tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90778328918102308702024-03-26T23:36:31.767-07:00My World of FilmDavid Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.comBlogger153125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-5179400563842059792024-03-08T15:15:00.000-08:002024-03-08T15:15:36.655-08:002024 Academy Award Preview<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz6BB_XEynM7VWmf-TjYsZQoNhCbt1gn25EcYYJ6omvwIduGErV0j_2uXpEVIePsQT38JDQxbyA5ASVau_V-5EFcPW_aDByQq4zBsE53HcWVgfbH15mBWMuAXhDlx-6Iqh5s1wiSplU7n1xRrKAxE4hOEDpdf_pQzCrPWOcGYZn6ZoYwynaxToCntLyaYD/s681/image002.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="681" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz6BB_XEynM7VWmf-TjYsZQoNhCbt1gn25EcYYJ6omvwIduGErV0j_2uXpEVIePsQT38JDQxbyA5ASVau_V-5EFcPW_aDByQq4zBsE53HcWVgfbH15mBWMuAXhDlx-6Iqh5s1wiSplU7n1xRrKAxE4hOEDpdf_pQzCrPWOcGYZn6ZoYwynaxToCntLyaYD/s320/image002.webp" width="320" /></a></div><p><br />Despite this being the earliest I saw all the major nominees, I have almost forgotten to write down my thoughts on the nominees. So consider this the only important Oscar preview you need to read, keeping it going for the 13th(?) consecutive year.<br /><br />So I will add a few caveats to this preview and what I watched or didn’t watch. I am flying blind on the short films nominees (not uncommon). I also oddly haven’t caught any of the documentary nominees this year. I will probably eventually check out a few so don’t look here for the breakdown on the non-fiction side.<br /><br />We should also take a moment to laugh because Diane Warren got another nomination for a film no one saw. I’m sure a couple people saw they were making a flaming hot Cheeto movie and thought “Yo”, but I would wager even if you did sit through it you probably didn’t remember there was an original song in it. Keep trying Diane, I’m sure they will jokingly nominate you next year for something else no one ever heard of. The funniest Oscar streak will continue. Dua Lipa deserved that nomination.<br /><br />The International Film category seems strong this year. Io Capitano is the only nominee I didn’t get to see (I think it actually is playing at one screen but probably won’t catch it). I did not care for Society of the Snow but I seem to be in the minority with that one. Perfect Days was great even if there wasn’t much of a plot. Speaking of not much of a plot, Zone of Interest looks to continue the trend of winning this category if it has a best picture nomination. The Teacher’s Lounge was fine btw, I’m sure if you actually were a teacher it would hit a little harder.<br /><br /><b>Best Supporting Actress</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk_sW-ulniuxVklpPrjRw6MtkT2gCpjQejgJMobz31115kCL6BMWenBNhOpXAlALttJXiu0u19lpvZe79UErGRgL8oYscaQW7rnOhSPx65QAZ50paM_NDqXb4WV2bRyXnYYTaOQnPukwhRpn3UDgwg7I47yS8aKa5j3VuH3C4OZYXZqeamWMlW4t1Hdl1I/s1566/231029-holdovers-tease_c8nie7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="881" data-original-width="1566" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk_sW-ulniuxVklpPrjRw6MtkT2gCpjQejgJMobz31115kCL6BMWenBNhOpXAlALttJXiu0u19lpvZe79UErGRgL8oYscaQW7rnOhSPx65QAZ50paM_NDqXb4WV2bRyXnYYTaOQnPukwhRpn3UDgwg7I47yS8aKa5j3VuH3C4OZYXZqeamWMlW4t1Hdl1I/s320/231029-holdovers-tease_c8nie7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>I did not see The Color Purple because you can’t make me. Danielle Brooks I’m sure is great but I am definitely not the demographic for that movie and I don’t even like the Spielbergo version. Da’vine Joy Randolph has about a 500% chance of winning for The Holdovers so the others certainly seem to be in the happy to be nominated category. Good for Jodie Foster popping back up for another nomination. Beyond Randolph I don’t even know who has the second best chance of winning.<br /><br /><b>Best Supporting Actor</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBLvb0Kabvs5e0HtfVIafPZqKt-ObVDhUQF1dhsxEa7Qifnfu2ZKAXCnhAkB-jyAFtLY8MzuEwCqgzvZXTidSxhoXI1XiSLue3VtWMFOxrll7qnllK7gZNtmeZ6i-2ZSVaO0VQWUnFlYbm-gukxKMq1gTK40L-o9GBfasisTlim0JPL-f67nEAEC2q2a9p/s1486/ca-times.brightspotcdn.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="991" data-original-width="1486" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBLvb0Kabvs5e0HtfVIafPZqKt-ObVDhUQF1dhsxEa7Qifnfu2ZKAXCnhAkB-jyAFtLY8MzuEwCqgzvZXTidSxhoXI1XiSLue3VtWMFOxrll7qnllK7gZNtmeZ6i-2ZSVaO0VQWUnFlYbm-gukxKMq1gTK40L-o9GBfasisTlim0JPL-f67nEAEC2q2a9p/s320/ca-times.brightspotcdn.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>One of the rare categories that I had completed before the nominees were announced. I know I am incredible. Ryan Gosling may have garnered headlines for getting nominated while Margot Robbie was shut out. However he was damn entertaining and probably won’t win anyways. Robert DeNiro got another late career nomination at the tender age of 80. Sterling K Brown was great in American Fiction and had no business being that ripped. In a better world Mark Ruffalo would get the gold for his fantastic turn in Poor Things, but all conventional wisdom seems to point to RDJ. It is his Oscar to lose, and in a movie with a lot of men yelling in rooms, he certainly did yelling in rooms.<br /><br /><b>Best Actress</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyExBTnIBTykiyA134j_zy7Mwt24kt60UaatFjpg8zS85fqEVjjPyCeSTyaidQFQVs9OlXWG2Jl4zxkGLca8PfG6V0eiivpdeMTXSQXX207P_-ffiS1wtbbwYwaYKTklDCCOqilY3q6pjXHUGXpUJhL1HylEc-Zr6GCxUF4H4YzEvp64reYMFiYKDhZdMA/s1296/Killers-of-the-Flower-Moon-Still-Gladstone-Everett-MCDKIOF_PA009-H-2024.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="1296" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyExBTnIBTykiyA134j_zy7Mwt24kt60UaatFjpg8zS85fqEVjjPyCeSTyaidQFQVs9OlXWG2Jl4zxkGLca8PfG6V0eiivpdeMTXSQXX207P_-ffiS1wtbbwYwaYKTklDCCOqilY3q6pjXHUGXpUJhL1HylEc-Zr6GCxUF4H4YzEvp64reYMFiYKDhZdMA/s320/Killers-of-the-Flower-Moon-Still-Gladstone-Everett-MCDKIOF_PA009-H-2024.webp" width="320" /></a></div><p>We should all be thankful to live in a world where Annette Benning can lose another Oscar. Nyad sure was exactly what you thought it was. Will anyone remember her performance or will they remember Robbie as Barbie? That isn’t a rhetorical question, there is an answer. It wouldn’t be the first time the Academy nominated a rarely seen performance that will never be discussed the week after the ceremony. Hell there are a few winners no one remembers. Did you know Alicia Vikander won an Oscar? Did you know it was for a film allegedly named The Danish Girl? I actually had to Google what she won for, and that was in 2016. Who can forget Youn Yuh-jung for Minari? Sorry sarcasm is hard to convey. I saw that movie and I didn’t even remember she won. <br /><br />Anyways I keep discussing supporting actresses and there are plenty of performances that win the big one we forget about. Not necessarily bad performances but I’m sure the re-watch value is through the roof on films like Room, Still Alice, and Judy. This year however the award seems to be tailor made for Lily Gladstone. Not to say she doesn’t deserve it but the Academy members might pull a muscle patting themselves on the back that hard for honoring a native American performer. Trust me it will get mentioned *pause for applause* several times. I would love to see Emma Stone as a more legitimate competitor because god damn was she excellent in Poor Things. I hated everything about Maestro although Mulligan was good I guess. Sandra Huller appeared in two best picture nominees this year and it’s nice to see her recognized (although in a better world she would have been nominated/won for Toni Erdmann).<br /><br /><b>Best Actor</b></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFYVs96SQqcaJjIhA4nNQKnupkiNvU5sPXijLdmCleAQsEbcGxOcFXeqgGBCXvH2ZuRWZqnVUOEBc2KB1b1ty9h0YYc8S_ItVjxi3musOpznDVSH-yUomNxWoEu1h9PkZpjoPcX5MLvk8Fu04M6F0F5VhiVAMP24g6d5xFeTJdZ5G0ZIss1_QXWovlenhj/s990/oppenheimer-copy.webp"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="990" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFYVs96SQqcaJjIhA4nNQKnupkiNvU5sPXijLdmCleAQsEbcGxOcFXeqgGBCXvH2ZuRWZqnVUOEBc2KB1b1ty9h0YYc8S_ItVjxi3musOpznDVSH-yUomNxWoEu1h9PkZpjoPcX5MLvk8Fu04M6F0F5VhiVAMP24g6d5xFeTJdZ5G0ZIss1_QXWovlenhj/s320/oppenheimer-copy.webp" width="320" /></a></div><p>I can not stress enough how much I didn’t enjoy Maestro. Bradley Cooper in Jewface stole a nomination from Zac Efron (Iron Claw) or Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers). No let us give the vanity project with a man talking like he has a cold for 2 hours more unnecessary recognition. We all liked him better when he was in The Hangover, but shockingly people still get fooled by being deliberately pandered to. Coleman Domingo joins Annette Benning in the most forgettable category. In fact so forgettable, I had to look up what the name of his movie was. It was Rustin, btw.<br /><br />The Murphy, Giamatti, Wright trifecta are the nominees that I have the least issue with. Murphy seems like the front-runner. Not sure I agree but my opinion might not matter. Paul Giamatti is always great, and considering this role was written for him makes it all the more compelling case for how perfect he is in The Holdovers. Jeffrey Wright absolutely carries American Fiction and in a weaker year he would have a lot more buzz about his performance.<br /><br /><b>Best Director</b><br /><br />Congratulations Christopher Nolan you will finally win one. Hard to see a path for victory from the other nominees, although Yorgos Lanthimos should absolutely run away with this. It’s a classic film bro battle, but the Academy loves a narrative. There are many actors and directors who win not necessarily for the movie they are nominated for but the films they made in the past. Did anyone think Paul Newman deserved one for The Color of Money? No but he did deserve one. Like Scorsese with the Departed though this does feel like the best chance Nolan might have. The movie was a hit, critically and commercially, so following Tenet it feels like more of a triumph. <br /><br />Justine Triet gets this year’s “hey we nominated a woman” slot, which left many people up in arms about Gerwig’s snub. For the record I liked Barbie a lot more than Anatomy of a Fall, but I also didn’t vote. Jonathan Glazer picks up his first directing nomination for Zone of Interest, which has proven to be more critically successful than I would have guessed. I generally don’t love any Glazer films but I usually at least admire his style. Some people aren’t counting out Scorsese and this feels a little like Spielberg’s nomination last year. However I think it’s still Nolan with Lanthimos as an upset pick.<br /><br /><b>Best Picture</b><br /><br /><b>American Fiction</b>: So fun story about American Fiction. This is the first and to date only time in my life I have been the only person in a movie screening. I’ve come close, but someone always saunters in to interrupt my solitude. American Fiction however was mine all mine. So not having any audience my reaction wasn’t affected at all by those around me or boomers making comments (seriously the worst demographic in theaters). The “ending” made me literally laugh out loud and even had me looking around the theater to see if anyone was joining me. The satire of the film is about as subtle as South Park, but I also happen to be a big fan of South Park.<br /><br /><b>Anatomy of a Fall</b>: I did not catch this in theaters and instead relied on good old fashioned streaming. In fact along with Maestro it was the only one of the best picture nominees I saw on the small screen. Not sure what impact this might have had in a theater but my overall impression was “it was fine”. Sure it’s better than average but I struggled to get engrossed in any of the things happening. <br /><br /><b>Barbie</b>: In the battle of Barbenheimer, I chose Barbie. I won’t say it was perfect and Will Ferrell being Will Ferrell seemed out of place. However the production design was fantastic, the music was all great and it was god damn delightful. Of course Hollywood will take all the wrong lessons from this and give us more insipid toy adaptations instead of playing to the Taylor Swift demographic (which coincidentally happens to be probably the largest demographic). Shamelessly commercial but with enough self awareness to work. Can you imagine a world where a GI Joe movie or Transformers could get a best picture nomination? <br /><br /><b>The Holdovers</b>: I’ve been a big Alexander Payne fan since Election and let me tell you this was pretty damn excellent. If it weren’t for the boomers talking through the entire film (I even yelled at them), I might have enjoyed it even more. I already talked about the performers who will win (Rudolph) and who should (Giamatti). The Holdovers probably doesn’t have a great shot of actually winning best picture, but I was certainly wrong about CODA.<br /><br /><b>Killers of the Flower Moon</b>: The greatest living director is back with another epic at long last uniting his two favorite leading men. Like The Silence, Kundun, and Age of Innocence this definitely was a film Scorsese really wanted to make. For what it’s worth I thought it was fine. I definitely felt every one of its 206 minutes. At times I thought this could have been better suited to a mini-series and by the end I barely remembered who any of the characters were. I seem to be in the minority here and I am the farthest thing possible from a Scorsese hater, this one just didn’t click for me.<br /><br /><b>Maestro</b>: This movie can eat shit.<br /><br /><b>Oppenheimer</b>: At a certain point certain directors tend to veer into self parody. Their films seem to check off so many textbook things that you wonder if there is any self awareness. 2023 saw a couple of these, most notably Wes Anderson’s Astroid City and Nolan’s Oppenheimer. I preferred the Anderson film if you must know but I can hear the film bros screaming at me what a fucking idiot I am. Not unlike Kenji Fukasaku in the 70s I’m not sure if Nolan can help himself. He needs to have a nonstop dramatic score for 3 straight hours. He needs to have characters say things that make his director seem smart. We absolutely need to jump around in time to ratchet up tension. There are moments when this movie is truly spectacular but I think ultimately you gotta ask how much you like Nolan and his style. Anyways it’s going to win.<br /><br /><b>Past Lives</b>: Three movies directed by women nominated for best picture? Time to cancel the Oscars this shit is too woke. Of those three films Past Lives makes a very fantastic understated case for being the best of them. Credit to Honest Trailers calling this the perfect Gen Z love story, it happens almost entirely online, and there’s no actual intimacy. I loved the set up and this is the type of film that can start triggering false memories. Did the potential love of your life move away when you were children and should you/could you reconnect with them? Past Lives is probably the most grounded of the nominees and deserves a wider audience.<br /><br /><b>Poor Things</b>: Dave what was your favorite movie of 2023? Glad you asked, it was Poor Things. I generally hate previews but from the time I saw Willem Dafoe’s fucked up face and Yorgos Lanthimos’s name I knew I was going to love this. Every scene, every shot, every line, just perfect start to finish. I have been a Lanthimos fan since Dogtooth and sure this movie isn’t as financially successful as Anyone But You, but it represents a great leap forward for him and filmmaking in general. As we have moved more and more into franchises, perhaps one of our few remaining bright spots in cinema is giving visionary directors a bunch of money to make some damn art. <br /><b><br />The Zone of Interest</b>: I will be honest, I’m not big on Jonathan Glazer. Each of his previous films have either bored me or made me deeply uncomfortable. Even a revisit to Under the Skin failed to convince me it was a masterpiece. However I do admire what he does even if it doesn’t click with me. So I went into this with low expectations and came away impressed. The balls on this guy to make a holocaust movie with no Jews is quite a gamble. Almost the entirety of the film is a banal existence set against the backdrop of an atrocity. The sound design has deservedly been praised and really helps to undercut the lack of drama in the foreground. There was a telling line late when Rudolph Hoss is talking to his wife about the party and she asks who was there. He responds “I didn’t pay attention, I was too busy thinking about how I would gas everyone, the high ceilings would be a challenge.” This one line reminded me of Juraj Herz’s The Cremator and that alone is a compliment. <br /><br /><br /></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-88041283627893015842023-08-02T22:38:00.000-07:002023-08-02T22:38:19.976-07:00My Top 100 Films (25-1)<b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSLv84c6fPncIYXB92vOJF0Cw9Gv_2odtTbuzXHRpZaPnmkhMsu4YSbvJsbM1-zfU_xUTVN3J3mNGrspsynnPeEe9quEwWSu_037Zosb4zW6G7EfUKg1wOFfbayKf6wyOtquypuTqOa2nxbL25rDH9tBzd1lWiyRtrnAUc1TaQcmMUNs1foUhHbxJlTpl/s1600/DUJWUQLPSRDM2PBYJZPSKQOCBE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSLv84c6fPncIYXB92vOJF0Cw9Gv_2odtTbuzXHRpZaPnmkhMsu4YSbvJsbM1-zfU_xUTVN3J3mNGrspsynnPeEe9quEwWSu_037Zosb4zW6G7EfUKg1wOFfbayKf6wyOtquypuTqOa2nxbL25rDH9tBzd1lWiyRtrnAUc1TaQcmMUNs1foUhHbxJlTpl/s320/DUJWUQLPSRDM2PBYJZPSKQOCBE.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></b><p><b>25. The Man With a Movie Camera (1929) - Dziga Vertov</b><br />For some reason I just never know what to say about this here motion picture. I am not exactly counting documentaries for this list, then again this isn’t exactly a documentary. There is a narrative and well it’s too damn experimental to chalk it up as just some sort of avant-garde cinema verite. Many years ago I watched this alongside Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin and was far more impressed with Vertov. In the 23 years since then what was once an audacious statement seems to be echoed by a whole lot of people. Eisenstein’s classic is still great but it has been dissected in so many books/essays/classes that most of the artistry is academic. Vertov’s film can be broken down a thousand times and it wouldn’t seem any less impressive. It is the longest enduring entry in that all too brief sub genre known as “city symphonies”. Also with a recent restoration (at least in the past 10 years) it is entirely possible that revisiting it recently was like seeing it truly for the first time again. What else can you say besides this is just pure imagination?<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7RnZE1Tg7xAHR8s2LBeJDWauyX6gRWKJkFAXJgdN0ohVxL4G0kZygUSBOzG48iCC2M7bFH8yZDz1z32qia-g_As_jP9IXa0-dOxFxY9vL71ZyJSyaPGbqbHo_OwueAr1RDBrl43B0mAsaaykrQB8xwHvU1thGggLtTiih_dfWDs_tTSomCTq2ybojCa8/s1200/the_good_the_bad_the_ugly_6SkBnmZ.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7RnZE1Tg7xAHR8s2LBeJDWauyX6gRWKJkFAXJgdN0ohVxL4G0kZygUSBOzG48iCC2M7bFH8yZDz1z32qia-g_As_jP9IXa0-dOxFxY9vL71ZyJSyaPGbqbHo_OwueAr1RDBrl43B0mAsaaykrQB8xwHvU1thGggLtTiih_dfWDs_tTSomCTq2ybojCa8/s320/the_good_the_bad_the_ugly_6SkBnmZ.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>24. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) - Sergio Leone</b><br />One pleasant side note of my year of binging trash before earnestly working on this list, I got intimately familiar with spaghetti Westerns. Although, even after another 25-30 of these movies under my belt there was hardly any doubt that Sergio Leone’s 1966 epic would still retain the title. To be fair, Once Upon a Time in the West nearly made this list, which is a testament to just how damn great Leone was at this stuff. It is reductive to try and say this is a Western for people who hate the genre, but it is certainly fair to say it is one for people who love it as well. This is so damn good that I challenge anyone not to like it or outright love it. The influence of GBU has been felt for generations, but when that opening theme song hits you’re hooked. This not only launched Clint Eastwood’s career, but helped breathe new life into Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach’s movie careers. All three were able to successfully capitalize on their newfound celebrity and become icons of a new breed of Western. Regardless of their titles, each of our three leads should probably be called “The Bad” but there was already a Western named 3 Bad Men. This is Leone and Morricone at their best, simply perfection.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfQgIIL70WxfuwdTdOvXszs8UlDvUN5u8SmvtQ1ztHE1tGsbs7yWzOnjlkV0ZPjKJNQgj7xS0bByQiVQXIvIx8iyca9n189mt22kkGdufZgkxxx0-3shHWIk0FV3OwuL1oZ2UJeNf7V_JMy9saVncOMa6g_CdR1aJXXJK_TthgguUwkJfj1WQuPlvbTaVY/s1600/linklater_before.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfQgIIL70WxfuwdTdOvXszs8UlDvUN5u8SmvtQ1ztHE1tGsbs7yWzOnjlkV0ZPjKJNQgj7xS0bByQiVQXIvIx8iyca9n189mt22kkGdufZgkxxx0-3shHWIk0FV3OwuL1oZ2UJeNf7V_JMy9saVncOMa6g_CdR1aJXXJK_TthgguUwkJfj1WQuPlvbTaVY/s320/linklater_before.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>23. Before Sunrise/Before Sunset/Before Midnight (1995/2004/2013) - Richard Linklater </b><br />I love certain movies because they can take me places and show me things well beyond the realm of possibilities. Likely never going to experience intergalactic space travel, or a zombie apocalypse. In the case of Linklater/Hawke/Delpy’s Before trilogy, I love these movies because they feel so damn real to me. At each stage of my life they seem to resonate, being about a decade behind the characters, I always felt not quite up to speed. Now that Before Midnight is a decade on us, and I’m staring at 40 while being married, they all deeply resonate with different periods of my life. Depending on the mood, or the substances while watching them, I’ve been a blubbering mess on multiple occasions. I still believe the ending of Before Sunset might be my single favorite ending of any film ever. As for Sunrise, it remains my favorite, and god damn did it hit me hard on my most recent viewing. I laughed during the audio commentary for Midnight when a cameraman objected to their fighting because of how idealized Celine and Jesse were to him and his wife. There are a lot of couples all over the world who resonate with these two, and their beautiful, occasionally heartbreaking, and very real romance. If I had any complaint it is that we didn’t get a fourth movie in 2022.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdldAolBR5GwIwGhNnFXscvK5AT_G7VPxXR2XQhHoayt-xT_jrbj-QFFshn__v_R6NBw2Lzzq-NSGW3LdjcqYnx3Fpm6idlkrGAHaFL2WH9jxQg7vUemS65m6JyNA5sYF769eW06WSDt3sW_SJ4e7Zq6bUgPqESdp-zg5Ileg2oJc8kRNMgJqYMqyS9ZJ/s1280/THE-SHINING-title-small.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="1280" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdldAolBR5GwIwGhNnFXscvK5AT_G7VPxXR2XQhHoayt-xT_jrbj-QFFshn__v_R6NBw2Lzzq-NSGW3LdjcqYnx3Fpm6idlkrGAHaFL2WH9jxQg7vUemS65m6JyNA5sYF769eW06WSDt3sW_SJ4e7Zq6bUgPqESdp-zg5Ileg2oJc8kRNMgJqYMqyS9ZJ/s320/THE-SHINING-title-small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>22. The Shining (1980) - Stanley Kubrick </b><br />So much of what I have to say about Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining has been said a thousand times. Yes, it truly is the greatest horror film of all time. Sure it might not have been Stephen King approved, but that man directed Maximum Overdrive, do you really want to take his opinion? The Shining is so good it makes me forgive the fact that it has jump scares. The Grady sisters (totally not twins) used to freak my ass out as a much younger viewer. Perhaps the greatest element of the film is the Overlook itself. So much time is spent wandering around its hallways and getting a look at its exterior that it feels very much like the main character in this story. I feel like I can wander down those hallways for hours. So many lazier filmmakers have taken tropes from this, with less than a tenth of the Shining’s success rate. That opening theme with the aerial photography is all I need to remind myself I made the right choice watching this for the 40th time. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG7PP96rF1B6aGvIa_qbZoJA3coiHNDk539ZlBkP1h2jYKSZ1pzkznZhrJKWdQZeNzI3yEKVAfrZskf6_lvXuRwu9OcBG-Z4IonOoBsWho9kZ_bISc4g1hFul8092900rrfECkgH-hL88RhJZwM49uDXgqvh-AY6dI35kIw3fINbzOiMF7OBnxWkVcNWub/s500/hans-beckert-via-fantomas-en-cavale-tumblr.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="500" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG7PP96rF1B6aGvIa_qbZoJA3coiHNDk539ZlBkP1h2jYKSZ1pzkznZhrJKWdQZeNzI3yEKVAfrZskf6_lvXuRwu9OcBG-Z4IonOoBsWho9kZ_bISc4g1hFul8092900rrfECkgH-hL88RhJZwM49uDXgqvh-AY6dI35kIw3fINbzOiMF7OBnxWkVcNWub/s320/hans-beckert-via-fantomas-en-cavale-tumblr.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>21. M (1931) - Fritz Lang</b><br />It seems almost academic to say Fritz Lang was one of the greatest directors to ever live. For a decade he made some of the most ambitious and best German films in the silent era, often in collaboration with his wife Thea Von Harbou. For his first sound film I would argue he made his masterpiece. In much of his later interviews, Lang would agree even getting that line in Godard’s Contempt. Watching this yet again I was won over by the 10 minute mark. I mean a morbid nursery rhyme, a creepy whistle, and an empty seat at a dinner table. Lang made sure his gifts as a visual storyteller were still paramount, and sound was used only in what seems like expressionist tendencies. Much of the movie is quite silent, which only emphasizes the soundtrack more. The subject matter remains quite brutal and the type of thing no one was making in Hollywood, Hayes code or not. It also forever cast Peter Lorre as that supremely creepy guy you most certainly wouldn’t trust around your kids. Perhaps it was because Lang took a huge step back from the bloated productions of his previous silent epics that really allowed him to distill what made a great film here. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVW-5jCmcN1Cbes0IXJ0zs3Y3mHFj_q2SZ7Ad_bHo3er7Fn9RkJPbOyM5g6euJ1GJ9mI1FTmpQJFSgNM8yuiKzVZBWADzNl8AsKkkGg4zPcSMS5c-SQbx_ZvMOX42uSd0kMcNAWjI55ibcPDIH19qQLITc0hcQ1WTd-tkvwnvcc885CvVN8RLYHU_Sm-r8/s850/desktop-wallpaper-the-big-lebowski-1998-jesus-scene.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="850" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVW-5jCmcN1Cbes0IXJ0zs3Y3mHFj_q2SZ7Ad_bHo3er7Fn9RkJPbOyM5g6euJ1GJ9mI1FTmpQJFSgNM8yuiKzVZBWADzNl8AsKkkGg4zPcSMS5c-SQbx_ZvMOX42uSd0kMcNAWjI55ibcPDIH19qQLITc0hcQ1WTd-tkvwnvcc885CvVN8RLYHU_Sm-r8/s320/desktop-wallpaper-the-big-lebowski-1998-jesus-scene.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>20. The Big Lebowski (1998) - Joel and Ethan Coen</b><br />I will refrain from filling this write-up with nothing but quotes from my favorite Coen Brothers movie. There are films in this list that have held up with age and others, often the very best that seem to improve with each re-visit. The Coen’s crafted what seemed like a light, slightly goofy neo-noir about a deadbeat bowler and it took on a life of its own. It seemed like a throwaway after the major critical and commercial success of Fargo, and many critics along with myself thought the same thing. It was fun but wasn’t trying to reach the heights of their previous offering. Then I saw it again, and again, and again, and again, and god damn it if it isn’t their masterpiece. Sure they won’t agree with you, but the people have spoken. It also continues their tradition of making all of their films period pictures, even if it’s only 7 years in the past. I can advise you to not attempt several of the drinking games associated with the film, because well no one should drink 9 White Russians in 2 hours. One time I tried taking a drink every time they said “fuck” and by the end of the first bowling scene had taken down a six pack.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjslLegkFzFg2TvofEacARow8wrfD8Ek9AkXoEdL4LWltZhloSW1nJ1Bjo8y1d5P52jnyPFH7MgmHhM5Duz8ikrd_aC0gouQEYMkdLbAaertVJHPo0MyrJ_yqmsC2phNNbHV08jdzcjVt3j5wA89oKNTxWvGyXMY9yJlz_lGxlMqxxOCYqWHK01HpHX4QLI/s260/IdealisticThreadbareBlacklab-max-1mb.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="209" data-original-width="260" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjslLegkFzFg2TvofEacARow8wrfD8Ek9AkXoEdL4LWltZhloSW1nJ1Bjo8y1d5P52jnyPFH7MgmHhM5Duz8ikrd_aC0gouQEYMkdLbAaertVJHPo0MyrJ_yqmsC2phNNbHV08jdzcjVt3j5wA89oKNTxWvGyXMY9yJlz_lGxlMqxxOCYqWHK01HpHX4QLI/s1600/IdealisticThreadbareBlacklab-max-1mb.gif" width="260" /></a></div><p><b>19. Los Olvidados (1950) - Luis Bunuel </b><br />At some point in my life I used to debate internally what my favorite Luis Bunuel film was, not anymore. After a brief exile from Spain and movie making in general Bunuel found himself employed in Mexico. In response to sentimental Neo-Realist films, he made Los Olvidados and reminded everyone the master surrealist and provocateur wasn’t done. Of all the films that have seemingly dropped out of existence since my last list, I really expected someone, anyone would have released Los Olvidados. It is out there on YouTube, where the subtitles say “torta” is “sandwich” and a main character “Pietro” is “Peter”, but I’ll take it. We get at least two brilliant dream sequences, which are largely absent from many of Bunuel’s Mexican works. It pulls together the finest of his early days in France and his later masterworks, with by far the strongest narrative of his career. Everyone is reprehensible and those that aren’t, soon will be. By the way, there’s a dancing fucking dog in this shit, case closed.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3mBAPquhlA65fQQc54zPrTJezC8EFKypSSTswcsEJ4GEm2-CiPbTcg9B94GhIkCdxWuQydXG1hsHzDRVILqYUSE5G9s5F5flKGYRnxh936I0z0o1Ge9y9_lD2zMDWdtqByVKcXAQT7yXDh-I00JZrl5GkH6GVEnyt-4VWv7MyCi84tD2V_EzgX_qP2vTa/s1894/annie-hall.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1030" data-original-width="1894" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3mBAPquhlA65fQQc54zPrTJezC8EFKypSSTswcsEJ4GEm2-CiPbTcg9B94GhIkCdxWuQydXG1hsHzDRVILqYUSE5G9s5F5flKGYRnxh936I0z0o1Ge9y9_lD2zMDWdtqByVKcXAQT7yXDh-I00JZrl5GkH6GVEnyt-4VWv7MyCi84tD2V_EzgX_qP2vTa/s320/annie-hall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>18. Annie Hall (1977) - Woody Allen</b><br />If you’re wondering if I can separate the art from the artist, this might answer your question. Woody Allen has been problematic since before I had ever seen one of his movies, and I grew up hearing jokes about him long before seeing his movies. In fact my first exposure to Annie Hall was that it was the film that had the unmitigated audacity to beat Star Wars for best picture of 1977. Well a couple decades later, that seems less far fetched. In no world can someone say Allen is perfect, but this film is. It represents an artist making the confident leap from comedian to full fledged auteur. He took some big swings this time around and they paid off across the board. Even after keeping his insane movie-a-year pace for the next 4 decades Allen never quite struck that perfect balance as he did here. It’s still damn funny, touching, heartbreaking, and endlessly inventive. The type of go-for-broke try everything film that leaves no narrative stone un-turned. All miraculously crammed into a tight 94 minutes. I don’t think I could ever not love this movie.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghtSXT5KnVoYOhDvK9Yb_pnjnDJANahChQ6sqlpok-3kM7gtoYiuxpPhyD8AR8MN_yBRXONPJeYUKUBNmvLe-3OJqKm6Mxlh6hRWwEle5uMZTsHzR6DzQiBVxseu7LrIcv_pKvcHsEUXnft-MHZy84-f6eO06f8ngwoYCX2hot2i_lqLl4GrJkDJEUpXHE/s1600/l-intro-1655847393.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghtSXT5KnVoYOhDvK9Yb_pnjnDJANahChQ6sqlpok-3kM7gtoYiuxpPhyD8AR8MN_yBRXONPJeYUKUBNmvLe-3OJqKm6Mxlh6hRWwEle5uMZTsHzR6DzQiBVxseu7LrIcv_pKvcHsEUXnft-MHZy84-f6eO06f8ngwoYCX2hot2i_lqLl4GrJkDJEUpXHE/s320/l-intro-1655847393.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>17. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974) - Terry Gilliam/Terry Jones </b><br />Some movies define you as a person, either by informing your world view or shaping your taste. What your favorite comedy is says a lot about what makes you you. I’m not here to tell everyone who thinks a comedy besides Monty Python’s Holy Grail is the funniest is wrong, but they are. No other film in my life also seems to define my family’s taste in people. Most parents might ask where your new girlfriend went to school, what they do for a living, etc. My mom only asks “Have they seen Holy Grail yet, and did they get it?” If the answer is yes, you are officially welcome to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Honestly it’s a film that as niche as it might seem is inconceivable to me that someone wouldn’t laugh at something. I’ve seen it probably two dozen or more times and I still find shit to laugh at every time. It’s one of the early fore-runners of the joke-a-second model adopted by the Zucker brothers and others in later years. The credits are ridiculous, the music is silly, every element of the film is room for a joke. Like many of the best comedies you can spend the entire length of the film either quoting it or trading your favorite scenes. If you agree with the placement of this film on my list, we can be friends, and doesn’t that tell you all you need to know?<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKz-vEGYgpSnhrPZfQrNWfRtuhjhW5SGeIX-eDUaHWaGqq9fcexeieB9MqsMfuxbY6synAs961JvDJQ9H-cC6Hsjt4FjHPJpBQrLVe8yBoGAFIFYyw04VT415wGtwGYvnoHMpvzCBzk7lMT1Citf5iiqhA7ubVtklLHMrToNb_P1WgVo0maGOoEmNqBvIc/s780/intro-1565964312.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="780" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKz-vEGYgpSnhrPZfQrNWfRtuhjhW5SGeIX-eDUaHWaGqq9fcexeieB9MqsMfuxbY6synAs961JvDJQ9H-cC6Hsjt4FjHPJpBQrLVe8yBoGAFIFYyw04VT415wGtwGYvnoHMpvzCBzk7lMT1Citf5iiqhA7ubVtklLHMrToNb_P1WgVo0maGOoEmNqBvIc/s320/intro-1565964312.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>16. Taxi Driver (1976) - Martin Scorsese</b><br />The first collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader remains their best. This is a new revelation for me, but it shouldn’t be. Thinking back I believe Taxi Driver might have been the first Scorsese film I watched, certainly the first one I remember seeking out. I also remember telling multiple people in 7th grade they had to watch it. This is the obligatory part where I mention that this too was mentioned in Cult Movies 2, and well I think it does fit into that that weird subversive side of 70s cinema, I’m not sure how well the designation fits. Taxi Driver is the type of movie that makes you feel awkward but offers some catharsis. Scorsese does a great job of slightly humanizing Travis Bickle from the far more racist and abrasive character in Schrader’s script. It’s not that this character deserves a softer touch, but he knows that we’re spending almost the entire film from his perspective and the film would be unwatchable if he was completely irredeemable. Perhaps no other film better represents the seedy side of 1970s New York like this, and what a final score to go out on for the legendary Bernard Hermann. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYkTAszemvTZPJZsCiSS4730KAevxFT_RnpA-HwOoRQjNJubcmFjsqoPx-QmYhlxhMTknUCjbIRdRfomthnNx5fT2UisAOpxGZQEz-REeM5YnsmIoVNeogPKWXmHz55rkDcQu_MEPASuKJ6QVRkGcBSUuk6DadXen_hbZ9upcllUVx_B3gkzz-lGLMypql/s1500/All_Jazz_79_bRGBfeat.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="1500" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYkTAszemvTZPJZsCiSS4730KAevxFT_RnpA-HwOoRQjNJubcmFjsqoPx-QmYhlxhMTknUCjbIRdRfomthnNx5fT2UisAOpxGZQEz-REeM5YnsmIoVNeogPKWXmHz55rkDcQu_MEPASuKJ6QVRkGcBSUuk6DadXen_hbZ9upcllUVx_B3gkzz-lGLMypql/s320/All_Jazz_79_bRGBfeat.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>15. All That Jazz (1979) - Bob Fosse</b><br />What if 8 ½ was more autobiographical and also a musical? Well let’s all forget about 9 (I know we already did) and instead look upon Bob Fosse’s masterpiece with awe. Roy Scheider is perfect as Joe Gideon/not Bob Fosse, even if his singing voice is less than great. As the saying goes, go with what you know. Watching the Emmy nominated Fosse/Verdon mini-series all I could think was, man I’d really like to revisit All That Jazz. To be honest, that is a phrase I say a lot. Fosse at least had the good sense to surround Scheider with many first rate dancers and singers from his own productions. It is also a master class in editing, jumping from fantasy to reality, flashbacks, musical numbers and just the rhythm of day to day life. In short it is everything you could ask for, and all that jazz.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq06_j5_TXTLUH3rz58CSoSedIVgmTsNtoQywzwnel8dHcPOaUM6RSc4n972qWORKyjzQw-38ojZa00F1pJZpr_hg-ss_9Bp1rAdXIpajgMlJrR4rpTmTBSX5-1H3wWJ0c6RLQrlZWapYBNnAgp3mbr8dJmkqRhATAq3BZwbffAnsngjyMOIBM_0IZK3Mv/s1280/h4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="1280" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq06_j5_TXTLUH3rz58CSoSedIVgmTsNtoQywzwnel8dHcPOaUM6RSc4n972qWORKyjzQw-38ojZa00F1pJZpr_hg-ss_9Bp1rAdXIpajgMlJrR4rpTmTBSX5-1H3wWJ0c6RLQrlZWapYBNnAgp3mbr8dJmkqRhATAq3BZwbffAnsngjyMOIBM_0IZK3Mv/s320/h4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>14. Sunrise (1927) - F.W. Murnau </b><br />It is quite possible Sunrise is a film many people admire more than they like, but that wouldn’t be me. F.W. Murnau’s first American film remains the crowning achievement of the silent cinema. Made right as sound was coming into pictures, this even employs a rudimentary score incorporating sound effects and some background noise, it is a dying medium’s final farewell. By this point in time Hollywood’s infinity stone gathering of European talent was complete. A remarkable crew of German technicians met with the deep pockets of Fox studios. All of this would be a waste if the movie itself was mere style over substance. The plot is simple yet effective and George O’Brien does a Herculean task of not just convincing his wife that he isn’t going to murder her, but us in the audience. It is the type of fable that feels like it could have only worked as a silent film, but boy does it. Sometimes the simplest things take the most work. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN7LSmZ4unSKM9lJYSgS4MJ_TLAoVtu42y0e9qrv_8R87aJW5LosfYdnF9zsJ3CeDp_sXtLOlppsRPfIqAlhznei3yFJCH2Tdx-AKs4qdl6LgY9OzR8_Hv4wPB6ejEX7xX6Uuz9CIHkDys7mUi6cGXsm17z8JyrAnZPRxjYEz1fbsBHPNTykEWO3SIjzEV/s457/singin_in_the_rain_10.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="457" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN7LSmZ4unSKM9lJYSgS4MJ_TLAoVtu42y0e9qrv_8R87aJW5LosfYdnF9zsJ3CeDp_sXtLOlppsRPfIqAlhznei3yFJCH2Tdx-AKs4qdl6LgY9OzR8_Hv4wPB6ejEX7xX6Uuz9CIHkDys7mUi6cGXsm17z8JyrAnZPRxjYEz1fbsBHPNTykEWO3SIjzEV/s320/singin_in_the_rain_10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>13. Singing in the Rain (1952) - Gene Kelly/Stanley Donen </b><br />There isn’t a more joyous motion picture out there folks. A musical that can make people who hate musicals happy. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen teamed up for the second time to make the ultimate studio musical. Like many things of its era, it took several decades for folks to get wise. To many audiences in 1952 the film seemed a clear step down from An American in Paris, lacking the finesse Vincente Minelli had along with Gershwin’s music. Arthur Freed largely took his own music from the late 20s and offered a greatest hits of the era. Modern audiences don’t care where the songs are from, they all slap. If I had to choose, it is still probably my favorite movie about filmmaking, at least in Hollywood. I wouldn’t look to this as a historically accurate depiction about the coming of sound in Hollywood, but certainly is the most amusing. One thing I don’t get is how they got booed doing “Fit as a Fiddle”, some people just can’t appreciate greatness.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNu323mrFWtl9VitXTffiqEXNI52Zq-uq2MdyESSMOFJdi5zHP853nSAspGXtTpCo4pIKV6Krs0GSgsf--JsiUWL1XKLg9mPAwG0MV2BIr2ESq2LndInQi5jDXNo6uswDLUl4xARm_E7CohGXtjhYzErOUfC5oO8EzAhpPYE--lYOg53icQwqKTUwU_6Rg/s3500/allquietonthewesternfront1930.67079.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2280" data-original-width="3500" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNu323mrFWtl9VitXTffiqEXNI52Zq-uq2MdyESSMOFJdi5zHP853nSAspGXtTpCo4pIKV6Krs0GSgsf--JsiUWL1XKLg9mPAwG0MV2BIr2ESq2LndInQi5jDXNo6uswDLUl4xARm_E7CohGXtjhYzErOUfC5oO8EzAhpPYE--lYOg53icQwqKTUwU_6Rg/s320/allquietonthewesternfront1930.67079.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>12. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) - Lewis Milestone </b><br />The first time I watched All Quiet on the Western Front, which I was dreading because how good could a war movie from 1930 be, I was hooked. It instantly jumped into my top 5 and it only climbed since then. There were several times I watched it and thought it might de-throne Citizen Kane, climbing all the way to #2 on the last list. Well I’m not going to blame the awful remake from last year, but this did not hit quite the same. That isn’t entirely surprising, every time I watched the film I expected the magic to fade a little. Yet the scale, the tracking shots, the lack of a musical score won me over again and again. Watching it in 2023 I don’t think it is the 2nd greatest film of all time, and some of the dated performances and thick American accents on German soldiers can wear on you. I still think it is the final word in the “war is hell” subgenre. No other film quite hits the nihilistic notes of war quite like this, although Come and See is an honorable mention. <b><br /></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMlgZFMhxmz8I6F6Oc9egO1EmQCjlpCiAeCewwEYE-PEfk8qSwAXaN66qR1fe9KU1qvGnwBxxka8QyOzQdmCATGEOm3sU4DjOu_-xhNNOj5mm5SZM_4r73PaXVQdHn18V1kXR4tVyoPCb_OHS2OZwo-fpA9mlg40adTkAwFlu4czxN5snR6QEhhYyOy8M/s800/empire-strikes-back-lightsaber-duel-800x400.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="800" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMlgZFMhxmz8I6F6Oc9egO1EmQCjlpCiAeCewwEYE-PEfk8qSwAXaN66qR1fe9KU1qvGnwBxxka8QyOzQdmCATGEOm3sU4DjOu_-xhNNOj5mm5SZM_4r73PaXVQdHn18V1kXR4tVyoPCb_OHS2OZwo-fpA9mlg40adTkAwFlu4czxN5snR6QEhhYyOy8M/s320/empire-strikes-back-lightsaber-duel-800x400.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>11. Star Wars/The Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi (1977/1980/1983) - George Lucas/Irving Kershner/Richard Marquand </b><br />I’ll give Disney credit, they’re trying. Trying to ruin one of the greatest franchises we ever had. With every new movie and show I care less and less about Star Wars. Still each time I revisit the original trilogy all of that shit disappears. After all this time Star Wars remains the greatest science fiction/fantasy series, and about the best Hollywood could do in the modern era. Some films are so damn good that you forgive those little flaws. Does it make any sense Luke and Leia are related, no it really doesn’t. Does it also make watching their sexual chemistry in the first movie extra awkward, of course not. Take them as they are, even if things stopped with the first one it would be on this list. Together though they bring me all the member-berries and some sweet amnesia for everything that happened after 1999.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXDZEGszHqQw7EDRUS1iaQySkIuZ5Z3UaGtEhgVzG4EyrDt0mhz4ma99La_8U8dZBvlBFt3DrPsA_TB9LXn-8mYWcCrKqC351f_s6XSnNpu-vfx-BeWCfuWUPXQtRlM6lu_CEFJaCWeGpmYVU_6_ZOE1egg6wTjPEYGNvTrMkoEra70_kadzRyFkIU3kbC/s768/EB19960915REVIEWS08401010308AR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXDZEGszHqQw7EDRUS1iaQySkIuZ5Z3UaGtEhgVzG4EyrDt0mhz4ma99La_8U8dZBvlBFt3DrPsA_TB9LXn-8mYWcCrKqC351f_s6XSnNpu-vfx-BeWCfuWUPXQtRlM6lu_CEFJaCWeGpmYVU_6_ZOE1egg6wTjPEYGNvTrMkoEra70_kadzRyFkIU3kbC/s320/EB19960915REVIEWS08401010308AR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>10. Casablanca (1942) - Michael Curtiz </b><br />Well here we have what I would probably consider to be the single most important film in my life. Sure I loved movies before this, in fact you can clearly see this isn’t even occupying the #1 spot. However I might not be making this list, or be the person I am today without Casablanca. I’ve told the story often, but it was the movie that I decided to test the waters on to see if all those critics were right, and in this case they were. Perhaps it’s status as a cultural touchstone has dipped a little since the 90s but it was one of those movies that I felt immediately familiar with upon first watch, getting context for so many references, homages, and parodies. I watched it twice during my initial rent, and have seen it more than a dozen times since, in nearly every format and setting. Each and every time I put it on I smile a little to myself and marvel at just how perfect it all is. How did that well-oiled Hollywood machine churn out products this consistent? What strange alchemy aligned all the stars to make this perhaps its greatest triumph? It makes little sense considering how many re-writes the script had. I can accept people saying this isn’t the greatest movie ever made, but if you straight up don’t like it, we can never be friends.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ0UKT1c5fDxmobErjSUgvW2dKaVyMLCDfF3bw-ynuzp3vn661zcPO4-bcutIoDP0aicv-Tgymk2mC929noSSGyJTfg7z8ahn1ilttlQmitbpOeIY7cW1GqQbhP7nC7JYqAGMjqqUwOAvOP5wpT5kZAg48rBY-JhcIxsee-emXOTaXwdytCmgFvRGShgZn/s600/main-qimg-7b91d83595bb414e2da625ca8ad51647-lq.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="600" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ0UKT1c5fDxmobErjSUgvW2dKaVyMLCDfF3bw-ynuzp3vn661zcPO4-bcutIoDP0aicv-Tgymk2mC929noSSGyJTfg7z8ahn1ilttlQmitbpOeIY7cW1GqQbhP7nC7JYqAGMjqqUwOAvOP5wpT5kZAg48rBY-JhcIxsee-emXOTaXwdytCmgFvRGShgZn/s320/main-qimg-7b91d83595bb414e2da625ca8ad51647-lq.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>9. Pulp Fiction (1994) - Quentin Tarantino </b><br />I saw this in the theater when it first came out. In hindsight I was probably too young for it, but reading about Tarantino seeing The Wild Bunch around the age of 8 makes me feel like the man would have been proud. From the time I started really giving a shit about movies, Pulp Fiction has held a special place in my heart. It has that type of nostalgia that makes me insufferable to watch it with. I will laugh before things happen, I will say lines out loud, and if you aren’t at my level, get there. Plenty of credit rightfully went to Roger Avery for his work on the screenplay but this is Tarantino through and through. Guarantee Avery didn’t write that opening monologue about foot massages. Telling a narrative out of order might seem like a cheap cliche but it blew our fucking minds in 1994. There’s something so 90s about a movie that is so 70s. I also learned far too early what a gimp was, and to stay the fuck out of pawn shops. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY-kyzhCjnasb71VqbSLgGPe8nrp62yM4e0XVznwG0znzCS2BVebvqzpsMC1-xO4H_eHtkr-kMS-T_NXTZIAN7fI7yXKlD-1hVu1AbWfiofZdFvZYhtXQwQt_wtiAVRJUDRjUjgTeBtIrYjasQ-lLZa44AP2f9WkeiF2UMqGtgnExjtm32BPA72mOrwOZy/s408/rulesofthegame5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="408" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY-kyzhCjnasb71VqbSLgGPe8nrp62yM4e0XVznwG0znzCS2BVebvqzpsMC1-xO4H_eHtkr-kMS-T_NXTZIAN7fI7yXKlD-1hVu1AbWfiofZdFvZYhtXQwQt_wtiAVRJUDRjUjgTeBtIrYjasQ-lLZa44AP2f9WkeiF2UMqGtgnExjtm32BPA72mOrwOZy/s320/rulesofthegame5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>8. The Rules of the Game (1939) - Jean Renoir </b><br />If I could award something film of the decade, Renoir’s masterpiece would take that title. There is no movie I have watched more in the past ten years than Rules of the Game, that includes Batman and Robin, and even Thor Ragnarok. Much like many of my other all time favorites this one seeps into my brain and tells me on a near daily basis “let’s watch this again”. The journey to this point took a long time, nearly 20 years to be exact. I watched it for the first time in a horribly faded print with white on white subtitles that I could barely read. Then found a better version, and eventually the fine folks at Criterion released it. This January I got to see a 4k restoration at the Music Box and I’m not sure it’s ever going to look better. Along the way I was convinced every time I watched it that Grand Illusion was better. I’m not taking anything away from Renoir’s other all-time great, but I was wrong. There is so much dialogue that it is nearly impossible to catch everything even after three viewings. It helps if you are fluent in French which I’m definitely not. However after watching this 9-10 times I did attempt to watch it without looking at the subtitles, and man there is so much going on in every frame. There is a reason this was in Sight and Sounds top 10 from 1952 through 2012 (curse those bastards for dropping it to the top 20 in 2022). The best films only get better under close scrutiny and under the microscope. Here’s to watching this another 12 times in the upcoming decade.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyjaLAZxBSYf4RV7lFtNGsPJgPJF4Th7dYCHe8TK_8HA7eY9ylslx1Iy_6tV3qxf7xc8eUvqJBYCtAYzZVvh0Rz-o1sEsXMbzaDMUmPfWENe8IzSrcnubEo0RWJllauiV0qF70vJsYBeaKYLDsICaYOUlovskvc7huPg7juUClSrPqwEUcjZdBG4Q6CFsZ/s1200/the-godfather-part-ii-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyjaLAZxBSYf4RV7lFtNGsPJgPJF4Th7dYCHe8TK_8HA7eY9ylslx1Iy_6tV3qxf7xc8eUvqJBYCtAYzZVvh0Rz-o1sEsXMbzaDMUmPfWENe8IzSrcnubEo0RWJllauiV0qF70vJsYBeaKYLDsICaYOUlovskvc7huPg7juUClSrPqwEUcjZdBG4Q6CFsZ/s320/the-godfather-part-ii-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>7. The Godfather/The Godfather Part 2 (1972/1974) - Francis Ford Coppola </b><br />The Godfather might be the butt of a hilarious joke in Barbie, but what do you want, it really is that good. Like many of the films this high up, it doesn’t really need me to add any reasons why to praise it. Coppola re-edited part 3 which does a little to help the very damaged reputation it has, but even improved it doesn’t measure up to the first two. You could fault it, but very few films do. You could blame Sophia, but that is taking a cheap shot. What is most impressive about The Godfather is that it was the highest grossing movie in America at one point in time. Rarely has public and critical taste been so aligned. I always wanted to ask why Carlo took that ass whooping? I mean he knew Sonny would go after him, but like he didn’t block a single punch or fight back. Each viewing I wonder if the sequel might actually be superior, but I prefer to look at it as one nearly 7 hour movie. If you haven’t seen it in 2023, find yourself a Ken to walk you through it.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXypHCbteaFT6fSqn2VAFQyFz7MNHp53hYvvb1Qj6Le-cf65rGf50OVKWZVCt3-dzl-kqNEQniy3PRQyfKQyMzTCLwTQuMKfLr6-y_173-mxmQP8iINvoAzpbBb6R3FCPLrEI0Nfz6WAxUUGhuieYyr4ceS333gdQGE-cHa7SoQ2J9dqZe7ANWkAu9x-V/s679/EB20010107REVIEWS08101070301AR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="679" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXypHCbteaFT6fSqn2VAFQyFz7MNHp53hYvvb1Qj6Le-cf65rGf50OVKWZVCt3-dzl-kqNEQniy3PRQyfKQyMzTCLwTQuMKfLr6-y_173-mxmQP8iINvoAzpbBb6R3FCPLrEI0Nfz6WAxUUGhuieYyr4ceS333gdQGE-cHa7SoQ2J9dqZe7ANWkAu9x-V/s320/EB20010107REVIEWS08101070301AR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>6. Persona (1966) - Ingmar Bergman </b><br />When I first had a chance to watch Persona I was angry it didn’t go harder. The narrative was too straightforward after that brilliant wtf prologue. The second time I watched it, I wondered what the hell I was thinking. Then I realized I may have watched it in the wrong aspect ratio. I put it on with an audio commentary track, and shut off the commentary because they were talking over my movie. Around that time I realized that this wasn’t just a masterpiece, it was on the very short list of the greatest films ever made. The finest film from someone I could confidently say was one of the 2-3 greatest filmmakers ever. It shares a lineage with a number of films, Mulholland Drive comes to mind, but is so singular and unique that it stands in a class by itself. Like the greatest films it makes you think about just what is going on, but ultimately the answer is whatever you happen to think it is at that given time. At a nice tight 84 minutes, it also shows that you can re-write the language of cinema in under an hour and a half.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguapoKhDOy1r6ukOc2AzLBqq3KBdjhTxjTST-fToBpMUf2xiTJKjP5Wj6_x65ZMS08xhwOFOHxql9yFrqGjYP2YyfVM7bjvenJxxgaER68lq9cIDGEHPattIUSU3fH6u_KnDuvl9ZSznyizqkXLao1Ftau76QFgnS7STVCxasiRSu7MtkiKQDaOPS3rPSP/s720/fb67154472727618420a24592f70e191bf9efca9edfee30140897d460b1cd840._RI_SX720_FMjpg_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguapoKhDOy1r6ukOc2AzLBqq3KBdjhTxjTST-fToBpMUf2xiTJKjP5Wj6_x65ZMS08xhwOFOHxql9yFrqGjYP2YyfVM7bjvenJxxgaER68lq9cIDGEHPattIUSU3fH6u_KnDuvl9ZSznyizqkXLao1Ftau76QFgnS7STVCxasiRSu7MtkiKQDaOPS3rPSP/s320/fb67154472727618420a24592f70e191bf9efca9edfee30140897d460b1cd840._RI_SX720_FMjpg_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>5. Mulholland Drive (2001) - David Lynch </b><br />When I first got a chance to watch Mulholland Drive on that barebones DVD I thought “this is so far the film of the decade”. Sure we were only two years in, but as the years passed by nothing came around to really challenge it. This past year it was honored by the Sight and Sound critics with a spot in the top ten, and damned if I don’t agree with it. We can debate whether this or In the Mood for Love are the films of the 2000s, but my vote is cast. What makes the film so great after many, many, many viewings is just how damn perfect it is. In a nutshell it is about as David Lynch as it gets. So many little diversions that seemingly have nothing to do with anything but just add another layer to the proceedings. The plot as it were is perhaps not as complicated as the first viewing might have you believe, and makes a hell of a lot more sense than Lost Highway. With the exception of maybe The Straight Story or Blue Velvet, who the hell ever watched a Lynch movie for the plot? You just shut the lights off and let this weird fucker take you on a journey. I am profoundly grateful this never became a series because it is just cinematic perfection.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrAC4xDSO3brs91bUTwVKlpY0V3DQozRL5C3u36p7MbZbS-pPU7v0MkejYsbFEu-aDhZUnw9-cmeDS-IVIGKjedSXauseknzfLSJn91EQUWcPBFgxex7XG60yXHCYEnourxlzMclx7Q4qRRdrwXjHgQculdDxKdxrX6jvLTi038kfxNQWrbroDkDCu03p/s688/catwalk_yourself.8andhalf.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="688" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrAC4xDSO3brs91bUTwVKlpY0V3DQozRL5C3u36p7MbZbS-pPU7v0MkejYsbFEu-aDhZUnw9-cmeDS-IVIGKjedSXauseknzfLSJn91EQUWcPBFgxex7XG60yXHCYEnourxlzMclx7Q4qRRdrwXjHgQculdDxKdxrX6jvLTi038kfxNQWrbroDkDCu03p/s320/catwalk_yourself.8andhalf.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>4. 8 ½ (1963) - Federico Fellini</b><br />Gianni Di Venanzo, perhaps not the first name that pops to mind when 8 ½ comes up is it? I’ll save you the search, he was the cinematographer on this movie. His camera feels like it never stops moving, nothing is static, and it keeps the pace so light. It often gets cited as the definitive auto-biographical movie about movies, but I’m not sure that’s apt. In true Italian film industry fashion, 5 screenwriters are credited here. Does it matter if these flashbacks are his or someone else’s? Of course not. Inspired perhaps by the new wave and Ingmar Bergman, Fellini was ready to take a radical swing here. Despite an ever evolving film industry, no one in Italy was doing what Fellini was here. Plenty of directors took a cue from him to make their own variations, but with the possible exception of Bob Fosse, no one came close. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ZR2undOkQX402xRUgLzN6brPhOIKj_7KmIANC82nL-ISTaaazbklIeAH34xfnY3TzowLhZyuxZg-CZeJZ1C_cKwN0bWpEjJVWGI2u3GYTC185YG_ifw79IyXvInIY0wa7maKVXYpKSKym28c-mmp0evVi9OJsww23PaLJgh0gupRi9--3RdxUCQ0I8zX/s1365/MV5BN2MzMGU0MzgtZWZjYy00YzYzLWE2MjAtYzE5ZjgyOWNhYjljXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjUwNzk3NDc@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1365" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ZR2undOkQX402xRUgLzN6brPhOIKj_7KmIANC82nL-ISTaaazbklIeAH34xfnY3TzowLhZyuxZg-CZeJZ1C_cKwN0bWpEjJVWGI2u3GYTC185YG_ifw79IyXvInIY0wa7maKVXYpKSKym28c-mmp0evVi9OJsww23PaLJgh0gupRi9--3RdxUCQ0I8zX/s320/MV5BN2MzMGU0MzgtZWZjYy00YzYzLWE2MjAtYzE5ZjgyOWNhYjljXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjUwNzk3NDc@._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>3. Apocalypse Now (1979) - Francis Ford Coppola </b><br />If Casablanca was the first classic I watched, Apocalypse Now might have been the second. That first viewing I remember thinking, wow what a good war film, too bad it got weird at the end. Then I thought, who cares about this boring war stuff, let’s get to Kurtz. Today I just love every minute of the film. I haven’t watched The Final Cut, and frankly don’t know if I will. Redux added nothing of value, and frankly how do you improve upon a movie this good? What a decade Coppola had, almost makes up for the decades of disappointment he’s given us since. I’m not sure I’d call this a cult film, but it’s definitely one that hits quite hard under the influence. Watching Dennis Hopper rant like a madman while Marlon Brando mumbles largely gibberish is the stuff of legend. Sometimes I wonder what alternate reality we would live in if Orson Welles first movie actually was his proposed adaptation of Heart of Darkness. Glad he left it for Coppola to take massive liberties. Like Lawrence of Arabia, and many other infamous productions, this went ludicrously over schedule and budget, but was forged into this beautiful and perfect diamond.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ-f9Q-xXHSZN66E2NDfgKPsCDE2FWok-HHq1SA68Y8nyA3WlnuZKQAoh_76SA91o2_YrckrQRFOMw4Xs8nCMD5ycwHtPxO594OqDugzg_-hhgmACSccHsE6iCdSb_ShoxXBL6VJxdmnYvZeszlmXu1oYHzPnndEaCwr1LiOJDOdATWhDJKKmeAvLxiKww/s5996/MV5BNzgzOGUyZWItYmI3NS00MjQzLWIxZDUtZjY3OTBiN2M5YzA0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDc2NTEzMw@@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2832" data-original-width="5996" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ-f9Q-xXHSZN66E2NDfgKPsCDE2FWok-HHq1SA68Y8nyA3WlnuZKQAoh_76SA91o2_YrckrQRFOMw4Xs8nCMD5ycwHtPxO594OqDugzg_-hhgmACSccHsE6iCdSb_ShoxXBL6VJxdmnYvZeszlmXu1oYHzPnndEaCwr1LiOJDOdATWhDJKKmeAvLxiKww/s320/MV5BNzgzOGUyZWItYmI3NS00MjQzLWIxZDUtZjY3OTBiN2M5YzA0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDc2NTEzMw@@._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - Stanley Kubrick</b><br />If this isn’t the greatest film of all time, it is the next closest thing. Last year the directors of the world voted this the best film of all time. It would be redundant to cite my opinion of Kubrick again here, but it would stand to reason his greatest film would rank among the best ever made. There are still people out here who just throw up their hands because they “don’t get it”. Before I even figured it out, I realized it didn’t matter. This movie is everything. It posits a great theory on how we got here and where we might be going. Nothing before it looked this good visually or in terms of the effects. John Alcott took over as cinematographer mid-shoot and proceeded to shoot Kubrick’s next three masterpieces. Kubrick also stumbled upon a brilliant idea using classical music as a temporary solution and leaving it in. More than anything though I just enjoy going on this ride every time. The final 30 minutes or so truly are my favorite thing in cinema.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuyuaKvj8RYrvXOlDurQu8rq4pSGeT9RK4Jr8ndNnFJF55A7QLnDmDkT2ZMMvwScR1EoD8zw9oxA-ejQNlZnReGkvxAuafY_FdD-EQSTPVenB3_gBfBbTqDg1o5-2XhAhryn6aFvmP9sN4wmfqCrnqs81sTCqT17xF_KuOV5o9iow7eoU5BYTHMiyWVIr2/s800/1%20yJ8NebUeOTrroYpGlzcsPg.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuyuaKvj8RYrvXOlDurQu8rq4pSGeT9RK4Jr8ndNnFJF55A7QLnDmDkT2ZMMvwScR1EoD8zw9oxA-ejQNlZnReGkvxAuafY_FdD-EQSTPVenB3_gBfBbTqDg1o5-2XhAhryn6aFvmP9sN4wmfqCrnqs81sTCqT17xF_KuOV5o9iow7eoU5BYTHMiyWVIr2/s320/1%20yJ8NebUeOTrroYpGlzcsPg.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>1. Citizen Kane (1941) - Orson Welles </b><br />A whole lot has changed in the last decade, but this isn’t one of them. There was hardly any doubt Orson Welles’ first film wouldn’t retain the rightful place as the greatest of all time. I purposely made sure I ended all my research with this one, busting out Criterion’s 4k, and hearing grandpa Ebert explain how every shot in the film was done. Many smarter people than me have written books on how brilliant Citizen Kane is. Even the most ardent haters, who bash this film because they think it’s a personality trait, admit it’s influence and innovations. Ultimately though this wouldn’t be my #1 for the past two decades plus if I didn’t profoundly love watching it. From the opening to the mirrored close I adore every second of this, even Susan Alexander’s off key singing is music to my ears. I don’t aim to convince you it’s the greatest of all time, but the past 20 or so years people seem to be going out of their way to challenge it. Sure, go ahead and say it’s Vertigo, or pardon my laughter Jeanne Dielman that’s the true #1, but you’re wrong. We know it’s Kane, it has always been Kane. <br /><br /><br /></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-66374400003479178302023-08-02T09:48:00.072-07:002023-08-02T10:05:50.851-07:00My Top 100 Films: 50-26<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUNIqFPhVgyNbn6JyEe4BQILnlAX-O1wCejcbdr-pXc29UA096akGpLepEWPxyQEw_Tn9DSZFbh7kc8fMYPYKTRIb_bZP4dF2rvj42w5edkZg1rPq5b-_-B9mkZKDqIUALCUlSNrKJeCAqypUtXd2XHoJ_C6tJZnJuWqsl-pNhztqfJAJoAmTRro4VwUKI/s1280/2875.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUNIqFPhVgyNbn6JyEe4BQILnlAX-O1wCejcbdr-pXc29UA096akGpLepEWPxyQEw_Tn9DSZFbh7kc8fMYPYKTRIb_bZP4dF2rvj42w5edkZg1rPq5b-_-B9mkZKDqIUALCUlSNrKJeCAqypUtXd2XHoJ_C6tJZnJuWqsl-pNhztqfJAJoAmTRro4VwUKI/s320/2875.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-0c35c9be-7fff-5864-3217-fe030da9779e" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">50. Raging Bull (1980) - Martin Scorsese </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I’m not sure there’s much new I can add to the discourse on Raging Bull. Long considered Scorsese’s masterpiece and on the very short list for best films of the 80s, it has even become a symbolic marking of the last hurrah for New Hollywood. The film succeeds against one very impressive obstacle, having an awful and irredeemable lead character. Jake LaMotta is an awful man, who could not help destroying his own life and alienating everyone around him. De Niro gives the method performance to end all others with his 60lb weight gain, but equally impressive is how much fighting training he put in. Scorsese makes each and every match a unique visual experience, focusing more on the inner machinations of LaMotta and less on presenting any sort of realism. After 9 viewings it still packs a punch, very much pun intended. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAFyTIYhW3nP8xfz4atrO57iBUtCL38KYNL1pe_JVvVj5tfXOq8mOTlP4TBu2D5x1fkveBluGScqS2VuPQYCi7AGuzqJH8hkweZg-0Xh-g7KR4qCmvWPf3CxSTW3_vClf9MjqnO0nTKcU_UuftX8w_oVjF5FpiJeaDWN3_zDFC56XJsjHREi6aoT2XLz40/s461/intolerance-bfi-00m-gv6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="461" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAFyTIYhW3nP8xfz4atrO57iBUtCL38KYNL1pe_JVvVj5tfXOq8mOTlP4TBu2D5x1fkveBluGScqS2VuPQYCi7AGuzqJH8hkweZg-0Xh-g7KR4qCmvWPf3CxSTW3_vClf9MjqnO0nTKcU_UuftX8w_oVjF5FpiJeaDWN3_zDFC56XJsjHREi6aoT2XLz40/s320/intolerance-bfi-00m-gv6.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">49. Intolerance (1916) - D.W. Griffith</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">If only someone accused D.W .Griffith of being a racist sooner we might have sped up the evolution of cinema by a few years. After topping everyone that came before him with the problematic Birth of a Nation, Griffith proceeded to top himself while reminding everyone he won’t stand for intolerance, at least among white people. What began as a simple story (later re-edited into The Mother and the Law), he knew he needed to go bigger and better to surpass Birth. Rather than expand his contemporary story about a mother who loses her baby to do-gooder reformers and a troubled husband at the hands of a frame, he simply added more stories. It is clear that his retelling of the crucifixion of Christ was largely left for the viewer to fill in the familiar blanks. The real meat of the film came from his Babylonian sequence. Over 100 years since, I’m still honestly amazed at the scale and scope of the film. So much detail went into those sets, and even after a half dozen viewings I still wonder how it was all done. <br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5HxvltXANvwlvnikopOG3cq-DAr712vwUp5BjKxdLidAyMLqhwC34h4FK8qZSE00bKxIGAKxq-dQnQhH29ylfHMYb6ywxFpY8SJkJj_4f5CTh1qKaA6hraE7Pd5CQb-rPrdCXfFmFaMkbJjj_Fvx-jl6vHmKdvS16iYlzPMFvYqdkBg2rmDKAfoYUmm9/s3500/inthemoodforlove2000.452042.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2280" data-original-width="3500" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5HxvltXANvwlvnikopOG3cq-DAr712vwUp5BjKxdLidAyMLqhwC34h4FK8qZSE00bKxIGAKxq-dQnQhH29ylfHMYb6ywxFpY8SJkJj_4f5CTh1qKaA6hraE7Pd5CQb-rPrdCXfFmFaMkbJjj_Fvx-jl6vHmKdvS16iYlzPMFvYqdkBg2rmDKAfoYUmm9/s320/inthemoodforlove2000.452042.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">48. In the Mood for Love (2000) - Wong Kar-Wai</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Time has been quite kind to Wong Kar-Wai’s first movie of the new millennium. It was hailed as one of the films of the decade immediately, and last year found itself cracking the top 10 on Sight and Sound’s poll. Well time to confess I’ve never “gotten” the film, at least until now. In fact up until this most recent re-watch I would have said this was my 4th favorite Wong film at best. Well search the rest of the list, my thoughts have changed. Perhaps it was the lack of “plot” that threw me off, but the more I watch it the more it puts me under the spell. It’s a heartbreaking film of two people that are just out of reach. A familiar theme for Wong who seems to have had a lifetime obsession with unrequited love. It doesn’t hurt that his two leads are some of the most attractive people to ever appear on film. That score though, and the cinematography, pre or post-color grading controversy it doesn’t matter. It’s so lovingly constructed and I just have to apologize for not figuring this out sooner.