Ruth Sheen and Jim Broadbent in Mike Leigh's brilliant "Another Year"
by Sam Juliano
While nearly everyone you talk to evinces amazement that we are now into January of 2011, still others are much too busy composing (and releasing) their year-end ten best movie lists. The scorn of some and the eternal joy of others, the lists allows those who have spent an un-Godly number of hours in movie theatres during the previous twelve months to take stock of and to glorify those relatively rare and privleged moments in the dark. For those happy souls it’s a celebration of the cinema, and an all-too-short time window to allow for studied focus and the platforming of the films that have connected with them in a very special way for the honor of being preserved for posterity. To that end, I can heartily recommend some stellar examples of lists to cherish and to marvel at at by Just Another Film Buff (The Seventh Art), Craig Kennedy (Living in Cinema), Drew McIntosh (The Blue Vial), Jake Cole (Not Just Movies) and Jon Lanthier, who’s round-up is currently at Slant. Speaking of Jon Lanthier, our great friend is now fine tuning his brand new blog, “Aspiring Sellout II,” which is now properly posted on the sidebar. With his move to The Windy City, the effervescent Lanthier opted to start anew. Best Wishes to him and his lovely girlfriend Rachel!
The WitD sidebar continues to evolve thanks in large measure to the work of Dee Dee and Joel Bocko, who over the past months have given readers click-on archives to the gathered work of the staff writers, and of the frantic events going on in the world of film noir, particularly the January fundraiser at Ferdy-on-Films, the Eddie Muller sponsored noir festival at the Castro, and the Lang retrospective at the Film Forum. Dee Dee’s tireless work for the site on a daily basis places her squarely at the center of the site’s operation. The Film Noir countdown by Maurizio Roca has been officially announced at that sidebar, and will commence in several weeks. Bob Clark’s weekend science-fiction countdown is also being planned for that time as well. In the meantime, animation buffs have all the time they need to further absorb the final results of Stephen Russell-Gebbett’s monumental achievement for this site and for the blogosphere in general.
One of the site’s “guiding lights” over the past year has been tireless Joel Bocko, affectionately known as “Movie Man.” As per his announcement of two months ago, his Sunday Afternoon Matinee series has been discontinued. Likewise his active involvement with WitD has come to a close at leats for the present time, while even his posting at The Dancing Image has been severely cut back. It never dawned on me until zero hour that we could ever lose this gifted young man, who for a long time served as site schedule supervisor and side bar negotiator, and as I write this right now I am tearing up. I met Joel twice, and like an good thing, one takes things for granted. He’s obviously one of the best writers out there, but beyond that he’s a personal friend and one who we’ve looked to in sticky situations. I can’t say how many comment threads he’s launched and sustained (he and Jamie Uhler have produced the best back and forths ever at the site) and he remains to this day the one single person who leads day in and day out with site referral hits. His contributions here have been titanic, and while I know full well that blogging will and should take a back seat to career advancement, I still say, please, say it ain’t so.
To say thank you for be grossly insufficient, but for now I say it, twenty-fold.
Other than that, we in the Northeast were walloped with a ferocious blizzard earlier in the week, and are just now getting the roads fully negotiable. The football Giants won, but were eliminated when the Green Bay Packers also prevailed, and the New York Jets beat the Bills 38 to 7, as a great warm up for their upcoming playoff appearance.
On the theatrical movie front I had an amazing week with the viewings of three films that have landed in my still-tentative ten-best list:
Blue Valentine ***** (Wednesday night) Angelika
Another Year ***** (Wednesday night) Angelika
The Strange Case of Angelica **** 1/2 (Sat. night) IFC
I also saw Ernst Lubitsch’s wonderful CLUNY BROWN **** 1/2 in remastered print at the Film Forum on Thursday evening, and took a second look at THE KING’S SPEECH on Monday evening at our local multiplex.
As I stated in a written assessment BLUE VALENTINE is a raw and realistic look at a marriage torn assunder with electrifying turns from Gosling and Williams, and director Cianfrance, who moderated an after-screening Q & A, was there to provide some fascinating embellishments. The documentary feel gives the film a startling sense of immediacy, and reflects the fleeting state of marriage today.
Meanwhile, Britain’s remarkable Mike Leigh, one of contemporary cinema’s most distinguished artists, has crafted what may well be his greatest film ever with ANOTHER YEAR, though the tagline I apply here (Mike Leigh Meets Ingmar Bergman) may well underline the film’s exceedingly downbeat essense. Lucy Manville and Jim Broadbent are extraordinary, and the brilliant script is uncompromising in it’s candor.
Then there’s 102 year old Portugese director Manouel de Oliveira, who is (as I write this) working on yet another film! His latest released though is the Brazilian THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA, which defty combines whimsy, mystery, humor and tragedy in a mix only he could navigate as well. This one caught me off guard at list-making zero hour, and is heartily recommended to those who favor audacious filmmaking. (which of course I assume is everyone!)
As a reminder of how dependable classic cinema at the Film Forum is, I saw the delightful CLUNY BROWN with Jennifer Jones and Charles Boyer, a film that goes a mile a minute with it’s sex charged dialogue fueled by plumbing metaphors. The old lady who clears her throat at every moment is a real hoot, but this one underrated Lubitsch! The stunning pristine print is to die for!
Stupendous lists and reviews abound in the blogosphere:
At Twenty Four Frames the ever-reliable John Greco has penned a magnificent review of Leo McCarey’s beloved Make Way for Tomorrow: http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/make-way-for-tomorrow-1937-leo-mccarey/
It’s celebration time in the Windy City as Jon Joseph Lanthier has officially launched Aspiring Sellout II, with an opening review of the Coens’ True Grit, that typically showcases his singular talent: http://aspiringsellout.com/2011/01/true-grit-2010-12/
Just Another Film Buff (the prince of a guy, Srikanth) has a Top Ten list for the ages at The Seventh Art, that as always treats film as an art form, as well as it should be: http://theseventhart.info/2011/01/01/favorite-films-of-2010/
Craig Kennedy has come in with an extraordinary Top Ten list, accompanied by superlative capsule assessments. His work all year at Living in Cinema has been remarkable, and this post is a fitting capstone: http://livingincinema.com/2011/01/02/watercooler-true-grits-a-legit-hit-will-oscar-notice-also-no-country-for-the-bluebeard-lebowski-apocalypse-of-oz-redux/
Drew McIntosh, never one to settle for conventionality, indeed even mediocrity, is a cineaste whose taste and sense of completion stand among the very top in the blogosphere. His Top 25 at The Blue Vial will challenge even the most voracious of cinephiles. Claire Denis’ White Material leads the way: http://thebluevial.blogspot.com/2010/12/blue-vials-top-25-of-2010.html
At Ferdy-on-Films, Roderick Heath has pulled out everything but the kitchen sink in an amazing year-end roundup called “The Confessions of a Film Geek” which includes films and performances for 2010: http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/?p=7699
Tireless Jake Cole must always be mentioned when the categories of ‘Best blogger critic’ and ‘Most active filmgoer’ are broached as he’s right up there with the best of them. He offers up an aming Top 20 list at ‘Not Just Movies.‘: http://armchairc.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-20-films-of-2010.html
Put down those lists for a moment and check out the most breathtaking ‘Treetop views’ you’ll ever see in your life on Mayne Island, courtesy of artist and nature lover Terrell Welch of “Creativepotager” fame and more: http://creativepotager.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/treetop-views/
Meanwhile, down in Chile, our dear friend and blog associate Jaime Grijalba, a driven young man, has mapped out his planned itinerary for 2011 with quite an active game-plan at Exodus: 8:2: http://exodus8-2.blogspot.com/2011/01/2011-que-esperar.html
At FilmsNoir.net, Sydney native and long-time friend and WitD loyalist Tony d’Ambra has been going much further at his place than providing reviews; he’s now examining the essence of the form through literature, poetry and connecting themes. It’s enlightening and ever-challenging stuff. The leading piece ‘Cause for Alarm’ is a must-read: http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/still-cause-for-alarm.html#respond
What will Stephen Russell-Gebbett be doing for an encore? Well, first up is an amzingly bold and courageous defence of M. Night Shayamalan’s The Last Aerbender that again shows why his work online is forged with such a creative thought process. The superb essay is leading at Checking on my Sausages: http://checkingonmysausages.blogspot.com/2011/01/last-airbender-circles-globes-and-peace.html
Once again Kevin Olson is a driven man with two spectacular reviews on recent releases to follow his countinuing examination of Ken Russell. At Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies, he is heading up with a splendid essay on Black Swan, which he largely adores: http://kolson-kevinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/black-swan.html
At As Elusive as Robert Denby: The Life and Times of Troy, another review of Black Swan leads up over a continuing examinations of Robert Bresson’s filmography. Troy is considerable less enthusiastic than Kevin: http://troyolson.blogspot.com/2010/12/black-swan.html
Our beloved Dee Dee is back at Darkness Into Light with a post promoting and celebrating the Film Preservation Fundraiser being coordinated by Marilyn Ferdinand, Greg Ferrara and The Self-Styled Siren. It’s thrilling to have Dee Dee posting there again!: http://noirishcity.blogspot.com/2010/11/for-love-of-film-noir-for-love-of-films.html
David Schleicher, in an engaging pre-poll movie list, has posed some most interesting titles for the year’s film fare, as he ushers in 2011 at the always-creative The Schleicher Spin: http://theschleicherspin.com/2011/01/01/and-now-for-2011/
Filmmaker and classic movie lover Jeffrey Goodman has posted a very “unique” Ten Best list that will bring a smile to the face of all who read it. As always the writing and perceptions are first-rate over at The Last Lullaby: http://cahierspositif.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-top-10-or-so-films-for-2010.html
Jason Marshall at Movies Over Matter has written a blunt dismissal of the Coens’ True Grit that is brilliantly argued: http://moviesovermatter.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/on-giving-up-the-coen-brothers-true-grit-is-the-last-straw/
At Cinemascope Shubhajit has a new post up on The American with George Clooney, where he issues a well-written generally favorable verdict: http://cliched-monologues.blogspot.com/2010/12/american-2010.html
The estimable Michael Harford, the Coffee Messiah is taking a brief holiday respite at his place, but the current post offer quite a bit of everything and they are wonderful: http://coffeemessiah.blogspot.com/
Samuel Wilson, prolific writer extraordinaire, has taken up the matter of Black Swan, and he ain’t all that impressed. The superlative essay is up at Mondo 70: http://mondo70.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-big-screen-black-swan-2010.html
In Tokyo, the astute and scholarly ‘Murderous Ink’ continues his extraordinary examination of Ozu’s magnificent There Was A Father, with insights rarely seen in print. It’s an essential study at Vermillion and One Nights: http://vermillionandonenights.blogspot.com/2011/01/analysis-of-there-was-father-001800.html
