I Just Watched...

[Sepiatone]

Our local PBS station has a Friday night feature called "Film Festival" on which they show uncut "classic" films.

 

Last night, it was BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID.

 

I used to LOVE this movie.  That is, until last night I noticed ROBERT REDFORD, as Sundance, do a FEW "gun twirls" in it!

 

DAMN!

 

Sepiatone

[MCannady1]

I just watched a great suspenseful film from TCM called The Scarf. It stars John Ireland and Mercedes McCambridge. The whole film has gripping suspense and is outstanding. Very highly recommended!

[Fedya]

Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973)

 

Cliff Robertson plays Ace Eli, a self-proclaimed World War I veteran and barnstorming pilot. He gets in a plane crash that kills his wife, so he rebuilds his plane and takes off with his son Rodger (Eric Shea).

 

They go across Kansas barnstorming, meeting flapper Pamela Franklin and hooker Bernadette Peters.

 

The idea is interesting, but the movie is messed up in oh so many ways. Cliff Robertson seems to be replaying his character from JW Coop, which is entirely the wrong tone for the movie. Eli and Rodger have a sort of Mildred and Veda Pierce vibe about them, which is rather creepy at times. Eli treats Rodger like dirt, while Rodger tries to act more mature than his age by doing things like visiting Peters' character at the bordello.

 

And then there's Jerry Goldsmith's jarring score and the even more jarring 70s-era theme song.

 

5/10 for some nice production design and aviation scenes. Not for the plot, though.

[misswonderly3]

Nosferatu 

 

TCM aired this last night (Friday), as part of their October scary classic movies series on Friday nights. I'd seen it once before, literally decades ago. So it was almost like seeing it for the first time on Friday.

 

Made in 1922 by F.W, Murnau, one of the great German expressionist silent film directors, Nosferatu delivers an exquisitely eerie vampire story that in some ways has never been surpassed. The film makes no direct reference to the Bram Stoker novel, although it does seem to have been heavily influenced by it. If you go into viewing this film with expectations that it will be an early Dracula tale, you'll be disappointed.

No;  "disappointed" is not a word I'd apply to Nosferatu in any context; let's just say your ideas about a Dracula style movie would not be met. But this is a point not really worth making, as Nosferatu is a wonderfully uncanny vampire story in its own right.  *

 

The plot involves a young man's journey to a strange sparsely inhabited land somewhere within the Carpathian mountains. He's on a mission to sell someone in this land a house. Along the way he encounters otherwordly sights and persons, the most chilling being the host of the castle he finally reaches, the creepy and macabre Count Orlok, the earthly incarnation of Nosferatu.

 

But I've never felt plot is the most important feature of any film, be it a sound or a silent movie. This is especially the case with Nosferatu; in some ways the plot doesn't even really hold up. It doesn't matter. What is truly compelling about this unique silent film is its visual imagery and its dream-like quality. Watching it, you feel as though you've stepped into another time and another world. Silent films always create this feeling to some degree, partly because they're so very old, partly because there is no dialogue, and partly - I'd say mostly - because they are so dependent on conveying mood and atmosphere through visual effects.

 

Murnau appears to have had a profound understanding of the power of the visual in cinema; one reason I love his films is the originality and intensity of the poetic images I see in them. 

Nosferatu is filled with mysterious and (literally) haunting scenes, including a hellish horse-drawn carriage with a spectral-looking driver, a ship without a crew drifting over the sea, and Nosferatu himself, probably the most horrifying-looking vampire in cinema history. The scenes where he rises from his coffin, staring with a terrifying single-mindedness at his next victim, have to be amongst the most eerie in all vampiredom (if there isn't such a word, there should be.)

 

 

 

* There's an article about the similarities of Nosferatu to Stoker's Dracula on the TCM page about it: here's the link, if anyone wants to read it:

 

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?isPreview=&id=1263065|437&name=Nosferatu

[darkblue]

Nosferatu 

 

TCM aired this last night (Friday), as part of their October scary classic movies series on Friday nights. I'd seen it once before, literally decades ago. So it was almost like seeing it for the first time on Friday.

 

Made in 1922 by F.W, Murnau, one of the great German expressionist silent film directors, Nosferatu delivers an exquisitely eerie vampire story that in some ways has never been surpassed. The film makes no direct reference to the Bram Stoker novel, although it does seem to have been heavily influenced by it. If you go into viewing this film with expectations that it will be an early Dracula tale, you'll be disappointed.

