Recently Watched Films 2016

[Dan Warburton]

Alfredo Montero, La cueva, 2014

The subtitles on the version I snatched are atrocious, but after about half an hour's gone by, you don't really mind. It's a found footage affair, the holiday video blog from hell, as a trip to an idyllic island ends with our famous five (no dog here, sorry) trapped inside a cave. I won't spoil the ending, but let's just say that food becomes an issue after a while. And other little animals live in caves too. Yikes. Makes 127 Hours feel like On Golden Pond

[Dan Warburton]

Jim Jarmusch, Coffee and Cigarettes, 2002

It's a mixed bag of 11 shorts about.. well, coffee and cigarettes. If you like JJ (and if you smoke) you'll probably find something to enjoy, and it's amusing to see which of the sketches people prefer. Most punters like the Iggy / Tom Waits best (this one dates from 1993 and already won a Palme d'Or at Cannes that year), closely followed by "Delirium", with GZA, RZA and Bill Murray, but my own favourite was Cate Blanchett playing both herself and her cousin. Major league thumbs down for "Jack shows Meg his Tesla Coil" (though I never liked The White Stripes to start with) and "No Problem", which gives no indication of the considerable talents of Alex Descas and Isaach de Bankolé. By and large, Jarmusch manages to find links between the different tales, but the whole affair still comes across as not a little self-indulgent.

[Dan Warburton]

Peter Yates, Robbery, 1967

It's a very impressive reconstruction of the 1963 Great Train Robbery, with Stanley Baker's Paul Clifton closely modelled on Bruce Reynolds and many details faithfully reproduced (coshing the driver and then bringing him back to drive the train, for example), and the opening car chase through London was what, apparently, persuaded Steve McQueen to hire Yates as director for Bullitt.. but somehow it all feels more like documentary than drama. Yates is so obsessed with the details of the caper itself that he doesn't seem to be interested in the people behind it. Maybe that's why the movie bombed when it came out, but its reappearance on BluRay with plenty of bonus material is cause for celebration. But give me The Italian Job (the original, of course) every time.

[Dan Warburton]

Agnès Varda, Les Cent et Une Nuits de Simon Cinéma, 1994

I could fall into a Jarmusch "count the stars" trap here, and simply namecheck (go to IMDb and elsewhere if you want to do that: you'll find it's an impressive list - though just to be clear, Elizabeth Taylor is NOT in this film), but I prefer to link you to this instead: http://next.liberation.fr/culture/1995/ ... ema_118683

[Dan Warburton]

Claude Chabrol, Les Fantômes du chapelier, 1982

Based on a Simenon novel - there are, after all, hundreds to choose from, but I'm not sure this is one of the better ones - and very well shot on location in Concarneau and Quimper in Finisterre, this is a great vehicle for the talents of Michel Serrault, who's in almost every scene. No danger of spoilers as such - we know that he's the serial killer from the outset, and spend most of the movie following him around, which is also what Charles Aznavour does. Chabrol could turn out stuff like this in his sleep and obviously had fun making it (watch out for the Hitchcock cameo!), but if you're coming to the director for the first time, this isn't the one to start with. Talking of Hitchcock, do you remember this Simenon anecdote (cut'n'pasted from an LA Times obituary of the author)?

"Each time I have an idea for a book," Simenon once joked, "I have to ask myself if I have already written it." Simenon's productivity, which may have kept him from winning the Nobel Prize that some believed he deserved, was best illustrated in an anecdote attributed to Alfred Hitchcock. Attempting to reach Simenon on the telephone, Hitchcock was intercepted by the writer's secretary. "Impossible to connect you," she said, "he's just started a book." "No problem," Hitchcock is said to have replied. "I'll wait on the line until he finishes."

[Dan Warburton]

Rick Rosenthal, Bad Boys, 1983

I suspect Rosenthal, or whoever wrote his flabby clichéd script, had seen (Alan Clarke's) Scum, if only because they swiped the idea of putting heavy objects in a sack to use as a weapon (Ray Winstone fills a sock with billiard balls in Scum, Sean Penn uses cans of soda). But that's about as far as it goes: where Clarke's film is a genuinely distressing and bleak tale of borstal life, Bad Boys is a kind of Disney-for-grownups morality play, whose plot is so predictable it almost becomes funny. The screenplay is pretty awful, but the rest of the film isn't bad as such. In fact it's almost enjoyable - if the director's intention was to provoke some kind of genuine catharsis, well, he failed miserably. Depends, I guess, whether you like Sean Penn or not (I'm not much of a fan). Nice debut for Clancy Brown, btw.

