Recently Watched Films 2016

[dialectics of shit]

Fabrice Du Welz, Alleluia, 2014

Stylish if a little opaque (at times) remake of The Honeymoon Killers - I know, a hard act to follow, Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco, but Belgian director Du Welz is well-versed in horror, and looks like he knows his Breillat and Grandrieux well to boot.

Nice, this piques my interest for sure. Du Welz' Vinyan is a quality psychological horror that hardly seems to get props from anyone.

[Dan Warburton]

What's your favorite movie that you've seen so far this year, Dan?

Yikes, I live in fear of questions like that Well, umm, excluding the ones I'd already seen before (the Ray trilogy, the Losey etc), I guess I'd probably choose the Clayton and Arnold films on p1 of the thread, and the Ruiz on page 3. Though it's awfully unfair to have to pick so few. Reminds me, I never got round to picking my last year's top twenty (another stoopid habit of mine).. maybe I will, if anyone's really interested. Have to write up the last half dozen I've seen first!

[Dan Warburton]

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Katsuhiro Ôtomo, Steamboy, 2014

Manchester never looked so nice I read somewhere this was the most expensive Japanimation film ever made, which doesn't surprise me given the insane amount of mechanical detail. Nicely done - but shame the only audio track I could find was in Japanese (subs were fine though): does anyone know if it's ever been voiced by British actors?

[Dan Warburton]

Alexander Korda, Marius, 1931

The first of Marcel Pagnol's trilogie marseillaise was supervised by the author but directed by Korda - once he'd seen how it was done, Pagnol took over the direction himself. I guess this is the kind of movie Bressonheads love to hate, as it's clearly (and unashamedly) filmed theatre, but when the acting is as good as this (Raimu and Pierre Fresnay are exceptional), who cares? It can be initially offputting to pop the disc in and see the film runs well over two hours, but you wouldn't think twice about going out to the theatre and spending two, even three hours watching a play, so don't let that put you off. Newly restored to DVD, this is a treat - but you'll need subs, even if (like my wife) you're French

[Dan Warburton]

Peter Lorre, Der Verlorene ("The Lost One"), 1951

Lorre's only foray into the world of directing is an oddly flawed but powerful piece of work - it's based on a true story, which Wiki resumes thus: "The story is told through a series of flashbacks. Dr. Rothe (Peter Lorre) is a German scientist doing secret research for the Nazi government during World War II. After he discovers that his fiancée has been selling secrets to the Allies, he murders her. This is covered up by the German government. After the war, Rothe is working under an alias as a doctor for displaced persons. After seeing one of the Nazi officers who helped cover up his crime, Rothe is overcome by guilt about his wartime crimes." If you're averse to films that show folks smoking (more fool you, as you'll miss out on film noir, the nouvelle vague and Bette Davis), you'd better steer clear of this, as you'll probably contract lung cancer just watching Lorre. Seriously infused with expressionist noir touches, it nevertheless goes somewhat off the rails when he turns to murder, and morphs into a kind of reprise of Lorre's role in Lang's M crossed with the last few scenes of Pabst's Pandora's Box. Still, the ending is truly awesome.

[Dan Warburton]

Alex von Warmerdam, The Northerners, 1992

This one's a Featured Torrent over at KG, so you have no excuse. It's a real trip - billed as a black comedy, it's certainly amusing at times, but often pretty brutal. Imagine a weird cross between Tati's Mon Oncle, Pasolini's Teorema and Twin Peaks. You can't? You need to see this then!

[Dan Warburton]

Rudolph Maté, D.O.A., 1950

"Who was murdered?" "I was." So you know the film will be a race against time for Frank to find his killer - the plot's a bit convoluted, and gets fatally slowed down when his fiancée turns up, but there are some fine scenes nevertheless: a wild bebop quintet in a Fisherman's Wharf nightspot, a chase in an abandoned warehouse, and plenty of nastiness with the thuggish Chester. Like Ulmer's Detour (which I think is a much greater movie, fwiw) this one lapsed into the public domain, which means a) you should be able to find it easily enough and b) the image quality is pretty shite. Well worth a look though.

[Dan Warburton]

Ingmar Bergman, Dreams, 1955

Not one of the better known Bergmans, but a fine piece of work, with splendid performances from Eva Dahlbeck and Harriet Andersson, whose two different adventures during a photoshoot in Gothenburg only partially intersect at the end. Bergman obviously had a blast filming at the funfair - there's no shortage of movies shot on rollercoasters, but how about putting your camera on a waltzer, eh?