At Speaking From the Heart, Laurie Buchanan is posting from California, where she is visiting her elderly father. She has a great game plan for 2011 at her ever-popular site: http://holessence.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/t-squared/
Dan Getahun of Getafilm, statesman and critic extraordinaire has posted a fecund round-up of films he’s seen recently, including Black Swan, Enter Through the Gift Shop and Marwencol: http://getafilm.blogspot.com/2010/12/getafilm-gallimaufry-marwencol-black.html
Hokahey at Little Worlds is yet another in our esteemed fraternity who has penned a terrific review of Aronofsky’s Black Swan. It’s one of the most comprehensive and impassioned essays out there!: http://hokahey-littleworlds.blogspot.com/2010/12/black-swan.html
Ed Howard at Only the Cinema has authored yet another top-drawer review, this time on the timeless Technicolor jewel, The Red Shoes by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger: http://seul-le-cinema.blogspot.com/2010/12/red-shoes.html
At The Movie Projector, R.D. Finch has penned his typically reliable essay, this time on Kurosawa’s Scandal: http://themovieprojector.blogspot.com/2010/12/scandal-1950.html
Judy Geater at Movie Classics has ushered in the New Year most appropriately with the newest essay in her amazing William Wellman series, Small Town Girl (1936) It’s magnificent writing!: http://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/small-town-girl-1936/
Another exceptional review of True Grit was penned by Adam Zanzie at Icebox Movies. He acknowledges it’s well-made but no masterpiece: http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/12/true-grit-2010-joel-ethan-coens-flawed.html
On the other hand, the brilliant writer Andrew Wyatt has authored a convincing”pro” essay on True Grit where he cites an effective satiral underpinning. It’s over at Gateway Cinephiles: http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2011/01/02/possessing-a-sharp-tongue-and-bountiful-sand/
A superlative review of Tron Legacy courtesy of the Film Doctor is up at his venerated archives: http://filmdr.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-have-seen-tron-legacy-and-my-life.html
Our very good friend Pat has a brand new piece up at Doodad Kind of Town, a loving tribute to fallen director Blake Edwards: http://doodadkindoftown.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/farewell-blake-edwards/
The affable and ever-astute Greg Ferrara has a year-end extravaganza up at Cinema Styles that’s all celebratory: http://cinemastyles.blogspot.com/2010/12/cinema-styles-year-end-extravaganza.html
Matthew Lucas’s Top Ten, showcased at From the Front Row is quick a must-see!: http://fromthefrontrow.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-ten-films-of-2010.html
At “This Island Rod” Roderick Heath’s late December review of “Splice” is still heading up with all it’s rhetorical resplendence: http://thisislandrod.blogspot.com/2010/12/splice-2010.html
Jason Bellamy at The Cooler has posted an engaging look at 2010 that’s an essential visit for serious cineastes: http://coolercinema.blogspot.com/2011/01/bests-of-2010.html
John Greco’s dazzling photo site, Watching Shadows on the Wall is still adorned in holiday garb!: http://watchingshadowsonthewall.wordpress.com/
Jeopardy Girl has a very interesting position on the true meaning of ‘Christmas Charity’ at her home, The Continuing Saga of Jeopardy Girl: http://jeopardygirl.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/christmascharity/
- Screen cap from Manoel de Oliveira’s “The Strange Case of Angelica”
Happy New Year to my very good friend Longman Oz in Dublin!
So what
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 
I had a busy week catching up to films made in 2010. A Prophet and The Kings Speech should make my top ten. These next couple of weeks will continue to be highlighted by stuff I neglected this past year. What I saw……
The Fighter ***
A Prophet ****1/2
The Kings Speech ****
The Ghost Writer ***
Wild Grass ***
South Of The Border **
Restrepo ***1/2
Sad to see Joel scaling back on his blogging activities. He’s one of my favorite writers (maybe the best actually) around these parts. I could see how he may feel burned out from all the commenting and posting he’s done. I see myself hitting a blogging wall as well when it comes to commenting. I want to argue with a few people that you highlight above about why True Grit is a masterpiece, but find my motivation in such matters to be completely lacking. I just want to see films and enjoy them without getting into long written conversations about nothing more than individual opinions. My essential theatrical goal this week is to attend a screening of Carlos at Cinema Village. At minimum I need to see Carlos, White Material, Animal Kingdom, Blue Valentine, and Rabbit Hole before I attempt any sort of year end list.
Maurizio: I am delighted to hear that both UN PROPHET and THE KING’S SPEECH will probably be making your ten best list, as both are firmly in my own. UN PROPHET released all the way back in February in USA theatres and it has stood firmly among the best films ten months later. For that matter in the same sense so has LOURDES. Looks like you have been on the move the past four or five weeks!
I must say I can’t blame you for giving WILD GRASS the ***. I love Resnais, but that film has completely escaped my recollection. It’s by Resnais, whom I adore, but I know its grows wearisome. I like GHOST WRITER a bit more, but agree it’s overrated in some quarters. Where I do stand toe to toe with you is on THE FIGHTER, an exceedingly overrated film.
You must indeed get to CARLOS at the IFC. That is urgent, as essential as any film this year, as you’ve surmised. I’ll speak to you about RABBIT HOLE. As far as BLUE VALENTINE and WHITE MATERIAL, I think you’ll know what I’ll say with those. And yes, when someone tries to assert that their “opinion” is “fact” than the trouble starts. Anyone with that kind of mind-set will never yield, and it’s like knowcking your head against a wall.
You had a remarkable week there my friend and thanks for sharing it here as always!
And as far as Joel, yeah he’s one of a kind for sure, absolutely one of the top writers anywhere.
I’m sad to hear about Joel’s cutting back on the blogging. I’ve always enjoyed the richness of his essays and was just making my way through his one of Rivette only yesterday. I’m sure it’s only temporary. I’m hoping it’s only temporary.
On the other hand, tou must be excited by the first posting of ‘The Outer Limits’ by David Schow….
For those that haven’t heard…After the success of last year’s blog ‘A Thriller A Day’ celebrating the release of ‘Thriller’ – the second greatest horror show in the history of TV, today sees the birth of the sequel…the ‘Citizen Kane’ of SF TV and the fantastical….’The Outer Limits’…
The ‘Thriller’ allowed all to watch one per day and comment on it, anyone could participate. And it was run by two authors – experts in pulps – who edit horror magazines such as Bare-Bones, ect.
As of today, they are launching ‘The Outer Limits’, an episode per day from Mon to Fri. Among the authors will be David Schow, who wrote the classic companion, Gary Gerani, who wrote landmark ‘Fantastic TV’ and numerous other authors, including the author of the recent ‘Richard Matheson on Film’; it’s probably the most star-studded blog fun to be had. So, dust off your boxed dvds sets and if you don’t have them – find a way to watch one of the most extraordinary television experiences to be had (next to ‘The Wire’, ‘I, Claudius’, ‘Bilko’, ‘Seinfeld’, ect)…
http://wearecontrollingtransmission.blogspot.com/2011/01/outer-limits-first-season-primer.html
Dear John***
It’s early days with this charming mid ’80s English sitcom which stars Ralph Bates as a recently divorced man attending a singles clubs, but the first episode was highly enjoyable.
Gavin and Tracy
This is a more recent British comedy and the first time I’ve made the time to catch up with it is this Christmas special. Utterly lacklustre in terms of laughs and I’m not sure if it’s worth catching another one.
Le Boucher**
A village butcher befriends and falls for an independently mind school teacher, whilst mysterious murders are going on around them.
A highly impressive French New Wave movie, my favourite scenes were probably the opening wedding and the casual introduction to our characters and the opening of the village as a rustic, sleepy little depot and the funeral which mirrors it. The Hitchcock elements are fine at a distance and the intrigue that they established but fail if the final 10 to 15 minutes, from the point at which it blacks out.
A Christmas Carol***
Watched both the Scott and Sim versions, the Sim has Sim at his best (was he ever less than magnificent), BW photography and rich design and in many ways the colour one matches these attributes.
A Pleasant Terror*
A mildly interesting documentary on M.R. James, which would have been far more interesting had it concentrated more on the stories.
War of the Worlds**
Spielberg’s epic film has all of his virtues as well as his vices; a pictorial eye for composition, masterful camera-work, superb performances by kids, some bravura sequences (the laser zapping on the streets), but also all of his baggage – the superficial reworking of Well’s critique of of colonial imperialism turns into a knee jerk fear of terrorist attack, the rest is Morgan Freeman as the voice of God narrator and divorce politics and issues are the usual grist in the mill.
The Crusades
DeMille’s film, 10/15 minutes of this dim panto and I deleted it.
Unfaithfully Yours****
A conductor harbouring suspicions that his young wife maybe having an affair plans three different courses of action whilst conducting three different musical pieces.
A classic Sturges comedy, his last great work, which appears as a labour of love. It’s failure at the box office destroyed his career.
Upstairs Downstairs
A 3 part sequel set in 1936 to the classic ’70s TV show which followed the lives of an upper-class family upstairs and their servants who dwelt downstairs from the years 1901 to1928….
In plot terms, it covers events from the original series; but in every other way, it’s a god-awful mess which relies on nostalgia and period escapism for it’s propulsion. It’s almost as if they’ve watched the original but failed to utterly understand what made it so good was that it was a drama and all the period detail was ancillary concern. Like a SF film which gets lost in it’s SFX and forgets that it’s about ideas. Even after the 1st episode, which is the most nostalgic, it’s utterly predictable and the characters are just stereotype stick figures. And despite it rich production detail, it falters on the smallest. The new butler mentions that he served on cruise liners and mentions hosting Jimmy Cagney’s 21st birthday party! This stuck me as plainly weird…So I paused the show, pulled up the wiki entry on Cagney. Being born in 1899, he would have had a 21st birthday party in 1920 and on a cruiser! A person doesn’t have to be a film fan with a knowledge of film history or a nit-picker to say, “Hey, wait a minute”. Even the last episode, in which a servant has implausibly committed and her daughter is left with the household, the head of the household – husband who is the one wanting to keep the child till her father, lost and imprisoned somewhere in Hitler’s Nazi Germany, come back. Yet it is his wife, whose her mother died giving birth to her younger sister, who wants to put the child in an orphange. No motivation whatsoever rings true. One of the great Golden Turkeys for TV.
Happy Birthday BBC2 (2005)***
A 3 hour birthday celebration and clip show but with a difference. Unlike the horrendous “Top 100” marathons we’ve been inundated by for the last 10/15 years, here the programs are arranged decade
by decade, with clips and the talking heads are actually the people who made them and give an invaluable breakdown into the genesis of the some of the finest programs ever aired on what has been probably the finest TV channel in the English speaking world.
