Recently Watched Films 2018

[Dan Warburton]

Bouli Lanners, Les premiers les derniers, 2016

If you want to find the most depressing road in France, let me recommend the N20 heading north from Orléans towards Paris - crossing the bleak windswept Beauce, you may notice, to the right of the road driving north, the remains of an ambitious doomed project to create a 400km/h hour aerotrain https://www.agoravox.fr/actualites/tech ... eve-138971, a 20-odd km stretch of concrete left to crumble away in the desolate fields. The perfect place to film a dystopian road movie like this, in which director Lanners and co-star Albert Dupontel play a couple of ageing bounty hunters out to track down the boss's stolen mobile phone (and the compromising video evidence it contains). Pursuing a couple of young vagrants - you may recognise the chiselled features of Aurore Broutin from Bruno Dumont's Hors Satan - they end up falling foul of the local criminal fraternity, spend a night in a guest house run by Michael Lonsdale and decide to bury a decomposing corpse they find in an abandoned warehouse, with Max von Sydow as the officiating undertaker. What a thrill to see Michael and Max together in the same scene! Excellent stuff, almost makes you want to see where it was filmed - but, take it from me, having taken that particular road several times, you really don't want to spend a day in Artenay. Yikes.

[Dan Warburton]

Robert Wise, The Set-Up, 1949

Nor could I resist another Wise noir starring Robert Ryan (see above). The nearly-over-the-hill prizefighter going for glory one last time and winning a fight he's supposed to have thrown will no doubt remind you of a more celebrated Palme d'Or winning opus from 1994, but don't let that put you off. Wise pulls no punches himself in showing the seamy, sweaty side of professional boxing and the cretinous bloodthirsty punters who pay to see it. Does it all end well for our man? Well, yes and no. See it yourself and find out. Good one.

[Dan Warburton]

Sophie Blondy, L'étoile du jour, 2012

Couldn't resist a film starring some of the most memorable faces in contemporary cinema - Denis Lavant, Béatrice Dalle (though to be frank you're more likely to notice the mole further down..), Natacha Regnier, Tchéky Karyo and, in a non-speaking role as Lavant's "conscience", the mighty Iggy. It's a tale of unrequited love, gypsy intrigue and nasty revenge in a rundown circus on the bleak, windswept Côte d'Opale (Bruno Dumont country, again), and it's a delight from beginning to end. Blondy battled for five years to get it finished after her producer pulled out - don't know who that was but s/he deserves a spanking - and her choice of locations, film stocks, lighting and music is impeccable. Not to everyone's taste, I suspect, but if you enjoyed Carnivale a while back you'll find much to enjoy. Recommended.

[Dan Warburton]

Philippe Garrel, Les amants reguliers, 2005

Fan though I am of Garrel's cinema, particularly the early, wilder, weirder stuff, I wonder why he still feels the need, 40 years down the road, to relive in his films his own formative experiences in the 60s, particularly that dark, drug-fuelled relationship with Nico (one of whose songs pops up on the soundtrack here, no surprises there). Cinema for Garrel has always been a family affair, and his father Maurice makes another appearance here, while the lead actor is his son Louis. I don't know how comfortable I'd feel having to act out my father's life with him behind the camera watching me, but there you go. In 2003 Garrel fils also appeared in a similar tale of a love triangle during the événements of 1968, Bertolucci's The Dreamers, and Garrel père makes a direct reference to "Bernardo" here, when his leading lady refers en passant to Prima della rivoluzione (or was it Strategia del ragno? I nodded off, to be honest). My problem with Les amants réguliers is just that it's too long - just under three hours. I don't mind slow - Garrel's cinema is always slow - but this one felt like it could have shed at least 40 minutes without difficulty.

