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skimpole

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Posts posted by skimpole

  1. I saw three movies last week.  The first was On Her Majesty's Secret Service, or, as James Bond skeptics might put it "You will believe a glib sociopath can love."  The movie has some striking alpine shots, though mixed with rear projection shots make it look dated.  And the idea of having Blofeld using an alpine hideaway as his lair does lead to some obvious plausibility problems.  I suppose the largest problem with the movie is that while the idea of having Diana Rigg as both a Bond girl and the love of Bond's life is a good one, it's not executed very well.  Cactus Flower suffers from having a very obvious plot, which oddly enough resembles another mediocre film of a Broadway farce, Any WednesdayLogan Lucky is an amusing heist film, but not much more than that.  Everyone is very competent, though one can see the cynicism in the subplot about the hero's daughter.

  2.  1. Jules et Jim  Francois Truffaut, France

     2. Harakari  Masaki Kobayashi, Japan

     3. Vivre Sa Vie  Jean-Luc Godard, France

     4. Salvatore Giulliano  Francesco Rosi, Italy

     5. Le Doulos  Jean-Pierre Melville, France

     6. The Exterminating Angel  Luis Bunuel, Mexico

     7. My Name is Ivan/Ivan's Childhood  Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union

     8. L'Eclisse  Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy

     9. An Autumn Afternoon  Yasuiro Ozu, Japan

    10.The Four Days of Naples  Nanni Loy, Italy

    • Like 4
  3. Now it's 1964.  Here is Best Original Screenplay:

    Alun Owen, A Hard Day's Night
    Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
    Glaubert Rocha, Black God, White Devil
    Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Red Desert
    Francois Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard, The Soft Skin
     

    And here is Best Adapted Screenplay:


    Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, based on the novel Red Alert by Peter George
    Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, based on the eponymous gospel
    Satyajit Ray, Charulata, based on the novella The Broken Nest by Rabindranath Tagore
    Carl Theodor Dreyer, Grethe Risberg Thomsen, Gertrud based on the play of the same name by Hjalmar Soderberg
    Jean-Luc Godard, Band of Outsiders, based on the novel Fool's Gold by Dolores Hitchens

    I have not seen Father Goose, One Potato, Two Potato or That Man From Rio (original).  The Organizer was nominated the previous year.

  4. Now it's 1963.  Here is Best Adapted Screenplay:

    Pasquale Festa Campanile, Enrico Midioli, Massimo Franciosi, Luchino Visconti, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, The Leopard, based on the novel of the same name by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
    James Clavell, W.R. Burnett, The Great Escape, based on the memoir of the same name by Paul Brickhill
    Jean-Luc Godard, Contempt, based on the novel A Ghost at Noon by Alberto Moravia
    Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Vidas Secas, based on the novel of the same name by Graciliano Ramos
    Ryuzu Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Eijiro Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa, High and Low, based on the novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain

    And here is Best Original Screenplay:

    Ingmar Bergman, Winter Light
    Mario Monicelli,  Age & Scarpelli, The Organizer
    Ingmar Bergman, The Silence
    Jean Cayrol, Muriel
    Jacques Demy, Bay of Angels

    I have not seen Captain Newman M.D, Lilies of the Field, Sundays and Cybele (adapted)

  5. Now it's 1962.   Here is Best Original Screenplay:

    Chris Marker, La Jetee
    Luis Bunuel, The Exterminating Angel
    Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Elio Bartolini, Ottiero Ottieri, L'Eclisse
    Jean-Luc Godard, Marcel Sacotte, Vivre sa Vie
    Francesco Rosi, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Enzo Provensale, Franco Solinias, Salvatore Giulliano

    And here is Best Adapted Screenplay


    Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia based on the writings of T.E. Lawrence
    Francois Truffaut, Jean Gruault, Jules and Jim based on the novel of the same name by Henri-Pierre Roche
    George Axelrod, The Manchurian Candidate based on the novel of the same name by Richard Condon
    Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, based on his novel of the same name
    Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's journey into Night based on his play of the same name

    I have not seen Divorce Italian Style, Freud, That Touch of Mink (original).  O'Neill gets a nomination despite being dead for years because Lumet didn't adapt the screenplay, he just took it as is.

