LawrenceA

Mr. Freedom (1968) - 5/10 Political satire from writer-director William Klein. Mr. Freedom (John Abbey) is a red-white-&-blue superhero that represents all that is "great" (awful) about America. He's ordered by his supervisor Dr. Freedom (Donald Pleasence) to travel to France, where the local superhero Captain Formidable (Yves Montand) has disappeared. Mr. Freedom must stop the heroes of the Soviet Union and Red China from turning France into another communist state. With Delphine Seyrig, Philippe Noiret, Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Drouot, Rufus, Sami Frey, Catherine Rouvel, and Simone Signoret. A little of this obnoxious, raucous comedy goes a long way. It has all the subtlety and nuance of a jackhammer on concrete. Director Klein uses his pop art sensibilities to their fullest, and the film is garishly colorful and very loud. The first half is exhausting and more interesting. Source: The Criterion Channel

That must be one that I haven't seen.

Zombie Tidal Wave (2019) - 2/10 Horror schlock with Ian Ziering (who also produced and co-wrote) as an American working in a South Asian coastal community. Blue-blooded zombies start bubbling up from the depths of the sea, and soon a tsunami brings the usual destruction as well as a mass of the living dead who infect everyone they bite, creating even more zombies. Featuring a large cast of people you've never seen before. Ziering re-teams with his Sharknado director Anthony C. Ferrante for this garbage TV-movie that lacks even the modest appeal of that dreadful series, as this eschews the camp humor and endless parade of C-list celebrity cameos. Instead, this is just a very cheap, very dumb movie that manages to fail at being either a decent disaster movie or an effective zombie horror flick. Source: SyFy Channel

The Flower of My Secret (1995) - 6/10 Spanish melodrama from Pedro Almodovar. Leo Macias (Marisa Paredes) is an unhappy middle-aged writer of romance novels whose military-officer husband (Imanol Arias) is distant both in proximity (he's been deployed to Bosnia) and in his affections. Leo seeks sympathy from her friend Betty (Carme Elias), but she seems troubled with her own issues. Meanwhile, Angel (Juan Echanove) is a chubby, middle-aged editor who wants to publish Leo's new works, while also harboring a crush on her. With Rossy de Palma, Chus Lampreave, Kiti Manver, Joaquin Cortes, Manuela Vargas, and Jordi Molla. I didn't warm to this tale as much as Almodovar's others, and would probably rank it last among those that I've seen. It's not terrible, but it's not very memorable either. I will grant that Marisa Paredes is given a real acting showcase, and she's terrific in the lead role. Source: The Criterion Channel

Memories of Underdevelopment (1968) - 7/10 Cuban drama from writer-director Tomas Gutierrez Alea. Middle-aged writer Sergio (Sergio Corrieri) is left alone after his wife, relatives, and friends flee to the US in the years after the Revolution. He muses over the history of country and its people, while starting a new relationship with much-younger would-be actress Elena (Daisy Granados). Director Alea utilizes documentary footage mixed with staged drama with deft skill. The editing is very well done, and is ahead of its time. The propaganda aspects are bit heavy at times, but not as annoying as I expected, and there are even bits of subtle criticism targeting post-revolutionary society thrown in. Source: The Criterion Channel

L'enfance nue (1968) - 5/10 French drama from writer-director Maurice Pialat. 10-year-old Francois (Michel Terrazon) is a foster child who continuously acts out, shoplifting, destroying items, and worse. His foster parents can't deal with him, so he's sent to another family, where he makes a tentative connection with an elderly woman, but that doesn't last long. This was the first feature for director Pialat, and he strives for unadorned, unsentimental realism. Most of it works, but I was put off rather early in the film by the boy's killing of a cat. After his casual cruelty, which I'm sure was meant to be a symptom of his troubled upbringing, I no longer cared what happened to the kid, and was actively rooting that he'd be hit by a car or crushed under a falling airplane or stumble into the whirling blades of some industrial farm equipment. Source: The Criterion Channel

The Immortal Story (1968) - 6/10 Orson Welles directs and wrote this adaptation of Isak Dinesen's novel. He also stars as elderly, wealthy merchant Mr. Clay, he lives in an estate in 19th century colonial Macao. He orders his manservant Mr. Levinsky (Roger Coggio) to hire a woman (Jeanne Moreau) and a young sailor (Norman Eshley) to re-enact an old tale about a wealthy man paying a sailor to impregnate his wife. This 58-minute movie was originally made for French television. There are moments of poetic beauty, and Moreau is always worth watching, but this isn't something that will stick in my memory for long. The melancholy score of piano pieces by Erik Satie strike the right ghostly mood. Source: The Criterion Channel

