Recently Watched Films 2018

[Dan Warburton]

Philip D'Antoni, The Seven-Ups, 1973

Gritty 70s cop thriller, with Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Richard Lynch, Bill Hickman, awesome car chase, kickass Don Ellis soundtrack - who could resist?

[Dan Warburton]

Detlef Sierck (Douglas Sirk), Schlussakkord, 1936

This is a great story - German businessman forced to flee to NY after embezzling funds is found dead on a bench in Central Park, wife returns to Germany to find her son (left behind with foster parents) has been re-adopted by famous conductor and his cheating wife (Lil Dagover, a wonderfully hypercamp performance), and.. well, I won't spoil the rest of story. Sirk - or Sierck as he still was back then - manages to skewer what's left of the decadent boozed-up Weimar aristocracy (even women wear monocles!) while still managing to create rich, ambiguous characters - by rights, we should abhor Dagober's Charlotte and her sneaky, Tarot-reading accomplice housekeeper Frau Freese, but by the courtroom drama at the end of the film we feel not a little sympathy for both. Basically a melodrama, but with splendid live concert footage and some camera moves that Ophüls would have been proud of (see above), it's a treat for everyone, not only diehard Sirk fans. Recommended.

[Dan Warburton]

Fernando Arrabal, Viva la muerte, 1971

If you're a Jodorowsky fan, you'll love it - Arrabal (still alive and living in Paris, from what I can glean), formed the Panic (as in the god Pan) Movement in 1962 along with Jodo and Roland Topor, whose Bosch-like drawings feature prominently, so expect plenty of typically gory Hispano-Freudian surrealist dream sequences. Animal lovers beware - you might not mind seeing a roach cut in two and running off, or a boy eating a maggot sandwich, but when that bull gets slaughtered and Arrabal's leading lady rolls around in its entrails, you may want to reach for a bag of lentils. I wouldn't recommend spaghetti though: there's one scene where mother and son daub themselves in bolognese too. Excellent stuff!

[Dan Warburton]

William Friedkin, The Brink's Job, 1978

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to proclaim it as a forgotten masterpiece https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/a ... ist-comedy but it's a mystery to me why such a well-crafted, beautifully-shot and entertaining caper comedy, with a truly stellar cast (Peter Falk, Gena Rowlands, Warren Oates, Peter Boyle, Paul Sorvino, Allen Garfield!), has just.. dropped off the radar. Have a look and tell me what you think

[Dan Warburton]

Pupi Avati, La casa dalle finestre che ridono ("The House of the Laughing Windows"), 1976

IMDb punters are either in the "masterpiece of Italian horror" or the "cheesy lame Italian thriller" camp - and, though it starts out quite well, the silly ending makes me inclined to side with the latter.. Too many plot points left dangling. Lousy painting, too. For giallo (though it's not a giallo at all, really) enthusiasts only.

[Dan Warburton]

Frank Perry, Dummy, 1979

Based on a true story - you can check out the info on Wiki (Lang and Myers really existed - though they didn't look much like the actors who played them) - this could be Paul Sorvino's greatest performance, as a deaf lawyer who defends a young deaf mute accused of murdering a prostitute. I certainly won't spoil the ending, so you'd better not look up those Wiki references I gave you above until you've seen the film, which I recommend you do.

[Steve Minkin]

BIG STAR: Nothing Can Hurt Me (2012)

IMDb: "a feature-length documentary film about the dismal commercial failure, subsequent massive critical acclaim, and enduring legacy of pop music's greatest cult phenomenon, Big Star."

Rolling Stones lists three of their albums in the top 500 albums of all time and three of their songs in the top 500 songs of all time.

Moving documentary about the early 70s Memphis band that prefigured alt rock and influenced later generations of bands. Somebody in the film describes them as “a letter mailed in the early 70s that was delivered in the late 80s."

Alex Chilton, who had a #1 hit as lead singer on The Letter when he was 16, and the drummer were the constants. Chris Bell had the founding vision and songs, but dozens of musicians passed through the band over the years, all with their quirky stories. Stax Music's rise and fall is a sub-plot.

Good music, too, somewhere between late Byrds and Counting Crows. A cover of one of their songs by Cheap Trick is the theme song for That 70s Show.

[jon abbey]

yeah, if you don't know the first two Big Star records, those are both very widely acknowledged classics, I remember buying a twofer CD of them in college and being blown away. people absolutely love the third one and Chris Bell's I Am The Cosmos also but I've personally never gotten as into either of those. but grab the first two (#1 Record/Radio City) ASAP!!!

[Dan Warburton]

grab the first two (#1 Record/Radio City) ASAP!!!

