Being in the hospital has allowed me to get acquainted with Turner Classic Movies, and it has been WONDERFUL.
This thread will be about what I see/have seen.
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Being in the hospital has allowed me to get acquainted with Turner Classic Movies, and it has been WONDERFUL.
This thread will be about what I see/have seen.
I discovered my new favourite cult film (after clockwork orange):
THE OMEGA MAN
It stars Charlton Heston as Jesus, post-pandemic 1977, which blew my mind.
I got to see Tod Browning’s THE UNKNOWN, my new favourite silent film.
Lon Chaney and a gorgeous Young Joan Crawford....what more can you ask for??
Both would be new to me.
I avoided THE OMEGA MAN, but then I eagerly went out to see I AM LEGEND.
I hope you are doing great Jason. I think it's wonderful that you enjoyed TCM, especially with these movies; i'm especially fond of THE UNKNOWN. The gothic romance is so compelling, so moving. I love Browning's "Freaks" just a bit more. I have been watching a lot of films from the late 60s and early 70s that Kino Lobber has released on Bluray in the past few years. It's an interesting time in film history. The sound design of early 70s films like "The Omega Man' is much more sophisticated than 60s films because of Dolby noise reduction systems; there's also the effort to attract a younger crowd after Hollywood failed to keep up with baby boomers and the counter-culture in the 60s.
Of course Heston doesn’t play Jesus literally, just metaphorically.
He has the only vaccine, so he is like God to those who need it.
The movie is haunting and unpredictable, and his character says “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore...”, referring to Woodstock, a doc about “Peace and �� Love”...
As for The Unknown, wow.
I hear you about Freaks Oscar...it is superior and also directed by Tod Browning.
I was enthralled watching it. I saw where Jack Nicholson got his huge grin in Batman: from Lon Chaney.
The Unknown is a perfect silent film, and I recommend it to anybody.
I saw the version with the Alloy Orchestra score, which was stellar.
I have seen many movies on TCM.
Some of them are: A Star Is Born- excellent performance from Judy Garland!
Casablanca- saw it twice on TCM- a perfect movie if there ever was one.
Lawrence of Arabia- stunning epic.
Three masterpieces from Powell & Pressburger: (I Know Where I’m Going, The Red Shoes, and
Black Narcissus). All three are amazing must-see films.
The Great Escape. Just see it.
Glory- awesome war flick.
The Brain that Would Not Die- B-grade horror that revealed to me where Kubrick got inspiration for The Shining. The movie has the line All work and no play makes the Doctor a dull boy!.
It also has the line Does my Horror match Yours?.
I got to see 2 Kubrick masterpieces as well: LOLITA and 2001.
TCM is the film buff’s friend...
I love the Fitzpatrick travel films and the OUR GANG (Little Rascals) shorts they show from time to time on TCM.
I also love the hosts and their various programs. They all know their stuff.
Saw this great "Essential" film last night on TCM.
Directed by George Stevens, starring Cary Grant and based on a Rudyard Kipling poem, this was a revelation.
Outstanding cinematography, superb editing and action, action, Action! make this one a must-see.
This movie slipped by me- never saw in my 45 years on earth, and praise goes to TCM for showcasing it.
It's a "Regimental" movie, and it deals with the idea of what makes a soldier, during Britain's colonial rule.
Other movies I've seen on TCM this year:
Anatomy of a Murder- Brilliant Otto Preminger film, with incredible ensemble acting.
Gidget- cute Sandra Dee movie. If you were wondering where Tarantino got "Big Kahuna" from, it was Gidget. lol
M.- the Joseph Losey remake, not the Fritz Lang. Creepy creepy flick, Mang...
Edge of the City- awesome Sidney Poitier/John Cassavetes drama.
THE GREEN BERETS-a shitty John Wayne vietnam flick- too premature!!
Easter Parade- dazzling confection of a movie, with stunning dance numbers, starring Judy Garland & Fred Astaire.
and
The Wizard of Oz- one of my favorite movies from MGM.
I've written about this masterpiece before on this website, and I saw it again this past Sunday night, as part of the "Sunday Night Silents" series hosted by the refined Jacqueline Stewart.
Directed by the amazing Dziga Vertov (name translated means "Spinning Top"), this is a dizzying tour de force of a silent.
