Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[drinkanddestroy]

" I confirm I'll be in NYC not in september but in october, and available for a meetup during the week of the 17th of october."

Cool, it will be good to see you again.

 

[dave jenkins]

I confirm I'll be in NYC not in september but in october, and available for a meetup during the week of the 17th of october.

I'm your huckleberry.

[cigar joe]

Street Of Chance (1942) Might be the first Amnesia Noir




Directed by Jack Hively his only Film Noir.
He started directing in 1939, then made a handful more films after this one and transitioned to TV.

Witten by Garrett Fort (screenplay) and based on Cornell Woolrich's novel The Black Curtain. The Cinematography was by Theodor Sparkuhl (Beau Geste (1939), Music was by David Buttolph.

The film stars    Burgess Meredith (Jigsaw 1949) as Frank Thompson / Dan Nearing, Claire Trevor (10 Classic Film Noir) as Ruth Dillon and Sheldon Leonard as Joe Marruci. Burgess Meredith pretty much carries the load in Street Of Chance. Claire Trevor and Sheldon Leonard (his part in the novel is actually very secondary) do as good as they can with the time squeezed plot. Frieda Inescort is effective as Alma Diderich the snooty and manipulative wife of the murder victim, who is having an affair with his brother played by Jerome Cowan as the wormy Bill Diedrich. Worth a look a 6.5 and, with a restoration maybe a 7/10.

[dave jenkins]

Street Of Chance (1942) Might be the first Amnesia Noir

Unless you count Crossroads (also 1942--not sure which was produced/released first). Well, this is very early in the cycle, so SoC probably has a lot of firsts. Depending on how you count, there were only about 15 noirs that preceded it. Heck, SoC could also be considered the first Claire Trevor noir (again, unless you count Crossroads).

The amnesia device was not only a staple of noir, but of 40s films generally. Boardwell claims there are around 70 from the period, across all genres. Amnesia-driven films didn't begin in the 40s--apparently the device was used in the 10s, 20s, and 30s--but their production certainly exploded during that decade. It is no wonder that noir adopted the device early, as it offers so many narrative possibilities for crime stories. Boardwell suggests that movie amnesia is just a modern reworking of a classic trope where characters lost memory due to magic. Of course, movie amnesia is totally unlike clinical amnesia, which is, I understand, very, very rare.

[cigar joe]

Unless you count Crossroads (also 1942--not sure which was produced/released first). Well, this is very early in the cycle, so SoC probably has a lot of firsts. Depending on how you count, there were only about 15 noirs that preceded it. Heck, SoC could also be considered the first Claire Trevor noir (again, unless you count Crossroads).

The amnesia device was not only a staple of noir, but of 40s films generally. Boardwell claims there are around 70 from the period, across all genres. Amnesia-driven films didn't begin in the 40s--apparently the device was used in the 10s, 20s, and 30s--but their production certainly exploded during that decade. It is no wonder that noir adopted the device early, as it offers so many narrative possibilities for crime stories. Boardwell suggests that movie amnesia is just a modern reworking of a classic trope where characters lost memory due to magic. Of course, movie amnesia is totally unlike clinical amnesia, which is, I understand, very, very rare.

 It was used in Srewball Comedy I Love You Again (1940) and also in Random Harvest (1942).

[dave jenkins]

It was used in Srewball Comedy I Love You Again (1940) and also in Random Harvest (1942).

The funny thing is: I Love You Again stars William Powell; Powell is again the lead in Crossroads. He was in danger of being type-cast, but somehow got out of it. The Thin Man films probably helped.

[dave jenkins]

The Round-up (1966) 6/10. Miklos Jancso's first feature: in 19th Century Hungary, the army captures and incarcerates a group of suspected bandits. Using a divide and conquer strategy, officers attempt to make the peasants confess and betray one another.  Presumably, the filmmaker was drawing a parallel with the way things worked in the 20th Century. The film employs Jancso's moving camera approach, but it's not quite so annoying (e.g. endless) as the way it's used in The Red and the White (1967).

[dave jenkins]

Re-viewing Godard week begins:

Charlotte and her Boyfriend (1958) - The boyfriend (Belmondo) indulges in a long harangue. At the end, Charlotte supplies the punchline.
Charlotte et Veronique / All the Boys are Named Patrick (1959) - Supposedly a Godard film, but as it's written by Eric Rohmer, it comes off like a sketch for Six Moral Tales.
Breathless / A bout de Souffle (1959) - This of course features the very famous interview scene where Jean Seberg asks, "What is your greatest ambition?" and Melville replies, "To become immortal, and then die." It was at that point, viewing it again this morning, I realized I really, really wanted to be watching Le Doulos instead.

