Recently Watched Films 2019

[Dan Warburton]

Russ Meyer, Mudhoney, 1965

So good they named a rock group after it. Actually, it's not all that good at all, but it's fun to watch Meyer try and do Southern Gothic. Of course he's more interested in depth of cleavage than depth of character, and even if there's not much room for busty beauties in the storyline, rest assured that Russ manages to find room for bouncing boobs.

[Dan Warburton]

Archie Mayo, The Mayor of Hell, 1933

No, it's not Cagney the mayor, but one of the tough street kids who've been sent to reformatory school after slashing car tyres and robbing neighbourhood drugstores. In fact, Cagney, who's rather hard to take as a good guy here, plays the new governor of the aforementioned establishment, despite a rather dubious history elsewhere (first thing he does when he arrives at the school is take a slug of whisky from a hipflask..). It's an odd story, as JC starts by sacking all the warders, letting the boys run things their own way, electing their own mayor, chief of police etc etc, until, when.. want me to go on? It's worth a look for the closing prison riot - hey, where'd they get those flaming torches from?! - and the brutal death of the former guvnor, but as everyone gets off scot free and Cagney gets the girl (oh yes, there was a nice nurse..), the happy ending comes across as rather ridiculous.

[Dan Warburton]

Daniel Diaz Torres, Alice in Wondertown, 1991

Quoth Wiki: "Superficially, the film is framed as a murder mystery. While hitching a ride in a back of a pickup truck full of workers, Alice is attacked by a strange cloaked person. She pushes him to fall overboard while the truck is crossing a high bridge, and she is accused of murder. However the body mysteriously disappears, she is relieved of murder charges, and she narrates her story, presented as a flashback in the film. Her adventure starts when she is delegated to a small town of Maravillas ("Wondertown"; maravilla=wonder). While the title is an allusion to Alice in Wonderland, it is not an adaptation of the English book." No it's not, and the lead actress isn't all that scintillating. Nor is the rip, which looks decidedly murky.

[henriq]

Fred Tan, Split of the Spirit, 1987

Bit of a daft story of a dancer who's been taken over by the spirit of a murdered jilted spouse and called on to exact revenge.. Until at the end the possessing spirit decides she doesn't want to let her go and drags her off to the afterlife, from where she's rescued by the heroic young photographer who discovered the story, Blow Up-like, in his darkroom. Sort of fun for the first half hour or so, but the tacky music, awful special effects and terrible ending kill what little enthusiasm you might have been able to conjure up. Yawn.

Oh yeah, I saw that too. Second your take. Is that a good sign, you think, that I need to be reminded in a forum what I've watched? Or maybe I watch too much.

[Dan Warburton]

Nikola Tanhofer, H-8, 1958

This one really deserves a decent cleaning up and an HD reissue - one punter over at IMDb who hails it as "the best Croatian film ever made" (can't say I know many others, but this is a cracker). It's the tale - based on a true story - of a nasty head-on collision between a lorry and a bus (caused by a car overtaking in driving rain, whose driver speeds away from the carnage s/he's caused and is never traced), which we hear about, newsreel-style, at the outset. Thereafter we discover in flashback the characters and their backstories, ever in the knowledge that, before long, some of them will be killed because they're sitting in the wrong seat on the bus. But who will it be? Excellent character studies, fine acting, a genuine nailbiter. Strongly recommended.

[Dan Warburton]

Raoul Ruiz, La maison Nucingen, 2008

"Surreal gothic comedy about a gambler who wins a strange Chilean mansion and takes his frail wife there" runs the IMDb capsule summary, and that's a fair enough description, I suppose. But as you'd expect with Ruiz there's much more than that to enjoy, starting with the magnificent locations - makes you feel like taking a trip to Chili, for sure - and the nuanced and deliciously eccentric multi-lingual performances of the (fine) cast. Ruiz's earlier On Top Of The Whale comes to mind, with its potty polyglot Patagonian similarities; Nucingen House is, shall we say, somewhat less incomprehensible (:)) Cinéphile's delight.

