Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[dave jenkins]

We're losing our mind.

NoodlesRR in conversation with himself/ himselves. I'm having a hard time deciding if it's funny or really, really scary.

[dave jenkins]

Laitakaupungin valot (2006) "Lights in the Dusk" - 8/10
Aki Kaurismäki's latest is relatively humorless and otherwise darker than The Man Without a Past, closer to The Match Factory Girl.

Humorless? I laughed all the way through. The film is so relentless in its approach that it becomes very funny. And there's something comforting about a character causing all the hero's misfortunes; better than suffering the same fate from impersonal forces. Also there is (improbably) hope at the end. The ending is perhaps out of place with all that has gone on before, but it's necessary to give the audience a lift on their way out of the theater. And anyway it isn't a lot of hope. 9/10.

[dave jenkins]

Hamlet Goes Business (1987) - 8/10. Comic genius, except for A.K.'s attempt to rewrite Shakespeare's ending, which needlessly extended things just as I was ready to leave.

[dave jenkins]

Zero Focus (1961) - 2/10. Zero interest, although it promises some. A Tokyo woman searches for her new husband when he goes missing. The trail leads her to stormy Noto and three murders, plus the eventual suicide of the perp, but the tedious explanation of everything at the conclusion is worse than having to listen to Simon Oakland at the end of Psycho. I guess there was a 2009 remake; maybe they did a better job adapting the original novel.

[dave jenkins]

The Kneeling Goddess (1947) - 5/10. Holy nitrate, Batman! The digitally projected image I saw of this was incandescent. The silver screen is back! Unhappily, the story here is made of lead. It starts out well, with the introduction of Maria Felix, who was, apparently, the Ava Gardner of Mexico. She is having an affair with Mustache Man (OK, I guess the actor's name is Arturo de Cardova), who is married. The pair, separately, think better of the situation and break up for a time, but are brought back together by a sculpture, The Kneeling Goddess. Maria, of course, is the model, and when Mustache sees the statue, he's just got to have it for his fountain in the back yard. His obsessive contemplation of it, however, begins to unnerve his wife. Soon there is all the fun a love triangle can contain, and then a mysterious death. The question is then one of did-he-do-it-or-not? Everything up to this point is handled well, but then the main characters go to Panama, and the whole production goes south with it. The carefully arranged ambience of all the preceding action is jettisoned, and the film never again regains the proper tone. Worse, the statue whose name gives the movie its title is forgotten, and only makes a final appearance at the very end. So much for iconography. By the end I'd given up caring about any of the characters, but man, they sure did look good. Oh, this is only a noir if Hitchcock's Rebecca is also one.

Jenkins has this right, pretty much, but a "5"? Man, go a "6" at least.

[Cusser]

Road to Revenge, 2020 (might be called Royal's Revenge) on Prime. After a ruthless cattle baron announces his bid for governor, four estranged siblings set out on a quest for revenge for the death of their family.  I'd rate about 5/10.

But noticed after being dragged at least 1/4 mile on a rope behind a horse, a guy's shirt later wasn't torn or dirty, and even if they let him get a clean shirt, blood would've seeped through....

[T.H.]

Zero Focus (1961) - 2/10. Zero interest, although it promises some. A Tokyo woman searches for her new husband when he goes missing. The trail leads her to stormy Noto and three murders, plus the eventual suicide of the perp, but the tedious explanation of everything at the conclusion is worse than having to listen to Simon Oakland at the end of Psycho. I guess there was a 2009 remake; maybe they did a better job adapting the original novel.

Perplexingly low score. Too bad I can't come to the movie's defense since it's been a good dozen years since I've seen it. I remember finding the plot structure to be very well executed, especially for a movie that came out in 1961. I need to give it another view to find out who's right on this one.

[dave jenkins]

The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz/ Ensayo de un Crimen (1955) - 8/10. As a young boy, Archibaldo witnesses the death of his beautiful governess immediately after wishing for it. Convinced he caused her death just by willing it, he also discovers that the idea of killing young women excites him. As an adult, Archie wants to reexperience those feelings, and sets about finding new victims. Candidates appear with frequency, but just as he's getting ready to slash, strangle, or shoot his victims, fate always intervenes. He grows increasingly frustrated. What's a serial killer wannabe to do? Ironically, even though he is prevented from killing, his targets end up dying anyway. Finally he hurries to the police station to confess.