Clash of the Titans
A remake that perked my interest only because of a clip of the Kraken. A marvellous creation and the film better establishes the villain Hades and moves along it’s plot line trajectory in a more concise manner than the original – in this, it resembles ‘Jason and the Argonauts’. Otherwise, the characterisation is lamentably thin, it is oversized in a Peter Jackson LOTR/King Kong manner; instead of one scorpion, we are given stacks of the blighters, the Gorgon sequence is too fast killing any compositional value atmosphere and the Kraken sequence has is moments (as does the three witches part) but there is simply too much going on in that over-the-top manner of modern blockbusters.
The Most Dangerous Man in the World****
A BBC Storyville documentary which tells the inside story of Daniel Ellesberg and the release of the Pentagon papers, which really paints a vivid picture of the times, the people and tells a gripping story of the pivotal story of the era – which in part sowed the seeds of Watergate. On a side note, can anyone believe that the archly conservative Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” is the creator of Facebook and not the major story of the year – Julian Assange? Even though he was voted on their own poll as by far the figure of the year. Perhaps, as usual it is toeing the line of it’s paymasters, it’s natural bent to be of less worth than toilet paper.
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek****
One of Sturges four classics. But you guys know all about this one, anyway..
Undermind
Watched the first of 3 episodes that are avilable of this 1965 British SF show which featured a crop of best SF scriptwriters of the era. It’s an early TV version of alien invasion, via minds being taken over from a distant star. ‘The Invaders’ it’s not, yet…
2012
An absolutely worthless piece of sci-fi gunk which kept reminding me of the early ’50s film ‘When World Collide’, some marvellously, jaw-droppingly executed SPX of the world literally collapsing, but so over the top that I was laughing out loud.
The American
Dull and dreary George Clooney vehicle which is humourless, characterless and dead.
Tron – The Legacy
I hadn’t seen the original and after about 5 minutes of this I would have gone into the foyer and read a book of short stories had I not forgotten to bring one. Had there been marble in front of me, I might have banged my head into it to make myself into a dream state. At least the tickets for this were complimentary….An incoherent mess of enormous tedium.
‘Tron’, ‘The American’ and ‘2012’ were watched as part of the usual bonding thing with my brother and my cousin. We all thought them as rubbish, though we had better hopes for ‘The American’. No more junk. Waiting for ‘True Grit’ and ‘Inside Job’ with anticipation…
BOBBY-I’m with you on just about everything you have said in your review capsules…
EXCEPT…
I really think you’re giving Spielberg shortshrift on WAR OF THE WORLDS. Personally, I thought this was a deeply effective parable on the subject of terrorism, its mindlessness and it’s waste. As for changing the theme from the Welle’s novel, I say that it’s part of the time that we live in and his updating of the story worked just fine. Some have complained about the abrupt ending but most forget that the original source novel ended just as abruptly. Tom Cruise gives one of his best performances as the put upon Dad that really wants to just live the lazy life without big cares but snaps into action when his heart turns on.
The few quoibbles most have about this film, I feel, are small potatoes next to the wonderful set moments of the film and they, without question, show that Spielberg is still at the top of his game when putting together action sequences or tension-filled moments (I refer you to the sequence when the Ferry boat comes under attack or the earlier sequence when the first tripod rises from the depths of the ground. Janisz Kaminski should be praised as well as his bleached color composition and choppy “news-reel” cinematography gave the whole thing and added realism that I though added to the realism of the whole fantasy aspect of the film. I’m not saying this is the greatest movie he ever made, but it’s far from the trash most have made it seem like…
Dennis, I agree with you completely about the photography and about Spielberg’s skilled craftsmanship.
Wells was critiquing the British Empire by switching roles and putting the English under the yoke of a superior technological power. And as the US is the biggest Empire post WWII, does most of the death and destruction in the world and uses any excuse (including “False Flag” operations) to steal any resources it can for an elite group of corporate interests, the film rung hollow for me. The analogy more apt would be a small country – African/Indo-China/Middle East invaded by the titanic war machine of the US and killed with depleted Uranium (a true weapon of mass destruction).
I just wish the film wasn’t so insular and Spielberg was a mite more thoughtful to match his magnificent craftsmanship.
Yep, Bobby, Joel has accomplished some miracles at this site, but he’s a great writer, and will do much the same wherever he goes. As far as whether it will be temporary, we’ll see how things go. I know he is terribly fond of people here as we are of him, and I’m sure they’ll be some encores.
Thanks for the heads up on the Outer Limits blogothon! I’ve already added the link to our sidebar and I have made two submissions, including today’s defense of “The Human Factor,” an episode I had a strange affinity for since I first watched it many years ago. I see many are smitten with Sally Kellerman! Ha! I’m not surprised. Thanks so much for that announcement overview as well, and of the background of some of the notable figures that will be on-hand. I see already Gerani is doing a great job! His “Fantastic Television” remains the best book of it’s kind, especially for baby bommers, who reveled in these timeless shows.
That is a round-up of viewings for the ages!!! Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Perhaps Allan can enlighten me further of “Dear John,” which you like, and we’ll dismiss “Gavin and Tracy!” Ha!
Yes, LE BOUCHER is absolutely a New Wave and Chabrol classic; you choose some excellent sequences there.
The Sim A CHRISTMAS CAROL continues to lead by some distance, but interesting you love the Scott that much.
I have never heard of that documentary A PLEASANT TERROR, though you seem to find it only moderately worthwhile.
I never thought much of WAR OF THE WORLDS, but as a Spielberg fan for the most part, I shy away from trashing it. You seem to be in between Dennis and me, and you offer some interesting points there.
I am not so negative on De Mille’s THE CRUSADES, but fair enough.
Why the heck would they bother to re-make UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS? Totally ridiculous! Hence, no surprise what happened though I got some laughts of your imaginative roasting of this “Golden Age Turkey!”
Wow, the BBC Happy Birthday is that impressive, eh?
I liked CLASH OF THE TITANS a bit more than you, but I was foregiving with that.
DANGEROUS MAN is another i never saw, but your high praise here is noted!
Yes, MORGAN’S CREEK is one of Sturges’ masterworks! Haven’t seen UNDERMINED.
Yes 2012 is extreme garbage that I saw with the family at a multiplex. Now that was a complete waste of money! Same too with the Clooney THE AMERICAN, which I don’t have much use for.
The TRONS are and have always been OFF my radar!!! Ha!
This was absolutely stunning Bobby!!! Beyond anything see here, but a great job and an incredible week!!!
Thanks for the mention Sam. Very generous.
I have only seen two films by Manoel de Oliveira – Eccentricities of a Blonde Haired Girl and ABRAHAM VALLEY. ABRAHAM VALLEY is a very fine film with a bewitching atmosphere.
Many thanks to you Stephen and Happy New Year!
I was alerted that ECCENTRICITIES is on a Region 1 DVD (which for some reason escaped me) and will get at least a copy of it this week. I haven’t seen ABRAHAM VALLEY either, though I belie Allan thinks highly of it, if I recall correctly.
Thanks Sam for the mention. And wish you again a very Happy New Year. I hope you have a great time ahead, both movie-wise and health-wise.
Well, I’ve been watching quite a few movies lately. Since I posted at your Monday Morning post last Monday, which are:
Persona (that was my Jan 1, 2011 post)
Kid Galahad
Invisible Stripes
The Tourist
The Headless Woman
Hannah & Her Sisters
Arekti Premer Golpo (an excellent Bengali film where Rituparno Ghosh, one of my favourite directors, made a powerhouse debut as an actor)
Somewhere
Crimes & Misdemeanors
Nightmare Alley
Bheja Fry (a Hindi movie that I watched today morning)
I’m planning to visit a person’s house who too happens to be a film lover, and hope to get hold of some good films there.
Take care in 2011 which I hope turns out to be a really great year for you and your family.
My vacation is at its last leg, as I’ll be leaving next Monday morning. So planning to keep watching films everyday before “drought” eventually takes over once I’m back at college 🙂
SHUBHAJIT-I’m really wondering what you thought about Woody Allen’s CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS.
I know, personally, that I was so blown away by it when I saw it in 1989, that I went and saw it again the very next day.
I don’t think too many of his films have delved into the serious undertones of existence and morality as wonderfully and as truthfully as this film did. The balancing of the comic and the dramatic was a perferct high-wire walk and I was so taken by the story and the themes of the film that it left me wanting more or wishing it had ran longer. The idea that God is watching us all but sometimes turns a blind eye to our misdeeds is philosophical that few film-makers here i the states would ever have the balls to tackle and, if they did, were rare to tackle as well as Woody Allen does here.
All the performances are first rate with Angelica Huston as the hysterical and threratening stewardess a stand out in her brief role. Martin Landau, simply put, gives the performance of his career as the Opthamologist who begins to realize sometimes the biggest eyes of all are the most blind.
For me, CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS is the film that all other Woody Allen film are measured by and my personal favorite of all his pictures. Ask Sam, I was obsessed with it when it came out…
Thanks Dennis for sharing your love for Crimes & Misdemeanors.
I too liked the movie a lot, but if you ask me for my favourite Woody Allen films, they’d still have to be Annie Hall, Manhattan, and perhaps even Hannah & Her Sisters.
But then, that is in no way a reduction of the film’s standing in my humble opinion. It was indeed a great work, and I would mostly agree with your appraisal of the film.
I would also like to thank you for sharing the kind of “obsession” that you have had for this movie, it was really great to know your personal connection with it.
I would be putting up its review as soon as possible, and would like to invite you to my blog to read it as soon as I have done so. Thanks again Dennis for initiating this conversation.
Please let me know when the festivities on this film begin!!!!
I would love to join in and see what else others have to say about this film. A true favorite of mine!!!!
My email is: Kubrickkrazy1@yahoo.com
Sure thing Dennis, I’ll let you know once it is up at my blog.
Shubhajit!
That is indeed quite a line-up you managed to navigate and I’m sure you’ll be posting a number of reviews up at CINEMASCOPE in the coming weeks/months. How did I miss that PERSONA review? Ah well, I’ll be sure to get over there! I see you and Dennis have engaged in an interesting discussion with the Woody Allens, and I concur that CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS is one of his very best works. I know you have reviewed some and plan to do more. I’m afraid I have never been much of a fan of Sophia Coppola’s ponderous cinema, and I’ve my blogging lumps to prove it! Ha! Still, I’d like to hear your take on SOMEWHERE and all the others for that matter. Many thanks for your loyalty and friendship, and best of luck with the new semester!
Happy New Year to you my friend!