Word! Nice to see an Abbey post on this thread Hope all's good with you Jon. Thanks for the heads up on the documentary, Steve.

[henriq]

Sidney Lumet - Q & A (1990)

To borrow a french expression - chouette, ça! I'm a little weary at times of Lumet, emphatically not a fan of The Verdict for instance - nor courtroom heroics in general - but when it's good, it is really good. Dog Day Afternoon, the awesome Prince of the City, and this present one, an amazing highlight reel. There is always the New York energy in his movies, but compared to the more symphonic strokes of Scorsese or Allen Lumet always feels more dirty and trashy, a way of staying with filmed speech, letting that carry the actors to and fro. Gilles Deleuze on the subject (yes, for any lingering doubters out there, his cinema books are wonderful ): "And, in Lumet, everything happens in continual trips and in return journeys, at ground level, in aimless movements where characters behave like windshield wipers... This is in fact the clearest aspect of the modern voyage. It happens in any-space-whatever [espace quelconque] - marshalling yard, disused warehouse, the undifferentiated fabric of the city - in opposition to action which most often unfolded in the qualified space-time of the old realism." (Cinema 1, p. 208) From somewhere in the archives here I gather that Armond White sneered at Lumet for precisely this, the filming and staging of dialogue to the detriment of everything else - but so what? Any fan or follower of Rohmer, Pialat, Chereau, Clarke will know the power and energy of speech and expression, the voice carrying the recording carrying the body carrying the image. To wax philosophical. More immediately, the actors in this... What ever happened with Timothy Hutton? Like to see more of him, he's great. Always nice to see Paul Calderon, and Armand Assante - amazing scene chewer, but mercurial and volatile here, earlier in his career. No coincidence I chose him for my image - he reminds me of certain martial arts fighters, feint and parry, defense and aggression carrying and giving shape to a lithe and kinetic body. These days, the theatrics and gimmicks remain but the body grows tired and sluggish - but here, wow. And of course, Nick Nolte. A very close second to Schrader's Affliction which remains my number one favorite NN performance. Now to watch The Offence...

[Steve Minkin]

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (2018) – Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, directed by Marielle Heller

Marvelous little movie, shining performance by McCarthy who finally gets a part worthy of her abilities. Director Heller gives us a loving portrait of a unlovable woman, based on the true story of Lee Israel. Lee was a frumpy, cranky, semi-disheveled but respected and decently selling biographer of Hollywood and literary types until her career took a turn for the worse (she wants to do a book on Fanny Brice, and nobody remembers who that is), gets fired from her job, drinks, pisses off everybody she knows, and drinks some more. Happenstance and necessity combine to lead her to a successful career forging letters from Dorothy Parker, Noel Coward, Marlene Dietrich and others, and to pick up a partner in crime in the aging party boy brilliantly played by Grant.

Lee: I'm writing a book about Fanny Brice.
Jack: Who?
Lee: Are you sure you're really a fag?

After she's busted, and she stands before the judge, she says she can't fully regret what she's done because it was the first time in years she felt good about her work. (She declares elsewhere that she does Dorothy Parker better than Parker did.)

The soundtrack, like everything else about the movie, is understated, but what we do hear is choice: Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Chet Baker, Peggy Lee, Blossom Dearie . . .

Loved it!

[MRS]

Sidney Lumet - Q & A (1990)

This flick is criminally slept on:

Q & A (Sidney Lumet, 1990)

Impressively dialogue driven, stagy thriller. Violence is spare in light of context and personæ; maybe Nolte's best turn (I don't throw that out blithely), Hutton commands most screen time, Assante steals his few scenes, Fyvush Finkel as Dominic Chianese's counsel, Paul Calderón the central transvestite, Big Pussy even shows up down the bar. Aloysius Francis Reilly (Hutton) plays young ADA over his head in 23rd Precinct corruption. Decorated, closeted Detective Brennan (Nolte) deteriorates trying to cover his own hide. All that virility aside, the lightning bark between cops Charles Dutton and Luis Guzman cements a study in urban American racism, often too fast to catch (Dutton's past time away at school surely informs), their interplay could not have been scripted, rewindable. Most of this is indoors, fluorescent, gunmetal gray, what an entrance w/Nolte holding court at the station, even if the Elmhurst accent slips. When outdoor it's raining and not a single detective wears a trench coat nor detective's hat, just soaked gray suits. Jackhammers and back-up alarms interrupt nearly every crucial bit of dialogue. Each of the bars invoke their own scent, the stale oaken lawyer stop straight from The Verdict, the Puerto Rican club, the neon pit where Nolte threatens Dutton. Blades' soundtrack is infrequent but putrid, really obtrusive when it does show up. And the whole thing wraps up poorly. The argument between Assante and Guzman at the deposition is worth your 132 minutes full stop.