  6. Now it's 1961.  Here is Best Original Screenplay:

    Alain Robbe-Grillet, Last Year in Marienbad
    Arthur Miller, The Misfits
    Ryuzu Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Yojimbo
    Federico Fellini, Tulio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi, La Dolce Vita
    Jacques Demy, Lola
     

    And here is Best Adapted Screenplay:


    I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder, One, Two, Three based on the play of the same name by Ferenc Molnar
    Sidney Carroll, Robert Rossen, The Hustler based on the novel of the same name by Walter Tevis
    Julio Alejandro, Luis Bunuel, Viridiana based on the novel Halma by Benito Perez Galdos
    Ernest Lehman, West Side Story based on the play of the same name, book by Walter Tevis
    George Axelrod, Breakfast at Tiffany's based on the novella of the same name by Truman Capote

    I have not seen General Della Rovere (original)
     

  7. On 8/5/2018 at 4:20 AM, Bogie56 said:

    The 1961 Academy Award Best Foreign Language Films …

    S%C3%A5som-i-en-spegel-1961.jpeg

    Through a Glass Darkly (1961) Ingmar Bergman, Sweden ****

    220px-Harry_and_the_Butler_(1961).jpg

    Harry and the Butler (1961) Bent Christensen, Denmark

    85283-immortal-love-0-230-0-345-crop.jpg

    Immortal Love (1961) Keisuke Kinoshita, Japan

    cDYv92GKMfJwSXvZyOLICmb4mfu.jpg?partner=

    The Important Man (1961) Ismael Rodriguez, Mexico

    Placido_poster.png.500x715_q85_crop-smar

    Placido (1961) Luis Garcia Berlanga, Spain

    It occurs to me that since the Academy started having competitive oscars for best foreign language film in 1956, we can also include the official nominees each country chose before the Academy selected five from them.  The list of submissions for 1961 can be seen here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_submissions_to_the_34th_Academy_Awards_for_Best_Foreign_Language_Film

    Last Year in Marienbad and La Notte are the most famous also-rans for 1961.

    • Thanks 1
  8. 2 minutes ago, Bogie56 said:

    I know it is difficult especially when we get into the age of the international co-production.  I amended Viridiana to go with Spain as it was shot there.  I often use the director's nationality or the country where it was shot to help me determine things as I would prefer to just list one country.

    Why wouldn't Viridiana be considered a Spanish film?  Bunuel isn't a Mexican director, he was a Spanish director living in exile in Mexico.  The Spanish authorities were notoriously both enraged by the film, that had gone to Cannes without thorough vetting, and embarrassed when the Vatican criticized it as blasphemous.

  9. theyshootpictures.com top 1000 movies 1961

    Viridiana  Luis Bunuel, Spain #76

    Last Year in Marienbad  Alain Resnais, France #91

    La Notte  Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy #255

    Yojimbo  Akira Kurosawa, Japan #393

    Accatone  Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy #490

    Chronicle of a Summer  Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin, France #496

    Lola  Jacques Demy, France #502

    Placido  Luis Garcia Berlagna Spain #535

    The End of Summer  Yasujiro Ozu, Japan #829

    Il Posto Ermanno Olmi, Italy #891

    A Woman is a Woman  Jean-Luc Godard, France #945

    Jonathan Rosenbaum's top 1000 movies

    Accatone  Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy
    Chronicle of a Summer  Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin, France
    Cleo from 5 to 7  Agnes Varda, France
    *Last Year at Marienbad  Alain Resnais, France
    Lola  Jacques Demy, France
    Paris nous appartient  Jacques Rivette, France
    Viridiana  Luis Bunuel, Spain
    *A Wife Confesses  Yasuzo Masumura, Japan

    An asterisk (*) means the movie is one of Rosenbaum's top 100.  Note years are not exact.

    • Thanks 2
  10. I don't know how much of a cliche this is actually.  But last month I caught the beginning of Caddyshack, a movie I otherwise have no strong opinions about, and it starts off with a throwaway joke that Michael O'Keefe's working class Irish parents have a lot of children.  This cliche would not have a long history for two reasons.  First, the Hays Code might find it slightly racy.  Second, screenwriters have limited reasons to refer to a large number of siblings or children.  There are a couple of movies which deal with large families:  Cheaper by the Dozen and Yours, Mine and Ours, oddly both remade.  But given that birth rates have been falling all across the board for at least half a century and that nativist fears have moved from Catholic birth rates to Hispanic immigration, I suspect this passing "joke" is a lot less rare. 