[apophenia]

g

Katsuhiro Ôtomo, Steamboy, 2014

Manchester never looked so nice I read somewhere this was the most expensive Japanimation film ever made, which doesn't surprise me given the insane amount of mechanical detail. Nicely done - but shame the only audio track I could find was in Japanese (subs were fine though): does anyone know if it's ever been voiced by British actors?

Not British, but English lang... PTP has multiple dual audio rips. So does kat.cr, which is public.

[Wombatz]

Peter Lorre, Der Verlorene ("The Lost One"), 1951

Lorre's only foray into the world of directing is an oddly flawed but powerful piece of work - it's based on a true story, which Wiki resumes thus: "The story is told through a series of flashbacks. Dr. Rothe (Peter Lorre) is a German scientist doing secret research for the Nazi government during World War II. After he discovers that his fiancée has been selling secrets to the Allies, he murders her. This is covered up by the German government. After the war, Rothe is working under an alias as a doctor for displaced persons. After seeing one of the Nazi officers who helped cover up his crime, Rothe is overcome by guilt about his wartime crimes." If you're averse to films that show folks smoking (more fool you, as you'll miss out on film noir, the nouvelle vague and Bette Davis), you'd better steer clear of this, as you'll probably contract lung cancer just watching Lorre. Seriously infused with expressionist noir touches, it nevertheless goes somewhat off the rails when he turns to murder, and morphs into a kind of reprise of Lorre's role in Lang's M crossed with the last few scenes of Pabst's Pandora's Box. Still, the ending is truly awesome.

oh yes that's a great film ... especially considering the state of german film before the new german cinema of the 1960s. unfortunately nobody wanted him here; i think he was bent on starting a career as a director in germany (instead of continuing as a b-movie actor in hollywood), but it was more or less all mountains, musicals and period pieces with no places for stronger stuff.

ps: if that's obtainable thru the usual dark channels, i recommend jonas by ottomar domnick from 57 as another lone great offbeat german 50s film.

[Dan Warburton]

It is indeed available through the "dark channels" but not yet with subtitles, alas.



Roy Andersson, A Swedish Love Story, 1970

If you only know Andersson's later films, this wondrously unpretentious tale of late-60s teen romance (inspired, according to the then 26-year-old director by the Czech new wave, though not without certain resemblances to Pialat, imo) should come as a nice surprise. We're so used to American cinematic emotional excess these days we're half expecting young Pär to exact some sort of brutal bloody revenge on the bully who beats him up, or for John, the failing salesman in full midlife crisis, to use that hunting rifle and either blow his own brains out or massacre everyone in the summer house. But no: life is, for most of us, much less exciting - but no less intense and touching. Great movie. And Ann-Sofie Kylin is gorgeous.

[Dan Warburton]

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Pulse, 2001

From what I see online, this is very highly regarded - and I guess Taku Unami likes it because there are plenty of empty cardboard boxes falling all over the place - but I found it dragged a little, not that I was expecting John Woo. It doesn't matter that the story doesn't make much sense the more you think about it (hey, who ever figured out Lost Highway anyway?), and even if I applaud Kurosawa for creating a truly original visual universe - the film has a look, a colour and a lighting all its own, something that very few directors (Tarr, Sokurov?) seem to be able to do - I did alas find my attention wandering. I wonder why he opted to tell the entire story in flashback, as it were: we know we're going to end up back on that ship, and it rather takes away the element of surprise. That won't stop me returning to it at some stage, though.

[Dan Warburton]

Kurt Neumann, The Fly, 1958

Pretty tame, especially when compared to the bloody regurgitated mess of the Cronenberg remake (which I freely admit I absolutely hate because I can't stand Jeff Goldblum), but rather amusing.. you wonder, when he asks for a bowl of milk laced with rum, whether he hasn't been crossed with that missing pussycat. And I love that his fly arm has a Strangelove-like life of its own. Apart from that, I don't see much to write home about, sorry.

[Dan Warburton]

Silvano Agosti, Il Giardino delle Delizie ("The Garden of Earthly Delights"), 1967

Whoa, ART FILM.. starting out with a snippet from Metropolis, and a selection of close-ups from the eponymous Bosch picture (both of which you are supposed to know, dear viewer), it's a neurotic, Freudian rollercoaster for "hero" Maurice Ronet (who looks about as happy here as he does in Le feu follet ). And if coming to terms with all that heavy Catholic mother/sister/father baggage isn't enough, the toilet in his hotel room is fucked and its ugly noise cold spoils his erection. And does he really wander across the corridor and ball Lea Massari, or is she also a figment of his fertile imagination? Whatever, one suspects it might make a little more sense if the 20-odd minutes that were excised by the Italian censors were restored, though whatever became of them I have no idea. Meanwhile, the film is definitely worth your time for the Morricone soundtrack, which is one of his best and most varied, ranging from pale, creepy atonality (à la Teorema) to a wiiiild rock band meets boys choir (a scene worthy of Ken Russell, that).