[Wombatz]

saturn 3, stanley donen, 1980. i had no idea what to expect, received the dvd as a gift from somebody who also hadn't seen it. the beginning is spectacular, the production design not at all convincing but super stylish backdrop to a choreography of movements by people anonymous and vaguely menacing under their helmets. this is supposed to be one of the worst films of all times, i've meanwhile learned, but some of the supposedly awful choices are actually great (like having keitel dubbed by another actor, or the fact that the evil robot's behavior makes no psychological sense). it's still a major let-down that this turns into a boring evil tearing up the house story ... like alien, which also begins great and becomes a struggle once it hits full genre trappings, but indeed much more inane than alien. still some nice touches throughout, especially robot choreography, as you would expect from donen. it's less bad than anything from the star wars franchise, but not really schlocky enough for a recommendation (despite some nude wrestling from kirk douglas and a short scene of farrah fawcett in kinky gear) ... actually, now that i think of it, though douglas does not strike one as the weakest link, vincent price in his role would have totally saved the complete thing ...

[Dan Warburton]

André de Toth, Pitfall, 1948

Another great little de Toth noir, and one that managed to slip the hero's adultery and a not very happy ending past the Breen bastards (probably because the director went to see the censors and threatened to blow the whistle on their adultery ). Dick Powell is hardly your typical noir hero - though sick of his job and dully cynical at the start of the film, he's basically a decent chap - and nor is Lizabeth Scott a classic femme fatale (though it does end pretty badly for her). The real villain of the piece is Raymond Burr, typically huge and menacing, as the private dick out to dick the dame at any price.

[Dan Warburton]

Josh & Benny Safdie, Heaven Knows What, 2014

More Larry Clark than Trainspotting, as they say.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/j ... f-the-city
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/movi ... -life.html

[Dan Warburton]

David Fincher, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, 2011

Return visit, holds up quite well - but once you know the story, less engaging second time round. Sequel finally confirmed, but it seems neither Craig nor Mara will be in it. Peu importe, I preferred the Swedish trilogy myself.

[Dan Warburton]

Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel & Benoît Poelvoorde, C'est arrivé près de chez vous, ("Man Bites Dog"), 1992

Has it really been more than a quarter of century? Jeez, I guess it has. Black Belgian comedy at its finest, still hasn't been topped.

[Dan Warburton]

Rúnar Rúnarsson, Þrestir, ("Sparrows"), 2015

The only thing I don't understand about this splendid coming-of-age film, the story of a 16-year-old boy sent to live with his fuckup father in the wilds of Iceland's western fjords, is the English title. I don't recall seeing any sparrows in the film.. come to think of it, I don't recall seeing many sparrows at all in Iceland when we went three three years ago. Ain't too many trees, not since the Vikings cut most of them down about a thousand years ago. Anyway.. a fine, fine film - but I say that of just about every film I see featuring the mighty Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson. I remember Tavernier's remark about Gabin, the fact that he always seems perfectly believable in whatever role he plays - train driver, sea captain, cop, gangster or chef. Same can be said for Sigurðsson. Great actor. But you'll forgive me perhaps for picking another screenshot

[Dan Warburton]

Sergio Leone, Per qualche dollaro in più ("For a few Dollars More"), 1965

I think Alex Cox is probably on the money when he hails this as the greatest spaghetti - along with Corbucci's Il Grande Silenzio, as I recall - it's definitely Van Cleef's finest hour. And Eastwood, though not Cox's favourite actor by any stretch of the imagination, does a good job. But he apparently hated the cheroot, and wasn't too fond of the serape either. Volontè a total psychopath, of course. Oh, and, who wrote that music? What's his name... Anybody wanna buy a watch?

[Dan Warburton]

Anthony Mann, Desperate, 1947

Can't get enough Raymond Burr. He's especially despicable here, threatening to slice up Audrey Long (shame she retired five years after this was made, she was a dish) with a broken bottle. Action-packed young-couple-on-the-run noir - you'll be amazed how much ground Mann covers in the first fifteen minutes. Excellent. Watch out for Jason Robards (Senior) as the laconic detective with the nailfile.

