Recently Watched Films 2018

[Dan Warburton]

Gianfranco Rosi, Fuocoammare, 2016

Along with the BBC Exodus series, the best documentary I've seen so far on the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe, this time concentrating on the inhabitants of the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, where many refugees from Syria and Africa arrive, if they survive the ocean crossing. Far from typical as documentaries go, though - this fine review should whet your appetite https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/movi ... eview.html

[Dan Warburton]

Don Askarian, Avetik, 1992

I can find precious little online about director Askarian other than this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Askarian but on the strength of this film alone he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Tarkovsky and Paradjanov. Dedicated to the memory of his grandfather, who probably perished in the Armenian genocide, this is a melancholy, breathtakingly beautiful piece of work. Wish I could find more images to whet your appetite - but imagine a broken piano drifting down a mountain stream, a butterfly trapped in honey trickling down a girl's bare breast, a lamb perched atop a ruined church while tanks roll by. There are some truly awesome images here - do yourselves a favour and check it out.

[Dan Warburton]

Michael Haneke, Funny Games U.S., 2007

It's been six years since I saw the original 1997 European version, and I could have sworn there were some scenes in this American remake that weren't in the original - but I was wrong. Went back to review the earlier version right afterwards and, indeed, the US version is nothing less than a shot-for-shot remake. I wonder why he bothered, to be honest.. maybe to "conquer the American market?" (I see it grossed a couple of million $) Whatever, once you know that Michael is taking you for a jolly ride, and that famous scene with the remote control is coming, there are no surprises. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Roth didn't enjoy the experience. That makes two of us.

[Dan Warburton]

Yorgos Lanthimos, Kinetta, 2005

"Kinetta... a desolate Greek resort town, inhabited during the off-season by migrant workers. In this colourless setting, the film studies the cryptic activities of an inscrutable trio: a plain-clothes cop with a passion for cars, tape recorders and Russian women; a loner clerk who is a part-time photographer; and a hotel maid with aspirations to be an actress. They barely speak, passing the time by staging outlandish re-enactments of local murders. Their efforts are obsessive, the details exhaustive, their purpose... questionable. This darkly comic and compellingly hypnotic film is the extraordinary debut feature of Giorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, Alps and The Lobster), one of Greek cinema's most acclaimed new directors."
Giorgos? Thought it was Yorgos. Maybe an accepted alternative spelling? Whatever, however much I enjoyed the films cited above (have yet to see Alps though), this is neither extraordinary nor compellingly hypnotic, and I found nothing much to laugh at except the (supposedly deliberately?) awful handheld camera technique. According to this review http://www.infernalcinema.com/2015/01/2 ... vd-review/ the DVD contains a 29-minute featurerette in which the director explains all, but, though I'm sure he knows more about making films than I do, I can't say I'm inclined to return for a second viewing. Feel free to talk me into it, if anyone's out there reading.

[Dan Warburton]

Marguérite Duras, Le navire Night, 1978

An acquired taste, as they say, the cinema of Duras - but if you've read the books, you know more or less what to expect. Excellent 1080 rip now available at KG, for those who go there

[Dan Warburton]

Sergio Corbucci, The Hellbenders, 1967

Joseph Cotten is great as the Confederate officier determined to rewrite the history of the Civil War by ambushing a convoy and making off with a coffin (well, it's spaghetti) full of cash. Of course, things don't go according to plan. Great ending. Could do with a decent HD reissue. Not as wild as Django or as bleak as Il grande silenzio, but better than other Corbuccis I've seen.

[Dan Warburton]

Alex Cox, Repo Man, 1984

Couldn't resist another viewing - fifth? Sixth? Still love it.

[Dan Warburton]

Vincente Minnelli, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, 1970

It's too long, with a curiously convoluted plot, odd casting (Jack as counterculture hero? haha!), and apparently not the most faithful film adaptation of the Broadway show - but Streisand is terrific (and I'm not really a fan) and the Minnelli sets and costumes a blast. Montand apparently didn't want to play another Latin lover but they doubled his fee and he did a good job. I enjoyed it as much as this writer: http://lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/2012 ... -1970.html

[Dan Warburton]

Jacques Deray, Symphonie pour un massacre, 1963

GREAT thriller, with a great cast - Rochefort is particularly good - superb photography, cool soundtrack, compelling plot and a fine ending. Absolutely top notch, as good as the best Sautets or Melvilles. Recommended!

[Dan Warburton]

David Lynch, The Elephant Man, 1980

"No, I haven't got your text message yet, look.."