[Dan Warburton]

Aparna Sen, Mr and Mrs Iyer, 2002

So here's another pocket summary from the same place: "During a bus journey, a devout Hindu Brahmin woman [played by the director's daughter] protects a Muslim man when communal rioting breaks out." True, but it's as much about an impossible love (think The Bridges of Madison County) as it is a(nother) comment on the fragility of modern India's ethnic diversity. It's a nice - not really a compliment in my book, I'm afraid - film, a very family-friendly affair, with no swearing, no blood and lots of pretty landscapes.

[henriq]

Alain Cavalier - Martin et Léa (1979)

Je ne veux pas faire semblant.
Je m'habitue a toi.

A gem, an absolute, shining, brilliant, wonderful gem! Watch this space: competition is none - this is, twenty-six days into this new year, my film of the year for 2019. Or simply one of the greatest films I have ever seen. I'll have to be careful, or I'll make my monster post on Antonioni look like a Disney tagline. Real life couple Xavier Saint-Macary and Isabelle Ho play the two lovers Martin and Léa, him an aspiring classical singer, her a kept woman of sorts, bankrolled by Lucien (Richard Bohringer) and obliged to procure young prostitutes for him. A sharply angular and triangular setup: a deft staging of themes of power, jealousy, love and possession. Everything progresses through rooms, a few exteriors thrown in for rhythmic measure. These rooms become a sensuous embodiment of a philosophy, a framing of touch and affect, be it erotic, musical, political (lovely how the theme of the two lovers coming from opposing sides of the Indochina war is introduced and then downplayed). A very French tradition, that: think, for a partial roster of films working through this, of Godard's Le mepris, Alain Tanner's Le retour d'Afrique, Duras' India Song, Rohmer with Ma nuit chez Maud or La femme de l'aviateur, and on and on. But of all these, I actually think Cavalier takes the cake: I have never seen a more beautifully captured and textured space than the apartment in this film. Impeccably designed and shot, poignant and resonant, a varying agglomeration of pillows, sheets, flowers, lighting. I almost have to stop myself from writing more on the subject, it is that beautiful. Also interesting is how Richard Bohringer in the modulations of his character - ranging from sort of bemused eminence grise and legislator to violently possessive lover - recalls Richard Romanus in another gem, Matthew Chapman's Strangers Kiss. More on that, I hope, later. To sum up: why waste your time with middling crap when this magic is out there? Isn't life, and love, and fucking oxygen in too short a supply for that?

[Antoine]

Please note the upcoming freeleech week Monday Jan 28 to Monday Feb 4. GMT 00:00.

[henriq]

Please note the upcoming freeleech week Monday Jan 28 to Monday Feb 4. GMT 00:00.

See, I had a feeling. Exciting to see the traffic this year.

[Piano Mouth]

One could essentially buy a couple dozen hard drives and just download everything on there, am I correct?

[Dan Warburton]

Gaspar Noé, Climax, 2018

Holy shit....! Words fail (for the moment, will try to write later after a drink.. but not sangria.. ) Definitely Noé's best since Irreversible, that's all I'm saying for the moment. 1080rip going FREE at KG, don't miss it folks.. more anon

[walto]

Sorry to keep dumbing the place down, but I saw another cartoon feature, Coco (Unkrich/Molina, 2017)





It's kind of a sweet (and, I suppose, ethno-centric) look at the afterlife. What was most interesting to me, however, after all the awards it received, was just how shitty the songs in it are. (Where the hell was Randy Newman??) I also find a bit humorous how similar the voices of the youthful protagonists have been in nearly every Disney movie for the past 20 or 25 years. Doesn't matter whether they're boys, girls, (Haiwaiians, Chinese or Scandinavian) or even if they're non-humans (mermaids, rats, faeries, or whatever), or if they want to cook, fight in a war, lead a people, or play guitar. They all sound pretty much the same, in their little hopeful, ingenuous ways.