Thanks very much for the plug and kind words, Sam… though you have accidentally repeated the link to RD Finch instead of linking to me. I haven’t had time to watch much this week – the only older film I managed to get to was ‘What Price Hollywood?’, George Cukor’s 1932 pre-Coder which was the inspiration for ‘A Star Is Born’. I thought this was a good drama with fine performances by Constance Bennett as the aspiring starlet and Lowell Sherman as the drunken film director who discovers her on his way to the gutter… it’s just let down by a tedious tagged-on love interest for Bennett. I must now re-watch the 1936 Wellman ‘A Star Is Born’, and then Cukor’s remake of the semi-remake! Anyway thanks again.
Hey Judy! I read your comment here yesterday and did rectify it shortly thereafter. That is a mistake I’ve made more than my share of times, and I can’t explain it. I need to pay more careful attention when I am moving from one link to the next. I am in perfect allignment with you on WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD?, which as you note has some fine aspects, but does not compare with either Wellman’s A STAR IS BORN nor Cukor’s. I’m sure you will have a great time re-watching that Wellman jewel. I watched it with my eldest daughter just a few weeks ago for the umteenth time, (I am always a sucker for that final scene when Victor Lester announces herself defiantly as “Mrs. Norman Maine” to gushing emotion) and Gaynor and March are pitch-perfect. Id love to see a review of it up at MOVIE CLASSICS if time and motivation for you prevails.
Many thanks as always my very good friend, and a Happy New Year to you and the family!
Thanks very much for changing the link, Sam – definitely agree with you about the final scene of the 1936 ‘A Star Is Born’, and also that both Gaynor and March are great in it.
Thanks Sam as always for your generosity and enthusiasm. I hope to contribute pieces here and there to Wonders in the Dark over time. Like Maurizio, I’ve got comment burn-out but a renewed desire to put together full-length pieces and develop my craft there (although yes, that too, is being putting on hold for the time being). The one thing that will continue right now is Remembering the Movies every Friday at the DI, as it’s fairly easy to put together and a fun, easy read which can keep the site going while I take a step back. As for the offscreen life, no particular career advancement yet but at least the prospect of saving a bit (and hopefully putting it towards filmmaking ventures down the line) after a couple years of hand-to-mouth temp and/or multiple part-time jobs. We shall see. I’d pay further tribute to you, but Allan already said it so well in his great piece of a few weeks ago, which I will link up above the fold in Blog 10.
Happy new year to all who’ve followed along, and to those who didn’t! And thanks to Maurizio & bobby J for the kind words as well.
Joel,
I’ve enjoyed your selections and acute commentaries. I’m looking forward to seeing your work on Remembering the Movies every Friday at the DI.
All the best!
Joel:
Your own generosity by way of ceaseless commentary over many months, some of the best reviews to be seen anywhere, and that incredible sidebar work of archived features and authors speaks for itself. Meeting you twice in the same week in Manhattan with the family was quite at treat, and getting to know you online has been one of my high points blogging.
To be sure there are others here who have contributed a tremendous amount of their time–people like Tony d’Ambra, Dee Dee, and the writing staff, but you have made your mark, and we are all richer for it.
Of course I’m very happy that Remembering the Movies will continue, and that beyond that some other plans may materialize, but in the end you must do what is best for you, not what is best for Wonders in the Dark or The Dancing Image or any other blogger or bloggers in particular.
You’ve paid your dues my friend, and royally. The best always!
Sam,
Thanks again for the shout out Sam, and best wishes to you, your family and all WitD contributors and readers for a Happy New Year. The blizzard really socked the NE this past week and we here in the sunbelt even got hit with some freezing temps. Hopefully this is not a sign of the winter to come. Sorry to hear of Joel’s cut back, his contributions here have been well noted and will be missed. Wish him the best.
True Grit (Coen Brothers) **** I voiced my dislike of the original version last week (which seems to be in the minority) so I will not go into it again. Let’s just say this film has a lot more true grit to it than the first failed attempt. Jeff Bridges has been one of the finest though underappreciated actors for most of his career and finally within the last few years with “Crazy Heart” and now this has reached a level of deserved recognition that has eluded him in the past. Then there is young newcomer Hailee Steinfeld in a brilliantly poised performance as Maddie Ross, the young girl who hired old Rooster to find Tom Chaney, her father’s killer. Those looking for the trademark Coen irony won’t find much of it here but you will find one of the better films of the year.
I Love You Phillip Morris (Ficarra & Requa ) **** Quirky story of real life con-artist Steve Russell who cons his way through life using his abilities to impersonate and commit multiple frauds (posing as a lawyer and a CFO of a corporation) until he is arrested and sent to prison. While in prison he meets Phillip Morris and they fall in love. Jim Carrey avoids his “Jim Carrey” mannerisms and gives a truly believable le performance. Ewan McGregor is very good as is Leslie Mann, Russell’s ex-wife but this is really Carrey’s picture.
The Killer Inside Me (Michael Winterbottom) ***1/2 Based on crime writer Jim Thompson’s dark and wicked novel comes director Michael Winterbottom dark and wicked film. It shows that beneath the politeness and the niceties of small town life lies a world of corruption and murderous aberrant behavior. The film is brutally violent, may not be to everyone’s taste but it doesn’t get much nastier than this. Nice subdued dark performance by Casey Affleck..
Wishful Drinking **** A HBO documentary of Carrie Fisher’s one woman show, an acerbic funny look back at her “family tree,” her famous parents and their fantasy worlds they lived in. The center piece of the show is a “family” flow chart beginning with her parents, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. She called her father “Puff Daddy” due to his marijuana smoking habit and her mother “a really bad heterosexual”, not because she is a lesbian but because of her bad choices in the three men she married. Fisher is just as hard on herself as she points out that her father was a short Jewish singer and she married a short Jewish singer. Bi-polar, alcoholic, drug addiction, depression, she got through it all with a biting sense of humor.
Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman) ****1/2 – Hooray for Captain Spaulding the African explorer! Though the film is stage bound and the camera rarely moves, typical for a 1930 movie, “Animal Crackers” still stands as classic Marxist humor. Filled with Groucho’s puns and sarcastic barbs along with Chico and Harpo’s antics. The jokes come so fast there is barely enough time to process one before another is coming at you.
Room For One More (Norman Taroug) *** Delightful comedy with Cary Grant and his then wife Betsy Drake. Homespun idealism about a family with three kids, a dog and cats who take in two foster kids. The film has a sit-com feel to it (the advent of TV actually killed this type of film) but it does deal seriously with young orphan kids adjusting to a family life and the constant fear of not being accepted and sent packing . Of course the film has a feel good ending and the two adult characters are charming, then again what else would one expect from Cary Grant.
I couldn’t agree with you more, JOHN, on ROOM FOR ONE MORE. This little seen and rarely spoken of gem is a delight from every angle and I was surprised by the serious tone about the orphan kids finding their way in a house of unconditional love.
Watching this, recently on TCM a few weeks back, reminded me why Cary Grant was, and is, so beloved by generations of moviegoers. His sly, slick, satin-smooth persona is undeniable and comic work rivals that of professional comedians.
I could watch him in anything….
Dennis
“His sly, slick, satin-smooth persona is undeniable and comic work rivals that of professional comedians.
I could watch him in anything….”
You said it best right here!!!
Thanks so much for that John! And thanks for being such a great friend and supporter yourself! You have certainly been one of the WitD’s most reliable and inspiring people over the past year, where among a plethora of various contributions, your spectacular submissions to this weekly thread in particular have been titanic. Happy New Year to you and your lovely wife Dorothy, and here’s to the best year ever in 2011. I just want to add that the humanitarian effort in behalf you you and Dorothy for cats are to be applauded. As a cat(s) owner for years I know well the kind of dedication and investment must be afforded here. The adoption of cats scheduled for “liquidation” is especially moving. Of course my blood boils whenever I think of this heartless ritual, regardless of the valid reasons why it must be done.
Yes, Joel will be missed as you and so many others on this thread and elsewhere have attested to. He is quite the popular guy!
John, I will say that most reviews I have read on the Coens’ TRUE GRIT line up with yours. Jennifer Boulden (who penned a great review here) and Maurizio Roca of course absolutely adore the film, as does Craig Kennedy and a host of others. I loved Seinfeld too as I thought Roger Deakins’ cinematography (typically) was breathtaking. The film will also (probably) be among the 10 Best Picture nominees later this month.
Of your typically impressive round-up (great capsules here by the way!!!) I have not seen WISHFUL THINKING, but who wouldn’t be intrigued by what you say here? Wow!)
OK, I am not a fan at all of that Winterbottom, but your excellent appraisal isn’t the only positive response I’ve read by a long shot, so it may just be that rare instance of different perceptions. I like PHILLIP MORRIS a bit less, but I’m there will you for the most part, And maybe I like ROOM a bit more, but again I’m there.
I like a few other Marxes a bit more (as oddly the musical sequences in AC were intrusive) but I would wager you yourself might also prefer DS, NATO and/or HF more, but what you say here is esentially dead-on!
Many thanks to you John over and other my great friend!
Sam,
I love all the Marx Brother films you mention and would add “Monkey Business” to the list. I probably would put them all ahead of “Animal Crackers” but that still leaves it as one of their better films. The musical numbers are intrusive, except for the “Hooray for Captain Spaulding” number of course and stop the film dead in its track, then again the musical numbers in their MGM films are killers also. Films like “Duck Soup” and “Horse Feathers” are pure Marx madness.
Sam, thanks so much for the wonderful mention.
First off, I wanted to join in thanking Joel Bocko for all his amazing contributions to WitD. He will be sorely missed, but I know that any career will benefit from his great talents.
What another excellent week you had, Sam. I really want to see BLUE VALENTINE, as well as the new Leigh and de Oliveira, but none of them has arrived in these parts just yet. And I completely agree with you about CLUNY BROWN. One day I’ll hopefully have the opportunity to see a Lubitsch retrospective on the big screen.
It was a pretty full week on my movie front, too. I saw: FAIL-SAFE, SYRIANA, AFTERSCHOOL, TONY MANERO, MILTON GLASER: TO INFORM AND DELIGHT, ME AND ORSON WELLES, THE LIVES OF OTHERS, THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS, and SUMMER HOURS. I would have to say the two that stood out for me were the Assayas film and THE LIVES OF OTHERS. Meanwhile, watching THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS made me realize that Kloves now spends most of his time writing for the Harry Potter films. I’d really love to see another directorial outing from him.
Here’s to an incredible 2011. Thanks for leading the way, Sam!