The Girl on a Motorcycle aka Naked Under Leather (1968) - 4/10 British drama with Marianne Faithfull as an unhappily married woman living in France who decides one day to get up early, put on her full-body leather cat-suit, jump on her Harley, and drive away, hopefully to rendezvous with a former lover (Alain Delon). While cruising along, she reminisces about her past and what led to her leaving. With Roger Mutton, Marius Goring, Catherine Jourdan, and Jacques Marin. Directed by noted cinematographer Jack Cardiff, this often looks very good, which is the only reason I rated as highly as I did. Otherwise it's insipid, horribly dated, and laughably pretentious. It also holds the distinction of being the first movie rated with an "X". Faithfull is awful, and her narration adds nothing. While much of the film is visually interesting, there's also a lot of terrible rear-projection stuff that undercuts the rest. This is said to have a cult following, but I can't guess why. The trailer is great, though, and the filmmakers should have stopped there. Sample romantic dialogue: "Your toes are like tombstones." Source: The Criterion Channel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Kaye#Death Kaye died of heart failure on March 3, 1987, aged 76, brought on by internal bleeding and complications of hepatitis C. Kaye had quadruple bypass heart surgery in February 1983; he contracted hepatitis C from a blood transfusion.

It's interesting that while some channels are being more conservative about language, others are being more graphic. Some cable channels such as AMC and FX are allowing some nudity and very graphic language, including multiple "F-bombs", in their shows. These channels are not the same as pay channels like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, and Starz, that you pay for individually or as a group (as in, HBO + Cinemax), and which have always touted unedited and graphic material as part of their appeal. Rather these are cable channels that come with regular cable/satellite lineups, and which traditionally didn't use profanity or nudity beyond the mildest examples. They've tried to become more "adult" in an effort to attract more eyes as audience fragmentation continues along with cord-cutting. Many of the words that I see "bleeped" on the over-the-air classic channels are what people would now call "un-PC" rather than profanity, like ethnic or gay slurs, or terms for handicapped people, or words that offend some religious groups.

Terence Stamp would have been good. Different, maybe as a more calculating Bond. I can't see Oliver Reed. I like him as an actor, but not as Bond. He would have been a terrific villain, though. I would have liked McGoohan as M. Looking through a list of British actors, I see a lot that would have made great villains, but none that I would have liked as Bond.

Frankenstein's Bloody Terror aka The Mark of the Wolfman (1968) - 6/10 American edit of the Spanish horror film, originally released in 3D. Paul Naschy stars as Count Waldemar Daninsky, a nobleman who is afflicted with lycanthropy after being bitten by a werewolf ancestor who was accidentally revived by gypsies, as is often the case. Daninsky hates his homicidal werewolf rampages, so he seeks the help of a noted hypnotist in hopes of a cure, only to discover that the doctor and his wife are vampires! With Dyanik Zurakowska, Manuel Manzaneque, Aurora de Alba, Julian Ugarte, Rosanna Yanni, Gualberto Gualban, and Jose Nieto. This was a huge hit in Europe and made Naschy a genre film star for the next couple of decades. There were also 10 or so direct sequels with Naschy returning as the tragic wolfman Daninsky. This edited version, made for the U.S. exploitation circuit, is said to have left a lot of footage out. Other sources claim that only the dialogue was dubbed, and that the 88-minute version is intact. Either way, it's kind of clunky, with shoddy pacing and some muddled characters. However, it looks good, with Hammer-level production values, and some nice lighting effects. There is no "Frankenstein" in the movie, as the name was added by the US distributors to drum up business. Naschy, who looks a bit like John Belushi if the late comedian had been in shape, is effective as the tortured monster. I've seen a few of his later films (The Fury of the Wolfman, The Werewolf vs the Vampire Women, Horror from the Tomb, Vengeance of the Zombies) and look forward to seeing more. Source: YouTube

I like Ghost World a lot. Even though it wasn't the first thing I saw her in, that was the first film that I paid attention to Scarlett Johansson. I wouldn't have expected to her to become the major star that she's turned out to be, though. Thora Birch was very good in the film, as is Steve Buscemi. I also recall Birch from American Beauty. After taking some time off, she's joined the cast of The Walking Dead for its upcoming season.

After watching Blue Velvet, you should love Dennis Hopper, as well!

Yeah, "bargain bin" is the same as "poor man's" or "cut rate" or "low-rent". Due to the type of movies I often watch, I find myself cycling through using them all quite often.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is his most famous, and most accessible. It's funny, and not as graphic as many of his other films.

I liked Volver a lot, but I haven't seen it since it was released. I was late coming to appreciate Almodovar, and he is an acquired taste. Outrageous camp, but not as grotesque as John Waters stuff, and with more genuine heart. The first Almodovar film that I saw was Talk to Her (2002), which I loved. I later saw All About My Mother (1999, terrific), Bad Education (2004, not for the easily offended), Volver, and The Skin I Live In (2011, a loving homage to Euro-horror films, particularly Franju's Eyes Without a Face). It was only then that I went back and watched the film that brought him his first international attention, 1988's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. I liked it, and it's probably the most accessible of his films that I've seen. I watched Matador (1986) last week and reviewed it a few pages back in the thread. It is also quite shocking and not for sensitive sensibilities. I have copies of Law of Desire (1987), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990), Live Flesh (1997), and Broken Embraces (2009) in my stack of stuff to watch, and The Flower of My Secret (1995) in my Criterion Channel queue. I need to watch that before the end of the month, when most of the Almodovar movies are scheduled to leave the site.

