamin (original) -
The one noteworthy foreign language film I've seen from this period so far covered by this thread is Joris Iven's 1968 French movie The 17th Parallel. This is a documentary made by Ivens showing the Vietnam War from the viewpoint of North Vietnamese villages near the title border. Ivens had a long history as a radical, often pro-Communist filmmaker, and see the villagers very determined, and somewhat angry, at the Americans bombing their country. We see bomb shelters, underground passageways as well as teams who quickly fill in bomb craters. We also see the villagers react to the actual bombing, not to mention anti-aircraft teams and people who seek to salvage material from unexploded bombs and the occasional downed plane. You can see the movie here:
-
3
-
1
-
-
The self Styled Siren had a blog posts that contains foreign movies, some of which haven't been mentioned so far in this thread. (She also mentions some American/English movies which I didn't feel the need to include.)
2017: The Year in Old Movies (because measuring it in other ways wouldn't be nearly as pleasant)
The 10 best of what the Siren watched in 2017, presented without preamble, and in alphabetical order. The Siren wishes her patient readers a most happy 2018.
The Big City (Mahanagar; directed by Satyajit Ray, 1963. Viewed on Criterion DVD)
Madhabi Mukherjee’s performance instantly became an all-time favorite. It is part of Satyajit Ray’s genius that he refuses to make her husband (Anil Chatterjee, half lummox, half mensch) into a villain, instead showing how the man’s prejudices give way not only to love of his wife, but common sense.
Bitter Stems (Los Tallos Amargos; directed by Fernando Ayala, 1956. Viewed at Metrograph)
The Siren thinks this may be the noirest noir of them all. The movie weaves together guilt and ambivalence over Argentina’s history in World War II with the hero’s (Carlos Cores) own psychological unraveling. Magnificent cinematography by the Chilean Ricardo Younis. Do read Raquel Stecher’s post on the film’s restoration; you will see how close we came to losing this beauty forever. The Siren was so impressed that she donated to the Film Noir Foundation as thanks.
The Glass Tower (Der gläserne Turm, directed by Harald Braun, 1957. Viewed during Film Society of Lincoln Center’s series The Lost Years of German Cinema: 1949–1963.)
A classic women's picture about the emotional abuse inflicted on a former actress (Lilli Palmer) by a secretly psychotic tycoon husband (O.E. Hasse). You’d know this film influenced Rainer Werner Fassbinder even if the program notes never said so. The Siren loved the way it suddenly became almost an Agatha Christie mystery, loved the design (by Walter Haag) that envisions the couple’s life as a series of elegant glass-walled prison cells. The plot resembles Under Capricorn, but the film plays out to its resolution in a much more satisfying way. (Bosley Crowther’s review is possibly the most sexist thing he ever wrote, which is saying something.)
I’ll Be Seeing You (directed by William Dieterle, 1945. Viewed on Kino Classics DVD).
Somehow the Siren had missed this delicate wartime romance, which boasts one of Ginger Rogers’ most heartfelt and touching performances. As her character and that of Joseph Cotten gradually fall in love, you realize you are watching two psychically wounded people trying to heal. The Siren much prefers this to the better-known Love Letters (same year, same director), which has a torpid screenplay by Ayn Rand; I’ll Be Seeing You has a screenplay by Marion Parsonnet, whose credits include Gilda. The Siren saw I’ll Be Seeing You while researching her video essay on Ginger Rogers’ dramatic roles, which will be included in Arrow Films’ Blu-Ray release of Magnificent Doll in February 2018.
Le Trou (The Hole; directed by Jacques Becker, 1960. Viewed at Film Forum’s run of the 4K digital restoration.)
The Siren has a new favorite prison movie. And while this may surprise you, the Siren tends to like prison movies. The late-movie payoff is one that many Hollywood directors would sell a kidney to come up with.
Paris Frills (Falbalas; directed by Jacques Becker, 1945. Viewed on MUBI.)
It’s a pity this isn’t widely available, as it makes a terrific companion piece to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread. The Siren would love to know if Anderson saw it. Paris Frills also concerns an egotistical couturier (Raymond Rouleau), whose atelier is also in a palatial townhouse, and who also runs roughshod over the people around him, with much different consequences. Becker is more concerned than PTA with the daily labor of “les petits mains” and with suggesting all the lives beyond those of his leads. The Siren’s favorite scene involved the couturier, deep in a selfish funk about a love affair, being told off by Solange (Gabrielle Dorziat), his equivalent of Phantom Thread’s Cyril: “I don’t give a damn about her. She has time for sentimental complications, where here there are 300 who can’t be permitted that, and who you are going to put out in the street.” (Note for the Siren’s fellow lovers of fashion history: The gowns were by Rochas.)
Roses Bloom on the Moorland (Rosen blühen auf dem Heidegrab; directed by Hans H. König, 1952. Viewed as part of the FSLC Lost Years series.)
The Siren’s surprise of the year. One alternate title is Rape on the Moorland, which didn’t exactly sound like her sort of thing, and she saw it only because it was screening at a rare moment that found her in the Walter Reade neighborhood. The film turned out to be a unique combination of Universal horror movie and rural romance, with Ruth Niehaus splendid as the death-haunted peasant heroine, and Hermann Schomberg storming through his scenes as the **** villain. König makes exquisite use of the windswept, Bronte-esque setting, but what really sold the Siren was the denouement, with its unexpected warmth and humanity.
Ruthless (directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, 1948. Viewed as part of the MoMA series “Poverty Row.”)
Written about in the Siren’s roundup of this series at the Village Voice.Tonka of the Gallows (Tonka Sibenice, directed by Karel Anton, 1930. Viewed as part of MoMA’s series “Ecstasy and Irony: Czech Cinema, 1927–1943.”)
The Siren wrote her heart out about this one at her Film Comment blog.
Honorable mention, among many others seen and enjoyed:
I Knew Her Well (Antonio Pietrangeli, Italy 1965)
Kristian (Martin Fric, Czechoslovakia, 1939)
Happy Journey (Otakar Vavra, Czechoslovakia 1943)
False Faces (Lowell Sherman, U.S. 1932)
Sword of Doom (Kihachi Okamoto, Japan 1966)
Black Gravel (Helmut Kautner, Germany, 1961. Note: This one is not for dog lovers.)
-
2
-
3
-
Your favorite adapted/original screenplay
in Your Favorites
Posted
Now it's 1990. Here is Best Adapted Screenplay:
Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorcese, Goodfellas, based on the book Wiseguy by Pileggi
Nicholas Kazan, Reversal of Fortune, based on the book of the same name by Alan Dershowitz
Charles S. Haas, Gremlins 2: the New Batch, sequel to the movie Gremlins
William Harrison, Bob Rafelson, Mountains of the Moon, based on the novel Burton and Speke by Harrison.
Gianni Amelio, Vincenzo Cerami, Alessandro Sermoneta, Open Doors, based on the novel of the same name by Leonardo Sciascia
And here is Best Original Screenplay:
Diane Kurys, Alain Le Henry, C’est la Vie/La Baules-Les-Pins
Bruce Joel Rubin, Jacob’s Ladder
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Mller’s Crossing
Akira Kurosawa, Dreams
Luc Besson, La Femme Nikita
I have not seen Avalon, Green Card (original)