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTQDHjUdtiPf6rhHoKsrgi0FPhQnj3VVgbh1aN5ga74ntP03H6CrERgwsDK1Ll6ew_YSQ3a9QdXndNM30c3Kr4Ldbvshy9vfgK5U-iT6kmKCO5ucFYPpWWQW4PZDCR_FFVbEnbvRCXu6KYjOPws67Yq2e7SFez59T4PMY-O2n649ithr452v2n_-TV_KBZ/s1000/they-live-by-night-slide-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="1000" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTQDHjUdtiPf6rhHoKsrgi0FPhQnj3VVgbh1aN5ga74ntP03H6CrERgwsDK1Ll6ew_YSQ3a9QdXndNM30c3Kr4Ldbvshy9vfgK5U-iT6kmKCO5ucFYPpWWQW4PZDCR_FFVbEnbvRCXu6KYjOPws67Yq2e7SFez59T4PMY-O2n649ithr452v2n_-TV_KBZ/s320/they-live-by-night-slide-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 47. They Live By Night (1949) - Nicholas Ray</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Hollywood is loaded with potential what-ifs. How would James Dean’s career have gone if he didn’t die tragically young? Or what would have happened to Nicholas Ray’s film career if Howard Hughes didn’t take over RKO and shelve his debut for nearly two years? They Live by Night was doomed almost from the start, but unlike the New Mutants movie, this was actually great. He took nearly all the sensational elements from a lovers on the run movie, and distilled it just to the lovers. He paints his two doomed leads not as wild outlaws but as trapped victims of one too many bad breaks. Ray seems to go out of his way to hide any criminal activity, cutting one bank robbery from the script and shooting the other two entirely off camera. It made a huge impact over in Europe particularly with the directors who would start the French New Wave, which in turn would inspire Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, bringing everything full circle. Ironically Cathy O’Donnell, who had perhaps the saddest eyes in Hollywood, was from Alabama and spent years getting rid of her thick southern accent before making this. Even the slightly cheesy prologue lets us know right up front, this isn’t a crime film but a romance, and it gets me every time.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixxXkJmxzk8buXj3xUYWZB1OT-vnuWQZSg1LcYJV_Dm4EhOmH2talhKcN8ZzWHc0CV93wxLS2CV0IM99gwXTJzfVAYDCcohucP_T1FSpNz84GkSfl8vzdqX7xRQuSrYiExOICbnAgoVxGBPDiFm0p78kH2YaJcJn1Yq9SK9mf_n-7H6Dz4jg-Myiyfj67M/s616/gone-with-the-wind-gone-with-the-wind-4376021-1024-768.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="616" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixxXkJmxzk8buXj3xUYWZB1OT-vnuWQZSg1LcYJV_Dm4EhOmH2talhKcN8ZzWHc0CV93wxLS2CV0IM99gwXTJzfVAYDCcohucP_T1FSpNz84GkSfl8vzdqX7xRQuSrYiExOICbnAgoVxGBPDiFm0p78kH2YaJcJn1Yq9SK9mf_n-7H6Dz4jg-Myiyfj67M/s320/gone-with-the-wind-gone-with-the-wind-4376021-1024-768.webp" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">46. Gone With the Wind (1939) - Victor Flemming/George Cukor/Sam Wood</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Growing up I largely ignored classic movies. I knew of Casablanca and I knew my grandmother’s favorite movie was Gone With the Wind. I’m sure EVERYONE’s grandma’s favorite movie was Gone With the Wind, but can you blame them? Adjusted for inflation this is still the most successful film ever made, with a multiple year hype train which makes modern viral marketing pale in comparison. It was by far the biggest Hollywood production of its time, and frankly wouldn’t even come close to being topped until the 50s. Clark Gable descended from Mt. Olympus to step into Rhett Butler’s shoes, and to her dying day remained my grandmother’s all time favorite. Vivien Leigh beat out every other actress in the English speaking world for the role of a lifetime and boy did anyone ever nail a part. Perhaps my only gripe might be that Leslie Howard is no Clark Gable, how the hell is that the man you pine for? Sure Butterfly McQueen is obnoxious, but a couple minutes in a 3 ½ hour film is hardly going to ruin things. Like many films in our revisionist history it has had some degree of backlash largely from folks who never bothered watching it. Sure it romanticizes the hell out of the confederacy and gives the Union soldiers horns and pitchforks, that doesn’t mean you have to agree with their way of life. Just shut up and enjoy the movie, Yankee trash.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEmpEvs2vRO5lnve60LE29EA0e3liHqhXAJb2pNUwgXSLB6oxpm9AWZEOYGB9GVYl-JxWoN3hQKdGV_5BXNdQN6ViEaa10CouXw_hb94bAjZPmBbAhZZWVrQVUZRYd3BBwzLBCP-P-8e6ZBJRybg1sfQ5d-rjkC_qyASK40ucu1CJZHlDTNepv68nKzx91/s1936/dotheright1-superJumbo.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1090" data-original-width="1936" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEmpEvs2vRO5lnve60LE29EA0e3liHqhXAJb2pNUwgXSLB6oxpm9AWZEOYGB9GVYl-JxWoN3hQKdGV_5BXNdQN6ViEaa10CouXw_hb94bAjZPmBbAhZZWVrQVUZRYd3BBwzLBCP-P-8e6ZBJRybg1sfQ5d-rjkC_qyASK40ucu1CJZHlDTNepv68nKzx91/s320/dotheright1-superJumbo.png" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">45. Do the Right Thing (1989) - Spike Lee</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The more things change the more they stay the same. Spike Lee’s third film is noticeably dated in terms of its fashion and music but sadly just as relevant today in terms of police brutality. In fact in a post-Rodney King world or shit a post-George Floyd world Do the Right Thing is depressingly timely. We can have an awkward chuckle at the fact that this film went un-nominated for best picture when Driving Miss Daisy won, but the fact is this was bound to stick around. What makes Do the Right Thing still work isn’t so much the last act and the escalating incident that leads to a riot, but everything preceding it. Lee and Ernest Dickerson make a point to imbue every frame with something visually interesting. All these little parts of a whole that contribute to the bigger picture. How so many random, innocuous things can build up into something deadly. There is also an insistence on keeping every line of dialogue and exposition moving forward. He knows when to let the film breathe, when to ramp things up, and how to stack those layers throughout. After over 30 years it still is a decisive call to arms in a world where so little has changed.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zvp2yD-iEXpGHdMWgpGY_txBlYLyoDrjL-22gLJ-_UhFkLB5SrLW8PeKDQBIgpWz1T8W8BmG3_Hwwk_3xDTSwgC1kzidGuQhPDRiz7IYh7oHcgObE3plTFvMBqyO9BnCddyl-vMQ-ER8pmgCpvIYH__11IX-Rp2sdAzl3fW_FGUNq4Go0foPOi8Tc98g/s622/screen-shot-2016-11-21-at-3-13-52-pm.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="622" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zvp2yD-iEXpGHdMWgpGY_txBlYLyoDrjL-22gLJ-_UhFkLB5SrLW8PeKDQBIgpWz1T8W8BmG3_Hwwk_3xDTSwgC1kzidGuQhPDRiz7IYh7oHcgObE3plTFvMBqyO9BnCddyl-vMQ-ER8pmgCpvIYH__11IX-Rp2sdAzl3fW_FGUNq4Go0foPOi8Tc98g/s320/screen-shot-2016-11-21-at-3-13-52-pm.png" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">44. La La Land (2016) - Damien Chazelle </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Perhaps the two best American movies of the last decade happened to come out during the same season. Moonlight represented a new perspective and an encouragement for studios to back diverse voices. La La Land showed just what the studio system could produce when they give the right person money. Damien Chazelle used all the goodwill Whiplash gave him to make his dream musical. Justin Hurwitz delivers one of the all time great film scores here, and to be quite frank his music does a lot of heavy lifting, particularly in the last “what-if” montage. This is the type of movie that deserved all the Oscars, and nearly pulled it off if it weren’t for that pesky and very infamous screw up at the end. With a few years behind them I have to admit, I still prefer Chazelle’s film, but if you look around you’ll see Barry Jenkins isn’t too far behind. There was an exact moment, when Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling start floating in the Planetarium where I remembered exactly why I love movies so damn much. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJi4_nby99bnkM0qEVb9wdM7AFzPqmuA-WC7FiLyML9P5xt7oXYg1bSzM2pDJQ7ffK8nYuD3NEt2PqeIHt9MzRHUSINLCFV9_Ya11qjwGukG42L6VfDfkj6j7yK8-qrTY1xg6SaJi0EW0s8_NG3ORf5B3_tT4RqOWKta3YA43AWVrpsJW_qGOv1Qo7ryAB/s461/seventh-seal-bfi-00m-g2g.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="461" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJi4_nby99bnkM0qEVb9wdM7AFzPqmuA-WC7FiLyML9P5xt7oXYg1bSzM2pDJQ7ffK8nYuD3NEt2PqeIHt9MzRHUSINLCFV9_Ya11qjwGukG42L6VfDfkj6j7yK8-qrTY1xg6SaJi0EW0s8_NG3ORf5B3_tT4RqOWKta3YA43AWVrpsJW_qGOv1Qo7ryAB/s320/seventh-seal-bfi-00m-g2g.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><b>43. The Seventh Seal (1957) - Ingmar Bergman</b><br />There are many gateway pictures we see over the course of a lifetime. Sometimes they introduce you to a special filmmaker, sometimes a genre, other times a nation. I can say quite simply The Seventh Seal was my first Swedish film, or at least the first one I remember watching, but it introduced something far more important. This is one of those gateway films that assures you the old classic masters are just as worthwhile as they were decades earlier. For much of the world The Seventh Seal represented not just a breakthrough for Bergman, but what would become known as arthouse cinema in general. Movies tackling far more profound and philosophical themes than what traditional Hollywood pictures would get into. The reason 65+ years on Bergman’s film is still effective though is largely centered around how perfect everything is. Most of us remember the chess game with death, perhaps the plague ransacking the country, but there is also drunken humor, circus performers, random hijinks, and still it all fits into a little over 90 minutes. There were earlier good Bergman films but this kicked off a string of commercial and critical successes that launched him into the conversation as one of the top 10 directors in the world. For me anyways he’s probably in the top 3.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVABEP0hlRRFL5JxtcuAoJwtTzt7jrdOHSu_zY1ZA-Oc_ttfr4UsS2eiNrfdI3xuM2VLyvHhqrxoJGE8NS78oXoxDC8T_nNkQ-qkh-VpdzKVarxcDxjZRvnyXjxBgLNQr-VoPB-Bwcz3Xw0LUDG1QTGPllAJtYTls5-dMGrzRIlVGvGwJ7e-U27AaMIJqg/s1000/SCT_0310_GO_Movie_WorstPerson.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1000" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVABEP0hlRRFL5JxtcuAoJwtTzt7jrdOHSu_zY1ZA-Oc_ttfr4UsS2eiNrfdI3xuM2VLyvHhqrxoJGE8NS78oXoxDC8T_nNkQ-qkh-VpdzKVarxcDxjZRvnyXjxBgLNQr-VoPB-Bwcz3Xw0LUDG1QTGPllAJtYTls5-dMGrzRIlVGvGwJ7e-U27AaMIJqg/s320/SCT_0310_GO_Movie_WorstPerson.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">42. The Worst Person in the World (2021) - Joachim Trier </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">For better or worse, this was the only film from the 2020s I seriously considered for this list. Not saying the decade is off to a slow start, but we can admit that a global pandemic certainly slowed things down out of the gate. So why wouldn’t the best film of the current decade come out of Norway? Hollywood has long since given up while churning out legacy sequels no one asked for and endless franchise faire. Perhaps a few disastrous bombs and the current strikes might shake things up, but as long as folks like Joachim Trier keep making movies, cinema itself has a promising future. Renate Reinsve has also delivered my favorite performance in recent memory, and frankly I haven’t felt the feelings like that in a movie since the Before trilogy. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEE5POgCz1oiIysyi4D6B-J-AwiesA_7uPp7SzX4m0lsqOuXw-xCsXDL9Ah-ob3ld7f5ad8IhnoPZmOdFGPkFWIfymHDwCjhBZGcMiOrLMlnsFTTBcu4o0OZCUjtHiy8ggdcZiI02GbbH8nihc4bDrBN3aXApsOQxI2PEBSZS-JWy06_gXGmmpwL6Rd6hw/s461/tokyo-story-bfi-00m-gh0.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="461" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEE5POgCz1oiIysyi4D6B-J-AwiesA_7uPp7SzX4m0lsqOuXw-xCsXDL9Ah-ob3ld7f5ad8IhnoPZmOdFGPkFWIfymHDwCjhBZGcMiOrLMlnsFTTBcu4o0OZCUjtHiy8ggdcZiI02GbbH8nihc4bDrBN3aXApsOQxI2PEBSZS-JWy06_gXGmmpwL6Rd6hw/s320/tokyo-story-bfi-00m-gh0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 41. Tokyo Story (1953) - Yasujiro Ozu</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">What a cliche I am, saying this is Yasujiro Ozu’s best. For years I would point to Early Summer or even Good Morning as my favorite. Tokyo Story didn’t quite click with me, but a funny thing happened, and I got older. The reason it seems to inevitably become a favorite is because of how universal it is. The film is based on the also great Leo McCarey film Make Way for Tomorrow, but it transcends to a different level at the hands of Ozu. Plot threads in Ozu films can usually be summed up in a sentence, so in this movie two elderly parents travel to Tokyo to visit their children. While there, they find their kids have lives and jobs of their own and can’t necessarily be bothered to entertain them. It breaks your heart, but is filled with that simple and elegant style of his. The more I watch it the harder it resonates. Be nice to your parents folks, they won’t be around forever.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyaS6g1mFLi9SjpWGjIawMZmymJXfZupDuHd5N-j19F-jAQ2b0hQ2KPbF5lbcbsrFLxw2bSolEvqJjRfKto7rBNo38Y2ahUkRtJxKgEh3KjD2Aof1NxzgLwykQmE8BvjOR2sViUMalfIURZX5d1-LBk7aOwR6VLw4rDxCJD6zcsPIxX0tEQgc_84am0sBX/s916/The%20Searchers%201956%2008%20Walter%20Coy,%20John%20Wayne,%20Dorothy%20Jordan.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="916" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyaS6g1mFLi9SjpWGjIawMZmymJXfZupDuHd5N-j19F-jAQ2b0hQ2KPbF5lbcbsrFLxw2bSolEvqJjRfKto7rBNo38Y2ahUkRtJxKgEh3KjD2Aof1NxzgLwykQmE8BvjOR2sViUMalfIURZX5d1-LBk7aOwR6VLw4rDxCJD6zcsPIxX0tEQgc_84am0sBX/s320/The%20Searchers%201956%2008%20Walter%20Coy,%20John%20Wayne,%20Dorothy%20Jordan.JPG" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">40. The Searchers (1956) - John Ford</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Interesting that we live in a world where you almost have to apologize for liking a John Wayne film. Sure I can’t picture anyone else as Ethan Edwards, but this is John Ford at his absolute best, and the man did some great work. The Searchers was a salute to Monument Valley, and began a string of late career revisionist work. On the surface the natives are evil Comanches and we are rooting for the whites. Just underneath we see just how fucked up and racist our “hero” is. His allegiance to the Confederacy tells us more than we think. It isn’t his noble cause, it’s telling us the man is a god damn racist in his first scene. The fact that he could masquerade as the good guy for so long lets us know a lot about some rather backwards ideas in Hollywood. Not saying this is a true subversive ultra-liberal Western, but you can read it as such. Sure we can lament the fact that the famous Comanche war chief is played by the very white German Henry Brandon, but it lets us know in a sneaky way that the white guys are the villains when it comes to perpetuating violence. I could be reading too much into it, the movie is just fantastic and remains the best American made western, and Ford’s masterpiece.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8c1_rpCuS0_nijtMMZp2eLKUtMRU13JqQjk3Xdb4rLACe1S7pEEYDaQrFW6MsOFWAkzDUVDRK1aF0LZEw6W94t-MAbM7dDLyeKBfmotMDb0lja3qkK2K_YOU6FizusPX80OQ1sap_WLujAw17nvQHBAgt-OUag3siYWWoZPOgEJ3IwovZd48gP16ATto3/s800/The-Maltese-Falcon.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8c1_rpCuS0_nijtMMZp2eLKUtMRU13JqQjk3Xdb4rLACe1S7pEEYDaQrFW6MsOFWAkzDUVDRK1aF0LZEw6W94t-MAbM7dDLyeKBfmotMDb0lja3qkK2K_YOU6FizusPX80OQ1sap_WLujAw17nvQHBAgt-OUag3siYWWoZPOgEJ3IwovZd48gP16ATto3/s320/The-Maltese-Falcon.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">39. The Maltese Falcon (1941) - John Huston </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Every time I make a list like this I seem to forget something really obvious. Well despite looking over my checklist about 4,000 times and even revisiting John Huston’s directorial debut, I forgot to actually write it down. Well palm meet face, I would wager there will never be a top 100 movie list from yours truly without this gem. Folks might argue whether this was the first true film noir, but it doesn’t matter. It set up the private eye film as a staple of 1940s cinema and is one of several hits that established Humphrey Bogart as a legend. Despite being adapted twice before, this remains the definitive version of Dashiell Hammet’s book. I would argue the reason is that John Huston really didn’t fuck with it too much. A few things had to be cleaned up for the censors, but plot wise this certainly captures the spirit of Sam Spade. After a few successful screenplays, perhaps the most talented nepo-baby of them all, John Huston got to direct his first film, and like Orson Welles that same year, I don’t think he ever did better. This is one you can revisit a hundred times and love just as much. Truly without flaw.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2n6PET1oIcJnDnT-ODNLsc6Q1FEsHfM_JLA8gxXD5uMo69Ucat8H7dFL39HTDrVFfYzD_fN5-pL4DZlpBbwE0Lxh_YNV8hS_TXDd8R2PzcQp1yZXvc0cmm88onwFIjK7WVph6NWK9EPB72FQqecBpniMVl0EC0oefUbGKdZZDOvM3CHHxAqeT9IqvGNX6/s576/EB19880311REVIEWS803110301AR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="576" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2n6PET1oIcJnDnT-ODNLsc6Q1FEsHfM_JLA8gxXD5uMo69Ucat8H7dFL39HTDrVFfYzD_fN5-pL4DZlpBbwE0Lxh_YNV8hS_TXDd8R2PzcQp1yZXvc0cmm88onwFIjK7WVph6NWK9EPB72FQqecBpniMVl0EC0oefUbGKdZZDOvM3CHHxAqeT9IqvGNX6/s320/EB19880311REVIEWS803110301AR.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">38. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - John Frankenheimer </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">There are some movies that leave you speechless after you watch them. John Frankenheimer’s Manchurian Candidate was one of them. What sets this apart is that even knowing the shock or twist of it, I am constantly roped back in. This is more than a twist ending, and to be honest I’m not even sure it’s that much of a twist. 24 years of watching it has maybe diminished the initial shock factor. How they constructed a shot that changes from a ladies garden party to a communist lecture on brain washing without cutting is still remarkable. Henry Silva is less Korean than I am, but it is Hollywood in 1962, they thought Obi Wan Kenobi was Arab. Different time man. Frankenheimer emerged as one of the major new filmmakers coming from the land of television. It beautifully sets up the loosening censorship and the experimental nature that Hollywood would go towards through the decade.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV3nHimHBCxNVgdVYN0BPSlFKz701rD2pT-Lx-oVAElKvFLkSVJVP1QRjFZfvy10CGRyMNURr52Dp3kmz3VKc22qnF1Hg_RG0zTnyufmQFXvkw_0q16dGyMEJRv_vZnFIGnOvg7cXs-OtN_Idr9CfDoVPIxoZ6LNA6gqzptvaqB8vt_VyZZmJ3xlMckoWU/s1200/0-1-1200x653.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="1200" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV3nHimHBCxNVgdVYN0BPSlFKz701rD2pT-Lx-oVAElKvFLkSVJVP1QRjFZfvy10CGRyMNURr52Dp3kmz3VKc22qnF1Hg_RG0zTnyufmQFXvkw_0q16dGyMEJRv_vZnFIGnOvg7cXs-OtN_Idr9CfDoVPIxoZ6LNA6gqzptvaqB8vt_VyZZmJ3xlMckoWU/s320/0-1-1200x653.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">37. Ordinary People (1980) - Robert Redford </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Most of us with some skin in the cinema game have movies on our watch lists. Occasionally a few of these seem like chores, stuff you gotta get through but aren’t necessarily looking forward to. It is tempting when looking through the list of best picture Oscar winners to see Ordinary People and want to skip it. Quite a few people watched it simply out of curiosity, after all what film could have possibly beaten Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull? Well this is maybe the 5th time I’ve watched Robert Redford’s directorial debut and every god damn time it gets me. I find myself a fragile emotional mess and wonder how it holds up so well. You can tell that Judith Guest (who wrote the novel it was adapted from) had actually seen a therapist because this movie gets depression better than every film before it. Sure I get a kick out of seeing what a town I worked in looked like 40 years ago, but it is mainly the astonishingly good performances. It might seem like a cliche but Pachelbel’s Canon is still possibly the finest piece of music ever written. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi27Jg_3x7muzpfizUsPuCQgpsa5911VOpxUhrdZvvLmpjoqWypskLmkZ1JGjJHIiz2XY_bgWxeOT_RfZGsZOzWR1cC1r2jbnAMaDO-d-hEIBgiqCsI9xnw2VIwT7wqe25Pl2maLra28ekPR_N3BYw7e2Dkln-bDsdR708pUhwwasHBYB8fOQVFA2CtZrOH/s1920/MFJDMRHJELPQUEMI72O2UGSLIA.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1920" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi27Jg_3x7muzpfizUsPuCQgpsa5911VOpxUhrdZvvLmpjoqWypskLmkZ1JGjJHIiz2XY_bgWxeOT_RfZGsZOzWR1cC1r2jbnAMaDO-d-hEIBgiqCsI9xnw2VIwT7wqe25Pl2maLra28ekPR_N3BYw7e2Dkln-bDsdR708pUhwwasHBYB8fOQVFA2CtZrOH/s320/MFJDMRHJELPQUEMI72O2UGSLIA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">36. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - David Lean</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">David Lean’s 1962 masterpiece was one of the first 5 classic films that got me hooked on cinema. An epic on a grand scale it is a remarkable film of a great director really getting to make the movie of his dreams. As many great passion projects it went ludicrously over budget and over schedule, but the final product was so worth it. Lean used his editing background to deliver perhaps the most iconic single edit in film history with our first shot of the desert. Peter O’Toole shockingly made his debut here, and despite a legendary career spanning decades, he was never better. There are certainly things about Lawrence that seem impossible today, from its location photography, pacing, practical battles, and the fact that so many non-Arabs are in the cast. However can you get a better Prince Feisal than Mr. Genuine Class himself Alec Guiness? It is the rare intersection of art and commerce that has made Lawrence endure. Perhaps it’s my own bias but I don’t think I even registered the first 6 times I saw this that there doesn’t appear to be a single female anywhere in the near 4 hour run time. Maurice Jarre contributes the most iconic music in a Hollywood epic since Max Steiner’s Gone with the Wind score. <br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNziueABF5OHcmTQzH6nUBhBmy5mislO1KCFgg3ahrQvlmQAmZQWXiBNV9KNogT85dqoeQyaMKy0zY_1VkPc-z7jN1YVvPJNPYLUPXgCbvE2eibMUmpzeXs6MwS8nVQjDalNkTDE3GYXjueuaefNx1nV4CiANUSYRZdh4f65iB5h0Hsv03r_00goVIVvcM/s1920/b0e34c381786fc9ab5e29d042b618bf84c4ccc83ba56dac56175a024097d8f57._RI_TTW_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNziueABF5OHcmTQzH6nUBhBmy5mislO1KCFgg3ahrQvlmQAmZQWXiBNV9KNogT85dqoeQyaMKy0zY_1VkPc-z7jN1YVvPJNPYLUPXgCbvE2eibMUmpzeXs6MwS8nVQjDalNkTDE3GYXjueuaefNx1nV4CiANUSYRZdh4f65iB5h0Hsv03r_00goVIVvcM/s320/b0e34c381786fc9ab5e29d042b618bf84c4ccc83ba56dac56175a024097d8f57._RI_TTW_.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">35. City of God (2002) - Fernando Meirelles/Katia Lund </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Sometimes a movie is a no-doubter right off the bat. I saw City of God in the theater, instantly thought it was the film of the year, and 20 years later it’s still sitting on my list. It might be a bit simplistic to say this is a Brazilian Goodfellas, but if Henry Hill were just some guy in the neighborhood it would check out. Rocket tells a story stretched from the 60s to early 80s of life in the “City of God” projects of Rio, and it’s just brilliant. Things move at a rapid pace and never do you feel lost or that there’s too much being thrown at you. Co-directors Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund are able to distill an entire subculture down into a two hour film. Seems a shame Lund didn’t make too many solo efforts after this because Meirelles’ later work never came close to this. Their powers combined though absolutely knocked it out of the park and what I would consider the single greatest South American movie ever made. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPFBbm2iC5hsqyC-BeBQUGoKFU4eIXlCc8VjBO1riu92oN6OQ6C-cTMBby8RX_QbGEdLkKqhGHcegZDaiUjaocVTUH2Z0tl_bSjwvNp7eX2H58-ZFw4PR8knj6kmDxE83uXQlqpJMWu9dScQnGr_S6aBO0FFMQU3IBUvp6mCtwOsm-Qkz5XghiFTbKzI5v/s400/Psycho1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="400" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPFBbm2iC5hsqyC-BeBQUGoKFU4eIXlCc8VjBO1riu92oN6OQ6C-cTMBby8RX_QbGEdLkKqhGHcegZDaiUjaocVTUH2Z0tl_bSjwvNp7eX2H58-ZFw4PR8knj6kmDxE83uXQlqpJMWu9dScQnGr_S6aBO0FFMQU3IBUvp6mCtwOsm-Qkz5XghiFTbKzI5v/s320/Psycho1.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">34. Psycho (1960) - Alfred Hitchcock </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Whenever I put together the massive list of re-watches for a project like this I inevitably find myself with an absurd number of Alfred Hitchcock movies. Somehow knowing when it’s all over with Psycho will be the one left standing. It has been my favorite since the first viewing, and it still is. One of the few times the master of suspense seemed to delve head first into horror, it utilized his TV crew and a significantly smaller budget than usual. He shattered a few conventions and helped establish a few others. Screenwriter Joseph Stefano was clearly very into psychoanalysis at the time, and much of the psychology is Freud for dummies. He insisted on the exposition dump at the end which is one of the few misses this one makes. The rest of it is just a brilliant accumulation of details, twists, and shocks that still pack a punch. I can’t imagine another film I’d love to go back in time to see for the first time, knowing nothing. Anthony Perkins was so good as Norman Bates he never really escaped the role in his later years. You know you got something when entire generations are scared of taking a shower after watching this.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiClERalnBWvvdXUwe52xdkWcdVglP6V14QfSADCHEh_zybfZzwMCV1611F_d3sMX2OSGM-LPs9HTkeiI1FboOfdp6Lc4Rw_Gzd8K8-htcPVmpRNFc4824134hLYvCG-jDmxm-hedXF9ZOaFRHN0Vw8DOdTqxqUj_u0y3JfCpD3mTo4C24Y9YscuuGfQKo2/s820/97073.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="820" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiClERalnBWvvdXUwe52xdkWcdVglP6V14QfSADCHEh_zybfZzwMCV1611F_d3sMX2OSGM-LPs9HTkeiI1FboOfdp6Lc4Rw_Gzd8K8-htcPVmpRNFc4824134hLYvCG-jDmxm-hedXF9ZOaFRHN0Vw8DOdTqxqUj_u0y3JfCpD3mTo4C24Y9YscuuGfQKo2/s320/97073.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">33. Sunset Boulevard (1950) - Billy Wilder</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">There are plenty of great movie battles we’ve had over the last century. Sometimes it’s stars, sometimes directors, but the best to debate are always the common theme-same year battles. Both Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve were in a hotly contested best picture race and both their older leading ladies were neck and neck for best actress. Judy Holiday played spoiler on both and won for Born Yesterday and Mankiewicz got the better of Wilder in the director and picture race. It’s hard to feel bad for Billy Wilder who has two best pictures/director combos himself, but he definitely made the better film in 1950. Sunset Boulevard begins like a great pulpy film noir and somehow morphs into one of the most cynical and bitter insider movies we’re likely to see. It is part Hollywood history lesson, part cautionary tale, and just so damn good. The script is damn near perfect, but the style is everything. So many deep focus compositions, so many classic images, and one of those famous closing lines even people who have never seen the movie before instantly recognize. I may have told this story before but this film will always remind me why my love of film is just a little different from others. My first day of Film and Society, which technically was my first college film course, arrived and I got there early. I met the teacher outside of class and struck up a general conversation. She said we would be watching Sunset Boulevard the first night and asked if I had seen it. I replied “Of course, several times, hasn’t everybody?” Well after attendance and syllabus things were done my teacher asked the now full class the same question if they had seen the movie. I was the only hand that was raised. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu4K8YghtUaFOuthMSPs3Nnw9iMW01rHj59whyKheHgwcDvuI82Iin8uzAwv4XykyVdo0Br8DqBWzqd6O3btzvXrREkz-Qs-7HdUDqg-6GNtD-KZ_XCadHFsfjlbPK2Ahs6PpSt9qsrqtTvNPf3kpiJAjHaom4AFJUosjSc6amXsTQu59ZtSeS_LJhkKgL/s500/197980__62513.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="500" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu4K8YghtUaFOuthMSPs3Nnw9iMW01rHj59whyKheHgwcDvuI82Iin8uzAwv4XykyVdo0Br8DqBWzqd6O3btzvXrREkz-Qs-7HdUDqg-6GNtD-KZ_XCadHFsfjlbPK2Ahs6PpSt9qsrqtTvNPf3kpiJAjHaom4AFJUosjSc6amXsTQu59ZtSeS_LJhkKgL/s320/197980__62513.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">32. Seven Samurai (1954) - Akira Kurosawa </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">There are a number of classics that seem truly undeniable. Movies that are so good you know 5-10 minutes in that this one is something special. Quite a few of those movies are on this list, and Seven Samurai absolutely belongs in that conversation. The fact that it manages to stand out amongst a very impressive filmography is even more impressive. There are no shortage of great Kurosawa movies, but this was his best. It helped redefine and re-invigorate the samurai film, and spawned so many imitators. The entire epic is a masterclass in editing and proof positive that there are no great movies that are “too long”. Not sure if the credit is all due him, but it was one of the first historical Japanese films to incorporate some comic relief, perhaps not to the extent of Ford but certainly not the austere period films of the past. Summing up great action, class struggle, and his entire humanist philosophy, Seven Samurai speaks volumes.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpbUnOkoLZBcZZVEchcz5EIec4UdfGNoGmzUEpZXkpm2ncjJOAnT1GkZLdTST35WaxFpRq8idMa6r5T4XGJvnlRW5TMUz9rbiwy6f_CYVp9MgxLMv5hhsGfjfCy6SgKx4Z_csUCLOJipOKx7PfhW9kphlXMMDcS7elFaZAHAdihyfS636RKLS5Ovl4TwUB/s1000/image.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="1000" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpbUnOkoLZBcZZVEchcz5EIec4UdfGNoGmzUEpZXkpm2ncjJOAnT1GkZLdTST35WaxFpRq8idMa6r5T4XGJvnlRW5TMUz9rbiwy6f_CYVp9MgxLMv5hhsGfjfCy6SgKx4Z_csUCLOJipOKx7PfhW9kphlXMMDcS7elFaZAHAdihyfS636RKLS5Ovl4TwUB/s320/image.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">31. Tree of Life (2011) - Terrence Malick </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">It is entirely possible Tree of Life would still be in my top 10 if Terence Malick never made another movie after it. After averaging a film a decade, he suddenly unlocked a cheat code with this and made as many movies in the 2010s as the forty years before. When Tree of Life ventures beyond the story and tackles outer space and the beginning of life I was transfixed in much the same way the final act of 2001 mesmerizes me. When we returned to the story and Emmanuel Lubezki’s camera that never ceases moving, I started to feel cheated. This exact same formula would pop up in his next four films and lose its impact. Watching Tree of Life for the first time I thought someone had achieved nirvana in cinematic form. I could say this is why I often have a reluctance to put newer films high on my list, it takes some time to decipher what the lasting impression was. Now however we can finally watch the expanded version with all of those Sean Penn scenes re-inserted, which can be more of a good thing or dead weight depending on who you ask. Whenever Malick is done making films for good, this will probably be remembered as the lynchpin for his career, where he seemed to figure it all out.<br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI4Xsi5myv1lntzEGk14Jo69vTmr3rmazDvx3mVTpqJOhtptw2OAv5jBWIDHfj_jji0j6-aXn0fq3LRdkDdR38jPyPYRJNwS1YL88QGri0PQB7E-sQO3vz2-plF3vcdYilQPgRE-wW1tB-klUW4jGNxtn-EFrUv6Es125alp9oUlsuSFFaWtt1V7zNPnvA/s750/the-passion-of-joan-of-arc-12617_1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="750" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI4Xsi5myv1lntzEGk14Jo69vTmr3rmazDvx3mVTpqJOhtptw2OAv5jBWIDHfj_jji0j6-aXn0fq3LRdkDdR38jPyPYRJNwS1YL88QGri0PQB7E-sQO3vz2-plF3vcdYilQPgRE-wW1tB-klUW4jGNxtn-EFrUv6Es125alp9oUlsuSFFaWtt1V7zNPnvA/s320/the-passion-of-joan-of-arc-12617_1.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">30. Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - Carl Theodor Dreyer </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Until his dying breath Carl Theodor Dreyer insisted his 1928 masterpiece was not an avant-garde art film but was populist cinema. There is little indication throughout his career that Dreyer could have made a popular film if he tried. Does it matter in the end? Of course not, this is a masterpiece and a remarkable bit of celluloid. Told almost entirely through close-ups and medium shots it has a few thousand more cuts than his later movies like Gertrud and Ordet. It’s hard to imagine the same person making these films. Despite the heavy influence of Soviet cinema, Eisenstein himself said this was more a collection of images than kino. Well it doesn’t matter how you describe it or what category it fits into, it’s simply one of the greatest works of art the 20th century produced. Smarter people than me have literally written books on Dreyer’s construction, style, and editing, so what can I add to the discourse? Suffice to say, no amount of style could carry a film that didn’t have a foundation of a compelling story and an all-time great performance anchoring the whole thing.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ5qG0e3qTpWuuMx0yBQ1fzu2Sqj4ptM4VSaLqhJR0llpBu_W3kl2QpiewgzkrUFR2KjV6lai6ooT7FJ8iFuEJf4EMxHPTpmHAVvNBkcXtr4bpZwz7roTtMe20ju7_d5mPhe-_0aBTimmoz1SBxU6uWa8VRnE-86FhHpPm9LURTdkCCuYUCCdZQe7nGwGp/s1594/Napoleon_1927.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1594" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ5qG0e3qTpWuuMx0yBQ1fzu2Sqj4ptM4VSaLqhJR0llpBu_W3kl2QpiewgzkrUFR2KjV6lai6ooT7FJ8iFuEJf4EMxHPTpmHAVvNBkcXtr4bpZwz7roTtMe20ju7_d5mPhe-_0aBTimmoz1SBxU6uWa8VRnE-86FhHpPm9LURTdkCCuYUCCdZQe7nGwGp/s320/Napoleon_1927.jpg" width="241" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">29. Napoléon (1927) - Abel Gance </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">God bless Kevin Brownlow. The man has been a silent film junkie for decades and has made it his life’s work to restore Abel Gance’s Napoleon to its original length as best he can. This task he has undertaken since 1969, only emerging with this full 5 ½ hour version a couple years ago. Simply put this full version wasn’t even available to me the last time I made this list, certainly not on blu-ray with an impressive audio commentary track. Like many pretentious silent films it is questionable which version is the “definitive” edition, but the BFI restoration is clearly the most complete in existence. So much innovation, so many wild chances, and it feels still like Gance was inventing a new medium as he went along. Staggering to think he meant for this to be the first of 6 movies on Napoleon. See kids, even in 1927 people were planning franchises before they even released the first movie. Luckily for us, Gance put a career’s worth of cinematic marvels into this single film. I look forward to being substantially unimpressed with Ridley Scott’s biopic due this year, I’m sure it will win 10 Oscars.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4UonU-bFGBPANqmH5Y0jNDcosIpK5p6Z_RXY5RtZAEEj71neXzqsQ37PZHxl51TC3AHv1aL27hNZwsPRqVEMPI-QGVSHtowuaO1fs88Zv6xU9XzvVBEp3prW8WlAdhnqzffqHEzInXkxA8zbK6DDHCaK3_hJswCa-R7J3REew1mjfWfq0hrl4IboA88jw/s2000/Goodfellas%20Everett%20Collection.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1329" data-original-width="2000" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4UonU-bFGBPANqmH5Y0jNDcosIpK5p6Z_RXY5RtZAEEj71neXzqsQ37PZHxl51TC3AHv1aL27hNZwsPRqVEMPI-QGVSHtowuaO1fs88Zv6xU9XzvVBEp3prW8WlAdhnqzffqHEzInXkxA8zbK6DDHCaK3_hJswCa-R7J3REew1mjfWfq0hrl4IboA88jw/s320/Goodfellas%20Everett%20Collection.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">28. Goodfellas (1990) - Martin Scorsese </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">A decade ago I made what seemed like a bold choice to name this my favorite Scorsese film. That choice doesn’t quite seem so odd anymore, but over the last decade I began to wonder if my exuberance was justified. Maybe it doesn’t hold up as well as I thought, maybe it might not even make the list at all. Well by the time grown-up Henry Hill shows up, there was no doubt that this wasn’t going anywhere. Yeah it drives me absolutely insane that Karen’s rapey neighbor lets himself get pistol whipped without making any effort whatsoever to protect his face or fight back, but that is a minor gripe in an otherwise perfect film. Few movies ever move as quickly and are so compulsively rewatchable. It’s not necessarily that every viewing reveals more details and depth, it’s just that it’s so damn good why wouldn’t you want to return to it over and over again. This is cinematic comfort food, a big plate of lasagna if you will. It represents a perfection of craft from one of our greatest storytellers. Even Scorsese himself has dipped back into the same well to use those same techniques with Casino, The Departed, Wolf of Wall Street, and even The Irishman, hey when it ain’t broke right?<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YUO91BZi2G6ABLm1jD7bkhTkPnHK2NeAB0DL7gEvtQFRoHBac62WNuPAWlCSOBEMIh7kZ1XyMyRKCFA7FxxQeJuszlO3QnR8d_kEEa1eEmCGGmpfMJK2ySz00f7yRuR08j-hKJykFohi13EWkTpCy2w4UeGTf9kqwXU8HdutXdgEXt8ewWHCyVo2V128/s894/71lSfBobN+L._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="894" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YUO91BZi2G6ABLm1jD7bkhTkPnHK2NeAB0DL7gEvtQFRoHBac62WNuPAWlCSOBEMIh7kZ1XyMyRKCFA7FxxQeJuszlO3QnR8d_kEEa1eEmCGGmpfMJK2ySz00f7yRuR08j-hKJykFohi13EWkTpCy2w4UeGTf9kqwXU8HdutXdgEXt8ewWHCyVo2V128/s320/71lSfBobN+L._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">27. La Dolce Vita (1960) - Federico Fellini</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Three Italian movies from 1960 are on this list. Visconti may have channeled the past, and Antonioni spoke for the time, but Fellini was out here in 2060. Narratively it was his last seemingly straight forward film for years, but its subject matter was made for today. A social circle where no one seems to ever do any work and a peripheral community that wants to follow every detail. This is the kind of chance you take after two Academy awards and a lot of money. La Dolce Vita is more of a collection of episodes than any straightforward story. Some speculate it is based on the creation myth, with each sequence representing a different day. There is something to that, because this does seem to be everything.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbNcf19OE-VtQOQRlmrAOIF_iUE4N5XEs9R6b0iddEfHxbkR153qmHcdWfWcqvyuHrlifL3k25-IzgxlF7SWGAnwxQiRuuszbI7rRLpF4mkAczQP3XO9eoaW_RYuV6jantv-ne6_paGh-wozFME7JOeUv95aMF9I9Ybga1barVhSwwWXZ1nqRAfJokVwQD/s800/blue-velvet-david-lynch-11159886-800-340.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="800" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbNcf19OE-VtQOQRlmrAOIF_iUE4N5XEs9R6b0iddEfHxbkR153qmHcdWfWcqvyuHrlifL3k25-IzgxlF7SWGAnwxQiRuuszbI7rRLpF4mkAczQP3XO9eoaW_RYuV6jantv-ne6_paGh-wozFME7JOeUv95aMF9I9Ybga1barVhSwwWXZ1nqRAfJokVwQD/s320/blue-velvet-david-lynch-11159886-800-340.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">26. Blue Velvet (1986) - David Lynch </span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Can you believe the first time I watched this movie I didn’t love it because it wasn’t weird enough? It follows a long tradition of directors finding their voice/style. Sure Eraserhead established that Lynch was truly one of a kind, and Elephant Man brought some Academy attention. After the failure of Dune, Lynch seemed to find his footing, and the rest is history as they say. He helped give Kyle Maclaughlin another shot at stardom, while handing Dennis Hopper the role of a lifetime. Still blows my mind he got nominated that year….for Hoosiers. Oh well not the first time the Academy was clueless. All the markings of Twin Peaks are here, the strangeness, the surface normalcy, and some sweet Angelo Badalamenti music. Narratively speaking it remains Lynch’s best work, with the weirdness on the fringes and in the characters rather than just confusing everyone. Can anyone ever order a Heinekin without hearing Frank Booth in their head? <br /></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-45952198038297142142023-07-31T20:55:00.000-07:002023-07-31T20:55:03.275-07:00Top 100 Films 75-51<b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTAJDaev8b-h0rzpNbLEr0nMzR8WTuvU0VYsHCvNBmOCjVO8j4Y7SNgeESXYvJX0eaUpdp36sFrUi1_FYxoAw6qDsL3wPiALmPUSOONXEjOMRum8KyePHCdaxzwCxrv3-aEnbzl2oxLBjVGylW5B5YiDfwOC-l7Ylyds11BTC5v3-HYLznozjaj74UasjU/s700/The-Third-Man-courtesy-of-Studiocanal-05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="700" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTAJDaev8b-h0rzpNbLEr0nMzR8WTuvU0VYsHCvNBmOCjVO8j4Y7SNgeESXYvJX0eaUpdp36sFrUi1_FYxoAw6qDsL3wPiALmPUSOONXEjOMRum8KyePHCdaxzwCxrv3-aEnbzl2oxLBjVGylW5B5YiDfwOC-l7Ylyds11BTC5v3-HYLznozjaj74UasjU/s320/The-Third-Man-courtesy-of-Studiocanal-05.jpg" width="320" /></a><b> <br /></b></div></b><p></p><p><b>75. The Third Man (1949) - Carol Reed </b><br />If you want to know what my ideal movie would look like stylistically, The Third Man might be it. Carol Reed did his best Orson Welles impression and even got the man himself to deliver his most iconic acting role. Post-war black market Vienna is the backdrop for the film once named the greatest British movie of all time. Not hard to argue it as the years have only made this film better and better. Cinematographer Robert Krasker also shot Brief Encounter, easily the best looking of David Lean’s black and white features. The German Expressionist influence is all over it, but distilled through the prism of American post-war noir films, and great advancements in lenses and deep focus photography. All of that means nothing without a damn interesting story courtesy of Graham Greene, who makes this his best collaboration with Reed. There’s also the little matter of the zither score by Anton Karas, which oddly enough became a mini-sensation after the release. When the parts are this great, the sum is truly exceptional.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6TjatXzsMZd8EthtaSgR47Sjcj7O-6Ju9lBehe2r3b36QnmQozFMr1Cx6YeZ0HTukHoWfBXySeRMNYQLXjDhYZPlByPN8oUXu1T1ccw1h3j2RPVPbJl2d6j-ugc_aZJTp4OrRftlrNH5FlfCWkBNv9IUaPH0kIzBSn0jf-wWwTWwPwF4rpkkqt7DK4sJd/s1200/MV5BZGZjNGVkYTQtOGI0Mi00YjYyLWFlNDktNjk2YzQ0MjMwYzU0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzY1MzQyOTY@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="868" data-original-width="1200" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6TjatXzsMZd8EthtaSgR47Sjcj7O-6Ju9lBehe2r3b36QnmQozFMr1Cx6YeZ0HTukHoWfBXySeRMNYQLXjDhYZPlByPN8oUXu1T1ccw1h3j2RPVPbJl2d6j-ugc_aZJTp4OrRftlrNH5FlfCWkBNv9IUaPH0kIzBSn0jf-wWwTWwPwF4rpkkqt7DK4sJd/s320/MV5BZGZjNGVkYTQtOGI0Mi00YjYyLWFlNDktNjk2YzQ0MjMwYzU0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzY1MzQyOTY@._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>74. Sansho the Bailiff (1954) - Kenji Mizoguchi </b><br />This one is dedicated to John-5 wherever you are. In the long, long ago when the foreignfilms.com board was active a particular member there spoke often on how Kenji Mizoguchi was the greatest director to ever live and Sansho the Bailiff was the single greatest movie ever made. As you can tell by my numbering, I don’t quite agree with him, but 20+ years after that idea was planted in my brain I finally can at least agree it is Mizoguchi’s masterpiece. I have also posted here about Mizoguchi being Japan’s greatest director as well. Sansho is in the middle of what would prove to be a late career surge for Kenji, which saw him as prolific as ever up to his death. In fact this was one of 3 films he made in just 1954. After the triumphs of Life of Oharu (featured in the 2013 edition) and Ugetsu, the old master topped himself with Sansho. It displays a rare humanist streak in his work which would probably be more in line with Kurosawa. The world is cruel and often unforgiving but there can be some redemptive justice, but often not for everyone. The acting in the film also seems very restrained by 1950s Japanese standards with only a few violent outbursts which seem very much in context. If I had a complaint it would be that the score often sounds like a 5 year old is playing a recorder over the otherwise well composed music, something that was impossible to un-hear after my wife brought it up.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0YDu6I6FC8SXiFcNPbZqHO-oe3-_0k1PW3gYpKWV76POODV8TV9T9mzDZ5u4YH6vzyLWq4Q5WykvceUDxmXtOCtWKf-Nqzdv_wQ3KRhFjnpUt_0v5LRTV5DhhOXPQXPsWW3uwV1D74CtqJJbZ2brIpTWsEopxK8skBQuvTe_OHJgzugqlNNSeTHQ5wceW/s1100/pierrot-le-fou-jean-luc-godard-anna-karina_orig.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="1100" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0YDu6I6FC8SXiFcNPbZqHO-oe3-_0k1PW3gYpKWV76POODV8TV9T9mzDZ5u4YH6vzyLWq4Q5WykvceUDxmXtOCtWKf-Nqzdv_wQ3KRhFjnpUt_0v5LRTV5DhhOXPQXPsWW3uwV1D74CtqJJbZ2brIpTWsEopxK8skBQuvTe_OHJgzugqlNNSeTHQ5wceW/s320/pierrot-le-fou-jean-luc-godard-anna-karina_orig.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>73. Pierrot le Fou (1965) - Jean-Luc Godard </b><br />There are a growing number of people who get subjected to Breathless in a film class or see it on a list only to be underwhelmed. It isn’t that Breathless is bad, but it definitely is a film with a director who had a lot to say but hadn’t figured out how to say it. I also feel like Godard was so anxious to make a movie, he didn’t actually bother to figure out what that movie should be. By 1965, Jean-Luc Godard was the figurehead and master of the Nouvelle Vague. Working again in scope with Roul Coutard he took the melancholy film-within-a-film setting of Le Mepris and opened it up. The “plot” in this film is almost completely irrelevant, it’s just a great filmmaker flexing on us all. This is before his Marxist period where the entire movie would come to a screeching halt so people can be his mouthpiece for politics. Godard was still fun, and still experimenting with how to tell a story. Flashes of bold color here, and a leap in narrative logic there, it remains a joy to experience. Perhaps the most “fun” you can have with Godard.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCa6-uPZegot4AfeCymiUA8S71Pbg-k3Ni6r8XgBhLxWS_WISVAWjm1k-QVGPPQ2s19jL1zCkPJdSh-02DVxeDLtDqKyPzyACOITyZVVgVZlOIDysaX_urwtpdu7HXpw_rCF0ZnSdFS9jv3yERmc3ueOdlfiZfl5pgOPwSqmzulLUT1fdfz-m6QmUEY2zU/s3000/images-original.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2250" data-original-width="3000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCa6-uPZegot4AfeCymiUA8S71Pbg-k3Ni6r8XgBhLxWS_WISVAWjm1k-QVGPPQ2s19jL1zCkPJdSh-02DVxeDLtDqKyPzyACOITyZVVgVZlOIDysaX_urwtpdu7HXpw_rCF0ZnSdFS9jv3yERmc3ueOdlfiZfl5pgOPwSqmzulLUT1fdfz-m6QmUEY2zU/s320/images-original.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>72. Aguirre the Wrath of God (1972) - Werner Herzog</b><br />My first encounter with Werner Herzog remains the best. Here I go bringing up Danny Peary again but this was included in Cult Movies and his write-up seemed to suggest it was superior to Apocalypse Now. While I might not agree with that, they are in many ways two-of-a-kind. The slow trip down a jungle river while descending into madness subgenre produced at least these two masterpieces. This was also the first time Herzog worked with Klaus Kinski and hearing the stories from the shoot it’s amazing that either lived long enough to make another movie together let alone four. Sometimes to capture a lunatic you need to be a little crazy yourself, and nowhere was their toxic friendship/partnership on better display than Aguirre. One of the breakthrough films of West Germany in the 70s that has lost none of its edge 50 years later. How many other movies end with a raft full of spider monkeys? </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqBfpysJqPp0BwwqK6DbwJvlC8_V33bKj3b8MALONKfVDlfIElIeVGvsEGI3DhCX5zthU-bMmO4o6BlEJ9mvv4cAJUBp3N8RNLSgdSaWjgMyjeADvGOuDWO1Bko2CTZP5sd0g5eN7teh9dRacnyhB0CixZlgw5ZNLpUmtNcZPFh02hVL18PI0JFacnhrOh/s1023/aaaaa.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="1023" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqBfpysJqPp0BwwqK6DbwJvlC8_V33bKj3b8MALONKfVDlfIElIeVGvsEGI3DhCX5zthU-bMmO4o6BlEJ9mvv4cAJUBp3N8RNLSgdSaWjgMyjeADvGOuDWO1Bko2CTZP5sd0g5eN7teh9dRacnyhB0CixZlgw5ZNLpUmtNcZPFh02hVL18PI0JFacnhrOh/s320/aaaaa.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>71. Sherlock Jr. (1924) - Buster Keaton</b><br />What makes a film a feature? This is a debate that might have actually defined rules when it comes to Academy Award consideration but simply a feature is a feature. Buster Keaton’s 1924 gem Sherlock Jr. holds the distinction of being the shortest film on this list, by a pretty wide margin if I’m being honest. I first heard of this specific film when it was ranked one spot higher than Schindler’s List on Entertainment Weekly’s 1999 edition of the 100 Greatest Films. At the time I felt insulted, how could some dumb silent comedy really be better than Spielberg’s Holocaust epic? Well 20+ years later it seems far less crazy to me. In my lifetime I have thought Steamboat Bill Jr., Our Hospitality, and now this are Keaton’s greatest achievements. Funny I never seemed to love The General as much as others, although I had the revelation that it felt like a proto-Fury Road last time but that can be a stretch. Sherlock Jr. remains a perfect, and succinct Keaton film. It shows his ingenuity, his inventiveness, and how extremely gifted and occasionally insane of a comedic actor he was. I can’t guarantee a future visit might make me change my favorite of his a fourth time, but in the year of 2023, Sherlock Jr. is the tops. The phrase all-killer no-filler certainly applies to Sherlock Jr. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-d8FAF2L4xdHmU8i3MVgZW9fhKsNe_6wodWjyaYHK4ZvjF2co2HL8t4MpvOuULnTW__wmVWxmclsYfD2oRV8iXw2aJVPML2U1dWGIh-ktYy3brZLpbMzfd0N5AJcPcZcDEKG-tlFEwNXqw0TpOP0Vfj48dFAA_k_lPG7YQQz_l5OT93JUJZImULZ0EoP/s2048/merlin_158936181_f048b31f-4702-4104-afcf-55d82718e7c7-superJumbo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1237" data-original-width="2048" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-d8FAF2L4xdHmU8i3MVgZW9fhKsNe_6wodWjyaYHK4ZvjF2co2HL8t4MpvOuULnTW__wmVWxmclsYfD2oRV8iXw2aJVPML2U1dWGIh-ktYy3brZLpbMzfd0N5AJcPcZcDEKG-tlFEwNXqw0TpOP0Vfj48dFAA_k_lPG7YQQz_l5OT93JUJZImULZ0EoP/s320/merlin_158936181_f048b31f-4702-4104-afcf-55d82718e7c7-superJumbo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>70. The Cremator (1968) - Juraj Herz</b><br />There are few national cinemas I dove as deep into as Czechoslovakia. Between roughly 1964-70 it was arguably the most interesting national cinema around. The films were weird, subversive, darkly comical, and always inventive. Among those early Czech filmmakers only one seemed to embrace horror as a genre. That was Juraj Herz, who continued working in and around the genre for decades after The Cremator. You can argue whether The Cremator is a proper horror film, but it is quietly unnerving and there’s something just unsettling about Rudolf Hrusinsky’s constant grin and endless narration. Stanislav Milota films so much of the film with a wildly distorted wide-angle lens to add to the creepiness. It’s the kind of psychological horror that doesn’t necessarily creep you out, just kinda gets under your skin and makes you feel uneasy. With all due respect to Daisies, Diamonds of the Night, Closely Watched Trains, or Marketa Lazarova this remains my favorite Czech film.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNOy_USHoVuBLoJTSJhyeFw-_5frAcIkqaWAaH7dioLc-7QOX1no78um4J9QFoIHC_PbQBsMdHd1-T_ShqYiX8ybV83az24ku6cFkjV1GrOzK3otwZjjjK281sfNT9f72DTwRDzkMp8J9UgKsQiSupz9LnffIOjTXrzO7GrkAHkaV131XsIjRUVNTmifPp/s525/a-clockwork-orange-1971-directed-by-stanley-kubrick-with-malcolm-mcdowell-photo_u-L-Q1C3IFE0.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="525" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNOy_USHoVuBLoJTSJhyeFw-_5frAcIkqaWAaH7dioLc-7QOX1no78um4J9QFoIHC_PbQBsMdHd1-T_ShqYiX8ybV83az24ku6cFkjV1GrOzK3otwZjjjK281sfNT9f72DTwRDzkMp8J9UgKsQiSupz9LnffIOjTXrzO7GrkAHkaV131XsIjRUVNTmifPp/s320/a-clockwork-orange-1971-directed-by-stanley-kubrick-with-malcolm-mcdowell-photo_u-L-Q1C3IFE0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>69. A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Stanley Kubrick</b><br />I can count about a half dozen films from Danny Peary’s Cult Movies 2 on this list. It was probably the first real book on film I ever read, but let's be honest I was mainly interested in the movies with boobs. At the age of roughly 12 I watched A Clockwork Orange for the first time, and along with The Shining I’m pretty sure Stanley Kubrick became my favorite director not long after that. Truth be told he’s probably the only person to ever occupy that space for me. Some of that credit should go to John Alcott who shot both A Clockwork Orange and The Shining (along with 2001 and Barry Lyndon). Together they created a look that just spoke to me. Kubrick’s background in still photography I’m sure played no small role in his near perfect style. With Clockwork though he takes a seemingly juvenile story, makes it simultaneously a parable on fascism and communism. There is hardly a wasted moment and the few things that seem extraneous just sprinkle the right amount of absurdity into the mix. Malcolm McDowell is absolutely perfect as Alex, and just how damn memorable is Wendy Carlos’s score? Oh yeah, the movie also has boobs.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtXJe8lN2s52xuVpgjHKPqwt2f-DBcgnXvgE67ePW_N4kV44NJmWmNUBco70rWf0f3jAYyiqEqSpASMN43oxnDpr7_GJ4ktbwUWqJuLLve2kaNte76fHTOc92wYR4Iw3_Jgs3crNpTAY67W8vkLqbydV_PHfyuUxaeM-Ma_MZRCE-vrrWhpPuBNGOr4SuG/s306/Predator.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="165" data-original-width="306" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtXJe8lN2s52xuVpgjHKPqwt2f-DBcgnXvgE67ePW_N4kV44NJmWmNUBco70rWf0f3jAYyiqEqSpASMN43oxnDpr7_GJ4ktbwUWqJuLLve2kaNte76fHTOc92wYR4Iw3_Jgs3crNpTAY67W8vkLqbydV_PHfyuUxaeM-Ma_MZRCE-vrrWhpPuBNGOr4SuG/s1600/Predator.jpg" width="306" /></a></div><p><b>68. Predator (1987) - John McTiernan </b><br />I’m not sure what is about male bonding, but I have entire friend groups who can speak exclusively in Predator quotes. From the world’s greatest handshake to two Shane Black pussy jokes, this movie has possibly the most testosterone ever committed to celluloid. John McTiernan instantly became a major force in directing action and it’s still shocking this was his first film. He handles the task well, always keeping his camera moving, tracking across the jungle, and visually giving us tiny slivers of information before the rest of our swole cast gets it. How the film goes from generic action movie to slasher to science fiction is a tour-de-force. Fox has spent the better part of 35 years insisting this is a franchise but nothing ever came remotely close to this movie. Legendary score, legendary cast, phenomenal creature design and Bill Duke shaving his sweat. This isn’t even a guilty pleasure, I defy you not to find this an incredibly well made movie. Arnold’s signature one-liners earlier in the film seem to be repaid tenfold when he starts getting his ass handed to him. It has everything, even two future governors. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1IWTVBEmJLV2hgJNG7O97GXgeZp3ITESplbC_M09m6yUWtb22IdTNddxCHcUSIV8DmO-0cT1v8QKXLB2hHs4nSCZqrEm91O8IRL5F01YNvEv2MRP5__aH_H6RqvThEPgtvX9m2kiQ9g48REKjWhXrVsmkKOKDNgOEgQk9uUb6zYyln0zMAEi3vZVhaf2R/s1280/kill-bill-nobody-but-me-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="1280" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1IWTVBEmJLV2hgJNG7O97GXgeZp3ITESplbC_M09m6yUWtb22IdTNddxCHcUSIV8DmO-0cT1v8QKXLB2hHs4nSCZqrEm91O8IRL5F01YNvEv2MRP5__aH_H6RqvThEPgtvX9m2kiQ9g48REKjWhXrVsmkKOKDNgOEgQk9uUb6zYyln0zMAEi3vZVhaf2R/s320/kill-bill-nobody-but-me-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>67. Kill Bill (2003-2004) - Quentin Tarantino </b><br />There are people out there who hate Quentin Tarantino, and hate his films. Sucks to be them, because let me tell you they are missing out. Tarantino made the 6 year wait after Jackie Brown worth it with the first installment of Kill Bill. Knowing a lot about classic martial arts films may help, but it certainly isn’t necessary. Tarantino has always been a master of taking the best elements of what he loved in cinema and making it his own creation. Most of the best directors did similar things and you can hear someone like Scorsese pointing to exact shots in Powell/Pressburger films or Godard that he swiped for his movies. As one giant epic, Kill Bill seems to have everything, covering yakuza films, anime, kung fu, horror, and some spaghetti western while we’re at it. A gleefully entertaining bloody mess of an epic that never ceases to impress me. It is maximalism at its finest, all reigned in by some of the best performers in the business.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYlTo-JdSPVwJiAqJ9A6UfDWyRQohgtUuFjxGTKiiy9CGGR_FXmL-l1_aeQsKFgbORB-lpcFlaHD6iq1-bDlPiwwxc3JqW02zjOtiC7_nnXJ-uV6wFrr3KFoN2SW5yIPZEav5KsPongnmby3nqIHNkBI_c52CHjca8wNECB3siIdQxuC5NZx-NuEUtt_O3/s640/eg5lohpsmti_o_at-the-peanut-stand-part-2-from-duck-soup-1933.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYlTo-JdSPVwJiAqJ9A6UfDWyRQohgtUuFjxGTKiiy9CGGR_FXmL-l1_aeQsKFgbORB-lpcFlaHD6iq1-bDlPiwwxc3JqW02zjOtiC7_nnXJ-uV6wFrr3KFoN2SW5yIPZEav5KsPongnmby3nqIHNkBI_c52CHjca8wNECB3siIdQxuC5NZx-NuEUtt_O3/s320/eg5lohpsmti_o_at-the-peanut-stand-part-2-from-duck-soup-1933.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>66. Duck Soup (1933) - Leo McCarey</b><br />Pure fucking chaos, and I mean that in the most hilarious way possible. The Marx Brothers final film with all four of them, and their final Paramount picture will forever be the best. Sure it’s funny and ridiculous, but the mere absence of their trademark musical interludes might be the real secret. Simply put nothing slows down the mayhem here, unlike the usual grind-to-a-halt piano and harp solos we were blessed with. Not that we don’t love those, but this film barely creeps past the hour mark, and that’s just the way it should be. There are still musical numbers, most of which are pedestrian but the brothers themselves just wreak havoc. Nearly every line of dialogue Groucho and Chico speak is a joke, and Harpo has never been funnier ruining everyone’s day who crosses his path. There is some subtle political satire here, but that is all irrelevant, it’s just a backdrop for more gags and absurdity. A brazen anti-establishment masterpiece that needs to be seen at least a dozen times just to catch your breath and get all the jokes. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1AE00ka4DskxDIHOWAVTDMiArNeaP6T5DRot9GFvHvWO9PJ7aTCTKD2HBUDdl2ql3HUCUQP_9K04r4OwhKoaj2Nchz1-zRBx9coe0W7cE3U99LVvy6K4R5QVP5DRAmGxjxhXsZtqlr8cEHytzwGn0gTbmqKhl7xS4WneDvN1m3HSvHPRKMxC4Au745Rt0/s1200/The_apartment_trailer_1.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="1200" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1AE00ka4DskxDIHOWAVTDMiArNeaP6T5DRot9GFvHvWO9PJ7aTCTKD2HBUDdl2ql3HUCUQP_9K04r4OwhKoaj2Nchz1-zRBx9coe0W7cE3U99LVvy6K4R5QVP5DRAmGxjxhXsZtqlr8cEHytzwGn0gTbmqKhl7xS4WneDvN1m3HSvHPRKMxC4Au745Rt0/s320/The_apartment_trailer_1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>65. The Apartment (1960) - Billy Wilder</b><br />Many times on these lists I am content to have one movie represent a director. Many times these filmmakers deserve multiple spots but with only 100 to go around I often find myself making a concession and picking one to stand in for many. Of course there are a few exceptions and Billy Wilder is certainly one of them. The interesting thing about The Apartment though is that 10 years ago I might have considered this his 6th best film. Well with a little age and wisdom this could very well be Wilder’s masterpiece. So why do I feel like it’s underrated? It won a best picture Oscar, and nabbed Wilder his second best director trophy. Even Wilder himself claimed this was his best film, as he felt it was the best balance between comedy and drama that he did. I’ll hold off on proclaiming this his supreme masterpiece but I can’t find a single flaw with the film. Even the dated sexist central premise works beautifully. Much in the same way there is heart-wrenching drama from the reformers taking The Dear One’s baby in Intolerance. Hell how many classic horror films wouldn’t exist without a cell phone? It sums up everything Wilder did well, there are genuine laughs, both Lemmon and MacLaine are perfect, and I just absolutely love it. I have a friend who watches this movie every New Years and makes sure it’s the first film of the year. Not a bad tradition, certainly can start the year off worse.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWiO3XRkZJtn1TYTFORBkybptt6mQQPloMZUVCcy7YT15jxxifNooBUzIAt-4IMzIGre1tpFIQvEDk3lomRpZtvZwYe3BIiLa-dQLQT2RIpncibMIVBNGmz6tqj37SH9lGP_5GSYj1Gd_aX-9vW7QArV-HaeCqradMujwr9OW2EUIKB3okvUXgPDJ0FB9f/s1920/starz_svod-1477-Full-Image_GalleryBackground-en-US-1483994509973._RI_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWiO3XRkZJtn1TYTFORBkybptt6mQQPloMZUVCcy7YT15jxxifNooBUzIAt-4IMzIGre1tpFIQvEDk3lomRpZtvZwYe3BIiLa-dQLQT2RIpncibMIVBNGmz6tqj37SH9lGP_5GSYj1Gd_aX-9vW7QArV-HaeCqradMujwr9OW2EUIKB3okvUXgPDJ0FB9f/s320/starz_svod-1477-Full-Image_GalleryBackground-en-US-1483994509973._RI_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>64. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - Wes Anderson</b><br />Before he was a meme and a brand of filmmaking unto himself Wes Anderson made this absolutely perfect film. The Anderson aesthetic was really only two films deep, although early hints of it might have been present in Bottle Rocket. Rushmore was truly the birth of his style, but this was his first time juggling the approach with an ensemble. He has never come close to balancing all the moving parts this well, despite some very noble attempts. It may have something to do with the fact that this was the first Wes Anderson film I’ve seen, and to date probably the one I’ve watched the most. I sadly skipped re-watching it for my last list, and it probably would have made the cut. Now when I watch the note perfect cast I can’t help but miss Gene Hackman. He’s still alive but hasn’t acted in nearly 2 decades. This was also perhaps the first time I realized I might actually be able to stomach Ben Stiller in a movie. Brings a little bit of sadness to know people aren’t discovering Wes Anderson through this movie, and his style and reputation appears to precede him. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkTZmm3iDc0BeS5rGEUvE4aGjeT-5OacCZR62ed_CzvTtjUMB3Sub27BbW8jPH42wpLfFmX4fwSmhmJMuCCstJ7jcea2JENf8qmadRHoL2qO-x_8SCfQpD7QyT3ohbEPo4d4x_lnuwu2yD6pPGIlwqnvKWl2XJnYRghcrsKxGuYcC5cANU6JJ64PoB4m9/s1799/Moonlight-125270830-large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1799" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkTZmm3iDc0BeS5rGEUvE4aGjeT-5OacCZR62ed_CzvTtjUMB3Sub27BbW8jPH42wpLfFmX4fwSmhmJMuCCstJ7jcea2JENf8qmadRHoL2qO-x_8SCfQpD7QyT3ohbEPo4d4x_lnuwu2yD6pPGIlwqnvKWl2XJnYRghcrsKxGuYcC5cANU6JJ64PoB4m9/s320/Moonlight-125270830-large.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>63. Moonlight (2016) - Barry Jenkins </b><br />Moonlight might seem better known for being part of the most hilariously awkward fuck up in Academy Awards history. It’s a shame because god damn was it great. I’ll let you decide if you think it deserved to beat La La Land, but its placement on this list would at least tell you both were deserving. What made Jenkins' film somewhat of a revelation when it came out, was how subtle it is. It tells of a uniquely personal story of black America that most of the people outside of a Miami project wouldn’t know anything about. Rather than give you some narration or a large set up, it plays out in tiny slices of life. Watching the film a second time I’m not even sure there is a single white person in the movie. We get something of an anthology structure with three separate actors playing Chiron in different phases of his life, and how those small slices of life make a man. Few if any films shot in the last decade look as beautiful as well, Jenkins making sure that even if the surroundings aren’t glamorous they can still be visually enticing. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfYWOa7jJLFQIEATX8nqZUcZH6S9NmyDIxqgfTAUsD-DKlhqpOzXEBoMSaiCA5VdYzh0m9ouC6tNTIxIrNiJESBMA28QT9G20bTsBzTZRUzZLz9rIwglj5mzHHA-0QH-bn5nWzMJdJgMnx5090z5nMOM28kpWV3FLXCq83cr7ETytbyX7UDs-qocybHEFR/s739/1%20lOX744WfczXvlD5Q4_LGiQ@2x.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="415" data-original-width="739" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfYWOa7jJLFQIEATX8nqZUcZH6S9NmyDIxqgfTAUsD-DKlhqpOzXEBoMSaiCA5VdYzh0m9ouC6tNTIxIrNiJESBMA28QT9G20bTsBzTZRUzZLz9rIwglj5mzHHA-0QH-bn5nWzMJdJgMnx5090z5nMOM28kpWV3FLXCq83cr7ETytbyX7UDs-qocybHEFR/s320/1%20lOX744WfczXvlD5Q4_LGiQ@2x.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>62. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - Michel Gondry</b><br />Film school nerds are occasionally right, even if insufferable, and I say this as one of them. Before he became hell bent on alienating everyone Charlie Kauffman was the most exciting screenwriter in Hollywood. Before he became too preoccupied with being “inventive” and sacrificing style for substance Michel Gondry was what you might call a “visionary”. After two extremely successful (at least creatively) collaborations with Spike Jonze, Kauffman and Gondry made this film that can quietly break your heart in between its leaping narratives. The entire concept is playing with the idea of what would people do if they could erase painful memories. In the end we realize it’s always better to have loved and lost, but it also shows how well these small moments and interactions shape who we are as a person, and sometimes we may be doomed to do it all over again. Without the heart of this film I don’t think it holds up and probably plays out more like Mood Indigo or The Science of Sleep. Jim Carrey after a decade of trying to convince people he was capable of being a great dramatic actor, put all doubts to rest here. Kate Winslet perfected the archetype of the damaged girl with the weird hair who can “complete someone” only to realize she’s just another fucked up person trying to figure their own shit out. Its setting makes me wonder if it isn’t the best or the worst film to watch on Valentine’s Day.