Recently Watched Films 2012

[MRS]

Flight to Fury (Monte Hellman, 1964)

Screenplay purportedly written by Nicholson and Hellman on a ship from LA to Manila, a Corman 2-for-1 coupon coincident with Back Door to Hell (Fred Roos produces both), just as their two westerns were put together in Utah a year later, $3.95 VHS which I had a friend convert to DVD. We watch a baccarat game in some subterranean parlor with one of those dealers I encounter in rotten blackjack who ever-so-molasses-slow flips the color to crush the table, asshole. Stalactites drip from the ceilings, yet more caverns! Jack greasily seduces Joe Gaines (Dewey Martin, still with us) with fawning and whisky and pencil mustache, "If you ever wanna see the ugliest women in the world go to Boise, Idaho." Nicholson's character almost precedes GTO in inky talk to anyone listening, con man in his own mind even if he's cognizant of fate and/or fungible gemstones all along. Plenty of erotic tension flying around any which way, first between Jay & Joe then full-bore during the long plane ride to follow. On the plane. . .indeed a touch Airplane, some kind of play in itself, wealthy Asian men play Go between seats. Passengers' wildly opposed reactions to 'we're going down' are in fact quite scary. We plunge into the jungle and encounter edgy Filipino partisans who imprison the survivors. "I haven't done much running lately." "You haven't been jailed lately." Alike Back Door to Hell, doubtless a handy if overzealous local armorer was employed. The USP .45s used are massive and cumbersome in the hand. At the end it's return volley as they dash about alluvium and volcanic rock; from casino to private jet to jungle captivity, prison break unto mutinous shootout on the banks. And what a conclusion, another bulky handgun, Jay should've followed Walter Huston's advice as the diamonds float past. I firmly put this to second place behind Cockfighter. Having not yet seen any of his westerns, what a welcome plum among my vain 30 Days of Jeph Jerman threnody. This needs to be rebooted if the Chipmunks are. I've no complaint with transfer quality but both this and its (very different) sister production need proper release. Jack wears a white suit, and a future president of the Philippines plays ruthless smuggler, 73 minutes. A+

[Dan Warburton]

David Fincher, Fight Club, 1999

Third time, maybe fourth. Probably last. I moan about style over substance but keep going back for more beating, like our nameless protagonist here (actually, I didn't choose to watch this one.. was outvoted in the family democracy). And with each viewing I like it less. The more time you spend with it, the more preposterous it becomes - especially the last half hour - and (worse) the more cynical.

[cheerios]

Shutter Island



Utterly disturbing. Who thinks up stuff like this?

[Lao Tsu Ben]

Hum, Dennis Lehane, the guy who also wrote Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone. It's trendy! I think there is a lot of sicker stuff around, or besides.

[Dan Warburton]

George Stevens, A Place In The Sun, 1951

[Lao Tsu Ben]

A Place In The Sun is rather beautifully referred to in Zeroville by Steve Erickson (of whom I am usually not a fan, to say the least). It's a delightful book at any rate for anyone who cares for cinema.

[surfer]

He said go out and get me my old movie stills . . . .

[jon abbey]

that's Montgomery Clift, honey!

[Dan Warburton]

Sam Peckinpah, The Killer Elite, 1975

Big Sam fan that I am, I can't get behind this one as much I'd like to. Not that it hasn't got its moments - the mothballed warships in Suisin Bay make a great setting for the final showdown, and that car chase isn't shabby.. But it's not Bullitt, either. It feels as if Peckinpah is trying to prove something (maybe that he's still to be trusted with final cut?), but he seems out of his element when trying to show kung fu (even allowing James Caan and Burt Young to joke about the samurai swordfight.. "hell, I'm going to shoot him anyway.."), and even the trademark slowmotion feels forced. Weary cynicism and screwball comedy just don't mix, somehow.

[Gaendaal]

Read My Lips/Sur mes lèvres
(2001, Jacques Audiard)



I enjoyed this more than I expected despite a few bits that we're either constantly beaten with (Carla is not just deaf but also REALLY DOWDY!) and some which are slightly unbelievable (Is Paul's moustache REAL? Is it even possible to read lips over that DISTANCE?). There's nothing really spectacular or overly complex but the plot keeps trundling along and the characters ride it well.

[Dan Warburton]

Roy Ward Baker, The Anniversary, 1968

Bette Davis in one of her best roles as the tyrannical, blackmailing, browbeating mother from hell. Black comedy par excellence!