"Law degree?"
"Brooklyn Law."
"Why not St. John's?"
"My father thought the Jesuits were too left-wing."

[Piano Mouth]

The Mirror - Andrei Tarkovsky



Wow yeah felt like I was falling into this film

[Dan Warburton]

Alan Clarke, Psy-Warriors, 1981

From the BFI blurb: "Three suspected terrorists are arrested after a bomb explosion. Various techniques of psychological torture are used upon them, resulting in revelations about the interrogators as well as the interrogated." Maybe Henrik could give us some background info from the DVD bonus material, because I found this one a bit confusing - so are they suspected terrorists or did they volunteer for the program? Was there really an explosion in the pub in Aldershot or not? A bit too wordy, methought, especially (the otherwise excellent) Colin Blakely with his Hitler quotes. Not sure what point writer Leland wanted to make here, to be frank, but I think he succeeded better with Made In Britain.

[Dan Warburton]

Federico Fellini, Ginger & Fred, 1986

Though it has an 82% fresh rating over at Rotten Tomatoes, I found myself more in agreement with Gilbert Adair's review (scroll down): http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/rev ... d-fred.php

[henriq]

Alan Clarke, Psy-Warriors, 1981

From the BFI blurb: "Three suspected terrorists are arrested after a bomb explosion. Various techniques of psychological torture are used upon them, resulting in revelations about the interrogators as well as the interrogated." Maybe Henrik could give us some background info from the DVD bonus material, because I found this one a bit confusing - so are they suspected terrorists or did they volunteer for the program? Was there really an explosion in the pub in Aldershot or not? A bit too wordy, methought, especially (the otherwise excellent) Colin Blakely with his Hitler quotes. Not sure what point writer Leland wanted to make here, to be frank, but I think he succeeded better with Made In Britain.

Dan, I'll have a look at the extras and report. Pity you didn't like it, I find it great, even Colin Blakely quite poignant in his monologue. From what I can remember, the prisoners are all volunteers who prior to the incarceration and interrogation depicted pose as activists and insurgents of the far left. The bomb in Aldershot might have been planted by provocateurs from the security services or else is a fiction designed to rattle and intimidate the prisoners. Derrick O'Connor slips up and lets out that he in fact knows a real life arms dealer and mercenary that he should have no contact with, and the game gets deadly real for him. Wordy, yes - kind of the point - and complex. An exposé of the rituals and instrumentality of the security state, no? I think this is thematically linked in a Northern Ireland trilogy of sorts, together with Contact and Elephant. Consider the excessive verbosity here with the resonant silences of the other two movies, and maybe it makes a bit more sense.

[henriq]

Federico Fellini, Ginger & Fred, 1986

Though it has an 82% fresh rating over at Rotten Tomatoes, I found myself more in agreement with Gilbert Adair's review (scroll down): http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/rev ... d-fred.php

Wow, that looks excatly like Madeline Kahn and Mel Brooks hamming it past airport security in High Anxiety:



only Brooks was first. Won't watch it, not one for Fellini, me.

[Dan Warburton]

I thought for a moment you really had an autographed Madeline Kahn photo there.. worth a trip to Stockholm just to steal it (I adore Madeline Kahn, as you know). Not a Fellini man, eh? Not even the early stuff? If you like Chabrol's Les bonnes femmes you can't not like Le notte di Cabiria. Or maybe not! Anyway, I'll take High Anxiety over Ginger anyday, too

[Dan Warburton]

Ken Loach, The Price of Coal, 1977

Barnsley-born Barry Hines' script, with its thees and thas and other charming examples of Yorkshire dialect (hands up if you know what "laking" means), sounds rather charmingly dated to my ears, four decades down the road.. Or maybe people still speak like that in South Yorkshire (I have no intention of going back there to find out, mind). Either way, this pair of films - one light-hearted, describing the local colliery's preparations for a visit by Prince Charles, the other more serious, not a strike but an explosion - is very enjoyable: for once, Loach isn't trying to ram a copy of Das Kapital down the viewers' throats, and shows that the local NCB managers were just as human as the poor buggers who had to go down the pit. Arthur Scargill is namechecked but, mercifully, doesn't make an appearance. If you don't know who Arthur Scargill is (was), you probably won't get much out of this anyway.

[Dan Warburton]

Abbas Kiarostami, Through the Olive Trees, 1994

Along with the famous slow tracking shot that ends Antonioni's Profession Reporter, is this one of the greatest ever closing shots in cinema? Beautiful. Fabulous film, so beautifully conceived and magnficently executed.