With help editing from his wife, this 6-reel marvel showcases everyday life in the 1920's soviet union, and has no peers.
Vertov insisted that cinema be drawn from real life, NO SCRIPT!, and man did he ever make his case!
The 2014 score by the Alloy Orchestra lifts the film up too, with thrilling results. If you love movies, you simply can't miss this one.
Yet more treasure I've seen on TCM this year:
4 with Marlon Brando in his Prime: (Julius Caesar, A Streetcar Named Desire, On The Waterfront, & Sayonara).
Godzilla- the original Japanese. (AND BEST!)
Peter Bogdanovich's Nickelodeon- entertaining flop with Ryan O'Neal and Burt Reynolds.
Frankie & Johnny and Blue Hawaii 2 awesome Elvis Presley flicks.
and today I saw an MGM treat: NEW MOON (1940), a great Hammerstein musical starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.
This movie had everything I love about MGM in it: gorgeous stars, fantasy premise, stunning singing and regal opulence.
Tomorrow night we get to see REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE!!!
Thanks for these, Johann. I like what you say about Man with a Movie Camera, couldn't find your previous FilmLeaf comments on it.
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/mAn2.jpg
Your current mention of it prompted me to watch it. I had not seen it for a long time. The wife's editing certainly is key. It's fascinating how the cameraman appears in somewhat dangerous positions, like a stunt camera, all very influential. A Google search brings: "pushed the boundaries of cinematic visual language and opened up the world of filmmaking." That's drawn from a 2018 online article by Zita Whalley. I had an inkling of the "constructivist" origins of Vertov's style she mentions (I thought of Italian Futurism)-I'm more of a Surprematist myself, being a huge fan of Malevich! The constructivists (like the futurists) celebrated industry and the mechanical, the suprematists celebrated the pure aesthetic, hence Malevich's white-on-white paintings and his sublime rectangles.Quote:
The film emerged out of the Constructivist art movement of the early 20th century. This school of thought believed art should reflect the modern, industrialized world and should serve the greater, collective good. As a movement that embraced the future, Constructivism welcomed technology and pushed design and artistic boundaries.
Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy is my idea of hell.
Saw Brando's Julius Caesar with my father, who taught Shakespeare and I think he loved it. Brando made Shakespeare wonderfully contemporary. How did it hold up?
Don't think I knew about the Joseph Losey 'M.'
You are providing a lot of interesting references.
In some ways the early part of Man with a Movie Camera fixed images anticipates much later American street photography.
I appreciate Losey's collaborations with Harold Pinter. I became a huge fan of THE SERVANT, which I first saw when it was new in Cairo, a sparsely populated cinema, with subtitles in French and Arabic, and I am sure I was the only person who appreciated the dry humor. It's a haunting, definitive film. To a lesser extent I like ACCIDENT. I recently saw MR. KLEIN for the first time and it's an interesting film, another surprising Alain Delon role. We initially saw him only as the world's most beautiful male actor, as he is in PURPLE NOON. And he was, and that's a very, very cool movie. https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1446362...&ref_=nm_ov_vi
Later I saw LE SAMOURAI, by the great Jean-Pierre Melville. But I digress...
Thanks Chris for more context- its always welcome.
I laughed when you said MacDonald & Eddy are hell...I know what you mean, but NEW MOON was a treat.
The Joe Losey was about a child killer, and the actor playing him really pulled off his inner psychopath...
The Brando Julius Caesar holds up, he's stern and Stoic. John Gielgud & James Mason provide solid support.
I saw two "SPOTLIGHT ON JAZZ" classics last night- Roman Polanski's debut feature Knife in the Water and Louis Malle's ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS.
Both were fantastic, with great jazz scores. The Malle had Miles Davis for a score!!!