[Dan Warburton]

Sorry to keep dumbing the place down

Don't be - always nice to see your posts (here & elsewhere)

[Dan Warburton]

Mariya Saakyan, Mayak ("The Lighthouse"), 2006

With a rather cool soundtrack by Kimmo Pohjonen and cinematography that any Tarkovsky fan would no doubt appreciate, plus a running time of just 78 minutes, this tale set in the warzone of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory (Armenia / Azerbaidjan) is well worth a look. KGFT again, help yourself.

[Dan Warburton]

Daniel Schmid, Schatten der Engel ("Shadow of Angels"), 1976

A film adaptation of Fassbinder's succès de scandale play Garbage, the City and Death starring RWF himself as Raoul the pimp and many familiar faces from the Fassbinder troupe in the cast, entered at the Cannes Festival in 1976.. So why have we not heard more about this? Maybe the controversial subject matter, which led to a furious reaction from Frankfurt's Jewish community when the play was performed there.. Or maybe because RWF himself wasn't directing (Daniel Schmid's work is, well, OK, but how might it have looked if Fassbinder had been behind the camera instead of in front of it?).. Anyway, if you want to check it out (KGFT once again), be warned that the copy is pretty naff. Any Fassbinder heads know if this is due for a proper reissue? Haven't had much time to check.

[Dan Warburton]

John Sherwood, The Monolith Monsters, 1957

Cool idea: a meteorite crashes in the California desert - where all these great 50s sci-fi films seem to take place! - but when the black rocks are exposed to water they.. grow and multiply! And petrify any poor sod within striking distance. Pretty stoopid if you think about it, but despite stock clichés - the pipe-smoking professor, the hero and his love interest, a cute lickle girl who manages to be cured before her hand turns to stone (don't titter) - I rather enjoyed it.

[Dan Warburton]

Masahiro Shinoda, The Petrified Forest, 1973

But if you want to talk petrification, this is the one to go for: terrific film, great performances, awesome Takemitsu soundtrack. Don't want to reveal much, but if you're a junior doctor with access to lethal poison you might want to keep your girlfriend and mum from finding it. Yikes! Strongly recommended.

[Dan Warburton]

Kidlat Tahimik, Perfumed Nightmare, 1977

This is a wonderfully potty tale from the Philippines, but the director (who is also the principal protagonist) ends up in France - archive footage of Giscard d'Estaing, the building site of the Pompidou Centre etc, fun - and Germany. Our man Kidlat, who's obsessed with space travel and is the local branch secretary of the Wernher Von Braun Society (I kidlat you not), pops up along the way in his multicoloured taxi. Impossible to describe, really - more fiction than fact, but its documentary feel and oddball humour put it squarely in a category of its own. Maybe William Klein comes to mind. Recommended! A better rip would be cool, though.

[Dan Warburton]

Zdenek Podskalský, Bílá paní ("The White Lady"), 1965

Another one up for grabs at Karagarga (as I don't think it's available anymore on DVD). One of just IMDb user reviews seems to be worth quoting: "This is a real rarity - a film that totally skewers the centrally-controlled system. The basic premise - to me - is how does a system that wants to control everyone and everything from gardens to belief in God deal with a phenomenon that contradicts their view of reality. Based on a real Czech folk legend (the White Lady being Perchta of Rozemberk) the film quickly takes off in some great directions. Hrusinsky, Bohdalova, Kopecsky and Brodsky are excellent, as is the rest of the cast. It took a while for me to get a hold of this one on DVD but it was well worth the wait. I rank this with other mid-60's Czech subversive films like Firemen's Ball and Who Wants to Kill Jessie?" Serve yourself a White Lady (the cocktail, nitwit) and enjoy.