Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[noodles_leone]

That Obscure Object of Desire
Ok, going on with the commie movies series. I don't think I had seen a Bunuel in the last 15 years. That one was weeeiiiiird. So weird I'm not sure what part of the weirdness is intentional, what part is due to "a different time", and what part is just aging filmmaking. It was partly boring, partly fascinating, just like the decision to have two different actresses play the part.

[dave jenkins]

Not so weird. It's a remake of The Devil is a Woman (1935), but Bunuel's version is funnier than von Sternberg's. And the use of two actresses to play one role is the kind of move you'd expect a surrealist to make. What's weird is you only getting around to watching it now. Where ya been, Pierre?

[noodles_leone]

There was also a 1959 remake, which I haven?t seen.

Bunuel has been on my list for a while, but he isn?t the kind of filmmaker you can start with anytime, you?ve got to be in the right mood/place. Also, Los Olvidados wasn?t a great experience for me so I put him on hold. But yeah, I feel good starting again now. Last, I?m consuming a lot of far left content these days so it fits right in and all these things resonate with each other, which makes it easier to get the subtleties.

[cigar joe]

Alphaville: une Estrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965) Directed by Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless (1960) a pioneer of French New Wave Cinema. The film was written by Jean-Luc Godard, with Paul Eluard (uncredited). Cinematography was by Raoul Coutard (Breathless (1960), Shoot the Piano Player (1960), and Z (1969)), and Music was by Paul Misraki.

The film stars Eddie Constantine (This Man Is Dangerous (1953), 5 Against the House (1955), and Room 43 (1958)) as Lemmy Caution, Anna Karina (Pierrot le Fou (1965)) as Natacha von Braun, Akim Tamiroff (The Gangster (1947), Confidential Report (1955), Touch of Evil (1958), Ocean's 11 (1960)) as Henri Dickson.


I watched it years ago cold turkey in a art house theater in the 70s called the Crystal in Missoula, Montana. What I mean by cold turkey was that at that time I was unfamiliar with French New Wave, Film Noir, or Eddie Constantine's work as ionic FBI agent Lemmy Caution.

Ex Pat American singer/actor Constantine was working as a crooner in various Paris cabarets when he was tagged to play an American G-man a FBI agent character in a new film La m?me vert de gris aka Poison Ivy in 1953. The character Lemmy Caution, was originally created by English novelist  Peter Cheyney. Constantine was a big hit in Europe.

Constantine sort of looks like a Wayne/Bogart combo. He's got the eyes of John Wayne and the rough cragginess of Bogart. He also looks as if he could be actor Michael Shannon's father. The Lemmy Caution character was an internationally assigned American FBI agent fluent in foreign languages who worked Europe and French North Africa. He likes whiskey, craking wise, and beautiful women and the earlier films play more like detective stories rather than typical policers. He's usually working undercover using an alias and communicating with his FBI or French S?ret? contacts.  The Caution FBI agent character reminds me of a bit of Philip Marlowe, Mike Hammer, with a dash of James Bond and Matt Helm.

He kind of pioneered the trail that was later followed by Lex Barker (who had a successful Euro Western career playing Old Shatterhand ) and Clint Eastwood starring in Sergio Leone's Westerns. Only Eastwood was able to surpass those their two benchmarks and parlay the Spaghetti Westerns into both international and U.S. stardom.

Which brings me back to the reasons for my initial tepid reaction to Alphaville.

You need to be steeped in Film Noir and you almost have to get a few Caution flicks under your belt (there are a few with English language releases, also recommend Constantine's Room 43 aka Passport to Shame) you get to know and anticipate the Caution character and Eddie, this will enhance  and inform your enjoyment exponentially of Alphavillle. 8/10

[dave jenkins]

There was also a 1959 remake, which I haven?t seen.

Bunuel has been on my list for a while, but he isn?t the kind of filmmaker you can start with anytime, you?ve got to be in the right mood/place. Also, Los Olvidados wasn?t a great experience for me so I put him on hold. But yeah, I feel good starting again now. Last, I?m consuming a lot of far left content these days so it fits right in and all these things resonate with each other, which makes it easier to get the subtleties.

Don Luis is hit and miss. I'd say, miss the Mexican films (although I haven't seen them all). DO see Viridiana and Tristana. The Exterminating Angel is worth seeing (once). Of course, you have to see that other one with Deneuve, and it isn't bad (but nowhere as great as its reputation). Discreet Charm is OK. I find his films more enjoyable when they're adaptations rather than him just winging it.

[Cusser]

I watched "Triumph of the Spirit", 1989, starring Willem Dafoe.  Based on a true story of a Greek boxer, and filmed primarily at Auschwitz, this film -  maybe more than I've ever seen - showed the workings of the camp system.  Brutal and realistic.

[noodles_leone]

Since we're talking about W. Dafoe:

Mississipi Burning 8/10
First HD viewing, still great (although, of course, the FBI and the federal government are shown in a way too pleasing light).