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/nsiv.jpg
Thanks for all those comments. As I recall Miles improvised the score watching the film, and the score is better than the not-so-great Louis Malle debut (despite Jeanne Moreau looking sexy walking around). Richard Brody wrote in The New Yorker about how the same material, many moments, went directly into Jean-Luc Godard's far more iconic Breathless, which also has a nice jazz piano score; Godard had collaborated on the plot for Elevator. You can see this improvising and read about it here: CLICK. It mentions the jazz score by the MJQ for Roger Vadim's Does One Ever Know (One Never Knows, Sait-on jamais) more known as No Sun in Venice. I saw that movie at the time, got the album, and have loved it all my life. It's a wonderfully suave, singin', cool MJQ sound. Listen to the album on YouTubE: NO SUN IN VENICE. I say without reservation: this soundtrack/album is a masterpiece.
yes, Great stuff Chris!
you can find my previous writing on MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA here:
http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.p...-Camera-(1929)
Thanks, and thanks for the link.
The Louis Malle was not-so-great due to the silly premise, but I still thought it was fantastic.
When he gets locked inside the elevator I said aloud: "Ooh this is gonna get interesting!"-- and it did. A murder plot within a murder plot!
I felt it was silly that he left his grappling hook at the scene. Some hitman!
The Polanski debut was well-shot and taut- you never quite know where the story leads, with a nice twist (of the knife?!) at the end.
Just watched this James Dean classic. Not bad.
He turns in a compelling performance. Nice to see a really young Dennis Hopper and classic 50's cars!
I like Malle's THE LOVERS (though it might seem corny, so romantic and great use of baroque music)
GOODBYE, CHILDREN/AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS deeply moving WWII story from personal experience.
LACOMBE, LUCIEN which now I connect to Georges Siminon's "roman dur" La neige était sale/The snow was Dirty
and others. NOT MY DINNER WITH ANDRE. That was a A/O.
It's a mixed bag, Malle's filmography.
Can't remember REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. James Dean is the classic brilliant, doomed young actor. My heart is with River Phoenix.
Just saw this enchanting masterpiece from Powell and Pressburger, part of TCM's "The Essentials" series with Mank & director Brad Bird.
I'd never seen this one before, and now it's a favorite.
David Niven plays Peter Carter, an RAF bomber squadron commander in WWII who gets shot down and jumps from his Lancaster with no parachute.
He should die, right?
You would think so, and this movie explores how and why he didn't, with color sequences showing Earth and black & white showing Heaven. (or "the Afterlife")
Kim Hunter plays a beautiful American girl who talks with Peter over the radio in his final moments and they fall in love, without meeting.
Peter is visited by a dandy French spirit guide who figures prominently.
Long story short, he goes to an eternal "court" where his fate is decided. This part blew me away- what vision and bravado by Powell & Pressburger!
The defence and prosecution deftly battle it out, and Love Triumphs. (and why Shouldn't it?)
See it. It is a Special film from 2 of the biggest names in movie history.
"Hello Baby...C'Mon Baby...Look Baby...Goodbye Baby..."
This is a must-see film.
Excellent movie, with snappy Raymond Chandler dialogue.
Fred MacMurray stars as Walter Neff, an insurance salesman who falls for a married woman (Barbara Stanwyck) who wants to kill her husband for the insurance money.
Walter is smart and he knows better, but Love is blind. He hatches an elaborate plan to "Get the Money and Get the Girl"...
He's even gonna attempt to get double the money, with a double indemnity clause in the policy.
Problems arise in the execution of the plan, not least of which from Lola, Stanwyck's step-daughter and Walter's boss Keyes. (Played by Edward G. Robinson)
See it.
It's one of the must-see classics.
Directed by cinema legend Sam Fuller, this is one gritty slice of film noir.
Tolly Devlin (Cliff Robertson- "The Big Kahuna" in Gidget) is 14 when he witnesses his dad get beaten to death by 4 thugs.
He's no "Fink", so he vows that he'll find them and mete Justice out personally.
And he does, some 20 years later.
Dolores Dorn is his pretty love interest Cuddles, and his mother figures prominently with juicy scenes.
"NOIR ALLEY" TCM host Eddie Muller called it Fuller's signature "Smash-Mouth Cinema", and it was.
I loved it. Movies like this are why I watch TCM!
It's Billy Wilder day today on TCM, and it's awesome.
This is Marilyn Monroe in her prime, at her most playful, funny and innocent.
She plays "THE GIRL", and who else can? There's a great in-joke where Tom Ewell says he's got Marilyn Monroe in his kitchen.
This is a funny movie, and my second favorite starring Monroe. (After BUS STOP).
