Recently Watched Films 2014

[Dan Warburton]

John Huston, The Unforgiven, 1960

A truly weird film. Starts out all nice and innocent, with Audrey Hepburn riding merrily about on her horse and baking tasty crusty bread for "Mom" (Lilian Gish), before racing off to meet "brother" Ben (Burt Lancaster) returning from "business" in Wichita (where, reading between the lines, he seems to have spent as much time whoring as selling cattle). But after the sinister reappearance of an old neighbour who knows the truth about the family (seems Audrey was stolen from the Indians as an infant, and we can assume that's why the Kiowa killed "pop"), things get pretty nasty - the old geezer is put on a horse with a noose around his neck, and Momma Gish is the one who kicks the animal away to leave him hanging. Thanks, mom. Meanwhile, the local Injuns show up and, very politely, ask for Audrey back in exchange for some horses, but when they come back a second time Ben and his family open fire on them - you should see Momma Gish with that rifle - and it turns into a veritable bloodbath, ending with dear sweet little Audrey gunning down the one remaining Indian (her actual brother, I suppose) in cold blood. Yikes! Back story of the troubled affair here http://everyjohnhustonmovie.blogspot.fr ... -1960.html

[Dan Warburton]

Michael Haneke, Amour, 2012

I knew I had to wait to see this film - my father died in August 2012 (quite suddenly, aged 93, but still bright as a button and cooking pancakes two days before he checked out), and I'd made monthly trips back to England to see my mother, who succumbed slowly and miserably to Alzheimers before going into a home in November last year and falling down a flight of stairs in March and never regaining consciousness (aged 88). Or did she fall? Watching Emmanuelle Riva longing for death, I wonder. Yes, after all the heated polemic here and elsewhere about Haneke the Great Manipulator, I was afraid (literally) I wouldn't appreciate Amour. But I have to say I think it's an extraordinary, bold, bald, spare and beautiful piece of work. Yeah, I could gripe about aspects of Isabelle Huppert's performance as the daughter, or about the brutal exchange between Jean-Louis Trintignant and the young nurse he sends away - but having seen what the staff in nursing homes have to deal with on a daily basis, I'd have to say it's probably closer to reality than one would care to admit - yet that's not what I take away with me from this film. Sure, some critics (especially American - hmm, could that be because no American director could tackle this subject without teary Hollywood gagbarf sentimentality?) went way too far overboard in their praise, and the Cahiers du Cinéma struck back with (typically French) cynical fury - but for those of us who've watched a loved one dying, I think Haneke's vision is true and moving. This post also in Haneke thread, fwiw

[Dan Warburton]

Baltasar Kormákur, A Little Trip to Heaven, 2005

It's a Featured Torrent at KG, and if you haven't snatched it I'd strongly recommend this stylish neo-noir (very Nordic, those filters make everything look like it came out of The Element of Crime or Män som hatar kvinnor). Supposedly set in Minnesota but filmed in Iceland, the only weak spots are the ending (a bit limp) and Forest Whitaker's truly bizarre accent (he obviously never got over that IRA kidnapping in The Crying Game). But strong performances all round, classy camerawork and great colour. Nice

[walto]

Condolences, Dan.

[lao]

.

[Lao Tsu Ben]

Baltasar Kormákur, A Little Trip to Heaven, 2005

It's a Featured Torrent at KG, and if you haven't snatched it I'd strongly recommend this stylish neo-noir (very Nordic, those filters make everything look like it came out of The Element of Crime or Män som hatar kvinnor). Supposedly set in Minnesota but filmed in Iceland, the only weak spots are the ending (a bit limp) and Forest Whitaker's truly bizarre accent (he obviously never got over that IRA kidnapping in The Crying Game). But strong performances all round, classy camerawork and great colour. Nice

Julia Stiles, the reason I watched that film not so long ago, inhabits this sort of dreary atmosphere with an eerie constancy. Check out The Cry of The Owl, a good adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel of the same name , for confirmation.

[Dan Warburton]

Check out The Cry of The Owl, a good adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel of the same name , for confirmation.

Ms Stiles is obviously too mainstream for Karagarga But they do have Chabrol's 1987 version, which (despite a good cast) has rather dismal reviews.



Luchino Visconti, Senso, 1954

Great location footage from Venice, Rome and Palladian villas in the region, but as melodramas go this seems have dated more alarmingly than, say, Sirk. Put that down perhaps to the characters themselves - Lt. Mahler's deadly combination of arrogant hypocritical hedonism and authentic self-loathing is hellishly hard to bring off, and I doubt Brando (Visconti's original first choice) could have done it any better than Farley Granger. Alida Valli has a similarly tough role - perhaps the later remake is more steamy and sexy - but does a good job. You'd better like Bruckner's Seventh, as Visconti uses it as often and as obsessively as he does (Gustav) Mahler's Fifth in Death in Venice

[walto]

FWIW, I love Bruckner's Seventh (and much prefer it to ANYTHING by Mahler).

[Dan Warburton]

Then Senso should be right up your alley, Vladimir Had a lot of fun with this yesterday, meanwhile:






Mario Bava, Danger : Diabolik!, 1968

Of all the 60s over-the-top Bond dessinées (Our Man Flint, In Like Flint, Modesty Blaise, Billion Dollar Brain..) this must the wildest. Absolutely no point explaining the plot, what little there is - just sit back and watch Michel Piccoli and Terry-Thomas chew the scenery (and what scenery!) while drowning in a bath of molten Morricone cheese.. Yum!