Thanks as always Jeffrey for the inspiring comment. That’s a great lead-in on Joel Bocko, which I know he will greatly appreciate. He has been part of the fabric at this place for a long time, and his (temporary?) loss will be deeply felt. But this young man has quite a career ahead of him the way I figure it. (as you do as a continuing filmmaker!!!) CLUNY BROWN was quite delightful on the big screen (who can forget the older lady always clearing her throat!) and it’s the real Lubitsch sleeper that ranks among his best films. We were treated to quite a print too! I am 100% certain that you of all people will really love BLUE VALENTINE. The filmmaker in you will respond in a way that some of the rest of us might not, though at the end of the day it’s one of the two or three best films of the year for me. I’m sure it (and the de Oliveira) will be with you down in bayou country very soon!
The Film Forum did have a Lubitsch retrospective maybe seven years ago, but I didn’t make it. I know the director there, Bruce Goldstein adores the director, so maybe they’ll have and to boot while you are visiting here! I hope.
That’s quite a line-up of viewed films Jeffrey! Like you I woul dboost THE LIVES OF OTHERS to the top along with SUMMER HOURS. I’d have ME AND ORSON WELLES and FAIL-SAFE as the runners-up, but that’s really a great lot! Interesting point there about Kloves! Ha!
Thanks as always for your incomparable remarks, which always bring a big smile to my face my very good friend!
Mike Leigh is one of my favorite directors. So ‘Another Year’ is at the top of my must-see list. You continue to amaze. This massive Monday Morning Diary and that incredible blogger appreciation feature on the same day! I guess I know what you were doing all weekend.
Your ‘Blue Valentine’ review continues to lead the way.
Well Frank, I can’t deny that both weekend days were spent writing, though I got a “breather” on Saturday night when I saw that de Oliveira film. Thanks for the comment on the BLUE VALENTINE and for being my blogging ‘guardian angel!’ Ha!
Thanks as always my very good friend and colleague for your amazing regualar support!
Great to see the fantastic reviews for Blue Valentine and Another Year, Sam. They are easily my two most anticipated films this year, so I can’t wait until they are released here in Toronto – I think Blue Valentine this Friday.
How wonderful to hear from you Dave! I am hoping to see a relaunch at your place but I assume thing’s are hectic on your end. In any case, I will be posting your link permanently from now on, regardless. BLUE VALENTINE will definitely resonate with you in a very big way I am sure. And ANOTHER YEAR may just be the very best thing Leigh has ever done in his extraordinary career. I’d love to hear what you think my friend!
Thanks Sam! I appreciate it. I really need to sit down and write some more. I just picked up a couple of documentaries, including a copy of one of my favourites, Billy the Kid, so I’ll be sure to post about it. I think I was mistaken, and Blue Valentine opens January 14th here, so a little bit more of a wait, but that’s alright!
Hope all is well!
Things are going fine indeed Dave.
I know you probably saw both by WASTE LAND and INSIDE JOB are fantastic!
Speaking of “lists” I would like to know when you are planning to publish your own Sam. Are you planning to hold that much longer?
Thanks Fred! It’s going up this coming Monday, January 10th on top of the Diary.
As usual I have 11 films—A Top 10 in numerical order, with a tenth-place tie.
Well, haven’t been around these parts in a while (or the blogging world in general) but having a break after a semester of law school means that I am trying to work my way back into such things. I might not have time to post at Goodfella’s, but I see no reason why I can’t work my way back into WitD and various other favorite haunts. So here is a general “Hello!” to everyone here who I haven’t spoken to in a few months. I have stayed in touch with Sam intermittently through e-mail and told him that I would be making a return. I have been lurking here for the last few months, keeping up with the countdowns, but I am happy to try and join back into things (in whatever minor fashion).
My movie watching was basically non-existent for a good while, but I figure I will comment here on all of the films I have watched over the last two weeks or so, as it’s the only outlet for me to do so without getting drawn back into blogging myself, which I sadly just cannot do right now. Some of these I have seen before and simply watched again, others are first-timers. So, here goes:
-BLACK SWAN: Loved it. To me, it was like The Red Shoes meets Brian De Palma, which are two elements that I love. I could see how some would dislike it, but it seems to me that if it’s approached with a little less of the pretentiousness that all Aronofsky films inevitably include, it is easier to enjoy.
-TRUE GRIT: Also loved it, even more so than Black Swan. While I don’t get to the cinema a lot, I still think this is the best movie I saw in the theater all year. It is not the deep philosophical type work for which the Coens are often known, but it’s a quirky, wonderful genre exercise in the same vein as their gangster excursion Miller’s Crossing. The three lead performances are are truly great, I think, with the young girl being outstanding and Bridges being as good as advertised. Honestly, this is probably a top 3 Coens film for me, which is saying something considering how much I love their body of work.
-THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER: Watched this after getting the Criterion Blu-Ray. The movie looks spectacular, as it always has, but I still cannot completely get into it. I don’t know why. It is marvelous to look it, but I never get fully engaged in the story.
-THE TOWN: Not as good as Affleck’s previous Gone Baby Gone, but still a solid enjoyable popcorn thriller. The source material here was going to limit things no matter who directed it, but I still think that Affleck is a solid director.
-PANDORA’S BOX: As I said to Sam in an e-mail, I think I fell in love with Louise Brooks. This might be the best performance by an actress I have ever seen. You read all the time about certain actors or actresses being “magnetic” on the screen, but I think this might be the only instance where I think that description is indisputably 100% accurate. You can’t take your eyes off of her. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that with any other actor/actress. The closest things I think of, in terms of a one-person tour de force are Renee Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc and probably Cagney at his best. Louise just gobbles the screen up, and it’s like she’s not even trying to do it – it feels so damn natural! I definitely need to see more from Pabst and Brooks.
-MODERN TIMES: Criterion blu-ray is awesome and the movie is still a definite 10/10.
-DAYS OF HEAVEN: A movie that was meant for blu-ray and it was great to watch it yet again. I decided to go through some Malicks after seeing the trailer for Tree of Life. I love this movie and am still amazed at those who don’t find the actual story compelling. Perhaps Malick tells it differently than would other directors, but this movie is more than just the spectacular visuals. I love everything about it.
-DESPERATE (Anthony Mann): Just an average noir for me. There are some great visual moments, as to be expected from a Mann directed noir, but the best was obviously yet to come from this master.
Ah Dave, you have always been one of the true favorites here and will continue to be. What’s that phrase? Absence makes the heart…..? Ha!” Well, you get the picture. I think LAW SCHOOL is just a little more important than blogging at movie sites. Not much more important, just a teeny bit. Right? Great that you are doing well, and still getting that occasional break. I’m sure you will be tested next month when Maurizio Roca (who made his bones at GOODFELLAS as I recall) conducts his own FILM NOIR countdown. It will be interesting to see how it compares with your own. I’m sure they’ll be overlaps and in other instances some stratling disparity, as there would be in other comparative polling of two individuals.
Yes, I was thrilled to hear from you this week, and yes, we have kepyt abreast my friend!
Well, I won’t rain on your parade with BLACK SWAN, and fully recognize it has many fervant admirers. I’ll admit that will make some good-looking blu-ray!!!
Looks like you and Maurizio are completely in agreement with TRUE GRIT. Although I know Jamie had little use for it, it seems that there are two camps: those who love it unreservedly, and those who like it but find it less than the best Coens. It’s VERY telling that YOU (who had the Coens among your greatest directors) during your director’s countdown, would say this is one of their very bets films. Heck, critically it has received reviews that are among the best they’ve ever gotten, so there shouldn’t be a surprise.
That’s a curious assessment there of THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, but that’s the way some acknowledged masterpieces wash over some. We all have a few like that. Look at me with CHINATOWN and DON’T LOOK NOW, for example. I understand what you saying; if it doesn’t grab you emotionally it doesn’t completely work.
I’m not much for THE TOWN, though you meet me close enought by admitting GONE BABY GONE is stronger.
Ah, what a magnificent capsule there on PANDORA’S BOX and that goddess Louise Brooks. Can’t say I blame you for being that smitten! Imagine what the audience of the day thought? That’s an inspiring reaction, and I applud you for the discovery! I know you are moving forward with DIARY next! And thanks for immediate feedback! It was a lotta fun to read!!!
I liked that Anthony Mann noir (DESPARATE) somewhat more than you, but of course I saw it on the big screen months ago during the Mann Festival.
As far as Chaplin’s MODERN TIMES on blu-ray, yes indeed Dave: to die for!!!!!!!!!!
Ditto with the Criterions DATS OF HEAVEN!!!
What a fantastic treat to have you here Dave! Just like old times!!! Keep hard on the studies and I’m sure we’ll be speaking again soon enough!!!
Sam – I enjoyed reading this entire post, but I especially enjoyed reading about Marilyn Ferdinand. She sounds like a woman of integrity and strength of conviction – my favorite type of person.
The tribute you gave to Joel Bocko practically made me cry and I don’t even know the gentleman. Well done! Then I followed the link you provided to his story about this past year’s blogging experience. His “seasonal” approach was WONDERFUL!
I returned home from Encinitas, California New Year’s evening. Len asked what I wanted to do the following day (Jan 2) so we saw “The King’s Speech.” Oh Sam, I can’t imagine that it won’t have a place in your Top 10 list. PHENOMENAL!
This is really one of the Hall of Fame comments Laurie and I can’t thank you enough.
Yes, Marilyn Ferdinand, who lives in your neck of the woods is DEFINITELY your kind of lady as I’m certain YOU would be her kind of lady. I don’t pose to say I know either of you extremely well, but in both cases I have been enriched and inspired by wonderful qualities you both share. For one, both of you are born leaders taking charge and trying to improve the world. What is better than that?
The next thing you talk about is Joel Bocko, and I am moved that you were moved, and even went as far as to take a look at his “seasonal” piece! You are really something Laurie! And the relationship with Joel was such that emotions have been strong over the past few days.
I am thrilled that you and Len went to see THE KING’S SPEECH upon his return!!! I have already seen the film twice (dragging some friends and family on the second visit last week in my typical late season filmic fantaticism) and it has finished in my top 10 of the year! I’ll have more to say this coming Monday in my Best Movies of 2010 post. I trust all went as well as you planned in Encinitas with your Dad.
As always I am honored to have you here my wonderful friend!
Sam, I think you are confusion the “Angelica” of that Brazilian film with the “Angelika Film Center.” You have a ‘k’ in the title. The spelling Nazi strikes!
Actually “The Strange Case of Angelica” might be the most intriguing of the films you’ve seen this week. But all of them, even “Cluny Brown” are most desirable.
You did say you would have “The King’s Speech” on your best list, no?
The Big Bad Patriots look like a hungry lot. They are looking to avenge that Super Bowl loss to the Giants in 2007, and I don’t think there’s anyone there to stop em. Of course, I’m pulling for Gang Green.
I’ll make a deal with you Peter. You don’t tell on me and I won’t tell on you. (“confusion” instead of “confusing”? Ha!)