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWEHsGZLODxC0fyzRizsb-QH909s_W9jd51ZAXyhdBlrn1bjnLIh66OYhwcKr0lmogn24yjRUdwZ3s1MTq8_csFcaAvFsSOk_hSftZqsInjnyP7EnUl2CMusBIxCVJK0Ll_z6ehxFw6zclTYnemrvT4bMdnPPCvssXt5h-sx7KdBMmZ2OtIC6ZgcDW3feT/s600/mx_600.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="600" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWEHsGZLODxC0fyzRizsb-QH909s_W9jd51ZAXyhdBlrn1bjnLIh66OYhwcKr0lmogn24yjRUdwZ3s1MTq8_csFcaAvFsSOk_hSftZqsInjnyP7EnUl2CMusBIxCVJK0Ll_z6ehxFw6zclTYnemrvT4bMdnPPCvssXt5h-sx7KdBMmZ2OtIC6ZgcDW3feT/s320/mx_600.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>61. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) - Bela Tarr/Agnes Hranitzky </b><br />The thought of long, slow takes in black and white with an oppressive gloominess might send some people running and screaming. Lucky for me that is absolutely my jam. It may sound like blasphemy but I will be honest, Satantango is too long. I know it shouldn’t sound preposterous to say a 7 hour movie is a bit lengthy, but it seems like it could have been 3 hours or under and lost none of its impact. There’s a weird psychological effect to watching something that long where you have to convince yourself you didn’t waste your time. That particular epic I’ve watched three times so imagine how I feel. Tarr’s follow-up Werckmeister seems like he understood that memo. It has everything in it that made Damnation and Satantango so memorable while also keeping it around 130 minutes, perfectly acceptable for a slow burner like this. For my money this is a master at his best, balancing a gripping narrative with those never ending shots. Between the form, style, music, and story which is still a bit loose everything succeeds. Even watching this on the ancient and awful Facets DVD didn’t distract from how incredible it is. Look for the new 4k restoration from Janus/Criterion soon and be prepared to be blown away. I believe this is also the first time he credited his wife Agnes Hranitzky as co-director.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAMX8CUqrcuu3PE1yolNVYEEd4SRIHT9nK9hdTXfUqDLcBYwecUAUt2947ekiVcmzO0OyRut-w_yjGSFBUhJUk1J4nzT9vn3A5pC2PYJM_1iKayoA4Sf2zKJKvx0Ghw1jNHFI9NaB79d3v-y8fQQpMsW02bLPnnAIX3vQx3jM9oGUhcG_VWBiMYcfjK1Wo/s600/city-lights-1931-little-tramp-thread-scene-charlie-chaplin-virginia-cherrill-review.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="600" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAMX8CUqrcuu3PE1yolNVYEEd4SRIHT9nK9hdTXfUqDLcBYwecUAUt2947ekiVcmzO0OyRut-w_yjGSFBUhJUk1J4nzT9vn3A5pC2PYJM_1iKayoA4Sf2zKJKvx0Ghw1jNHFI9NaB79d3v-y8fQQpMsW02bLPnnAIX3vQx3jM9oGUhcG_VWBiMYcfjK1Wo/s320/city-lights-1931-little-tramp-thread-scene-charlie-chaplin-virginia-cherrill-review.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>60. City Lights (1931) - Charles Chaplin </b><br />The theme of this list could very well be described as “what a difference a decade makes.” I knew before I started this process that a few titles were going to be swapped around, and my favorites from particular filmmakers might change. Well in the case of Mr. Chaplin, you have to go all the way back to 2003 when City Lights sat comfortably perched on the top of my list as his best work. It was something of a shock to me a decade ago when it was Modern Times that seemed to hit the spot so perfectly. City Lights and its blustering drunken friend-turned-sober-asshole that seemed to wear on me. In 2023 however any annoyance at this character was gone and I was left with what feels like the perfect Chaplin movie. It has the pathos his best work has, some genuinely good comedic bits, and just enough social commentary to still be subtle rather than preachy. In short, my once and current choice for his masterpiece.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibcMB0hp4nIgFmQ1euMTy_mzFFwROL0rwfkfnJwHUrX4SlMwwKTrh5t2uSiacPAB-G4WzWNgDlTXr-v5zSQA_jtNbqzOd_CcU84d66GFPAxFjrBtx8XdlDFe5nN0x5xc4KrhWvW3BWbTv9TWSgvhyYS4v4HHM541r7Q8Vt8QXACPLha3rDk2ykTtpoXZ6S/s1920/videodrome.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1022" data-original-width="1920" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibcMB0hp4nIgFmQ1euMTy_mzFFwROL0rwfkfnJwHUrX4SlMwwKTrh5t2uSiacPAB-G4WzWNgDlTXr-v5zSQA_jtNbqzOd_CcU84d66GFPAxFjrBtx8XdlDFe5nN0x5xc4KrhWvW3BWbTv9TWSgvhyYS4v4HHM541r7Q8Vt8QXACPLha3rDk2ykTtpoXZ6S/s320/videodrome.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>59. Videodrome (1983) - David Cronenberg </b><br />There are a number of films I gave another watch to that I don’t think I even considered a decade ago. I’m not sure how much Cronenberg I checked out for the 2013 edition, but that’s an oversight on my part. Perhaps it was the semi-retirement of Cronenberg that seemed to elevate him from cult genre master to world class filmmaker in the eyes of more established credits, or maybe I’m just more into this shit than I used to be. Crimes of the Future reminded everyone that the old man still had it, but for my money Videodrome is the movie you show people when they want to see what David Cronenberg is all about. Like his best work, it fucks with your head, is sexually perverse, there is body horror a plenty, and it all feels like a bit of a bad but fascinating dream. You can argue whether or not other films of his are better, but few seem to sum up everything that made him great quite like Videodrome. Not at all an exaggeration to say this is Canada’s greatest export. Long live the new flesh.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCYwSqdYLxncgfuQXFS6MxHsgjeJOCjh-ASVOI3S44pb5iU9ypnqou1gzeFqU4DqjkgeeynWO4hM6YLioFidShLPL286chJqAzMAG-XAgDN61c_CKMVtiOcXWz_3j9Pcs6vCbckGelnw6l5rEx9z61bsqyf03hRFqbP5724Bm8JCshjoLEM1V_7g3abis1/s720/weekend-720x510-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="720" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCYwSqdYLxncgfuQXFS6MxHsgjeJOCjh-ASVOI3S44pb5iU9ypnqou1gzeFqU4DqjkgeeynWO4hM6YLioFidShLPL286chJqAzMAG-XAgDN61c_CKMVtiOcXWz_3j9Pcs6vCbckGelnw6l5rEx9z61bsqyf03hRFqbP5724Bm8JCshjoLEM1V_7g3abis1/s320/weekend-720x510-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>58. Weekend (1967) - Jean-Luc Godard</b><br />Weekend is the apex of Godard’s career. The moment where he emptied his bag of tricks and delivered his most nihilistic, experimental, yet coherent attack on upper middle class colonialist values. His message would get progressively more acerbic and his delivery would get far more abstract in the coming years/decades, but here there is still a solid grounding. That isn’t to say Weekend is entirely coherent and narratively straightforward. The film throws as many diversions and curveballs as our married couple seem to go through. It depicts a literal capitalist hellscape, which is perhaps optimistically upended by violent slightly cannibalistic guerillas. We are also blessed with perhaps the most famous tracking shot in all of cinema, or French cinema anyways, with a traffic jam that dips into surrealist territory as the movie continues its descent into madness. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhki4E21U-sFtRT-kvjG55IKsDfDZu5W60NLxCsZaAR6rx2SlPLncnjVivc-OpTQNsCWQcxkjC37f81DfJf7Mzj6pYljx_XSDUagyzrHFahdSs8Dc86LhSYYeepVdhdNIaKZwOCXJcg71ItVj1wjCNRs3hnxlcziF3E5544yueKb5xjVThJ8QP2F5AaGf0m/s1920/touch_of_evil_6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhki4E21U-sFtRT-kvjG55IKsDfDZu5W60NLxCsZaAR6rx2SlPLncnjVivc-OpTQNsCWQcxkjC37f81DfJf7Mzj6pYljx_XSDUagyzrHFahdSs8Dc86LhSYYeepVdhdNIaKZwOCXJcg71ItVj1wjCNRs3hnxlcziF3E5544yueKb5xjVThJ8QP2F5AaGf0m/s320/touch_of_evil_6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>57. Touch of Evil (1958) - Orson Welles</b><br />It can be hard to define what makes a great director. Styles are all over the place and some directors seem allergic to camera movements. For Welles though he had an almost compulsion to avoid any flat shot/reverse-shot set up. Everything needs an angle, a track, a crane shot, something visually to make things flow better. Sometimes you notice it, such as the legendary opening shot of this movie, other times it’s a lot more subtle like the two even longer single shots during the interrogation. There have been numerous iterations of Touch of Evil, and even in its butchered form it is still a stone cold classic. Sure Charlton Heston is one of the least convincing Mexicans in cinema history, but at least he spares us the embarrassment of a shitty offensive accent. Truthfully if it weren’t for Heston, Welles wouldn’t have been hired to direct, so we have him to thank. It shows for one final time what a master can do with just a little bit of a budget. If I had one thing negative to say about it, I still very much do not understand Dennis Weaver.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnh-pLNO7VAYU6NEMRwKb7O7pQV18H_usdUkWxBef4ES-3ylgM1FZqraERkcdjoLfrNP3toFBdoiFl23tzLRxd5waDBfI9yVgd1L1JO2O7WOxGxYFpUBo32Z_WPpO34wvP0m1I19CE2UvITvIJGVVS_tVHsV5tesadPk1foHP5gO7whf42uA5QPkbyxwKn/s1000/Ali%20Fear.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="1000" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnh-pLNO7VAYU6NEMRwKb7O7pQV18H_usdUkWxBef4ES-3ylgM1FZqraERkcdjoLfrNP3toFBdoiFl23tzLRxd5waDBfI9yVgd1L1JO2O7WOxGxYFpUBo32Z_WPpO34wvP0m1I19CE2UvITvIJGVVS_tVHsV5tesadPk1foHP5gO7whf42uA5QPkbyxwKn/s320/Ali%20Fear.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>56. Ali Fear Eats the Soul (1974) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder </b><br />Every decade I cast a wide net with this list. Certain films I’ve seen a couple times I realize probably have no shot, and others I think a fresh take would be in order. After deciding Berlin Alexanderplatz was not eligible (it is technically a mini-series), I had a vacancy for my favorite Fassbinder “film”. The likely candidate to replace it is the fantastic Marriage of Maria Braun, and although that film is still damn good, its larger budget and scope almost betrays what made Fassbinder so remarkable. So I took another look at Fear Eats the Soul, a film I thought was a little preposterous as a central premise and I was far too cynical to take it seriously. My stomach for melodrama and improbable love stories has apparently grown. This went from middle of the road to one of my new all time favorites. What a difference a couple decades make. It broke my heart, but oddly enough just felt so much more grounded in reality this time. Just two lonely people finding each other and dealing with some of the bullshit surrounding it. Before I even knew what it was, I will forever associate couscous with Ali. It’s simple and powerful, and sometimes you just need a little life experience to understand how great a movie this could be.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQxTLZKjDKMbYokBac13A1_0-mtUKAq6ZKwfRZDqe8kY08V-XoR7w4OcHFnXPC7KnvSuSpaUt4PdLV7Mq8PkirN-IAy569JfYkgBb-PxKqdaQfEN4QzTXfhNJJ1z90l0y021rHzkkw645ECazRTvN8P-oGSGJrpwd-NB3vgZbWKWL0bu_wxRFLd6MsOWSD/s880/cdn.kpbs.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="880" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQxTLZKjDKMbYokBac13A1_0-mtUKAq6ZKwfRZDqe8kY08V-XoR7w4OcHFnXPC7KnvSuSpaUt4PdLV7Mq8PkirN-IAy569JfYkgBb-PxKqdaQfEN4QzTXfhNJJ1z90l0y021rHzkkw645ECazRTvN8P-oGSGJrpwd-NB3vgZbWKWL0bu_wxRFLd6MsOWSD/s320/cdn.kpbs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>55. No Country for Old Men (2007) - Joel and Ethan Coen</b><br />It’s hard to remember now, but by the mid-2000s it seemed like the Coen brothers' best work was behind them. The 1-2 punch of Fargo and The Big Lebowski was years ago and they were coming off of Intolerable Cruelty and a deeply forgettable remake of The Ladykillers. With this backdrop they returned to what they did so well, back to Texas where their brilliant debut Blood Simple was set. Adapting Cormac McCarthy’s neo-noir tinged contemporary western, would land them a best picture and director Oscar. Among many great Oscar battles it was between this and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. I have always preferred the Coen’s film and 15+ years later and several revisits for each I still do. A profoundly perfect film that brilliantly illustrates how two minds in sync can work wonders if given the right material and backdrop. Just another in a long series of goofy haircut psychopaths played by Javier Bardem, this is also his most terrifying and menacing. The brother’s work would get slightly more nihilistic after but this film remains pretty god damn bleak, yet always compelling.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU2TqlfhgeNpEPRi96cnI3VMcDj6VGf8nh1aIuu0Xcchy0gUJ4SmD5OL57vzppI8gk1PL1DhKUPrQZK5YUSjxoTzNeTOfZWjYxvuZL6eMIR30Z73hFSJ9zv3Piuj_cDgovlz-coYFwo5MuuU3uvF8PQleiZMbWg5mbOZR1f2adaD4OKqeKoOiyrYdHpVGi/s970/5e5ad9d158fc8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="970" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU2TqlfhgeNpEPRi96cnI3VMcDj6VGf8nh1aIuu0Xcchy0gUJ4SmD5OL57vzppI8gk1PL1DhKUPrQZK5YUSjxoTzNeTOfZWjYxvuZL6eMIR30Z73hFSJ9zv3Piuj_cDgovlz-coYFwo5MuuU3uvF8PQleiZMbWg5mbOZR1f2adaD4OKqeKoOiyrYdHpVGi/s320/5e5ad9d158fc8.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>54. LA Confidential (1997) - Curtis Hanson</b><br />Some 21 years ago I rented this movie from the library. I watched it, went to work and didn’t stop thinking about it. When I got home, I watched it again. This is not a normal occurrence for me but it still stands out because every time I return to LA Confidential it hooks me right back in. In the 26 years since it was released there is less and less discussion about the film. Few people seem to dislike it, but it rarely gets brought up in the greatest ever debates, and the spark that Curtis Hanson had after that movie, which continued through Wonder Boys and 8-Mile seems to have faded. Sure they didn’t quite measure up to this, but look at this list, not many films have. Some credit must be given to Ellmore James who wrote the novel this was based on. When the plot can throw some twists in there and still be exciting after 6 viewings, something is working. As revisionist history continues to downgrade Polanski’s work, I wonder if this may be re-discovered by another generation as the ultimate neo-noir. I, for one, need no validation for loving it. However with the eradication of Kevin Spacey it might just be a wash. Just the facts, folks.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDOhPT1mI-sDUy8RiJjXj6-BkUbThKs6WUr92qbNO8vTeyoy6-UrN1v6A0Sa6_HhOl0qVVm-BT0IZjwUf_2WHNPerCTOHGkBBH7BPuH2VYAcuQIBUYiOpYcBwERJl4MBaVtDpqmw9bZTlx1a7ZnVDis2YqWRvqTljAb-5UQ2LjuERtrFsSw8HuCNYIIwUK/s3500/mrsmithgoestowashington1939.3771.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2280" data-original-width="3500" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDOhPT1mI-sDUy8RiJjXj6-BkUbThKs6WUr92qbNO8vTeyoy6-UrN1v6A0Sa6_HhOl0qVVm-BT0IZjwUf_2WHNPerCTOHGkBBH7BPuH2VYAcuQIBUYiOpYcBwERJl4MBaVtDpqmw9bZTlx1a7ZnVDis2YqWRvqTljAb-5UQ2LjuERtrFsSw8HuCNYIIwUK/s320/mrsmithgoestowashington1939.3771.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>53. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) - Frank Capra </b><br />Even the most hardened of hearts tend to soften a bit when confronted with Frank Capra. It’s hard not to feel a little bit of optimism in the human race when faced with his particular brand of Capra-corn. After a torrid stretch where Capra won best director 3 times in 5 years and helmed 2 best picture winners, he outdid himself. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington began as a sequel to Mr. Deeds Goes to Town but morphed into something unique. That isn’t saying Gary Cooper couldn’t have played Jefferson Smith, but this was the role of Jimmy Stewart’s lifetime. Many people may point to It’s a Wonderful Life or even Vertigo, but Mr. Smith is Stewart at his best. Watching it in 2023 stings a little because we do know the entire government has been bought and paid for decades ago. However this is the movies and for just a little bit it’s nice to think that people of integrity can still fight for the right thing. Top-billed Jean Arthur’s Saunders is probably my favorite role she ever played. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW_KWj9pBJfoicXo9Ztg-1ONy5kHvVfCmUA0J75purwnaNKJzMg4ytVN-uOrqkkuD3OdaP7peBXJO9Q9BsoJl8t72H7LCY07vc59g1kZ0RlTVT7dTN7F2ig0R8Pi8SSb4kXymbt7kAmrd8sTy7Xvysa0LV8enLolvy9BZycgoFyg_aAGp-L57J2QRCX0wT/s939/vlcsnap-2012-09-18-04h11m09s214.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="939" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW_KWj9pBJfoicXo9Ztg-1ONy5kHvVfCmUA0J75purwnaNKJzMg4ytVN-uOrqkkuD3OdaP7peBXJO9Q9BsoJl8t72H7LCY07vc59g1kZ0RlTVT7dTN7F2ig0R8Pi8SSb4kXymbt7kAmrd8sTy7Xvysa0LV8enLolvy9BZycgoFyg_aAGp-L57J2QRCX0wT/s320/vlcsnap-2012-09-18-04h11m09s214.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>52. Magnolia (1999) - Paul Thomas Anderson </b><br />Sometimes the pupil becomes the “master”, ah a PTA joke. Paul Thomas Anderson took a healthy cue from Robert Altman, particularly Short Cuts, and fashioned his own definitive ensemble epic. Armed with a perfect cast, and perhaps an even better group of songs from Aimee Mann, Magnolia was as good as he ever got. PTA might have gotten more serious, perhaps even more ambitious in later films, but Magnolia is a marvelous juggling act. All the pieces fit and rarely have 3 hours flown by so fast. Like many of the greatest films, and ones that populate this list, it rewards the viewer who pays attention and watches it repeatedly. All those 82s hiding in plain sight, all those sexy connective tissues between one story and another. It is a gigantic swing and is just surreal enough to work. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3-OE7dJaqTARAKx9btkfi1uwpInoV8y1h9O6ETr6wObi1HIZB_225C0JUoFg9Pmxlf842wLL5wO4pqCXrIAk-su1IulCKA4wBrCvf-8szWHNPh-Qgfp1ewFARdA14ABz3lOFswASa7wD-QA4HwaT86q9pTPiCBHZGHqiJMS2pI670K6PTm9UxJ4njIE5X/s466/the-grapes-of-wrath-henry-fonda-john-carradine-1940_u-L-PH4AHC0.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="466" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3-OE7dJaqTARAKx9btkfi1uwpInoV8y1h9O6ETr6wObi1HIZB_225C0JUoFg9Pmxlf842wLL5wO4pqCXrIAk-su1IulCKA4wBrCvf-8szWHNPh-Qgfp1ewFARdA14ABz3lOFswASa7wD-QA4HwaT86q9pTPiCBHZGHqiJMS2pI670K6PTm9UxJ4njIE5X/s320/the-grapes-of-wrath-henry-fonda-john-carradine-1940_u-L-PH4AHC0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>51. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - John Ford</b><br />Classic literature and Hollywood have been strange bedfellows since the earliest days of cinema. Popular fiction and Hollywood have also worked well together over the years, but rarely has a truly great book been turned into a truly great film. The Grapes of Wrath is certainly one of the exceptions if not the ultimate example of getting it right. Perhaps it was those stars aligning. Henry Fonda was a perfect Tom Joad, Greg Tolland was the right cinematographer, and John Ford was absolutely the correct choice to direct. Ford won his second of a record 4 best director Oscars for this, and for my money it’s the one he probably deserved the most. Condensing a gut-wrenching cross country migration to a little over two hours is no small task. The film breaks things up beautifully with Ford’s trademark humor and sense of community, but when things need to get bleak, boy do they. The original ending of the book wasn’t shot for censorship reasons, but the film chooses to end on a slightly more optimistic note, straight from the pen of Steinbeck. I used to cringe at what I perceived was hogwash sentimentality but now I see it as the summation of what makes these Okie’s persevere. What can you say besides it’s one of the all time greats?<br /> </p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-45795096676402614122023-07-30T23:49:00.002-07:002023-07-30T23:52:14.182-07:00Top 100 Films (2023 Edition): Introduction 100-76<p> So it’s come to this. A decade in the making, 500+ movies rewatched just this year, and far too many tough decisions. For the sheer enormity of this project I vowed some time ago to only update things once a decade. A lot can change in a decade however, 32 films to be exact. That is how many films from this list weren’t present on the 2013 edition. To be fair it is far more turnover than I would have initially estimated, but that’s why I do the work.<br /><br />So I should point out the obvious, 32 new movies, means 32 previous films have disappeared. Even with nearly a third of the entries changing I stand by that 2013 list. It might not directly reflect my current taste, but next time around many of these could return. Two “films” however will not return simply because I essentially changed the rules for this edition. After a little bit of searching I determined both Berlin Alexanderplatz and Carlos were mini-series rather than films. Sight and Sound may let people vote for entire seasons of a television show or even YouTube videos, but not me. Fassbinder’s opus has always been a series, it is even broken into episodes with their own credits, but I chose to be a lot looser with my definition in 2013. Looking at the Wikipedia page for Carlos the first sentence mentions it as a mini-series. So in the interest of consistency and getting more films in here, they were left out. <br /><br />This distinction meant that for things like Fanny and Alexander or Scenes From a Marriage I could only consider the theatrical version, even if the extended TV cut is superior. That doesn’t mean made for TV movies are ineligible, and with the current Emmy nominees deciding that direct to streaming films count makes everything a little muddier. At the end of the day, movies are movies, and TV is TV. As before I kept the same idea regarding documentaries. There is one film on this list that may be considered a documentary but I never really thought the description fit. A number of the best films of the past decade were made exclusively for streaming services, but I don’t believe any of them actually made the final list, maybe next decade.<br /><br />As much as I did try to spread the love, there are a lot of great directors who are not represented here. Many of them appeared in 2013, and some just barely missed the cut. I could certainly make a case there are more than 100 great filmmakers so it stands to reason someone gets left out. However I didn’t anticipate more than one of my top 20 directors would be sitting out the 2023 edition. So apologies in advance, even I was deeply disappointed in the final outcome.<br /><br />Should be pointed out that a few folks earned multiple spots on the list. A new director(s) joined the 3 film club. No one had 4 however. A total of 13 people had more than one film, so blame them if your favorite director is missing out. Every list I start with the idea that the best films will make the list and I won’t just pick one movie to represent entire careers. Then reality sets in and a few great directors get reduced to a single entry (or less) for a career.<br /><br />Now I should point out something that hasn’t changed and that is the subject of “cheating”. There are technically more than 100 films on this list, so if you were reading this on Letterboxd it might seem like I’m taking liberties. More than one film in a series can be grouped together provided they are consecutive releases. For example Lord of the Rings can be one entry, despite three separate films, however I couldn’t put only Rocky 1 and 4 on. To further explain things, a complete franchise isn’t required. Say I only wanted to put The Dark Knight on and not Batman Begins and the Dark Knight Rises on, that is fine. I could make the same argument for Avengers: Infinity War, and technically by my definition only include Infinity War and Endgame. Again these are hypotheticals so don’t necessarily look for these films on the list. <br /><br />However, thematic trilogies or film series do not count. Things like Ingmar Bergman’s trilogy (Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, The Silence) or The Man With No Name Trilogy (Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) do not count since they don’t share a consistent storyline. Of course any individual film from these does count. It gets a little grayer when a similar character appears, such as the Monsieur Hulot films from Jacques Tati, but ultimately the eligibility is mine to determine. I am also not counting massive series like the entire MCU, or the Zatoichi films. Hypothetically, if I was braindead and wanted to include Star Wars episodes 1-9 they may technically count, but if you put Rise of Skywalker and Phantom Menace on a top 100 list you might have brain damage. Does this make sense? Well when you make your own top 100, then you can decide what counts. <br /><br />A few more in the “don’t count” category. There is no film and remake grouped together. Not sure what the best example of this would be, but say I wanted to include the 1958 Fly along with the Cronenberg 1986 Fly, despite a similar source they are not the same. Substitute Ben-Hur or one of the 2,000 adaptations of Dracula or Frankenstein and you get the point. It would have also been a little lazy of me to allow ties. Despite many films appearing equal in my eyes, ultimately everything needs its own number. The full Sight and Sound list had 264 titles in the top 250 because of multiple ties. I consider this cheating so I’m not grouping multiple unrelated films in the same spot because they are “equally good”.<br /><br />I had no requirements beyond the best films. So there was no mandate of inclusion whether that be ethnicity, gender, country, decade, etc. I believe I sampled a wide range of movies from all over the place, but again 100 movies is not enough to include everyone, everywhere. I happen to be a lousy American, but I feel that international cinema is well represented. I’m not going to pretend Jeanne Dielman is a masterpiece just to earn brownie points with people who sniff their own farts. There certainly are films that could be considered pretentious art films, but again if I like ‘em they make the list. So there were no minimums for decades, however there was at least one film from the 1910s through the 2020s. <br /><br />If you read this far, thank you. It has been an ordeal putting this together, so enough talking, let’s start the list.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkEXJPP2tWXyzvaMDXwIigBkm5j8hRqa0sdbptjqKLw1EeippfwmaojLI0HynI_DtKWLwfjUM3ykcSqjSQptZFPsZpTB-gUWOLfjT0gpg7CcW2o61HmDgIdQq_qWfxisTt5_aOHonGnGRykeC1_KU_6sDaFagezjMb35S0-JRxHTkET6TDoIj3T9QbPuZ7/s1096/film__2947-spirited-away--hi_res-0830b0de.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="1096" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkEXJPP2tWXyzvaMDXwIigBkm5j8hRqa0sdbptjqKLw1EeippfwmaojLI0HynI_DtKWLwfjUM3ykcSqjSQptZFPsZpTB-gUWOLfjT0gpg7CcW2o61HmDgIdQq_qWfxisTt5_aOHonGnGRykeC1_KU_6sDaFagezjMb35S0-JRxHTkET6TDoIj3T9QbPuZ7/s320/film__2947-spirited-away--hi_res-0830b0de.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>100. Spirited Away (2001) - Hayao Miyazaki </b><br />Perhaps the hardest part of putting this thing together were these last 8. I spent an agonizing amount of time making those final cuts and ultimately settled on Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece as the final entry. There were plenty of worthy films left on the chopping block, but it ultimately came down to how damn much I enjoy this film. I’m not sure if it is necessary to mention I am far from an anime fanatic, and if you point out any of the cultural touchstones I would probably be clueless. Over the past several decades Miyazaki has emerged as the definitive force in Japanese animation. If you take the del Toro approach that animation is cinema, then he may be Japan’s greatest filmmaker of the past 40 years (Kore-eda his greatest competitor). In a short amount of time, the spirit world sets up its own rules and you buy in instantaneously. This is pure imagination and it is delightful.There is also a darkness to it that harkens back to the earliest recorded fairy tales. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBv_Y8d8OP-LrOeRPCDljgCuTDKHpzdRLB8yvrGPmgHkk3EJ6odfkxt5KoyitmM1JMSVkNWU6Bw0daQuPGHY9KE6J5wsJXEZe9Bblld56siBAOCXq5jeLb--RiFq81gLUBimBNMLbgLdqdTbn7RoPa7aqcWo6fA4LbTWUK7Qvw0VZONH4mdnKRU3jgysje/s625/Come-and-See-POST-ONE.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="625" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBv_Y8d8OP-LrOeRPCDljgCuTDKHpzdRLB8yvrGPmgHkk3EJ6odfkxt5KoyitmM1JMSVkNWU6Bw0daQuPGHY9KE6J5wsJXEZe9Bblld56siBAOCXq5jeLb--RiFq81gLUBimBNMLbgLdqdTbn7RoPa7aqcWo6fA4LbTWUK7Qvw0VZONH4mdnKRU3jgysje/s320/Come-and-See-POST-ONE.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b> 99. Come and See (1985) - Elem Klimov </b><br />Time has been quite kind to Elem Klimov’s 1985 masterpiece. Two decades ago this seemed like a good also-ran among Soviet cinema, and now there are some folks claiming it might damn well be the greatest film ever made. Given enough time I suppose everything finds its audience. It is perhaps the bleakest “war is hell” movie since All Quiet on the Western Front. In fact it plays into the despair that it borders on a surreal horror film at times. If you go off to fight you might be disfigured or killed, if you stay behind your entire village could be massacred. All of it has a dreamlike (or nightmarish) quality with constant tracking shots and a wide angle lens. How could I not be drawn into it? <b> </b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjpVgDweWL5Z6YAgp3MPADdzipopaWAXe98EJq1rchs5X47lPOEjdvIl_HqB1hxFClnn7SdAUKwxhWoFsMV8g3QKx17k1cJzXSpIRfCbXp9FiIVQyXqdVLr9ybMfgqAXAYIKG4uvFSEpEzMqrD_1l3XRVHnF3R__S2nh2ROh5IwoyDdcRFl7tOtM2axUKQ/s742/Walkabout%2021.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="742" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjpVgDweWL5Z6YAgp3MPADdzipopaWAXe98EJq1rchs5X47lPOEjdvIl_HqB1hxFClnn7SdAUKwxhWoFsMV8g3QKx17k1cJzXSpIRfCbXp9FiIVQyXqdVLr9ybMfgqAXAYIKG4uvFSEpEzMqrD_1l3XRVHnF3R__S2nh2ROh5IwoyDdcRFl7tOtM2axUKQ/s320/Walkabout%2021.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b> 98. Walkabout (1971) - Nicholas Roeg </b><br />Following an impressive run as a cinematographer, Nicholas Roeg co-directed Mick Jagger in Performance. It was a damn fine trial run, but then Roeg up and went to the Australian outback to make his first solo venture with essentially a cast of three. I’m not sure the exact count but it feels like there are less than 100 words spoken in the entire film. This makes sense coming from a man making his living purely through visuals up to that point. The disjointed editing could sometimes be a detriment in later films, but this is the perfect balance of artsy fartsy experimentation and a compelling story. Everything is reduced to the most basic terms as these three kids make their way out of the wilderness. I’d be lying if I said the plot was important, it is merely the set up for a visual journey. It does seem to recall a few wordless unga-bunga caveman movies that were popular at the time, but transcends the exploitative side of things. Just gets better each time. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF9Tu3X4mJCbb1J7l6u4GgSJyT5wcD3nfiquZZM8RBd8-LEgY5RatPZO9BwI_hTgyCQN5eysvm7H-QTCeBZufuBqK3K-eeK2ckmRGkcacttpz0NwMpJj8PQOyAseksReo5RR6R7uXCIvSn61gj6t2kUNBAe_kFtFB4r989-qG-F1Fr1gtJA7V9HIgZmX1e/s628/13846.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="628" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF9Tu3X4mJCbb1J7l6u4GgSJyT5wcD3nfiquZZM8RBd8-LEgY5RatPZO9BwI_hTgyCQN5eysvm7H-QTCeBZufuBqK3K-eeK2ckmRGkcacttpz0NwMpJj8PQOyAseksReo5RR6R7uXCIvSn61gj6t2kUNBAe_kFtFB4r989-qG-F1Fr1gtJA7V9HIgZmX1e/s320/13846.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>97. Playtime (1967) - Jacques Tati </b><br />If I’m being perfectly honest, Jacques Tati is not for everyone. His style of comedy seems painfully French, where his films might as well be dialogue free. Playtime was his most ambitious outing as a director. Large, incredibly designed sets were constructed, an entire village known as Tati-ville was erected for this movie, and the shoot went massively over-budget and over-schedule. Of course when it finally got released it was a flop and severely curbed Tati’s ambitions for his eventual follow up. Audiences can appreciate folly with some distance. This meticulously crafted movie is probably the best designed comedy ever made. I won’t pretend to say it is the funniest because much of the humor revolves around subtle gags designed more for a chuckle than uproarious laughter. However, by the time we make it to our fancy restaurant and everything starts falling apart the subtle accumulation of gags makes it something truly sublime. Tati was always described as a filmmaker you appreciate more with age, and repeat viewings. I am starting to agree.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8XZZ15zEz4fMmu2fW8zvntphyxn0y5beJYBCNpesz_OAdlqxpdTdyJmPQgkBvRjxI0eYIXBy6IvX18XC7TXsL4vsxniEa3mjGvgxH_pprGOIUuHaijs9HvoknzmXrCvDU6tRgZ_HUgoU3q-Y1OwGluBZjXPcBjOo2bU58VRTsvuFiSyplQR4yQDUA0-w-/s1024/galoup-dancing.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8XZZ15zEz4fMmu2fW8zvntphyxn0y5beJYBCNpesz_OAdlqxpdTdyJmPQgkBvRjxI0eYIXBy6IvX18XC7TXsL4vsxniEa3mjGvgxH_pprGOIUuHaijs9HvoknzmXrCvDU6tRgZ_HUgoU3q-Y1OwGluBZjXPcBjOo2bU58VRTsvuFiSyplQR4yQDUA0-w-/s320/galoup-dancing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>96. Beau Travail (1999) - Claire Denis </b><br />I was a little taken aback when Claire Denis’ film wound up in the top 10 of the most recent Sight and Sound poll. I had watched it a couple times and despite being a huge fan of hers, Beau Travail just sailed right over my head. I gave it another viewing right at the beginning of my research and filed it under the maybe category. A curious thing happened though, I found myself thinking about this movie for the next 6 months. Granted a large part of that was Denis Lavant’s closing dance to “Rhythm of the Night”, but the rest of the film seemed to flash by me in fond remembrance. Beau Travail is meant to sort of wash over you, but the true impact is the aftershock. The narrative with its shifting narration and languid pace is meant to almost evoke a nostalgia or get you reminiscing. Even the legionnaires themselves appear to be a relic of a distant imperial past. The details are a little fuzzy but that adds to the after effect. Even now while typing this I’m getting flashes of various scenes, and details that might not be vital to the story but are essential to the appreciation of it.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitCK-aDulFfzftY4AlrUKVGf27rBzgkEAuEjii-mCyR2ZeECy30zwWNtIjzty-LuIOJGamc9TfoT01yFuhwu5ddIYlYltEA13z7AL6GLNk9rwnAoNLJcZ5uw60N3Xk35wcDQ0QHSP8U9UQl1lgMhnkpV49MLfeIpMcVzNdeIJ7qsUef0JOzAbgepAWGtqT/s718/images-w1400.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="718" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitCK-aDulFfzftY4AlrUKVGf27rBzgkEAuEjii-mCyR2ZeECy30zwWNtIjzty-LuIOJGamc9TfoT01yFuhwu5ddIYlYltEA13z7AL6GLNk9rwnAoNLJcZ5uw60N3Xk35wcDQ0QHSP8U9UQl1lgMhnkpV49MLfeIpMcVzNdeIJ7qsUef0JOzAbgepAWGtqT/s320/images-w1400.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>95. Last Year at Marienbad (1961) - Alain Resnais </b><br />As you progress further down this list you may notice a similar refrain when dealing with “weird movies”. That essentially amounts to, who cares if it makes sense just enjoy the ride. Alain Resnais was ready to follow up on the success of Hiroshima Mon Amour with the help of Alain Robbe-Grillet. He contacted the author about adapting one of his novels. Robbe-Grillet responded with an original screenplay that seems to highlight the best of both strange worlds. Marienbad confused me the first time I saw it, and eventually I just stopped caring. Each viewing reveals more details, but it's all details. There is no great mystery, simply more layers to enjoy and admire. It looks spectacular and I can get lost in the long tracking shots through hallways just as easily as the story. This one took a long time for me to come around on, but I feel like each successive viewing makes it a little better than the last, maybe it gets a little higher in 2033 when I do this all over again. I implore all of you to give those films you deemed overrated another look every so often, you may be surprised when something starts to click.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lfzOBJjiEq-S9qZHGGnRgo-cqn7BRs563jzLvfUqNByW1jI17WlBmlp_4YHHvpyEi2TnuSPFhxXbJieej5pw9fIPSKxpKstkEwxfMkDUfITN1arO-qVHS6ErZ-2rHSLfniO72ZDcnaj8wUKjyrWkMQo3hxLEUSvfcboa9Cvvn6pL9cm7mHewEbX-4OWK/s1440/13761232.0043.309-00000004.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1440" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lfzOBJjiEq-S9qZHGGnRgo-cqn7BRs563jzLvfUqNByW1jI17WlBmlp_4YHHvpyEi2TnuSPFhxXbJieej5pw9fIPSKxpKstkEwxfMkDUfITN1arO-qVHS6ErZ-2rHSLfniO72ZDcnaj8wUKjyrWkMQo3hxLEUSvfcboa9Cvvn6pL9cm7mHewEbX-4OWK/s320/13761232.0043.309-00000004.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>94. Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962) - Agnes Varda </b><br />For quite a number of decades Agnes Varda seemed little more than a footnote in the history of French cinema. An also ran who didn’t have the same brand recognition as the major new wave figures or even her husband Jacques Demy. As she outlived many of them she popped up every few years with a new film and grew to become a sort of eccentric grandmother of French film. It has caused a number of people to retroactively review her earlier work that may have been glossed over. There are numerous parallels to this film and Godard’s Vivre sa Vie, but whereas that film seeks to alienate the audience, Varda embraces it. Told almost in real time, it is an essential chronicle of Paris as it stood in the early 60s. People smarter than me can read into its feminist overtones, but it is just a damn good watch. The critical re-evaluation of Varda is a major point of the 21st century, and this remains her masterpiece, or at least the one I want to revisit the most.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjak-MzaXIUNhMgFKV4mHAscrn3YnLozBJgf9HMf3veb9Z17Ps_jNIhRK0Mm9Qdt5tNYiyDJ_1PyqPMXYzwB8-OYNbDPp2GwKsqSozKHu_urwXgwToEWFiYa5e-c98VysrZ9qZzz1xGeIti2IYF5jMDv8AcF26RU__niwi_6AcP2qApopsgPh2LKpEzU2nG/s600/rocco-alskdfj-lakdsjf-alsdkjf-e1599070957710.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="600" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjak-MzaXIUNhMgFKV4mHAscrn3YnLozBJgf9HMf3veb9Z17Ps_jNIhRK0Mm9Qdt5tNYiyDJ_1PyqPMXYzwB8-OYNbDPp2GwKsqSozKHu_urwXgwToEWFiYa5e-c98VysrZ9qZzz1xGeIti2IYF5jMDv8AcF26RU__niwi_6AcP2qApopsgPh2LKpEzU2nG/s320/rocco-alskdfj-lakdsjf-alsdkjf-e1599070957710.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>93. Rocco and His Brothers (1960) - Luchino Visconti </b><br />The last time I did this Rocco and His Brothers was a true revelation. My expectations were now sky high for the re-watch, and it was…still good. Obviously it is on the list so I can’t say it was a disappointment, but certainly didn’t have the impact it did a decade ago. To be fair it is a true masterpiece, and if only The Leopard had Burt Lancaster’s voice dubbed in the full Italian cut that might top it. Anyway, despite chapters for each brother, it feels like the tale of Rocco and Simone. One is practically a saint, willing to sacrifice his own well being and future for a brother who might very well be the biggest piece of shit in cinema history. Told over an engrossing 3 hours, it allows layers and layers to be built up so by the end, man does it hit hard. Visconti came from the aristocracy but somehow delivered his finest film slumming it with a family of migrants. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9QgB4Kd3-4S_1_gBamO7IWHkDVVIHz9ye0ZGo10PodU1nLoptYN3-OU9tJjVKSgsgKTUWIpau1k1FKWiK4MsN6a-TP3pfY1Zcvz7zUjNNyCeGk4qWB3GpAwCcdh02pGIVlJJupsHNtsXj5muE8Dc0VjIRINi0V0dnGdcwhOP-4lPBpkTEY0BIizEGmV1/s1200/fq-2016-70-2-17-unf05.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="1200" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9QgB4Kd3-4S_1_gBamO7IWHkDVVIHz9ye0ZGo10PodU1nLoptYN3-OU9tJjVKSgsgKTUWIpau1k1FKWiK4MsN6a-TP3pfY1Zcvz7zUjNNyCeGk4qWB3GpAwCcdh02pGIVlJJupsHNtsXj5muE8Dc0VjIRINi0V0dnGdcwhOP-4lPBpkTEY0BIizEGmV1/s320/fq-2016-70-2-17-unf05.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>92. The Battle of Algiers (1966) - Gillo Pontecorvo </b><br />There are many impressive things about Gillo Pontecorvo’s Battle of Algiers, but perhaps the most impressive was the fact that there is no stock footage used. Everything in the film was shot for the movie, and it makes the documentary-like approach all the more impressive. Like his neo-realist forefathers, Pontecorvo enlists mostly non-actors for the major parts. Plenty of people made the logical comparison to the French-Algeria war to the US-Vietnam one, so this found a rather enthusiastic audience immediately. The wounds from the war were still fresh to both sides. Seems even more fitting that the first major restoration and DVD release would have coincided with the Iraq war. All those tactics of cafe bombings, and alleged torture, child fighters etc was all there in 1966 for anyone willing to look.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUoLTebP1EEEw4-FIFmB_bst7sv0IllWONlIaFI3FlYISZXZYmrkj0mOghAKcWi5vmHlVTKzYH5fMewPUoaLG8MEWIqEFmxQr_X6Tl9KskCPazwFpXBrygPxdB8aybcGuPm-bhRBYkzCl5dqfaYVKPjJjJBcqtiScIHxTpNZLhjXMkUvWE_P1N-TbFcZn/s1885/brazil-palin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1031" data-original-width="1885" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUoLTebP1EEEw4-FIFmB_bst7sv0IllWONlIaFI3FlYISZXZYmrkj0mOghAKcWi5vmHlVTKzYH5fMewPUoaLG8MEWIqEFmxQr_X6Tl9KskCPazwFpXBrygPxdB8aybcGuPm-bhRBYkzCl5dqfaYVKPjJjJBcqtiScIHxTpNZLhjXMkUvWE_P1N-TbFcZn/s320/brazil-palin.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>91. Brazil (1985) - Terry Gilliam </b><br />Brazil sure is a movie, I tell ya what. It showed what Terry Gilliam could do with a budget and a vision, although Time Bandits was a decent fore-runner. When the final cut was submitted though, the studio promptly said “fuck no” and butchered the hell out of it. Like most great cult films it missed its initial audience, and then the legend grew. There are definitely some comparisons to Blade Runner here, especially in the commercial disappointment angle. However Gilliam’s dystopian vision is partially 1984, but in this tech heavy society nothing ever works. The all important ducts constantly have issues, elevators get off on the wrong floor, and the whole story is set in motion in true Hitchcock fashion with a bureaucratic error. Along the way Gilliam the satirist never fails to poke fun at nearly everything while taking everyone on one hell of a ride. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwe_5n1CaYgjasv0sX1CbtcIDak8htbUGp5iesILtJbVAjUK3eGhtLLEI69N3weIWJyJsPoSsbKTx-PilgD57vmQz-1xHSWN328xGu57di2EaSifmeoiAxd_hadrqXNNy-XdijE4fgD-SOppG6z0eLGtRXiQZwRQaJ8XfxSrUJdaNX3JzNq9dwrzOlb0SX/s1200/laronde.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="1200" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwe_5n1CaYgjasv0sX1CbtcIDak8htbUGp5iesILtJbVAjUK3eGhtLLEI69N3weIWJyJsPoSsbKTx-PilgD57vmQz-1xHSWN328xGu57di2EaSifmeoiAxd_hadrqXNNy-XdijE4fgD-SOppG6z0eLGtRXiQZwRQaJ8XfxSrUJdaNX3JzNq9dwrzOlb0SX/s320/laronde.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>90. La Ronde (1950) - Max Ophuls </b><br />After an artistically successful stop in Hollywood, Max Ophuls took his talents to France for his final four films. The first in that incredible run was La Ronde, and for my money his masterpiece. This isn’t taking away anything from Madame De or Lola Montes, but there is just something extra special about this one. Ophuls starts things off with a time traveling extended take that sets up our narrator and gets the ball rolling. Angelopoulos would take note. Then a series of connected romantic trysts bring it all full circle. Along the way there is so much style, so much wit, and so many long takes. Ophuls was a huge influence on both Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson and it isn’t hard to see why. No one could shoot a waltz more beautifully, and he found a deft way of keeping his melodrama surprisingly light. It’s an exercise in how to stage a scene, how to dress a set, and how to make one hell of a movie. It also seems to sum up everything that made Ophuls one of the all time greats, while still keeping the running time mighty respectable.<br /></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="650" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgneLk-DhLRXvyqjf6acPopRQJd1iTRSHA3OjU2OwRXiVX-MltJskTIbpyYNvLuxp8PGUbmMi2GpOQ2zrNdBOEkG2lejwbkU2C20rkG9jnG9_srhv70SjhRyn0HuikwaFvZ4hDwK3cjIFdZpuvf_eNafM_vDjnntSWP3UjetEpwFz4qYEL7WXZ1GsMqWs1d/s320/vitti_medium.jpg" width="320" /></div><p><b>89. L’Avventura (1960) - Michelangelo Antonioni </b><br />Many years ago when I was fully embracing many of the world’s greatest auteurs for the first time there were three whose work I looked forward to more than any. One was Godard, the other Bunuel, and the third was Antonioni. The thing is though, none of Antonioni’s films screamed “5-stars!” to me on the first viewing. However something about the way his films just unfolded at their own pace, all the existential dread, the apathy, the beautiful locales. I recognized something in his work that didn’t impress me on a surface level but resonated in my soul. After re-visiting 6 of his films a decade ago, ultimately none made the list. This time I had to face facts, L’Avventura belongs on any great movie list. Antonioni had scratched the surface before, particularly on Il Grido, but this was such a quantum leap forward not just for Antonioni but Italian cinema in general. Death to neo-realism, and to hell with any sort of closure. This is meant to frustrate you, but the more you return to it, the less it matters. Life doesn’t wrap itself up in a neat little package, so why should cinema? <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFhB4jvztvOeiCe6YFKzZmcHRGPRagyLZSzD-rJfzoK-esIW5vCuap9208lEDRkqgAhIQnHuzVvw6sGrFKhNmF2hrzdpOFNdTU4Wd08kcJWPyhQbFYwYBfoKEce3JK0yH6NH3Eu7SN8zqpqLdJM0ySmxmJWkHR19StghhgamHAzLocn5emdm6GvmyZ1O1i/s474/Talk%20to%20Her4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="474" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFhB4jvztvOeiCe6YFKzZmcHRGPRagyLZSzD-rJfzoK-esIW5vCuap9208lEDRkqgAhIQnHuzVvw6sGrFKhNmF2hrzdpOFNdTU4Wd08kcJWPyhQbFYwYBfoKEce3JK0yH6NH3Eu7SN8zqpqLdJM0ySmxmJWkHR19StghhgamHAzLocn5emdm6GvmyZ1O1i/s320/Talk%20to%20Her4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>88. Talk to Her (2002) - Pedro Almodovar </b><br />A few films on my list appear to have some strange revisionist attitudes about them. Looking through some of the Letterboxd reviews of Talk to Her and I can only lament the fact that some poor souls clearly missed the point. These same people seem to be unable to differentiate what a character does and where our sympathies should lie. This is Almodovar baby, where the melodrama is palpable and the style is everything. Talk to Her was his follow up to All About My Mother, which was up until that point his masterpiece. To take things one step further he achieved a truly sublime masterpiece. Yeah it’s fucked up, but beautiful and I think that contrast is what confuses some modern audiences, especially ones not familiar with his work. At its core the movie is about two men who love women in comas, but as we find out neither really should. Their unlikely friendship and mutual loneliness drive things forward but it’s more about the ride. Also there is a silent film interlude where a man crawls into a woman’s vagina, now that’s pod racing.<b><br /></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMYimaEMeMv_4BLhh7gAxpA5dcQ7gkAJbGPMHgJx6JAItoxqu8r3vddVoJ7wS_vNMorrzGpaO2gHzthr2YZZOgMwnGRiaCI6hR7EfjSi4lqrJEanjCSAanvb9fMuJhl7gPSoXPYv0UTLaO12pT9_qIRbn9p5yP4rAQgRD5cxERu5AbgpNVxOBCg4NqqgfH/s1000/MV5BNDZlYmQyMDEtNTZjZi00ZjI0LWExMTUtN2NiNmYyNzk0MTM3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjI3NzE4MTM@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="1000" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMYimaEMeMv_4BLhh7gAxpA5dcQ7gkAJbGPMHgJx6JAItoxqu8r3vddVoJ7wS_vNMorrzGpaO2gHzthr2YZZOgMwnGRiaCI6hR7EfjSi4lqrJEanjCSAanvb9fMuJhl7gPSoXPYv0UTLaO12pT9_qIRbn9p5yP4rAQgRD5cxERu5AbgpNVxOBCg4NqqgfH/s320/MV5BNDZlYmQyMDEtNTZjZi00ZjI0LWExMTUtN2NiNmYyNzk0MTM3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjI3NzE4MTM@._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b> 87. The Incredibles (2004) - Brad Bird </b><br />Over the last 20 years superhero movies went from nerdy wish fulfillment to one of the 2-3 reliable cash cows in the film industry. It’s not an exaggeration to say that they have probably kept a few studios in business, and for better or worse have led to a large amount of creative bankruptcy. So it is fair to wonder if the comic adaptations that helped entrench these films in the popular consciousness would hold up after so many endless re-iterations. While Marvel seems to have unmistakably won the cinematic battle, enough people cling to random Batman highpoints as the true champions of the medium. Yet it was Brad Bird at Pixar who helmed the best superhero movie we may ever see. Somehow in 2004 he made the best Fantastic Four, James Bond, and Pixar film all at once with The Incredibles. Perhaps it’s that timeless mid-century design, or the fact that these were original characters (albeit based on decades of comic books) that makes The Incredibles still seem fresh. Knowing Disney’s scraping the barrel mentality of adapting animated classics for live action stories, we may come to a time when we get a live action Incredibles film. We can also wait a few years for Marvel’s proper Fantastic 4 movie, but before a foot of film is shot in that or a script is even finished, I can safely proclaim it won’t get better than this.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvJ0l_60MWJvBeEBazgDzUnAnOXij-hiDhRwSXOnj6NoHKz3YqNrmW_ENbnns0Sdf9JP2AeRvr5uqtoAIT37nMhz0Rm0IqNIrY8te3t6AzyY6yui8cFFrt8Vc5dmrBbxkHc7idcx3UfiNZacCl63-1eE4UlMwe-KeHyIRbdZZv36lxR0hpWMpk_Uy727ds/s3000/a-matter-of-life-and-death-1946-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2186" data-original-width="3000" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvJ0l_60MWJvBeEBazgDzUnAnOXij-hiDhRwSXOnj6NoHKz3YqNrmW_ENbnns0Sdf9JP2AeRvr5uqtoAIT37nMhz0Rm0IqNIrY8te3t6AzyY6yui8cFFrt8Vc5dmrBbxkHc7idcx3UfiNZacCl63-1eE4UlMwe-KeHyIRbdZZv36lxR0hpWMpk_Uy727ds/s320/a-matter-of-life-and-death-1946-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>86. A Matter of Life and Death (1946) - Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger </b><br />Every time I get around to making a greatest film list this Powell/Pressburger joint always seems to fall right around 101. The next film I would have included. It is a special film to me because it is one of the first two movies I ever rented from Facets, and I may have disclosed how instrumental that store was in my film education. For the record the other film was L’eclisse from Antonioni, this was the one that really stuck with me. It was another in a string of classics that carried them throughout the 40s. Brilliantly shot by Jack Cardiff, it is among their most impressionistic works. The design of the afterlife, and the epic scale on an intimate story all take a backseat to what is at heart a beautiful and simple love story. Long before hiding in makeup for Planet of the Apes Kim Hunter made what was essentially her film debut as the American in this inter-continental romance. After twenty years I think it is time this actually takes its place in the list proper.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvKQyWmihSj8jAT3AumE1cgSeSwK0kjxM74q9bW2lIN7eaZPNv0DY2NM9h02skK1gJuCS4Ru5QAhH4ctbdnKmlW0FBT1ox9i07gzxM-CV_prIpZoOe9iiGHrcaIspoUhNasD_wHu1Fp7a_8ACetyE1PuKhoISztkg1pVGbNVkg4VdiWfZcnaP1xmB0Tlyw/s1016/7-last-tango-paris-brando-schneider.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="1016" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvKQyWmihSj8jAT3AumE1cgSeSwK0kjxM74q9bW2lIN7eaZPNv0DY2NM9h02skK1gJuCS4Ru5QAhH4ctbdnKmlW0FBT1ox9i07gzxM-CV_prIpZoOe9iiGHrcaIspoUhNasD_wHu1Fp7a_8ACetyE1PuKhoISztkg1pVGbNVkg4VdiWfZcnaP1xmB0Tlyw/s320/7-last-tango-paris-brando-schneider.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>85. Last Tango in Paris (1972) - Bernardo Bertolucci </b><br />I’m going to get this out of the way right now, cancel at will. I don’t care if Bernardo Bertolucci and Marlon Brando lit Maria Schneider on fire for this movie, it would have been worth it. Brando himself delivers what I consider to be the finest acting performance I’ve ever seen in a movie, which is all the more remarkable considering he mostly made up everything on the spot. Jean-Pierre Leaud is absolutely perfect as a pretentious artsy jack-ass turned unwitting cuck. Schneider was never better either, and I do feel sorry for her miserable experience on the film, but few people ever get to be part of something this special. This is a great director realizing perhaps for the first time that he is one of the greats, before the irresistible urge to excess made 1900 a self-indulgent wank-fest. Reading Letterboxd reviews of this hurt my heart, so many people missing the point, review bombing it without seeing it, even a few people having the audacity to knock the cinematography as if it wasn’t shot by one of cinema’s greatest masters. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWbpsqQq_AkeYZc7A8V13DCYuAorInbrryAfBbG4EGubHGGwWoX1e-sKBXGoRjo-xY9ndUcaLxtWfKWQLw_mdBw9AnI0SbGiVGhOFw4SSWjSWfOgGTe9BbpAImteeIeo3pVSM5TCRmy05Hf7WHMZGIqTi-E2owWubSQvHPp6bBW4jNwUMQfSJj7gs0aa54/s1400/1%20tRLW90N4058-0m-dL7JHOw.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="1400" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWbpsqQq_AkeYZc7A8V13DCYuAorInbrryAfBbG4EGubHGGwWoX1e-sKBXGoRjo-xY9ndUcaLxtWfKWQLw_mdBw9AnI0SbGiVGhOFw4SSWjSWfOgGTe9BbpAImteeIeo3pVSM5TCRmy05Hf7WHMZGIqTi-E2owWubSQvHPp6bBW4jNwUMQfSJj7gs0aa54/s320/1%20tRLW90N4058-0m-dL7JHOw.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>84. Big Trouble in Little China (1986) - John Carpenter </b><br />Years of watching high brow cinema has certainly shaped me and my tastes. Yet below the arthouse offerings is my love of martial arts and the films of the 80s. It’s hard to reconcile the movies that shaped you as a person with those masterpieces you found in adulthood. Every time I put together a list like this I find myself wondering how to rank those formative films with objectively better movies. Well in certain cases those formative films are objectively better. John Carpenter has more than proven himself as a world class director, even making his own appearance on the Sight and Sound poll, and no matter how many times I go through his work, Big Trouble in Little China remains my favorite. This movie distilled everything I loved into about 100 minutes, and I watched it so much I memorized fight choreography, sound effects, and dialogue. Entirely possible there is no movie I’ve watched more in my lifetime. It also has all the markings of a classic Carpenter film even if it steps outside of that horror comfort zone. A classic hero's journey where the sidekick might actually be the hero and our lead might in reality be the comic relief. Perhaps my only complaint is when I saw the actual Chinatown in San Francisco there were no Wing Kong and Chang Sing battles raging. <b><br /></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9rAFKTqvUHei0sIOMOaPUR5l99W-D4CGUafA_NcI7xz5kiPJ2nJ33GUDMWmmd32njsQW6_BRh51wWXjI4z8WVt8M35XNjgI_y6iV-98jjOvT0iBiA4lFUBvNzE4_NFOprFRYMKiUB5uDMNoHf-qyrUirBdiR8gF2vtYYvGce8R1kZKRerfHuZGCOMQLIH/s2000/james%20wong.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="2000" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9rAFKTqvUHei0sIOMOaPUR5l99W-D4CGUafA_NcI7xz5kiPJ2nJ33GUDMWmmd32njsQW6_BRh51wWXjI4z8WVt8M35XNjgI_y6iV-98jjOvT0iBiA4lFUBvNzE4_NFOprFRYMKiUB5uDMNoHf-qyrUirBdiR8gF2vtYYvGce8R1kZKRerfHuZGCOMQLIH/s320/james%20wong.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>83. Chinatown (1974) - Roman Polanski </b><br />Duh, Roman Polanski is a bad person, 1 star. Anyways don’t mind me separating the art from the artist. Before it even had a name, Chinatown set the standard for neo-noir. Based on Robert Towne’s book about how Los Angeles was built, it took everything great about those classic hard boiled detective stories and updated it for the Easy Rider generation. The setting of course stays period accurate and the subject matter couldn’t have been hinted at in 1945. Jack Nicholson delivers another in a seemingly endless stream of iconic 70s performances, and Faye Dunaway got her best role since Bonnie and Clyde. Sure Dunaway might have gotten the Shelly Duvall in The Shining treatment at the hands of Polanski, but if I’ve said it before I’ll say it again, when the result is this good, I’ll forgive the methods. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtRlptipZgBHdB5jekLQ4qXNIAawvEEmbhSa03XtaJf7U3-RA89txRth6OXGmtRji90_MQrVC880ikPtl667Q4GNaoHMh_AS9RwUPLSTPQVJrNUidLVStjn9ZH8882-LaFw5PAuxL-9plr2-5Oub9uMGodWrSAIAGMtBgkRF0mQRc-oXq2Z5FBaRrtP_H8/s1096/film__2962-the-400-blows--hi_res-3978ee4c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="1096" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtRlptipZgBHdB5jekLQ4qXNIAawvEEmbhSa03XtaJf7U3-RA89txRth6OXGmtRji90_MQrVC880ikPtl667Q4GNaoHMh_AS9RwUPLSTPQVJrNUidLVStjn9ZH8882-LaFw5PAuxL-9plr2-5Oub9uMGodWrSAIAGMtBgkRF0mQRc-oXq2Z5FBaRrtP_H8/s320/film__2962-the-400-blows--hi_res-3978ee4c.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>82. The 400 Blows (1959) - Francois Truffaut </b><br />There are plenty of predecessors to the French New Wave, and plenty of early examples, but Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows is the first one where it all seemed to come together. This was the goal things were moving to. Personal stories, shot on location, often without permits, with your movie friends helping out. Making films that hadn’t been seen before with techniques no one thought to try. Truffaut tells a slightly fictionalized story of his own childhood set against a Paris background. It was the first in a series of films starring Jean-Pierre Leaud as Antoine Doinel, Truffaut’s alter-ego. The others, although varying in quality never quite struck the same nerve as this. With this film, Truffaut entered an impressive pantheon of directors whose greatest feature was their first.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1JzkwcH3VWQ2sKRbQZmLbWmAlKSxNfbu8OaSumEBdHtric1rd8VX307y-vRdK-K4VBBiI7oH1IFk3zGMxvUhpLqfMeMgIwn_PduoqF-aY676ST3yKcZk3MhoujZZn88J9kOMA6t1I2Z8Zjgb1uvg6cKNtxE__0qmytXoVThLcGnW87kl4Svct5YifMUzU/s518/the-best-years-of-our-lives-4.1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="518" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1JzkwcH3VWQ2sKRbQZmLbWmAlKSxNfbu8OaSumEBdHtric1rd8VX307y-vRdK-K4VBBiI7oH1IFk3zGMxvUhpLqfMeMgIwn_PduoqF-aY676ST3yKcZk3MhoujZZn88J9kOMA6t1I2Z8Zjgb1uvg6cKNtxE__0qmytXoVThLcGnW87kl4Svct5YifMUzU/s320/the-best-years-of-our-lives-4.1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b> 81. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - William Wyler </b><br />Every year something wins a best picture Oscar, and most of the time you scratch your head and wonder how. Even with the benefit of hindsight it isn’t hard to look at films that although good, haven’t aged well. You could make such an argument for William Wyler’s first best picture winner Mrs. Minniver, which seemed doomed to obsolescence as soon as the war ended. The Best Years of Our Lives still packs a punch, but keeps things from getting so relentlessly pessimistic to seem somehow anti-American. The film is flagrantly patriotic, but realistic in terms of admitting that even the best of us will have struggles. Wyler was a longtime proponent of staging in depth, and he has set up a masterclass in the subject here with the help of GOAT cinematographer Gregg Tolland. If I had any complaint it’s that there are too few scenes with Homer and Wilma, but enough of Harold Russell to win him a best supporting actor Oscar.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifNNPdqnPviVV3jgChmHSd3YH0276r9b87VI3lghPdFoLJNHpayP0kMbOxeUtRARiaEuv6XWbGCL0btxRx5xBNyWlfmZhc4rUBsukRKl3GEGaDOQem11BWvgSnDCTHVN4TmidLCAxdIAoPkRCs0EKOVYJbOi_YB_K0GF2uTeARcPDpyMLW6CAQx0GymfAL/s794/ashes-and-diamonds.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="794" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifNNPdqnPviVV3jgChmHSd3YH0276r9b87VI3lghPdFoLJNHpayP0kMbOxeUtRARiaEuv6XWbGCL0btxRx5xBNyWlfmZhc4rUBsukRKl3GEGaDOQem11BWvgSnDCTHVN4TmidLCAxdIAoPkRCs0EKOVYJbOi_YB_K0GF2uTeARcPDpyMLW6CAQx0GymfAL/s320/ashes-and-diamonds.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>80. Ashes and Diamonds (1958) - Andrzej Wajda </b><br />A lot has been written about the transition from fighting Nazis to Communists. Quite a number of films deal with the same subject, most recently Oppenheimer. Andrzej Wajda however speculates on that transition happening in real time over a single day. Taking place on the day of Germany’s surrender, two assassins are given a new target. They kill the wrong person and the rest of the film is more or less a study in shifting loyalties and the mental gymnastics people go through. It was the last of Wajda’s early World War 2 trilogy, and the best. It might not be as bleak as Kanal, but it remains nihilistic to the end. I can make the same analogy of finishing this list then trading the greatest cinema of all time for trashy cult films, in a way you can say I am a fighter too. <br /><b></b></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHyACzLSGX_nYH3gT8enOrnFRIz9JQJrYpyMaynSKooJzADZZ0TaaDOSvTjW2m60XcerVeAtmUndJ5ykhOCtWEnlvjmY-liJta6fOBjD9Zk42Mzw3sqOh65nHSK6S0gceFVkZJdzyDwy25iM8HKPj4UG4W3NmA7fHROL_3UuGGu0j1NisMT-NH91kZ7Ecg/s2771/Bride-of-Frankenstein-OP-Heggie.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2156" data-original-width="2771" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHyACzLSGX_nYH3gT8enOrnFRIz9JQJrYpyMaynSKooJzADZZ0TaaDOSvTjW2m60XcerVeAtmUndJ5ykhOCtWEnlvjmY-liJta6fOBjD9Zk42Mzw3sqOh65nHSK6S0gceFVkZJdzyDwy25iM8HKPj4UG4W3NmA7fHROL_3UuGGu0j1NisMT-NH91kZ7Ecg/s320/Bride-of-Frankenstein-OP-Heggie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>79. Frankenstein/The Bride of Frankenstein (1931/1935) - James Whale</b><br />Am I cheating by putting these two classics together? Well that’s your opinion, I make the rules and I make the list and if you read the intro, this counts. Despite vast tonal differences, James Whale’s two Frankenstein films have forever been my favorite monster movies. Frankenstein relies on a slow creep factor, atmosphere, and has that slightly risque pre-code energy. Bride of Frankenstein is the first “bigger is better” horror sequel and takes up the camp factor. It seems a rare studio film where it feels like everyone was actually having fun making it. Chewing the scenery and having a blast. Sadly this was not the norm for horror sequels, despite the tendency for them to get more ridiculous. Most horror films were a tale of diminishing returns, losing star power, smaller budgets, and far less memorable. It also seems to be a last hurrah for the first golden age of Universal horror. There were some later gems, notably Wolf Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon, but Bride was definitely the apex of that magical run.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRliz4m9NFGI-RDE8jp2uI3mdfwcw-sKw08grMyRm2osDJ40Et6NR0r_g32DDl_WEsXbkeu8F9q2nUoabADF975Ud5KpHpFGhayl2vHUAp5Np3ZYSyHHblEtKVAUp2S1bIsEPjJ2kLH6Nq8g8D4m0Tx9XxZ0N2eer2DdhcFhUqJ_poqMBHUY1IRTMLbulZ/s1200/f249428d6578a813e59e8206e23a558c.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRliz4m9NFGI-RDE8jp2uI3mdfwcw-sKw08grMyRm2osDJ40Et6NR0r_g32DDl_WEsXbkeu8F9q2nUoabADF975Ud5KpHpFGhayl2vHUAp5Np3ZYSyHHblEtKVAUp2S1bIsEPjJ2kLH6Nq8g8D4m0Tx9XxZ0N2eer2DdhcFhUqJ_poqMBHUY1IRTMLbulZ/s320/f249428d6578a813e59e8206e23a558c.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>78. Trouble in Paradise (1932) - Ernst Lubitsch </b><br />Sometimes 100 films is not enough. There are some truly great filmmakers who are left on the cutting floor, and in 2013 Ernst Lubitsch was one of them. Trouble in Paradise went a little over my head on the first viewing and I frankly didn’t rate it as highly as things like Ninotchka, Heaven Can Wait, The Shop Around the Corner, or Design for Living. Well nothing against any of those films, but I was wrong. Like Design for Living this also doubles as one of the supreme triumphs of the pre-code era. The type of sex comedy that simply wouldn’t have been allowed past censors a mere two years later, certainly not in this form. Herbert Marshall may seem like an odd choice for a romantic lead, but the real stars are Kay Francis and Miriam Hopkins. Hopkins in particular gets hands down some of the best lines in the movie, and it’s no surprise Lubitsch and several other directors fell madly in love with her. The opening courtship/theft which is reprised later is some of the finest dialogue free filmmaking you’ll ever see. For a director who relied so heavily on nuance and subtlety, the “touch” was never better than here. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzTRGENlTKXdLJSvkXhLG1RRqFqG6whXO3ZLGU3AQV4g_GieugwmHcO3Ka7A0TzmWxmT3xUbgWivbDw4Db3Iy5LeTbbdalS92SoLUUBw9m04fHaperM02_M1wgJ_d84MzPTBnlbJ3d6S5SRSf4N3T4Z-wgnp2wZiPYYZoF-WhIEjZWO5h5PSKDdZ74xKET/s612/fargo-foot_0.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="612" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzTRGENlTKXdLJSvkXhLG1RRqFqG6whXO3ZLGU3AQV4g_GieugwmHcO3Ka7A0TzmWxmT3xUbgWivbDw4Db3Iy5LeTbbdalS92SoLUUBw9m04fHaperM02_M1wgJ_d84MzPTBnlbJ3d6S5SRSf4N3T4Z-wgnp2wZiPYYZoF-WhIEjZWO5h5PSKDdZ74xKET/s320/fargo-foot_0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>77. Fargo (1996) - Joel and Ethan Coen</b><br />When first digesting the AFI 100 Years 100 Films list, Fargo was the most contemporary movie on it. In fact it seemed one of the most recent hyped up critical darlings I can remember. Even by 1999 people seemed to completely forget about The English Patient whereas the Coen’s film had some staying power. So it is one of my earliest examples of being confronted with massive expectations, and it didn’t quite click. The thing is, these two boys from the Twin Cities are smarter than me. Like most Coen films Fargo gets better every time you watch it. There are countless details that accumulate throughout, and brilliant performances start to finish. After the failure of The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo also seemed to be the first indicator of the brother’s nihilism, which we all know must be exhausting. With the exception of Marge, played by Frances McDormand who was pregnant with husband Joel Coen’s baby during the filming, no one really has a happy ending. Similar to their other great films, this is all about the little things, which is why it only gets better with age.