No;  "disappointed" is not a word I'd apply to Nosferatu in any context; let's just say your ideas about a Dracula style movie would not be met. But this is a point not really worth making, as Nosferatu is a wonderfully uncanny vampire story in its own right.  *

 

The plot involves a young man's journey to a strange sparsely inhabited land somewhere within the Carpathian mountains. He's on a mission to sell someone in this land a house. Along the way he encounters otherwordly sights and persons, the most chilling being the host of the castle he finally reaches, the creepy and macabre Count Orlok, the earthly incarnation of Nosferatu.

 

But I've never felt plot is the most important feature of any film, be it a sound or a silent movie. This is especially the case with Nosferatu; in some ways the plot doesn't even really hold up. It doesn't matter. What is truly compelling about this unique silent film is its visual imagery and its dream-like quality. Watching it, you feel as though you've stepped into another time and another world. Silent films always create this feeling to some degree, partly because they're so very old, partly because there is no dialogue, and partly - I'd say mostly - because they are so dependent on conveying mood and through visual effects.

 

Murnau appears to have had a profound understanding of the power of the visual in cinema; one reason I love his films is the originality and intensity of the poetic images I see in them. 

Nosferatu is filled with mysterious and (literally) haunting scenes, including a hellish horse-drawn carriage with a spectral-looking driver, a ship without a crew drifting over the sea, and Nosferatu himself, probably the most horrifying-looking vampire in cinema history. The scenes where he rises from his coffin, staring with a terrifying single-mindedness at his next victim, have to be amongst the most eerie in all vampiredom (if there isn't such a word, there should be.)

 

 

 

* There's an article about the similarities of Nosferatu to Stoker's Dracula on the TCM page about it: here's the link, if anyone wants to read it:

 

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?isPreview=&id=1263065|437&name=Nosferatu

 

I love the difference in the teeth of this original as opposed to that of all the others that followed. Rather than relatively attractive fangs, Orlok has centred incisors, looking needle sharp and rodent-like. Brilliant.

 

There is no wolf and bat romanticism to Nosferatu - it's much more of a rat, spider, cockroach feel. Definitely a monster movie and all the more impressive for being such an early version.

[Sepiatone]

And, IMHO, MUCH scarier cinematic imagery.  I LIVE for that scene of the hand shadow creeping up that stairway wall!

 

 

Sepiatone

[LornaHansonForbes]

Our local PBS station has a Friday night feature called "Film Festival" on which they show uncut "classic" films.

 

Last night, it was BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID.

 

I used to LOVE this movie. That is, until last night I noticed ROBERT REDFORD, as Sundance, do a FEW "gun twirls" in it!

 

DAMN!

 

Sepiatone

We see what you did there.

And we are most amused.

[scsu1975]

Jinnah (1998)

 

Caught this last night on Demand. Interesting, but somewhat confusing, account of the creation of Pakistan. Christopher Lee plays Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who pushed for the Muslim state to break off from India. Lee is excellent, and has several very emotional scenes which he really sinks his teeth into (okay, couldn't resist). Gandhi and Nehru also appear, and James Fox plays Lord Mountbatten who, whether justified or not, comes off looking like a louse. The young Jinnah is played passionately by Richard Lintern, and the stunningly beautiful Indira Varma plays his young wife.

 

One problem with the film is that you may need an historian sitting alongside you to explain what is going on. There are several violent clashes, and it was difficult to tell at times if Hindus were attacking Muslims or vice-versa. I watched this with my fiancee, who is no historian, but has read about the history of the two countries. She was able to fill in a lot of the blanks for me, and even anticipated some scenes; but casual viewers might get a little mixed up.

 

Another problem is that the story is told via flashback, as we see the developments through the eyes of the dead (or dying) Jinnah. In some cases, he actually interacts with the historical events, and in one bizarre scene, he talks to his younger self. That one scene made me think I was watching a Star Trek flick, or an Eastern version of It's a Wonderful Life.

 

Definitely worth a look, though.

[TomJH]

Nosferatu 

 

 

 

 

 

We're very fortune that this German expressionist masterpiece of Murnau even survived for us to view it today. Bram Stoker's widow tried to have all copies of the film destroyed due to copy right issues. Obviously a few prints survived the purge.

 

Nice review, MissW, of one of my favourite silents.

 

Anyone ever seen any photographs of what the mysterious Max Schreck looked like in real life? I don't believe that there many pix of him around.

 

 

[Swithin]

Jinnah (1998)

 

Caught this last night on Demand. Interesting, but somewhat confusing, account of the creation of Pakistan. Christopher Lee plays Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who pushed for the Muslim state to break off from India. Lee is excellent, and has several very emotional scenes which he really sinks his teeth into (okay, couldn't resist). Gandhi and Nehru also appear, and James Fox plays Lord Mountbatten who, whether justified or not, comes off looking like a louse. The young Jinnah is played passionately by Richard Lintern, and the stunningly beautiful Indira Varma plays his young wife.