Just kidding of course. But yeah, I did confuse the two and I must change that K to a C!
The King’s Speech will indeed finish in my top 10. It is at #8 on the finalized list.
Well, there is ONE person at this site who is delighted about those Pats, and that’s none other than Joel Bocko!
Many thanks my friend!
Thanks for the shout out and for the enormously kind words, Sam! It seems as though you hit a particularly pleasing crop of movies this past weekend. Really looking forward to your top 10 when you have it in its final form. I myself have been holding off on movies for the moment, as I should be finally upgrading from my clunky old box to a nice new flatscreen/bluray combo, which should be sometime in the next week. I can’t bring myself to watch any of my new DVD’s until I make the transfer!
Happy New Year to you and the fam, Sam!
My kindest regards Drew. Well, I can well understand you holding off until those new components are fully installed. I would be thinking the same way myself. The best of luck with the new system! Yes, this past week was incomparable as far as 2010 is concerned. (though the final of the three gems, THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELIKA, was seen on January 1st. This trifecta went a long way towards equalizing what was by and large a less inspiring final two months than usual. And today I finally saw WASTE LAND, which has vaulted into my finished list posting on this coming Monday.
Your own great list will always be a point of reference. Many thanks my friend!
Sam, I thought Angelica would be good from the preview clip they included on the Eccentricities DVD. We could use such a straightforward no-frills rendering of the supernatural right now, so I hope the film makes it upstate. As for Black Swan, I’ll allow that it’ll appeal to certain temperaments that won’t be unjustified in enjoying it. The last act was nasty fun in my opinion and better than the buildup. I come down against it ultimately not because I object to Aronofsky’s attitude but because nothing in the story really rang true for me. It’s not as if I have knowledge of the modern ballet world to justify my feeling, but I feel it just the same.
If anything, my DVD viewing was less ambitious: a lot of older stuff, noirs and sci-fi. The noirs were Lang’s Human Desire and Vincent Sherman’s Backfire. The former has a misogynist sting at the end that leaves a bad taste, while the latter apes the format of The Killers and adds a mystery too easy to guess. It’s still entertaining enough and not a chore for Edmond O’Brien fans. The sci-fis were howlers: Sherman A. Rose’s Target Earth, W. Lee Wilder’s Phantom From Space, William Asher’s Cold War idiocy The 27th Day and Edward L. Cahn’s visionary but dumb Invisible Invaders, the bridge between Plan 9 From Outer Space and Night of the Living Dead, with the spirit or passion of neither. I resolve to see more entertaining movies over the rest of the year, and may the rest of you keep all the resolutions you choose.
Samuel, I still need to see ECCENTRICITIES, but I’m negotiating in that direction presently. The supernatural and austere underpinnings of ANGELICA are deliciously wed to some off-beat humor and the film’s prevailing sense of mystery, making for a film that completely caught me by surprise. I finalized my final Top 10 today after seeing an afternoon screener of WASTE LAND and Angelika has made it in to the list (actually it’s 11 films as I always have a 10th place tie) This is really the kind of film that such an impassioned and enterprising cineaste as yourself will appreciated, and I’ve got my fingers crossed that it makes it’s way upstate very soon.
Well Samuel, I’d wager even if you had an intricate knowledge of the ballet world, you’d still have some serious issues with BLACK SWAN, but that said I’m sure you know as much as the next guy. If you know THE RED SHOES (as you do quite well) you’ve got a head start! Ha! For me, even Tchaikovsky and “Swan Lake” failed to warm me to the film, but I’ve been over this already I know. At least there was nominal improvement on a second viewing, but more in the way of components.
Yes, Samuel, if one doesn’t have FUN while watching films, well then it’s a poor investment of time. Mind you, both you and I are enriched and often ravished by the “serious” diet, but there must be some variety. Still, I agree with you that INVISIBLE INVADERS is a bust, I don’t think I can ever watch that one again!
I’ll take note what you say there about the “misogynist sting” of HUMAN DESIRE, when I see it in several weeks at the Film Forum during the Fritz Lang in Hollywood Festival. I haven’t seen Vincent Sherman’s film, or at least I don’t think I have. I can back you up that TARGET EARTH and THE 27TH were indeed “howlers,” though I haven’t seen PHANTOM FROM SPACE. I can mischieviously recommend to you TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE and ROBERT MONSTER! Ha! Those two might well make your own mini marathon look like a festival of esteemed cinema!
Thanks as always Samuel for brightening this thread immeasurably!
…and a Happy New Year!
Still haven’t seen The King’s Speech (I know, I know). Judging from the previews, the premise seems to be a sly, comic irony — that a monarchy’s tradition of impeccable locution, the entire legacy of tongue-tripping Brit oration has fallen to George VI, nicknamed Bertie the Stammerer. One has only to recall the history of Anglo mellifluence from readings of John of Gaunt to Churchill to the acid-tongued epigrams of George Sanders in “All about Eve” to imagine the comic possibilities of Bertie’s situation. I’m really looking forward to this one.
I did see the new Margarethe von Trotta, Visions: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen. My only acqaintance with the monastic life in novels or films is Diderot’s philosophical polemic La Religeuse and a vague memory of Ken Russell’s film of Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun, interpreted by Russell as an epileptic paroxysm, religious mania as performed by the inmates of some French Catholic Bedlam. The Devils isn’t worthy of contempt. La Religeuse, serious and austere, finds piteous beauty amid the horror of Jansenist self-denial and mortification in its story of a young nun cloistered against her will – the illegitimate child of cruel parents. The novel began as a hoax, based on the failed attempts of a real-life nun (Marguerite Delamarre) to renounce her vows, and as Diderot’s fiction grew, the nun’s plight gripped the author’s imagination, often moving him to tears as he wrote. Even as he fulminated against conventual confinement Diderot, an atheist, became susceptible to the pathos therein, stating “Does God, who made man a social animal, approve of his barring himself from the world?”
Claustrophobia and social isolation make the idea of the cloistered life repellent to most of us, I think.
This long-winded digression has a point: it explains why I was totally unprepared for von Trotta’s overwhelming new film about von Bingen, a Benedictine nun and Ur-feminist (anachronistic word, but it gets to the point) who claimed to have miraculous visions. I was expecting another illustration of Catholic purgatory, more tableaux of awful suffering.
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975), about a woman whose private life is flayed open by police and the media after her affair with a suspected terrorist, is the only von Trotta (codirected by Volker Schlondorff) that I’ve seen. So a predilection for exploring women’s lives seems the generative impulse of von Trotta’s art.
The very first shot of Vision, a large sun blazing in the heavens, sets the tone of religion’s ambiguities, its power to scorch and blind or to heal and illuminate and von Trotta, with her heroine, tends toward the latter. The scourgings and self-torture are disposed of quickly so that the film can settle into its theme, an earthbound drama between humans, with the Divine overseer omniscient in that immense, burning sky. Von Trotta presents belief and faith in the Almighty objectively, as a donnee from which an historical account of 12th century German cloistered life can begin. The agony of agnosticism, the faltering of faith, is eliminated so that the politics of the male-dominated Church can proceed, with Hildegard as antagonist. Monks and nuns coexist, endowing the film with its primary contretemps and, paradoxically some of its most beautiful sequences. The fate of a young nun who becomes pregnant is heart-wringing and exquisite. A papal dispensation, with the help of a wealthy countess, allows the sisters to break from the monastery and form a new convent and their pilgrimage through a forest is like a medieval banner unfurling. Pantheism and holistic healing, as introduced by von Bingen, are also braided into the film. And the oppressive walls of the convent seem to dissolve under von Bingen’s tutelage.
Barbara Sukowa plays Hildegard and she’s beyond praise, beautiful, sometimes fierce, other times softly pliant. It’s a magnificent performance. I haven’t fully digested this stunning film yet and plan to see it again. Highly recommended to everyone at WiTD.
Watched part of The Searchers on TCM and was again struck by Ford’s eye for composition, the way he moves or choreographs his actors around a single frame of film. How Wayne begins a 3-shot (with Qualen and Hunter) in reverse profile tight in left frame and ends in the middle background looking between Qualen and Hunter. What a master. Such a subtle way to keep a talky scene from growing static or dying. Ancient tragedy (Sophocles?) played out on the 19th century American frontier and as good as linear filmmaking gets.
Can you guess the Best Picture of 1956 as judged by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? Are you ready? Are you sitting down? Are you throwing up? Around the World in 80 Days, one of the biggest emissions of studio flatulence ever to win the Gilded Eunuch. Fifty stars (count ’em) in 50 cameos , so it must be Art. Jules Verne voguery swept Hollywood in the 50’s with 80 Days sandwiched between 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) with James Mason and Pat Boone (that’s not a typo). James Mason and Pat Boone!!! The sublime and the ridiculous. What do movie producers think when they cast these things?
The Searchers, Some Like It Hot, Funny Face, Singin’ in the Rain, High Noon, The Asphalt Jungle, Beat the Devil, Roman Holiday, Strangers on a Train, The Big Knife, Witness for the Prosecution, Touch of Evil. A couple of these are masterpieces. All are first-rate entertainment. None won the Best Picture prize.
Vertigo is missing because I don’t understand its high reputation. To me it seems weak, miscast and vaguely repellent. Hitch’s legendary disdain for actors in general and a growing obsession with cool blondes in particular led him to some real casting boners (O Freud!). Novak, luscious (and later Hedren, un-luscious) is simply a poor actress, self-conscious and torturous to watch as she tries for ethereal mystery. Hitch surely knew this after working with the likes of Olivier, Laughton, Grant, Judith Anderson, Dame May Whitty, Ethel Barrymore, etc. Yet Novak is forced (by Hitch) to grapple with a major role for which she is inadequate (even J. Stewart, beloved by me, is miscast, too old and sexless for erotic obsession). This disregard for the basic requisites of acting is pure cynicism with a whiff of sadism (apparently Hitch tormented Novak with take after take, which proves my point that he realized she hadn’t the acting chops). It’s the public humiliation of an actor done for the director’s private delectation and it’s cruel. Hitch did it to Novak and he did it to Hedren, with the added frisson of applying lots of Technicolor blood to Tippi’s blank face. I kept waiting for a woodpecker to make an appearance, providing The Birds with a dirty, little inside joke, more fodder for the acolytes, but none ever did.
The lip-smacking butchery of Janet Leigh in that Psycho shower is repulsive too because Hitch so obviously enjoyed it.
Much has been made of Psycho beginning in a desert and ending in a swamp, but this is just prima facie data. There is no Biblical allegory worked out, no wasteland out of Eliot. The lonely Bates mansion on the hill isn’t a Hopper or a Wyeth. It’s just a movieland haunted house built from the dusty B. Karloff horror blueprint.