Tommy sends his wife and son off for a vacation from NYC and he "meets" the Girl after she almost kills him with a tomato plant from the floor above his.
He invites her for a drink, and comedy ensues for the rest of the picture.
The famous dress Marilyn wears in the subway grate scene sold for $5.5 Million in 2011!!!
I gotta be honest, the only selling point of this one is Marilyn Monroe.
I know that this film is revered as a classic, but I don't really like it.
Who wants to see Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in ridiculous drag for a whole movie?
Lemmon is over-acting to cartoonish levels and Curtis seemed too comfy in drag for comfort.
They play two loser musicians who dress in drag to avoid the mafia after witnessing a gangland murder spree.
They get a job in Florida as women musicians where they meet "Sugar", (Marilyn)- a ukelele-playing Lush.
Slapstick cornball Non-hilarity ensues...I found this flick tiresome, save for the 2 songs Marilyn sings.
I'm amazed at how this movie gets tons of praise. It's a stinker in my view.
Why did they like it so much? Would real drag queens like it?
I guess a matter of individual taste. But It never seemed funny to me either. I'm watching A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, by the way. Powell and Pressberger are unbeatable.
I'm not sure why they like it so much- it's definitely a matter of taste- I found little humour in it, but others may find it hilarious.
I don't think a bottle of vermouth would make it any funnier to me. I'd be curious to know what real drag queens think.
No one in the movie (besides the gangsters hunting them) thinks they're anything but women!
Very cool that you're checking out A Matter of Life and Death---that one is still on my mind. It's Magical.
Jack Cardiff's dreamlike cinematography is legendary. Did you know his own breath was breathed onto the lens to fog it up?
Jack Lemmon was far more toned down for Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT, a great classic film.
Shirley MacLaine is gorgeous as the elevator girl eternally looking for love.
Fred MacMurray is back with Wilder, as Lemmon's boss Mr. Sheldrake.
The story is simple: Jack is C.C. Baxter, a hardworking "company man" trying to get ahead at a massive company.
He loans out his apartment to co-workers as favors, and the boss catches wind of it. Sheldrake wants in, as he constantly needs cover for his numerous affairs.
He promotes Baxter, and a love triangle gets exposed-Sheldrake is seeing the elevator girl (who Baxter likes) but his divorce has yet to be finalized.
In the end Baxter sticks it to his boss and forfeits his job.
Little does he know that elevator girl loves him too, after realizing what a sweet, kind guy he is.
A great little christmas holiday movie, where the nice guy finishes First.
Your thumbnail descriptions/reviews of classics are now honed more and more to perfection, if they might not yet quite compete with Pauline Kael's ones (that listing doesn't seem to include THE APARTMENT, which some high-toned critics scorned at the time). A Guardian writer reassesses rather favorably Andrew Sarris's putting Billy Wilder in his "Less Than Meets the Eye" category. But that's as a director - considering all the stuff he wrote or co-wrote, he meets the eye. Who would you compare Jack Lemmon to today?
A rich dude (Keenan Wynne) wants to prove that teenagers are no different from apes.
That's all the "plot" you need for this incredibly silly movie.
I was entertained, but only in terms of how cheesy and off-the-charts cartoonish this is.
Frankie Avalon pulls off two roles here, as himself and as an archetype for a Beatle named "Potato Bug"-you have to see him to believe him.
Annette Funicello is cute, and sings a cute song "This time it's Love".
Guest stars include Stevie Wonder, Boris Karloff and Don Rickles.
Have a few beers or get stoned and you will laugh I'm sure...
You seem to be lowering your standards, but maybe this is a good time for silliness.
I however (seeing it's in Mike D'Angelo's 2019 Top Ten List) want to carry on watching Casey Afflecks LIGHT OF MY LIFE, which is about a man and his young kid surviving a pandemic that has wiped out the earth. It may be timely. It's free with Amazon Prime.I seem to have started it earlier and left it after 4 minutes.Quote:
In a bleak future where women have been wiped out by a deadly plague, a forlorn man and his young daughter, disguised as a boy, make their way through the wilderness.-AO Scott, NYTimes.