[noodles_leone]

Borat (2006) 7.5/10
First viewing. Very nice. I'ts mostly 6/10 but some scenes are 9/10.

Borat 2 (2020) 4.5/10
There are still great scenes (more like great clips within great scenes) in it. But the whole movie is shitty. Too much terrible scripted content. Don't waste your time with it, just jump to the scenes everybody's talking about.




Now back to Alan Parker:
The Commitments (1991) 8/10
Just like Mississipi Burning: I've seen it probably 10 times, but it was my first time in at least 10 years, and definitely my first HD viewing. Still great. That Alan guy, he certainly loves music and knows how to make you feel it.




Cold War (2018) 7.5/10
Beautiful black and white in 1.37:1. Powerful romance between Paris and Poland in the 50's. I'm not sure about the rewatch value, but it will stay with me for a while. What's up with these successful director's coming back to their roots/autobiography in black and white? Cold War, Roma and now Mank?




And a couple of animation films:

The Little Mermaid (1989) 7/10
You all know it.

Up (2009) 8/10
The first 10min (as well as 5 minutes toward the end) are the best animated sequences ever, and I don't think they'll be surpassed anytime soon. The rest of it is embarrassingly formulaic (with some good jokes), just like almost everything Pixar does. I don't get why the whole industry is in awe of their screenwriting abilities. This undeserved admiration has hurt the production of the 2010's.

[stanton]

Alan Parker's films are always less good than they should be, always way beyond my expectations.

Mississipi Burning is at least one of his best, due to fine photography and an excellent as usual Gene Hackman, but the last third is weak. 7/10

[noodles_leone]

Alan Parker's films are always less good than they should be, always way beyond my expectations.

Mississipi Burning is at least one of his best, due to fine photography and an excellent as usual Gene Hackman, but the last thord is weak. 7/10

Gene Hackman may give his best performance here. One of his best, no question. The film would be very different without him.
I wouldn't say the final third is weak. There is a switch in ton that can put people off, but I like it. My main gripe is that there are a few stupid lines squatered in the whole movie, the worst ones falling in the last third. Things that come painfully close to "All this hatred... Why?" and "Maybe we're all responsible for racism, aren't we, audience member?"


What I like the most about Parker is his ability to create living worlds you believe in. The street scenes in MB or TC feel real. In a more cartoonish way, the first third of Fame is also a masterclass in that regard. Just like Martin Scorsese, I think that's a quality that isn't much talked about and yet is one of their biggest strengthes.

[noodles_leone]

A Serious Man (2009) 8.5/10
Still loving it. I have to put my hands on a HD version somewhere, I'm sick of that compressed and pixelated DVD. The iTunes version is French only, which is a blasphemy (and also stupid: do you really want to divide the already almost non existing viewer base for this movie?).

[dave jenkins]

The Coens are amazing. I still like a lot of their earlier work, but for now my faves are A Serious Man, Inside LD, and that last one with a bunch of Western tales. There ain't nobody else doing their best work now who started in the 80s.

[cigar joe]

Hana-bi (Fireworks) (1997) Directed and written by Takeshi Kitano
Stars: Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi. A pretty Noir story of a Japanese cop whose life goes to shit. His child dies, His wife is diagnosed with leukemia, his partner gets shot and becomes a paraplegic plus he is in debt to the Yakusa. 8/10

[dave jenkins]

Play Misty For Me (1971) - 7/10. Here's the gag: Eastwood plays the bitch, Jessica Walter, the stalker in a pantsuit. Walter is justly acclaimed for her performance, but get a load of Clint! His essential masochism is here revealed, a quality he never had the courage to revisit in later films. Too bad the current transfer of the film looks like shit. Why is it KL can't do right by Eastwood? (or can do right only intermittently?)

[noodles_leone]

Hana-bi (Fireworks) (1997) Directed and written by Takeshi Kitano
Stars: Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi. A pretty Noir story of a Japanese cop whose life goes to shit. His child dies, His wife is diagnosed with leukemia, his partner gets shot and becomes a paraplegic plus he is in debt to the Yakusa. 8/10

Totally forgot I wanted to see that one. Thanks for the reminder.

Play Misty For Me (1971) - 7/10. Here's the gag: Eastwood plays the bitch, Jessica Walter, the stalker in a pantsuit. Walter is justly acclaimed for her performance, but get a load of Clint! His essential masochism is here revealed, a quality he never had the courage to revisit in later films. Too bad the current transfer of the film looks like shit. Why is it KL can't do right by Eastwood? (or can do right only intermittently?)

It's interesting how Eastwood's "charm" (as a filmmaker) was present right from his first try. That film certainly made me like Carmel a lot, and I try to go there every time I'm in California (ie not that much, but still 3 times).
The semi stolen shot from the Monterey jazz festival are fun, too bad that kind of freedom also disappeared from Clint's later films: it worked well with his cinema.


There's Something About Mary (1998) 7/10
Hadn't seen it in ages, it's funnier than I remembered. A lot of the actors involved have yet to come close to that level of performance.