To me, Psycho remains what it’s always been, a slick, technically ingenious slasher film, the granddaddy of them all, a phosphorous skull from an Elwin Peck Midnite Spook Party of the Depression era, cannily promoted by Universal’s PR department (“No one will be seated….”).
The thrill of the scream, the shiver up the spine, the fraying of nerves, the raising of gooseflesh, these are the motivators for Hitch. He isn’t a serious amoralist, a prober of desolation or a Freudian symbolist. He’s a technical wizard, a master hair-raiser. As debunkers of facile Freudianism used to say “sometimes a knife is just a knife.” Most cineastes, I know, think differently.
Yet I’m not entirely anti-Hitchcock. The Lady Vanishes, Notorious, Shadow of a Doubt are all sublime entertainment, fast, unpretentious and well-acted.
As for De Palma…well, to me he’s a commercial clevernik, semi-proficient in a variety of genres (thriller, gangster, war, social drama) but master of none, a director without a vision. After seeing a number of De Palma films I still don’t know who he is. That would be inconceivable when discussing Welles, Ford, Wilder, Hawks or Hitchcock.
Postscript: After rereading “Sister Carrie” I think I overreached the Dreiser-O’Hara analogy. Both Carrie and Appointment in Samarra are novels of determinism, but while Clyde Griffiths (American Tragedy) and C. Hurstwood (Carrie) both commit ‘crimes’, Julian English only commits the faux pas of violating social proprieties. Samarra’s milieu is upper middle-class throughout. Still, the remorselessness of fate grinds heavily through both novels. And the Coens are ripe for a film of Samarra. I see Gyllenhaal (Jake) as Julian English.
Later, guys and gals. I hope this long ramble makes sense.
Nice post, but I really just want to tackle the end,RE: Appointment in Samarra. It’s one of my favorite books, and one I’ve always wanted a proper film adaptation of, which you hint at here. Strangely enough I’d think someone like the Coen’s, would almost be dead wrong for it (sure they can be serious filmmakers, in something like SERIOUS MAN, or THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE, but there is always just a mischevious streak running through them that seems, at times, poking fun at the characters. I feel this would be counter-production to the films serious themes). I think Malick wanted to do the story a while ago, and could do it well, I also think David Gordon Green or Walt Stilman could use the story as their initial foray into large scale productions. Either Coppolla could also probably really nail the subject. (the mischevious streak in me would want Neil Labute to get back to the emotional intensity of his initial films and do it, or even better Todd Solondz)
And speaking of DePalma and ‘Appointment in Samarra’, it’s strange, but he does have a deep respect of the book. Watch his REDACTED, where a character in the film makes extensive use of the books opening story.
Oh hell yes, the Todd Solondz of “Happiness”! He’s perfect.
I just thought maybe the Coens of “Fargo”, which has a nice mix of darkness and poignancy, without all the arty apparatus of some of their work. They nailed the Gunderson marriage beautifully, maybe they could the Englishes.
And the way Julian ditches the flowers, and drinks his hootch straight out of a vase seems like a dark chord tailor-made for the Coens.
Sophia Coppola? Good choice too. Especially admired “The Virgin Suicides.”
Friend, someone has got to make “Appointment” into a film. Quick.
Haven’t seen “Redacted” but thanks to your mention I will now.
And a very Happy New Year to you Mark!
My apologies for the later-than-usual response to your submission here, but it’s more a case of respect for the depth and the time it will take to do it full justice. How coincidental that you mentioned LA RELIGEUSE just days before Allan pens an actual review of Rivette’s film! So on top of everything else in your rhetorical arsenal, you are now equiped to add clairvoyance to the mix as well! Ha! As I am penning this, I just saw that another comment from you just came in on last week’s Monday Morning Diary, and I am much obliged for those kind words about the site. I assure you Sir, the feeling is mutual. You have enriched this thread in a very big way week after week, and I love your all-but-the-kitchen-sink approach! You are obviously a man with much exposure in literature, philosophy and the arts, and your kind is most welcome here! And exceedingly appreciated! I enjoyed reading about your discussion of the ‘comic irony’ in THE KING’S SPEECH (and the comic possibilities in Bertie’s situation). I do think you nailed it, though for those suckers amongst us who always fall for patriotism a la England in the 1940’s, this kind of thing will work every time! That said though, Mssrs. Firth, Rush, Jacobi and the lovely Ms. Carter have all delivered mightily. Then there’s ‘Beethoven’s 7th’ and the always-ravishing Alexander Desplat, and some lovingly mounted period atmosphere, and a solid script that yields more than its share of humorous segments. I’m sure you’ll get to see it soon!
I never got to Ms. Von Trotta’s ‘Hildegard Von Bingen’, but it did run at the Film Forum and I came close, finally missing out because of a Festival running at the same time. The best film I have yet seen about monastic life came out a few years ago, and it was a documentary by Phillip Groning titled “Into Great Silence.” It was as slow and deliberate as any film ever made, but it makes you an active observational party to this nomadic lifestyle. This is the film here:
http://www.amazon.com/Into-Great-Silence-Two-Disc-Set/dp/B000OYNVOY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294434811&sr=8-1
Groning was refused by the ‘order’ for several years, but after it appeared there wasn’t any hope, permission was granted for him to move in with his camera crews. It’s a remarkable achievement in every sense, and it made my Ten Best list that year. Of course some will always bring up Powell & Pressberger’s masterpiece “Black Narcissus” in this discussion for obvious reasons.
In any case, your lengthy and brilliant analysis of that film is a singular accomplishment! You have just motivated me to see this film at first available opportunity, and I thank you for this fascinating treatment! And I also take note of what you say about Barbara Sukowa. I have owned the music CD for a while now, and I should have watched this during its Film Forum run (but was sidetracked by a festival at that time)
I must say I part company with you on VERTIGO, (which I see as one of the greatest of all American films and Hitchcock’s masterpiece) but I fully respect your position, and have come across some others who can’t see the adoration, even broaching some of the objections you pose here. I understand where you are coming from and it’s much more than just being contrarian. As far as your line-up of those others that lost the Oscar to AROUND THEE WORLD IN 80 DAYS you are quite right!!!! And I am laughing my ass off at the way you wrote it up too!!! I like the woodpecker comment in your discussion of THE BIRDS, and appreciate what you add there to the PSYCHO literature, though at the end of the day I love that film too. I also believe REAR WINDOW (voted Best Film of the 50’s in a WitD decade poll) to rank among Hitch’s masterpieces, but it’s fair enough that you cite the earlier films as favorites of yours.
I’m with you on De Palma though. He’s mostly a hack, though a few films sneak through (Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, Carrie) Just about all the rest is diposable. But to be fair many in the WitD fraternity are big fans of his, and will condemn my remarks.
I never read “Sister Carrie” but very much appreciate those insights. I did read “An American Tragedy,” but not this one.
You are quite a fascinating fellow my very good friend!
Thanks for the mention Sam, although you shouldn’t.
Aside from some old cartoons, the highlight of the week was re-watching “Being There.” A most amazing and creative film, among the best I’ve ever seen.
Cheers to one and all here!
Oh boy Michael, you bring up a film there that I have long-considered one of the very best of American comedies. The satire there is corrosive, and my brothers and I used to always repeat some of the lines of the film to each other!
“Short changed by the Lord and dumb as a jackass! It sure is a white man’s world!”
“You look so much smaller Mr. President on TV!”
“In the spring, the flowers bloom…………..”
It’s one of the best written screenplays by an American writer in the past 40 years.
Ha Michael, we do really need to converse about this film at length!
The best year ever to you in 2011 my very good friend!
I saw ‘Being There’ in a cinema in London the night that Peter Sellers had died, and everyone in the cinema got up and clapped at the end – I’ve always remembered that moment!
Oh my God, Judy, if that was me there I would have completely lost it. But I’m sure the eyes were awash there, and it’s a moment you’ll treasure for the rest of your life.
Sam! Happy New Year! May 2011 be a great year for us all, may it be a better year in all the senses (2010 was a bit lacking in many for me). But anyway, you have to keep moving and the best way to do so is thorugh family and friends.
Anyway, I had a week with a lot of activity, as I premiered the play in which I act, called ‘Cinema Utopia’, in which I play an old man that goes around with a rabbit (called Pomponio, but also Suflé out of the stage), so rehearsals were in order.
New Year’s Eve was at my other uncle´s house (i.e. this time, just one cousin, way older than me, i.e. less fun), but nevertheless we could watch the tail of some fireworks at midnight at the distance. Then, a bit of dancing, and at the next day, to my other branch of the family, lots of cousins, lots of fun and pool (yeahhhh).
Hope you had a great time, and you saw some cool flicks too! Blue Valentine, I’m curious, I’ll probably end up seeing it soon, but “Another Year” is the true delicious treat here, specially since it will play in a festival around here in some time.
You know I post my top 10 list around February, but I will post my current list when you post yours (and also an idea).
It may also be my weakest week movie wise, but still worth it, as it was but full of great discoveries, so I’ll say:
– Film Socialism (2010, Jean-Luc Godard) ****1/2 This was cinema. This isn’t cinema. This will be cinema. All of those are correct and wrong at the same time. While I can’t say I’m an expert in the socialist thinking, I’ll say it’s the one that’s closer to my mind set, specially economy-wise, in a world where market liberal economy has failed. Why the heck am I even talking about this if the movie doesn’t even mention this thinking… or does it?
– Carnival of Souls (1962, Herk Harvey) ****1/2 Splendid, moody, more on this tomorrow (yep, #2)
– Pinocchio (1940, Various Directors) **** I swore myself I hadn’t seen this movie, but apparently I had. More on this at my blog.
Today I danced and recorded, but this is part of the installment that you’ll see next week.
Bye Sam! Have a good time.
“Cinema Utopia” sounds like a wonderful production there Jaimie! I bet you did a fantastic job too! I’d love to hear more about that!!!
Yes, the New Year is always a hopeful time, for those especially who are looking for the breaks that didn’t quite go their way in the past. You’ve worked your tail off I know, at University, at home and with all your prolific and impassioned blogging. It’s been a real delight to make acquaintence with you, and we’ve been further enriched by your carry-over work for Wonders in the Dark! Yep, I will be posting my own List for this coming Monday over the Diary, and certainly you can reveal your own selections as well there!
I love the way you assess FILM SOCIALISM!!! Ha! I haven’t yet seen it, but it wouldn’t matter anyway as my rules are that a film MUST open in USA theatres in 2010. The Godard only showed at the New York Film Festival, which doesn’t count. Otherwise I would choose DOG POUND, which I saw at Tribeca, but won’t open for a few more months. Anyway, that’s great you saw it, and even greater were seemingly blown away.