[dave jenkins]

Re-viewing Godard (cont.)

Passion (1982) - 5/10.  J-LG's Day For Night. A filmmaker, in the midst of a production entitled Passion, has difficulty finding his way. This being Godard, a number of meta-textual moves are employed: Michel Piccoli plays "Michel," Isabelle Huppert plays "Isabelle." Jerzy plays "Jerzy," Hana plays "Hana." Also, dialog doesn't always sync up with the moving lips of the characters. There's a running gag about the director refusing to tell cast, crew, producers, or passers-by what the story is about. That's because there is no story. The director just wants to photograph tableaux vivants based on famous paintings. According to IMDb,

The tableaux vivants filmed are: "The Night Watch" by Rembrandt; "The Parasol", "The Third of May 1808", "La Maja Desnuda" and "Charles IV of Spain and His Family" by Goya; "The Valpin?on Bather" and "The Turkish Bath" by Ingres; "Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople" and "Jacob wrestling with the angel" by Eug?ne Delacroix; "Assumption of the Virgin" by El Greco; "The Embarkation for Cythera" by Watteau.

The soundtrack includes music by Leo Ferre, Gabriel Faure, Mozart, Dvorak. The film is in color and in the traditional Academy ratio.

[noodles_leone]

Here is another Godard for you, a Nike commercial: https://pytka.com/godard-nike/

Additionnal and somewhat contradictory info by filmmaker Alex Proyas:

In the 90?s I made a Nike ad with Weiden & Kennedy in the US. I was flattered to share the series with some luminaries, including Cronenberg, Lynch & Jean-Luc Godard. The notion was each director could come up with whatever they wanted as long as it had shoes in it.
Godard?s idea was Death is chasing a young lad through the Paris Metro and is out-run because the lad is wearing Nikes of course.
The agency love the idea and jump on a plane to hang out on set while the great realisator brings his magical vision to life. They are immediately perplexed when they arrive as Godard has already shot the ad without them and he's made some changes. Gone is the Paris Metro - too expensive to get permission. He shot the film in his back yard. And now Death is represented by an old woman, yelling in Latin. The boy is still present, but now he?s a girl, and a man is included, presumably her father. When the agency ask if Godard can at least do a ?pack shot? to cut into the commercial so it's clear what they?re advertising, he grabs a single Nike, throws it into a muddy bog and gets the cameraman to film the mess. ?There is your pack shot! Au revoir!?
VALE GODARD? a true inspiration to filmmakers everywhere.

[dave jenkins]

Hmmm, now I'd actually like to see that.

[noodles_leone]

Hmmm, now I'd actually like to see that.

It's in the link. At the bottom of the text, a very small little window.

[dave jenkins]

It's in the link. At the bottom of the text, a very small little window.

Oh, right. Thanks.

J-L G was best when most whimsical. Nike commercial: 8/10.

[dave jenkins]

Time for a Godard break.

The Wild Pear Tree (2018) - 8/10. Three hours of conversations among shifting characters, with the most significant communication occurring between a disaffected son and his father. I loved it. 

WTH? This is a definite 10/10. In fact, it's the best film made in the last 20 years.

Also, there's a 6.5-hour Making Of that I'm finally working my way through.

The Making of The Wild Pear Tree (2019) part 1. Includes the occasional out-take, but it's 2 hours mostly of the director working with his actors. None of that I-hired-your-iconic-ass-for-these-scenes-so-I-don't-have-to-tell-you-what-to-do approach. Nuri Bilge Ceylan wants his actors to say their lines as written, with the inflections and pauses and intonations and rhythms he himself models. At last, a real auteur!

[noodles_leone]

McCabe and Mrs Miller (Altman, 1971) - 7.5/10
Second viewing. Rarely (never?) have I felt so strongly I was seing how a real life saloon was. The flaw of this movie is its main character, who isn't well defined and who is actually quite superficial.

The Long Goodbye (Altman, 1973) - 8.5/10
Second viewing too. I really really liked the whole thing.

Week End (Godard, 1967) - 4/10
Lots of terrific cinema ideas but actually not as many as I expected. And much more plain failed scenes. Also, when it's funny and/or inspiring, it's funny and/or inspiring. But when it isn't... As often with Jean-Luc going wild, I see it more like an incredible toolbox for other filmmakers to steal from than an actual movie.