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="1196" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgglAhid0WLQINXt6qfANsEqSmeaLsjkqR0r6KSP9-3kddKGZGUwlQ2VeSlqi0JFRP8we2vHX_ECV2os3WpwuDR-Tn7InWHQD-6RLxv_S-oAHGHb8c6vfnfkfl6IomZGe1FocvaUGYzrHrPv-YpM6X7ctx9mZ-hd8BOyOlbAZFS2mB8qDg5bANzDX8ejM3j/s320/screen-shot-2019-12-06-at-3.32.31-pm.png" width="320" /></div><p><b>76. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) - Apichatpong Weeraskatul </b><br />A decade ago I did revisit this right before making my list. I knew immediately it was the best work Apichatpong Weeraskatul had ever done, and wondered if he could ever top it. I’m not here to knock Cemetery of Splendor or Memoria, but Uncle Boonmee is something special. Nearly all of his films share similar threads, so subtle you might not pick up on them unless you binge them all. Uncle Boonmee seems to sum up everything that makes him tick. He takes the wordless primal sequence of Tropical Malady and starts the film there. Then he throws in some Syndromes and a Century, and takes the viewer on a ride. It is so languid and hypnotic with a soundtrack of perpetually chirping crickets. It is the cinematic equivalent of relaxing on your porch at night. The only difference is it may make you contemplate the spiritual world, reincarnation, and the existence of ghosts and spirits. I’ve probably watched this 4 or 5 times now and the most recent viewing had me completely under its spell. <br /></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-28733253040923189762023-07-02T10:48:00.010-07:002023-07-02T10:48:58.291-07:00The 75 Films I watched in June<p><br /></p><p></p><p>June Film Journal<br /><br />Home stretch my dudes. It is July and I’m here to talk about the 75 films I got in during the month of June. Sure that’s not 77 so I guess I’m slipping, but May had one more day so we’ll call it even. My top 100 is officially under 50 films so holy shit, that might even be the next blog post, although there are another 60 write-ups I need to get done.<br /><br />Despite my intentions of getting to the movie theater for Spiderverse 2 and Asteroid City, I saw neither. Still time for both of them, but tunnel vision is on. Which naturally means the designation of “worst film of the month” is going to fall on a pretty solid hardcore flick. Nothing against it, and boy do I love Hyapatia Lee, but if you’re not a 5-star picture then you are in the running. Cue Ricky Bobby, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”<br /><br />Speaking of Ricky Bobby, Nascar is in Chicago and I have nearly the same disdain for Lightfoot as I did for Daley when he sold out our parking meters right before leaving office. Well yesterday’s traffic wound up not being too bad, but sucks for everyone on the south side as always.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ue3iBBLn4mOAGBM0GTAWh-vZBCnsTqFT1CGynvqWyCASl9aNMWG5Fn-D2U0kFUjYdofpAue4NzSdmF-2y2fwZZjwqYTTgsYViPRA_mOOMc11EftRgqG0ctSGjkVQ1_unWXYX9OJpANPsASEQ0lJKymrZeC5PgBiFkRd79vF4P8CJXlUfKWmu9sPqng7b/s744/rocky-002.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="744" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ue3iBBLn4mOAGBM0GTAWh-vZBCnsTqFT1CGynvqWyCASl9aNMWG5Fn-D2U0kFUjYdofpAue4NzSdmF-2y2fwZZjwqYTTgsYViPRA_mOOMc11EftRgqG0ctSGjkVQ1_unWXYX9OJpANPsASEQ0lJKymrZeC5PgBiFkRd79vF4P8CJXlUfKWmu9sPqng7b/s320/rocky-002.webp" width="320" /></a></div><p>So one thing that stuck out to me this year is that 4th of July weekend suddenly became Black Friday-lite. At first it seemed a nice gesture of Severin to move their summer sale back a couple weeks to allow some recovery from Vinegar Syndrome. Well then Vinegar Syndrome decided this would be a good time to do a week long sale for their “Mini-subscriber week”. Oh and even if Barnes and Noble stores are dropping like flies, the Criterion sale is still very much on. To a lesser extent Grindhouse Releasing and Synapse also have sales going on, and I apologize for the several others I’m probably forgetting.<br /><br />What does this mean? Well it means that by the end of this month there will be a lot of new (to me) movies to watch. So assuming this journal keeps a rolling, the selections are going to be decidedly more low-brow. Perhaps I’ll try and formulate all this cult-cinema into something more productive, but we shall see.<br /><br />Now, about what I watched in June, let’s get to that. The month started with a glorious day off so I made some progress on that front. Putting the finishing touches on John Cassavetes, and wrapping up the Rocky franchise. You may be wondering why I stopped at 4, but by this point everyone should know better. For the record I haven’t seen Creed 3, and I don’t know if I will. The franchise has been solid but when you take Rocky out of a Rocky movie, well you better have a good reason. With all due respect to the movie it is no Raging Bull. Rocky 4 on the other hand, I’m yet to watch the re-cut of it, but I can’t imagine changing one montage of it. It will probably forever remain my favorite of the series and one of my favorite movies period.<br /><br />I also wrapped up plenty of French cinema, from Jean Renoir, Max Ophuls, Robert Bresson, Marcel Carne and probably a few others. At this point, nearly every film I watch is wrapping up another director/country/star/genre. Of course as I close the book on more subsets of cinema the overall list starts to round into its final form. My current list of nearly 50 “maybe” movies on the list is probably going to need to be whittled down to about 10 when I’m done watching everything. So many movies and only 100 spots for them.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAwpopeHUIOeI3KAuje0fpHjVbum2o7PLBZZ8sgEECAmoHIS6TPX4F3qRECgRyD4t0B6SWzntLp_BYMEbJEu5Ky_NeB_72fNlQlhdgQOULhT5O8zZ07OZTjUfsYNYKD8aAwTLDNKxvGkxv425j3rCXEfiXdWvqTsxW6z6FIaF8J_Ax3uLRi8jxdqurSIT/s595/EB20011012REVIEWS110120304AR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="595" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAwpopeHUIOeI3KAuje0fpHjVbum2o7PLBZZ8sgEECAmoHIS6TPX4F3qRECgRyD4t0B6SWzntLp_BYMEbJEu5Ky_NeB_72fNlQlhdgQOULhT5O8zZ07OZTjUfsYNYKD8aAwTLDNKxvGkxv425j3rCXEfiXdWvqTsxW6z6FIaF8J_Ax3uLRi8jxdqurSIT/s320/EB20011012REVIEWS110120304AR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>As always with this list, some absolute no-doubters from the past are now questionable. On the flipside of that, even some movies I’ve seen a half-dozen times or more are hitting me like a ton of bricks. I won’t reveal the order now, but my top 3 Scorsese films have done some shuffling, and after I work out the logistics there might be a few changes in my top ten. Oh yeah, I also finally watched Pearl, it was fine, probably should have gotten to it sooner.<br /><br />So if you read all this, I apologize for largely re-iterating what the last few entries have said, let’s see the films themselves: <br /><br />06/01<br /><b>I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)-*****<br />Marriage Story (2019)-*****</b><br />Love Streams (1984)-****½<br /><b>Heaven Can Wait (1943)-*****</b><br /><br />06/02<br /><b>Rocky III (1982)-*****<br />Rocky IV (1985)-*****</b><br /><br />06/03<br />The River (1951)-****½<br /><b>Lola Montes (1955)-*****</b><br />Vagabond (1985)-****½<br /><br />06/04<br /><b>Mouchette (1967)-*****</b><br />A Day in the Country (1946)-****½<br /><b>Predator (1987)-*****</b><br /><br />06/05<br /><b>Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)-*****<br />Fight Club (1999)-*****<br />Rebecca (1940)-*****</b><br /><br />06/06<br /><b>Peeping Tom (1960)-*****<br />71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994)-*****</b><br /><br />06/07<br /><b>The Passenger (1975)-*****</b><br />Senso (1954)-****½<br /><br />06/08<br /><b>Saving Private Ryan (1998)-*****<br />Seven Samurai (1954)-*****<br />The Dark Knight (2008)-*****</b><br /><br />06/09<br /><b>The Thing (1982)-*****<br />Rebel Without a Cause (1955)-*****</b><br />Pearl (2022)-****<br /><br />06/10<br /><b>A Clockwork Orange (1971)-*****</b><br />Shoeshine (1946)-****<br /><br />06/11<br /><b>Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)-*****<br />Out of the Past (1947)-*****</b><br /><br />06/12<br /><b>The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (1964)-*****<br />The Traveling Players (1975)-*****</b><br /><br />06/13<br /><b>Eternity and a Day (1998)-*****<br />Raging Bull (1980)-*****</b><br /><br />06/14<br /><b>Children of Paradise (1945)-*****</b><br />Umberto D (1952)-****½<br /><br />06/15<br /><b>Pandora’s Box (1928)-*****<br />The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)-*****<br />Kings of the Road (1976)-*****</b><br />Moonrise Kingdom (2012)-****½<br /><br />06/16<br /><b>Lost Highway (1997)-*****<br />The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)-*****</b><br /><br />06/17<br /><b>Pickpocket (1959)-*****<br />Taxi Driver (1976)-*****<br />Touch of Evil (1958)-*****</b><br /><br />06/18<br /><b>On the Waterfront (1954)-*****<br />Pulp Fiction (1994)-*****</b><br /><br />06/19<br />Body Girls (1983)-***<br /><b>Do the Right Thing (1989)-*****<br />The Pianist (2002)-*****</b><br /><br />06/20<br />The Wrong Move (1975)-****½<br /><b>Parasite (2019)-*****</b><br /><br />06/21<br /><b>Unforgiven (1992)-*****</b><br />A City of Sadness (1989)-****½<br /><br />06/22<br /><b>Platoon (1986)-*****<br />The Shining (1980)-*****</b><br /><br />06/23<br />The Phantom Thread (2017)-****½<br /><b>All That Jazz (1979)-*****<br />Short Cuts (1993)-*****</b><br /><br />06/24<br /><b>Blow-Up (1966)-*****<br />The Lady Eve (1941)-*****</b><br /><br />06/25<br /><b>Ordinary People (1980)-*****</b><br /><br />06/26<br /><b>The Manchurian Candidate (1962)-*****<br />Paris, Texas (1984)-*****<br />Ben-Hur (1959)-*****<br />Mulholland Drive (2001)-*****</b><br /><br />06/27<br /><b>Ace in the Hole (1951)-*****</b><br /><br />06/28<br /><b>LA Confidential (1997)-*****<br />Syndromes and a Century (2006)-*****</b><br />All That Heaven Allows (1955)-****½ <br /><br />06/29<br /><b>Boyhood (2014)-*****<br />Big Trouble in Little China (1986)-*****</b><br /><br />06/30<br /><b>A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)-*****<br />Once Upon a Time in America (1984)-*****<br />The Fire Within (1963)-*****</b><br /><b>Hard Boiled (1992)-*****</b><br /></p><p>Best Film of the Month - Mulholland Drive<br /></p><p>Worst Film of the Month - Body Girls<br /></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-61260171325222982722023-06-01T11:39:00.006-07:002023-06-01T11:39:48.337-07:00The 77 Films I Watched in May<p></p><br /><br /> <p></p><p>It’s the first of the month my dudes, that can only mean one thing? Actually it can mean many things, sorry to remind you rent is due and probably several other bills you’d rather not deal with. However in this blogspace those pesky things like reality and money don’t exist. Instead we’re here to just discuss movies, and what the royal We have been watching for the past month.<br /><br />I have found my monthly numbers to be eerily similar to both March and April, which is encouraging to be able to gauge how many things on my checklist I can realistically cross off in a month. Would I love to do more? Absolutely but until the day I’m independently wealthy (there I go talking about money again) this pace will have to suffice. <br /><br />What does this pace mean? Well specifically my timetable for finishing the top 100 list will be pretty on schedule, or at least right on the revised schedule. As of the first of June I’m looking at about 47 movies I can say with absolute certainty will make the final list. There are about the same number of movies in the “maybe” category, but I can say right now, most of those won’t go the distance. Of the 125 movies I have left, there are probably 40 I can confidently say will make the list, so that leaves about 13 of the 50 maybes. Too much math? I’m sorry, either way we are shaping up to be disappointed, as is tradition.<br /><br />The ever looming presence of what to watch/do after this list is growing larger. I originally planned a nice reprieve where I did things like read books, play video games, or catch up on TV shows, but the pile of unwatched new movies is growing larger by the week. Perhaps the real solution is to strike a sort of balance in my life you know, like “normal” people seem to have where I just live life, watch a few movies and not stress out about filling every spare second with something quasi-productive. That however is a problem to be dealt with in about two months.<br /><br /> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDUuaklWBzpYd8erHUNzKCbfPiClpTdL-B8XQO-tejOA0qhiYtKBNLJTRz-b180sxAgwt7EFRnYTXd0AzTK2IcgxMxwpoHht1RUT4M79C5sWfY5bc0Ju_m6kX2yaN8c9IGTyblPik8s2yIL3v6smpgPuzGgf1VUd5XUTJZEXssxtVBVvuZUYrQQNf2LA/s305/chungking.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="206" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDUuaklWBzpYd8erHUNzKCbfPiClpTdL-B8XQO-tejOA0qhiYtKBNLJTRz-b180sxAgwt7EFRnYTXd0AzTK2IcgxMxwpoHht1RUT4M79C5sWfY5bc0Ju_m6kX2yaN8c9IGTyblPik8s2yIL3v6smpgPuzGgf1VUd5XUTJZEXssxtVBVvuZUYrQQNf2LA/s1600/chungking.jpg" width="206" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Did you eat 30 cans of pineapple in solidarity?</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>So it seems a fair time to discuss what was actually watched this month. I did see a CGI racoon and his cute friends get tortured and experimented on in the theater. I even had a night or two of trash, so the list isn’t completely bogged down with prestigious classics. At some point this month I decided to take advantage of my local library system. I was shocked and appalled to find out in a city of 6 million our library is stuck in 2005. There are maybe 10 blu-rays in total throughout the Chicago Public Library system, and nearly every surrounding suburb kicks our ass in terms of available titles. It would help if Chicago was part of the inter-library lending system but that’s far too much to ask. Oh yeah, they also aren’t part of Kanopy so that gives up another legit streaming option. Sad times indeed.<br /><br />However I did hit them up for some *gulp* DVDs, I know gross right? It does harken back to a time when Criterion really were kings in the media game, because let me tell you their DVD releases were leagues above most other companies in that era. Having many another company dropping crap that wasn’t exactly formatted to fit modern TVs. Auto-playing subtitles, oftentimes underneath the black letterbox bars making them impossible to read on modern TVs. Well considering the lengths I went to on the previous list even watching VHS tapes and rips of them, I suppose DVD is fine and I should quit being a snob. This is just what happens when a city spends ⅔ of it’s budget on a militarized police force and kick-backs rather than investing in any public services. I’ll end the political diatribe now.<br /><br />I also understand the irony of renting DVDs I actually own. However, when your DVD collection is scattered in random boxes 50+ miles away, you take the path of least resistance. 2013 me would have thought nearly all my contending films would have had a proper release by now, but I would have been wrong. I can launch into many a tirade on why streaming ultimately sucks and how that format cries out for a monopoly to corral all media into one place. Perhaps we’re still another decade away from streaming movies joining the same space as music, but don’t be surprised if it gets even worse. Then we’ll be at the mercy of what titles streaming services want to bother licensing and we’ll be left with a world in which every video store is Blockbuster. In this analogy Blockbuster sucks, it always did, you’re just nostalgic for a world in which you didn’t have back pain and music videos were still on MTV.<br /><br />I started the month with Chungking Express for one very specific reason. That is the date on the canned pineapples He Qiwu buys 30 of. I don’t need much in the way of a nudge to select my evening’s entertainment. The film is still a damn masterpiece but stay tuned for the top 100 to see if it makes the list. The month ended with Asia as well, particularly Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha, one of the films I own that I still rented because driving sucks. Kagemusha sure looks good, and I wish that was the first 4k Kurosawa announced from Criterion instead of Dreams. The film itself is a notch below his best work, which is not exactly an insult, but the man has done better.<br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj34vCwB7EVRHRE0qK2pkO1JxoqkYwjwyBdC-bmFj5n74Fd34He0979NkDC46SjS9eTFRSlSpZyPzStGExxddudlprtXwxe-CagMstlUIL4p-HAbslsgqlyU4wrLmsbmhKOE5b9yHGRfRTu6KpVlSQAlS1lnbbxNLb9KaDTP068B_GW0vEr9TYW0lIShw/s1600/kagemusha.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj34vCwB7EVRHRE0qK2pkO1JxoqkYwjwyBdC-bmFj5n74Fd34He0979NkDC46SjS9eTFRSlSpZyPzStGExxddudlprtXwxe-CagMstlUIL4p-HAbslsgqlyU4wrLmsbmhKOE5b9yHGRfRTu6KpVlSQAlS1lnbbxNLb9KaDTP068B_GW0vEr9TYW0lIShw/s320/kagemusha.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p> In between those I tackled a number of films that seemed like first time watches, and others I could have slept through and remembered every line of dialogue. This will only increase as I approach the finish line but it did feel good to wrap up more directors this time around. Both Chaplin and Keaton are finished and their respective top 100 representatives have been chosen. Kenji Mizoguchi is also wrapped up with the double feature of Sansho the Bailiff and the Crucified Lovers. Similar but different, I am done rewatching Czech films for this list, knocking out the last three major contenders. I suppose I have no more Iranian films either but that’s another story.<br /><br />Speaking of streaming, I took advantage of Mubi’s 4 months for $4 deal, and promptly watched the four films they had that were on my list. Not sure if any will make the final tally, and to be honest I can’t exactly say I recommend the service. Streaming quality was fine and the interface was solid, but this is clearly something to love at that price. I am told that soon Netflix will boot us off because they are not allowing password sharing. Well if that is the case, so be it, I got to watch I Think You Should Leave last night and I’ll live without it. There were like 1-2 films I would have liked to rewatch but that app is garbage for film. HBO Max is now just Max, and I don’t like how they changed things around because new things scare me. However they seem to have the same content for the most part. I will refrain from speaking on the actual quality of the streaming and whether or not a bunch of my titles disappeared or not until I can properly dive in. For now at least I would say Criterion and HBO had by far the most films on my list to stream. So if you did want to watch along with these, you could do a lot worse than these.<br /><br />Oh yeah for those that are hip to the old physical media this past weekend was Vinegar Syndrome’s annual Halfway to Black Friday sale. I found myself going fairly hard (not as crazy as last year but there’s no shame in that). This sale will make that unwatched pile get damn near unruly but if last year proves anything, I can recover. I did take advantage of the Flash pre-order bundle so best believe we’re watching Showgirls in 4k when that arrives. Until then, here are the films I watched in the merry month of May.<br /><br />May Film Journal<br /><br />05/01<br /><b>Chungking Express (1994)-*****<br />Malcolm X (1992)-*****<br />La Strada (1954)-*****<br />Nights of Cabiria (1957)-*****</b><br /><br />05/02<br /><b>Brief Encounter (1945)-*****<br />Frankenstein (1931)-*****</b><br /><br />05/03<br /><b>Bride of Frankenstein (1935)-*****<br />A Woman Under the Influence (1974)-*****</b><br /><br />05/04<br /><b>Three Colors: Red (1994)-*****<br />The Empire Strikes Back (1980)-*****</b><br />Guardians of the Galaxy (2023)-***½<br /><b>Return of the Jedi (1983)-*****</b><br /><br />05/05<br /><b>Los Olvidados (1950)-*****</b><br /><br />05/06<br /><b>The Battle of Algiers (1966)-*****<br />The Exterminating Angel (1962)-*****<br />The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)-*****</b><br /><br />05/07<br />Eyes Wide Shut (1999)****½<br /><b>Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)-*****</b><br /><br />05/08<br /><b>The Gold Rush (1925)-*****<br />North by Northwest (1959)-*****</b><br />Wanda (1970)-****<br /><b>Oliver Twist (1948)-*****</b><br /><br />05/09<br /><b>The General (1927)-*****<br />Rosetta (1999)-*****</b><br /><br />05/10<br /><b>The Cremator (1968)-*****</b><br />The Junk Shop (1965)-***½<br /><b>Diamonds of the Night (1964)-*****<br />Daisies (1966)-*****</b><br /><br />05/11<br /><b>The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)-*****<br />The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)-*****</b><br />The Witches Mountain (1972)-**<br />Cemetery Man (1994)-****<br />Jungle Holocaust (1977)-***½ <br /><br />05/12<br />Don’t Look Now (1973)-****<br /><b>Diabolique (1955)-*****<br />Close-Up (1990)-*****</b><br /><br />05/13<br /><b>The Color of Pomegranates (1969)-*****<br />The Cyclist (1989)-*****</b><br /><br />05/14<br />Toni Erdmann (2016)-****½<br />The Social Network (2010)-****½<br /><br />05/15<br /><b>To Live (1994)-*****<br />Imitation of Life (1959)-*****</b><br />The White Ribbon (2009)-****½<br /><b>Raising Arizona (1987)-*****</b><br /><br />05/16<br /><b>The Deer Hunter (1978)-*****<br />Scarface (1932)-*****</b><br /><br />05/17<br /><b>Sansho the Bailiff (1954)-*****<br />The Crucified Lovers (1954)-*****</b><br /><br />05/18<br /><b>Intolerance (1916)-*****<br />Brazil (1985)-*****</b><br /><br />05/19<br /><b>All About Eve (1950)-*****<br />Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)-*****</b><br /><br />05/20<br /><b>The Grapes of Wrath (1940)-*****<br />Cache (2005)-*****</b><br /><br />05/21<br /><b>Strangers on a Train (1951)-*****<br />Annie Hall (1977)-*****</b><br /><br />05/22<br /><b>Orlando (1992)-*****</b><br />Burning (2018)-****½<br /><b>Damnation (1988)-*****</b><br />Huesera: the Bone Woman (2023)-****<br /><br />05/23<br /><b>Last Tango in Paris (1972)-*****<br />Metropolis (1927)-*****</b><br /><br />05/24<br /><b>The Seventh Seal (1957)-*****</b><br />Tropical Malady (2004)-****½<br /><br />05/25<br /><b>Diary of a Country Priest (1950)-*****<br />The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)-*****</b><br /><br />05/26<br /><b>Glen or Glenda? (1953)-*****</b><br /><br />05/27<br /><b>Fargo (1996)-*****</b><br /><br />05/28<br />The First Nudie Musical (1976)-*½ <br /><b>The Princess Bride (1987)-*****<br />Dazed and Confused (1993)-*****</b><br /><br />05/29<br /><b>Up (2009)-*****<br />Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)-*****</b><br />The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)-****½<br /><br />05/30<br /><b>Rocky (1976)-*****<br />Rocky 2 (1979)-*****</b><br /><br />05/31<br />Kagemusha (1980)-****½<br /></p><p>Best Film of the Month - Monty Python and the Holy Grail</p><p>Worst Film of the Month - The First Nudie Musical <br /><br /></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-24797229948306760312023-05-01T14:57:00.005-07:002023-05-01T14:57:29.674-07:00The 77 Films I Watched in April<p> <br />Another month is gone and that means many more movies have been watched. The ratio of great to bad has disproportionately favored the good shit. Quite the reversal from the trash heavy start to the year. Starting in February I wanted to watch at least one film for consideration for my top 100 a day. You can see shortly into this month I have pretty much completely abandoned watching new stuff.<br /><br />Even at my current rate (about 75-ish movies a month) I’m looking at wrapping this project up sometime in July, at least until I forget another 25-30 films I need to add to my list. I will say going forward the distinction of “worst film of the month” will likely fall on something quite excellent, so apologies in advance. At least there are still a few contenders in the early part of April for the title. Even if nothing was particularly awful. Maybe a few trashy movie nights can sprinkle in some “worthy” contenders for that dishonor.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCu2YImzBu9IwG3CwHJbMVlTbVPQ-CFk27E8KdCopl9fr_TokfO7UmoTrpKgyiQJe84Eji6QIKfcih3hQTyXUyVkFE9AgsgK8jBJ7goDy-jyb5zoYRBseY0KeskL2gxk7Jh-pQQvhT-xHmmhkWNb1XjlOx5l9tfd_8Vz5LWT-9n3OczWzJWzC3iazW8Q/s500/EKA70480_DasCabinet_UHD_LtdEd_Hardcase_website_500px.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="392" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCu2YImzBu9IwG3CwHJbMVlTbVPQ-CFk27E8KdCopl9fr_TokfO7UmoTrpKgyiQJe84Eji6QIKfcih3hQTyXUyVkFE9AgsgK8jBJ7goDy-jyb5zoYRBseY0KeskL2gxk7Jh-pQQvhT-xHmmhkWNb1XjlOx5l9tfd_8Vz5LWT-9n3OczWzJWzC3iazW8Q/s320/EKA70480_DasCabinet_UHD_LtdEd_Hardcase_website_500px.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Watched my first silent movie in 4k</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The problem of course with devoting all my viewing time to list research means that my watch pile is going to get a little out of hand. So perhaps the month of August will see me dig into all the cool and (hopefully) great new releases I’ve been stockpiling. For those wondering I did not get the Black Emmanuelle bundle, so sadly don’t see myself playing that board game anytime soon. My great accomplishment in January of getting the pile down to zero will begin again in earnest later this summer.<br /><br />Digging in my mom’s basement I located Jay Slater’s Eaten Alive which I bought when I was particularly interested in all things zombie. So perhaps a deep dive into Italian jungle cannibal films will happen at some point this summer. I’ve also been toying with the idea of a “B-list” composed of my favorite cult films. Simply put, it is getting harder to objectively reconcile “bad” movies with great works of art even if I often love them equally. The biggest hold up with that is where to draw the line? Sure something like Hard Rock Zombies and Night Killer might be bizarro cult films, but how about more mainstream fare like Tango and Cash or Showgirls? <br /><br />That is a debate for another day or rather another month. I suppose it’s a fair time to discuss some of the movies watched in April. Not much for first-time watches but as a delightful companion piece to the original Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I watched the 1989 Dr. Caligari. It only took 5-ish months after delays for Mondo Macabro to get their first 4k ready for the public. The wait I’m happy to report was worth it. The film and release were fantastic and although Mondo might have been responsible for releasing my least favorite film of the month, they also hit far more than they miss. For the record the film bares very little to the original, just in spirit. I could not recommend it enough whenever a standard edition gets announced.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm3LKtvf_N1Tu4O9MuXkZ-_ogdZsr3Ma93tgwP5gOuOHmDEzQq68D7LHMiOUEkKVYilEEXrZr7jOAvI0Tc4E63nBwJhngKF6mPOpv2BcA8o-pDidr7jyZfoNBOpdEOyvTBYd65aLwh3YhxHfPW5-So5IuL_5tURkhG4wJv1utawUY8xbswcRJKbldP2Q/s1000/7%20women.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="866" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm3LKtvf_N1Tu4O9MuXkZ-_ogdZsr3Ma93tgwP5gOuOHmDEzQq68D7LHMiOUEkKVYilEEXrZr7jOAvI0Tc4E63nBwJhngKF6mPOpv2BcA8o-pDidr7jyZfoNBOpdEOyvTBYd65aLwh3YhxHfPW5-So5IuL_5tURkhG4wJv1utawUY8xbswcRJKbldP2Q/s320/7%20women.jpg" width="277" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Not everything this month was good</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />I developed a habit over the last month or two of having many themes in my viewing. Sometimes this is simply seeing “It’s ____ birthday today” and watching a film based entirely on that. In fact the last film of the month was viewed because it was Kirsten Dunst’s birthday. There wasn’t a ton of her work on my re-watch checklist, but it seemed a good a time as any to check out the recent-ish 4k release of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It might be the source material but it didn’t exactly look spectacular even if the actual movie remains one of my absolute favorites. It has also resurrected the time honored debate of whether or not we need to upgrade our TV. The short answer is yes, but when and what will be a very long debate.<br /><br />For the 2023 edition of my list I opted to avoid things released or originally conceived as a mini-series. Sadly this means both Berlin Alexanderplatz and Carlos will not be on the 2023 edition. It also means for things such as Fanny and Alexander, I had to watch the theatrical version even if the expanded full version might be superior. However, there are still plenty of very long movies I am considering. In April I not only watched the near 4-hour A Brighter Summer Day, but the even longer Satantango. I can’t speak definitively if either film will make the list, but it’s always good to knock out something 7 hours long. <br /><br />Some may call it cheating but I also consider film series as one entry. I’m not splitting hairs deciding where to slide The Godfather or part 2 as separate films so they’ve always gone together. There are some other extended series I need to get to in the coming months but I finished this month off with my most recent viewing of Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy. I always feel like I’m going to like it more, but my opinion hasn’t really changed much. The final chapter however remains my favorite and I think it’s the most effective from a narrative standpoint. It seems to show Ray’s maturation as a world class filmmaker. I may honestly like some of his later works more, but the trilogy will forever be his most iconic.<br /><br />So let’s stop talking and get into what I actually watched in April. Pretty similar total to last month, 77 films to March’s 76. The percentage of good to great is probably the highest of the year. For the purposes of making a greatest film list, it does help watching everything together because it really helps the best of the best stand out. As always the 5-star films are in bold.<br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/01</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Cabinet of Dr. Calibari (1920) - *****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/02</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">La Cienaga (2001)-***½</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Holy Mountain (1973)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/03</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Satantango (1994)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rio Bravo (1959)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Earrings of Madame De..(1953)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ran (1985)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/04</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Matter of Life and Death (1946)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/05</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rashomon (1950)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Brighter Summer Day (1991)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Beast in Space (1980)-**½</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Witch (2015)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/06</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Day of Wrath (1943)-****½.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Seven Women for Satan (1976)-**</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/07</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ugetsu (1953)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Black Narcissus (1947)-****½</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/08</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Caligari (1989)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/09</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Man Escaped (1956)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/10</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Slacker (1990)-****½</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Searchers (1956)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Duck Soup (1933)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/11</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tango and Cash (1990)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Battleship Potemkin (1925)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No Country for Old Men (2007)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/12</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Husbands (1970)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Maltese Falcon (1941)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eraserhead (1977)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/13</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Cabaret (1972)-****½</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Departed (2006)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/14</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Great Dictator (1940)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/15</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">City Lights (1931)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All About My Mother (1999)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/16</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Boogie Nights (1997)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Black Girl (1966)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Modern Times (1936)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ordet (1955)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/17</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A Touch of Zen (1970)-****½</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Page of Madness (1926)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Romeo and Juliet (1968)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sunset Boulevard (1950)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Come and See (1985)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/18</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kiss Me Deadly (1955)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Princess Mononoke (1997)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/19</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)-****</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Incredibles (2004)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">12 Angry Men (1957)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">They Live (1988)-****</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/20</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sullivan’s Travels (1941)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spirited Away (2001)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/21</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Design for Living (1933)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stagecoach (1939)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/22</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Carol (2015)-****½</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chinatown (1974)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Big Lebowski (1998)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/23</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Being John Malkovich (1999)-****½</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WALL-E (2008)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/24</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Landscape in the Mist (1988)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walkabout (1971)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The Turin House (2012)-****½ </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/25</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">L’atalante (1934)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/26</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Apartment (1960)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">L’Avventura (1960)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marriage of the Blessed (1989)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/27</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Autumn Sonata (1978)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Natural Born Killers (1994)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/28</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Boudu Saved From Drowning (1932)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">La Ronde (1950)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/29</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pather Panchali (1954)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blood Simple (1984)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">04/30 </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aparajito (1957)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The World of Apu (1959)-*****</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)-*****</span></b></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Best Film of the Month - The Big Lebowski</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Worst Film of the Month - Seven Women for Satan</span></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-49531426798946448332023-04-03T10:46:00.010-07:002023-04-03T10:53:18.724-07:00The 76 Films I Watched in March<p> <br /></p><br /><p></p><p>Welcome to April folks. With a new month it means another re-cap of all the things watched the previous month. 76 films this month, which marks the third consecutive month my total watched films has gone down. I could blame it on watching some longer films and generally phasing out trash, although not outright eliminating it. However it probably has more to do with a nearly impossible to sustain pace in January and to a lesser extent February.<br /><br />My trial of Arrow ran out towards the beginning of the month. I opted not to renew for now because as the rest of the month indicates I am nowhere near done with my top 100 preparation. At some point I probably will give the service another go, and believe me the urge to watch trash has been strong multiple times throughout the month. March began with some Oscar catch-up, and you can read my re-cap of that in my last entry. <br /><br />One thing that struck me while going through this is how long March was. Technically it’s spring, and depending on what day it is you might even believe it. The list itself is slowly starting to take shape. There might be another 300 or so movies to watch until I’ll feel ready. I can say with certainty that a few of the films I watched in March will be making the cut. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEQuim8UsPQs-5NtAi5K7LhCDkIfVUmcGbGRJ6erPRPBSLKNR2sn_Mf64kJfpOmJLyKp1LmwZqCDUvANkVh9f-8DVhOh0vWKtuN7RmlHcmMaJXylFRmfRQ5R3QMetUGNgqn2FWsGPZy1SJ2xtvC-PzGnAqqXpgIzgm7Zff4jLwcabtX1vTFIKPDvmOOg/s333/Apocalypse_Now_poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEQuim8UsPQs-5NtAi5K7LhCDkIfVUmcGbGRJ6erPRPBSLKNR2sn_Mf64kJfpOmJLyKp1LmwZqCDUvANkVh9f-8DVhOh0vWKtuN7RmlHcmMaJXylFRmfRQ5R3QMetUGNgqn2FWsGPZy1SJ2xtvC-PzGnAqqXpgIzgm7Zff4jLwcabtX1vTFIKPDvmOOg/s320/Apocalypse_Now_poster.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p><br />What I’m finding fascinating about the 2023 version of list research is how much my enjoyment of a film may be predicated on my mood. Just as some hit real good a decade ago, others are stepping up now. As much as I would love to give everyone the same chance, there are definitely some movies I WANT to like more. Whether they are films I had in the last list or just movies I feel I should love, it’s hard not to have elevated expectations. On the flipside there are always the “why am I even bothering watching this?” movie that inevitably blows me away. Hell I’ve seen Jaws at least three times, but I was REALLY enjoying it this time. Perhaps I’ve seen enough lousy genre films that I appreciated all the flourishes Senor Spielbergo threw in there. Can’t say whether it will make the top 100 but there is a reason that film is so universally liked.<br /><br />Last month I revisited Barry Jenkin’s Moonlight and it was pretty damn exceptional. To settle the 2016 debate I knew I needed to revisit Chazelle’s La La Land, but Netflix had other plans. The app crashed no less than 6 times while attempting to start the movie, so remember kids physical media is always better. Eventually though I did watch it again and well let’s just say it is also really fucking good. At the risk of giving a spoiler I suppose you should check out my upcoming top 100 to see who won. Clearly placement on my top 100 is worth more than what actually won a best picture Oscar so I’m sure everyone will be on their toes.<br /><br />DId watch a couple of absolute turds although perhaps not entirely irredeemable. Things is as bad as it’s reputation, but also as great as it’s reputation. Was it quality filmmaking? Fuck no. Did I get a kick out of it’s no-budget Canadian charm? I sure did. It’s not as incomprehensible as Wicked World, but what movie is? Last House on Dead End Street was….rough. The existing Easter egg version on the Corruption blu-ray has a roughness that kind of helps the film, but man was it a mess. Maybe two lines of dialogue were actually spoken by the actors. I read roughly ¾ of the budget was spent on drugs and it shows.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZIT6v3umuszKxUGhSDDjeCtPlmZjLG8v1Jd3O3MhJgAnpxgqor6p2jJ8LhrD5UvA_HSV9FcJIE6QofBLhcQAjpJvSg-72EzcZjYAqjVFOF8FuIYHRApdb_3sBqr44mccP33ekcjHJQkcHX8qvIfUT0GEB5I4z__YJUMSTv7KkiQTnsFU_5I59rSGjw/s910/last%20house%20on%20dead%20end%20poop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="910" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZIT6v3umuszKxUGhSDDjeCtPlmZjLG8v1Jd3O3MhJgAnpxgqor6p2jJ8LhrD5UvA_HSV9FcJIE6QofBLhcQAjpJvSg-72EzcZjYAqjVFOF8FuIYHRApdb_3sBqr44mccP33ekcjHJQkcHX8qvIfUT0GEB5I4z__YJUMSTv7KkiQTnsFU_5I59rSGjw/s320/last%20house%20on%20dead%20end%20poop.jpg" width="211" /></a> <br /></div><p>Anyway, I’m going to finish watching Rio Bravo, here’s everything I watched. Once again, everything with a 5 star rating is in bold.<br /><br />03/01<br />Top Gun Maverick (2022) - ***<br /><b>Tar (2022)-*****</b><br /><br />03/02<br />Savage Dawn (1985)-***½<br />Mausoleum (1983)***½<br /><b>M (1931)-*****</b><br /><br />03/03<br />Fascination (1979)-****½<br />Brain Damage (1988)-***½<br /><br />03/04<br />A Report on the Party and the Guests (1967)-****<br />Last House on Dead End Street (1973)-*½<br />Corruption (1983)-***½<br /><br />03/05<br />Hard Soap, Hard Soap (1977)-****<br />Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1954)-****½<br />The Birds (1963)-****<br /><br />03/06<br />Once Upon a Time Marilyn Jess (1987)-****<br />Fine and Perverse Lingerie (1984)-***<br /><b>Last Year at Marienbad (1961)-*****</b><br />Blonde (2022)-**½<br /><br />03/07<br /><b>Jules and Jim (1962)-*****</b><br />All That Breathes (2022)-****<br /><br />03/08<br /><b>Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962)-*****</b><br />The Headless Woman (2008)-***½<br />Triangle of Sadness (2022)-****½<br /><br />03/09<br />The Necro Files (1997)-***½<br />Women Talking (2022)-***½<br /><br />03/10<br />Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (2022)-***½<br />Assignment Terror (1970)-**<br /><br />03/12<br /><b>Day of the Dead (1985)-*****</b><br />My Year of Dicks (2022)-***½<br />Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinnocchio (2022)-****<br /><br />03/13<br />Royal Warriors (1986)-***½<br /><b>Mon Oncle (1958)-*****</b><br />Cruising (1980)***½<br />The Most Dangerous Game (1932)-****<br /><br />03/14<br /><b>The Beyond (1981)-*****</b><br />Terror Train (1980)-***<br /><b>Great Expectations (1946)-*****</b><br /><br />03/15<br /><b>Playtime (1967)-*****<br />Videodrome (1983)-*****<br />Crash (1996)-*****</b><br /><br />03/16<br />Se7en (1995)-****½<br /><br />03/17<br /><b>City of God (2002)-*****</b><br /><br />03/18<br /><b>The Wild Bunch (1969)-*****</b><br /><br />03/19<br /><b>Goodfellas (1990)-*****</b><br /><br />03/20<br />Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939)-****½<br /><b>Floating Clouds (1955)-*****</b><br />The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972)-***<br /><b>Bringing Up Baby (1938)-*****</b><br /><br />03/21<br /><b>Apocalypse Now (1979)-*****<br />The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)-*****</b><br /><br />03/22<br /><b>Top Hat (1935)-*****<br />Trouble in Paradise (1932)-*****<br />White Material (2009)-*****</b><br />Blind Beast (1969)-****<br />Things (1989)-**<br /><br />03/23<br />Inferno (1980)-****<br /><b>Yojimbo (1961)-*****</b><br /><br />03/24<br /><b>Wings of Desire (1987)*****</b><br /><br />03/25<br /><b>The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)-*****</b><br /><br />03/26<br /><b>To Have and Have Not (1944)-*****</b><br />Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977)-***<br /><br />03/27<br />India Song (1975)-***<br /><b>Bonnie and Clyde (1967)-*****<br />Rocco and His Brothers (1960)-*****<br />When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)-*****<br />Jaws (1975)-*****</b><br /><br />03/28<br />Martin (1976)-****<br />Eugenie (1970)-***½<br /><b>Reservoir Dogs (1992)-*****<br />Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)-*****</b><br /><br />3/29<br /><b>La La Land (2016)-*****<br />The Life of Oharu (1952)-*****</b><br />Possession (1981)-****½ <br /><b>The Circus (1928)-*****</b><br /><br />3/30<br /><b>After Life (1998)-*****<br />Medium Cool (1969)-*****</b><br /><br />3/31<br />Run Man Run (1968)-****<br /><br />Best Film of the Month - Apocalypse Now<br />Worst Film of the Month - Last House on Dead End Street <br /><br /></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-34121479379797953262023-03-12T14:16:00.004-07:002023-03-12T14:16:28.331-07:00Oscar Preview <p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:DocumentProperties><o:Revision>1</o:Revision><o:Pages>1</o:Pages><o:Lines>1</o:Lines><o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs></o:DocumentProperties></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><w:WordDocument><w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel><w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery><w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>2</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery><w:DocumentKind>DocumentNotSpecified</w:DocumentKind><w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>7.8 磅</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing><w:PunctuationKerning></w:PunctuationKerning><w:View>Normal</w:View><w:Compatibility><w:AdjustLineHeightInTable/><w:DontGrowAutofit/><w:BalanceSingleByteDoubleByteWidth/><w:DoNotExpandShiftReturn/></w:Compatibility><w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom></w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true" DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99" LatentStyleCount="260" >
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</w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">It is Oscar day my dudes, are you excited? Probably not, but hey I’ve done a lot of these posts and somehow every year I seem to always post my preview/prediction on the day of the show. Knowing full well I will be wrong I want to keep this a little brief and speak more generally about film in 2022.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Before I launch into a good old fashioned “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” rant, I want to point out that a few films from 2022 were actually quite excellent. It broke my cold jaded heart that Weird, the Weird Al Yankovic Story got completely shut out. I figured they could at least throw the man a best original song Oscar instead of laughably nominating Diane Warren for yet another film no one ever heard of. I would suspect her song nominations are an elaborate money laundering scheme, but to what purpose? Anyway, I have no rooting interest in the best original song nominees, and I profoundly do not look forward to hearing Lady Gaga crocodile tear her way through “Hold My Hand”.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">It brings me to Top Gun 2: Top Harder Daddy. The movie made a Morbillion dollars AND got significantly better reviews than the original celebration of closeted life from Tony Scott’s in 1986. I reluctantly did watch Maverick, and it proves a recent trend in film, the bar is set comically low. The past year also saw a number of mediocre to bad horror films inexplicably scoring mid-90 scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Top Gun 2: Dangerzone was a well made cheeseburger of a film. It tasted good, was immensely popular, but was still a cheeseburger you know? It was a 2 hour plus dad boner that seemed like the type of big budget slop that would have been released 6 times over the course of a summer when people still made movies not based on ips. Considering the boomers voted for Green Book for best picture, I’m not entirely rooting out TG2: Homoerotic Boogaloo for best picture.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Speaking of sequels, Avatar 2 came out. I seriously want to know who the fuck is seeing this? 13 years after the original that no one seemed to have any nostalgic love for this sequel dropped and instead of bombing as we all hoped, it came out to mediocre reviews and billions of dollars. I smell a scam. Anyways get ready for parts 3-6. The Dances With Smurfs saga will continue. For the record this is the only best picture nominee I haven’t watched yet, and at 3 hours and 12 minutes James Cameron can eat my ass. Again though I feel like the bar is set very low and people have clearly established that they like going to see movies, but I’m sure people wish there was better garbage to sit through, preferably something that wasn’t 3 hours plus and required glasses.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I suppose I should talk about two specific movies that were actually under 2 hours; Women Talking and The Banshees of Inishirin. One of these films might possibly win best picture. Last year I was comically wrong about CODA so for all I know Sarah Polley is bringing home the gold for the year’s most literally named film. I feel like the goal might have been 12 Angry Men but women, but the structure of the film was nowhere near as interesting. Sure like Top Gun I might not be the audience for Women Talking but this felt like a shoulder shrug of a movie. Banshees was quite good, but I would argue McDonagh has made better films. This might be his reconciliation for The Shape of Water beating Three Billboards 5 years ago. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">There are two best picture nominees that I came close to despising. Both were pointless, tone deaf, and obscenely long. If a film feels its length it better be some Chantal Ackerman exercise in watching time pass and not some predictable hogwash that pretends it’s art. I hated both films for slightly different reasons and I’ll tell you the rationale. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) was my second favorite film of all time according to my last <a href="https://myworldoffilm.blogspot.com/2013/01/top-100-films-10-1.html">top 100 films list</a>. It’s been awhile since re-watching it, but I doubt it would fall far. So most people can imagine when a new version of something that great gets made it’s biggest obstacle is justifying it’s existence. I would feel similar if someone tried remaking Citizen Kane, The Godfather, or 2001. Well about 4 minutes into All Quiet (2022) I thought they might have understood the assignment. There was no score, and arguably the most iconic element of the first version was the absence of music. Then came the music, and it was bad, blaring pretentious movie trailer music. Did you know war is hell? Well that is the one-note of All Quiet on the Western Front. Instead of any balance between pre-war life, basic training, or really any scene to differentiate a single character from the random grey blobs populating everything, we’re just given grey. Even the pre-war scenes look just as muted and shitty as the rest of the film. Even the best reviews of this unnecessary film seem to top out as “Not as good as 1917”. This movie was a chore and if you don’t enjoy war movies, this is not changing your opinion.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The other movie that was stole several hours of my life that I won’t get back was Spaz Luhrman’s Elvis. Hollywood has established there are only three kinds of films they can market. The first is obviously super hero movies, which good or bad remain lucrative. The next are countless legacy sequels. Remakes went out of style about 15 years ago so everything is now expanded universe, prequels, or just outright sequels even if no one actually wants them (Avatar, Indiana Jones 5, Jurrassic Park 6). The last are biopics, specifically music ones. Now sometimes these films do poorly and get forgotten immediately (Respect, whatever Andre 3000’s Jimi Hendrix movie was called), but sometimes they’re hits. Bohemian Rhapsody inexplicably made super hero film money, and why wouldn’t a movie about Elvis done by an Australian director who’s directorial style can best be described as maximalist not work out?</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Well despite hearing very little positive about Elvis, it still got several Oscar nominations and Austin Butler might very well win an Oscar. It isn’t that his performance is bad, it isn’t. I just want to stop encouraging the Academy to reward impersonations of famous people. Same can be said for Ana De Armas in Blonde, although I actually preferred that movie even if it was also not that good. Tom Hanks Col. Tom Parker was never not distracting. Seeing Hanks in a fat suit with a ridiculous Dutch accent was hard to get past, and he’s the narrator of the film. The film simultaneously felt too fast and 5 hours long. It is extra annoying because we had a perfectly brilliant musical biopic that should have been nominated in every category but instead got relegated to the Roku channel and shut out of any remotely serious award discussion. Walk Hard rightfully and brilliantly sent up musical biopics 15 years ago and should have put an end to these predictable movies. Like Walk Hard, Weird was a perfect film that we needed in 2022 but no one seemed to heed the lessons it taught. So expect more shitty films of famous people dealing with addiction issues and being sad.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Triangle of Sadness was a movie that also seemed right for 2022. However like the three Pinocchio adaptations we got in the last year, it does seem to be beating a dead horse. I haven’t been the biggest fan of Ruben Ostlund’s work (The Square was a chore) but this was a fun watch. The second act was particularly hilarious even if it was the well-mined territory that seems to be super popular right now (satirizing the rich). Unfortunately like too many nominees it is too damn long, and would have benefited from maybe 20 minutes of trimming. Leave all the puking and shitting though, that shit was hilarious.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Senor Spielbergo made a movie that wasn’t a remake or a popular existing property. The Fableman’s was quite good, the kind of movie many people have made in the past but seeing a master at work was quite enjoyable. This is pretty easily Spielbergo’s best since at least Munich, and don’t be surprised if he takes home his third directing trophy for it. Judd Hirsch reminded people he’s still alive and got himself a supporting actor nomination for approximately 5 minutes of screen time. Not bad if you can get it. Goes without saying David Lynch playing John Ford was probably my favorite scene in any movie this year.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">There were two best picture nominees that I thought were pretty legitimately incredible. The first was Todd Field’s Tar. Field doesn’t direct often, but he made the 16 year wait worth it. Cate Blanchett has certainly earned herself another Oscar for her work here. Perhaps the fact that this film doesn’t even remotely try and dumb itself down is admirable. They distill a lot of classical music insider politics into this movie. A few scenes play out in extended long takes, and well if you know anything about this blog, I live for that shit. Her scene guest lecturing at Julliard was some of the best cinema of the decade and that already won me over. I’m not banking on this winning best picture, but it is a great watch. This is an elite film for the elites.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZac0ea-Hj9tbPtgZQqMato8_B1A_oad3t-VLN2rL4lE32bMYwr5mtg-1HVSCsG1Du_uJdAlUE6C2AHspqji1eBI3COxcEfPXdpjpIkQxSASvZ3h7kTijGYp33-ZsLNxmr1eZrNzr-YHDgJKaB3uRIqU3EU5eLS_FFmogAHsNal2Zm4cxOQA8y2TUc8Q/s370/Everything_Everywhere_All_at_Once.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZac0ea-Hj9tbPtgZQqMato8_B1A_oad3t-VLN2rL4lE32bMYwr5mtg-1HVSCsG1Du_uJdAlUE6C2AHspqji1eBI3COxcEfPXdpjpIkQxSASvZ3h7kTijGYp33-ZsLNxmr1eZrNzr-YHDgJKaB3uRIqU3EU5eLS_FFmogAHsNal2Zm4cxOQA8y2TUc8Q/s320/Everything_Everywhere_All_at_Once.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Last up is Everything Everywhere All At Once, the hip, fun best picture nominee. This might win, and if so people might actually be happy about it. A24 while dealing with smaller films has done a pretty solid job of marketing original ideas. This film got a good amount of hype, great reviews, and parlayed that into several nominations. This was maximalism done right, rather than an ADHD infected flashy nonsense like Elvis. This film is one of the few over 2 hour movies that earned it. After all there is a TON of shit they’re trying to cram in this movie and it’s all done incredibly well. If I were voting in this whole thing, this would probably get my vote for best picture.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Now a quick sidebar about some of the other categories. This was definitely a down year for direct-to-streaming content. I don’t think a single film produced by Amazon secured a major nomination. Apple was unable to follow up last year’s CODA or even Macbeth for that matter. It’s all a sinister plot to get us to leave our comfortable couches and sit through 30 minutes of previews to see movies. Just let me watch this shit at home. I also didn’t download anything this Oscar season, legit or otherwise. So I relied almost entirely on things being added to streaming services (in-laws splurged for The Fableman’s on Christmas). </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">So animated feature, I guess Guillermo Del Torro is going to win? There were 3 god damn adaptations of Pinocchio this year, and his seemed to be the best, but you couldn’t pay me to watch Pauly Shore’s Russian adaptation. Also can Robert Zemeckis just make a normal movie with humans in it again? Marcel the Shell barely seemed like an animated film to me. I did see Turning Red which I didn’t even remember came out in 2022. Apparently the Puss in Boots sequel is good, but hot take here I don’t care about Shrek or the Shrek universe. Memes are funny but it’s just not my scene.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Best documentary is probably going to a movie I haven’t seen. The only nominee I’ve seen is All That Breathes which I guess could win but I wasn’t super into it. I want to see All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, but that doesn’t premiere on HBO until next week I believe.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">International feature should go to EO or Argentina, 1985, but typically if a film gets a best picture nomination it wins the International award. I hope this isn’t the case this year, but past trends bear this out. So expect griping when All Quiet wins anything.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Now for the acting awards. I didn’t see The Whale. I would have watched it for free in the comfort of my own home, but it is not yet available. I don’t WANT to see The Whale, it seems depressing and bad, and frankly I’m tired of Aronofsky’s whole thing. Everybody likes Brendan Fraser and this year seems to be the battle between him and Austin Butler. I honestly hope neither wins. Give Collin Farrell the Oscar you cowards. I also haven’t watched Aftersun yet. I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to Living, but who doesn’t love Bill Nighy (well except for Shaun).</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">For the first time in many years it appears the best actress race is far more fascinating. I have never heard of To Leslie, and haven’t seen it yet. With respect to Andrea Riseborough she definitely seems to be in the happy to be nominated group. Michelle Williams is predictably good in The Fablemans, and Ana de Armas is better than the film she was in. However this seems to be between Blanchett and Michele Yeoh. Expect lots of pause-for-applause moments when people remind you that Yeoh is the first Asian woman nominated for best actress. The Oscars love patting themselves on the back for being progressive even when it’s acknowledging an embarrassing oversight. Blanchett certainly deserves it but Academy politics might demand fresh blood.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Supporting actor, I’ve got my money on Short Round. As much as Mad Eye Moody would be a fantastic choice, multiple nominees from the same movie can cancel each other out.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">For supporting actress it’s gotta be Angela Bassett right? She was great, and everybody saw it. Marvel movies have never won shit for acting awards even if Michael B. Jordan should have won for the first Black Panther (save you the trouble he wasn’t nominated). Sure it might be token-ism but black women have done disproportionately well in this category in recent memory. Nice to see OG scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis with her first nomination ever, but she might suffer the same fate as Brendan Gleeson.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Just took a quick look at the best original score nominees, and Christ almighty is this the best we can do? I feel like every year there is a film with a distractedly bad score and it always gets nominated and sometimes even wins (looking at you 2021 Dune).</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">So enjoy the show, I will be watching, and making terrible picks.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-28199998231831155532023-03-01T11:41:00.000-08:002023-03-01T11:41:13.386-08:00The 90 Films I Watched in February<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Another month is in the books, Spring Training has started and winter may one day be over. A few changes have happened that can explain why I watched significantly less than 151 films this month. Returning to the working world has slowed the voracious pace as one would expect. Since eliminating the pile of un-watched movies I’ve been able to concentrate on a project I’ve put off for 13 months, mainly prepping for the updated 2023 top 100 film list.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Speaking of that list, which was last completed in January of 2013, I realize I’m already behind schedule, and despite the progress made this month there is a lot of work to do still. Since I have no knowledge of when the hell I made my 2003 list, I figure as long as it happens this calendar year we’re good. There’s also a little debate I’ve had about the length of this list. I’ve always stuck to the tried and true top 100, which naturally requires some tough choices especially when you’ve seen as much shit as I have. So does this list become a top 250? Sight and Sound revealed their full top 250 (or 264 via ties) list so why not keep the same idea? Well I suppose putting the top 100 together is the first step then we can visit expanding.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXR9UwUyxkREfopU05HtPESw_xOfKGnIDio4CyC7SgTXVbWLAbcza05F0ajg4Mc82UZTafyzUpRWzUiUijJXOl2LbLv_KjoRVSS_vX-OaHl2v0MBX9PCgvRjdJptzn37tf5r5rUk2eHmV5O7UPXg29G9h1TW6-p9DXNU0P1DX0N3nSPNAIBAwQLTKqhA/s1600/symbiotaxi.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXR9UwUyxkREfopU05HtPESw_xOfKGnIDio4CyC7SgTXVbWLAbcza05F0ajg4Mc82UZTafyzUpRWzUiUijJXOl2LbLv_KjoRVSS_vX-OaHl2v0MBX9PCgvRjdJptzn37tf5r5rUk2eHmV5O7UPXg29G9h1TW6-p9DXNU0P1DX0N3nSPNAIBAwQLTKqhA/s320/symbiotaxi.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Started off with the indescribable</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">January despite 151 films seen, included a mere 3 5-star films. Makes it seem like I’m very stingy with the ratings? Not quite, just that I watched a lot of objectively bad movies. February despite a far fewer amount of total films, there were 35 movies to get a top rating. Some of these I can definitely see making the cut for my top 100 list, but they all won’t be left standing, even if I go the full 250. Not having movies to watch as a full time (unpaid) job, I have prioritized top 100 contenders. My goal is to at least watch one film in consideration per day, and hopefully spend some time with multiple bangers or even a little dose of trash later.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Speaking of trash, don’t think I forgot the marginal films full of shlock. Since Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin was premiering on Arrow Player I signed up for a rather generous 30 day trial. I can’t stress how much money this app saved me from buying garbage. Unfortunately it did include one film I couldn’t finish (Two Witches) which was so bad I had to abandon it. That would probably earn the dubious distinction of worst film watched this month, but I’ll spare it the humiliation because I never did finish it.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Overall I would recommend Arrow Player at least for a month or two if you find yourself curious about cult films. The app uses the same software as Criterion’s app, so the interface although not my favorite was at least familiar. As some friends were participating in Franco February I used Arrow to fulfill my needs for slow zooms on pubes. The aforementioned Jean Rollin also had a handful of films added to Arrow which are objectively far superior. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJEKD9SEKsIlZntst-C41JdtQlhz_FoFsHwzadTg5L1V3f57ZvZVfa_Kpes5R_wCiWHIsuf1pcojRIoRUNGQfQU8yqPWrWclPiNHj71A_MNd3ryt2bZh4daZ9VjMm1sHsWv0MqZH9oiqXfVi158I4C2Jwy-6uqdpQlHk8oFYv-muw-VHGLLW-OvPspzQ/s927/Oasis%20of%20the%20zombies.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="927" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJEKD9SEKsIlZntst-C41JdtQlhz_FoFsHwzadTg5L1V3f57ZvZVfa_Kpes5R_wCiWHIsuf1pcojRIoRUNGQfQU8yqPWrWclPiNHj71A_MNd3ryt2bZh4daZ9VjMm1sHsWv0MqZH9oiqXfVi158I4C2Jwy-6uqdpQlHk8oFYv-muw-VHGLLW-OvPspzQ/s320/Oasis%20of%20the%20zombies.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Something had to be the worst film of the month</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I even saw a couple new movies this month. I haven’t dug into the Oscar contenders as much as I probably should have, which I largely blame on a combination of films I have no interest in watching, and very little being added to streaming services yet. Thankfully EO was added to Criterion mid-month so I did get to see that. I can safely say the film is probably better than the rating I gave it, but just my immediate reaction. Anyways if you read all this thanks, let’s get to the movies. Using * for star ratings so hopefully this will look the same on mobile as it does on a computer. Also put the 5-star films in bold.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/01</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1969) - ****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Petite Maman (2021)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Souvenir Part II (2021)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Born in Flames (1983)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Opera (1987)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/02</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Dragon Inn (1967)-***1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Il Buco (2021)-***1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Boxer’s Omen (1983)-****1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962)-***1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Skinamarink (2022)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/03</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Dr. Orloff’s Monster (1964)-***</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Nightmares Come at Night (1970)-***1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Mutliator (1984)-**1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Female Vampire (1973)-****1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Caliber 9 (1972)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/04</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Shiver of the Vampires (1971)-***</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Godfather (1972)-*****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Godfather Part 2 (1974)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/05</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Italian Connection (1972)-****1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (1990)-****1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Bloody Judge (1970)-***</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Blood Rage (1987)-***1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Eugenie de Sade (1973)-***</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/06</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Exorcism (1975)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Boss (1973)-****1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/07</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Shoot First, Die Later (1974)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Heat (1995)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/08</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Round-Up (1965)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">An Indian Story (1962)-***</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Presence (1965)-***1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Presence II (1978)-***</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Presence III (1986)-***</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Kidnap Syndicate (1975)-***1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Blue (1993)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Red and the White (1967)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Devil Hunter (1980)-*1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/09</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Autumn in Badascony (1954)-**1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Harvest in Oroshaza ((1953)-**</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">With a Camera in Kostroma (1967)-**1/2 </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/11</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Death Spa (1989)-***</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Lips of Blood (1975)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/12</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Europe ‘51 (1952)-****1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Bloody Moon (1981)-***</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/13</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Inheritance (2020)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Voyage in Italy (1954)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/14</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Living Dead Girl (1982)-***1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">In the Mood for Love (2000)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/15</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin (2022)-****1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Ikiru (1952)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Oasis of the Zombies (1982)-*</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Late Spring (1949)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Perfect Blue (1997)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Nekromantic (1988)-**</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/16</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Z (1969)-*****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Sherlock Jr. (1924)-*****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Navigator (1924)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Confrontation (1969)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/18</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Double Indemnity (1944)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/19</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Fantastic Planet (1973)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Red Pslam (1972)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/20</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">La Notte (1961)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/21</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Elektra, My Love (1974)-****1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Andrei Rublev (1966)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/22</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Solaris (1972)-*****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Mirror (1974)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/23</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Stalker (1979)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">EO (2022)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Switchblade Sisters (1975)-***</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Zombie NIghtmare (1987)-**</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Five Loose Women (1974)-***1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/24</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Au Hassard Balthazar (1966)-*****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)-*****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Moonlight(2016)-*****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Rear Window (1954)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/25</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)-*****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">My Neighbor Totoro (1986)-*****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Fanny and Alexander (1982)-*****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Blade Runner (1982)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/26</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">M3GAN (2022)-**1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Yi-Yi (2000)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/27</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Contempt (1963)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Private Vices, Public Virtues (1976)-***1/2</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Barry Lyndon (1975)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Disco Lady (1978)-**</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">02/28</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">From Beyond (1986)-****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Early Summer (1951)-*****</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The 400 Blows (1959)-*****</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Best Film of the Month - The Godfather</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Worst Film of the Month - Oasis of the Zombies (Sorry Uncle Jess)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-47353323164967540452023-02-03T13:07:00.003-08:002023-02-03T15:20:19.305-08:00The 151 Films I Watched in January<p>It is 2023 and I am on a mission. For many of us the start of February means our New Year’s resolutions are a distant memory. In terms of any positive changes to my health and wellness, let’s just say that’s still a work in progress. If my goal for 2023 was to watch more movies, I exceeded that and then some. In the first 31 days of 2023 I managed to watch and log a total of 151 films. That is correct, 151. So let’s talk about them.<br /><br />I wouldn’t say my resolution was to watch more movies in 2023, considering I watched a lot in 2022, but I made a crucial error. On Letterboxd, the site I decided to use to keep track of my recent watches I learned that unless you “log or review” a film it doesn’t get added to your film diary. I was quite disappointed when people were sharing their end of year data to discover I watched a total of 1 film in 2022 and it was Dr. Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death. How embarrassing considering what an absolute piece of shit this movie is, and that’s all I had to show for the hundreds of movies I got in.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Dh5L48qGtVGM-LOVmHstxdeWMbLU-DFq2zWyGvpI57yxMt7SUe2-M-dJKoOQwT0G7hhidJ_qIyNy7HWUcmjP9B4mJf-lWcS_t5pVuTwGYbmQybsAmhchRD6eojHAiF_gjMiIorI2P_tX9olrJJj7DK_miC2-fBSt55r0mkfKndN6u6tGEO8nd-qj-g/s3000/Maid%20in%20Sweden.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="1992" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Dh5L48qGtVGM-LOVmHstxdeWMbLU-DFq2zWyGvpI57yxMt7SUe2-M-dJKoOQwT0G7hhidJ_qIyNy7HWUcmjP9B4mJf-lWcS_t5pVuTwGYbmQybsAmhchRD6eojHAiF_gjMiIorI2P_tX9olrJJj7DK_miC2-fBSt55r0mkfKndN6u6tGEO8nd-qj-g/s320/Maid%20in%20Sweden.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>First film of the year doesn't have to be good</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Well 2023 was going to be better. Long time readers of this blog might recall that back in 2012 I posted monthly film journals. These were written on a word document that I updated manually. In order to see some sweet year end stats though I wanted to make a point of checking things in on Letterboxd. Like that word document from years ago this does require me to manually input the data so occasionally I could find that I missed a title, and when you watch 151 movies in a month things can be a bit of a blur. It is all the more imperative that I try rating things as I watch them otherwise I’m lost.<br /><br />Now here’s a disclaimer, I was out of work for the month of January. Watching movies became my full time job to a point and according to some rough estimates, I spent approximately 8 hours a day watching movies for 31 straight days. Some days more, some less, but that’s the average. To do this I set the lofty goal of getting 5 films a day in. A nice round number that frankly is a little easier to hit if you have a singular obsession and of course nothing better to do. <br /><br />What begat this obsessive watching pace can be traced back to November and well even further. Like Sight and Sound I update my top 100 movies every ten years. 2022 was a year where my goal was to revisit as many of my favorites as possible to prepare for this list. You may recall that my last list was posted in January of 2013, and well that was the initial goal. I am dismayed to announced I am not even remotely ready for that, but I am still hopefully on track to have the top 100 up by the end of the year.<br /><br />Well what started as me wanting physical copies of some of my favorite movies for list consideration morphed into me buying lots of weird cult films. My policy of try before you buy on films was thrown right out the window and I was seduced by the lure of building a “collection”. Even a few Criterions were picked up that were blind buys. With a few exceptions I don’t regret my deep dive into physical media, but at times I feel like I forgot all the lessons of the DVD era when I obsessively had to own everything I watched. Poverty and lack of real estate is likely to curb my purchasing significantly in 2023, but the damage was done.<br /><br />Any physical media collector however can relate to the watch pile growing almost exponentially. We all think we’re going to cut back, or sit down to watch more stuff but little by little it gets harder to keep up. If you only collect Criterion’s for example, you get 4 sales a year. Depending on how nuts you go with these it’s easy to keep up on a year of purchases. When you figure Vinegar Syndrome has 2-4 sales (depending on how much you like vintage pornography), Severin has at least two major sales, Kino has 4, and Arrow has about a dozen, well you get the point. There’s always a sale and shockingly there’s always something you want to pick up. Part of this is because releases keep coming out. Kino puts out some ungodly amount of films every month, many of which are easy to skip but a few are not. Criterion averages 4-6 releases a month, and so on. If you’re playing a game of catch up this can get overwhelming. 2022 was all about catching up on these massive back catalogs. <br /><br />So at a certain point, inspired in part by ManvFilm I decided to use Letterboxd to make a list of all the films I had picked up that I hadn’t watched yet. I wanted to know how bad it had gotten. The watch pile started around 80, ballooned to 100+, got back down to 60, nearly doubled with Black Friday purchases, and so on. There are only two ways to get the pile down, watch more and buy less. With incoming movies screeching to a halt, I had to do the other thing to knock it out. I am happy to report that with a few days left in January that watch pile got down to zero. I did the thing so few of us collectors/hoarders accomplish but catching up completely on purchases. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHHWl7qo3HFvAn4AHYSvI96VM58Kw_piAZeiw9ZRNkA8u4eDL1lRsBx6Jk0hG7aB7S10mtlrmF3Q5uxgy3XkG062uEJHRcmBImZxdwAx0cWBjm0EzX_RwIVAEWwF3Exzr0qVvJryv8Wr1ww5SGoYyPF8RbVISkZgUd_G_2zug7xaaWXruT7fzddSTGRQ/s1333/West%20indies.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHHWl7qo3HFvAn4AHYSvI96VM58Kw_piAZeiw9ZRNkA8u4eDL1lRsBx6Jk0hG7aB7S10mtlrmF3Q5uxgy3XkG062uEJHRcmBImZxdwAx0cWBjm0EzX_RwIVAEWwF3Exzr0qVvJryv8Wr1ww5SGoYyPF8RbVISkZgUd_G_2zug7xaaWXruT7fzddSTGRQ/s320/West%20indies.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Last movie of January</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Wrapping up all the films I bought that I never watched has allowed a great deal of freedom. I can catch up on this year’s pitiful Oscar nominees, go through queues in various streaming services, revisit some of the purchases I had already seen, and perhaps most importantly actually start researching the 2023 edition of my top 100 films. Of course I took the opportunity to sign up for a free trial of Arrow Player, primarily because of the upcoming premiere of Orchestrator of Storms. I love me some Jean Rollin and Kat Ellinger has me pumped for this documentary. For the record I’d say Arrow is a great value sitting at $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year. Considering how many Arrow releases are streaming for free it’s a great outlet for trying before you buy. It has every film on both Shawscope sets and it’s cheaper for the year than one of those excellent collections.<br /><br />So if you read all of that, congratulations on making it this far. 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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Title" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Closing" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Signature" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Default Paragraph Font" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text Indent" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Message Header" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Subtitle" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Salutation" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Date" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text First Indent" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text First Indent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Note Heading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text Indent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text Indent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Block Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Hyperlink" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="FollowedHyperlink" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Strong" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Emphasis" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Document Map" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Plain Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="E-mail Signature" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Normal (Web)" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Acronym" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Address" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Cite" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Code" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Definition" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Keyboard" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Preformatted" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Sample" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Typewriter" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Variable" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Normal Table" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="annotation subject" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="No List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="1 / a / i" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="1 / 1.1 / 1.1.1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Article / Section" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Simple 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Simple 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Simple 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Colorful 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Colorful 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Colorful 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 7" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 8" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 7" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 8" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table 3D effects 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table 3D effects 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table 3D effects 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Contemporary" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Elegant" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Professional" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Subtle 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Subtle 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Web 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Web 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Web 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Balloon Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Theme" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Placeholder Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="No Spacing" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Paragraph" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Quote" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Intense Quote" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
</w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--></p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:DocumentProperties><o:Revision>1</o:Revision><o:Pages>1</o:Pages><o:Lines>1</o:Lines><o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs></o:DocumentProperties></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><w:WordDocument><w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel><w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery><w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>2</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery><w:DocumentKind>DocumentNotSpecified</w:DocumentKind><w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>7.8 磅</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing><w:PunctuationKerning></w:PunctuationKerning><w:View>Normal</w:View><w:Compatibility><w:AdjustLineHeightInTable/><w:DontGrowAutofit/><w:BalanceSingleByteDoubleByteWidth/><w:DoNotExpandShiftReturn/></w:Compatibility><w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom></w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true" DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99" LatentStyleCount="260" >
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Normal" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="heading 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="heading 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="heading 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="heading 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="heading 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="heading 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="heading 7" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="heading 8" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="heading 9" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="index 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="index 2" ></w:LsdException>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="index 9" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="toc 1" ></w:LsdException>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="toc 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="toc 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="toc 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="toc 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="toc 7" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="toc 8" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="toc 9" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Normal Indent" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="footnote text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="annotation text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="header" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="footer" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="index heading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="caption" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="table of figures" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="envelope address" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="envelope return" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="footnote reference" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="annotation reference" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="line number" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="page number" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="endnote reference" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="endnote text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="table of authorities" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="macro" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="toa heading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Title" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Closing" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Signature" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Default Paragraph Font" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text Indent" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Message Header" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Subtitle" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Salutation" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Date" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text First Indent" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text First Indent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Note Heading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text Indent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text Indent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Block Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Hyperlink" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="FollowedHyperlink" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Strong" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Emphasis" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Document Map" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Plain Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="E-mail Signature" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Normal (Web)" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Acronym" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Address" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Cite" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Code" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Definition" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Keyboard" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Preformatted" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Sample" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Typewriter" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Variable" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Normal Table" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="annotation subject" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="No List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="1 / a / i" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="1 / 1.1 / 1.1.1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Article / Section" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Simple 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Simple 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Simple 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Colorful 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Colorful 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Colorful 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 7" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 8" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 7" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 8" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table 3D effects 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table 3D effects 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table 3D effects 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Contemporary" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Elegant" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Professional" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Subtle 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Subtle 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Web 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Web 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Web 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Balloon Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Theme" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Placeholder Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="No Spacing" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Paragraph" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Quote" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Intense Quote" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
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</w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--><p></p><p><br />01/01<br />Maid in Sweden (1971)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br />Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) -<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span> - 4 <br />Vampire Circus (1972)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">« </span>- 4 </p><p><br />01/02<br />Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1977)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Whatever it Takes (1998)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2 <br /><br />01/03<br />Memoria (2021)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br />The Menu (2022)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1968) -<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Sartana the Gravedigger (1969)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span> 1/2 - 3 1/2<br />The Quatermass XPeriment (1955)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br /><br />01/04<br />A Cat in the Brain (1990) -<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Slaves (1977)- <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br />L.A. Aids Jabber (1990)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 1<br />Sartana’s Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin (1970)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br />Hotel Fear (1978) -<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br /><br />01/05<br />Die Screaming Marianne (1971)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 1 1/2 <br />Blood for Dracula (1974)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Ghostwatch (1992)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Light the Fuse… Sartana is Coming (1970)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Have a Good Funeral, My Friend… Sartana Will Pay (1971)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br /><br />01/06<br />The Big Switch (1968)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 2<br />Man of Violence (1970)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 2<br />Red Dawn (1984)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br /><br />01/07<br />The Game (1997)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Burning Paradise (1994)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br />The Banshees of Inishirin (2022)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br /><br />01/08<br />Police Story (1985)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br />Fortress of Amerikkka (1989)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />The Flesh and Blood Show (1972)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Frightmare (1974)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />House of Mortal Sin (1976)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br /><br />01/09<br />Schizo (1976)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 3 1/2 <br />The Comeback (1978)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br /><br />01/10<br />Home Before Midnight (1979)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Police Story 2 (1986)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Explorers (1985)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br /><br />01/11<br />Viva Erotica (1996)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Companeros (1970)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br /><br />01/12<br />Dachra (2018)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />The Queen of Spades (1979)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Keoma (1976)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Dry Summer (1963)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Trances (1982)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Stiff Competition (1984)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br />The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1963)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Suzanne’s Career (1963)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Nadja in Paris (1964)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br /><br />01/13<br />Insiang (1976)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br />Revenge (1989)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Law of the Border (1966)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Uncle Sam (1996)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 1 1/2<br />The Doll Squad (1973)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 1<br />Black Adam (2022)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 1<br />Escape from Women’s Prison (1978)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 2<br /><br />01/14<br />The Blob (1988)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br />Mission Killfast (1991)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 1 1/2<br />Red Surf (1989)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Summer Camp Girls (1983)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br /><br />01/15<br />Solomon King (1974)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 1 1/2<br />After the Curfew (1954)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Two Monks (1934)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Ringu (1998)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Police Story 3: Supercop (1992)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br />Shaft (1971)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Shaft’s Big Score (1972)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3 <br /><br />01/16<br />Game of Death (1978)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 2<br />Downpour (1972)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />The Return of Count Yorga (1971)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br />The Woman Who Ran (2021)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />The Man Who Lies (1968)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br /><br />01/17<br />Coogan’s Bluff (1968)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />The Sinful Nuns of Saint Valentine (1974)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 1<br /><br />01/18<br />Once Upon a Time in China (1991)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br />Identikit (1974)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Master of the World (1983)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 1 1/2<br />Zombie Island Massacre (1984)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Ice Cream Man (1995)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 1<br />Luther the Geek (1989)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 1 1/2<br />The Other Hell (1981)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br /><br />01/19<br />Once Upon a Time in China 2 (1992)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />The Fear (1995)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 2<br />Shot (1973)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Deathrow Gameshow (1987)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />I Like Bats (1986)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br />The Eleventh Commandment (1986)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2 <br /><br />01/20<br />Mata Hari (1985)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br />Once Upon a Time in China III (1992)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Killer’s Delight (1978)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Throw Down (2004)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Dolly Dearest (1991)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br />Sister, Sister (1987)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 2<br />Once Upon a Time in China IV (1993)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 2<br /><br />01/21<br />Disconnected (1984)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br />Once Upon a Time in China V (1994)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />A Well Spent Life (1971)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br /><br />01/22<br />Polyester (1981)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Girls’ School Screamers (1986)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br />Through the Fire (1988)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 2<br />Shallow Grave (1987)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Rules of the Game (1939)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 5<br />Footprints (1975)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />The Other Side of the Underneath (1972)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br /><br />01/23<br />Rush Week (1989)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />The Black Windmill (1974)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 2<br />Sambizanga (1972)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Prisoners of the Land (1939)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br /><br />01/24<br />Blades (1989)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Kalpana (1948)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Hero (1997)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Blue Collar (1978)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Resurrection (1999)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br /><br />01/25<br />Last Gasp (1995)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 2<br />Blue Money (1972)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Chess of the Wind (1976)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Muna Moto (1975)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Creature (1985)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Curfew (1989)-1/2 <br />Steel and Lace (1991)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br /><br />01/26<br />Two Girls on the Street (1939)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Heartland of Darkness (1992)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br />The Girl and the Spider (2021)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br /><br />01/27<br />Don’t Answer the Phone (1980)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Blind Fury (1989)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br />In Front of Your Face (2021)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Darkman (1990)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />The Naughty Victorians (1975)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2 <br />The Scary of Sixty-First (2021)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br /><br />01/28<br />Shock (1977)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />King of Hearts (1966)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br />All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 2<br />Elvis (2022)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br /><br />01/29<br />The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br />Kino-Eye (1924)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Man With a Movie Camera (1929)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 5<br />Infinity Pool (2023)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 3 1/2<br />Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 4 1/2<br /><br />01/30<br />Ticket of No Return (1979)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />Macunaima (1969)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />The Conspirators (1972)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2<br />Brasilia, Contradictions of a New City (1968)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2 - 2 1/2 <br />Language of Persuasion (1970)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<br />Beau Travail (1999)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 5<br /><br />01/31<br />Poetry (2010)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />The Watermelon Woman (1996)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 4 <br />One Way or Another (1977)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>- 3<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:DocumentProperties><o:Revision>1</o:Revision><o:Pages>1</o:Pages><o:Lines>1</o:Lines><o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs></o:DocumentProperties></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><w:WordDocument><w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel><w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery><w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>2</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery><w:DocumentKind>DocumentNotSpecified</w:DocumentKind><w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>7.8 磅</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing><w:PunctuationKerning></w:PunctuationKerning><w:View>Normal</w:View><w:Compatibility><w:AdjustLineHeightInTable/><w:DontGrowAutofit/><w:BalanceSingleByteDoubleByteWidth/><w:DoNotExpandShiftReturn/></w:Compatibility><w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom></w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true" DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99" LatentStyleCount="260" >
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</w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--><br />West Indies (1979)-<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">«</span>1/2- 3 1/2 <br /></p><p>Best Film of the Month - Rules of the Game</p><p>Worst Film of the Month - Curfew<br /></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-22611486416807200202022-06-21T18:35:00.084-07:002022-06-21T18:49:29.496-07:00Vinegar Syndrome Halfway to Black Friday Haul Part 1<p></p><p>We are halfway through 2022, and the sales have not stopped. Perhaps the highlight of this time of year for many of us is Vinegar Syndrome’s Halfway to Black Friday Sale that took place over Memorial Day weekend. In lieu of my usual haul post and a quick re-cap of all the films I got, I figured I might try something different. You see unlike Criterion titles, the overwhelming majority of Vinegar Syndrome pickups are blind buys. There is a buzz about going blindly into this, basing your pickups on recommendations or simply taking a chance. You might be in for a newly discovered classic, or a craptacular dud. <br /><br />I would argue that no label is quite the crapshoot as Vinegar Syndrome. I believe they are responsible for releasing more films featured on Best of the Worst as anyone else. Even the “great” films they put out are often hated by fellow fans and subscribers. However any fan of cult cinema will recognize that they are the absolute best when it comes to restoring and releasing the weird, marginalized, fringe movies that deserve to be seen. <br /><br />Well I’ll keep things somewhat short and get into some of the actual films I’ve watched over the past 24-48 hours. Hopefully I’ll keep this going for the rest of the haul and the monthly subscription packages as they get delivered.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU83i4Y-CioYWPqJ_buWPpcbA-0tTzInCzucC4CIKBG4b4HH_RXcA7KEGCS2i5CVG0M2_zpkXBtKghQzojRgEEiQbYUsgDBMD-9-QGKkv3-0A0klLihHcTlPuVBVQgq_6YWiVBqGgIPvd9Drzu5KDVubLfRW9ngdnDZsLxKooDO3v7UQwP6UNNkOF6cA/s1089/MV5BNTEwZjY3MjQtMGQ2Yi00NThhLThlZTItYjM4MmIwODVjNzY5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1089" data-original-width="743" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU83i4Y-CioYWPqJ_buWPpcbA-0tTzInCzucC4CIKBG4b4HH_RXcA7KEGCS2i5CVG0M2_zpkXBtKghQzojRgEEiQbYUsgDBMD-9-QGKkv3-0A0klLihHcTlPuVBVQgq_6YWiVBqGgIPvd9Drzu5KDVubLfRW9ngdnDZsLxKooDO3v7UQwP6UNNkOF6cA/s320/MV5BNTEwZjY3MjQtMGQ2Yi00NThhLThlZTItYjM4MmIwODVjNzY5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg" width="218" /></a></div><p><b>Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973)</b><br /><br />Each major sale from VS is usually centered around a bundle of titles, with one or two being the highlights. Vinegar Syndrome has spent the better part of 2022 hyping up their massive 4k restoration of Thriller. The set contains three separate cuts of the film, a boatload of extras and two separate slipcovers. Despite not actually being 50% off for the sale it still managed to sell out over the weekend and without question became the biggest ticket item of the sale. It seemed fitting that I would start my own watch-a-thon with it. <br /><br />As is usually the case when faced with multiple versions of the same film I often go with the longest version. That happened to be the Cannes cut which was long out of circulation and features some hardcore inserts. I say inserts because it is pretty clear that whoever’s close-up genitals are being shown don’t belong to the actors in the scene. I can only speak on this Swedish version but I will say it might have benefited from the American release. It was distributed by AIP, which had a habit of buying foreign exploitation cinema and then cutting 15-30 minutes from it. <br /><br />I’d say the hardcore elements seemed jarring and out of place, so getting rid of those is no great loss. The scenes of violence are stylistically shown in super-duper slow-motion to an almost comical extent. There are also several dragging scenes that could have definitely been tightened up. Since Thriller aka They Call Her One Eye was a longstanding cult classic, I’m going to assume it is largely on the strength of the American re-edit. The Swedish version is by no means a bad film, and actually quite compelling. I worried it would linger too much on its unsavory elements but it offers just enough to set up the second half. There’s a reason this is a classic, and if you were fortunate enough to get the deluxe edition, enjoy. At some point I will watch the other versions included, but for now it was a good start.<b> </b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg90uFCSKu8Zdv0rKZLh6tX64JzahX3ak4ZIFii5piTef5lEvYgS-o9AYgResZMsOt8tXc1UFHVtPjoR-gWelsOhZlPr14oTziDGMmi_m0_S5T-MJAqoRBsyAcfJFDjVrMbElh7F99tu1eD9hPFc-RuUfjqzEbol7DI1ZWzX2JVNRAqcpkYeNCwChqk9A/s1333/MV5BYmJhYzQzODEtN2NkYi00MWQyLWI2MDMtODczNTQ3Mzg4NTI2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyMzI1MDU@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg90uFCSKu8Zdv0rKZLh6tX64JzahX3ak4ZIFii5piTef5lEvYgS-o9AYgResZMsOt8tXc1UFHVtPjoR-gWelsOhZlPr14oTziDGMmi_m0_S5T-MJAqoRBsyAcfJFDjVrMbElh7F99tu1eD9hPFc-RuUfjqzEbol7DI1ZWzX2JVNRAqcpkYeNCwChqk9A/s320/MV5BYmJhYzQzODEtN2NkYi00MWQyLWI2MDMtODczNTQ3Mzg4NTI2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyMzI1MDU@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p><b> Grave Robbers (1988)</b><br /><br />As fate would have it there are more than one films named Grave Robbers released by Vinegar Syndrome. Both came recommended for different reasons. This particular one was described as a Twin Peaks-esque dark comedy and well that description isn’t entirely inaccurate. Caroline actually requested we watch this because it had a loose association with the mortuary sciences. It is at this point that I should warn my readers that many of VS’s releases are a little better with some weed. Everyone in the film just feels slightly off, which along with an early diner scene are the reasons it probably drew Twin Peaks comparisons. <br /><br />Now this is a classic VS release. There is no world in which Grave Robbers is a “good film” but it was a blast to watch. The surreal nature of the movie was thoroughly compelling and I was on board with the wackiness. In order to enjoy it, you have to take a few leaps of faith though. The central set up to the film is so bizarre that it can sink or swim the whole thing nearly 5 minutes in. A diner waitress who apparently used to be a prostitute accepts a marriage proposal from a stranger in the middle of her shift, fucks off to live in a funeral home and to the surprise of no one, things get weird. This definitely is the type of polarizing picture this company made it’s reputation on so for better or worse this represents the VS brand beautifully.<b><br /></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT4wml0k_ZJstm7Cv2XL5dBm-hralRSr7H3c7WQycbP6jQR59t30nH8iuVLqPgTbeyedk9xkpjYePeA0S5p9bwRShgysbvq9YvWx-M9rIU5CPy1ZFF9lUKKVgXFKg-oPJ09kEVUZf8A9e9wpup0pAyMXqiqZvUsDy7bB9GUlM1WHYDEdBqYEnNaOadJQ/s2796/MV5BOTIwZWVmZGItOTBkYy00MjQzLWFjYjQtNzI2Y2FmYTc3ODljXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2796" data-original-width="1789" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT4wml0k_ZJstm7Cv2XL5dBm-hralRSr7H3c7WQycbP6jQR59t30nH8iuVLqPgTbeyedk9xkpjYePeA0S5p9bwRShgysbvq9YvWx-M9rIU5CPy1ZFF9lUKKVgXFKg-oPJ09kEVUZf8A9e9wpup0pAyMXqiqZvUsDy7bB9GUlM1WHYDEdBqYEnNaOadJQ/s320/MV5BOTIwZWVmZGItOTBkYy00MjQzLWFjYjQtNzI2Y2FmYTc3ODljXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg" width="205" /></a></div><p><b>Scared to Death (1980)</b><br /><br />William Malone’s debut feature I believe was one of the final two titles unveiled for the Halfway to Black Friday bundle. I pre-ordered the bundle two months before the sale to save money and lock in free shipping, so I didn’t actually know this was being included. As a halfway subscriber, there will be titles throughout the rest of the year that get sent my way automatically. I therefore felt like this would be a nice introduction to some of the “might as well” releases I’d be receiving. To be honest the majority of Malone’s later features I am either unfamiliar with or they’re just plain garbage. <br /><br />Scared to Death looked absolutely dreadful in the opening shot, but luckily the restoration looked significantly better as it progressed. It was shot on 16mm in 1980 so I know there’s sometimes only so much you can do especially when something has been out of circulation this long. The movie itself is essentially asking the question “What if we made Alien a slasher film, but he was genetically engineered because we don’t have the money to do space?” So part creature feature, part slasher, and not terribly original. Some of the performances help elevate the movie from the bottom of the barrel, but this is one of those titles where if it isn’t automatically included in your subscription you can probably pass. <b> </b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggxIxK8ALZwtFIPRRc33BOZHTebZgP992PfJA7A2XC2MzmGQs1VvH31uccFAMhXFWYQn6RhVAumN_qKTgpQRMoOsbfnXzcLHS6E0BVjyN3jGFgXM4ZNC_ya_bLe4d2GbbxJwh950fkUQlRR57RT_c9cmNJRDwacgBXAmAcgel63t20g6ImJZD0uKb09w/s1405/MV5BYjY3NGI5NmEtMTNiZS00YzMyLWJjZDktNzcxZWY0MWIwMmEyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTYzMTY1MjQ@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1405" data-original-width="936" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggxIxK8ALZwtFIPRRc33BOZHTebZgP992PfJA7A2XC2MzmGQs1VvH31uccFAMhXFWYQn6RhVAumN_qKTgpQRMoOsbfnXzcLHS6E0BVjyN3jGFgXM4ZNC_ya_bLe4d2GbbxJwh950fkUQlRR57RT_c9cmNJRDwacgBXAmAcgel63t20g6ImJZD0uKb09w/s320/MV5BYjY3NGI5NmEtMTNiZS00YzMyLWJjZDktNzcxZWY0MWIwMmEyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTYzMTY1MjQ@._V1_.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><p><b> Rancho Deluxe (1975)</b><br /><br />So the sale isn’t only about Vinegar Syndrome, there are something like 13 partner labels who participate in the sale as well. Although I largely ignored the recommendations on these titles, Rancho Deluxe was repeatedly recommended. It so happens I was intrigued enough by the involvement of director Frank Perry and the rather stellar cast. Like a sucker though I was sold on the “low slip count” at the start of the sale. So my first order was for this, Fade to Black ,and Grave Secrets. For better or worse, Vinegar Syndrome lists the number of copies left when it dips under 1000. So if you start panicking about a particular title because there are 140 copies left it can sway you to pick it up. It does work both ways because there are plenty of titles I passed on because they were well over 1000. Rancho Deluxe was definitely in the FOMO category.<br /><br />I have seen a handful of Perry’s films and I can’t quite find a through-line between them. This is possibly the only real comedy he made, and definitely the only one that resembles a Western. Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterson play a couple of likable cattle rustlers who seem to be more into causing mischief than any diabolical criminal activity. The rest of the supporting cast is a who’s who of 70s character actors. For better or worse it also features original music by Jimmy Buffet, who even appears as himself in a saloon. I would definitely recommend it for fans of Bridges, Harry Dean Stanton, and Frank Perry.<b><br /></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmVMRkKQSmS5RC-RCZOhqOj-R1ZOqIVvjM9x7wQrWcWwtAkSX3AEtPQgrC5m_nCT01NuYDbXzFkl0aLbeABpPn5WM1ducckC7wGtfL5MJtCAvMmwshQfJVui6qWf5ZZ7JVysO4n1KVunTmrmxydO9tqZz1MibPwXQkX4cHY_dEdtcfYTuCnyABnGzgrA/s500/MV5BMTY4ODg0MDM2OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNTIzNjc0OTE@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="375" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmVMRkKQSmS5RC-RCZOhqOj-R1ZOqIVvjM9x7wQrWcWwtAkSX3AEtPQgrC5m_nCT01NuYDbXzFkl0aLbeABpPn5WM1ducckC7wGtfL5MJtCAvMmwshQfJVui6qWf5ZZ7JVysO4n1KVunTmrmxydO9tqZz1MibPwXQkX4cHY_dEdtcfYTuCnyABnGzgrA/s320/MV5BMTY4ODg0MDM2OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNTIzNjc0OTE@._V1_.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p><b> Alley Cat (1984)</b><br /><br />For reasons I can’t quite understand Vinegar Syndrome has a number of imprints within their label. Among those are the VSA titles, typically limited to 5000 copies, they are designed to be available for a shorter time then gone forever. Typically they have slightly larger budgets and production values, but are more an ode to the video store days. There isn’t a definitive theme among the films, but they do tend to lean more towards action than horror.<br /><br />Alley Cat is the current front-runner for best film of the haul. I haven’t watched enough of the VSA’s to make any broad generalizations, but I have been mostly impressed with the ones I’ve seen. Karin Mani is awesome as our heroine here. Unlike many revenge, female’s who kick ass movies, she arrives fully formed as a badass. We get no training montages and there is no scene where she actually gets her ass kicked. Alley Cat is something of a cross between a female driven Death Wish and a less vulgar Savage Streets. <br /><br />Watching a few of these movies there does seem padding, but the only bit of fluff I can find in this movie is the credits which roll incredibly slow, followed by some music on black afterwards to stretch the running time to 83 minutes. If I had any complaint it might be that there’s just not enough of this film. We get a solid half dozen scenes of obnoxious men underestimating our hero only for her to beat their asses. For good measure we even get about five minutes worth of a women in prison movie, which of course features a shower scene because them’s the rules. Reading the reviews on <a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/alley-cat/">Letterboxd</a> I can say a few folks do not share my enthusiasm, but this was a delightful little package that made my day.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7h2-PT29snt5SYeXfxEpkVgeztioqGLPDXo_nGj900n4VkmBMy4aKo8tTMw-IdzA8N92wBj5AtaU4Dfw5g1TjWC-85aYoYwwBZfDbSlclIH41RbVhs9cRZTk6lhtcTuu9WlsRUvFVejj6OUPiE-FLRzAQ4ybJvV2RYfh2yzxGAkYnU3YOi6AjgfllbA/s2905/MV5BZTlhMDM1MDctMzkxNS00MWUwLTk0ODAtNDYwZWE5OTU0YjQwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2905" data-original-width="1913" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7h2-PT29snt5SYeXfxEpkVgeztioqGLPDXo_nGj900n4VkmBMy4aKo8tTMw-IdzA8N92wBj5AtaU4Dfw5g1TjWC-85aYoYwwBZfDbSlclIH41RbVhs9cRZTk6lhtcTuu9WlsRUvFVejj6OUPiE-FLRzAQ4ybJvV2RYfh2yzxGAkYnU3YOi6AjgfllbA/s320/MV5BZTlhMDM1MDctMzkxNS00MWUwLTk0ODAtNDYwZWE5OTU0YjQwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p><b>Stanley (1972)</b><br /><br />William Grefe is one of those purveyors of regional schlock that seem to be perpetually rediscovered lately. Like Bill Rebane he has a boxed set of films via Arrow, but unlike Bill Rebane he isn’t one of the worst filmmakers to ever live. With that in mind I’m going to tell you Stanley was not for me. Perhaps it is the simple fact that I don’t care for snakes, or the particular brand of low budget trash he operates in is the Florida swamps. Cliff Robinson plays one of the whitest Seminole’s in film, who really loves snakes to the point of murdering everyone who doesn’t share his enthusiasm. In fact if anyone harms his snakes, or threatens to, he is quick to sic his beloved rattlesnake Stanley on them.<br /><br />This falls into that weird subgenre of “when animals attack” and I guess Grefe, thought fuck it snakes. This was included as a double feature with Horror High. Regional low budget horror is a decided mixed bag, and it’s hard to really classify this as a horror film. It does have plenty of inappropriate music, and rather low stakes situations met with profound brutality. As much as the film might want us to sympathize with our protagonist, he does not make it easy. He does start to unravel which makes it a somewhat interesting turn, but so much of the first ⅔ of Stanley has you questioning what the hell is up with this guy. <b><br /> </b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC8FU126hFnvrDWhLv6mMWICMiflh81BqpCv8r3gScZ05YIQNOZu5kLrzbylkajTA_ltav4KSIl5hW6O72veG0S7I7ZKLP6e1Z01BanUKi4tNQVFsb4fgRugUuwUhCIHPxEclpehmgJ8eoubP93qjapRPBa4Zoetwk57InbFCmG7NqGzb2DhmR4rsryw/s907/MV5BNGYxODRiMzAtOTE3ZS00ZThmLTg2N2UtNjdhYTk0OTc0OWJmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQ2MjQyNDc@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="907" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC8FU126hFnvrDWhLv6mMWICMiflh81BqpCv8r3gScZ05YIQNOZu5kLrzbylkajTA_ltav4KSIl5hW6O72veG0S7I7ZKLP6e1Z01BanUKi4tNQVFsb4fgRugUuwUhCIHPxEclpehmgJ8eoubP93qjapRPBa4Zoetwk57InbFCmG7NqGzb2DhmR4rsryw/s320/MV5BNGYxODRiMzAtOTE3ZS00ZThmLTg2N2UtNjdhYTk0OTc0OWJmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQ2MjQyNDc@._V1_.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><p><b></b></p><p><b>Horror High (1973)</b><br /><br />In my limited experience with Vinegar Syndrome double features, they tend to go one for two. So after being somewhat let down with Stanley I was hoping for greatness on Horror High. It isn’t exactly a dud, but it’s very far from great. Horror High is cheap and doesn’t try very hard to hide the fact. Val Lewton discovered several decades earlier that if your makeup looks like shit, it’s best to hide it in shadows. Rather on the nose is the opening class film where we hear but don’t see (get it) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Instead of just hiding a reference to a favorite classic horror film, this goes the very literal route of being a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde knock-off.<br /><br />Poor Vernon Potts has no shortage of bullies, but his awkwardness is matched only by his scientific ability. Well after a comically violent scene with the world’s most sadistic janitor, he is forced to drink his own experimental potion, and essentially becomes Mr. Hyde. Then the pattern of someone being unreasonably mean to Vernon followed by him Hyde-ing out and getting his revenge plays out until the cops get wise. Some of the kills are fun, and I particularly loved the brutality with cleats. This is one of those cheap drive-in flicks where you can figure out the plot about 20 minutes in and you won’t be wrong. Satisfying in that “good for him” sort of way but it is definitely bogged down by its cheapness.<br /><br />Overall a pretty decent start to the haul. I did wind up watching a couple other films, but I’ll hold off on those reviews for a potential future post. <br /><br /></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-85960591791654456502022-03-27T13:32:00.001-07:002022-03-27T13:32:07.208-07:00The 2021 Academy Awards<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I didn’t forget about you, although like many people I may have come close to forgetting about the Academy Awards this year. Having a year where many delayed films got released, and production resumed albeit in a “new normal” way, 2021 saw cinema get back to business as usual, sort of. Despite this being about the least pre-prepared I was in years, the later show date (tonight, oops) gave me some time to play catch up. As always I will offer some of my lukewarm takes on the nominees, possibly predict winners that will be laughably wrong, and bitch about everything. The tradition continues. I've put my predictions in bold, just to see how I do.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Let’s start the categories that will most likely be announced earliest, supporting actor and actress. Mark my words we’re about a decade away from these categories being thrown out because of gender identity, so enjoy outdated binary gender based awards while you can. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Best Supporting Actor:</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi29MfB830VJ2Uf_1HE3Bqxo5wb7Fa-r2pQf52oxjYlJvcruoz1wwxxf4g13SJrGQKDSVNKvBIEJI1KzW00b-6cbhfmiy9ysfdFX3q7QImRIBHhr3Cw-3QCxemfsw6W0fkQR6rq3Ms7lnMEjgeuG5tAj1gWe4ckecH3aaw9KhzaTC1Wu0w45BaiRhdMng/s1000/CODA-Troy-Kotsur-.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi29MfB830VJ2Uf_1HE3Bqxo5wb7Fa-r2pQf52oxjYlJvcruoz1wwxxf4g13SJrGQKDSVNKvBIEJI1KzW00b-6cbhfmiy9ysfdFX3q7QImRIBHhr3Cw-3QCxemfsw6W0fkQR6rq3Ms7lnMEjgeuG5tAj1gWe4ckecH3aaw9KhzaTC1Wu0w45BaiRhdMng/s320/CODA-Troy-Kotsur-.webp" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Thanks to a last minute rental of Belfast (yes I </span><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">legitimately</span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> watched all the nominees this year for the first time since 2005 I think), I am up to date on this category. Ciaran Hinds is definitely the type of actor who would get an awards because this category is always dominated by old actors who never won. That said I have to go with <b>Troy Kotsur</b> for CODA. I didn’t need that film in my life, but he was an absolute highlight of it. I feel like The Power of the Dog actors will cancel each other out, although Chicago and The Godfather Part 2 have proved that isn’t always the case. J.K. Simmons recent win in this category doesn’t mean he won’t win (think Mahershala Ali and Christoph Waltz). However the rather “meh” reaction to Aaron Sorkin’s latest monologue-a-thon puts him in the be happy for the nomination category.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Best Supporting Actress:</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd52sU5AgzBAUTpUb1S0M3GpYfyvW7TrvJXzCuKPLLx12_7Eifb_5PNa0HIfTJSazjZBsvG_bMTGEMXUHP-EaD4ivd0YH7qC5Q5RbtCf2bnOhn53NqRz9zMUSIo5-L6jxk2doatmuTr_GfcQYLizpcOkB5v0mje02dnOo22_U6N0A4Z1mOUF9g6_jhvg/s695/west-side-story-1.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="695" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd52sU5AgzBAUTpUb1S0M3GpYfyvW7TrvJXzCuKPLLx12_7Eifb_5PNa0HIfTJSazjZBsvG_bMTGEMXUHP-EaD4ivd0YH7qC5Q5RbtCf2bnOhn53NqRz9zMUSIo5-L6jxk2doatmuTr_GfcQYLizpcOkB5v0mje02dnOo22_U6N0A4Z1mOUF9g6_jhvg/s320/west-side-story-1.webp" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I have never heard of <b>Ariana DeBose</b>, but I’d bet a nickel she’ll win an Oscar today. She seems to have been doing well in some of the pre-Oscar award shows and well this category is extremely weak. More on this in a bit, but 2021 was not some “year of the woman”, the nominees this year have female roles as an afterthought at best. Supporting actress Oscars usually go to a co-star who far upstages their leads. DeBose does that admirably, giving easily the most memorable performance in West Side Story. It also helps that Rita Moreno won this category for playing the same role, even if the characters have different names. Judi Dench is fine in Belfast but she basically is just being a pleasant grandmother. Kirsten Dunst is the type of actress who has been around forever without ever taking home one of these things so I wouldn’t rule her out. She also did arguably the most “acting” in The Power of the Dog. I had to look up Aunjanue Ellis to see who she played in King Richard which would tell you everything you need to know about how forgettable her performance was. Jessie Buckley is a fine actress who might win one of these trophies some day, but The Lost Daughter was such an insufferable slog that I’m rooting against her on principle.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Best Actor</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1YoZ3M5mylViQ_9yAmG8gc0E-CfC2nshYIOaay39c_qtKr-T4WG9SICdeCNNSF0XIXGnZKlDWzI9wC9UJ03OuJ3JGHrRGE-9VFK2S3lXKn7N7W9CaPnyRTX60aBd8aQq2SLgE0E4OBe-apSixeKLTmLh14f3f4xDOxlpY1Z4kkTsojAgTUwW_pCY6mw/s1200/qRh7Ga4n68PAC2HkL8qnQE.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1200" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1YoZ3M5mylViQ_9yAmG8gc0E-CfC2nshYIOaay39c_qtKr-T4WG9SICdeCNNSF0XIXGnZKlDWzI9wC9UJ03OuJ3JGHrRGE-9VFK2S3lXKn7N7W9CaPnyRTX60aBd8aQq2SLgE0E4OBe-apSixeKLTmLh14f3f4xDOxlpY1Z4kkTsojAgTUwW_pCY6mw/s320/qRh7Ga4n68PAC2HkL8qnQE.