I am still getting new movies to watch and I have reviews coming here when they come out in July ofQuote:
THE OUTPOST (Afghan war thriller, good)
RELIC (classy horror flick)
THE CLIMB (nice, funny feature debut)
HOUSE OF HUMMINGBIRD (sensitive Korean coming-of-age film)
NOSE TO TAIL (drama about a chef)
THE MEDICINE (doc about ayahuasca)
JOHN LEWIS-GOOD TROUBLE (doc about the veteran congressman and pioneer civil rights fighter)
wWE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES (busy, clever Japanese youth film)
and
THE PAINTED BIRD (a film in black and white from the famous Jerzy Kozinski novel of the sixties)
- not in chronological order.
I'm wiling to watch almost anything, but the last two days have been weak for TCM in my view.
I saw Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini-talk about lowering standards!
Both had Buster Keaton as a guest-star!!! Inconceivable.
I'm jealous of your film consumption Chris.
Thanks for comparing me to Kael- no one can reach her level, can they?
Today's Jack Lemmon? Hmm.
Maybe Steve Carrell?
I see, it's Tcm that's lowering its standards - you're just sticking with them.
Well, you can't drink first growth bordeaux every day. You definitely cannot.
Somehow at the time Jack Lemmon meant more than Steve Carell, but a good choice.
The curated schedule for TCM is unpredictable-they have classics dotting a shit-ton of other movies with varying degrees of interest.
I admit I cherry-pick what I see but I'm open to almost anything.
Tomorrow I've earmarked The Maltese Falcon and Fritz Lang's M.
Saturday is the original King Kong and Jules Dassin's Brute Force.
Sounds like a classic weekend. Don't know BRUTE FORCE but it looks good. Eight years later Dassin was to make the French noir classic RIFIFI with the famous wordless 20-minute burglary sequence. Greatness.
The Blues is a pain in your Heart...
Fantastic and timely film, considering the issue of race in America.
Diana Ross gives an Oscar-caliber performance as jazz legend Billie Holiday.
She can act, boy. I'd only ever seen her in The Wiz, which was underwhelming to me.
But here she proves she has the acting goods. We knew she was a mesmerizing singer for the Supremes, but here she really grabs you.
Billy Dee Williams shines as her love interest Louis MacKay, and he's also the best dressed! Wow are his suits amazing in this!
Richard Pryor also provides great support, proving he can act too, not just do comedy.
This film shows us Billie in totem:
early beginnings, getting noticed, experiencing racism first-hand (singing "Strange Fruit" after seeing a black man lynched was powerful), her brutal heroin addiction, her rocky relationships, and ultimately getting to play Carnegie Hall in New York.
This film should turn you into a Billie Holiday fan, if you weren't one already.
Part of the "SPOTLIGHT ON JAZZ" series with TCM host Eddie Muller, this is a must-see.
I remember how much this one shook me up. It would be worth revisiting that experience and see how it feels now.
Forgot Richard Pryer was in it. Rather incredible cast. Black masters.
But the NYTimes review said it was a dreadful movie, with a marvelous lead performance. I think I may have hated myself by being so moved by it. But I was.
Dreadful movie? Only to those who are uncomfortable with the truth...
This is a bio-pic, and fairly accurate from what I can gather.
It has disturbing scenes (intense KKK rally, Billie's drug abuse, ends with Pryor's murder, etc.) but none of that dims her singing light, which shines really bright.
Let's talk about the Black Bird...
Based on the Dashiell Hammett novel, this was John Huston's directorial debut.
Starring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, P.I., it's a great mystery movie.
The plot involves a woman suspected of murder, possibly three, including Sam's detective partner.
All in the name of a special totem: The Maltese Falcon, a high-value carved hawk encrusted with precious jewels.
But the falcon isn't what it seems, and neither is any "Lead" in this movie...byzantine twists and turns until Spade uncovers Ultimate truth.
Co-starring Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, this one is a thing of beauty.
It was great to see what Fritz Lang was up to after Metropolis.
Peter Lorre made a name for himself playing child killer Beckert.
Common criminals are recruited to track down the elusive killer, as the police pulled out all stops and came up empty.
Nice to see early 30's Germany, and this film was interestingly shot.
It doesn't reach boiling point until the very end, where Justice gets served.
I couldn't help but compare it to the Joe Losey re-make which was well done.
Stark & Creepy flick.