Don Luis produced a pretty amusing black comedy here. This one has been difficult to see with English subtitles, but now there is a new blu-ray from VCI. I hadn't seen the film when I started the Hitchcock vs. Bunuel thread (http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=12146.msg176659#msg176659), but now it strikes me that this pairs very nicely with Psycho. There's even a scene where a valuable object, dumped into water, seems like it might not completely submerge; also, very late in the picture the hero has a chance to crush an insect with the point of his cane, but resists ("He wouldn't even hurt a fly.") The movie appears to end on a light note, but I think a sinister conclusion has been disguised.

[cigar joe]

Eva (1963) A Man Obsessed

Directed by Joseph Losey (M, The Prowler, The Big Night)
Written by Hugo Butler and Evan Jones from an adaptation of a James Hadley Chase novel. Cinematography was by Gianni Di Venanzo and Henri Deca?. Music was by Michel Legrand.

The film stars Jeanne Moreau as Eva Olivier, Stanley Baker as Tyvian Jones, Virna Lisi as Francesca Ferrari, Giorgio Albertazzi as Sergio Branco Malloni.

Losey along with Gianni Di Venanzo and Henri Deca? excellently depict a dreary, gloomy off season Venice in various shades of grey in a caf? au lait Noir, that perfectly matches the "50 shades of gray" psychology of the two main characters Tyvian and Eve. Neither are likable, and both Stanley Baker and Jeanne Moreau are compelling in achieving this air of despair. Its a bleak film with beautiful bleak images that complement it's bleak disconsolate ending. 7/10

[dave jenkins]

Eva (1963) A Man Obsessed

Directed by Joseph Losey (M, The Prowler, The Big Night)
Written by Hugo Butler and Evan Jones from an adaptation of a James Hadley Chase novel. Cinematography was by Gianni Di Venanzo and Henri Deca?. Music was by Michel Legrand.

The film stars Jeanne Moreau as Eva Olivier, Stanley Baker as Tyvian Jones, Virna Lisi as Francesca Ferrari, Giorgio Albertazzi as Sergio Branco Malloni.

Losey along with Gianni Di Venanzo and Henri Deca? excellently depict a dreary, gloomy off season Venice in various shades of grey in a caf? au lait Noir, that perfectly matches the "50 shades of gray" psychology of the two main characters Tyvian and Eve. Neither are likable, and both Stanley Baker and Jeanne Moreau are compelling in achieving this air of despair. Its a bleak film with beautiful bleak images that complement it's bleak disconsolate ending. 7/10

I take it you watched the 109-minute version, since the 126-minute cut goes by the name of Eve. I like Losey's film a lot, and so prefer the version with as much material as possible.

[cigar joe]

I take it you watched the 109-minute version, since the 126-minute cut goes by the name of Eve. I like Losey's film a lot, and so prefer the version with as much material as possible.

You sure you don't have that flipped the Eva I watched clocked in at 1:44:24.  IMDb shows this Eva 1962 Not Rated 1h 47m

[dave jenkins]

I've got the Indicator blu with all the versions extant: there's a 109 minute version (Eva), there's a 108-minute version  (The Devil's Woman), and there are two slightly different 126-minute versions (Eve). According to the liner notes, there are no other versions, so if the one you saw really is 104:24, then I'll pause now and scratch my head. Where did you see it?

[cigar joe]

I've got the Indicator blu with all the versions extant: there's a 109 minute version (Eva), there's a 108-minute version  (The Devil's Woman), and there are two slightly different 126-minute versions (Eve). According to the liner notes, there are no other versions, so if the one you saw really is 104:24, then I'll pause now and scratch my head. Where did you see it?

Here https://ok.ru/video/2119860685475

[stanton]

Probably a Pal version, which would make it the 109 min version.

It's a good film, but not one of Losey's best.

[dave jenkins]

Carnegie Hall (1947) - 7/10. A widow (Marsha Hunt) works as a cleaning woman in Carnegie Hall while raising a son who she hopes will grow up to be a great pianist. The son, though, would rather play jazz. Meanwhile, all the greats pass through the Hall. SPOILERS. Performances are by the Philharmonic Symphony of New York, Lily Pons, Gregor Piatigorsky, Rise Stevens, Artur Rubinstein, Jan Peerce, Ezio Pinza, Vaughn Monroe,  Jascha Heifetz, Harry James. Conductors with cameos include Bruno Walter, Charles Previn, Artur Rodzinski, Fritz Reiner, Leopold Stokowski. END SPOILERS. Edgar G. Ulmer directed this film. A detailed synopsis is here: http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=14021.msg205321#msg205321