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">This is the category I crossed off first this year, and I know everyone out there is thrilled to be given that knowledge. So fun little Oscar trivia, because you know I wouldn’t let people enter an Oscar party without a useless factoid to drop. 2001 was the first year that two black actors were nominated for best actor. Those two actors were Denzel Washington and <b>Will Smith</b>. Denzel took his home for Training Day, and Will Smith famously was out of the theater before the award was even handed out. Exactly twenty years later they are going up against each other and this time Will Smith seems to be in the “he’s due” side of things and Denzel is on team “happy to be nominated”. I will say I infinitely preferred Joel Coen’s Tragedy of Macbeth to King Richard, but this feels like Will Smith’s award to lose. That said I was 100% certain Chadwick Boseman was getting a posthumous award last year, so I’ve been wrong before. Javier Bardem and Andrew Garfield also seem to be riding the nice to be nominated wave, even though both are great. Garfield is proving himself the best of the Spider Man actors, even if he might have been the worst of the Spider Men. Benedict Cumberbatch is Smith’s toughest competition, and I honestly think he should win, but politics play a larger role than the strength of the performance.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Best Actress </span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvUQQgpSGjt3JGkiW2KPEGoJVDjWmpGr43PA8QO9uwagGW8tF1BwwGHgquiiYYC5ElQRfGkROWjQAINSy0Yf8oxdp3gxAY__H1HlrKmPsvBHerbmjJkEglu8sfhz6L4SCeHAYyxRBkK2CUtIi12vaN0Reo-op0R8-LWXOcs9WIME4TBS6anAlgYuDfgQ/s1275/Jessica-Chastain-in-Eyes-of-Tammy-Faye.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1275" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvUQQgpSGjt3JGkiW2KPEGoJVDjWmpGr43PA8QO9uwagGW8tF1BwwGHgquiiYYC5ElQRfGkROWjQAINSy0Yf8oxdp3gxAY__H1HlrKmPsvBHerbmjJkEglu8sfhz6L4SCeHAYyxRBkK2CUtIi12vaN0Reo-op0R8-LWXOcs9WIME4TBS6anAlgYuDfgQ/s320/Jessica-Chastain-in-Eyes-of-Tammy-Faye.webp" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I now present to you the weakest category in this year’s awards. It seems mathematically impossible for there to be 10 best picture nominees and zero overlap between that category and best actress. So anyone wondering what film might sweep every major category like It Happened One Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Silence of the Lambs will have to wait at least another year. That isn’t saying the individual performances are bad, it’s just that the films they were attached to left something to be desired. I will say as of this writing I did not get to see Parallel Mothers so will not speak on Penelope Cruz’s performance. Olivia Coleman plays one of the worst people I’ve seen in a movie in The Lost Daughter and I genuinely hated the film. Nicole Kidman does a fine job even if she is at least a decade too old for the role. Kidman has proven herself one of her generation’s greatest actresses and this could definitely be another win for her, but she’s done better. Then again The Hours was far from her best work. Nothing would make me happier than Kristen Stewart winning, just to watch people’s heads explode. She also happens to be excellent in Spencer even if I’m one of 20 people who actually watched the movie. That leaves us with my default pick, <b>Jessica Chastain</b> for The Eyes of Tammy Faye. This film didn’t need to be made, and it didn’t particularly enrich my life in any way. That said Chastain is absolutely amazing in it. She truly disappears in the role, becoming unrecognizable and utterly committed. It possibly was the best performance of the year, and Renee Zellwegger proved two years ago that you can win this category playing a real person even if the movie is lousy.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Best Director</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNd2620WEAXVSkrt4tYeLolc9rLPC14IQRy2r5jTRTLrB3n_Dkw1t11rPhAQkdwukBPt-3yY6PxkOwEKbGyXzObQNWImXUM9HyTyB_Oyxu-zC5eSQyX4QWgBOh7xWbkiCO1BkBPJcxHm2rtRrSWu1myXMF_Ytjk0AtayJW9POOydPvMzz8pENsUR2KbA/s1600/l-intro-1645285608.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="902" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNd2620WEAXVSkrt4tYeLolc9rLPC14IQRy2r5jTRTLrB3n_Dkw1t11rPhAQkdwukBPt-3yY6PxkOwEKbGyXzObQNWImXUM9HyTyB_Oyxu-zC5eSQyX4QWgBOh7xWbkiCO1BkBPJcxHm2rtRrSWu1myXMF_Ytjk0AtayJW9POOydPvMzz8pENsUR2KbA/s320/l-intro-1645285608.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">It isn’t a requirement that the best picture winner is nominated for best director, but well the numbers back it up. In other words these five films are the real contenders for best picture. Spielberg’s two trophies in this category make this seem a little more honorary than usual. His last nomination in this category was for Lincoln, so he’s not quite in Meryl Streep (or Diane Warren for that matter”) company, but close. Paul Thomas Anderson has certainly proved he deserves one of these, but despite how much I loved Licorice Pizza he still feels like a long shot. Kenneth Branagh has the benefit of working with black and white which worked as recently as 2018’s Roma for Cuaron. Ryuske Hamaguchi can join many other foreign directors who earned somewhat surprise nominations with no actual momentum. Spielberg won his first best director Academy Award for Schindler’s List beating out among others <b>Jane Campion</b>. This time I think Campion gets her 28 year revenge. There is apparently some drama surrounding her personally but if it didn’t stop Roman Polanski from winning I think she has it.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Best Picture</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Belfast- This film and CODA I believe were the only best picture nominees under two hours, so thank you Mr. Branagh for that. There is something familiar about many of this year’s best picture nominees, including the fact that THREE of them are remakes, but even the original pictures seem to hit all the notes you would expect. A coming-of-age story set against turbulent real world events is not a new trope, but this film just made me miss Thomasin McKenzie in Jojo Rabbit. Probably didn’t help that she looks a bit like Lara McDonnell who plays Moira in this. I also couldn’t help but be reminded what a piece of shit Van Morrison is these days with his music all over the film. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">CODA - There is usually a spot reserved when breaking down these films every year for me discussing how fast they will fade out of memory. CODA felt like it would be an insufferable slog when it started but seemed to settle into another coming-of-age story and about the only best picture nominee whose main protagonist is a female. CODA has about he same chance of winning best picture as the Detroit Lions winning the Super Bowl. If you have Apple TV, The Tragedy of Macbeth is definitely the better film, but get your money’s worth and watch this too.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Don’t Look Up - As someone who likes Adam McKay’s films, even going so far as to name The Big Short my favorite film of 2015, this movie can eat my ass. There are some movies that let the audience fill in some blanks, draw their own conclusions, and then there’s this. An all-star film that seems like the kind of thing Republican politicians will use to convince people Hollywood is all a bunch of out of touch liberals who think they’re idiots. I don’t mean to get into politics here, but this movie is as subtle as a Michael Moore documentary and nowhere near as entertaining or informative. It’s hard not to view it as insulting to the audience’s intelligence. Entertaining at times, there is no universe in which this should have even been considered for best picture.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Drive My Car - We have no reached the “Dave’s a pretentious film snob” part of the nominees. Here is where I mention how this is truly the best film of the year and point to an army of critics who agree. I had every intention of seeing Hamaguchi’s film before the nominations were announced, and still need to see his equally praised Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy which also came out last year. I would like to think in a post-Parasite world this actually has a chance, but if I’m being honest I don’t see it winning. It is too leisurely paced, too philosophical, and there’s not enough action and bloodshed to really capture the anti-subtitle crowd. As long as it’s on HBO Max though please watch it, It’s better than at least 9 other best picture nominees.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Dune - The first of the remakes on this year’s ballot. I know it’s brilliant, or it’s shit, or I’m an idiot because I didn’t read every book, or Lynch’s version is a corny mess, or it’s a brilliant misunderstood masterpiece, or I need to see the mini-series, or that also sucks. I was honestly exhausted by this film before it came out, which may have had something to do with the fact that it was delayed a year only to be released on streaming. More realistically it’s because science fiction nerds are the worst, even if I kind of am one. My faults with the film are somewhat understandable, it is half a movie. It ends at such a non-climax that it feels frustrating. Not to say I need closure, Antonioni taught me that, it just felt like a pilot episode of a show. I’m intrigued to watch another episode but I can’t make up my mind if I actually like the show. I can’t fathom how Hans Zimmer’s score for this is also nominated for an Oscar, it was as obtrusive as the Wonder Woman theme from the Snyder Cut of Justice League. I feel often that there’s at least one best original score nominee that honors whatever the loudest score was. This year it’s Dune. It’s well made and all but I’ll hold off my final judgement until the rest of it gets made, if such a time arrives.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">King Richard - I’m embarrassed to say this was the only best picture nominee I had seen before the nominations came out. I understand Will Smith REALLY wants to in an Oscar, and this is his shot, but to nominate the film in any other category is a joke. Narrative films need one thing, conflict, and when you know that these two girls go on to be the best female tennis players ever all the drama is gone. Then you just get frustrated watching his character be a stubborn and insufferable helicopter parent. It also seems kinda insulting to make a movie about the origins of two of the most famous female athletes of all time and give all the credit to their father. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Licorice Pizza - Despite trying to see this on Christmas, I didn’t actually see it until 24 hours before the Oscar telecast. As much as I love Paul Thomas Anderson’s work, it usually takes a second viewing to appreciate what he was doing. Licorice Pizza just made me happy in a way none of his films really do. They’re always something of a bummer, but this was just a delight. Sure it’s another slice of life in the valley in the 70s, but this couldn’t feel more departed from Boogie Nights or Inherent Vice. The cast is all wonderful, I particularly loved John C. Reilly playing Herman Munster for two seconds. I feel for the actors though who had to do sooooo much running. If I were ranking the nominees this would probably be my third favorite, but I have no confidence in it winning. Anderson will most likely have his day, but it’s going to take something a little more ambitious.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Nightmare Alley - Another remake, and another film with Bradley Cooper, and another movie featuring Cate Blanchett? Nightmare Alley seems to check off every box for a nominee in 2021. It’s been years since I saw Edmond Goulding’s 1947 adaptation, but it’s inclusion in Cult Movies 2 makes it hold a special place in my heart. There is nothing significant added plot wise despite being 20 minutes longer than the original. Like Dune, and West Side Story for that matter the movie is good, and if you want to ignore the original it’s certainly worth a watch. I don’t think anyone thought The Shape of Water would win best picture so maybe Nightmare Alley has some shot.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-v3Ue6d2-ZJ7yDLVSoCFvl3_YrHnPS-bYhlLKl9_uTBsygxjD62QQfGsqsXq3q1aVTAaqmTtnr9V2VNUGV827GHsgibYpHNz_P6iBCFbGBJBFRkLdhJuhs6b61kom-4kOXykI-zCfo2oNAMw2jfwyCD_S-2QenzRc-O0Xfbj4d_eF9Ec5hU6WUI010Q/s750/The-power-of-the-dog-analysis-of-the-ending-of.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="750" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-v3Ue6d2-ZJ7yDLVSoCFvl3_YrHnPS-bYhlLKl9_uTBsygxjD62QQfGsqsXq3q1aVTAaqmTtnr9V2VNUGV827GHsgibYpHNz_P6iBCFbGBJBFRkLdhJuhs6b61kom-4kOXykI-zCfo2oNAMw2jfwyCD_S-2QenzRc-O0Xfbj4d_eF9Ec5hU6WUI010Q/s320/The-power-of-the-dog-analysis-of-the-ending-of.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>The Power of the Dog</b> - This is the best picture of the year, or at least the best one nominated for best picture. Fight me, or don’t but this is what should win. I’ve discussed some elements of it in the other categories, but it seems impossible that Netflix released this AND Don’t Look Up in the same year. The Power of the Dog seems like the antithesis to McKay’s film. Everything seems understated, brewing under the surface, and alluded to. It’s not like it’s some open-ended puzzle, all the pieces are there, we’re just not spoon fed everything. In the way McKay’s film insults it’s audience by ramming it’s social commentary down it’s throat, this is infinitely more rewarding. Campion has had some ups-and-downs over the last couple of decades, but this might be her masterpiece.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">West Side Story - When I heard Spielberg was remaking West Side Story I thought “why”. Then it got delayed a year because old boomer man wanted his movie in theaters. I somewhat resented him for using his talents on this remake, but honestly the movie is pretty damn good. It’s been a century since I watched the original, but hey at least his leads seem to be the right ethnicity. The flaw of most remakes is why? Now it’s been 50 years since the original so if you can’t remake a movie after 5 decades then when can you? I did like this more than some of his recent offerings like Bridge of Spies and The Post but like Tragedy of Macbeth I feel like a an often told story can only be so good.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Enjoy the show and feel free to come back here to see how I did.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-527991862643719212021-08-05T15:45:00.006-07:002021-08-05T15:46:24.914-07:00Black Widow and the July Criterion Sale<p><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:DocumentProperties><o:Revision>1</o:Revision><o:Pages>1</o:Pages><o:Lines>1</o:Lines><o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs></o:DocumentProperties></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><w:WordDocument><w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel><w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery><w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>2</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery><w:DocumentKind>DocumentNotSpecified</w:DocumentKind><w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>7.8 磅</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing><w:PunctuationKerning></w:PunctuationKerning><w:View>Normal</w:View><w:Compatibility><w:AdjustLineHeightInTable/><w:DontGrowAutofit/><w:BalanceSingleByteDoubleByteWidth/><w:DoNotExpandShiftReturn/></w:Compatibility><w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom></w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true" DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99" LatentStyleCount="260" >
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</w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Another July and another Criterion sale has passed and I’m sure everyone out there is just dying to know what I picked up this past month, no? Ok, well I decided not to have the weekly hauls posted but decided instead to dump all the shit I purchased for the month right here. However before we get into that I want to drop a few words on Black Widow, the first Marvel film to grace our eyes in nearly two years.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">At this point in time the hot take machines have been churning out Widow reviews and you may be wondering why this blog has been relatively silent on the picture. It’s not a hard and fast rule that I review every Marvel movie but I live and breathe this shit and one would expect the first new film in two years would get me typing. However after leaving the theater, which oh yes I went to an actual movie theater for the first time since everything closed in March 2020 for some reason, I had a shrug. In fact this movie is the cinematic equivalent of Empirical Brewing, wants to be nerdy, doesn’t quite meet the mark, is inoffensive, forgettable but not bad enough to incur our wrath. The current MCU is yet to unleash a hot pile of diarrhea the way DC has (Suicide Squad: the bad one, Justice League, Batman v Superman, etc.), but to say they’re all created equal is missing the mark.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The delay of Black Widow allowed something odd to happen. Most significantly the Disney+ Marvel shows were able to premiere. Wandavision gleefully scratched the itch for new Marvel content and had me guessing and speculating for weeks, which nearly every theory I had was laughably wrong. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is almost as mediocre as it is annoying to type out. It was full of people I didn’t care about doing things I didn’t care about and frankly comes a little close to Black Widow. If you haven’t been watching any of these shows, including Loki then get on that. In fact Loki episode 5 premiered a day before Black Widow was released and that episode was infinitely more enjoyable than anything in Widow. I mean there was a god damn Crocodile Loki and a Thanos-copter in the episode, how can you compete with that.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sYcEUi9mdqA/YQxk4CLDPXI/AAAAAAAADUE/3QsaTmNjSQglqlWv-N6MJcAyWHwytpglACNcBGAsYHQ/s1200/black-widow-movie-review-2021.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="133" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sYcEUi9mdqA/YQxk4CLDPXI/AAAAAAAADUE/3QsaTmNjSQglqlWv-N6MJcAyWHwytpglACNcBGAsYHQ/s320/black-widow-movie-review-2021.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Where's your broken nose Natasha?</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The biggest flaw in Black Widow might have little to do with the actual film. Whenever something gets delayed for 2-ish years any hype or momentum it might have had dies off (think New Mutants). Coupled with the fact that you are making a Marvel movie with a main character who gets killed off and there is a big shrug with questions of why and why now? This doesn’t mean that old Marvel Studios can’t pull off a perfectly cromulent if unnecessary entry. Many people have been waiting for a Black Widow solo film and seeing how she has no super powers this might have been a great opportunity to flip the script and try something new.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Well it’s never explained but Natasha Romanov apparently has an indestructible adamenteum exo-skeleton similar to Wolverine because her entire body would have been wet goo at least 5-6 times throughout this movie. Even a throwaway line about her getting some reinforced bones or a micro-dose of super-soldier steroids would have helped. So suspension of disbelief is always a given with these movies but at times it is almost too distracting. You can only walk away from so many car crashes and falling out of buildings before questions get asked.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">So let me say some good things about the movie before it seems like I’m trashing it. For starters I liked the core-family performances. The Russian accents seemed half-assed but Florence Pugh and David Harbour are good new additions to the MCU and they did a bang up job here. I also loved and wanted more spy shit. I expected a clever Bond/Mission Impossible style Black Widow movie and it delivered in small doses. I loved the Moonraker clip near the beginning of the film that foreshadowed the skydiving without a parachute ending. When Natasha was doing spy shit I was all in, I wanted this film to outsmart me, surprise me and be clever damn it. In a small way it was, but far too often it seemed to underestimate the intelligence of the audience by resorting to boring punch fests every couple of minutes.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Ultimately Marvel has me by the balls so I’m going to see every movie they put out, and if you’re into continuity and enjoying the bigger picture, it is worth your time. There are some great moments and if you care about over the top action set pieces and don’t care that your regular human hero should have died long before Vormir, then it’s a fun ride. Honestly though it made me more excited for the upcoming Hawkeye show than anything else, so may the expanded universe live forever.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Now that we’ve gotten that little bit out of the way, allow me to re-cap the July 2021 Criterion haul. Once again I’m posting these in spine number order, which I guess only makes sense if you collect Criterions. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ommf4cmRJoE/YQxk2nBAnQI/AAAAAAAADTs/D_xGPoNqX0AsT3pntZJBFWkoCyuZMwv-QCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/RxLBoxAZHDluyMr4dol7kupZYOuvpz_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ommf4cmRJoE/YQxk2nBAnQI/AAAAAAAADTs/D_xGPoNqX0AsT3pntZJBFWkoCyuZMwv-QCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/RxLBoxAZHDluyMr4dol7kupZYOuvpz_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Kwaidan (1964)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> </b><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I’ll be honest I don’t <i>think</i> I have this on DVD. I know there’s a copy of Hara-kiri still wrapped in plastic in my mother’s crawlspace but to the best of my knowledge Kobayashi’s horror anthology landmark existed only on lowly VHS. I will probably set this aside until Halloween but this is for now the only Criterion addition that was one of the first 100 titles.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F2dMp7BKpqU/YQxk2Yx7shI/AAAAAAAADTo/JJsUhlW04CoE7gcJ8o7AhyEvWzjvUFGYgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/QpDrkKk7cg9UjwlabbA5jjRjO3zTKh_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F2dMp7BKpqU/YQxk2Yx7shI/AAAAAAAADTo/JJsUhlW04CoE7gcJ8o7AhyEvWzjvUFGYgCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/QpDrkKk7cg9UjwlabbA5jjRjO3zTKh_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Vanishing (1988)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> </b><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Speaking of old VHS tapes. I know I never owned this in digital form. One of the best foreign films of the 80s it has gone largely forgotten in the decades since. So much that I too forgot It existed. I honestly hate the cover art for it and the special features are so-so but the film itself is excellent and I’m down to take another look at it.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mBpRFLetPAM/YQxk3GAy83I/AAAAAAAADT0/QYp00J0cDm4Sj8xwdDVWlFZ3OzHc96hFgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SKTYhcSrnizW7tJjNKuLcpAyIpo435_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mBpRFLetPAM/YQxk3GAy83I/AAAAAAAADT0/QYp00J0cDm4Sj8xwdDVWlFZ3OzHc96hFgCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/SKTYhcSrnizW7tJjNKuLcpAyIpo435_large.jpg" width="161" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Pickup on South Street (1953)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> </b><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">This is one of the older titles but newer blu-rays as it got released within the last month or so. Samuel Fuller’s first great film was one that is well worth watching. Along with Night and the City it makes for a great Richard Widmark double feature. Fuller has had a number of his films get the blu-ray treatment, so I’m just crossing my fingers White Dog eventually makes the conversion. This is one of the prime examples of Fox film noir.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6KWo13XNatI/YQxkzak4GuI/AAAAAAAADSs/Tolc3HHTKI4kUyC3vc2IwYEQ1KuhIVOTACNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/33GcylWNQvIKPneqIDDpcJnFPoUtSg_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6KWo13XNatI/YQxkzak4GuI/AAAAAAAADSs/Tolc3HHTKI4kUyC3vc2IwYEQ1KuhIVOTACNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/33GcylWNQvIKPneqIDDpcJnFPoUtSg_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Tin Drum (1979)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> </b><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">If I had a nickel for every time I thought I already got this I probably could have paid for it by now. One of the breakthrough classics of West German cinema in the 70s, it was a crowd pleasing epic that still holds up today. Schlondorff went on to make a number of films in English some of which were a little embarrassing (looking at you Handmaid’s Tale), but it’s hard to find him better than on this one.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zCreY9RxPbQ/YQxk8LLSDZI/AAAAAAAADUs/xhwJ0GtP61YDBdGwfpG2v-wmP04OvhvDgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/wvoIwSwakZ94vbcqMIq6kaU4KTDRDj_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zCreY9RxPbQ/YQxk8LLSDZI/AAAAAAAADUs/xhwJ0GtP61YDBdGwfpG2v-wmP04OvhvDgCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/wvoIwSwakZ94vbcqMIq6kaU4KTDRDj_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Masculin Feminin (1966)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> </b><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The special features on Godard films remain lackluster but when one of his better than average 60s gems gets a fresh coat of 4k paint, you got to add it to the collection right? Admittedly I only saw the film once probably 16 years ago. I liked it enough to be excited it was announced on blu-ray. It’s another of the more recent releases aka since the last 50% off sale despite being an older title. I remain on the fence about getting all the Godard but little by little I’m chipping away.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mi1s0RTfdn8/YQxk1oCoApI/AAAAAAAADTY/_ICaR4cR8KcuB1HUJapNwB9yxZiZQqJrwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/L1PCM8Z0TUWLZ3RLdDMcMOOvKvPGl2_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mi1s0RTfdn8/YQxk1oCoApI/AAAAAAAADTY/_ICaR4cR8KcuB1HUJapNwB9yxZiZQqJrwCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/L1PCM8Z0TUWLZ3RLdDMcMOOvKvPGl2_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">An Autumn Afternoon (1962)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> </b><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I’ve been eyeing this title for literally years. I am a big fan of David Bordwell who contributes a commentary track to the film and I’ve known of at least one Ozu fan who thought this was his finest film. This same friend also loved John Ford’s Seven Women so maybe he just had a soft spot for great director’s final films. Ozu films are to a point the same with subtle variations on familiar themes, and this one is not a radical departure. I am getting to be a broken record with these movies that I promise to revisit in preparation for the next top 100 film list (coming in 2023), but that’s really why I have so many of these.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e0MJczg0xaQ/YQxk3u0rIoI/AAAAAAAADT8/gRPr8WIhuYYP7oDKOH5E3w8PtZ9NmiC0QCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Zii8WKGlLYK5ZmRMSDqUxUErhODXmW_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e0MJczg0xaQ/YQxk3u0rIoI/AAAAAAAADT8/gRPr8WIhuYYP7oDKOH5E3w8PtZ9NmiC0QCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/Zii8WKGlLYK5ZmRMSDqUxUErhODXmW_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>The Human Condition (1958-61</b>)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Did someone say Masaki Kobayashi and slightly lackluster special features? Another new re-release, I’ll admit I was sold early. Kobayashi was one of Japan’s greatest directors and this is his masterpiece. Oh yeah Kwaidan and Hara-kiri are also great but this is a definitive trilogy of excellence and I can’t speak of it highly enough. Also at 574 total minutes for the three installments I really don’t need much supplemental material.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2r9yga1Zcvc/YQxk1Jqb8OI/AAAAAAAADTU/taHxCQfTwd8JLHV6BpfturLKbrgiTZttACNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/KUBCmsMdzcwngqIjbICbsqUSkdzdok_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2r9yga1Zcvc/YQxk1Jqb8OI/AAAAAAAADTU/taHxCQfTwd8JLHV6BpfturLKbrgiTZttACNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/KUBCmsMdzcwngqIjbICbsqUSkdzdok_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Crumb (1995)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">So I bought a collection of Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor and low and behold the first comic was drawn by Robert Crumb. A few weeks later I read Ghost World which was Terry Zwigoff’s follow up to this (which I probably should buy because my old DVD Is destroyed), and well I felt the universe was telling me something. Many times I buy a title because it’s new, or coveted but often it’s because I think “I haven’t seen that in awhile”. Such is the case with Crumb. This was one of the late Roger Ebert’s favorite films and a truly unique portrait of a strange man.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RKMDY9pESOY/YQxk0rfMoOI/AAAAAAAADTE/QxYCM_QAWc0kxFezpKsUkHj6hAWVzkLMwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/CIZxKmCjJsPRkHDp0FKzMMDIX4n72l_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RKMDY9pESOY/YQxk0rfMoOI/AAAAAAAADTE/QxYCM_QAWc0kxFezpKsUkHj6hAWVzkLMwCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/CIZxKmCjJsPRkHDp0FKzMMDIX4n72l_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Island of Lost Souls (1932)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">One of the less iconic Universal horror pictures it was the first adaptation of the Island of Dr. Moreau which was adapted at least two more times to varying degrees of success. The makeup in this is still somewhat terrifying and Charles Laughton delivers an early sinister performance. I can’t necessarily say this aged well, and 13 year old me was not a huge fan but it’s not without it’s charm. It’s a classic pre-code shock fest that clocks in at a whopping 70 minutes, so Freaks. This edition is also loaded with extra features.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h5cA5Dgprcc/YQxk2_KLYoI/AAAAAAAADTw/zDahg1KRNlUd_xwImg9WMm0WvnXbrbFmQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/S4kZvmiDUAT67on6ydyegGR3dw7H78_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h5cA5Dgprcc/YQxk2_KLYoI/AAAAAAAADTw/zDahg1KRNlUd_xwImg9WMm0WvnXbrbFmQCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/S4kZvmiDUAT67on6ydyegGR3dw7H78_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> </b><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I have something like 30 Alfred Hitchcock films on DVD, through multiple collections etc. His output on blu-ray though is noticeably lacking. I have no great desire to upgrade my Criterion DVDs that have made the jump, but this was one I didn’t own, at least not the 1934 version. It’s one of Peter Lorre’s earliest if not his first English language film and that man was born to play a monster. It too features audio commentary, interviews, archival footage and is a brisk 75 minutes. We can debate whether it’s better than the largely unnecessary remake Hitch did 20 years later but it’s worth owning.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v0FXJRkw7OM/YQxk0C33OlI/AAAAAAAADS8/xfdGYgEyLokbsByR8n1gmA7yqSMdBRbJQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/AMKYaHIhWGuRsN3wZvDOZojSyG2ZaD_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v0FXJRkw7OM/YQxk0C33OlI/AAAAAAAADS8/xfdGYgEyLokbsByR8n1gmA7yqSMdBRbJQCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/AMKYaHIhWGuRsN3wZvDOZojSyG2ZaD_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">All That Jazz (1979)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">So I broke my no DVD upgrade rule for this because well All That Jazz is one of the greatest movies ever made. The last time I watched my old DVD I noticed it could be better. The menus, the print quality and the passable extras were fine but could stand an upgrade. Many times I’ll pass on a title during one sale because I recently watched it, but we’re now a couple years removed from my last viewing and for something I ALWAYS want to watch, it felt right.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ruqbXIY9t3k/YQxk2BqIZ_I/AAAAAAAADTk/MLfWr8HFg98QhA_vAkKv4XI46-87U51fQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Mij0GgpVEQDG55eQGe1juUCJWRmy9f_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ruqbXIY9t3k/YQxk2BqIZ_I/AAAAAAAADTk/MLfWr8HFg98QhA_vAkKv4XI46-87U51fQCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/Mij0GgpVEQDG55eQGe1juUCJWRmy9f_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Here is another one that I watched somewhat recently. This is why I debated picking it up during last year’s sale but put it in the “next time” pile. Unfortunately my “next time” pile can get confusing and I do have to keep a checklist to remind myself what I have vs. what I think I have. This is about 1000 times better than the shitty copy initially released. The Coen brothers themselves never seem to be interested in doing commentary for their own films but there is a commentary track here, and plenty of new and old extras to make this worth a purchase. Like many Coen films this one holds up incredibly well on repeated viewings.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--545dkFAiA0/YQxk0vMjTVI/AAAAAAAADTI/7m86IxupKpUOqMgbGacoK0qLakDTCXKHwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/EoeG9o1Jck1XlNhkr6IR8l9PIby9u1_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--545dkFAiA0/YQxk0vMjTVI/AAAAAAAADTI/7m86IxupKpUOqMgbGacoK0qLakDTCXKHwCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/EoeG9o1Jck1XlNhkr6IR8l9PIby9u1_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Gilda (1946)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">My gateway to great cinema went through classic Hollywood. With my parents recent move I finally purged many, many boxes of VHS tapes often recorded off of TCM full of Hollywood classics. As someone who doesn’t own a VCR anymore it was dead weight. Gilda was probably one of those tapes. Charles Vidor was a competent director in the studio system and his defining entry in the noir cannon featured a star-making turn from Rita Hayworth. She was certainly known before this, but Gilda is what made her iconic. The special features seem pulled from 2010, but considering I have no other copies of this movie, that’s all right. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K9qXJi2OYtw/YQxk3YKZh1I/AAAAAAAADT4/dIZ-wtUtOyQiJX5ay8-61AGxp0ysA50CgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/YxXhIfpmjFKdisDsKw9Hp5jdpJcpZO_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K9qXJi2OYtw/YQxk3YKZh1I/AAAAAAAADT4/dIZ-wtUtOyQiJX5ay8-61AGxp0ysA50CgCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/YxXhIfpmjFKdisDsKw9Hp5jdpJcpZO_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Death By Hanging (1968)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">In the days of Odd Obsession, back when it was still in Lincoln Park I was tracking down some really hard to find shit. One film I found imported there was Nagisa Oshima’s Death By Hanging. A few other Oshima films were acquired and those bootlegs are somewhere in a box in the world. I always figured if a legit region 1 release happened I’d pick it up and this actually marks my first Oshima blu-ray. The film asks the question what if Kafka was Japanese and had a take on capital punishment. Oshima has done many odd things over the years and this was one of his many highlights. Now we just need Ceremony to get a release.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s5ey5LaUQKE/YQxk1o3X-fI/AAAAAAAADTc/Ys-VKz9oI08wlifxYa3CkpIvVL0FcDNiACNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/LRIg86I1YijdtiaQ7G1aWN6USnhprt_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s5ey5LaUQKE/YQxk1o3X-fI/AAAAAAAADTc/Ys-VKz9oI08wlifxYa3CkpIvVL0FcDNiACNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/LRIg86I1YijdtiaQ7G1aWN6USnhprt_large.jpg" width="161" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I have a lot of Kurosawa. At one point Criterion released all of his films in a boxed set that has since gone out of print. Among the many released on blu-ray this is the only one I didn’t have a prior Criterion release of. Honestly I don’t think I had it on DVD, and if I did it was probably a boring old MGM release without Stephen Prince offering commentary. There is even a making of that is 30 minutes longer than the actual film. You can do a lot worse than study the films of Kurosawa and some people like Prince, Donald Richie and others have done just that. Depending on who you ask Dreams is either Kurosawa’s last masterpiece or just another in a long line of classics.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f6pA20-aFqo/YQxkzs-hU-I/AAAAAAAADSw/Hak97toHXIwqgiMPp4HPqaRn6plfvny4gCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/7B0Jv1Tlc6O5qskDxKzmjmtnUu4gfA_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f6pA20-aFqo/YQxkzs-hU-I/AAAAAAAADSw/Hak97toHXIwqgiMPp4HPqaRn6plfvny4gCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/7B0Jv1Tlc6O5qskDxKzmjmtnUu4gfA_large.jpg" width="161" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Lodger (1927)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> </b><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The other Hitchcock film I finally decided to get. This release also included Downhill which is another Hitchcock film and as long as you have no follow up questions I remember it. It is one of those early ones that “feels” like a Hitchcock film because let me tell you his British work was all over the place. Perhaps his earliest version of the “wrong man” trope that he would consistently return to over the next several decades.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ti_ZyBrBrgs/YQxk9r3yP5I/AAAAAAAADU4/-zxf-qK_n-Almh-CR765aAQVRiWCRxaHwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/yhkZUvtoTi3w3TEgn7PFEoDP6Uwk4p_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ti_ZyBrBrgs/YQxk9r3yP5I/AAAAAAAADU4/-zxf-qK_n-Almh-CR765aAQVRiWCRxaHwCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/yhkZUvtoTi3w3TEgn7PFEoDP6Uwk4p_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Personal Shopper (2016)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> </b><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">This can sit alongside The Tin Drum as one of the titles I told myself I’d pick up multiple times. For my money it’s Assayas’ best film since Carlos and I’m not sure Kristen Stewart has ever been used to better effect. Assayas and Wes Anderson are two filmmakers who seem to have every one of their films join the collection at some point. This pickup is more for the fact that I just really like the movie rather than any enticing extras. Perhaps some future sale I’ll add Clouds of Sils Maria and Summer Hours to the mix, but priorities.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XmutjgORHXg/YQxk08aVToI/AAAAAAAADTQ/XBN5JNPpedc3SFXwTzYK2obNgddBx5aTQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/GutBaftf16Agrr2DM24YR0NmOZNO2L_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XmutjgORHXg/YQxk08aVToI/AAAAAAAADTQ/XBN5JNPpedc3SFXwTzYK2obNgddBx5aTQCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/GutBaftf16Agrr2DM24YR0NmOZNO2L_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Detour (1945)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Another prime entry in film noir, Edgar G. Ulmer’s cult classic Detour is what Poverty Row is all about. A truly unique and fascinating entry from the period it is quite exciting to see it finally get a proper restoration. It is in that Gun Crazy mold of low budget magic but even more esoteric. I’m curious to see the feature length Ulmer documentary included. Like Carnival of Souls, Metropolis, and even The Third Man for a time, this was public domain so spend the money to get a decent version.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d3rydbbAjAY/YQxk0sIzS4I/AAAAAAAADTM/AMfy4kO9bW05zobMwehktQjSgq7-iKkKQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/EzHLCBjl22SE5gjampFrkpS7SCKJmA_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d3rydbbAjAY/YQxk0sIzS4I/AAAAAAAADTM/AMfy4kO9bW05zobMwehktQjSgq7-iKkKQCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/EzHLCBjl22SE5gjampFrkpS7SCKJmA_large.jpg" width="161" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Swing Time (1936)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">What’s that, another film I thought I bought a year ago? Why yes, it’s Swing Time the second best Fred and Ginger film. It is also the film that has possibly aged worse than any other outing because of Astaire’s well meaning Bill Robinson tribute. Times have changed and that does not look good today (the dancing is fine I’m sure), but as another entry in their formulaic catalogue it has some pep in it’s step. I still prefer Top Hat but until that gets the red carpet treatment this will do just nicely.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQjI6PHkKxA/YQxk5LgnS8I/AAAAAAAADUU/2lHMOkKkJ0wrgLkmaVUkNUse7mHu0boxACNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/gV7HvfrGzCSC4UYAY74gsbMhNsJWCd_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQjI6PHkKxA/YQxk5LgnS8I/AAAAAAAADUU/2lHMOkKkJ0wrgLkmaVUkNUse7mHu0boxACNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/gV7HvfrGzCSC4UYAY74gsbMhNsJWCd_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Klute (1971)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Sometimes if you stare at the list of available titles long enough some easy passes start to look a little more appealing. I’ve always enjoyed Alan J. Pakula’s “conspiracy trilogy” but never really thought about owning them aside from the one that Criterion hasn’t put out (All the President’s Men). Well after this and The Parallax View got released I started to think maybe it was time. Klute is the film that solidified Jane Fonda as a serious actress and she took home her first Oscar for it. People often complain about a lack of strong female roles in the 70s, but this was easily one of the highlights.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fRwSa6liCR4/YQxk6SWMWrI/AAAAAAAADUg/ROvUI_blaWAYjPNhGf01xr7ZBpQ1BXT1ACNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/op5e76062WLo9yZJeiOlU7gNFEjL5m_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fRwSa6liCR4/YQxk6SWMWrI/AAAAAAAADUg/ROvUI_blaWAYjPNhGf01xr7ZBpQ1BXT1ACNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/op5e76062WLo9yZJeiOlU7gNFEjL5m_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Europa Europa (1991)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Still honestly baffled I didn’t get this last year. I love this movie, I only had it on VHS and I also haven’t seen it for years. Seemed to check every box necessary while also directed by my “cousin” Agnieszka to boot. Perhaps my brain was convinced I did purchase it last year so I skipped it during the 24-hour flash sale or the November sale. Either way I own it now and if you’re curious about one of the best foreign films of the 90s without the god awful stank of Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax attached, this is a wonderful entry. Like many other films of it’s kind though it is a downer.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-854cNdC6RRk/YQxk7A5c8TI/AAAAAAAADUk/DMqFwzA_yQAEtil-ghXXomWqm4j81XmaACNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/rMmBdDHsGDObJ7X9qwkYVDYLSMgVeA_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1289" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-854cNdC6RRk/YQxk7A5c8TI/AAAAAAAADUk/DMqFwzA_yQAEtil-ghXXomWqm4j81XmaACNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/rMmBdDHsGDObJ7X9qwkYVDYLSMgVeA_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Another Ozu film. Once again I thought about getting this multiple times. I can confidently say it is second-tier Ozu but it features 1937’s What Did the Lady Forget? as an extra so why not go for the two-pack? Perhaps it is most notable for being sandwiched between his two best films Early Summer and Tokyo Story. It is still 100% Ozu.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ivcqCnRXwM/YQxk11F5nyI/AAAAAAAADTg/RzK9gUoKwI43UZi1L1f0xWp32p0RCfyxwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/M7b316Dur9REofyRicy2Yd2DkDyNVT_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ivcqCnRXwM/YQxk11F5nyI/AAAAAAAADTg/RzK9gUoKwI43UZi1L1f0xWp32p0RCfyxwCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/M7b316Dur9REofyRicy2Yd2DkDyNVT_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Cloud-Capped Star (1960)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">How much do you know about Bengali cinema? Nothing, well that’s ok I’m here to help. Competing alongside it’s much more famous and lavish Hindi counterparts in Bollywood a group of artists made films with much less sheen. Satyajit Ray was the patron saint of this cinema but he was not alone. His best known contemporary would no doubt be Ritwik Ghatak. In the early days of bulletin boards online I was a member of foreignfilms.com and one of the members there was a quite vocal fan of this movie. So I will always think of that Welsh gentlemen whenever it comes up. It is sorely lacking in extras but having a decent restoration is reason enough.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PN0nWJqwiKU/YQxk4yg69zI/AAAAAAAADUQ/xWHyrz0KaX4lnEDb3F60Q_YBDGPmBX0ZgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/fjf2hnzHjxa8CGOapu7tdA2W8EhLAq_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PN0nWJqwiKU/YQxk4yg69zI/AAAAAAAADUQ/xWHyrz0KaX4lnEDb3F60Q_YBDGPmBX0ZgCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/fjf2hnzHjxa8CGOapu7tdA2W8EhLAq_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Le Petit Soldat (1961)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Oh did someone say lacking in extras? Let Godard hold your Bordeaux. At a certain point I aim to have all the Godard releases and this is one of them. It was banned upon it’s release I believe and is most definitely overlooked among his many, many triumphs of the 60s. My logic is buying this encourages Criterion to release more Godard films so you can’t say I’m not doing my part. I have absolutely no recollection of it and frankly have it mixed in my brain with Les Carrabinners, so again I could stand to rip that plastic off and throw it in the old disc player.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2zS21l2g5EA/YQxkzbwuCkI/AAAAAAAADSk/E_gxhcWTuvMxzS_Hu6PS2ZgHtcxAdImNgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/5WLjJmxnJwyZDlSormyyidLLosShkT_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2zS21l2g5EA/YQxkzbwuCkI/AAAAAAAADSk/E_gxhcWTuvMxzS_Hu6PS2ZgHtcxAdImNgCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/5WLjJmxnJwyZDlSormyyidLLosShkT_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">This was streaming for free on Hulu, and it might still be. I’ve watched it twice through that app and it is pretty close to perfection. For that reason it fell into the not a priority to own category but well it’s status as an instant classic made the Criterion conclusion a no-brainer. I have mentioned in last year’s posts that I was particularly bad about owning newer films, so this I believe will be my most recent title, along with the earlier release of Parasite. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qtf2h7asAxY/YQxk3xWjwNI/AAAAAAAADUA/Q2pNo-tVcIkcFN6kMezmWjMD2PLrCvwNgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/aWCjnWPiRPL47i47nomZVcZugCDOvF_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qtf2h7asAxY/YQxk3xWjwNI/AAAAAAAADUA/Q2pNo-tVcIkcFN6kMezmWjMD2PLrCvwNgCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/aWCjnWPiRPL47i47nomZVcZugCDOvF_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Parallax View (1974)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Not much to add about The Parallax View after discussing Klute, but for much of the same reasons I now own this. I found this to be the weakest of his trilogy but also the most confusing. Since the last viewing took place in 2001 I’d say I’m due. Shout out to Danny Peary who brought this film to my attention in Cult Movies 2 I believe.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-01mmiljomw0/YQxk7jzxKhI/AAAAAAAADUo/7KLOcXGA9Uc5H_i2FcfKmZ8WVKbN3N_4wCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/tXPyBtRHeXy8YATlltdiz3bRc6WMgX_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-01mmiljomw0/YQxk7jzxKhI/AAAAAAAADUo/7KLOcXGA9Uc5H_i2FcfKmZ8WVKbN3N_4wCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/tXPyBtRHeXy8YATlltdiz3bRc6WMgX_large.jpg" width="161" /></a><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></b></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Some time ago I would make mental lists of titles I was hoping would get their day in the sun. There are the “never gonna happen” titles that still make me happy and then a separate list of practical releases that might one day join their like minded brothers in the official registrar. Celine and Julie Go Boating is part of the second category. In fact if any Rivette film was going to be part of the collection, this was the most likely. It was his best known film, at least of his earlier work, and once New Yorker Films went defunct it seemed like it could mosey on over. Now I just need The Mother and the Whore to do the same.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tVXpXoYijUg/YQxk0ON_2WI/AAAAAAAADS4/evFA2O1cOdEvPYVfAaYvwJ541Y_bhY_iQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/9TF7mC8JIa3R4aydFgNW5pcNpwv1wz_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tVXpXoYijUg/YQxk0ON_2WI/AAAAAAAADS4/evFA2O1cOdEvPYVfAaYvwJ541Y_bhY_iQCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/9TF7mC8JIa3R4aydFgNW5pcNpwv1wz_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Memories of Murder (2003)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Bong Joon-Ho’s other teased title took a lot longer to arrive than Parasite. I’m not sure if I saw this before Host, but by my recollection it is his earliest film that is excellent. It’s hard not to draw comparisons to Fincher’s Zodiac but this beat it by a couple of years. It has that same style of dry humor Bong’s other films have but with a much more sinister backbone. There are also two audio commentaries and an early student film as extras. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pmyu2A54GpQ/YQxk8kGeS3I/AAAAAAAADUw/S2xlCqO_lA0On_dJgCF9_vWfknrt_pPtQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/y0swsJWTqQG39mt3e4zdmVjixJVPYX_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pmyu2A54GpQ/YQxk8kGeS3I/AAAAAAAADUw/S2xlCqO_lA0On_dJgCF9_vWfknrt_pPtQCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/y0swsJWTqQG39mt3e4zdmVjixJVPYX_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Irma Vep (1996)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">For many of us outside of France Irma Vep was our first taste of Olivier Assayas and his work. Ever the student of film history it’s a film within a film about a remake of Louis Feiullade’s Les Vampires (1915), but of course so much more. Starring Maggie Cheung and a score from Sonic Youth it is truly international in scope. It certainly looks ahead to The Clouds of Sils Maria but for my money is significantly more entertaining. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QBDjSI-S-j8/YQxkzUygILI/AAAAAAAADSo/D2mxZ2JLcv8SCVWA5iurXSjsIixVXX0iQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/151PeQFpH1T0FhvSuT1k9nyClFS9OA_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QBDjSI-S-j8/YQxkzUygILI/AAAAAAAADSo/D2mxZ2JLcv8SCVWA5iurXSjsIixVXX0iQCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/151PeQFpH1T0FhvSuT1k9nyClFS9OA_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Flowers of Shanghai (1998)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I may be alone in proclaiming this to be Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s best work but if you were wondering who was excited about this release, then look no further to the author of this blog. HHH has always been a proponent of longer takes but he takes that to extreme lengths channeling his inner Bela Tarr, Theo Angelopoulos and of course Kenji Mizoguchi. I can make the argument that there are other important films from Taiwan that desperately need upgrading, but I’ll happily take what I can get. If you are unfamiliar with Hou’s work then this is a good a place as any to start.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6ovO80f91TY/YQxk0Zz9cFI/AAAAAAAADTA/xqqRmXS-cVgl80z0YJmMg4Jor4XTae3XQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/AkLHyvTrDxSGVlvGaZdkHkuH9fSd0x_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6ovO80f91TY/YQxk0Zz9cFI/AAAAAAAADTA/xqqRmXS-cVgl80z0YJmMg4Jor4XTae3XQCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/AkLHyvTrDxSGVlvGaZdkHkuH9fSd0x_large.jpg" width="161" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Mirror (1975) </span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I often speculate on what Criterion titles I’d love to see and separate them into different categories: previous releases that need an upgrade, in a perfect world wish-list titles, and likely candidates that just haven’t been part of the collection yet. Considering Tarkovsky is no stranger to Criterion, Mirror fit into that last category. It did exist on DVD in an acceptable form from Kino, but after Stalker was released a couple years ago along with the improved Andrei Rublev I really wanted to see Mirror. I have watched it in the past year on the Criterion channel but there is a whole extra disc of special features here, and it is the last of the undisputed masterpieces of Tarkovsky to get a blu-ray release. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kZLsl2Vtix8/YQxk5UO80YI/AAAAAAAADUY/V31A0vel0ok85MJJmjTOfIi6Mzd3h9GugCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/ggrZXM2sodjtW7SorrnSy7J6gZ6rrC_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kZLsl2Vtix8/YQxk5UO80YI/AAAAAAAADUY/V31A0vel0ok85MJJmjTOfIi6Mzd3h9GugCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/ggrZXM2sodjtW7SorrnSy7J6gZ6rrC_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Bringing Up Baby (1938)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The very versatile Howard Hawks mastered many genres throughout his career. In 1938 he might have made the definitive screw-ball comedy even if no one appreciated it at the time. I still love the film but I can understand how modern audiences might be put off by the ridiculousness of it. In fact it took me two viewings to really appreciate it, but it deserves it’s place among the all time Hollywood classics. There are plenty of great features here including a commentary track by Hawks expert Peter Bogdanovich.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YrADpmTAfvw/YQxk55iJikI/AAAAAAAADUc/HPmTO6ZDM-ESTpkh1MgdWJjLhApT0Y_BwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/m6hWFaY09UOUAZ2IxggOEUztBIZHt2_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YrADpmTAfvw/YQxk55iJikI/AAAAAAAADUc/HPmTO6ZDM-ESTpkh1MgdWJjLhApT0Y_BwCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/m6hWFaY09UOUAZ2IxggOEUztBIZHt2_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Deep Cover (1992)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I have Jonathan Rosenbaum to thank for this masterpiece of neo-noir and New Jack Cinema. Bill Duke, you know the blackest man who ever appeared in Hollywood, directed this and it features prime Laurence Fishburn and Jeff Goldblum who may or may not have been <i>acting</i> as a coked out drug kingpin. It got somewhat buried after New Jack City even though it is easily superior. In fact for the past decade I have recommended this to many people, so it feels nice to see it get somewhat legitimatized by Criterion. Perhaps most historically significant it features the first released single from Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg, which is the very, very excellent title track.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Boxed Sets</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zD-wq9JiE98/YQxk9NFIJSI/AAAAAAAADU0/M5dlUQYtkbUJun4G8ZkRgqLIUucx-XqKQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1988/y26UyQwNxt4FguJSgQIZWpCNlLsjHJ_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1988" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zD-wq9JiE98/YQxk9NFIJSI/AAAAAAAADU0/M5dlUQYtkbUJun4G8ZkRgqLIUucx-XqKQCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/y26UyQwNxt4FguJSgQIZWpCNlLsjHJ_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dSyLK3YGat0/YQxk4laxJFI/AAAAAAAADUM/wwVr3dkBLl43-s5SA1QHJ3hQdS8xXpJVQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1988/cgKxO604g3phzPqpONSN5STBrfnV6y_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1988" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dSyLK3YGat0/YQxk4laxJFI/AAAAAAAADUM/wwVr3dkBLl43-s5SA1QHJ3hQdS8xXpJVQCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/cgKxO604g3phzPqpONSN5STBrfnV6y_large.jpg" width="161" /></a> </span><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9QZN9soreNI/YQxkz2DFc0I/AAAAAAAADS0/pUMOcexeQuQ5SZczHMnkJHgEAh4ivORgwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1988/9P9MeXzolFQyY5OhK2XcwZ02e0Y0ZC_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1988" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9QZN9soreNI/YQxkz2DFc0I/AAAAAAAADS0/pUMOcexeQuQ5SZczHMnkJHgEAh4ivORgwCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/9P9MeXzolFQyY5OhK2XcwZ02e0Y0ZC_large.jpg" width="161" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project no. 1, no.2, and no.3</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I thought about making separate posts for each of these but well let’s just look at it as a very massive boxed set. I have always looked at these collections and thought perhaps next sale. Well that time came in July 2021. Partially because I was interested in the standalone release of Touki Bouki I realized I could kill three birds with one stone and just get the set, which naturally spiraled into getting the other two. Quick recap, volume one has Touki Bouki (1973), Redes (1936), A River Called TItas (1973), Dry Summer (1964), Trances (1981), and The Housemaid (1960). Volume 2 features Insiang (1976), Mysterious Object at Noon (2000), Revenge (1989), Limite (1931), Law of the Border (1966), Tapei Story (1985). The third and as of now most recent release has Lucia (1968), After the Curfew (1954), Pixote (1981), Dos Monjes (1934), Soleil O (1970), Downpour (1972). Believe it or not I actually haven’t seen all of these, in fact a couple of them I have never even heard of, so thanks to the greatest living director for pointing out a couple international classics that deserve more attention. Many of the films feature some extras, but I consider this set to be more about releasing some very obscure films.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I-llcBwZxRw/YQxk4ptWrKI/AAAAAAAADUI/n-zc-Oir9bI77vzwsJxLtSl0zfm2UaGFgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1988/cavn6hiKSTnZl3w0DnPvHDk7jQ61CR_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1988" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I-llcBwZxRw/YQxk4ptWrKI/AAAAAAAADUI/n-zc-Oir9bI77vzwsJxLtSl0zfm2UaGFgCNcBGAsYHQ/w161-h200/cavn6hiKSTnZl3w0DnPvHDk7jQ61CR_large.jpg" width="161" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">World of Wong Kar Wai</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Of the career spanning retrospective boxed sets Criterion has released I might have been the most excited for this one. As my friend Roscoe will quickly point out it does not contain Ashes of Time (either version), but it features As Tears Go By (1989), Days of Being Wild (1991), Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000), and 2046 (2004). A few of these films I haven’t seen since they were in theaters (well As Tears Go By was a revival). My DVD of Chungking mysteriously vanished and the Criterion blu-ray has been out of print for years. My copy of Happy Together is a strange Korean (?) bootleg, and to be honest I’ve been eyeing that In the Mood For Love blu-ray for years even if I have it on DVD. He is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time and it’s hard not get jazzed for this. Rather than the complete films of say Jacques Tati or Agnes Varda, this is more like the Jacques Demy set in that it features the greatest hits and a fine introduction to some legendary works. I believe this came out in February, so this was the title I was most excited about for the July sale.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Well since it’s August, the sale has ended, and I avoided the temptation to make another run to B&N. Can’t say I bought more this July than last, but it certainly looks that way when I cram all the purchases into one post. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-35927553642447184552021-04-24T19:58:00.076-07:002021-04-24T20:14:00.003-07:002020 Academy Awards
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By the end of April award season is typically a distant memory.
Folks will often bitch a bit about what won a few months back but the focus is
on what delightful new Marvel movie or dreadful remake is about to officially
open summer movie season. I’m not wasting virtual ink to tell you how this past
year was different because we are all aware. In fact I’m not sure what the
actual telecast of the Academy Awards is going to look like this year, but
based on the propensity to go for low hanging fruit, I’m sure our
host/presenters will make plenty of quarantine jokes. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With the shift away from theaters to home streaming complete more
and more people had a chance to see far more nominees this year than normal.
The late show this year also gave extra time to catch up on things, but well at
the risk of sounding redundant, this year was different. I could barely muster
up any interest in watching any of the nominees. I had very little excitement
about what was nominated and very little enthusiasm for snubs. Frankly put I
did not have a dog in this year’s race and collectively the best picture
nominees are probably the weakest since 2008. I’ll let you look it up if you
want, but that was the last year of 5 best picture nominees when Slumdog
Millionaire took home the top honor because frankly nothing was interesting.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As fewer films were released, and a few that didn’t get made the
field was wide open and also strange. Film Comment ceased publication this year
so my most trusted year end list was nowhere to be found. The Golden Globes
proved to be an extra batch of head-scratching this year with several
questionable nominees. So with little fanfare, an extended delay comes a quick
recap on what is nominated in the major categories, so forgive my lukewarm
takes on this years shit. As a surprising bonus though this is the first year
in memory where I was able to see every best documentary nominee. For the
record I am rooting for Collective to win that although Time and The Mole Agent
are also excellent. I can practically guarantee Crip Camp will win because well
it’s exactly the type of thing Academy voters love to pride themselves on
recognizing.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Best Supporting Actress:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6oz8wMI7Rrc/YITd-cn3K_I/AAAAAAAADP4/Oa-pMZ-fe5AIHuhV9k9GAlrYIXZ0idulgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1280/maria.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6oz8wMI7Rrc/YITd-cn3K_I/AAAAAAAADP4/Oa-pMZ-fe5AIHuhV9k9GAlrYIXZ0idulgCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/maria.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">OK so Glenn Close made history this year by becoming the first
person nominated for a Golden Raspberry and Academy Award for the same
performance. This indicates the polarizing nature of that film, which I
honestly didn’t bother sitting through. Yeah it’s on Netflix but man this year
has been a huge bummer and I don’t think Hillbilly Elegy is going to make it
better. Yuh-jung Youn is little known but the kooky grandparent is a lightning
rod for Academy voters, but usually if that actor is best known for younger
roles. Speaking of I-had-to-look-up-how-to-spell-their-name-actresses, Maria
Bakalova was the breakout of the year in the pedestrian Borat sequel. She is
the bright spot of the film and recognizing new talent isn’t an impossibility.
Olivia Coleman and Amanda Seyfried are perfectly fine in their roles (Coleman
more so) but neither seems to be running away with it. Hopefully Bakalova takes
it but I am often wrong.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Best Supporting Actor:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Speaking of Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen is nominated for his
delightful turn in Trial of the Chicago 7, a perfectly cromulent best picture
nominee.His accent is odd, but would you expect anything else from the man?
Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield might cancel each other out although I
felt like Stanfield should have been considered the lead there. Chicago and The
Godfather 2 have proved that someone can win an Oscar when more than one person
from the same film are nominated. One Night in Miami was fine, and Leslie Odom
Jr. was as good as anyone in it but I literally had to look up who he played.
Please read that as “that film was forgettable” rather than “black people all
look alike”. Paul Raci is fine in Sound of Metal, but that is the theme of this
year. Everyone is ok. For the record I’m pulling for Cohen, but I’m sure Odom
wins.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Best Actress:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s a good year if you wanted to play a black singer from long ago.
