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Hold on for just a little longer as SPC (Sony Pictures Classics) now officially have the rights for the film although no release date is set yet.Quote:
Originally posted by wpqx
I hope 2046 is happening soon, and they're not saving it for the actual year, lol. I think I might give up soon and just pick it up on DVD.
Picnic (1955) - Joshua Logan
I watched this simply because it was nominated for a best picture Oscar. Part of my seemingly neverending mission. The film itself was not that great, certainly not woth the Oscar nod. The casting was off, and Holden was a little old for this. I also was a little disturbed that the "smart" sister was so overlooked when she looked cuter than Kim Novak to me, but maybe intelligence is attractive to me, unlike most people, or at least the characters in the film.
The Strawberry Blonde (1941) - Raoul Walsh
Damn entertaining filmmaker from one of the all time greats. Walsh's film effortlessly bounces between comedy drama and romance, with the occasional rough house action thrown in the mix. It brilliantly shows the versatility of Walsh, and if the film is somewhat flawed in it's plot, it makes up for it in star presence particularly from Cagney. The two ladies in his life, played by Olivia de Havilland and Rita Hayworth also make a strong impressions in the film. Studio filmmaking at it's definitive.
Report on the Party and the Guests (1967) - Jan Nemec
Still waiting for a true masterpiece from the Czech New Wave, this film didn't really deliver. Perhaps it was because of the poor picture quality and hard to read subtitles, or perhaps the film is overrated, or perhaps I have some subliminal dislike towards all Czech films. Perhaps expectations run high when watching a film that was banned at one time. I know I must be missing something, as I completely missed the point of The Fireman's Ball. Still before I pass judgement on the whole movement I'm yet to see Diamonds in the Night. Honestly though I can't see what was so special about this film, it started off with a little promise, but the second half was just pointless, imo.
In NYC. If already seen some films. The best one was Schizo (Shiza), from Kazakhistan. I loved it and will write about it later. About a boy who has adventures, and comes out okay. It's a sort of picaresque taleIt's really well done. I also liked Gunner Palace, but not the material. The young American soldiers just seem like dupes to me. But this is a good alternative to what you get usually about Iraq and Americans there.
Yep, I liked Schizo quite a bit also; I wrote about it recently, hopefully you read it. As always, some great series are going on at Walter Reade right now including ND/NF, Swedish and African retros are coming soon along with one on legendary Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan.
I do hope that you watch a few more films (I'm not sure what you've seen exactly) before you pass judgement on the whole "wave." Jirí Menzel's Closely Watched Trains, Vera Chytilová Daisies, Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde, Ján Kádar's Adrift + his other efforts with Elmar Klos and many others deserve to be seen. It's truly amazing for a country this size (even though it was Czechoslovakia back then) to have produced so many talented filmmakers during the same time. Perhaps there aren't any common themes/ideas running through their efforts and thus it's hard to define them and their era but to me that only makes them more interesting to discover.Quote:
Originally posted by wpqx
Report on the Party and the Guests (1967) - Jan Nemec
Still waiting for a true masterpiece from the Czech New Wave, this film didn't really deliver... Still before I pass judgement on the whole movement I'm yet to see Diamonds in the Night.
What Price Hollywood? (1932)
An interesting early satire on Hollywood and its "residents," George Cukor’s What Price Hollywood? stars Lowell Sherman as an alcoholic director who ends up making a waitress (Constance Bennett) a star while his life spirals downward due to excess. The film received an Oscar nomination for "original" screenplay (here you go wpqx) and I must say deservingly so as this look behind the glamour seemed original and the darkly comic tone of its portrayals felt fresh. Producer David O. Selznick went on to make a lesser A Star is Born from the same material.
I didn't know you had written about Schizo. Now I see that you did. YOu get around. I hope it comes out to California. It's great. Very well done. The best rough crime adventure narrative I've seen since Blind Shaft and Mustapha is an appealing picaresque hero, junior grade.
I don't know if I can make it to any of the series you mention, but I'd like to see Darwin's Nightmare and L'Esquive. I hope Darwin's Nightmare will come to California too, but I will try to get a ticket to L'Esquive here if I can find one and it fits into my schedule of activities.
Saw What Price Hollywood, and I thought it was extremely weak. I preferred both the Selznick (William Wellman directred) and the Cukor version, a thousand times over. Ironically though this version was produced by Selznick and directed by Cukor, so go figure. I did enjoy Constance Bennett's performance, but found the rest weak. Early sound films typically suffered from a bunch of stage and silent actors unsure of how to act with dialogue. It plagues numerous films of the era, and I believe this is one of them.
I watched almost all of The Little Foxes (1941) yesterday. I was dismayed to discover that the last few minutes (not sure how many few minutes) were not on my tape. Furious anger insued and I'll have to wait for the film to be replayed on TCM in order to catch the exciting conclusion where I already know what happens. So far though the film is best for it's cinematography by Greg Toland who was fresh from his work on Citizen Kane. Oh and for you auteur proponents, William Wyler was the director.