[Dan Warburton]

Roger Vadim / Louis Malle / Federico Fellini, Spirits of the Dead, 1968

Most folks out there seem to agree that the Fellini segment "Toby Dammit", featuring Terence Stamp as a wonderfully fucked-up Shakespearean actor, is the best of these three loose adaptations of tales by Edgar Allan Poe, but I found much to enjoy in the other two. Louis Malle apparently only did his bit for the money (to make Le souffle au coeur), and I'm sure he didn't care much for Bardot's ill-fitting black wig, which is almost as bad as her "acting", but Delon's mixture of frailty and cruelty is just right for the doppelgänger-obsessed William Wilson. And if Jane Fonda's costumes in the first segment don't have you falling off your chair in delight (or shock), I'll refund your popcorn. What makes it all the more fun was that Ms Fonda was director Roger Vadim's wife at the time, which makes his decision to cast her brother Peter as her love interest all the more amusing. Elsewhere, you wonder what all those bloody leopard cubs were doing lounging around on plush sofas during what was ostensibly the Middle Ages. Whatever, it's a scream. Jane is such a bitch. Nice to see her hairdresser get special mention in the credits though

[vegetable mind]

I've been realizing how only having access to my puny laptop screen for watching films has really lessened my intake, when I got rid of my TV a few years ago I thought I'd get a projector soon after but never did. Been over to some peoples houses with 60+ inch TVs recently and realized having an adequately sized viewing screen does a lot to encourage you to watch movies, whod've thought. That being said, the last movie I watched was from this thread, General Idi Amin Dada, autoportrait. having echoes of a sombre empire queued up for tonight.

[walto]

I suppose the two movies I saw over the last few days really don't have much in common except the way they affected me and being highly regarded by critics. I found them both to be occasionally entertaining, to cover historical periods/places in an interesting, if exaggerated fashion, to have some very cool and original footage, and to feature actors that I often enjoy seeing. But also both seemed to me a bit show-offy, to include set pieces that went even beyond the over-the-top goals they were shooting for, to be regularly boring (and likely forgettable), to focus largely on "fixer" characters, and to often become didactic and speechy in unpleasant know-it-all ways. They were



A Foreign Affair (Wilder, 1948)



Hail Caesar (Coen & Coen, 2016)

[Dan Warburton]

Henri Verneuil, Le casse, 1971

Don't expect much in the way of plot profundity in a movie that begins with a safecracking scene that lasts 24 minutes, followed just eight minutes later by a 10-minute car chase (not quite as hair-raising as the one in the French Connection but certainly worthy of a place here http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/ ... car-chases). Jean-Paul Belmondo is "le gentleman cambrioleur", as they say round these parts, and Omar Sharif the crooked cop on his tail. Plenty of action for the former (part of the fun of a Belmondo movie was seeing him do his own stunts), including jumping between two moving buses and being tipped off the back of truck into a quarry, and plenty of tasty Greek nosh for the latter. And a few well-deserved slaps in the face for Dyan Cannon, whose acting is as fucking awful as her hairstyle (though not as bad as the tacky decor in her pad, which is utterly appalling - and I mean appallingly cheap, not classy/tacky à la Mario Bava). But when it's all over, it's a bit of a waste of time.

[Dan Warburton]

Sergio Sollima, La resa dei conti ("The Big Gundown"), 1966

Like many here, I suspect, I knew the John Zorn album of the same name before seeing the film, and if I had a couple of hours to spare and the choice between watching this again or listening to the album twice, I think I'd choose the latter option, even though I know it like the back of my hand. It's not that the movie's bad - far from it: all the spaghetti tropes are in full effect, from cackling sweaty Mexican cops to brash buxom whores, but maybe that's part of the problem.. You can guess pretty quickly that Tomas Milian isn't the villain he's made out to be, and it doesn't take an IQ of 150+ to guess who is (since when was a railway baron a good guy?). But it seems Lee Van Cleef isn't as bright as he ought to be, either. There are some nice touches - lining up the bullets on the tree trunk - but not as many as you get from premier league spaghetti maestros Leone or Corbucci (the only two? discuss..)

[Claud601]

Does anyone have a torrent link for the "Industrial soundtrack for The Urban Decay" documentary?