  11. On 6/29/2018 at 11:57 AM, EricJ said:

    Oh, thought it was going to be about technologically vanishing movie cliche's, like somebody coming home from work at night and suddenly getting a breakup or a villain warning on the answering machine tape to the landline phone in their kitchen.

    I still have both.

  12. 1 hour ago, CoraSmith said:
    1. The End of Summer, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan
    2. La Notte, Michaelangelo Antonioni, Italy
    3. Last Year in MarienbadAlain Resnais, France
    4. A Woman Is a Woman, Jean-Luc Godard, France
    5. Tintin and the Golden Fleece, Jean-Jacques Vierne, France
    6. Divorce Italian Style, Pietro Germi, Italy
    7. Viridiana, Luis Bunuel, Spain
    8. All the Gold in the World, René Clair, France
    9. LolaJacques Demy, France
    10. Il PostoErmanno Olmi, Italy

    None of these would have made the top 5 in the much stronger 1960. 

     

     

     

    Last Year in Marienbad would.

  13. I saw four movies last week.  Three Coins in the Fountain so beautifully films postwar Rome, or at least the more touristy areas, one wishes one didn't have to worry about the three bland love stories that take place in it.  Taurus is part of Alexander Sokurov's tetralogy of power.  In this case it deals with the dying Lenin.  It's a striking movie, with Lenin being more brutal than he was under Soviet times, shot in a striking green filter.  Zama is an interesting movie about a Spanish bureaucrat in colonial Latin America.  He would like to get back to Spain and his family and he faces bureaucratic problems worthy of Kafka.  The beautifully shot film takes an elliptical approach, often jumping ahead once Zama faces major problems.  The movie certainly improves as it goes on, with Zama eventually joining an expedition to hunt an infamous bandit.  Logan is not of the same caliber, but Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart are actually fairly good as the last of the X-Men in a dystopian future with no promise of a happy ending.

  14. Now it's 1960.  Here is Best Original Screenplay:

    Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless
    Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond, The Apartment
    Michelangelo Antonioni, Elio Bartolini, Tonino Guerra, L'Avventura
    Leo Marks, Peeping Tom
    Hideo Oguni, Eijiro Hisaita, Akira Kurosowa, Ryuzo Kaushima, Shinobu Hashimoto, The Bad Sleep Well

    And here is Best Adapted Screenplay:


    Joseph Stefano, Psycho, based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch
    Francois Truffaut, Marcel Moussy, Shoot the Piano Player, based on the novel Down There by David Goodis
    Louise Malle, Jean-Paul Rappaneau, Zazie in the Metro, based on the novel by the same name by Raymond Queneau
    Jacques Becker, Jose Giovanni, Jean Aurel, Le Trou based on the novel The Break by Jose Giovanni
    Ulla Isaksson, The Virgin Spring based on the ballad "Tore's Daughters in Vange"

    I have not seen The Angry Silence, The Facts of Life, Never on Sunday (original) or Tunes of Glory (adapted).  Hiroshima Mon Amour was nominated the previous year.

  15. Now it's 1959.   First here is Best Original Screenplay:

    Ernest Lehman, North by Northwest
    Francois Truffaut, Marcel Moussy, The 400 Blows
    Robert Bresson, Pickpocket
    Marguerite Duras, Hiroshima, Mon Amour
    Fereydoun Hoveyda, Sonali Senroy DasGupta, India: Matri Bhumi

    Satyajit Ray, The World of Apu based on the novel Aparajito by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
    Billy Wilder, I.A. Diamond, Some Like it Hot, based on the movie Fanfare of Love
    Wendell Mayes, Anatomy of a Murder based on the novel of the same name by Robert Traver
    Jules Furthman, Leigh Brackett, Rio Bravo based on the short story of the same name by B.H. McCampbell
    Eleanore Griffin, Allan Scott, Imitation of Life based on the novel by the same name by Fannie Hurst

    Wild Strawberries was nominated two years earlier
     

  16. Now it's 1958  First, here is Best Adapted Screenplay

    Alec Coppel, Samuel Taylor, Vertigo, based on the novel D'Entre Les Morts by Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac
    Sergei Eisenstein, Ivan the Terrible, Part II, a sequel to the movie Ivan the Terrible, Part I
    Orson Welles, Touch of Evil, based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson
    Eric Ambler, A Night to Remember based on the book of the same name by Walter Lord
    Satyajit Ray, The Music Room based on the short story of the same name by Tarashankar Bandopadhyay