1. Life With Father (1947) - Michael Curtiz
An absolutely fantastic film. Every so often I find a film that proves that I haven't seen everything good that Hollywood has to offer. This film may not be great art, but it is great entertainment, with a very remarkable cast. William Powell is the father in the story, and from the stories, there was clearly no other actor in the world even considered for the part. Irene Dunne lends her remarkable talents as the mother of the household, and she does an outstanding job. With the exception of the youngest child (who's unnecessarily irritating) the rest of the cast delivers first rate work. Accomodations to the extremely prolific Curtiz who handles this film just as easy as any other genre picture, and has his characteristic fast pace. One of the few films in recent memory that ended with me wanting more, actually craving a sequel. Goes to show there are a few lost gems out there.
2. The Knack and How to Get it (1965) - Richard Lester
American filmmaker Richard Lester made a name for himself in the 60's with a string of irreverant and artsy British films. Lester had the rare gift to make extravagent directorial moves and still have his pictures be popular. Fresh off of A Hard Day's Night and Help!, Lester made this picture. It is a characteristic of the New British Cinema (it's own miniature New Wave led by John Schlessinger's Billy Liar). The film mixes fantasy and reality, lots of quick cuts and always interesting uses of sound. Things don't make sense in this film, but unlike a strange parallel world were it seems right in the context of the picture, it just seems wierd here. I'm not gonna say the picture was fantastic, but it most certainly was interesting. I'm still looking forward to seeing How I Won the War (which I had, but found my tape only contained the first 30 minutes of it).
Schizo is scheduled to play in L.A. on April 1st and then it'll be at S.F. and Berkeley on April 22nd so that's certainly good news; hopefully it catches on.Quote:
Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I didn't know you had written about Schizo. Now I see that you did. YOu get around. I hope it comes out to California. It's great. Very well done. The best rough crime adventure narrative I've seen since Blind Shaft and Mustapha is an appealing picaresque hero, junior grade.
I don't know if I can make it to any of the series you mention, but I'd like to see Darwin's Nightmare and L'Esquive. I hope Darwin's Nightmare will come to California too, but I will try to get a ticket to L'Esquive here if I can find one and it fits into my schedule of activities.
Darwin's Nightmare certainly seems interesting (the "un-natural" Tanzanian disaster). There was a decent write-up on it in the Times recently. It plays today and tomorrow I think. Good news on L'esquive is that New Yorker film will release it in July (at least that's how it looks right now) so people who aren't able to get in at ND/NF will get a chance to see it later. Private, a film about Jewish soldiers invading a Palestinian home, is a film I want to see later this week; it's directed by an Italian. I'll try to make it there since we're on Spring Break right now. Another Italian film Certi Bambini was a critical favorite last year but it only plays this weekend.
I'd love to see the Wellman version for a better comparison. Selznick certainly exploited this idea as much as he could. I'll be watching With Nothing Sacred next week which I'm told has become somewhat of a classic even though it was considered a disaster when it was released, but then Selznick certainly made a few bucks with Gone With the Wind and Rebecca.Quote:
Originally posted by wpqx
Saw What Price Hollywood, and I thought it was extremely weak. I preferred both the Selznick (William Wellman directred) and the Cukor version, a thousand times over. Ironically though this version was produced by Selznick and directed by Cukor, so go figure. I did enjoy Constance Bennett's performance, but found the rest weak. Early sound films typically suffered from a bunch of stage and silent actors unsure of how to act with dialogue. It plagues numerous films of the era, and I believe this is one of them.
Paths of Glory was shown on a local TV station under the heading "Saturday Night at the Movies".
They pick two films and then show interviews with cast members.
Paths of Glory was shown with Edmund Goulding's The Dawn Patrol- a great double feature.
They had interviews with Kirk Douglas, Richard Anderson and a film historian I'd never heard of (they noted that he is since deceased). Kirk of course complains about Kubrick NOT being a writer yet praises him as a great director "every film he directed was excellent" and the half-hour analysis of the film was good: "Kubrick's Glory". Why it's not included on the DVD is a mystery.
They show how Kubrick decided to shoot the trial scene with the camera behind the "authorities" to show prosecution and the camera behind the men on trial to show defence.
Those French Cowards!!
If they won't face German bullets then they'll face French ones!!!
Kagemusha (1980) - Akira Kurosawa
I just got this DVD yesterday, and was quite psyched to watch it. Maybe I was too tired, but I started getting a little heavy eyed as it progressed. I started to forget who's army was attacking who, and what the hell the point of the film was in the first place. Visually I will still admire the film, but before I start heaping gobs and gobs of praise on it, I might need to get a closer look at it.