I saw that second flattering piece up (CARNIVAL OF SOULS). You really sized that one up marvelously, and spoke too of that Criterion release!!!:
http://exodus8-2.blogspot.com/2011/01/sams-flick-picks-2-carnival-of-souls.html
Great that you saw PINOCCHIO now, and I’ll be stopping over to read that review you have up under the latest two posts!
Thanks so much Jaime, and a Happy New Year to you all!!!!
Sam I am sorry to see the stepping back of our “Movie Man” Joel Bocko yet I am pleased and excited for him that career advancement is the reason. In my experience people we connect with deeply keep connecting it is sometimes just in different ways. Loss is a sign of great appreciation. Your tribute tells this story well.
I have added THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELIKA to our must-watch-list.
Today the soft light of dawn creeps into my sleep. Waking I find the trees silhouetted against my dreams. I must get back to painting a large 3 x 4 foot oil painting of tree spirits in the mist. Best of the week to you Sam! Thanks for the shout out as always.
You are tackling another tree spirits oil, Terrell? Wow. The previous work on that front yielded some stunning canvases! And it looks like you got some added inspiration there as well.
Yes, as many on this thread have lamented over, Joel’s departure will be felt, though he has promised to make occasional appearances and keep the one long-running REMEMBERING THE MOVIES feature running at The Dancing Image. Those are very resonant words you offer up there is assessing the situation and I thank you for them!
Something tells me ANGELICA will be your kind of movie!
Many thanks my very good friend, and a fine week to you!
Thank you so much, Sam, for your continuing support and enthusiasm. It looks like you had the best best possible start to the year – 3 great films? Talk about the 11th hour. Can’t wait to see them.
I did catch up with TRUE GRIT and THE FIGHTER after I posted the list. Although neither of them makes makes it to the list, I liked both films, and O’Russell’s film a bit more. s
WitD has been a revelation for most of us, especially the depth and breadth of the discussions that crop up here. Irredeemable trash or unassailable art. This is _the_ place. A very happy new year to all the readers at WitD and a special thanks to the authors (especially Yin and Yang. Sorry Joel)
Cheers!
Ha JAFB! You have been a charter member here, and your combination of supreme erudition and dynamic personality add up to a wonderful person to know. Your generosity of spirit (and of action as well you know what I mean!) and your encouragement to so many bloggers have made you one of the shining lights in the blogosphere. At your own place, THE SEVENTH ART you have served up some of the VERY BEST REVIEWS anywhere, as I have reported at this site on a number of occasions. Your spirit and enthusiasm for cinema is infectious and anyone who is able to call you a ‘friend’ is a very lucky person indeed!
I am not surprised you like those two films and have kept them off the top ten as well. That’s just about right, though I personally like True Grit more. I can’t wait to hear what you say about:
The Strange Case of Angelika
Another Year
Blue Valentine
Many thanks my excellent friend!
Sorry for the late response Sam. My laptop took a nosedive and I have had to dust off my old desktop to get back on track, though I have no idea when I will be able to recover the essay I had lined up to be posted today.
How great to be able to see “Cluny Brown,” one of my favorite Lubitsch pictures. LACMA had a Lubitsch retrospective a few months back and I was lucky enough to see it then. I wish my apartment manager had the same passion for plumbing that Cluny did.
With the holidays, dissertation writing, and blog writing I have been super busy, but of course I was able to work in some movies. I saw:
-Another Year ***** Great movie.
-All Good Things **½ The first half is OK, but it falls apart after.
-The Illusionist ***½ A fine movie that might improve on repeated viewings, though I’m not sure it needed to be a feature.
-Blue Valentine ***½
Now the next few days will involve getting a new laptop, recovering the stuff I didn’t have backed up, and getting back running, which I haven’t done in about three weeks.
I hope everything is well with you, your family, your health, and everything else. Have a great week! And happy new year!
Many thanks Jason!
Yes, things are going reasonably well thank you. As we both know this is an exciting time of the year, and I see you have yourself had a great week. Your terrific review of ANOTHER YEAR sits in the lead position at MOVIES OVER MATTER, and I share your great passion for Mike Leigh’s newest film!:
http://moviesovermatter.com/2011/01/05/another-year/
As we discussed, I like BLUE VALENTINE more than you, but respect that you did find it mostly impressive. We went with the same rating with THE ILLUSIONIST, so let’s see what happens down the road with a second viewing. As far as ALL GOOD TTHINGS, I haven’t seen it but would expect what you conclude with here.
I hope you resolve those nagging PC issues!
Thanks so much my excellent friend!
Sam, Very sorry for my late reply.
Thanks Again for the link and comments to my post.
This has been another Mizoguchi week for me. “Miss Oyu (1951)” (a bit too self-indulgent), “Osaka Elegy (1936)” (perfect) , “The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)” (too perfect), and “The Water Magician (1933)” (imperfect, but my favorite). Actually, this is the first time I saw “The Water Magician” and it was a revelation. It is full of surprises, really. Flashbacks, rapid cuts, montages, and really exciting long takes. If you haven’t seen it yet, give it a try.
MI
Ah, don’t worry about being ‘late’ my friend; I am honored and grateful for the generosity on your part of stopping in as often as you do! This thread is meant in any case to go through the full week.
The Water Magician???
Wow. I adore Mizoguchi (the man who brought Allan and I together) but I’ve not seen this film! I am more than intrigued with you very high regard for it! I agree with what you say there about ‘Miss Oyo,’ and of course I have long been an impassioned fan of both ‘Late Chrysanthemums’ and ‘Osaka Elegy.” I did see the former with one of our site commenters (Kaleem Hasan) severla years ago at the Film Forum, but was disappointed with the condition of the print. Anyway, it’s a masterpiece. I’ll discuss “Water Magician” tomorrow with Allan!
Your continuing examination of Ozu’s THERE WAS A FATHER is a true inspiration to all cineastes, my very good friend!
http://vermillionandonenights.blogspot.com/2011/01/analysis-of-there-was-father-002400.html
Hey Sam, just checked the numbers on the site stats and if my math is correct, you crossed the 1,000,000th view mark exactly on Jan. 1, 2011 (you’re currently sitting at around 1,010,000 and if you deduct the views from each day, you wind up a 1 mil on that day). Happy New Year!
Joel, that impending milestone was actually brought to my attention several weeks ago by Stephen in an e mail to me! Stephen was actually figuring we would make a big splash here, but for some reason it then slipped my mind! Happy New Year indeed, that is something to be proud of, getting over a million page view in 28 months the site has been in operation. We have surely come a long way, and you my friend are a MAJOR reason. I won’t make a big deal out of it, lest we be seen as grand standing, and God knows we’ve done out share of that here. Time now for some humility, but an inner pride for the community that’s been built here!
1 MILLION hits? Congratulations to all of us!
Absolutely JAFB! The community is what made these numbers happen. I know it’s just stats, and in the long run they mean little, but for bloggers it’s a motivational boost and a confirmation that the views are being looked at!
Hi! Sam Juliano, Allan, and WitD readers…
Sam, I can see that the 4 films Blue Valentine, Another Year
and Ernst Lubitsch’s Cluny Brown that you watched all were very strong.
Especially, The Strange Case of Angelica…Which I knew it would be after reading your comment under the other post…
…By the way, I too want to take the time to wish Joel Bocko, success in his future endeavors and congratulate! you, on your 1,000,000…plus page hit(s) and your fascinating look at Marilyn Ferdinand, and Roderick Heath as part Of your blogger tribute.
Sam Juliano,
Thanks, for the mention…as usual.
DeeDee 😉 🙂
Yes indeed, Dee Dee, this was one of the strongest weeks of the entire year! I’d venture to say THE strongest in fact! To have two five star current releases with a 4 1/2 and then CLUNY BROWN to boot, I’d say yes it was a week to remember.
I’m sure Joel appreciates your kind words, and I must say the million page views was a community achievement, of which you yourself played quite a prominent role in. I’m not sure I now how it measures up to other movie sites (or any sites in general) but I would speculate it’s a reasonably very fine achievement. And, as I stated on the interview thread, it was one of those discussions that yielded great answers from exceptional people. That’s all it takes.
Many thanks my excellent friend!
Leigh is like fine wine. He is improving with age. If ‘Another Year’ is as good as ‘Happy Go Lucky’ then we can say his best work are his most recent films. Amazing.
Indeed David. VERA DRAKE and ANOTHER YEAR are my two favorite Leighs. I’d say:
1 Another Year
2 Vera Drake
3 Life is Sweet
4 Secrets and Lies
5 Happy Go Lucky
6 High Hopes
7 Naked
8 Topsy Turvy
9 All or Nothing
10 Career Girls
Hey Sam. Just getting around to reading the goings-on of everyone this week. Sad to hear that Joel is taking some time off from blogging — I hope to see him back soon as I love reading his posts. Glad to hear that Remembering the Movies is continuing, as it’s fun to browse through each weekend.
As for myself, after a busy holiday season, I tried to get back to some movie watching. I saw BLACK SWAN in the theater (***)and have the review up on my site.
Meanwhile, my wife and I watched INCEPTION (***1/2), EASY A (***1/2), SALT (****), and THE SOCIAL NETWORK (****1/2). I was shocked to find SALT the second best of that bunch and one of the better action movies I’ve seen in years. I do believe I may be overrating it a bit, but oh well, I had fun.
We also had a “family movie night” and watched TOY STORY 3. While not as enthralled with it as my daughter was (mouth either agape or exclaiming some sort of gibberish for much of the film while watching on our projector screen) I did like it, though I found it the lesser of the three films in the series. I still gave it **** though.
I just finished watching Bresson’s LES ANGES DU PECHE and have been rattling around some thoughts on it all day. Hope to have something written up for it by the end of tomorrow.
Hey Troy! I can well understand the hectic beginning to the new year, and am happy to hear that Madelyn was treated to TOY STORY 3. Yes, it apperas that Joel is getting toasted by just about everyone, and he deserves it. I am sure he’ll re-surface here and there, though I understand his working career is far more important. Yes, as long as the connection to REMEMBERING THE MOVIES is kept alive, the vital connection will him will be intact.
I will admit I am surprised you rate SALT that high, but I have read some other very favorable reviews of it from others I respect! You rate THE SOCIAL NETWORK very highly as well, though again this is a film that swept everyone off their feet. I concur with the rating on INCEPTION too.
I saw your great review of BLACK SWAN, which was less favorable than the one Kevin penned at HUGO STIGLITZ. But as may have picked up here, my sentiments are much closer to yours. I liked TOY STORY 3 the best of the trio, but I know sentiments on that are split. You were fair enough as far as I’m concered.
Many thanks my very good friend, and good luck with the Bresson series!! It will be great stuff!!!