    And here is Best Original Screenplay:


    Jacques Lagrange, Jean L'Hote, Jacques Tati, Mon Oncle
    Ben Simcoe, Murder by Contract
    Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Mario Monicelli, Big Deal on Madonna Street
    Mohammed Abu Youssef, Abdel Hai Adid, Cairo Station
    Ryusu Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto, Akira Kurosawa, The Hidden Fortress

    I have not seen The Goddess, Houseboat, The Sheepman or Teacher's Pet (original).
     

  17. theyshootpictures.com top 1000 movies for 1960

    Breathless  Jean-Luc Godard, France #19

    La Dolce Vita  Federico Fellini, Italy #31

    L'Avventura  Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy #37

    Rocco and His Brothers  Luchino Visconti, Italy #176

    Eyes Without a Face  Georges Franju, France #346

    Shoot the Piano Player  Francois Truffaut, France #357

    The Cloud-Capped Star  Ritwik Ghatak, India #397

    The Naked Island  Kaneto Shindo, Japan #857

    Le Trou  Jacques Becker, France #871

    Jonathan Rosenbaum top 1000 movies for 1960


    Les bonnes femmes  Claude Chabrol, France
    *The Cloud-Capped Star   Ritwik Ghatak, India
    Devi  Satyajit Ray, India
    The False Student   Yasuzo Masumura, Japan
    The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse  Fritz Lang, West Germany
    Tirez sur la pianiste  Francois Truffaut, France
    Zazie dans le metro  Louis Malle, France

    An asterisk (*) indicates that the movie is one of Rosenbaum's top 100.  Note that dates are not exact.

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  18. Aside from rewatching The Hidden Fortress (much improved seeing it on the big screen) and Underground (its considerable vitality is still evident) I saw five movies this week.  Let the Sunshine In was the best one.  In this story about an attractive women in her fifties trying to find love, Juliette Binoche may have been the best actress of 2017.  Unfailingly intelligent and realistic, Claire Denis is, admittedly, not the most audience friendly of filmmakers.  But one should make the effort.

    Two other contemporary movies have gotten high praise, but deserve it less.  Hereditary certainly starts out well, with an unpleasant sense of unease, where it's not clear where the threat is coming from, following by a horrific act of violence.  Toni Collette tries very hard as the grief stricken mother, but the film loses a certain energy after the aforementioned HAOV.  Arguably, Gabriel Byrne does a better job as Collette's loving, but ultimately ineffective husband.  Unfortunately once it becomes clear what's going on about three quarters of the movie, things become much less effective.  Several plausibility problems emerge.  Let's just say a family drama that used horror trappings, becomes a horror movie that uses family drama trappings and the change is not for the better.  The final scenes do have some genuine chills, even if they are of the "Boo! There's something in the dark!" variety.  But even they go on too long.  First Reformed has gotten what I consider an undue amount of praise.  In its defense Ethan Hawke does give a credible performance as, of all things, a Protestant minister.  But much of the movie is derivative of Winter Light.  (Poor Victoria Hill is even made to look like an unnaturally mousy Ingrid Thulin.)  At first this is only broken when it becomes clear that it's also derivative of Diary of a Country Priest.  Once Paul Schrader goes beyond that it's with a gesture that is, to put it mildly, very poorly thought out.  And it concludes with a final gesture that shows Schrader is no Bresson or Dreyer.

    Two other movies are much older.  Mandingo was wildly loathed when it came out.  But since then some critics have noted it as one of the few movies that portrays the savagery of slavery.  Perhaps.  I wonder what the Raoul Walsh movie TCM showed earlier was like.  In its defense one could say the sexual themes could have been shown even more meretriciously than they were.  But having James Mason (who is simply wasted) say slaves don't have souls shows general ignorance (pro-slavery Christians of course believed that slaves had them).  And the slave breeding and slave fighting doesn't really get to the heart of the matter.  The Professionals looks like an oscar friendly The Wild Bunch.  (Richard Brooks got an oscar nomination for Best Director, in a year where the Academy was clearly desperate to find something other than A Man for all Seasons and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.)  Lots of people die, but considerably more tastefully than in The Wild Bunch.  People talk about the value of the Mexican revolution, but in a vague way not as to be associated with any revolution going on in 1966.  Woody Strode is used as one of the four Professionals.  But in case anyone might object, he doesn't really do or say much.  On the plus side, it's nice to see Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale together again.