[Dan Warburton]

John Boulting, Brighton Rock, 1947

Worth your time for Dicky Attenborough's most famous role (though not his greatest performance I reckon.. that was as serial killer John Christie in 10 Rillington Place) as the razor-wielding juvenile gangster Pinkie, and Hermione Baddeley's port-swilling amateur sleuth Ida.

[Dan Warburton]

Jacques Doillon, Ponette, 1996

Hats off to Doillon for casting a whole bunch of kids to tell a story of how a young girl (I think she's supposed to be six) comes to terms with her mother's death in a car crash. Inevitable comparisons with René Clément's Jeux Interdits, but here we're not at war, but in a kids' boarding school in the picturesque Drôme countryside. For you to decide what you make of Marie Trintignant's appearance. I wasn't totally convinced myself.

[Dan Warburton]

Bruno Dumont, Twentynine Palms, 2003

Second time, and just as harrowing. If you own the DVD you might want to check out the Making Of documentary, directed by a good pal of mine, Olivier Brunet. So I won't spoil it for you.

[Dan Warburton]

Radu Muntean, Tuesday, after Christmas, 2010

Another excellent example of the new Romanian cinema. Christmas isn't the best time of the year for your wife to find out you're having an affair with your dental hygienist, let's say. What's especially good about this is that there are no goodies or baddies - dialogue is pared down but meticulous in detail, the acting and filming both top-notch.

[Dan Warburton]

Slava Tsukerman, Liquid Sky, 1982

A flying saucer the size of a, well, a saucer, lands on a Manhattan rooftop and its occupants (whom we never see) wait for the local androgynous artistes to get high and have sex before zapping them and extracting those vital heroin secretions from their brains. Sound silly? Well, it is - but it's also arguably the best film ever made about AIDS, wonderfully dated (check out the cheesy Fairlight soundtrack!), with everybody particularly obnoxious, permanently stoned and horribly pretentious. It's also very funny, particularly the deadly serious German (of course) scientist getting chatted up by the seriously deadly sex-starved Jewish mother. But it's Anne Carlisle who steals the show, playing both Margaret ("I kill them with my cunt!") and the thoroughly detestable Jimmy.

[Dan Warburton]

John Brahm, The Lodger, 1944

The mighty Laird Cregar - mighty in all senses: he weighed 300lbs at the time, and went on a crash diet which did him in altogether, succumbing to a heart attack at just 30 years old - plays Mr Slade, aka Jack The Ripper (not spoiling much; there's no doubt he's the man pretty early on, even before George Sanders, here playing a smarmy Scotland Yard detective more interested in investigating Merle Oberon's nether regions than the Whitechapel underworld, gets hip). But it's an absolutely superb script, courtesy Barré Lyndon, and truly stellar camerawork by the great Lucien Ballard. Who, as you know, went on to DP for Sam Peckinpah, notably on The Wild Bunch.

[Dan Warburton]

Jennifer Chambers Lynch, Surveillance, 2008

This is one sick puppy of a film - and any discussion of it will probably spoil it for you (no point in even saying there's a twist M. Night Shyamalan would be proud of). Let's just say that Ms Lynch has certainly inherited her father's, umm, tastes (and one of his featured actors, Bill "Lost Highway" Pullman). Papa Lynch also produced and sang the song which plays over the closing credits. Great thriller - first time round especially.. Once you know what's coming a second viewing - I thought it was good enough to watch twice in a row - is entertaining, in a different way. Of course.

[Dan Warburton]

René Clair, A nous la liberté, 1931

And Chaplin claimed he'd never seen this before he made his own Modern Times? Pull the other one, mate. Of course, the French director loved Charlot so much he didn't feel inclined to pursue the matter through the courts. Lacking Chaplin's teary melodrama, I reckon Clair's film, though obviously dated and primitive in its use of sound (hell, it was 1931 for Chrissakes), stands up very well, its anarchic almost surrealist set pieces making it a worthy partner to Renoir's Boudu and Vigo's Zéro de Conduite. A blast!