Bogie56

2015 3. Black (2015) Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, Belgium Two rival gangs in Brussels, one black and one Moroccan. A girl from the black gang falls for a boy from the Moroccan gang. The similarities to West Side Story end there. That said the Washington Post has reported on the new West Side Story revival by Belgian director, van Hove and Belgian choreographer De Keersmaeker that looks suspiciously like this film. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/can-this-generations-tony-and-maria-find-their-place-in-yet-another-west-side-story/2020/02/12/bf2e9baa-4cd9-11ea-9b5c-eac5b16dafaa_story.html The Film won and audience award at TIFF. Very well done. It’s violent but never gratuitous. I recommend it.

Sightseers (2012) is a British black comedy by Ben Wheatley. Through a bizarre series of events a couple who are touring in a camper van become serial killers. I won't spoil the ending but it fits the bill of this thread.

We have to give her due for her well deserved Oscar winning performance as Pat Cooper in Separate Tables (1958).

2000 Joint Security Area - JSA (2000) Chan-wook Park, South Korea At a remote border post soldiers from South and North Korea secretly fraternize. The film starts with a bloody massacre and then reveals what went wrong. Pretty good.

John Turturro as the counterfeit runner, Carl Cody literally sets the film in motion in To Live and Die In L.A. (1985). It's a gutsy star making performance that opens the film with a bang.

Thursday, February 20 5:45 p.m. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Good old dust up against corruption in the Senate. Those were the days.

Credited simply as "Billy's mother" or in some cases more aptly as "the Woman" Cara Williams (1925 - ) entered The Defiant Ones (1958) toward the close of the film and was the first real female presence. She plays a widowed mother who becomes infatuated with escaped con, Tony Curtis and goes to great lengths to keep him. She provides the test of friendship for Curtis and certainly turned the film on its head. And before anymore else chimes in, this guy was a pretty powerful presence in The Defiant Ones as well ... Lon Chaney, Jr. as "Big Sam" in The Defiant Ones (1958).

Wednesday, February 19 “I do not avoid women, Mandrake. I simply deny them my essence.” 8 p.m. Dr. Strangelove (1964).

The 2019 winner of the New York Film Critics Best Foreign Film Award …. Parasite (2019) Joon-ho Bong, South Korea

My mistake! It was Charles Nelson Reilly who said that. Great nonsensical line of dialogue in any event.

Truth can be stranger than fiction ... Chris Sarandon as Leon Shermer in Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Sarandon has a small but pivotal role in Dog Day and gives a bravura performance. The police haul him in to give assistance in the bank robbery hostage situation and he reveals the motivation behind it all. It's a 'what the ..?" moment.

It may have been Paul Lynde on a chat show that was recalling a line of dialogue of his character on a soap opera who had just returned from a journey ... "Do the stairs still lead to the basement?"

Tuesday, February 18 2:15 p.m. Vacation From Marriage (1945). Alexander Korda film with Robert Donat. Deborah Kerr and Glynis Johns.

Fanny (1961) is my favourite Chevalier performance.

John Qualen as Muley Bates in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). He sets up the entire film by informing us and Henry Fonda, who has been away in the clink how much times have changed for the farmers who are now being forced from their land. Qualen gives a very emotional performance and if it had been at the end of the film instead of the start it may have gotten more attention.

Harold Sakata!

Monday, February 17 10:15 p.m. One Hour With You (1932). Ernst Lubitsch film with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. I'm not that much of a fan of either star but with the right project and director it's a different story.

The 2018 Academy Award Best Picture and Best International Film was … Parasite (2019) Joon-ho Bong, South Korea The 2018 Academy Award Best International Film nominees included … Corpus Christi (2019) Jan Komasca, Poland Honeyland (2019) Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov, North Macedonia Les Miserables (2019) Ladj Ly, France Pain and Glory (2019) Pedro Almodovar, Spain

I agree about Mr. Washington. That's great that you saw City Lights with an audience. It really makes a difference.

Sunday, February 16 6 p.m. The Philadelphia Story (1940). Enjoyable George Cukor film. James Stewart won the Best Actor Oscar. My vote would have gone to Charlie Chaplin for The Great Dictator.

1961 The Coachman (1961) Dae-jin Kang, South Korea This was a very impressive early feature from South Korea about a struggling family. It is reminiscent of the British kitchen sink films of the same period but one might be hard pressed to find a kitchen in this Korean shanty town. Good camerawork and the characters are well drawn. Total studio dubbing in Korean has hurt the performances slightly. A special prize winner at the Berlin International Film Festival. Recommended for those who enjoy film history. The film even made it to a Korean postage stamp!

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). I loved it so much I bought the 8mm abridged silent version with my pocket money then set about making my own Super 8mm. Dracula, Wolfman and Frankenstein films when I was 12. One of them ended up on television!

Saturday, February 15 Hey, the Oscars are old news now. 4 p.m. The Third Man (1949). Fantastic film by Carol Reed. In Canada this is replaced by Jack of Diamonds (1967). Not so fantastic.

Friday, February 14 2 p.m. Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973). I thought Martin Balsam was great in this one. And Sylvia Sydney proved she still had it.