 

One problem with the film is that you may need an historian sitting alongside you to explain what is going on. There are several violent clashes, and it was difficult to tell at times if Hindus were attacking Muslims or vice-versa. I watched this with my fiancee, who is no historian, but has read about the history of the two countries. She was able to fill in a lot of the blanks for me, and even anticipated some scenes; but casual viewers might get a little mixed up.

 

Another problem is that the story is told via flashback, as we see the developments through the eyes of the dead (or dying) Jinnah. In some cases, he actually interacts with the historical events, and in one bizarre scene, he talks to his younger self. That one scene made me think I was watching a Star Trek flick, or an Eastern version of It's a Wonderful Life.

 

Definitely worth a look, though.

 

I was wondering about that film. I know a bit about Jinnah -- certainly not a rabid fundamentalist. He was portrayed well, I think, in that wonderful series, Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy.

[LawrenceA]

Max Schreck, star of Nosferatu (1922)

 

 

and as Count Orlok (or Orlock, depending on the title cards)

 

[scsu1975]

I was wondering about that film. I know a bit about Jinnah -- certainly not a rabid fundamentalist. He was portrayed well, I think, in that wonderful series, Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy.

He was not portrayed as a rabid fundamentalist at all. In fact, he takes on the fundamentalists in the film, claiming they are ignorant and fanatics. The one concession he makes to Islam is when his daughter asks for permission to marry a Parsi, and he forbids it because of the religious/cultural differences. But that happens with many cultures.

[EricJ]

Max Schreck, star of Nosferatu (1922)

and as Count Orlok (or Orlock, depending on the title cards

 

 

Or, for those who've seen John Malkovich as FW Murnau in the what-if "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000), Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck who may be Count Orlock:

 

[Swithin]

He was not portrayed as a rabid fundamentalist at all. In fact, he takes on the fundamentalists in the film, claiming they are ignorant and fanatics. The one concession he makes to Islam is when his daughter asks for permission to marry a Parsi, and he forbids it because of the religious/cultural differences. But that happens with many cultures.

 

One of the great theological tragedies of world history is what the Moslems did to the Parsees. The ancient Zoroastrian religion of Iran -- a good religion -- was nearly wiped out by Islamic invasions and forced conversions. About 30,000 remain in Iran; most of the rest fled to India, where they are called Parsees.

[NickAndNora34]

I FINALLY got around to watching "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (1993). Sometimes when I have a movie on my list to watch, I prolong watching it almost as long as possible (this may have something to do with the anticipation). Like I said, I finally watched it. Leo's performance was spectacular, as was the rest of the cast. I did a little research and found out that Johnny Depp was 30 years old in this film, although in my opinion he passes for early twenties. Leo was 18/19, which is also hard to believe, since he looked about 15 lol. Although I understand looking younger than you actually are, since that is a curse I am personally forced to live with. 

[Sepiatone]

Yeah, Leo impressed me and my wife in that film.  We actually thought they got a real "special needs" kid to do that part!

 

 

Sepiatone

[misswonderly3]

I FINALLY got around to watching "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (1993). Sometimes when I have a movie on my list to watch, I prolong watching it almost as long as possible (this may have something to do with the anticipation). Like I said, I finally watched it. Leo's performance was spectacular, as was the rest of the cast. I did a little research and found out that Johnny Depp was 30 years old in this film, although in my opinion he passes for early twenties. Leo was 18/19, which is also hard to believe, since he looked about 15 lol. Although I understand looking younger than you actually are, since that is a curse I am personally forced to live with. 

 

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is such a sad, odd, little movie.

The young Leonardo in WEGG reminds me a lot of a promising young actor I've seen in a couple of  recent films, Dane DeHaan.  (Check out the unnervingly violent but effective movie Lawless.) 

 

I thought the strangest, most disturbing thing about Gilbert Grape was the morbidly fat mother. It seems Gilbert's life is filled with tragedy, and he is the one who must bear the burden of coping with its lingering aftermath. 

 

Glad you liked it, NickandNora.

[LawrenceA]

 

I thought the strangest, most disturbing thing about Gilbert Grape was the morbidly fat mother. It seems Gilbert's life is filled with tragedy, and he is the one who must bear the burden of coping with its lingering aftermath. 

 

I've enjoyed Dane DeHaan's work, too. Lawless, Chronicle, and The Place Beyond the Pines all feature good turns from him.