[Dan Warburton]

Jerry Schatzberg, Scarecrow, 1973

Always nice to discover a film I'd never heard of, surprisingly so since it stars both Pacino and Hackman and won what later became known as the Palme d'Or at Cannes.. why don't we talk about this one more often? It's terrific! Watch out for Richard Lynch too, yikes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarecrow_(1973_film)

[Dan Warburton]

Larry Cohen, Full Moon High, 1981

Yes, it's completely stupid from beginning to end, overloaded with dumb gags, with terrifically tacky sets and effects, but Cohen knows exactly what he's doing (in any case, he only ever made his gloriously self-indulgent movies for himself, so he has nobody to answer to, least of all outraged punters over at IMDb..). Makes Mel Brooks look like Ozu in comparison Worth your time for splendid cameos from Alan Arkin, Elisabeth Hartman and Kenneth Mars

[Claud601]

Larry Cohen, Full Moon High, 1981

Yes, it's completely stupid from beginning to end, overloaded with dumb gags, with terrifically tacky sets and effects, but Cohen knows exactly what he's doing (in any case, he only ever made his gloriously self-indulgent movies for himself, so he has nobody to answer to, least of all outraged punters over at IMDb..). Makes Mel Brooks look like Ozu in comparison Worth your time for splendid cameos from Alan Arkin, Elisabeth Hartman and Kenneth Mars

Thank you! Thought I’ve seen a lot but I guess not

[Piano Mouth]

Pieces of April - Dir/Writer - Peter Hedges



Katie Holmes lives in NYC apartment with her boyfriend, who's black and a nice, but pretty street from the hood kind of guy, and her upstate NY family, her parents and siblings come down to visit for Thanksgiving. Patricia Clarkson is a name I've heard before, she was funny/great/dislikable, great cast, I never found anything special about Katie Holmes and the guy from Will and Grace pops in unexpectedly...The soundtrack is done by Stephen Meritt of The Magnetic Fields and various side projects. Really pretty great.

[Dan Warburton]

Serge Bozon, Madame Hyde, 2016

I haven't read the Robert Louis Stevenson story since I was at school, but I get the impression the director is doing its best to follow the original storyline. But setting the action in the suburbs of Paris with Isabelle Huppert's Mme Géquil (Jekyll, get it? huh huh), a mousy science teacher having difficulty controlling her students until she accidentally gets struck by lightning and starts glowing like the car at the end of Repo Man is, umm..a bit of a bore. Romain Duris has fun hamming it up as the trendy headmaster with matching mauve / blue / green shirts and ties, José Garcia is Huppert's too-good-to-be-true hubby, but the only thing I really enjoyed is when Huppert burnt the next door neighbour's dogs to a crisp. Otherwise, curiously forgettable.

[Dan Warburton]

Patrice Leconte, Les Vécés étaient fermés de l'intérieur, 1975

Debut feature from Leconte is a detective story spoof with Rochefort and Coluche on the hunt for the killer of a bus conductor who exploded in his loo (vécé = W.C. in French), locked from the inside.. Fun in places, with a slightly potty Clouseauesque atmosphere, but not the cult comedy of Les bronzés (three years later) and not a patch on later, greater Lecontes (Monsieur Hire, Le mari de la coiffeuse - see reviews passim)

[Dan Warburton]

Edward Dmytryk, Tender Comrade, 1943

Edith Head must have had a hell of a bad hangover when she designed the costumes for Ginger Rogers, but as the rest of the film is just as gooey / tacky, it hardly matters. This wordy exercise in wartime propaganda, written (by Dalton Trumbo) to make sure that the gals left back at home would remain steadfastly loyal to their absent soldier boys, hasn't aged at all well. If you want to check out some serious Hollywood anti-Nazi propaganda, go for Sirk's Hitler's Madman instead.

[Dan Warburton]

Claire Denis, Un beau soleil intérieur, 2017

Ugh, what happened to Claire Denis? Hard to believe that this sloppy, bumbling affair is the work of the woman who gave us L'intrus, Trouble Every Day and Beau Soleil. Maybe it's the absence of her frequent co-writer Jean-Pol Fargeau (though I see he's back on board for Denis' next film, High Life, coming soon), maybe it's the frankly impossible idea of trying to make a film based (veeery loosely) on Roland Barthes' Fragments d'un discours amoureux, maybe it's just that everyone looks old and flabby (Depardieu, goes without saying, but whatever happened to beau gosse Xavier Beauvois? do some sit-ups, man!). It's almost as if Denis is trying to do a Philippe Garrel, but without the tortured autoborgraphical underpinning that makes each Garrel film an exercise in painful introspection, it's deadly. Avoid.

[Dan Warburton]

Michel Deville, Toutes peines confondues, 1992

Further proof that French pop singers are better at acting than at singing - Bruel and Dutronc trade plenty of snappy one-liners in this classy adaptation of Andrew Coburn's Sweetheart, authentic hardboiled neo-noir, enthralling throughout. Another damn good Deville.

[Dan Warburton]

Todd Haynes, Carol, 2015

We're far from Far From Heaven, that's for sure. Based on a Patricia Highsmith story that I haven't (and won't) read, it somehow - in today's world where the kind of taboos that Haynes skewered so adroitly in the earlier film have been airbrushed away in a hashtag tweetstorm of sanctimonious political correctness - a tale of frowned-upon lesbian love crossed with an ugly custody battle doesn't take off. One glaring plothole (how did hubby know where the girls were well enough to send a private dick after them?) doesn't help matters. For all its neanderthal sexism, a potboiler like Kramer vs Kramer works better. Disappointed.