Viola Davis lays it on quite thick in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but Chadwick
Boseman more than stole the show there. Andra Day is this year’s musical biopic
representative for the instantly forgettable The United States vs. Billie
Holliday. Lady Sings the Blues covers much of the ground in this film, so yeah
we’re getting to making remakes of biopics. Vanessa Kirby is outstanding in the
bummer of a movie Pieces of a Woman. Carey Mulligan delivers probably the best
overall performance for Promising Young Woman, but I’m not sure how much of a
shot she has of actually winning. Frances McDormand makes her sporadic return
to potentially win another Oscar. The fact that she already won this award
twice would severely handicap her in this race. Nomadland was one of my
favorite films of the year but honestly McDormand probably could have done this
movie in her sleep.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Best Actor:</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cBEfTrwx9rg/YITd-pjCvLI/AAAAAAAADP8/O5zE5kcx7oMcKS_y40cdWmMgzPAxFf8LgCNcBGAsYHQ/s2048/ie_61976.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cBEfTrwx9rg/YITd-pjCvLI/AAAAAAAADP8/O5zE5kcx7oMcKS_y40cdWmMgzPAxFf8LgCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/ie_61976.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chadwick Boseman is winning this. We can talk about the other
nominees, but he’s joining Heath Ledger and Peter Finch in the posthumous trophy
category. The film itself is a chore, and it is very,very clearly based on a
play because there are countless monologues delivered while characters look
away from everyone else in the room. It’s the type of movie some poor theater
kid will probably pull from for a future audition. As an actual film everything
is painfully telegraphed and a snooze. Anthony Hopkins for the record is
fantastic in The Father and he deserves this award more than the one he got for
Silence of the Lambs, but it’s Boseman all day. In a perfect world Riz Ahmed
would have a real chance of winning this but him and Steven Yeun are going to
have to be happy with the nomination.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Best Director:</span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aVl14irhRVc/YITd-QU824I/AAAAAAAADP0/CtXu74hc4i4XL_QqxQYU7ZycTpaVkdpvgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1024/1343477_nomadland_104_nml_00346_r2_rgb_678556_crop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="1024" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aVl14irhRVc/YITd-QU824I/AAAAAAAADP0/CtXu74hc4i4XL_QqxQYU7ZycTpaVkdpvgCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/1343477_nomadland_104_nml_00346_r2_rgb_678556_crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is the most interesting race in my opinion this year. Thomas
Vinterberg is the lone nominee who directed a film without a best picture
nominee. If you have Hulu, I highly recommend watching Another Round. It is all
the fun of a Lars Von Trier film with half the depression. David Fincher is
long overdue for one of these awards and Mank might be the one to do it. It’s
certainly playing to it’s audience here but all eyes will be on Chloe Zhao who
won the Globe in this category. This year’s Academy Awards are more diverse
than normal but it does get a little annoying that after 90+ years we’re still
having firsts when it comes to nominees. The Academy can pat itself on the back
(and believe me there will be an applause break for it) by nominating two women
for best director, and two Asians, what a world. I believe Zhao will take this
home and her previous film The Rider was highly acclaimed even if it got no
love from mainstream award shows. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Best Picture:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>The Father</b> - This is the last nominee to be released to stream so
I expect few people got around to even watching it. It’s a bummer and a half.
Well made, it does have some resemblance to Michael Haneke’s excellent Amour
without all the story. In fact that is the biggest knock against this film is
that there really is no plot. It is made in a way that is fascinating and by
trying to approximate what Hopkins character is going through makes things a
little surreal. Like most Oscar bait, it is the type of film you can be moved
by without ever wanting to sit through it again.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Judas and the Black Messiah</b> - This film is by the numbers and
honestly a little less enjoyable than I had hoped. I’m not sure how many of the
nominees this year suffered by being watched in the comfort of my own home, but
well I watched A Marriage Story and The Irishman last year on Netflix and they
were both excellent. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Mank</b> - This year’s Netflix award bait was a significant drop in
quality from the past two years. I’m not saying Mank is a bad film, but it’s a
story I’m well familiar with. There are so many old Hollywood Easter eggs it
amused me slightly to think how they can take a Marvel approach to film nerds.
This struck me as a movie I could see getting plenty of nominations but probably
not winning the top prize. Although the irony of a movie about the writing of
Citizen Kane winning best picture when Kane didn’t would not be lost on me.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Minari</b> - This is the last nominee I watched this season and it is
a movie. Minari is unique in telling a story that hasn’t been told before, at
least not like this, but man that’s about all I can say about it. I mean does a
Korean family trying to start a farm in Arkansas sound like a good movie to
you? Well where are the giant lizard vs. giant ape battles? We don’t even get a
lot of stereotypical “go back to your country” scenes, and it takes place in
Arkansas. Honestly Minari shows that even Asian people can be recognized for
mediocre films. Look there’s nothing wrong with the movie but it was lost on
me.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Nomadland</b> - If I were voting for best picture, this is what I
would vote for. If anyone watches this and thinks it’s boring as hell, I won’t
argue with you. Not much actually happens but damn it if I still didn’t feel
something watching it. I suppose my reaction to this film is what I was hoping
for with all the nominees but it’s the only one to achieve it. With so many
depressing things happening in 2020 it seems fitting that the best film would
also be depressing. I know this film isn’t for everyone but in an incredibly
weak year for cinema, this was a bright spot.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Promising Young Woman</b> - With every film available to buy/rent
Promising Young Woman was the first one we actually got. I vaguely remember
seeing a trailer for it before the world ended and was not excited about it.
The Us inspired re-working of “Toxic” from Britney Spears made my eyes roll
quite hard. Even watching the film there were plenty of moments where I
couldn’t tell if this was some brilliant Heathers/American Psycho black comedy
or a tonally inconsistent lecture. I absolutely loved parts of it and kinda
groaned at others. In a stronger year this might not have been nominated but
I’d say it’s worth watching. Most people will have somewhat strong opinions
about it, but it’s up to the individual what your take on it will be.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Sound of Metal</b> - When this popped up Amazon Prime I was curious,
then checked it out after the Golden Globe nominees were announced. Another
film that surprised me by even getting made. This year is lacking many of the
big productions, period pictures and epics, which makes some sense. Sound of
Metal is absolutely great for what it is, which seems more like a small film
that would have gotten some love at film festivals and then dropped out of
sight. Riz Ahmed is fantastic, and for once an art film might win the sound
design Oscars. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>The Trial of the Chicago 7</b> - This is your dad’s best picture
winner. The kind of movie that checks every box for a good old fashioned award
season hit that everyone will forget about in less than five years. It’s good
but so textbook, which seems like the biggest strike against it. This might
have been the most enjoyable of the nominees and if it weren’t for a
monumentally corny finale I probably would be rooting for this as best picture.
It’s well acted, incredibly well structured, and compelling as hell despite
it’s predictability. Of all the nominees this is probably the one you’ll hear
boomers recommend this year.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So there you go, my take on this year’s snooze-fest of nominees.
Am I still going to watch the show? Absolutely. Am I still going to lose my
Oscar poll to Caroline? Probably. Looking forward to awkward jokes landing
poorly, and finally having a rooting interest in the best animated short
category. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
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Name="page number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
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<![endif]-->David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-64779961091128880952021-01-22T17:05:00.006-08:002021-01-22T17:06:17.144-08:00The James Bond Awards<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Quarantine has led to some interesting binges for all of us. Having gone on for nearly a year it makes sense that we would have watched a lot of TV and movies by now. For some it was an opportunity to slip into the comfort of our favorite stories, for others it was a chance to finally watch that thing that everyone keeps bringing up. For myself I set a few characteristically ambitious viewing goals but wound up watching a little too much Top Chef to be productive.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Two glaring areas of ignorance in my pop culture knowledge though were tackled. The first was Star Trek. Speaking of ambitious I had designs to watch all of the original series, The Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine. After spending several months on the original series I thought I’d press pause before starting the next 400 episodes of Trek, not to mention the dozen or so movies. The other area was James Bond. You may have noticed I didn’t mention Bond films too often on here. In early 2019 however I did decide to catch up on the Daniel Craig films which were all pretty damn good overall. Right around New Years I finally decided to start all of the Bond movies in order. I realized quite quickly that Caroline was probably not down for this marathon which is her loss but also helps me plow through them at my characteristically obsessive pace.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Then came New Year’s Day. After drunkenly finishing Goldfinger (one of the half dozen or so Bond films I had actually seen and the only one I owned on DVD) I woke up with a day off ready to get to work. There was only one catch, all the Bond films that were streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime proceeded to vanish. I realized that if I had only started this endeavor earlier I could have been done, or at least up to Brosnan. Doing a quick search I heard that the original films had moved to Peacock, a new streaming service that I am not subscribing to. I know with what is commonly referred to as the streaming wars we all have a breaking point. Mine was Peacock, although I previously put my foot down on at least a dozen others before. No I don’t care to watch the Office again or whatever god awful Saved by the Bell reboot is happening because frankly I’m also getting mighty tired of studios scraping the bottom of the barrel for nostalgic garbage they can repackage for people longing to return to an era where they were still capable of feeling something besides existential dread.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">So what’s a guy to do? Well in the olden days I would have run to the library and got my fix there, but in the age of quarantine that is significantly more complicated. So I went to Best Buy, saw the entire collection on blu-ray and purchased good old fashioned physical media. As my Criterion posts have indicated I am a fan of the antiquated hard copies, and it was either this or subscribe to another god damn thing with more shit I don’t want or need to add another 15 minutes to the already excruciating “what are we going to watch tonight?” ritual. Luckily they price matched and I’m sure in the long run I saved money, plus how cool is it I own all 24 films on blu-ray? To answer the question my cousin had, no it doesn’t include the non-Eon produced Never Say Never Again where Sean Connery was given a dump truck of money to play Bond one more time. So having not seen that film, you can argue I haven’t seen “all the Bond movies” and I hear you, but we’re going with official releases. This is the same reason I didn’t watch Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four when I ranked the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Which quick aside, I have so many theories about Wandavision and I can’t wait to be wrong on nearly all of them. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Now the purpose of this blog is essentially to put down my thoughts after watching 24 movies in a franchise over roughly three weeks. As I mentioned before my knowledge of Bond was severely limited. Other than catching random scenes here and there I had only seen about 7 Bond films in their entirety. The one surprisingly I had seen the most was Licence to Kill, which I hadn’t seen at all since the early 90s. This explains why I had the itch to finally cross them off, because a film historian such as myself should be familiar with the longest running franchise in movie history. I would make the claim of it being the most successful but I’m not sure if Marvel has passed it. Since over 2/3 of these films were being watched for the first time I quickly abandoned my idea of ranking them. After all I would have to look up what the hell the difference between For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy was, I just know they were both pretty bad. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">A second idea sprang up during the first third of this marathon, what about my own little James Bond awards? Lots of people, websites, and magazines have ranked all number of best and worst Bond things. In many ways these highlights might seem more pure because I’m coming in largely cold, consider it a first impression list. For example the second time watching Spectre definitely had a different weight knowing that Christoph Waltz was the 4</span><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes'; vertical-align: super;">th</span></sup><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> official Blofeld in the series. Along the way I got a crash course in the inner workings of these productions, what explained various gaps, and why SPECTRE disappeared for forty years. So for this particular blog I want to tackle a few categories, list my favorite ____ and offer a little commentary why. So let’s dish, starting with:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Best Bond - Daniel Craig</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I know you’re already pissed and telling me what an idiot I am, but hear me out. It seems nearly every Bond has a three picture window before they start to phone it in. Connery clearly stopped giving a shit around the time of Thunderball, Roger Moore freely admitted the series went ridiculous in Moonraker, and Die Another Day was a bit of a turd compared with Brosnan’s other three. I nearly put Timothy Dalton here because he always was my favorite Bond growing up. Being the only Bond for 6 long years as Licence to Kill ran on cable repeatedly will do that. I do think that if MGM not had it’s issues and a third or even fourth Bond film with Dalton had been made, he might top this list. He was a hyrbrid that had Connery’s charm and some degree of Craig’s athleticism. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The reason Craig tops this list is he grounded the franchise. Even when doing some rather absurd Bond stunts, he always seemed capable, not like old man Moore who deferred to his stunt double 80% of the time. Pierce Brosnan is a fine choice that I won’t argue with but like nearly all Bonds he quickly got old (something that 52 year old Craig will have to reckon with whenever No Time to Die gets released). Brosnan like other Bonds was a product of his time, whereas Craig (and Dalton) seemed timeless. Brosnan’s films are plagued with awful CGI and seemed over reliant on effects to carry them through. Craig has the least amount of gadgets considering Q doesn’t even appear in his first two films. By loosely linking his four films into one cohesive story he also seems to show a marginal amount of growth, which only Lazenby was given an opportunity to do before. I can shit on Lazenby but On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is easily one of the better films. The best of which I’ll get to now.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OXYIeN-AbX0/YAt0WWg-HHI/AAAAAAAADNU/PcHTUA78oCIX_PuMJCy9n0GxIsmgVV6rACNcBGAsYHQ/s750/Casino-Royale-Eva-Green-Daniel-Craig-750x400.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="750" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OXYIeN-AbX0/YAt0WWg-HHI/AAAAAAAADNU/PcHTUA78oCIX_PuMJCy9n0GxIsmgVV6rACNcBGAsYHQ/s320/Casino-Royale-Eva-Green-Daniel-Craig-750x400.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Best Bond Film - Casino Royale</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">There are some runners up here for sure. Goldfinger set the standard, and really the first three Bond pictures are all excellent. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was top notch, and I really fucking love Licence to Kill. I think another reason for my love of Licence to Kill beyond nostalgia is the fact that it’s an 80s action movie and would have been right at home starring Schwarznegger. Casino Royale came out in the era of the gritty reboot, aka let’s all do what Batman Begins did. Craig was a different Bond, who was more objectified than the ladies around him. He also showed signs of vulnerability, he was human and flawed, not yet the cold calculating machine he would become. I also have no idea why tense poker scenes are so fascinating to watch. Most of the action is practical and holy Christ Eva Green is mesmerizing. It’s also one of the few Bond films that would probably place in my top ten of the year (Skyfall probably would as well fwiw). I understand anyone who has their personal favorite, but this is everything someone needs to know about Bond.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-46O28ztGGjA/YAt0WZqUBhI/AAAAAAAADNM/j5X5Tt0thtAWOymmFSvIabfOQ1t-gmkZwCNcBGAsYHQ/s600/24cdebf0b8ec4fe5f9bdd04c54fbbbe2f9e70795.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-46O28ztGGjA/YAt0WZqUBhI/AAAAAAAADNM/j5X5Tt0thtAWOymmFSvIabfOQ1t-gmkZwCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/24cdebf0b8ec4fe5f9bdd04c54fbbbe2f9e70795.webp" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Best Bond Girl - Diana Rigg (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Countess Tracy di Vicenzo is simply the best Bond girl and I will fight anyone on this. I’m not saying who looked prettiest next to Bond, or who had the most ridiculous name because there are some humdingers in there, but Rigg’s Tracy was the greatest. I like my Bond girls competent and on equal footing with Bond. All too often Bond has either been partnered with some dumb ass whose sole purpose is to get captured, or she is murdered to motivate his revenge. Some come and go, a few turn out to be villains themselves, but Rigg was something better than others. She was the first memorable Bond girl. Sure a lot of attention was given to Ursula Andress for being the original Bond girl, and everyone knows the name Pussy Galore, but can you even remember what Honor Blackman looked like, or did? Rigg was the first Bond girl more famous than Bond largely because no one then or now has any clue who George Lazenby is and The Avengers was a very popular show. She got a second life on Game of Thrones and was the first of at least four Bond actors to appear on that show (if you recall more besides Sean Bean, Charles Dance, and Jonathan Pryce let me know). For the record she does get captured, but she kicks some ass and helps save the day rather than screaming for Bond to use his manly muscles to save her. RIP, also everyone should watch Theatre of Blood.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Best Theme Song - “Live and Let Die”</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I mean this is one of the few un-debatable Bond facts. So much so that I wanted to rebel against this choice and put the absolute banger “A View to Kill” from Duran Duran which is the only Bond song I heard multiple times without knowing it was from a Bond movie. Now for the past month Caroline and I have been doing our best Shirley Bassey and saying “Goldfinger” while walking around the house, but for my money her second theme, “Diamonds are Forever” was the superior song. Kanye West seemed to think so and sampled it, twice but let’s not let his approval be an endorsement. McCartney’s theme took on a life of it’s own, and turned into a hit by Guns ‘n’ Roses 20 years later. It was also the only time I believe McCartney and George Martin collaborated post-Beatles. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NtzsxIQv3P0/YAt0XEdi0NI/AAAAAAAADNc/ooomhR9rPugfTdXkIYLJ2Nb6Qu5-WId4ACNcBGAsYHQ/s1015/MV5BMjVlZmI5MjAtNzIxZS00MWRjLTliMTktZjc5ZmRjMzVjYWNiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjUwNzk3NDc%2540._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="1015" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NtzsxIQv3P0/YAt0XEdi0NI/AAAAAAAADNc/ooomhR9rPugfTdXkIYLJ2Nb6Qu5-WId4ACNcBGAsYHQ/s320/MV5BMjVlZmI5MjAtNzIxZS00MWRjLTliMTktZjc5ZmRjMzVjYWNiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjUwNzk3NDc%2540._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Best Villain - Christopher Lee (The Man With the Golden Gun)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">So allow me a brief respite to say I am 100% biased by the fact that Christopher Lee was in a Bond movie so he wins. Now not always has a great actor turned into a great villain. The jury is out on Christoph Waltz’s interpretation of Blofeld, who is clearly Bond’s most important villain but with so many actors playing him it somewhat splits the vote. Christopher Walken was wasted as a villain in the pretty shitty A View to Kill. Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker had villains overshadowed by their henchmen. Christopher Lee was the most fascinating of his many arch-nemesis. He wasn’t necessarily hell bent on world domination, he was a man like Bond who wanted to beat the best. Christopher Lee could be frightening as hell considering he played Dracula at least 2000 times and he helped salvage what was easily one of the weakest films in the series. In fact if it weren’t for him and Odd Job, Man with the Golden Gun probably would top my list of worst Bond films. Francisco Scaramanga is clever, capable, and believable as a superior foe, also what a name. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zVP_ge4l29c/YAt0Y6M-0gI/AAAAAAAADNs/LnjaCryGONov9RVmaVVw1QnNDgWhgwT1wCNcBGAsYHQ/s1024/herve-villechaize-1024x542.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="1024" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zVP_ge4l29c/YAt0Y6M-0gI/AAAAAAAADNs/LnjaCryGONov9RVmaVVw1QnNDgWhgwT1wCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/herve-villechaize-1024x542.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Best Henchman - Herve Villechaize (The Man With the Golden Gun)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I can’t for the life of me explain my fascination with Villechaize’s Nick Nack or why this movie was so bad despite having my favorite antagonists. Jaws is great, Odd Job is great, and I love me some Benecio del Torro in Licence to Kill. Hell Dave Bautista makes an excellent henchman complete with only one word of dialogue in Spectre. However I simply love the fact that this little shit is somehow a menacing person, long before Austin Powers made mini-me a deliberate joke. He also seems to be the rare henchman who has wavering loyalty, willing to fuck over Scaramanga so he can inherit everything, but is that just a set up? Now there are some Bond girls who turn out to be in bed with the enemy which makes me think of Sophie Marceau in The World is Not Enough but Villechaize’s acting career was so brief he deserves this. Speaking of further viewing, Forbidden Zone is certainly a movie.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-utSsT_x_RmU/YAt0ZSyOXaI/AAAAAAAADNw/WsCrgvRXmMQPJJYmx1FQ8DrzBC9NTMtDgCNcBGAsYHQ/s481/unnamed.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="481" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-utSsT_x_RmU/YAt0ZSyOXaI/AAAAAAAADNw/WsCrgvRXmMQPJJYmx1FQ8DrzBC9NTMtDgCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/unnamed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Best Bond Ally - Joe Don Baker (GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Jack Wade is one of several CIA allies Bond works with over the years. Baker is unique because he is one of four actors to play a villain as well as an ally to Bond, being the somewhat incompetent villain with toy soldiers in The Living Daylights. The first three Brosnan Bond outings are pretty good, and honestly Die Another Day isn’t irredeemable, but Joe Don Baker’s Wade is my favorite part of those movies. Just a gregarious American stereotype there to help out Bond officially and sometimes unofficially for the greater good. Bond typically does work alone, and I’m tempted to put Desmond Llewelyn here because Q has by far offered Bond the most help. However I’m trying to single out some individual performances and well I wanted to throw some love to at least something in the Brosnan era.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Now let the hate flow, as I shit on some of these movies.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <br /></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--NTB2sn0vmI/YAt0Wa4LXkI/AAAAAAAADNQ/PX4LMfyvacsiEyIIy-Y7xM2azrIq5Rg2gCNcBGAsYHQ/s1200/1_On-Her-Majestys-Secret-Service.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--NTB2sn0vmI/YAt0Wa4LXkI/AAAAAAAADNQ/PX4LMfyvacsiEyIIy-Y7xM2azrIq5Rg2gCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/1_On-Her-Majestys-Secret-Service.jpg" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Worst Bond - George Lazenby</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I hate to pick on the guy but this one doesn’t need much explanation. I am curious what he could have done if he didn’t have the worst agent in history who advised him not to return. Hell even though I liked this film I would have to look up a picture of Lazenby to remember what he looked like. Easily the most forgettable, his Bond at least showed a few human traits that Dalton and Craig were able to tap into. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IHQM1uf-tds/YAt0XQoRMZI/AAAAAAAADNg/BODr73GUOggSS-Y60jDO_yTDXcMBnOc1QCNcBGAsYHQ/s1000/TELEMMGLPICT000041851581_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqTg3yaXCsTmIwgf-B3JGERejQuU_O3ERJhK0Al_gWIZI.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IHQM1uf-tds/YAt0XQoRMZI/AAAAAAAADNg/BODr73GUOggSS-Y60jDO_yTDXcMBnOc1QCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/TELEMMGLPICT000041851581_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqTg3yaXCsTmIwgf-B3JGERejQuU_O3ERJhK0Al_gWIZI.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Worst Bond Film - Octopussy </span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I’ll be honest, you can flip a coin on Roger Moore’s mostly terrible Bond output. He worked as a Bond for awhile, until he shockingly didn’t. He seemed too old for this role almost immediately being four years older than Connery, but by 1983 he was definitely phoning it in. I remember absolutely nothing about this movie I watched two weeks ago. Oh yeah this had someone in a clown suit, a Faberge egg auction, and snore. Homer Simpson might have liked it but it was a waste. The theme was forgettable, the cast had no standouts, and overall it was an insufferable 131 minutes. For Your Eyes Only at least had Carole Bouquet and a marginally better opening. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-524WCxUsw5A/YAt0Yb1TREI/AAAAAAAADNo/lbU8jGrXf60TxTnydM6sFq7_lxlremE6wCNcBGAsYHQ/s637/britt_ekland_new_gallery_2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="637" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-524WCxUsw5A/YAt0Yb1TREI/AAAAAAAADNo/lbU8jGrXf60TxTnydM6sFq7_lxlremE6wCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/britt_ekland_new_gallery_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Worst Bond Girl - Britt Ekland (The Man With the Golden Gun)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Mary Goodnight was the worst kind of Bond girl. Pretty, skinny, looked good in a bikini and colossally useless. In fact the only thing she seems to do is stumble blindly into setting off a doomsday device. There’s a reason The Man With the Golden Gun is so bad (more on that later) despite having my favorite villain and Henchman combo. I could have selected from the many forgettable ladies in these films but I chose the one that made me actively angry.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Worst Theme Song - “GoldenEye”</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Yeah this song is a crud rock. Dishonorable mention to Shirley Bassey’s third and by far weakest outing for Moonraker. The fact that this song was written by Bono and the Edge of a still relevant U2 and sung by Turner who was channeling her inner Bassey it just sucks. To be honest quite a number of the themes are very forgettable, a few that are just instrumental. So again I’d rather highlight a theme that disappointed me more than one I don’t remember. Although to be perfectly frank I’m not a big fan of any of the Brosnan themes.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5U3ZBaBeCKs/YAt2K1jeMVI/AAAAAAAADOM/_v-ljPDKe64EJ5wJduv79IQA6YeQIbIIACNcBGAsYHQ/s485/MV5BMTUxNDg2NTA3Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNjY4MTg2._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="485" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5U3ZBaBeCKs/YAt2K1jeMVI/AAAAAAAADOM/_v-ljPDKe64EJ5wJduv79IQA6YeQIbIIACNcBGAsYHQ/s320/MV5BMTUxNDg2NTA3Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNjY4MTg2._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Worst Bond Villain - Toby Stephens (Die Another Day)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">There are a number of lame and ridiculous Bond villains. Did you even remember Hugo Drax was the actual villain of Moonraker? Some people terribly miscast (Living Daylights, Diamonds Are Forever), but sometimes it’s just compounded garbage, ala Stephens portrayal of Gustav Graves. Bad CGI aside I actually liked Rosamund Pike and Halle Berry in this film, and the over the top fencing scene had it’s moments, but Graves is just the worst. On top of it I’m supposed to believe he is North Korean with plastic surgery, like how lazy could they get with the casting? I actually enjoy the other villains in Brosnan’s films largely because the actor’s portraying them were so good, but Stephens is the black sheep of that quartet.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5RWDVXeASM8/YAt0X55EiSI/AAAAAAAADNk/0sTjSONUFcg6isFG4c_JzAxCm3fwtFRZwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1366/bambi-thumper.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="1366" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5RWDVXeASM8/YAt0X55EiSI/AAAAAAAADNk/0sTjSONUFcg6isFG4c_JzAxCm3fwtFRZwCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/bambi-thumper.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Worst Henchmen - Lola Larson “Bambi” and Trina Parks “Thumper” (Diamonds are Forever)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Predicting the onslaught of awful campy nonsense that would pop up in Roger Moore’s films I almost forgot these two useless ladies were in Connery’s last official outing. I mean the names, the gimmick, their extreme incompetence are just the worst. How bad were these actresses? Well when I saw a girl that looked like Trina Parks in Moonraker I had a panic attack that for some reason these two were back. The fact that these sexy would be assassins are able to be held underwater simultaneously by Bond put a cap on how dumb their very inclusion was. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oDZJmDiRjy4/YAt0W3d5MTI/AAAAAAAADNY/oT_NTzYAAxQ878JCo6oGPX4osTzoigY0wCNcBGAsYHQ/s1020/Live-and-Let-Die-590.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1020" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oDZJmDiRjy4/YAt0W3d5MTI/AAAAAAAADNY/oT_NTzYAAxQ878JCo6oGPX4osTzoigY0wCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/Live-and-Let-Die-590.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Worst Bond Ally - Clifton James (Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun)</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Oh Christ do I hate this character. I can take some lame and campy nonsense because frankly that’s what this series was largely about but the fact that Clifton James’ tone deaf bumbling redneck cartoon character was brought back for a second Bond film is perplexing. Yeah a redneck Louisiana sheriff goes on vacation in Thailand. The second he appears in Live and Let Die I broke. That movie is not good despite it’s amazing theme song, but he was easily the worst thing about it, so when he shows up for no reason in The Man With the Golden Gun I knew there was no god. Guy Hamilton was apparently a fan of his and asked him to be written into Gun. Perhaps it was just a casual British fascination with a redneck stereotype complete with a giant wad of chewing tobacco. I hesitate to call him an ally because he was shaking his fat redneck fist in anger during Live, but he actually teams up with Bond in Gun. Either way, maybe Clifton James was a swell fella but there are few characters in movies I have hated more.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">So there you have it, my take on Bond and it’s many facets. Perhaps one day I’ll go through the series again and update my rankings but man the thought of sitting through Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and A View to Kill sounds like torture. Had I taken better notes I would have loved to rank the opening title sequences and the cold open action scenes, but that will be for another time.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-6415658825550142722020-11-03T15:49:00.001-08:002020-11-03T15:49:14.824-08:00Rules of the Game (1939) - Jean Renoir<p><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:DocumentProperties><o:Revision>1</o:Revision><o:Pages>1</o:Pages><o:Lines>1</o:Lines><o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs></o:DocumentProperties></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><w:WordDocument><w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel><w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery><w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>2</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery><w:DocumentKind>DocumentNotSpecified</w:DocumentKind><w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>7.8 磅</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing><w:PunctuationKerning></w:PunctuationKerning><w:View>Normal</w:View><w:Compatibility><w:DontGrowAutofit/><w:BalanceSingleByteDoubleByteWidth/><w:DoNotExpandShiftReturn/></w:Compatibility><w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom></w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true" DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99" LatentStyleCount="260" >
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="envelope return" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="footnote reference" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="annotation reference" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="line number" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="page number" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="endnote reference" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="endnote text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="table of authorities" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="macro" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="toa heading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Bullet 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Number 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Title" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Closing" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Signature" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Default Paragraph Font" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text Indent" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Continue 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Message Header" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Subtitle" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Salutation" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Date" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text First Indent" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text First Indent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Note Heading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text Indent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Body Text Indent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Block Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Hyperlink" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="FollowedHyperlink" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Strong" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Emphasis" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Document Map" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Plain Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="E-mail Signature" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Normal (Web)" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Acronym" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Address" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Cite" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Code" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Definition" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Keyboard" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Preformatted" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Sample" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Typewriter" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="HTML Variable" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Normal Table" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="annotation subject" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="No List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="1 / a / i" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="1 / 1.1 / 1.1.1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Article / Section" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Simple 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Simple 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Simple 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Classic 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Colorful 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Colorful 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Colorful 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Columns 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 7" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid 8" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 7" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table List 8" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table 3D effects 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table 3D effects 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table 3D effects 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Contemporary" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Elegant" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Professional" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Subtle 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Subtle 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Web 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Web 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Web 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Balloon Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Grid" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Table Theme" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Placeholder Text" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="No Spacing" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="List Paragraph" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Quote" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Intense Quote" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light List Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="99" SemiHidden="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6" ></w:LsdException>
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</w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D_ErV3sbnnY/X6HsLdaBQuI/AAAAAAAADMU/hfOJHfoFUmsWqGBrSyETRJlLuHl90aTDQCNcBGAsYHQ/s640/the-rules-of-the-game-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D_ErV3sbnnY/X6HsLdaBQuI/AAAAAAAADMU/hfOJHfoFUmsWqGBrSyETRJlLuHl90aTDQCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/the-rules-of-the-game-2.png" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Today is election day and while we’re all sweating out the results, or blissfully ambivalent towards things, I needed a distraction. Last night we started The Queen’s Gambit after watching the most recent adaptation of Emma. Emma got me thinking about Jean Renoir’s masterpiece, and sometimes through no fault of itself a competent movie makes you think of a better one. Emma was predictable and enjoyable to a point but I found myself annoyed that all the servants were nothing more than furniture. Rarely moving, never interacting, and borderline invisible to any of the people in the film. In Rules of the Game as much attention is paid to the help as the ambivalent rich people who can’t stop sleeping with each other. Does that alone make it a better film than Emma, well yes but this is like saying Wagyu steak is better than White Castle. Ok maybe Emma isn’t that trashy, but Rules of the Game is that good.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Even before I became certifiably obsessed with movies sometime in 1999, I would get obsessed with individual films. As a child I knew every word and sound effect in movies like Clue, Batman, and Big Trouble in Little China. In my junior high years it was Dead Alive, Planet of the Apes, and Woodstock for some reason. Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Singin’ in the Rain and others were obsessions of mine at various points in time. Luckily when discussing a French film there is a French term for a movie with that special something, je ne sais quoi which literally translates to “I don’t know”. Although never widely dubbed a cult film, Rules of the Game does check off some of those boxes. In particular it was a flop upon it’s release, it was cut and mangled, and a devoted audience of another generation rediscovered it and restored it to it’s current standing. To me the most important feature of a cult film is a desire to repeatedly watch it, which this certainly has for me.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">You may recall from the last time I ranked my top 100 films that Grand Illusion made the cut and Rules was left out. Since that list was made I have probably watched Rules of the Game 6 or more times. It is the perennial answer to the question “what do I want to watch?” Yesterday as Caroline was heading to sleep and I was facing an uncertain tomorrow I reached for the comfort of the familiar. It’s hard to really articulate what draws you back to a film over and over again, particularly one that might not have made a huge impact on the initial viewing. Admittedly the first time I saw Rules it was a very crappy VHS with subtitles that blended into the image so a large chunk of dialogue I couldn’t even read. I gave it another viewing before eventually getting it on DVD when Criterion put it out. I watched it with commentary and had a begrudging “oh I guess it is a good film”. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The fact is though that Rules holds a very exalted place in the lexicon of cinema. It is the only film to make Sight and Sound’s Top 10 films of all time list since 1952. The fact that it is highly praised and has remained so for decades speaks to it’s reputation. That might be one reason why I have watched it multiple times. When someone tells you a particular movie is the greatest of all time or even one of the top ten it is nearly impossible to appreciate it on a single viewing. At best you can say “That was good, but I wouldn’t rank it that high.” Many of you reading can probably think of a masterpiece that has been beaten over your head that you appreciate and respect but would still slap an overrated label on. For many people seeing it once and coming to this conclusion is sufficient. For me I’m curious to know why I don’t agree with the hordes. I wonder if I missed something, or is everyone crazy.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">If you are not a native French speaker I attest that it is impossible to grasp everything in Rules of the Game on a single viewing. I might argue it’s impossible on three trips through it, but no one wants to read about a movie and be told they have to watch it at least three times to appreciate it. For many it’s not worth the effort, and I can’t blame you. No one needs to watch Goodfellas 3 times to appreciate it. Some films, including some of my favorites start to show cracks on multiple views. Scenes that slip past you when you’re wrapped up in the story or the acting. When you see it multiple times you might pick up on questionable decisions. Fight scenes are usually the easiest area to miss details. Perhaps everyone patiently waits their turn to attack the badass hero, or someone gets their ass kicked without bothering to block or defend themselves in any way (Goodfellas, The Godfather, The Irishman). The truly great ones that often fall into the cult territory are movies that reveal their brilliance multiple times through. You start to look for cracks in the veneer only to see there are none. What once seemed routine or imperceptible is actually flawless execution. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">There is a beauty to simplicity but it can be shockingly difficult to make things seamless to the naked eye. Casablanca is one of those movies that multiple viewings only seem to enhance. The Big Lebowski on paper seems kind of stupid and it’s only after many, many viewings do you start to realize just how intelligent it is. Lebowski I know is one of those movies people are told about so often that they often have that dismissive attitude towards it on first glance. I feel like I was one of the generation that discovered it’s brilliance through time, so by the time I noticed it’s intricate plot machinations and hidden callbacks the rest of the world was slowly discovering it as well. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The question might be, what the hell does this have to do with Rules of the Game? Well it often gets praised in a brief snapshot that doesn’t offer much justice. When you’re told it was made on the eve of World War II and mirrored the French obliviousness to the approaching Nazi invasion it seems timely but dated. Then you read about the innovative ways Renoir shot in depth and utilized multiple planes of action within a shot. Renoir shot like this on multiple films before, and frankly many modern audiences might not be that impressed that a director would have gone to those lengths. For the same reason people today might roll their eyes at the similar technical achievements of Citizen Kane. The virtuoso staging is definitely one of the things that would go unnoticed on a couple of viewings, unless you had a particularly observant teacher pausing and pointing it out to you. You can appreciate something based on the time in which it was made but for the truly exceptional picture, it needs to hold up beyond that.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t6fiJ6cWGQU/X6HsLaI9fhI/AAAAAAAADMY/2ZNJfQfJbJc7_MjVEsvP5l_MLIMVocEAACNcBGAsYHQ/s600/The-Rules-of-the-Game-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t6fiJ6cWGQU/X6HsLaI9fhI/AAAAAAAADMY/2ZNJfQfJbJc7_MjVEsvP5l_MLIMVocEAACNcBGAsYHQ/s320/The-Rules-of-the-Game-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> The script is extremely talkative. It’s hard not to spend the majority of the film watching the bottom third just to keep up. About a year ago I was pretty drunk and decided to watch the film with the goal of not reading a single subtitle, I just wanted to experience the visuals. It helped that having seen it approximately 10 times I know perfectly well what’s happening in any given scene. This helps explain some of the cultural differences in favorite films. An American equivalent would be Pulp Fiction. There are brilliant tracking shots, subtle sound design Easter eggs, and mesmerizing dialogue that might go completely unnoticed by a foreign audience. Some of the very specific references can also be wasted on certain groups, which is one reason why that film although highly praised doesn’t have the same universal recognition as others. I could argue this is what sets Rules back for many American audiences.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">There is history that needs to be known, class structures to be aware of, societal mores and norms and so much repartee to keep up on that mise-en-scene can be missed. Knowing there’s a great film under there might seem pointless to try and dig out for others. If someone tells you duck confit is amazing and you order it three times without thinking it’s worth the price you might not be inclined to keep trying it. Luckily there is enough in the film that it works with little context and study. The slapstick chasing between Schumacher and Marceau is actually quite comical. It allows the dialogue to take a breather and allow the visuals to carry the load for a bit. The relationships all have a very modern flair to them that has aged quite beautifully as well. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">As a plot there is a lot to unpack here. We might view it as particularly French or specifically Parisian for everyone to be in love with everyone else, but it can be hard to keep track of who is sleeping with who (spoiler the answer is everyone with everyone). Where the relationship drama starts to get interesting is the vacillating between jealousy and acceptance everyone seems to have. Christine, Andre, Marceau, Genevieve, the Marquis and Octave all seem quite alright with each others indiscretions then become violently jealous before coming to their senses and repeating the process all over again. Only Lisette the maid seems to be completely ambivalent towards any romance including her own husband. She takes life as she finds it and despite being married has very little interest in being a wife and seems to view infidelity as something to pass the time. She might be the most emancipated woman in the bunch but it is ultimately her that sets the final tragedy in action, despite it being perpetrated by her husband and jilted would-be lover. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BUQBh3Sf_tY/X6HsLefM3KI/AAAAAAAADMQ/xp7STADkrLMEaGNd-DPdWTxIsrLbILKoQCNcBGAsYHQ/s970/the-rules-of-the-game-3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="708" data-original-width="970" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BUQBh3Sf_tY/X6HsLefM3KI/AAAAAAAADMQ/xp7STADkrLMEaGNd-DPdWTxIsrLbILKoQCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/the-rules-of-the-game-3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Her character might seem thoroughly modern but not everyone else is on her level. Perhaps a question of casting but I never understood the widespread obsession all the men seem to have towards Christine. Perhaps their infatuation for her is simply because it seems like the thing to do, trying to win her affection. She is so flaky that it’s a wonder she ever settled down long enough to get married to the Marquis. He in turn carried on his extramarital affair with Genevieve before he was even married. Perhaps it is her foreignness that intrigues their set, or her shifting allegiance that convinces all men that she is within their grasp. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">It is worth noting that the men in domestic capacities do not pursue Christine. Their attentions seem focused on Lisette who is one of their own, drawing parallels between the two classes. Only Octave, who oscillates between both circles because of his upbringing but also because of his lack of means courts both women at various points. His affection for Lisette is little more than flirtation but Marceau despite being one with a weakness for the ladies doesn’t seem to interested in chasing one of the rich women at the chateau, at least not seriously. Even the Marquis seems content with Andre running off with his wife because at least he’s part of their set. This is echoed in Renoir’s earlier Grand Illusion where social class is more binding than nationality.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I would be remiss not to discuss Renoir’s humanism while discussing this film. As a thesis for his entire career Rules of the Game is probably as great of an example as can be found. It brings me to why the shortcomings of Emma and to an extent Jane Austen made me compare it to this. Even though people have their place in society, no one in particular looks down on the help. The Marquis is quite sympathetic to Marceau, looks out for him, and even asks his advice. Andre and Octave are friends despite the former’s status as a national hero and the latter’s limited means. The servants all dine together but they’re essentially eating the same as the people upstairs. The General is more concerned with class than any financial position. There isn’t any great sermonizing about the class differences in the house. People have their place, but they’re still people, and Renoir effortlessly shows that the problems of the servants directly mirror those of the rich guests. In effect everyone has the same struggles and we would do well to remember that.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Much of the technical achievements and the legacy of this film have been covered in great detail over the years. The segment on depth staging in Observations on Film Art is a nice little capsule of how great the mise-en-scene is. It’s reputation might make the film seem a little boring or worse that it has something to prove. I can’t necessarily explain why it’s taken me 20 years and about a dozen viewings to agree completely with it’s status as one of the all time great films. I’m not sure what it is about the film that makes me want to watch it a dozen more times, perhaps the fact that every subsequent viewing just makes it better. More is revealed and a testament to the greatest cinema is something that unveils new joys at every view. So hopefully the world doesn’t burn down tonight and we can all take a sigh of relief while watching this masterpiece about a group of entitled promiscuous people unaware the end of days is approaching.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p>David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-38544996194355883382020-08-04T15:05:00.000-07:002020-08-04T15:05:05.776-07:00Criterion Sale Final Haul<p class="MsoNormal"></p><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Well it’s the beginning of August which means it’s also the end of the Criterion sale at Barnes and Noble. I would like to think that my single month record which I nearly doubled this month will not be beaten, but I could theoretically win the Powerball and then all bets are off. What’s truly astonishing, and something you might have wondered while reading this is how damn many films I’ve found to get. No one could say I was a slouch in the Criterion blu-ray department on July 9</span><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes'; vertical-align: super;">th</span></sup><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> before this sale started. Yet somehow every trip I find myself easily picking up ten new titles, often putting a couple back to restrain myself, aka get it next time. I did manage to make one final trip on the last day mainly to exchange my damaged copy of Love Streams, but crossed a couple extras off as well.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Emmy nominations were announced last week and I do not watch enough television to bitch about it. I’m happy The Watchmen got the most nominations, and certainly pleased What We Do In the Shadows is up for best comedy series. Professional team sports ball also returned in the past week or so, and if the Marlins have anything to say about it, it will promptly get canceled before my next birthday (August 12). So there are new and exciting things to distract me from watching movies, but I did make it through another somewhat torturous Chantal Akerman film (four more to go). Thanks to the Criterion Channel I also checked out Secrets, a Frank Borzage film from 1932 and one of the last films Mary Pickford put out. It was fine, but it felt like a 3 hour film that was edited down to 75 minutes. Literal decades were skipped past and it was a bit all over the place. Not sure if Frances Marion had more ambitious ideas with her script or it was conceived to be that disjointed. Also a studio picture epic with what looked like a B-movie budget didn’t do it any favors.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">If you’re curious, we did get through another Wes Anderson feature (Darjeeling Limited) with Hotel Monterrey to boot. I did resist the urge to upgrade my Darjeeling disc, but perhaps in a future sale when I knock off a few dozen others. What’s most alarming and amazing about this sale is how many damn Criterion releases I want. Even running through my checklist after I got home I noticed several titles that I probably would have purchased if they were at the store. Typically the end of the sale means one last online order for whatever wasn’t available, but barnesandnoble.com was very cleaned out. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">So here it is, the final round of purchases, now I just have to put them in order in my bookcase:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FQ-VvIbwQrU/XynYpjrjNdI/AAAAAAAADKQ/KCcjVe_mQWUfqBt1xroNDkKtnnyDpiA5wCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/L9AQ95Y7z2vOIUf1ntwvpZsZx3kp8B_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="263" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FQ-VvIbwQrU/XynYpjrjNdI/AAAAAAAADKQ/KCcjVe_mQWUfqBt1xroNDkKtnnyDpiA5wCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h263/L9AQ95Y7z2vOIUf1ntwvpZsZx3kp8B_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <b>Silence of the Lambs</b> - FINALLY!!! Well I went to Old Orchard and dug around through the entire section, listening to an older gentleman exhale very loudly and whistle into his mask in a most distracting fashion. Then I overheard an associate say “I’ll be right there after I re-stock these Criterions.” My ears perked up, and I sauntered over to offer my assistance. He asked if there was any particular title I was looking for and I said Silence of the Lambs. He dug around, said “Here you go” and my excitement fell flat when I realized it was a DVD. He looked through it some more and said that was the only copy. Then he let me take a gander and after finding a few things, near the end of the box was another copy, this time on blu-ray. I did not think I would strike out so many times, but now I finally have this damn movie on blu-ray and I can relax and watch it again for the first time in nearly two decades. Or take another two decades to re-watch it, whatever happens first.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4-7eliQx2Ps/XynYqE7rx_I/AAAAAAAADKU/K8n-8m1YwlAtkoM_9hV8qgxxtboPeL3YACNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/TIgzI8FfOZO66FgTLWdM7pYj5kFOmY_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4-7eliQx2Ps/XynYqE7rx_I/AAAAAAAADKU/K8n-8m1YwlAtkoM_9hV8qgxxtboPeL3YACNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/TIgzI8FfOZO66FgTLWdM7pYj5kFOmY_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>The Night Porter</b> - For those that only know Charlotte Rampling from 45 Years, let me tell you something. That woman was a god damn dynamo in her youth. The Night Porter blurs the line between art film and sleaze in the best way imaginable, and Rampling holds it down with authority. It is both problematic and fantastic with so much grey area to wallow in. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OFzvSR-jmRI/XynYozSYmHI/AAAAAAAADKE/actPYYMdiMU6lbTA2cBPUByjmfy8fnA4gCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IGXFgI5PulNUIH2YZNE3IMg44hLAlZ_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OFzvSR-jmRI/XynYozSYmHI/AAAAAAAADKE/actPYYMdiMU6lbTA2cBPUByjmfy8fnA4gCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/IGXFgI5PulNUIH2YZNE3IMg44hLAlZ_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <b>Carnival of Souls</b> - I’m not going to pretend I’m cool and say that I always loved this offbeat low-budget cult horror film. In fact I thought it was boring and kinda dumb. It was always a public domain title and I’m sure I watched it in that form. Being an early Criterion release I was at first perplexed it was deemed worthy of inclusion. Over the years though I’ve wanted to give it another go, and this obviously seems like the ideal method. I’ve garnered a lot more respect for the more moody and atmospheric horror films, especially the anomalies from the fringes. Maybe one day Spider Baby will join the collection.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5knkTYm9lKo/XynY5PC7H0I/AAAAAAAADK4/vxbJAZWrs8kCgxkqGO_unNazmpcteEQHgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/mCz7xlfXoonwsP48ZmChNuVOxzzHRT_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5knkTYm9lKo/XynY5PC7H0I/AAAAAAAADK4/vxbJAZWrs8kCgxkqGO_unNazmpcteEQHgCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/mCz7xlfXoonwsP48ZmChNuVOxzzHRT_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Rashomon</b> - You might be wondering, but I didn’t have this film already. My DVD copy of it was a Korean bootleg with English subs. I’ve meant to upgrade it for the past 18 years or so, and every sale I simply said next time. I’ve seen Rashomon more times than I can count, and even made Caroline sit through it, so I figured it might be a long while before I sit through it again. When I picked up High and Low and the Yojimbo-Sanjuro two-pack I figured I might as well knock this one out. There are a few Kurosawa blu-rays I still don’t have but do own on DVD, Dreams would be his only release I have no copy of other than maybe a VHS tape somewhere. I’m curious to listen to Donald Richie’s commentary because in my opinion he is the authority on Kurosawa’s work. Also that commentary might distract me from the baffling acting choices.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VxCOieWZb9U/XynYxfvPybI/AAAAAAAADKo/2l4-CWEyoJUIxZ19WQxmWP5mb6dX-sNxwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/NiN005MtaZLuhUJZOq7z7jOk0wRd02_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VxCOieWZb9U/XynYxfvPybI/AAAAAAAADKo/2l4-CWEyoJUIxZ19WQxmWP5mb6dX-sNxwCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/NiN005MtaZLuhUJZOq7z7jOk0wRd02_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <b>Woman in the Dunes</b> - Hiroshi Teshigahara is never mentioned first among the great Japanese directors, but Woman in the Dunes is a certified masterpiece. A weird tale of Stockholm syndrome from a reversed gender perspective, it remains his most enduring work. Several of his films got released in a set on DVD, but this and his documentary on Antonio Gaudi are the only blu-ray offerings. This fell into the same boat as Rashomon as a Japanese classic that it was high time to upgrade.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1ximHh2D0rc/XynYpLBcy6I/AAAAAAAADKA/nurt_mRnwkwFSvKQS88V6U-0nLh7fCgzwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/KLThdkATmWy4MXuzvzroYoVykInbAI_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1ximHh2D0rc/XynYpLBcy6I/AAAAAAAADKA/nurt_mRnwkwFSvKQS88V6U-0nLh7fCgzwCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/KLThdkATmWy4MXuzvzroYoVykInbAI_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <b>Breathless</b> - I’ve bitched at length about some of Godard’s Criterion releases, and I still don’t think this is a perfect release, but it’s a damn sight better. Like Rashomon this was another one-of-those-days releases that I’ve seen 5-6 times. Since I did make Caroline sit through this a couple of years ago I figured my own need to revisit it would be assuaged for some time. The selling point other than it simply being time however was the inclusion of Mark Rappaport’s Jean Seberg, a not too easy to find film before this release. It also includes Godard’s early short Charlotte et son Jules. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hbgbzeCt7C4/XynY5GZW-gI/AAAAAAAADK0/aqEbGW_WJfc1Q4Ixu24p1u_YB7wLnjfcwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SD2zJgkpw48fYDV15DU2gFI98ZyTgj_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hbgbzeCt7C4/XynY5GZW-gI/AAAAAAAADK0/aqEbGW_WJfc1Q4Ixu24p1u_YB7wLnjfcwCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/SD2zJgkpw48fYDV15DU2gFI98ZyTgj_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters</b> - Ever see a movie that is just phenomenal and then you never think of it again? That’s kinda how Paul Schrader’s masterpiece is. I saw this back in 2007 or so and loved it. Never thought about getting it, and pretty sure I even passed up on it a few times this month. Somehow with my other Japanese films I thought about how I actually enjoyed this film more than Rashomon and Woman in the Dunes. You really couldn’t ask for a better collection of extras, and if you haven’t seen or even heard of this film, check it out, one of the best 80s movies period.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--iZ93X3rc3M/XynYoheVeFI/AAAAAAAADJ0/YwAhN_qn-wUjbghNh3Aciw1nwAH8UO4PQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Cr4cyMbzG9CKkKh01X18PcKE2z4iuw_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--iZ93X3rc3M/XynYoheVeFI/AAAAAAAADJ0/YwAhN_qn-wUjbghNh3Aciw1nwAH8UO4PQCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/Cr4cyMbzG9CKkKh01X18PcKE2z4iuw_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <b>Broadcast News</b> - It’s easy to think of James L. Brooks as a TV man. He produced some wildly successful shows, including The Simpsons, and if anything his brother Albert (who co-stars here) might have appeared to be the more interesting filmmaker. However James did take a stab at directing and won himself all of the awards for Terms of Endearment. In my opinion it is a no-brainer that his follow up Broadcast News was the superior film. It does feature William Hurt during his extremely impressive 80s run and Holly Hunter who can almost make you forget how great she was in Raising Arizona the same year. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ogbt2LULwCY/XynYojeikrI/AAAAAAAADJ4/bvUOU6n28jAwFBUN02A3oeb17eqidu0wQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/DZ4pikcV8PR878mzRBY3nRygvVnyXH_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ogbt2LULwCY/XynYojeikrI/AAAAAAAADJ4/bvUOU6n28jAwFBUN02A3oeb17eqidu0wQCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/DZ4pikcV8PR878mzRBY3nRygvVnyXH_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <b>Anatomy of a Murder</b> - Nearly every Criterion sale for the past two years I look at my collection and think “I have Anatomy of a Murder right?” Well I do now. Perhaps it was the fact that I built a classic movie puzzle this week that featured Saul Bass’s iconic cover, but when the disc was sitting in that box of titles to re-stock I jumped on it. The film is worth it for Duke Ellington’s score and although it’s impact might have dulled a bit over time it was a rather boundary pushing landmark in it’s day. Preminger loved to be provocative and this might be his best work.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--zuboMmR0Vc/XynYqfgXVYI/AAAAAAAADKc/Zp6V-hYEJfU1dkm2sCZiApa_dShvR6B-gCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/c9HthNBy69Dc9QXCAIQZPsgQx7jKRt_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--zuboMmR0Vc/XynYqfgXVYI/AAAAAAAADKc/Zp6V-hYEJfU1dkm2sCZiApa_dShvR6B-gCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/c9HthNBy69Dc9QXCAIQZPsgQx7jKRt_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <b>The Gold Rush </b>- For now this seems like the last of the well established classics that I reluctantly added to blu-ray. On it’s own The Gold Rush remains one of the best films from the 1920s, this release is a massive upgrade from the public domain version I’ve had on DVD for the past 20+ years. Never been super keen on the narrated version but along with Limelight (which will be discussed shortly) this was the last of the major Chaplin blu-ray releases I didn’t have. I should make an exception for Monsieur Verdoux but that’s handled later. It does mean something to have a classic film in it’s definitive version. I’ve spent the past several years convinced that the next Criterion sale would be when I pick this up.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8CY7Tf_bGbY/XynYoh7kntI/AAAAAAAADJ8/WOydlftMb4oApYLUpYzXMBGY-I3wqdQZwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/057TxV3PgrvLmRRswkihebTJczHZNw_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8CY7Tf_bGbY/XynYoh7kntI/AAAAAAAADJ8/WOydlftMb4oApYLUpYzXMBGY-I3wqdQZwCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/057TxV3PgrvLmRRswkihebTJczHZNw_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <b>Repo Man</b> - What’s wonderful about the Criterion Collection is the fact that they have obscure cult movies released right alongside the most pretentious art films. Alex Cox whose Sid and Nancy was one of the earliest Criterion releases hit pay-dirt with this earlier film. Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton are both perfection here. There are many stylized classic films worth owning and re-visiting on Criterion but those oddball cult classics seem to be the most interesting. Repo Man has arguably the single greatest product placement outside of Wayne’s World but it easily maintains it’s credibility. Being someone raised on cult movies, it is always appreciated when a significant film has such a great release.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b2KAgApE2xc/XynYqWQ9uEI/AAAAAAAADKg/2zP9vH-2BfYHCZB27rtHLlN1WZTGbeN3gCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/j8kye88ZxeKVhkU8YRBocTvZSvLHXB_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b2KAgApE2xc/XynYqWQ9uEI/AAAAAAAADKg/2zP9vH-2BfYHCZB27rtHLlN1WZTGbeN3gCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/j8kye88ZxeKVhkU8YRBocTvZSvLHXB_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <b>La Notte</b> - There are some directors who just seem to own a decade. Renoir in the 30s, Kurosawa in the 50s, but Michelangelo Antonioni can make a case for himself in the 60s. I still have L’Avventura on DVD, but all of his other classic work I had on blu-ray. The one exception was La Notte, the second film in his unofficial trilogy of existential ennui. I’ll give you one guess why I never got it, that’s right there is no audio commentary track. Nearly every decade I find it necessary to revisit all of Antonioni’s classic films and they are all different degrees of fantastic. Perhaps La Notte doesn’t quite reach the levels of the preceding and following films, but it’s a solid middle entry. Damn sight better than Bergman’s trilogy of the same era.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x7GGUJt5fxI/XynYqjmEmCI/AAAAAAAADKk/rFoZSKkRCAglxJy4h-wjqCJ4fUBcOk99QCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/y0ZcQrhquZWlqSkkKkxzNUX9buPZkl_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x7GGUJt5fxI/XynYqjmEmCI/AAAAAAAADKk/rFoZSKkRCAglxJy4h-wjqCJ4fUBcOk99QCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/y0ZcQrhquZWlqSkkKkxzNUX9buPZkl_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion</b> - So if memory serves there is a bootleg DVD of this somewhere in my possession. It was first brought to my attention by Jack Ellis’ History of Film book, which led me to track down my earlier version. When Ennio Morricone passed away a few weeks ago I saw this among his accomplishments. Whenever an obscure movie you have on DVD-R gets a proper blu-ray release it is a cause for celebration, so that means I probably should have picked up Death By Hanging. Italian cinema in the late 60s and early 70s was quite exciting. Although I watched that bootleg I have literally no memory of it. I definitely picked this up in tribute to Morricone but even then it was a last second addition.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nT87c-x9s3g/XynYpqoFFCI/AAAAAAAADKM/gE6LjgwC-dYRyXk-pGLC4kWc4JULnojUQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/LAa9Dc6FFaSoBp08XqpUl1VNMbGHJy_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nT87c-x9s3g/XynYpqoFFCI/AAAAAAAADKM/gE6LjgwC-dYRyXk-pGLC4kWc4JULnojUQCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/LAa9Dc6FFaSoBp08XqpUl1VNMbGHJy_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <b>The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant</b> - Before I watched Berlin Alexanderplatz this was my favorite Rainer Werner Fassbinder film. As quarantine kicked in it got a little love as a great kammerspiel, or chamber drama. It is a fantastic example of cinema in an enclosed environment. Fassbinder used tons of long takes and a cast of all his regular females to make a thoroughly engaging melodrama. Like so many of my recent releases this was another film that I had kicking around on VHS. The special features are not some first ballot hall-of-fame quality stuff but it was certainly better than nothing. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xIRlye1I6C8/XynYprisqdI/AAAAAAAADKI/EkJTkFBXBfMnCpyUqqi51apREr6BjFzBgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1988/KLa6vCm5p0OKn3T9F5YRm3H3c7LBEe_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1988" data-original-width="1600" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xIRlye1I6C8/XynYprisqdI/AAAAAAAADKI/EkJTkFBXBfMnCpyUqqi51apREr6BjFzBgCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/KLa6vCm5p0OKn3T9F5YRm3H3c7LBEe_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> <b>Limelight</b> - Chaplin’s Gold Rush falls into the same category as Rashomon and Breathless. Two essential classics that I revisited not too long ago that have Criterion releases I never got. Monsieur Verdoux I own on Image DVD so despite it being a better film than Limelight, I passed for now. Limelight though is the other other Chaplin blu-ray title I didn’t yet own. Hopefully some day A King in New York gets updated, so this will remain for a time his latest release. It is noteworthy as the only film to star both Chaplin and Keaton, and a nice bonus is two of his early two-reel comedies.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SVM3JKeOsqQ/XynYqNJkuXI/AAAAAAAADKY/nIjk4RQyr1E9_u0xSTx-FFg26Q0QvIy6wCNcBGAsYHQ/s1988/UKZWKQ3CoGxa5ulN0JWLE2th5iMU1Q_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1988" data-original-width="1600" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SVM3JKeOsqQ/XynYqNJkuXI/AAAAAAAADKY/nIjk4RQyr1E9_u0xSTx-FFg26Q0QvIy6wCNcBGAsYHQ/w211-h262/UKZWKQ3CoGxa5ulN0JWLE2th5iMU1Q_large.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>La Chienne</b> - Did someone say Renoir? Well I did earlier, go ahead and scroll back. His first feature sound film is amazing. It was remade as Scarlet Street by Fritz Lang, and that version is also great. I wanted to update some Renoir titles this month, and this wound up being the only one I bought. I still get plenty of mileage out of my Rules of the Game DVD, but would love to see Boudu make the jump, which is a great joke if you’ve seen the film. A Day in the Country was also going to be mine this month but the disc was rattling around inside and I figured best not to take a chance it’s scratched. Unfortunately for this release the most prominent extra is On purge bebe, his first sound film which was used to help finance this. The reason I say unfortunately is because it’s an objectively terrible movie and arguably the only dud Renoir crapped out (another joke relevant to that film) during the thirties.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">So that’s a lot for the month. I aim to write about a broader spectrum of topics going forward, but this little obsessive month crossed a lot off of my list. 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</w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]-->David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-62433734088361043852020-07-26T14:10:00.000-07:002020-07-26T14:10:04.771-07:00Criterion Sale Week 3<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Another week and another (two) trip(s) to Barnes and Noble. All told I wound up adding 13 titles to my collection this week. A few that I was happy to finally cross off and a couple that are getting surprisingly difficult to find. Along the way I got myself engaged, so you could say things are getting pretty serious.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">In terms of what I’ve watched recently, I finally got around to watching Galaxy Quest a full 21 years after it was released. I’d love to dig a bit deeper into 1999 as the year has gotten more attention recently as possibly the greatest year for movies. For the record Galaxy Quest is pretty damn satisfying so if you have Amazon Prime give it a view. In terms of everything else, I crossed off another couple of Wes Anderson re-visits, which I swear will lead to a detailed re-cap at some point in the future. I watched Miss Annie Rooney with Shirley Temple and (not a porn star) Dickie Moore. It was nauseatingly awful, but one less film from 1942 I have to watch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Back to the title of the post, here is what I got this week in part three of the Dave’s ever growing Criterion blu-ray collection. I also recognize that some people have very little if any interest in reading these haul <a href="https://myworldoffilm.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-barnes-and-noble-criterion-sale-day.html">blogs</a>, but for those checking in, I appreciate it. I will get back to a somewhat normal blogging schedule soon. As always these are by spine number so let’s get to it.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> Picnic at Hanging Rock</b> - This is the first Peter Weir film I ever heard of. It was referenced in Danny Peary’s Cult Movies Volume 2 and when I eventually watched it I was a little confused and slightly bored. This edition includes his early film Homesdale, but enough bells and whistles to shed some light on what made this a cult favorite and an enduring classic. It certainly falls into the “I’d like to take another look at it” club so why not get it? I have an older DVD of The Last Wave somewhere in my collection and it only makes sense this should join it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Taste of Cherry</b> - Taste of Cherry just came out on blu-ray this past Tuesday and Abbas Kiarostami’s masterpiece is an essential bit of viewing. Like Picnic this is one of the first 50 releases Criterion ever put out. In fact I don’t think any other company ever released this film on DVD or blu-ray. I’ve seen it a couple of times but only had a VHS copy of it, so when I heard it was making the leap to blu-ray I got excited. The fact that it was actually in stock on Tuesday made me even happier.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o6AKAug1ck0/Xx3RheTerYI/AAAAAAAADJA/d1CEh1vQwtAOb4PAWtwVtwo4aiXFYXHXACNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/ew3CeZS5A7XkL2RZQ3qRlu4tMPOp0G_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o6AKAug1ck0/Xx3RheTerYI/AAAAAAAADJA/d1CEh1vQwtAOb4PAWtwVtwo4aiXFYXHXACNcBGAsYHQ/s200/ew3CeZS5A7XkL2RZQ3qRlu4tMPOp0G_large.jpg" width="160" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> The Honeymoon Killers</b> - Another film who I have Danny Peary to thank. He featured this in the first volume of Cult Movies and he always seemed a bigger fan of it than myself. Leonard Kastle only made one feature as a director and in Peary’s eyes it was a 1/1 masterpiece. It’s definitely a film I knew I would like more on a repeat view, and since I’m getting more inclined to revisit some cult films lately, this was definitely jumping out. I can’t say the special features are jumping out at me, but the film itself is worth the price of admission, and the more old VHS tapes I can replace the better.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MDkiSJ3q3Js/Xx3RiTf5AXI/AAAAAAAADJQ/LCNp88TOWPwlXzlspF8V_KCrpCoT7_JUgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/vwUO7GHWr8ltPBhvvDbO51GIRnqIDL_large.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MDkiSJ3q3Js/Xx3RiTf5AXI/AAAAAAAADJQ/LCNp88TOWPwlXzlspF8V_KCrpCoT7_JUgCNcBGAsYHQ/s200/vwUO7GHWr8ltPBhvvDbO51GIRnqIDL_large.jpg" width="160" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>The Earrings of Madame De . . .</b> - Max Ophuls film always fell into the I thought I had it category. Lola Montes (another Peary selection) was one of the first films I got on blu-ray and for whatever reason I think I got it mixed up with his preceding effort. La Ronde and La Plasir have not made the jump from DVD to blu-ray but for Ophuls I’ll take what I can get. Paul Thomas Anderson offers his own introduction to the movie which is a nice feature and there is a commentary track which I may have listened to during the last top 100 film research. If anything I want to encourage Criterion to upgrade Ophuls other offerings so it was high time I got this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> Close-up</b> - Speaking of Kiarostami here is his other best known film. After I picked up The Koker trilogy it seemed appropriate to get a few of his other releases. I’m not a huge fan of his offerings from the 2010s, but Close-Up remains a vital piece of cinema. It was featured in The A-List and the critic who wrote about it there (Jonathan Rosenbaum) offers a commentary track here. Like the Homework extra on the other set, this features The Traveler as an added bonus. I do wish Makhmalbaf’s superior The Cyclist was included here considering it’s very literal and direct influence on this narrative, but alas he has yet to join the Criterion ranks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> Love Streams</b> - When Husbands came out I was noticeably excited. I had a bootleg copy of some kind of Love Streams but I quickly realized it was the only Cassavetes Criterion release I didn’t have. It is an unnecessary dual format edition, and apparently when I opened my copy the inside case is broken, so I might attempt to swap it out if possible. It was his last feature as a director and a damn fine film to go out on. Ask any random fan of Cassavetes and you might get 5 different answers for his best film, but it’s hard not to consider this in the running. It is a little product of it's time for Cassavetes letting his very underage son smoke and drink in a scene, but well times were different.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> Boyhood</b> - I meant to get this the first day of the sale but when I picked up the case it was rattling around. I wound up buying it in Deerfield, and that version too was a bit loose. I’m taking my chances and hoping there aren’t any scratches but we shall see. Linklater’s much praised 2014 film was perhaps more respected than enjoyed when it was released. I liked it a lot and in my effort to add more contemporary films to my list it seemed a worthy edition. In the extras department, it leaves very little to be desired. I aim to revisit it with the commentary, and after all this is the only Linklater Criterion release I didn’t own so why not?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> The Age of Innocence</b> - I dismissed this film pretty quickly when I first saw it. I appreciated Scorsese stepping out of his comfort zone but ultimately thought he was ill suited to it. A friend of mine from the foreignfilms.com days was a huge fan of it and made me think I might need to give it another chance. When it was added to the Criterion collection I had that I’ll get around to it attitude and today was that day. If Daniel Day Lewis remains retired nearly all of his films (excluding the comically inept 9) are worthy treasures of cinema so that alone makes it vital, even if In the Name of the Father upstaged it a bit in 1993. I did read Wharton’s novel since my initial viewing of this which was one of my unofficial requirements before taking another look at it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> In the Heat of the Night</b> - Somewhere in my mom’s attic is an MGM VHS of In the Heat of the Night, perhaps even in a protective case. Myself and others have perhaps unfairly dismissed this movie because it won best picture over such enduring classics as The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde. It is a landmark with a near perfect ensemble of cast and crew. Rod Steiger won a hotly contested best actor statue for his work. The Criterion release is an infinite upgrade over my crappy VHS tape that I haven’t watched in 20+ years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> Local Hero</b> - Despite a vogue for 1980s popular cinema and a never ending mining of nostalgia there remains a group of critical darlings from that decade that faded into obscurity. Alan Rudolph, Juzo Itami and Bill Forsyth were all poised to be household names in international film in their era but are largely forgotten today. Itami’s Tampopo received the Criterion treatment as well, but it hasn’t renewed too much interest in his work. Forsyth had a very impressive run and emerged as something of a Scottish answer to Lawrence Kasdan. That Sinking Feeling, Gregory’s Girl, Comfort and Joy, Housekeeping, and Breaking In were all considered noteworthy films in their time. Local Hero however was frequently considered his masterpiece and easily the first place to look. It is also one of Burt Lancaster’s late career gems which is worth the price of admission.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> The Great Escape</b> - This was sitting in a display the first day of the Criterion sale on July 10. I looked at it and thought “Oh yeah I’ll get that” then forgot it in my haste to grab another dozen titles and by the time I returned to the store it was gone. Today I found another copy of it and was pleased to pick it up. Like In the Heat of the Night it’s another American 60s classic that’s well worth a repeat viewing but a film I largely tossed aside. Many of the special features here seem like they were made for a previous DVD release, but I am not complaining. The cast here is legendary even if I get it mixed up with The Dirty Dozen some times, but there is enough bonus features to satisfy the biggest fanatic. I had at least one film professor at DePaul who mentioned this as their favorite film, so if you're reading this please speak up so I can remember who it was.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b> The Cameraman</b> - I have long held out hope that Buster Keaton would one day make an appearance in the collection. His independently produced features were all released on DVD by Kino 20 years ago but I believe The General might be his only feature to make it to blu-ray. Although The Cameraman is his first feature after his legendary independent run as director-star it is still a great movie. MGM had a knack for taking great talent and squandering it in mediocre productions and within two years Keaton was nearly obsolete. The Cameraman remains his high-point with the studio and serves as his equivalent to the Marx Brothers A Night at the Opera. As a bonus his lesser known but worth watching follow-up Spite Marriage is also included here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Bruce Lee His Greatest Hits</b> - As late as the last blog post I had made peace with the fact that I would probably not get this set until the November sale. After checking two stores and striking out each time an associate offered to order it for me when he mentioned it being out of stock in their warehouse. After being told it wouldn’t re-stock until August I simply assumed it was not to be. A few Criterion releases still surprise me with how popular they wind up, and I should have known that a definitive collection of Bruce Lee’s best known work would be a highly sought after release. Well Tuesday I spotted a copy and immediately grabbed it. It was clearly a recent re-stock because they hadn’t even put a price tag on it. I’ve seen Enter the Dragon about 20 times and his other work I’ve checked out periodically but to have them all in HD transfers, with multiple commentary tracks, and multiple documentaries this seems like an essential purchase for anyone as obsessed with Kung-fu movies as I was.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">At some point in time I may actually watch this massive pile of movies. I also may have finally run out of space in my case for these movies. Currently my Marvel collection and select other blu-rays share space but that real estate is getting limited. For whatever reason The Naked Kiss and Silence of the Lambs are still impossible to find on blu-ray. I thank anyone who has continued to read these <a href="https://myworldoffilm.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-2020-criterion-sale-week-2.html">blurbs</a> from me, and some time in the future there might be a major change to this site. In the meantime keep watching great movies and let me know what you’ve picked up. </span></div>