    • Thanks 1
  19.  1.  Breathless Jean-Luc Godard, France

     2.  Shoot the Piano Player Francois Truffaut, France

     3.  Le Trou Jacques Becker, France

     4.  Zazie in the Metro Louis Malle, France

     5.  The Virgin Spring Ingmar Bergman, Sweden

     6.  L'Avventura Michelangelo Antonioni, ItalyNa

     7.  The Bad Sleep Well Akira Kurosawa, Japan

     8.  La Dolce Vita Federico Fellini, Italy

     9.  Rocco and His Brothers Luchino Visconti, Italy

    10.  Late Autumn Yasujiro Ozu, Japan

    11. The Naked Island Kaneto Shindo, Japan

    12. Cruel Story of Youth Nagisa Oshima, Japan

    • Like 4
  20. Now it's 1957.  First we have Best Adapted Screenplay:

    Reginald Rose, 12 Angry Men, based on his teleplay of the same name
    Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, The Sweet Smell of Success, based on Lehman's story "Tell Me About it Tomorrow."
    Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzu Kaushima, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Throne of Blood, based on the play "MacBeth" by William Shakespeare
    Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal based on his play "Wood Painting"
    Stanley Kubrick, Caleb Willingham, Jim Thompson, Paths of Glory, based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb

    Now we have Best Original Screenplay:


    Ingmar Bergman, Wild Strawberries
    Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pineli, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Nights of Cabiria
    Chris Marker, Letter from Siberia
    Yasujiro Ozu, Koga Noda, Tokyo Twilight
    Leonard Gershe, Funny Face

    I have not seen Designing Woman, The Man of a Thousand Faces, The Tin Star (original), Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (adapted)

  21.  1. A Man Escaped (1956) Robert Bresson, France

     2. The Seven Samurai (1954) Akira Kurosawa, Japan

     3. Ordet (1955)  Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark

     4. Pather Panchali (1955) Satyahit Ray, India

     5. Ivan the Terrible Part II (1958) Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union

     6. The World of Apu (1959) Satyajit Ray, India

     7. The Earrings of Madame De.. (1953) Max Ophuls, France

     8. Miracle in Milan (1951) Vittorio De Sica, Italy

     9. The Seventh Seal (1957) Ingmar Bergman, Sweden

    10. The Wages of Fear (1953) Henri-Georges Clouzot, France

    11. Throne of Blood (1957) Akira Kurosawa, Japan

    12. Umberto D (1952) Vittorio De Sica, Italy

    13. Diary of a Country Priest (1951) Robert Bresson, France

    14. The Flowers of Saint Francis (1950) Roberto Rossellini, Italy

    15. The 400 Blows (1959) Francois Truffaut, France

    16. Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) Ingmar Bergman, Sweden

    17. Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953) Jacques Tati, France

    18. Lola Montes (1955) Max Ophuls, France

    19. La Ronde (1950) Max Ophuls, France

    20. The Music Room (1958) Satyajt Ray, India

    21. Wild Strawberries (1957) Ingmar Bergman, Sweden

    22. Ikiru (1952) Akira Kurosawa, Japan

    23. Mon Oncle (1958) Jacques Tati, France

    24. The Nights of Cabiria (1957) Federico Fellini, Italy

    25. Orpheus (1950) Jean Cocteau, France

    26. The Life of Oharu (1952) Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan

    27. Ugetsu (1953) Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan

    28. Rififi (1955) Jules Dassin, France

    29. Early Summer (1951) Yasujiro Ozu, Japan

    30. Tokyo Story (1953) Yasujiro Ozu, Japan

    31. Letter from Siberia (1957) Chris Marker, France

    32. Sansho the Bailiff (1954) Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan

    33. The Hidden Fortress (1958) Akira Kurosawa, Japan

    34. Pickpocket (1959) Robert Bresson, France

    35. The Snow Queen (1957) Lev Atamanov, Nikolay Fyodorov, Soviet Union

    • Like 4
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