[surfer]

She's ferocious and she knows
just what it takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she's a spy

[Dan Warburton]

Thanks Kim Do you know this one, Surf'? It's a trip

[surfer]

No, but I do want to hear The New Vaudeville Band sing "The Anniversary Song".

[Dan Warburton]

Marco Ferreri, Il Seme Dell"Uomo, 1969

Following some kind of unspecified apocalyptic event, footage of which they watch on a huge TV screen in a shopping mall (though the images look remarkably like something from a WW II documentary..), Cino and Dora take to the road in their dune buggy (having filled up with petrol.. the gas station owner also offers them a tumbler of whisky, which they readily down!), listening to tacky Italian top 40 radio. But as they drive through a long road tunnel, they lose the reception and the song morphs into strange shortwave bleeps.. And when they emerge from the tunnel.. Man, I could write a book on this amazing film, but that'd only spoil it for you. Do check it out if you can, it's a fuckin' trip, with its great white whale washed up on the shore (looking back to Moby Dick - Cino grows a Ferreri-style Cap'n Ahab chinstrap beard too - and forward to Werckmeister Harmonies? ha!), giant Pepsi Cola blimp, and cannibalism thrown in for good measure. Amazing surreal use of sound too. Terrific, really.

[Dan Warburton]

Jean-Pierre Jeunet / Marc Caro, La cité des enfants perdus, 1995

A trip, for sure, but not as much fun as Delicatessen. Wondering why.. maybe Angelo Badalamenti's music (too straight, too sincere) has something to do with it. Or the story itself, which references just about everything from to Oliver Twist to La Jetée plus fairy tales too numerous to mention.

[Dan Warburton]

Wim Wenders, Lightning Over Water, 1980

There's something very disturbing about all this, and I don't know if I have any more sympathy for Nicholas Ray for allowing Wim Wenders to film him dying of cancer than I do Wenders for doing so. Apparently, an earlier version exists without Wenders' mawkish and very Herzogian (but not as smart) voiceovers, and if I ever return to this film - which is unlikely - that's the cut I'd prefer to see. But the multiple mise en abyme (at one point we're in a theatre, watching a cameraman filming a director acting as a director directing an actor reading the text of a play adapted from a short story.. think about that for a minute), instead of cutting through the bullshit with a Brechtian blow to the head, only adds to the confusion. And the Epilogue verges on the cynical, which I would hope is not what Wenders intended.

[billygomberg]

well there is an excellent use of mise en abyme, Dan. I agree with you that the voiceover doesn't help a film that may not leave a pleasant taste anyway. I'm really, really on the fence w/Wim Wenders - he's done some movies that I love, but his easy tendency toward the mawkishness you mention is often too cloying for my tastes. Anne says that the Pina Bausch 3D movie is excellent tho.

[sevenarts]

Hey Dan, did you ever get around to the third Rozier film, The Castaways of Turtle Island? I watched it today and it was a trip. Somewhat different in tone from his first two films, more of an absurdist comedy, though it still has that charming/melancholy dichotomy that I love in the first two. I'd say it's a notch or two lesser than both Adieu Philippine and Du cote d'Orouet, but still really great and fun.

Now I've just got Maine-Ocean to go. I've found a great-looking copy of his fifth feature, 2001's Fifi Martingale, but unfortunately it's not subtitled.

[Lao Tsu Ben]

And the Epilogue verges on the cynical, which I would hope is not what Wenders intended.

Wenders, cynical? THAT's unlikely. I didn't see this film though, which is called Nick's movie in French.

I Heart Huckabees - David O'Russell

I didn't expect the film to be so good. It made me think of a less gloomy Masculin/Feminin (Chantal Goya's songs didn't make it any more cheerful for what I recall), with a lot of slapstick thrown in, and something deliciously Chestertonian (these existential detectives - or is it Chestertonesque?). Jude Law is particularly amazing, and you even get to see an old and still very classy Tippi Hedren. A delight.

And also, Synecdoche - Charlie Kaufman

For many reasons (the same that precluded me from watching I heart Huckabees actually), the perspective of seeing this film was rather daunting, and it is, in the end, quite remarkable, ambitious, etc. It's a film about life, death, and depression, as many films are, but that one is decidedly and explicitly, which sounds, I know, unappealing. But it takes a lot of risks, often knows how to be bombastic, it's bunuelian, without very much humour, it makes beautiful use of ellipsis, which are often heart-breaking, and finally, it gives the rare impression of a worthy experience (or experiment, for what it is), if not a perfect one. But I don't believe in perfection, nor do I believe (most of the time) in films that do not take some risks, so it was fine with me.