[Swithin]

I'm not allowed to say much about it, but this is a great film. Watch for it at theaters later this year and early next:

 

[mr6666]

I'm not allowed to say much about it, but this is a great film. Watch for it at theaters later this year and early next:

 

 

can you give away the title??

[Swithin]

can you give away the title??

 

It's there if you click on the photo.

[HoldenIsHere]

I'm not allowed to say much about it, but this is a great film. Watch for it at theaters later this year and early next:

 

 

I'm big fan of Andrew Garfield.

 

Even my grandmother likes him.

"He's a nice Jewish boy," she says.

She and my aunt saw him on Broadway in DEATH OF SALESMAN directed by Mike Nichols.

[Swithin]

I'm big fan of Andrew Garfield.

 

Even my grandmother likes him.

"He's a nice Jewish boy," she says.

She and my aunt saw him on Broadway in DEATH OF SALESMAN directed by Mike Nichols.

 

Yes, he's a very nice Jewish boy, and he plays a Portuguese Jesuit in Silence.

 

I heard that production of Salesman (with Philip Seymour Hoffman as Willy Loman) and Garfield as Biff was terrific. The only production I saw was in 1984, with a different Hoffman -- Dustin, and with John Malkovich as Biff.

[cigarjoe]

Lost Highway (1997) Bizarre Noir from the Twilight Zone

 

 

R rated for BIZARRE, VIOLENT and SEXUAL CONTENT and for Strong Language, a blue screen MPAA film rating at the beginning of David Lynch's Lost Highway, pretty much enticingly sums up one of the best of the 1990s Neo Noirs.

 

Psychological Noirs have always been part of Classic Film Noir, the best know one is 1950s In A Lonely Place.  Lost Highway is vaguely similar to one of its predecessors 1966's Mister Buddwing, Lost Highway is a powerful psychological, anxiety, filled noir, though where Mister Buddwing dealt all externally with the story, in Lost Highway it is all internal. In this case we get a clue straight up front, from the credit sequence. A powerfully graphic image of headlights speeding frantically down a dark highway, each dashed centerline flashing like fragments of thoughts. This sequence is accompanied by David Bowie's haunting "I'm Deranged" with a tinkling discordant piano, we are not dwelling with a "normal" world. We are observing a surreality through the eyes of an insane man, it's frightening, the ultimate noir, life as a lost highway in a void, with no map, and no way back.

 

Lost Highway is filled with Neo Noir stylistics, flashbacks, Dutch angles, low key lighting, extreme closeups, shadows, and monochrome, muted, and contrasting colors.

 

Lost Highway is Lynch at his most audacious. It's lovingly been referred to as a “psychogenic fugue," an elaborate ellipse, or a ride on a Moebius Strip rollercoaster.  The score by Badalamenti, the various soundtracks, and the sound design all complement and greatly enhance the films eerie, nightmarish, disturbing atmosphere. A prime time Twilight Zone for adults. 10/10

 

Fuller review with NSFW screencaps here:http://http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2016/10/lost-highway-1997-bizarre-noir-from.html

[scsu1975]

Hercules, Samson, and Ulysses (1963)

 

Silly entertaining nonsense with Kirk Morris as the Greek strongman, Iloosh Khoshabe as the Biblical strongman, and historians yelling “****!”

 

Hercules and Ulysses are hunting a sea monster which has been eating the people of Ithaca. They are shipwrecked with a few crew members. Somehow they land in Judea (use your GPS next time), where Samson is hiding out from the Philistines. After Hercules chokes out a lion, he is mistaken for Samson. Meanwhile, Samson mistakes Hercules and his crew for Philistine spies. The rest of the Greeks are being held by the King of the Philistines, who tells Hercules he must deliver Samson … or else. This sets up the inevitable clash between the two musclemen. After a few initial punches, Hercules puts Samson in an airplane spin and tosses him. Samson counters with a hip toss to take down the Greek. Hercules shoots the full nelson on Samson, who breaks it, but the Greek quickly goes for an arm bar. Samson swats him away. Then both men manage to bend a metal pole around each other. Finally, they realize they should join forces and fight the Philistines. The two manage to wipe out around one million bad guys. Then the Argo shows up and rescues the Greeks, and Samson heads back to his land for a haircut.

 

Morris is adequate as Hercules. He has the physique, and manages to pose quite often, usually with his arms apart from his sides and his fists clenched. Khoshabe is ok as Samson, and inexplicably always seems to have an entire arsenal of weapons at his disposal. I have no idea why the Ulysses character is in this, because he is pretty useless. Maybe Aristotle wasn’t available. Liana Orfei is good as Delilah, who develops the hots for Hercules, then Samson. If you don’t know how that will eventually turn out, consult your Bible.