[Dan Warburton]

Elaine Constantine, Northern Soul, 2014

As someone who grew up in the wastelands of Rochdale in the period concerned (though too young to be into the Northern Soul scene - this film is set in 1974 when I was just 11), I'm seriously impressed at the lengths director Elaine Constantine has gone to reconstruct the Lancashire of the time, from K-reg cars to galvanized metal dustbins to record shops with listening booths. Fashionwise, it's not too hard to trawl around the fleamarkets of Manchester, Blackburn and Preston and come up with bell-bottoms and sleeveless mod dresses, but Ms Constantine must have spent quite some time scouting shots of dark satanic mills that don't have tell-tale signs of 21st century architecture in the background. The film itself is another one of those good old rebellious teen flicks, sex'n'drugs'rock'n'roll ahoy - but it's refreshingly short of sentimentality and bracingly full of bad language (the ubiquitous F-word always sounds better with a Northern accent anyway, to my mind). Cameos from Steve Coogan (ah, I remember schoolmasters like that) and Lisa Stansfield (authentic Rochdale accent), and without a shadow of a doubt THE BEST FUCKIN SOUNDTRACK OF THE PAST TEN YEARS. Though, as the bloke who used to run Expansions Records in Manchester (and who relieved me of hundreds of £s when I finally got into this stuff in the early 90s) used to say, "once you go black.."

[walto]

Just saw Electrick Children. Pretty and mysterious. Unbelievable also, however.

[Piano Mouth]

I saw "Cold Fish" by Sion Sono last night. I have to say, I'm really interested in digging in and seeing a lot more of other movies he has made. So far, I've seen "Love Exposure", "Himizu", and "Suicide Club". This one takes the cake in gore though, it's so outlandish, and based on a true story I believe. It was really well paced, and disturbing, but I would say maybe less so than "Strange Circus", depending on who you ask, which I still need to finish watching.

[Dan Warburton]

Bille August, Pelle erobreren ("Pelle the Conqueror"), 1987

If you're looking for well-paid work, I wouldn't recommend the Danish island of Bornholm..




Philippe Falardeau, La moitié gauche du frigo, 2000

Nor 21st century Quebec, from the looks of it..




Cristian Mungiu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, 2007

If you're looking for an abortion, I wouldn't recommend Romania. (What a fuckin' great film, though!)




Piero Bargellini, Morte All'Orecchio Di Van Gogh, 1968

If you're looking for Van Gogh's ear, you won't find it here either. There is an extended scene of people cutting their toenails though. Wild and wonderful experimental cinema, another fine FT from KG (like August and Falardeau above, and Matanic below..)




Davide Manuli, La leggenda di Kaspar Hauser, 2013

If you're looking for any sense whatsoever, watch out! This is truly weird, from UFOs to deranged monosyllabic sheriff having a shootout with himself in the mirror (Vincent Gallo, on fine form), to Kaspar him(her?)self, an androgynous skinny blond(e) electro DJ (I'm not making this up..).




Werner Herzog, Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle ("The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser"), 1974

So I had to return to the awesome Bruno S. Mighty movie.




Dalibor Matanić, Fine mrtve djevojke ("Fine Dead Girls"), 2002

If you're looking for a cheap flat to rent, avoid this place like the plague! Nice fast-paced Croatian neo-noir, with evil concierge, neo-fascist wifebeater, backstreet abortionist and mentally challenged son, sex-starved son and nasty hooker. Yikes!




Robert Aldrich, Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte, 1964

"She'll unease you / All the better just to please you / She's precocious and she knows just what it takes to make a pro blush"

[Dan Warburton]

Robert Flaherty, Man of Aran, 1934

The locals had given up shark hunting a long time before Flaherty and his crew arrived, but revived the tradition just for the film (daft buggers - you should see the size of those damn waves). Like Jean Epstein's Finis Terrae, this is another part-documentary / part-fiction tale of folk gathering huge baskets of seaweed while the Atlantic Ocean rages around them. Amazing footage, who gives a toss about storyline?

[Dan Warburton]

Joon-ho Bong, Mother, 2009

First hour's OK, but the plot gets terribly involved and hard to believe after that. Had the same problem with Oldboy. What is it about these Koreans? Must be all that kim chee

[Dan Warburton]

François Truffaut, Tirez sur le pianiste, 1960

Have just reread Kael's first book so I thought I'd go back to this one and see if it's as good as she says it is. It is. (And if Aznavour's performance isn't great enough, it's worth it for Boby Lapointe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVEk1wiUxa0)

[Dan Warburton]

Alfred E. Green, Baby Face, 1933

Barbara Stanwyck screws her way to the penthouse suite (check out how her wardrobe evolves along the way - some of the wildest costumes I've ever seen) - but surprisingly ends up doing the right thing (?) and standin' by her man. Well, the last one anyway. Bit of a lame ending, in fact - but there are plenty of breathtakingly juicy scenes earlier on.

[Dan Warburton]

Fax Bahr, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, 1991

"Can you just write my lines on the back of that $1,000,000 cheque you sent me, Francis?" Hilariously hair-raising documentary on the making of Apocalypse Now, full of all the juicy titbits: Hopper and Bottoms blitzed on LSD, Brando fluffing his lines because of bugs flying into his mouth, Marcos withdrawing his helicopters at the last minute to blow the shit out of the natives for real, and Sheen drunk as a skunk smashing his mirror to bits before nearly checking out altogether with a massive heart attack.. Yikes

[Dan Warburton]

Jean-Luc Godard, Masculin féminin, 1966

Gorgeous. Great set of boni on the Criterion set too. Karl Marx and Coca Cola indeed.

[walto]

Speaking of Godard, I was surprised to see him speak so highly of Cocteau in this recent documentary of the latter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ06xWvxlfI

(in seven parts on youtube)