I have the "book" style Fox Blu-ray of All About Eve. I think the cover art is bad, but I found out that it emulates the original poster.

2013 We Are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, Sweden Blue Is the Warmest Color, Abdellatif Kechiche, France Ida, Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland New World, Hoon-jung Park, South Korea A Touch of Sin, Zhangke Jia, China Big Bad Wolves, Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado, Israel The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-Wai, China The Suspect, Shin-yeon Wan, South Korea The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, Italy Firestorm, Alan Yuen, China I've also seen: Ip Man: The Final Fight, Herman Yau, China The Wrath of Vajra, Wing-Cheong Law, China Special ID, Clarence Yiu-leung Fok, China Saving General Yang, Ronny Yu, China Badges of Fury, Tsz Ming Wong, China 1001 Movies You Must See Blue Is the Warmest Color, Abdellatif Kechiche, France The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, Italy Ida, Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland A Touch of Sin, Zhangke Jia, China

Deep Blue Sea 2 (2018) - 3/10 Arriving a mere 20 years after the marginally-successful first film, this is more of a very cheap, poorly cast remake than a sequel. A group of scientists and technicians travel to a deep sea research station owned by obnoxious billionaire Carl Durant (Michael Beach), where they are working on genetically-altered bull sharks. The highly intelligent sharks soon start attacking the station and chomping down on the unlucky people. With Danielle Savre and Rob Mayes. Beach is the only cast member that I've even heard of. This was shot in South Africa on a very meager budget, with Warner Brothers intending this to be a direct-to-disc or TV flick. It's awful. Source: SyFy Channel, of course

Frankenstein (1968) - 6/10 Another adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, this time by the BBC for their series Mystery and Imagination. The story is condensed to fit the 70 minute format, while the most notable production twist is casting Ian Holm as both the "natural philosopher" Victor Frankenstein and as his monstrous creation. Holm is a perfect fit for the brilliant and obsessive Victor, but he seems an odd choice for the creature, although the dual casting plays into Victor's inherent narcissism. With Neil Stacy, Sarah Badel, Meg Wynn Owen, Richard Vernon, Frank Berry, and Sam Burston. I wouldn't rate this with the best adaptations, but it's far from the worst. A young Kenneth Branagh was reportedly very impressed with this as a youth, and he insisted that Holm join the cast for the 1994 film version. Source: YouTube

I know what you mean about Simon. His is a most un-cinematic visage. However, he's grown on me over time. I, too, wasn't that thrilled with L'Atalante, but I liked Boudu, La Chienne, and The Train. I recently enjoyed him in La poison, as well. I'm glad you're enjoying The Criterion Channel, despite your tech issues. I haven't had anything happening like you speak of, but I also watch via the app on an Amazon Fire TV device, and not on my laptop, so the software/tech may be different (I'm not too knowledgeable in that regard). La Nuit de Varennes has not yet been released on disc, as far as I know. I heard about the film from a few people on here, so when I first got FilmStruck, the predecessor to the Criterion Channel, that was the first film that I watched. I liked it quite a bit. I fully expected to see Criterion release it on disc, but they haven't as of yet.

Yeah, I watched La Collectionneuse, as well as the other two I mentioned. I gave the Rohmer film a 5/10. His only other feature that I've seen is Suzanne's Career, which I gave a 6/10. I'll be watching a few more in the near future. I didn't post a review of La Collectionneuse, just a rating, so I was curious what others thought about it. I understood what Rohmer was saying, I think. He was critical of all three main characters, despite framing everything through the one character's point of view. I also know that it was somewhat improvisational, which would account for the weak dialogue. I'm not sure if the pseudo-intellectualism was meant to be taken seriously or as another example of the male characters' emptiness. I thought all three were rather terrible actors (as was the collector that came in for the last act), and all of the characters were vapid or tedious fools that I wouldn't want to spend 5 minutes with, but as I said, I think that may have been part of Rohmer's intent.

The Exotic Ones aka The Monster and the Stripper (1968) - 3/10 or 8/10 Incredible exploitation oddity from writer-director Ron Ormond. He also co-stars as Nemo, a New Orleans nightclub owner and crime boss. After hearing about a monster lurking in the nearby swamps, he orders his henchmen to capture it and to add it to his club's stage revue, which mainly consist of strippers and one singer who does her white-girl-imitating-Motown best. With Jack Horton, Peggy Ann Price, June Ormond, Georgette Dante, and Sleepy LaBeef as the monster. This no-budget effort combines the best of the stripper-revue subgenre of skin-flick with bad comedy and a terrible monster played by 6'5'' rockabilly singer Sleepy LaBeef. The monster does a geek act on stage that I'm not entirely certain was faked. One stripper does a pasty-tassel-twirl act with the tassels on fire! This is available on YouTube in a pretty good looking print, so I recommend you gather the family and enjoy this one as soon as possible with as many people as possible.

No My Neighbor Totoro? Or the Friends 25th anniversary thing? Looking at the Fathom website, I'd go to Lawrence of Arabia, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, The Godfather Part II, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke. Alas, there are no Fathom-participating theaters around here.