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</w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]-->David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-5345883697964762452020-07-16T15:19:00.000-07:002020-07-16T15:19:29.219-07:00The 2020 Criterion Sale Week 2After a full week of the Barnes and Noble sale being on, I think I’ve set a new record for most Criterion titles purchased in a month. Sad thing is this is without me finding numerous titles I’m still looking for (most likely not getting that Bruce Lee set until November at this rate). So you might be wondering what the hell I still have to get, and if you like to read about what I buy and why then this blog is for you. Pretty much the same format as last time. I made trips to two different stores, one of which clearly hadn’t re-stocked anything since this sale began. <br /><br />If you’re curious to know what I’ve been watching during the fourth month of our lockdown well Chantal Akerman has been my primary companion. As I often do with certain directors I decide to plow through as many films as I can then spend the next decade wondering if I’ve seen ‘em all. Less glamorous is my bingeing of Top Chef which begs the question what if a cooking competition show was also trashy and dramatic reality TV? It is a harsh reminder that the mid-2000s were a godless time for men’s haircuts and facial hair. Elsewhere the slow going Wes Anderson re-watch project continued with The Life Aquatic which almost feels like Wes Anderson self-parody. I might enjoy it a little more than the first time, but it remains second-tier for me.<br /><br />Yesterday (July 15) Criterion announced their upcoming October titles. After teasing Parasite and Memories of Murder back in February, Parasite was officially announced. The features are great and I will certainly be hunting for it when the November sale comes around. Even better is the long out of print Pierrot le Fou returning to the collection. This is my second favorite Godard film and it always irked me it went out of print before I was able to get it. Now if you missed my last post, scroll on down after this to see what I picked up on the first day of the sale. I’m getting to that point where I might have to place my obligatory online order, but not after I hit up one more location (Deerfield I’m coming for you). So last time I started my list with the collector sets, but I’ll just do the whole entry based on spine number.<br />
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<br /><b>Black Narcissus</b> - When I had a few working VCRs and hundreds of tapes in my room (Including at least 5 rows deep under my bed) I wasn’t super keen on upgrading a lot of those titles. So looking at Criterion releases it was more important to get movies I had never seen because for some strange reason I primarily purchased movies I hadn’t seen. This has led to me owning a ton of movies that would have been much better to rent once and forget about forever. However after a long period of time I’ve looked at some of these old VHS titles and decided it’s time for an upgrade. I had several Powell-Pressburger titles on DVD, but this now joins A Matter of Life and Death as my only blu-rays from the dynamic duo. Curious to listen to the Powell and Scorsese commentary track.<br />
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<b><br />The Lady Eve</b> - Just as the Bruce Lee set was sold out everywhere I was legitimately surprised to find The Lady Eve staring at me. Nearly all of Sturges’ great comedies of the early 40s I recorded off of TCM so Unfaithfully Yours was the lone DVD I had of his work. A boxed set of his work came out which featured little to no special features and I remembered passing. Glad I did, since then I’ve picked up Sullivan’s Travels. The Lady Eve is certainly one of his best movies, and this release is quite stacked with features. I wish The Palm Beach Story had a little more on it, so I haven’t pulled the trigger on that yet.<br />
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<b>Band of Outsiders</b> - With the Pierrot le Fou announcement I was thinking how light my Godard collection was. The majority of his films are somewhat lacking in the extras department. Like Powell and Sturges most of Godard’s work I had on VHS, so when this originally was released I passed. Despite some great moments I always considered it a second tier film. I did however want to revisit it, and what better time than now? Slightly frustrating that one of the most fascinating filmmakers has such few audio commentaries on his releases.<br />
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<br /><b>Umberto D</b> - Another VHS upgrade, sorry for the theme here. Umberto D was considered by many the last great Neo-realist film and it’s legacy was a little bittersweet. It usually pops up on the short list of best films ever made with or about dogs. I think I had a particular aversion to titles without audio commentary tracks, but that prejudice has largely elapsed. I remember so little of this film except that I enjoyed it quite a bit.<br />
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<b>Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales </b>- One of the recent re-releases I meant to get. During the first day that fellow addict who left with a full box of titles took the only copy of the Rohmer set. To be honest I’m not sure I ever saw the first two parts of the Six Moral Tales. Fear not they aren’t a series in terms of connecting characters. Realizing this late I figured if it ever got the blu-ray treatment I’d bite the bullet. Well I got it and I’m curious to watch all the films again. Claire’s Knee is problematic in terms of it’s pedophilia, but the entire series always seemed like the type of movies intellectuals in their late 30s-50s would appreciate. So when I watched the last three installments at the age of 20 I assumed I was too young to really have them resonate. Perhaps time will change my initial perception. There area also a handful of early short films from Rohmer which make this a somewhat essential set for fans of the fab five Cahiers du Cinema crew.<br />
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<b>The Last Emperor</b> - When Bernardo Bertolucci and Nicholas Roeg died I naturally started thinking of their films. Roeg was very well represented by Criterion, but Bertolucci was more sporadic. I lamented the fact that none of Bertolucci’s best work was part of the collection, then I remembered that the 5 star film of his that won best picture in 1987 very much was part of Criterion. Yes I had the double VHS tape of this film, so that trend continues. It is loaded with enough special features to satisfy the pickiest of critics, and well it’s been a good 19-20 years since I’ve seen it. Bonus points for being referenced in The Simpson’s Stonecutters episode. Now just put out Last Tango in Paris and The Conformist.<br />
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<b><br />3 Silent Classics by Josef Von Sternberg</b> - Like Rohmer’s set, this was another older collection that went out of print. It represents the three films where Von Sternberg really emerged as a powerhouse force in film. Underworld got a lot of attention for taking the gangster film mainstream, and the Last Command did quite well in the very first Academy Awards ceremony. The Docks of New York I was not a fan of when I originally watched it, but I wanted to give it another look. Of all the films I’ve purchased since the sale began Underworld is the only one I’ve watched so far, which goes to show my priorities. A little sparse on special features they are still important films and considering the overall lack of silent classics on the collection I’ll take all I can get. I don’t see myself getting the Dietrich/Von Sternberg set however considering I already own several of those on DVD and The Blue Angel isn’t included. I really appreciated the visual essay on Underworld that goes into detail on how Von Sternberg came to be.<br />
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<b>The Four Feathers</b> - Along with The Thief of Baghdad, this is the pinnacle of the Korda families many lavish and exotic productions. Having watched a few of these titles during quarantine, it made me think about how long it had been since watching The Four Feathers. Perhaps because it was a British production it doesn’t get nearly the type of iconic love that other glorious Technicolor spectacles from 1939, even if it’s still well regarded. For a brief time it did seem as if Hollywood could have some competition, and this is well worth checking out.<br />
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<b>The Great Beauty</b> - I have a noticeable bias towards modern films. This particular sale I wanted to make a point to contemporize my collection. The Great Beauty was one of my favorite films of 2013 and a spiritual descendant of the Italian cinema of La Dolce Vita. It was released in that odd limbo period where Criterion was putting out dual format versions of their films, so I have a useless DVD copy of it now for no extra cost.<br />
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<br /><b>Phoenix</b> - Christian Petzold is running largely unopposed as Germany’s best contemporary director, although Maren Ade is arguably one more great film away from challenging. This is a film that I thought of more and more after seeing his latest Transit. It imagines a unique post WWII that hearkens back to Fassbinders’ Marriage of Maria Braun with more smoke and shadows. At some point in time I will put together a list of the best films of the 2010s and this will be essential re-watching.<br />
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<br /><b>Dheepan</b> - Continuing my Dave doesn’t just buy old movies trend is Jacques Audiard’s stunning 2015 feature. I have little memory of A Prophet and The Beat that My Heart Skipped but Dheepan stuck with me. Easily one of the best French films of the past decade I was a little embarrassed to learn of it’s existence when Criterion announced it was joining the collection. It’s been a few years since I watched it, and it has proven worthy of adding.<br />
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<b>Holiday</b> - The other great Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn comedy from 1938. Holiday is a classic film that I’ve always had a soft spot for. I think Cary Grant’s carefree vacationer would fit in well with today’s transient working culture. His character might seem novel and eccentric in 1938 (or in the also included original version from 1930). Perhaps a lovely double feature with this and The Philadelphia Story is in order. I can’t bring myself to get Woman of the Year considering it was one of the first DVDs I ever purchased and it has been viewed approximately once. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a shot.<br /><br />As you can surmise, Silence of the Lambs and The Naked Kiss have proven harder to locate then expected. Not sure how many big hauls I got in me this month, but I already have enough titles for a year.<br />David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-20975136210404958062020-07-10T12:30:00.005-07:002020-07-10T12:31:36.239-07:00The Barnes and Noble Criterion Sale Day One<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I have spoken at length here about the<a href="https://myworldoffilm.blogspot.com/2017/12/all-about-criterion-collection.html"> Criterion Collection</a> and all the wonderful titles within it to the point where you might wonder if this blog was sponsored. It isn’t, but if you’re reading Criterion, feel free to send me a copy of everything, or a shirt, that would be nice. Anyways usually twice a year Criterion offers a 24 flash sale on their site. The last one occurred right around the time this current covid-19 shutdown began. These sales are fun, but all too often I find that they announce this right after I pay rent, credit cards, or have work done on my car. I take advantage when I can and usually wind up with a couple must have titles for my trouble.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">As you might expect these flash sales are random and unpredictable, hence the name. More regular are the July and November sales that Barnes and Noble has where all Criterion titles are 50% off. This year was a little different. Imagine going to bed Christmas Eve waiting to wake up and get your presents then you wake up and then your parents tell you Christmas day has been moved to January 3. Well this essentially is what happened this year with the B&N sale. Most years I simply scroll through my Instagram and I see a post about it, then say “oh yay, guess I better hit up a store”. Due to the fact that I’m sitting at home all day and looking for any damn reason to leave the house, I was chomping at the bit like a kid on December 24 to get to it. After looking through reddit threads and other forums July 10 was the date that was floated around. By contrast in 2019 the “July” sale started June 27</span><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; vertical-align: super;">th</span></sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">, so this was a near two week delay. I can chalk it up to pandemic related things. I certainly have no concept of how much work goes into having a nation-wide sale at hundreds or thousands of locations, so I’ll stay out of it. First world problems indeed. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Well last night when I went to bed I checked the old B&N website and saw that it was in fact on. It’s always preferred however to go to a physical store. Added bonus, it just so happens that my favorite bakery in Chicago is about two blocks from a Barnes and Noble, so twist my arm. Among the rumors I heard going into this sale was that perhaps the additional 10% discount for members would not be eligible for this sale. This made my capitalist-justice/anti-bureaucracy brain spiral out of control. I can say from personal experience that when I had my own membership I ONLY had it so I could get that extra 10% during these sales. After going and checking out I discovered that was a false alarm, I was angry over nothing, the added 10% still worked. Not to get too math heavy but the 10% is taken after the 50%, so it isn’t a full 60% discount. Long story short a $40 MSRP disc turns out to be $18 instead of $16. Sorry to make your brain hurt. I also saw on the website that for whatever reason a few titles were only showing an 8% discount, but the sale said all titles, and that is the case. I imagine the website has fixed what ails ‘em by now hopefully.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">So after all of this, I got up bright and early to hit up my store, buy some stuff, and I wanted to re-cap here what I got and why I got it. For the record, the most films I bought during a month long sale was 22 different titles, so on day one I got more than half-way there.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Yojimbo/Sanjuro 2-pack</b> - This has been on my “one of these days” lists for years upon years. I had a copy of both films on VHS, and I believe Yojimbo might have been one of the many DVDs that was stolen from me back in 2001, but I never wound up with it before. My hesitation for this set was the fact that Yojimbo was vastly superior and it seemed like I was dropping and extra $15 for a competent but forgettable sequel. Well this sale I wanted to get my Kurosawa collection up a bit so I decided long ago it’s time. This set has audio commentaries, documentaries, and all the special features I could want, time to re-visit I guess.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman</b> - Journey to Italy which I’ve always known as Voyage to Italy has long been one of my favorite films and usually is on the precipice of cracking my top 100 movies. Europe ‘51 is another damn great movie and I have no strong feelings about Stromboli either way. This is another set that I’ve always been planning on picking up but the price tag was a little off-putting. I’m also curious why the fourth Rossellini/Bergman film Fear wasn’t included here. I guess Joan at the Stake isn’t either so I’ll cease my petty complaints that a boxed set isn’t more extravagant. This does feature the alternate audio versions of all three, which in the case of Stromboli and Europe ‘51 are different lengths. So cool to see more complete versions, but I would have been happy with a solo disc of Journey/Voyage.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>The Koker Trilogy</b> - Kiarostami is a bit of a mixed bag as a director. Some of his work is painfully boring, yet some of it is sublime perfection. His Koker trilogy is definitely closer to the latter. Through the Olive Trees in particular is probably my favorite film of his, and Where is the Friend’s House? is everything wonderful about Iranian cinema. I have very few memories of the middle film in this “trilogy”. None of these movies are related in a typical trilogy sense, more thematically. Perhaps the best part about this release is it features the incredibly hard to find 1989 documentary Homework made by Kiarostami. With Taste of Cherry getting re-released later this month it’s a good time to explore his best work.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Now the individual titles by spine number:</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Shock Corridor</b> - Samuel Fuller is a cult favorite of nearly every critic and fan of classic cinema. He achieved legendary status thanks to Cahiers du Cinema crew who constantly referenced his films and in the case of Godard even put him in his own movies (the unfortunately out of print Pierrot le Fou). Shock Corridor is one of the best places to start with his work, and it was the 19</span><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; vertical-align: super;">th</span></sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> Criterion title released. This is another title I only had on VHS and the lack of audio commentary seemed to keep me from ever picking it up. They’ve added at least one new interview to the blu-ray edition. I meant to pick up this and The Naked Kiss (Spine number 18), but the store I went to was out of that, or I just didn’t quite register because as I said earlier I found plenty else.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>High and Low</b> - This is another classic Kurosawa/Mifune collaboration that I never had a proper DVD of. In 2001 I ordered 8 Kurosawa films that were imports with subtitles. A few of these were stolen and nearly all have been replaced. This features the It is Wonderful to Create episode about it as well as a commentary track from Stephen Prince. Like a lot of Kurosawa films this was also eventually remade by Hollywood as the Ron Howard film Ransom. I loved it when I first watched it, but literally haven’t seen it for about 18-19 years.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>The Cranes are Flying</b> - Someone happens to get advanced copies of Criterion titles and sells them to Half Price Books in Niles, sometimes. Before this was even officially released I saw it there during one of those classic 20% off sales right before the apocalypse. I was very jazzed until I saw the case was cracked. I asked if there was a replacement, there wasn’t, so I figured next sale. This is possibly my favorite cinematography in any movie ever made. Mikhail Kalatozov was a nutcase when it came to setting up shots, and he would go even more over the top in I am Cuba, but story and style blend perfectly here. Another older title I had on VHS years ago, but the blu-ray added some extra features to spark an upgrade.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Army of Shadows</b> - When I first got around to picking up titles on blu-ray this was one of the earlier releases I wanted to snag. I saw it initially in theaters during it’s 2006 release. I wanted to give it another shot, and seeing all the cool extras made me think this was a must-have. The only problem it was one of several titles that went out of print. I looked high and low for it (get it) and contented myself to watching it on the Criterion Channel, as well as every other Melville film. Well then they announced it was getting put out again, and I knew if I let it fall out of print again I’d kick myself indefinitely. This has rightfully earned it’s status as Melville’s masterpiece. Here’s hoping Leon Morin, Priest is also resurrected from the dead soon.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Medium Cool </b>- This and the next film are both from cinematographers turned directors. In the case of Wexler however this was his only major work as a director, and it’s a masterpiece. Shot around the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, it’s part fiction and documentary and one of the best films about what the hell was happening in the 60s. Like many of these films I never owned this, but because it is Wexler’s only film that I know of it was typically forgotten whenever sales came around.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Don’t Look Now</b> - Unfortunately whenever someone dies I think it’s a reminder to revisit their work. When Nicholas Roeg passed away I grabbed my DVD copy of The Man Who Fell to Earth (which is sadly out of print) and I realized I never owned Don’t Look Now (sensing a pattern here). Considering my VHS collection has been sitting in my mother’s attic for 12 years now and I don’t even own a VCR, it is certainly high time to upgrade that literal garbage. I remember trying to find this streaming after his death and couldn’t find it then (since may have changed). It has long considered to be one of the great “serious” horror films. Also who doesn’t want to see some naked Donald Sutherland?</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>The Breakfast Club</b> - Sometimes when Criterion announces an upcoming title I say “don’t mind if I do” then I play the long waiting game for it to get released, then the longer game of waiting for the next sale. The Breakfast Club was always on the “next sale” list of titles. It got to the point where I had to actually check my collection to make sure I hadn’t picked this up already. This is one of those films everyone seems to love, and part of what made John Hughes so iconic for a generation. Much more mainstream than the typical title, it is nevertheless a welcome addition. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>The Cremator</b> - If forced at gun-point to say what my favorite film from Czechoslovakia was, The Cremator wins. It did make my last top 100 list, and watching it again with Caroline I have no regrets with my selection. Criterion has put out plenty of Czech films over the years (and there is even a nice retrospective on the channel right now), but the blu-ray offerings have been limited. Some of the early DVD releases were also borderline pointless in terms of extras. These were better suited to an Eclipse release, and there even was one for Czech films. I know I will watch this again, and I will never not recommend this movie to everyone who will listen.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Husbands</b> - Might be a good time to say I love the design of Criterion. Their branding is flawless and their titles look excellent. I got a kick out of the fact that the Cassavetes films released after that initial 5 film boxed set (which I have on DVD) have a similar design. Lord knows I like matching spines, so I was particularly tickled when Husbands was announced with a consistent look. I nearly picked up his final film Love Streams as well, and I will probably go back for it later this month. Husbands however is my favorite film he made and another entry into my personal top 100. I understand this film and his work in general is not for everyone, but damned if this didn’t speak to me on some gut level. It has all the things I want for extras, and look forward to revisited it with Marshall Fine’s commentary track.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b>Come and See</b> - I believe this is the most recent Criterion release at the time of this writing. Elem Klimov’s WWII masterpiece is one of the most widely seen foreign films around. I’ve always been a little surprised by it’s status as one of those international classics well loved by people who think Shawshank Redemption is the greatest movie ever made. It is great, but like so many other films in this haul, I haven’t seen it for ages. I don’t even think I revisited it during my last movie list research. When you’ve gone 20 years without watching a movie you know you’re overdue, especially when it’s one you know is great. Looking forward to sitting through this again.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Talking about these movies has made me itching to get to Old Orchard and see their selections. So many brick and mortar stores are disappearing and even a few of the existing Barnes and Noble’s in my vicinity don’t have any Criterions. Next week the Bruce Lee boxed set and The Lady Eve are set to release, so I’m not done with this sale yet. So feel free to let me know what you’re planning on snagging. Also can’t believe I forgot Silence of the Lambs again. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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</w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]-->David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-50827898665273900972020-06-11T13:46:00.002-07:002020-06-11T13:46:15.473-07:00Luis Bunuel’s L’age d’or and That Obscure Object of Desire<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I would reckon over the past decade I seem to post one blog for every three I write in my head beforehand. Sometimes it’s a matter of an idea slipping away, often it requires more research that I never get around to doing, and occasionally it just seems like the wrong time. I revisited Luis Bunuel’s first and last feature films over a week ago with the idea to write this here blog but with the world on fire I wondered if it wasn’t a little tone deaf. People have different methods of coping with external strife. Some people want to silence all voices not directly helping the cause, and some people just go silent so they don’t add any of their own noise to a crowded discussion. I personally have to wrestle with the double-edged sword of realizing that as a boring old white guy, I don’t need to chime in on how disenfranchised people are feeling. On the other hand, too many people are accusing others like me of being complicit in white supremacy by not actively posting things. Well damned if you do, damned if you don’t.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br />A lot of people within the film world are using this time to draw some attention to black filmmakers and their grossly under-represented stories. This is another reason why celebrating two surrealist gems from a Spaniard might seem a little out of touch. There are numerous resources to watch some important works from black filmmakers and nearly every streaming service is making it a little easier to spotlight some of these titles. I have been told that Criterion has made a number of titles free to stream for people who don’t yet have their channel. I would like to point out that removing <i>Gone with the Wind</i> from HBO Max shortly after launch seems to be missing the point, but kudos to them getting ahead of things.<br /><br />I have never been a fan of blocking out films that are problematic. In fact I think it’s far more important to watch those films and learn from them. You should know what anti-Jewish propaganda looked like in 1930’s Germany. If there’s a film with white people in black face, take it in, take a good look at it, get angry, don’t pretend these things don’t exist. Are you watching a British film set in India with white actors in makeup donning an accent? Let that soak in and try to breathe in just how racist and tone deaf many film industries have been for decades. You should also take note of how things have changed, ask yourself if certain movies could be made today, and why things have changed to avoid it. I think it’s important to view cinema’s shameful past so that we can hopefully learn from it. Should we be “canceling” classics of cinema because modern audiences have evolved? Maybe, but pretending these films weren’t made is not the answer.<br /><br />Again I should point out I’m a film historian and a straight white man, so take that under consideration when deciding if I have a valid point. I’ve always set out from the start to let this blog be exclusively about cinema. For that reason I tend to filter whatever might be happening in the world through the prism of my area of expertise. One of the most difficult things I’ve had to learn is when to just shut up and listen. So I’ll leave it at that and we can discuss Bunuel’s respective alpha and omega.<br /><br />When I was a younger man getting into cinema I’d usually check out ten films at a time. I’d often do this 3 times a week, maybe taking a break if I had any time left over to watch things I recorded off of TV or dig into the ever increasing pile of DVDs I had. Being as systematic as I could, I would usually watch movies in the order of length, so longest movie first, shortest movie last. If I got more than one film from a director I’d watch those chronologically. Well three directors always got me a little more excited than others: Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard, and Luis Bunuel. For Antonioni there was something about the existential dread of the bored and privileged that resonated with my disillusioned younger self. I wasn’t as aware that subconsciously his elaborate long takes hit the right nerve centers in my brain. For Godard he was the wild-card. He threw out all conventional notions of filmmaking, and I wasn’t sure what I would get from movie to movie. Bunuel’s surrealism appealed to me greatly, but I think he was in many ways the synthesis of those two other directors. Bunuel’s films often lacked closure like Antonioni, his characters were often bored and rich, but he played with the language of cinema in some of the same ways Godard did. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><b><br /><i>L’age d’or (1930)</i></b> is not Bunuel’s first film. He collaborated with Salvador Dali on <i>Un Chien Andalou</i>, but that was clearly a short. Although <i>L’age</i> is barely over an hour, it still counts as a feature. Bunuel would follow it up with <i>Land Without Bread</i> (another short, this time a documentary) and wouldn’t make a proper feature film until 1947. So for the intellectual artists who dabbled in surrealism, <i>L’age d’or</i> stood as a great but singular offering. Cocteau also made his directorial debut in 1930 with <i>Blood of a Poet</i>, and instead of a grand wave of talking surrealist films, these proved to be aberrations. Perhaps it was due to complicated funding, technical limitations (both films were shot silent), but surrealism in film was soon relegated to experimental shorts (<i>Meshes of the Afternoon</i>) or the occasional dream sequence (<i>Spellbound</i>). <br /><br />Dali’s contribution to <i>L’age d’or</i> has been the subject of debate for decades. His involvement is typically acknowledged as minimal to non-existent here. The collaboration had already soured before production began so many film historians cite this as Bunuel’s first solo work. <i>Un Chien Andalou</i> was deliberately conceived to have no plot, simply surrealist imagery and some loose dream logic. In an early film history class I was pointed out for being “no fun” when my teacher asked us to interpret the film and I mentioned it had no meaning.<i> L’age d’or</i> by contrast has some sort of story, one that links in many ways to his final film <i>That Obscure Object of Desire</i>. If you can boil the plot down, you can simply say a couple are trying to have sex, and religion, society, and nature keep getting in their way. Sexual frustration was deeply rooted in Bunuel’s work, and it became a lifelong obsession, which can be blamed on his Catholic upbringing, even if that is a potential over-simplification.<br /><br />I often argue that Bunuel’s best work doesn’t rely on story, sure sometimes he can construct a great narrative to go with his imagery (<i>Los Olvidados, Viridiana, Bell du Jour</i>), but more often he takes a premise and works from there. <i>The Exterminating Angel </i>and <i>Simon of the Desert</i> are two works that align well with <i>L’age d’or</i>. You can describe the films with a single sentence, but that doesn’t begin to explain why they are great. <b><i>That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)</i> </b>falls somewhat in between the two. It lacks much of the overt surrealistic imagery of some of his best work, but from a plot standpoint it is incredibly simple and straight forward. Essentially a wealthy middle-aged man is trying to have sex with a girl who does nothing but tease and torment him. <br /><br />Sexual frustration might have been the overarching thesis in Bunuel’s work but it has never been so overtly the point as it is in his final film. Some directors seem to wrap up what they’re about with their final film (Ozu, Bergman), but with Bunuel it seems more happenstance. <i>That Obscure Object of Desire</i> isn’t a penultimate summation of a lengthy career, it just happens to explicitly hammer home a predominant theme. <i>Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie</i> feels more like that last grand statement, and perhaps Bunuel conceived it as such, churning out two additional films that in different ways were echoes of the past. <i>That Obscure Object</i> was one of Bunuel’s greatest hits, it earned him a pair of Oscar nominations and hit a pretty large international audience.<br /><br />Both films take wildly different approaches to telling a similar story. <i>L’age d’or</i> is much more chaotic. Gaston Modot is the thwarted male lead, who appeared in a number of surrealist films as well as <i>Rules of the Game</i> in 1939. Over the past several years I’ve grown to love <i>Rules of the Game</i> a lot, but I never connected the dots before. He also appeared in <i>Children of Paradise</i> and <i>Grand Illusion</i> for what it’s worth. Lya Lys, his German co-star had a slightly less distinguished career who was out of the industry by 1940. Well known artists Max Ernst and Josep Llorens Artigas have small parts as well.<br /><br /><i>L’age d’or</i> is the result of an amateur to put it plainly. It might be something of a masterpiece, but it betrays Bunuel’s youth. After the sensation of <i>Un Chien Andalou</i> this has the feeling of trying to top the previous film. It is somewhat sacrilegious, but also just absurd. Our “hero” is anything but, he assaults a blind man, kicks a dog, emphatically steps on a beetle, and is openly hostile. He even finds some time for some light sexual assault. This has the air of a story told by a young man who wants to piss people off. It was successful in that aim. The film was denounced by most church groups and sadly went unseen for decades in some places. Even the surviving print is in rough shape. Bunuel in an effort to conserve funds used nearly every foot of film he had for the 63 minutes. Essentially meaning there is an improvisational feel to the picture. There wasn’t the luxury for multiple takes and extra coverage, so there are some moments that feel like they were making it up as they went along. The charm works though, and it’s still a very fun film to watch. The running time certainly helps it’s cause. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><i> </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><i>That Obscure Object of Desire</i> has some source material. The Woman and the Puppet was an 1898 novel by Pierre Louys that was supposedly adapted several other times. Fernando Rey was often considered Bunuel’s surrogate in his later films, as Mastroianni was for Fellini. They first worked together in <i>Viridiana</i> back in 1961, and collaborated on three more pictures. Rey is perfect for this role as a man slightly out of touch with all the money and half the patience necessary for this task. He is just oblivious enough to not realize what is happening to him, vain to the point of blindness. For the female lead, Bunuel had an interesting idea. Although he didn’t name her specifically, it was believed that Maria Schneider was his first choice who had to drop out. After a few drinks Bunuel and producer Serge Silberman decided to use two actresses for the same role. This was hardly the first time someone had the idea to use one person in the same role, but instead of having different actresses play a role in different stages of their life, Bunuel used them interchangeably, sometimes even within the same scene. Although Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina look slightly similar they are clearly two different people. <br /><br /><i>That Obscure Object of Desire</i> is less openly surrealist than most of Bunuel’s late work. It hearkens back more to his straightforward Mexican films. However those movies were always tinted with surrealism, slightly odd touches that made the film feel anything but normal. Here we have a chorus of left-wing terrorists committing random acts of terrorism as a backdrop throughout the film. Rarely are they commented on, but frequently seen in the background and usually offer no more than a line on turning around to avoid the traffic jam they caused. In Bunuel’s world political unrest exist but his characters are oblivious to it and often just roll their eyes at the inconvenience of it all.<br /><br />This is arguably the central theme of Bunuel’s work. In Belle de Jour, Marcel is something of a gangster, but it’s more an object of fascination or excitement for Severine than any cause she needs to adopt. In this way Bunuel’s films always seem to show you how less popular people may be thinking. Let’s face it, as much as change needs to happen in this world, a lot of people are probably more concerned about blocking off streets or interrupting their shows with news conferences than actively dismantling white supremacy. Bunuel understood this and made a point of showing his main characters as oblivious to the serious issues around them. It makes them seem more petty and easier to laugh at. Rey’s Mathieu seems to be the only one not in on the joke. We all know that Conchita will perpetually tease him and lead him on, but Mathieu still thinks of himself as a worthy virile mate. His money and position allow him to think he’s worthy of a woman half his age, who despite having no money of her own, is in no way beholden to him. She knows she’ll survive and seems to only reconcile long enough to torment him some more. To quote Krusty the Klown, it's only funny when he's "a sap with dignity".<br /><br />I might hesitate to call <i>That Obscure Object of Desire</i> a masterpiece.<i> L’age d’or </i>is, albeit a flawed one, and in some people’s estimates a masterpiece can’t be flawed. <i>That Obscure Object of Desire</i> is a more mature film clearly, as it was made by a man 47 years older than the director of<i> L’age d’or</i>. Bunuel’s sense of humor got a little more subtle, and he loved poking fun at the absurdity of high society, illustrated most succinctly in <i>The Exterminating Angel</i> and <i>Discreet Charm</i>. If for some reason you bemoan Bunuel’s surrealist tendencies and long for a more conventional narrative that’s just a little off kilter, this would be right up your alley. There’s a reason Bunuel was always among my top 10 favorite directors, he was great from the first to the last. He never got a chance to make another film although he lived for 6 more years after this.<br /><br /><br /> </span></div>
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</w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]-->David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-29303903826301313782020-05-29T14:03:00.005-07:002020-05-29T16:22:55.458-07:00HBO Max and the Early Films of Carl Theodor Dreyer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Before we dig into the exciting world of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s early films, I’d like to take a moment to discuss yet ANOTHER new streaming service, HBO Max. This debuted a couple of days ago and does anyone care? The answer should be no, but there are some good things about this service so I might as well get into it here.<br /><br />The good news is if you have HBO Go or HBO Now you automatically have HBO Max. From what the fine print says I also believe that if you have a subscription to HBO via that good old fashioned cable, then you too have access, but I can’t swear on that.So other than the annoyance of having another app/service to browse I can’t really complain about “free” access. As a plus side this means I can probably ditch HBO Go, so essentially we’re just trading one for another. I don’t however know if updates for new shows will be instantaneous or not.<br /><br />One of the supposed awful drawbacks of HBO Go and Now was the fact that you needed a subscription to HBO, which defeats the purpose of dealing with cable. Now there are add-on’s via YouTube TV, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and others, but the idea was to have access to HBO shows independent of cable. I’m not 100% sure that HBO Max has corrected this error, but if so that alone would be a huge plus.<br /><br />Now for the service itself. The interface isn’t too different from HBO Go, which is slightly unfortunate. They still haven’t quite figured out the pace to binge shows, which honestly was perfected by Netflix. I’m not sure why other streaming services haven’t directly copied this process, and god bless skipping introductions. That said the only show I’ve watched on HBO Max thus far is Doctor Who, and I don’t plan on ever skipping that intro, because that theme song is a banger. You might also notice that Doctor Who isn’t an HBO show. This is the exclusive streaming home of it, and apparently if you’re into garbage, they are also streaming Friends and The Big Bang Theory. This is the carrot to dangle, offering things beyond the scope of just HBO. Sadly I thought the Max was for Cinemax and there’d be an endless library of softcore boobie pictures, but that does not seem to be the case. Also annoying is the fact that they have not yet made the app available on Roku, so we’re only able to access it through my Playstation 4, but I assume that will change soon.<br /><br />The promos for this claim access to the Warner library of classic films, and logging on the first time you might get distracted seeing Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, and Citizen Kane available for streaming. This is undoubtedly good, but for the people who missed out on the short-lived Filmstruck, you might wonder where the rest of that catalogue is. The majority of the classic films listed under the TCM umbrella are actually Criterion titles. Since I have the Criterion Channel, this is largely superfluous, but if you don’t it’s a nice bonus. I hope in future months they add more random offerings from the MGM, Warner, RKO backlog, but that remains to be seen.<br /><br />Exclusive streaming rights are arbitrary, but original content is clearly the biggest selling point for any new show. Unfortunately most people are at the point where it’s better to illegally download the one or two exclusive shows you’re interested in rather than subscribe to another useless streaming site (please don’t pay for Picard). The only original program I’m interested in is Doom Patrol, which might have started on HBO Now. Anna Kendrick has some show I’ll probably never watch on there, so not sure what gets to be on HBO and what is relegated to HBO Max. Overall I’d say it’s fine if you already get it for free, otherwise do a 7 day trial, binge Doctor Who and Doom Patrol then sign off.<br /><br />Now onto some silent films<br /><br />Carl Theodor Dreyer is in rare company among filmmakers. He’s one of a small handful of directors that had two entries on my last top 100 film list (The Passion of Joan of Arc, Ordet). He also spent the last several decades of his career as a reverse Terence Malick, averaging a film a decade. For his first decade though he was significantly more active. After a brief period as a screenwriter (which also included writing intertitles) he made his directorial debut in 1919. He made 8 films over the next 7 years, which surpassed his output from the last four decades of his life.<br /><br />As unique and singular as his later films were, whose status has only become more legendary over time, his earlier films are much less distinguished offerings. Always conscious of the high art of the cinema, Dreyer was yet to develop a unique voice in his early work, and many of those films seem either derivative or right in line with contemporary cinema.That doesn’t mean they are bad, in fact all of them are worth checking out, they just aren’t the radical and transcendent films he would be known for afterwards. There is none of the radical compositions of Joan of Arc or the dreamlike surrealism of Vampyr. The long takes that got more extreme as he went on were also nowhere near as noticeable in these films. Even though many silent films shot in longer tableau shots, this is more typical than the mark of a revolutionary filmmaker.<br /><br />You might be wondering the reason why I’m digging into all of these films. Well for starters I tracked down David Bordwell’s long out of print book The Films of Carl-Theodor Dreyer, and read through the first several chapters. It is a very academic read that is a little unnecessarily obtuse, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great points to be gleamed. Bordwell himself has lamented some of his musings in the book, but there is still a great deal of insight to be found. The other main reason is that thanks to the wonder of YouTube, all of his early silent films are available to watch for free. So over the course of a day I re-visited Master of the House, then watched The President, Once Upon a Time, Love One Another, and The Bride of Glomdal.<br /><br />Admittedly it’s been years since I watched The Parson’s Widow, Leaves From Satan’s Book, and Michael so my memory of these is largely based on Bordwell’s chapters. Michael has gotten some more attention in recent decades for being one of the earliest depiction of a homosexual relationship, even if it is subtle. Leaves From Satan’s Book was a Scandinavian answer to Griffith’s Intolerance and an attempt to re-capture markets lost to American encroachment after the first World War. I have no thoughts on The Parson’s Widow, but as I said before it is on YouTube, so go nuts.<br /><br />As for the films I did watch let’s review those individually:<br /><br /><b>The President (1919)</b><br />
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<b> </b><br />Dreyer’s first film is one of the more solid debut features of the silent era. Many filmmakers learned more or less on the job, but because of Dreyer’s years as a writer he had plenty of time to think about how he would make a film if given the chance to direct. Dreyer believed that cinema should lean into the traditions of literature and the stage, so like Welles and Kubrick, all of Dreyer’s scripts were adaptations. What is interesting is how mediocre some of his source material was, despite it’s popularity of the day. There was something of a robust Danish stage scene of the day, however all of Dreyer’s sources have faded into obscurity. <br /><br />The President, which should more accurately be titled the Magistrate, has a rather novel construction for the period. There are multiple flash-backs and time shifts in the story with several principle characters. Many silent films and early dramas have plots that rely on conflict that is obsolete today. Things like infidelity, unmarried women having children, people being shunned socially, parents/guardians disapproving of a suitor, etc. This is one reason why most of the best regarded silent films either have more violent/supernatural premises or some avant-garde techniques. Dreyer’s own Joan of Arc hits both of those marks. The President essentially tells of two generations of upper class men who abandoned common women they loved to fend for themselves. In the process the illegitimate daughter of the title character winds up accidentally killing her own illegitimate child and has to face his trial. Dreyer himself was an orphan, so it stands to reason he would have an interest in a story of this kind.<br /><br />Very sordid stuff, the film is most fascinating to watch because of its order. It begins with the father’s cautionary tale and flashback, then the present revelation, and eventually the story of the daughter’s woe. There is a prison break and some redemption but nothing ever gets too convoluted. It’s not hard to follow who is who and what time period we’re in, and Dreyer can also join Kubrick’s The Killing, and Welles’ Kane in telling non-linear plots in early films. This might be the best executed of his earlier films, but be warned the version of YouTube has a few letters on screen that are nearly impossible to read.<br /><br /><b>Love One Another (1922)</b><br />
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This film has several titles, but I’m going with the one used on Wikipedia. This to me was probably the most interesting film of Dreyer’s early period mainly because the story line is so much bigger than mere societal drama. It certainly appears early on that our main heroine would be the victim of village gossip and that would turn out to be the central conflict. However this quickly becomes moot when you throw in anti-semitism and the Bolshevik revolution. If anyone ever wondered what a Soviet film would be like if it focused on an individual rather than the collective and was also edited in a more conventional manner, this would be the film. It was Dreyer’s first film made in Germany with a cast of many displaced Russian jews. <br /><br />My only complaint is the more half-baked melodrama in the earlier part of the film. A rumor gets a girl kicked out of school right before graduation. Not saying there weren’t pearl clutching harpies back in the day, but as a motivating incident to send our heroine to St. Petersberg, it just seems weak. Her brother’s adoption of Christianity and rejecting his Yiddish heritage are a much more compelling subplot. However once you bring the revolutionaries in the mix things get interesting. The final climatic riot is still a great sequence, and worth the price of admission. Even among the more obscure early Dreyer titles, this film seems to get very little attention. It’s a shame for it might be the best of his early work. There are apparently only four known prints of this film in existence, but it is on YouTube.<br /><br /><b>Once Upon a Time (1922)</b><br />
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<b> </b><br />This film was thought lost for a time, and frankly the version in existence is still a little incomplete. The current version circulating used a few production stills and an existing script to try and patch it together. The title would certainly suggest it’s a fairy tale, and it is of sorts, complete with the somewhat arbitrary handling of death so common in stories of this sort. There is a general lack of supernatural or fantastic elements, save one magic lamp that can glimpse into the future ever so slightly. <br /><br />The problem with the film itself is that it doesn’t seem to lean far enough into the fairy tale elements while not making the more grounded sequences believable. As a result it seems awkwardly perched between two contrasting tones and it doesn’t mesh. This is strictly a historical curiosity for people digging deep into Dreyer’s work so I can’t in good faith recommend it except for the completionist.<br /><br /><b>Master of the House (1925)</b><br />
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<b> </b><br />Long known as Thou Shalt Honor Thy Wife, Master of the House is the only of Dreyer’s pre-Joan films to be given the Criterion treatment. For that reason I took a break from YouTube to watch this on The Criterion Channel. It is frequently cited as the closest thing to a comedy Dreyer made. For those expecting a silent comedy you will be sorely let down, and despite a somewhat lighter tone than most of his other films it’s not exactly a laugh riot. Dreyer was known to take exceptional care when designing sets for his films, and he built a completely enclosed apartment for this movie. There is a sort of claustrophobia and the oppressive nature of the housework is easily conveyed by the numerous obstacles throughout the house.<br /><br />It is a domestic satire if you will about one husband taking his wife for granted. When she leaves to rest, he has to assume the household duties and learns the true meaning of Christmas or some shit. This isn’t pure misogynistic Mr. Mom stuff, but it does indicate that we could all be a little kinder to each other. Each member of the house is doing their part to keep things together. I’m not sure what the feminist take on this film is, if anything it could serve as a curious oddity to modern viewers. It is noteworthy more for what it points to in later films. Dreyer would return to the closed in set with longer shots in Ordet, but the claustrophobia would be much more pronounced in The Passion of Joan of Arc. There is a lot more information on this via the Criterion blu-ray so feel free to check that out. Overall though I would say the film is merely ok.<br /><br /><b>The Bride of Glomdal (1926)</b><br />
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<b> </b><br />Made in Norway, this was Dreyer’s last film before the international triumph of Joan of Arc. This film was barely a blip on the radar and honestly I wasn’t even aware of it’s existence. There are several versions of it ranging from about 70 minutes to 115, so no idea which still exists. It was made in Norway from an instantly forgotten novel by Jacob Breda Bull. As much as I wanted to believe that Dreyer’s final film of his early period would be leading to the culmination of everything before it, this is a boring mess. <br /><br />The story is about two people on neighboring farms who essentially are in love. Another man asks to marry the girl, the father approves, and she runs off. She is disowned by her father, and with the help of the town priest, the families are reconciled and they get married. On the way to the wedding the jilted former fiance sabotages their transportation and a very boring sequence of the groom trying to cross the river on horse and trying extremely slowly to catch some logs so he doesn’t drown rounds it out. The climax reminds you of Griffith’s Way Down East, but without the breaking ice. No doubt the ending was meant as a showstopper and it certainly feels like it compared to the rest of the incredibly boring and pointless film. I would definitely pass on this one for anyone other than pure completionists.<br /><br />So there it is, Dreyer’s early work. Passion of Joan of Arc was next, and it remains one of the greatest films of all time. I would recommend investigating some of his earlier work especially if you are relatively ignorant of what was once a very dominant Scandinavian film industry. A couple would be completely forgotten if it weren’t for the fact that Dreyer was attached. It is something of a miracle that all of his output as director survives, a fate that wouldn’t be as kind to others like Sjostrom, Murnau, Lubitsch, Ozu, and countless others. Are any of these films better than his later triumphs, that’s debatable, but find out for yourself. <br /><br />David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077832891810230870.post-86109301599639246342020-03-31T14:53:00.002-07:002020-03-31T14:53:34.226-07:00The Coronavirus Film Festival<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Hey all you cool cats and kittens, how’s life in quarantine? Same, anyways we are in unprecedented times and you might have noticed that things are different right now. Our society is learning that many of the arbitrary constraints of our government, society, and economic system are frankly useless bullshit. Here in Chicago our short meme-worthy mayor has told her cops to ease off parking tickets and towing, which makes me wonder why the hell they do this stuff regularly. Many people have eviction and/or rent freezes, and of course the ever-present need for free healthcare has become readily apparent. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I could spend a good amount of virtual ink discussing the myriad ways this has exposed our faulty infrastructure, listing reasons why this could lead to a patented socialist(ish) revolution, but this is a film blog, and I’ll stick to what I know. The big question regarding film is whether or not covid-19 can do what television, home video, cable, the internet, and streaming never could; which is kill movie theaters once and for all. As many studios have pushed back release dates on upcoming films, others have been pro-active about lending first run films to streaming platforms. We all know that no one <i>needs</i> to go to a movie theater, even dedicated cinephiles like myself can admit that watching in the comfort of your own home is quite acceptable. The gotta see it first mentality of going to a movie theater on opening day/weekend is what has largely driven the mainstream film industry in recent years/decades. It’s the reason that so much of a new release's success is measured by opening weekend box office. Only a few select art house pictures can gauge success on limited screens and growing distribution. For the average $100 mil+ budget CGI spectacle it’s all about how you do in those first crucial days. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Often these films are forgotten about instantaneously. If a film is deemed unsuccessful, most studios just cut their losses, hope they make it up in the international market, and call it a day. The fact that there are a single digit amount of companies that own all of the media, none of them are particularly devastated by a flop. There are so many additional sources of revenue that even a disastrous bomb like the recent Doolittle still can turn a profit. The theater though is where you get into “no spoilers” pop culture buzz. This was no more apparent with the recent Marvel movies and other lesser franchise pictures. Even before Rise of Skywalker came out, I thought you could spoil the shit out of that movie for me. I really didn’t care what happened, and after seeing it, well I care even less.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My current favorite of MANY Tiger King memes</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">This brings us to streaming, which is assuming the mantle as the dominant form of pop culture consumption right now. Netflix unleashed Tiger King, and holy shit is it magical. It’s been awhile since there was such a must-see streaming show (maybe Making a Murderer?) that has captured the public eye. The memes have been one of the bright spots in these dark and uncertain times. This series really has everything, too much to keep track of. We’re even discovering now that Joe Exotic’s country songs were actually sung by someone else and police have actually re-opened the disappearance case of Carol Baskin’s husband who was totally fed to tigers. Must-see TV indeed.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">This has captured the public’s interest in the same way the last two Avengers movies have, albeit for wildly different reasons. Many people, myself included are not working during this lock-down. Quite a few others are working from home, so even they have extra hours in the day without a commute to consider. There are some essential businesses still open and of course medical professionals that are putting in serious over time. You’re all wonderful brave heroes and I hope you’re ok. For the rest of us, we got all the time in the world to binge.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">There might be pressure to read a book, learn a new language, paint, and for far too many people start baking bread. The path of least resistance is of course movies/TV/video games. Think of all the shows you said you were going to get around to when you have time, well now you do. Did you see Parasite, no time like the present? Were you 30% through Red Dead Redemption 2, time to log some hours. I will say this loud for all to hear, YOU DO NOT NEED TO FEEL GUILTY FOR SPENDING THIS TIME WATCHING MOVIES AND TV. These are stressful times, and even a certified puzzle addict like myself has only so many jigsaw puzzles.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The catch-up mentality is only going to get more extreme in the coming weeks/months. Make no mistake this will go on for a few more months. I’d like to be optimistic and say life will be back to normal around Memorial Day, but this is based on wishful thinking. I’ll be lucky to be gainfully employed by July. So right now there is still new content coming out. Some movies like Mulan and Black Widow have been pushed back a bit, but it’s entirely possible they may see their debut on Disney+. Sony just recently announced all of it's 2020 summer films were getting pushed back to 2021. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">As for new means of distribution, Steven Soderbergh experimented with this back in 2006 with the release of his experimental and barely seen film Bubble. He released it on DVD the same day it hit theaters, and no one cared. Netflix did a similar tactic for awards consideration and legitimacy with limited theatrical runs for The Irishman and Marriage Story, but this is new. We may go straight to streaming first run features as our only alternative.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Most live action shows and a good many upcoming movie have been shot and edited, so with the exception of live TV, most programs will continue as is for the foreseeable future. Many network shows don’t run new episodes over the summer either so the delayed production could take some time to be felt. The solution is to hunker down and cross off all of those things you’ve been meaning to get around to. So let me take some time to show you what I’ve been doing with my suddenly oppressive amount of free time.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The Criterion Channel is a delightful streaming service. I did start a blog about it back in September, but never finished it. It is Criterion’s third attempt at streaming following their one-time agreement with Hulu, the short-lived FilmStruck which was run primarily by Time Warner, and now their own. It makes sense to have their own service, because of being somewhat screwed over by other hosts. Also by this point in time they’ve got a decent hold on what the hell they’re doing. Now as far as interface and features, this service has a good amount of ways to go, things that I no doubt feel will be optimized in the future.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Now I will say before anyone gets too excited, the channel does not have EVERY Criterion release available. Most of these titles are leased, and there are some complicated legal hoops as to who has broadcast or streaming rights. The good news is there are hundreds of films never released by Criterion that are available. Every month different films come and go, and I have noticed in general the library of available content has ticked upwards in recent months. Some long out of print Criterion films are available to stream, which is great considering a few of these have special features included.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">When I say I’ve used this to catch up, that is quite specifically what I’ve done. If at any point over the past year or so I’ve wondered whether the channel has been worth it, I’ve gotten my money out of it now. Thanks to the Criterion Channel, I’ve finally crossed off 1961 in the 50 film department. So I’ve looked towards the past, tackling the 30s, 40s, and parts of the 50s. For some of these films they are just ticks. Me saying I have to see more movies from any given year so watching nearly anything available. I have noticed that Hollywood absolutely dominated film during this period. With all due respect to the myriad Japanese, British, Swedish, and French films I’ve watched they can’t hold a candle to the classic Hollywood studio picture.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The classic Hollywood studio film (officially until 1948 when the landmark Paramount anti-trust case was ruled) showed a remarkable and well run film industry. Hollywood’s dominance began during World War I, when their late involvement gave them an advantage in terms of production. Throughout the next few decades they made a point of snatching up as much foreign talent as possible. As Hitler’s rise to power came in Germany, all too many extremely talented Jewish filmmakers were more than happy to take those American paychecks. Hollywood also imported technicians, composers, movie stars, writers, etc. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">One such star was Ingrid Bergman who saw her fame rise over a few years in Sweden during the late 30s. Eclipse put out a series of her early Swedish films, and thanks to the channel I’ve finally gotten around to watching them. With no exception they are, well unexceptional. It is fascinating to see Bergman’s individual evolution though. She would become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, winning a couple of Oscars, alienating the entire industry with her out-of-wedlock affair with Roberto Rossellini, then eventually having a comeback for the ages. It makes it all the more fascinating to see her in her native language, often a bit player, stealing every single scene she was in. Sweden was known for beautiful women, and it makes it all the more striking when Bergman can stand out among that crowd.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The other unique star I was watching a couple of films from was Sabu. Truly one of the anomalies of film stardom, he was a one-named Indian who became a massive child star. Rarely seen without a shirt, he was a go-to in Alexander Korda’s lavish Technicolor films. He is perhaps best known for playing Abu in the 1940 Thief of Bagdad as well as Mowgli in the 1942 Jungle Book. I had seen Thief many years ago, but never watched Korda’s version of The Jungle Book. Since I had never read Kipling’s original story I couldn’t tell if this was much more accurate or a complete abomination compared to the Disney version. Knowing the massive liberties Disney took with source material I’m sure it is somewhere in the middle. The talking animals are to a minimum but it was fun to watch especially after Tiger King because there are real animals in this movie. Something to be said for actual sets and animals, although there are certainly a number of tricks employed here. Just forgive the massive amount of white people playing Indians, which sadly was the style at the time.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">In addition to some of the random things I’ve watched, including two films starring Danny Kaye and Virigina Mayo (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and A Song is Born), I’ve been playing a different kind of catch-up. Have you ever had someone ask you if you’ve seen a movie and you had to think a little too long about your answer? Well it happens to the best of us, and after watching many thousands of films, I can barely keep track of things myself. Often I’ll start watching something and recall it, other times I have to consult my list. I also hope that list is accurate, but some films always slip through the cracks. Despite my best intentions I will never see everything. When Sidney Lumet’s films The Fugitive Kind and Fail-Safe came out I assumed I had seen both years ago. After all, Marlon Brando was one of the first actors I sought out, and Fail-Safe I simply assumed I watched. Turns out I hadn’t seen either, as well as the much less remembered The Anderson Tapes. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Lumet was a strange figure in the history of cinema. By the sheer number of great films he directed, he has certainly earned his place among the all-time greats. However he defies the auteur approach considering there really is no unique Lumet style. There were certainly some films he seemed better suited to, but Lumet was something of a chameleon as a director. Counting his 5-star films would lead most people to believe he belongs in the upper echelon of filmmakers but something doesn’t ever pass the smell test with him. Perhaps after I finish the other two of his films on my list I’ll have a better understanding of what made him tick as a filmmaker, but perhaps he will remain an enigma. After all this is the man who directed Murder on the Orient Express in between Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Back in late 2007 I focused my energies on watching all the available movies from my top 20 favorite directors. It led to a greater understanding of all of their work, and helped my completionist streak immensely. In the case of some directors this did them few favors, others I gained a deeper respect for. Sometimes you can’t always find every film. I pushed a few off to the side, or simply tackled what I could find and didn’t pay too much attention to films that were unavailable or considered lost. In the case of a few, I didn’t dedicate a lot of resources to tracking some down and kind of forgot about it. David Lean was a director that I thought I had done. I found a copy of The Sound Barrier which I remembered being his only feature that was unavailable. Turns out Facets, my main source for rentals at the time, had a lost/damaged copy of Madeline that I never got. Fast forward 13 years and after double-checking I added this long lost Lean film to my queue. Jean Renoir, whose run of greatness in the 30s might be the greatest single decade any director also had a gap. I always thought La Chienne was his first sound film, turns out he had one released earlier that year On purge bebe. I didn’t even know this film existed, and I missed it back then.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">This quarantine has given me far too much time to be left alone with my thoughts, but also a great opportunity to plug up some of these missing gaps. Ingmar Bergman’s first English language film The Touch, was another movie I simply forgot I never sat through. It’s not often you find a film from the second greatest director to ever live that you never saw. Tomorrow (April 1</span><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes'; vertical-align: super;">st</span></sup><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">) will reveal a new slew of titles to the channel, some of which might be well worth my time. Curious to see what’s included in the upcoming Columbia noir series. This is the studio responsible for The Big Heat and Murder by Contract, two of the all-time greats. Watching I Walk Alone, the first of many collaborations between Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas whetted my appetite for more hard boiled seedy stories.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The point through all of this is during the next several months we can all learn a little more about the history of cinema, dig into some deep cuts from our favorite directors and stars, and illuminate some dark areas of knowledge. We can also spend ample time wondering what the hell we want to be when we grow up, the lack of time excuse is temporarily moot. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"></span></div>
David Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10941050928840893152noreply@blogger.com0