[Dan Warburton]

Ted Post, The Baby, 1973

Nasty! Check out the hairstyles!

[Dan Warburton]

Tom McCarthy, The Station Agent, 2003

Fine performances all round. Not much else to say, really - an enjoyable, post-Jarmusch post-Hartley Sunday night flick.

[Antoine]

Peter Dinklage, solid!

[dialectics of shit]

Dan, I'm eager to read your thoughts on Ruiz's A Closed Book, as that's arguably his most divisive and off-putting film. Well, "divisive" might not be quite the right word—I'd say the majority think it's shite—but I imagine there are some, like myself, who get a kick out its, shall we say, tone-deafness.

[Dan Warburton]

Dan, I'm eager to read your thoughts on Ruiz's A Closed Book, as that's arguably his most divisive and off-putting film. Well, "divisive" might not be quite the right word—I'd say the majority think it's shite—but I imagine there are some, like myself, who get a kick out its, shall we say, tone-deafness.

Michael Goddard in his book on Ruiz, Impossible Cartographies, comes down hard on this one - which hasn't exactly whetted my appetite, but, that said, Shattered Image was much better than I thought it would be.. so, yes, I'll get round to it - eventually!

[walto]

I suspect Rosenthal, or whoever wrote his flabby clichéd script, had seen (Alan Clarke's) Scum, if only because they swiped the idea of putting heavy objects in a sack to use as a weapon (Ray Winstone fills a sock with billiard balls in Scum, Sean Penn uses cans of soda).

Isn't there some earlier Charles Bronson movie--maybe the first Death Wish flick?--where the hero first defends himself on the mean streets of NYC by shoving something (quarters maybe?) into a sock and whacking a bad guy with it? (Of course, then he gets some guns and his mayhem becomes much more efficient.)

EDIT: Yeah, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l1EbYYXdDw

[jon abbey]

that's right around the part of the movie that a super young Jeff Goldblum makes an appearance, I think his first film ever, check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erm7QDCl-3s

[Dan Warburton]

I suspect Rosenthal, or whoever wrote his flabby clichéd script, had seen (Alan Clarke's) Scum, if only because they swiped the idea of putting heavy objects in a sack to use as a weapon (Ray Winstone fills a sock with billiard balls in Scum, Sean Penn uses cans of soda).

Isn't there some earlier Charles Bronson movie--maybe the first Death Wish flick?--where the hero first defends himself on the mean streets of NYC by shoving something (quarters maybe?) into a sock and whacking a bad guy with it? (Of course, then he gets some guns and his mayhem becomes much more efficient.)

EDIT: Yeah, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l1EbYYXdDw

Of course! So the Alan Clarke influence was just wishful thinking on my part Thanks for the link there, Walt. The only thing I like about Death Wish is the soundtrack, which is terrific.

[Dan Warburton]

Benjamin Christensen, Häxan, 1922

A bit of an oddity, a rather dry documentary on witchcraft as seen from a Freudian perspective, though full of dramatic and rather scary reenactments - check out the torture chamber! Recognise this image? I stole it for an album of my own a few years ago

[Hayao Yamaneko]

Haxan - a friend soundtracked this a few years back and I did an interview with him about it. He has some nice anecdotes/background details.

http://www.bronnt.com/geometer%20interview.html

[Claud601]

Alfredo Montero, La cueva, 2014

The subtitles on the version I snatched are atrocious, but after about half an hour's gone by, you don't really mind. It's a found footage affair, the holiday video blog from hell, as a trip to an idyllic island ends with our famous five (no dog here, sorry) trapped inside a cave. I won't spoil the ending, but let's just say that food becomes an issue after a while. And other little animals live in caves too. Yikes. Makes 127 Hours feel like On Golden Pond

nice one, just grabbed it

[Dan Warburton]

Paul Lynch, Prom Night, 1980

To quote one IMDb punter (on the ball, for a change): "Six killings, scant blood, one decapitation, Jamie Lee Curtis as prom queen, no nudity, no real suspense, no pace, lots of disco music and dancing, sit this one out."

[Dan Warburton]

Grímur Hákonarson, Hrútar ("Rams"), 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWOFWaltGRw

[Dan Warburton]

André De Toth, Day of the Outlaw, 1959

Burl Ives kicks ass. And it's also one of Robert Ryan's best performances, morphing from villain to hero oh so subtly. What's great about this film is how amazingly slow it is - the bottle rolling along the bar, the horses struggling through snow six feet deep - and how it manages to sustain tension nevertheless (yes, I'm sure Mr Tarantino knows this well). So when movement comes - the Saturday night dance, with its giddy, spinning camera - it's so much more effective. Nice. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film ... -1959.html