Last Watched

[rischka]

real men doing real things!!

[sally]

max neufeld's 1923 hoffmanns erzählungen is showing on arte in a nice restoration

https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/095681-00 ... -hoffmann/





it looks era-appropriate but it's strangely sanitized compared to say oswald's 1916 version. and even though esp. the doll & reflection episodes are 'CINEMA!!!!' i just don't find the stories that interesting, in any iteration (haven't seen the P&P one and don't want to)

and can willem defoe just not be creepy for 5 mins.

[greennui]

The Rosary (Lois Weber, 1913) - Searched for this one yearlier this year for the 1913 poll but couldn't find it, not even on kg but I stumbled across it on youtube today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV3HDlmS6Zo

[sally]

The Rosary (Lois Weber, 1913) - Searched for this one yearlier this year for the 1913 poll but couldn't find it, not even on kg but I stumbled across it on youtube today.

cheers! was thinking about having a bit of a delve into religious silents at some point, tho i much preferred the pilgrimage to kevlaar solution to the death of a loved one: it's a miracle! god killed them both! woohoo! (and also it had the madonna wafting around like some double-exposure fairy, wonderful - why aren't there more religious silents with jesus, mary and all the angels playing ghosts?)

[Monsieur Arkadin]

CriterionChannel brought my attention to Office Killer from 1997. The sole feature film directed by Cindy Sherman. I've been a casual fan of her photography (and her bizarre instagram page) for a while, so I was kind of surprised that I'd never heard of this film before. As a sort-of slasher it fit in with the viewing plans for the month.
It was fun! Really odd, interesting casting mixing Carol Kane, Barbara Sukowa, Molly Ringwald and Jeanne Tripplehorn, but it works.
The two key things that jumped out at me were Sherman's compositional sensibility shining through, though she wasn't the DP on this. It's very clear that she had a hands on approach in the image-making. You can tell it's a film made by a photographer in a number of ways. We've got a few extremely notable camera movements... but for the most part the camera stays put, and our acts drop into (or walk out of) a series of tableaux that are certainly evocative, but not quite temporally dynamic. It's got a really interesting visual style that feels totally akin with her most famous photography work.

The other thing that was odd, was that I was immediately reminded of Johnny Mnemonic another first (and only) feature film by a prominent figure in contemporary fine art, that played wholly into genre tropes and pulp content. Didn't realize until googling afterwards that Robert Longo was married to Barbara Sukowa... and now would be curious if these two films coming out within two years are connected in some way, or if there was just a general desire to have fine artists move into genre filmmaking in the mid-90s.

[greennui]

cheers! was thinking about having a bit of a delve into religious silents at some point, tho i much preferred the pilgrimage to kevlaar solution to the death of a loved one: it's a miracle! god killed them both! woohoo! (and also it had the madonna wafting around like some double-exposure fairy, wonderful - why aren't there more religious silents with jesus, mary and all the angels playing ghosts?)

I've had that one bookmarked for a while. Neat.

[sally]

well it's a pretty straight religious thing, dreyer but no one wakes up. appreciated the insane commitment of the film. and the jolly fairy mary of death.

this on the other hand....der geiger von florenz......czinner....this expansive, joyous filmmaker that no one talks about...i've seen 3 (well four but one was unwatchable quality) and i'm such a fan.

also connie's limpid eyes

[rischka]

i'm binging the sopranos now but i have some hammer films lined up for the weekend

[sally]

didn't watch tacita dean cuz i needed something daft.

absolutely there for middle aged women making films about middle aged female losers - thank you ex hong sang-soo producer kim cho-hee for lucky chan-sil. (got a bit slushy sentimental with the comes to terms with life ending but there was masses of hong cringe and i laughed my head off in recognition at a certain point) i would go drinking with this lady

[Lencho of the Apes]

Por Querer A Una Mujer - Ernesto Cortazar

Unusually good online print of an unusually good ranchera. A bit of a noir feel to the narrative arc, plot twist reminiscent of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane. Not 'art' but a fine example of local product, like a high-midtier Hollywood movie. No subs available...

3 por.JPG (58.62 KiB) Viewed 2665 times

[nrh]

absolutely there for middle aged women making films about middle aged female losers

for this brilliant miniature not quite genre i really recommend Lee Suk-gyeong's the day after from 2009, which i only knew about because angela schanelec requested it to be programmed as part of her lincoln center retrospective. if nothing else it has the best fried chicken + alcohol melancholy breakdown scene in any movie.

[sally]

thanks for the rec! i'll add it to my non-existent confederacy of duncesses to-watch list

[Samourai]

Watched Dune last night

Had to cleanse myself by watching Late Spring again

[Ofréne]

not a film but i've been watching mad men rather than watching any movies, on season 4 and i quite enjoy it

[rischka]

i binged season 1 & 2 of the sopranos. spoilers: they killed big pussy

[rischka]

it occurred to me i've never seen original castle in the sky, only the disney dub, so had to fix that

https://twitter.com/rbgscfz/status/1456 ... 50337?s=20

i'm on season 4 sopranos now, when is ralphie gonna die already

[sally]

i'm period-pain-brained binge-watching crappy nordic noir serial killer stuff on netflix and i feel slightly bad about it

[Lencho of the Apes]

Ti Yu Huang Hou / QueenOf Sports - Sun Yu, 1934, China

Girl power for the Revolution... Neat little move, but I'm only dropping it here because it has my favorite title card of all time.

3 secret shit.JPG (44.35 KiB) Viewed 2489 times

[Ofréne]

great image ^

stopped watching mad men mid s6. felt like it was retreading the same ground over again and i got a bit disappointed. gonna start it up again and hope the second half is better

[sally]

mister radio (1924) nunzio malasomma

https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/092070-00 ... ter-radio/

dreadful german mountain film (dreadful because the lead (jumpy leaping-boy luciano albertini) is so un-engaging, and dreadful because the stunts were terrifying and how no one died whilst they were all gaily pootling around the edges of sheer chasms i don't know)

[Roscoe]

TOBY DAMMIT and FELLINI SATYRICON on the Big Screen at Museum Of The Moving Image. TOBY D. worked very nicely on the big screen, all those cardboard cutouts all over the place were more readily visible, as must have been intended. And good old SATYRICON, even in a rather dated print with an old subtitle translation still impresses.

[rischka]

tsui hark, all about women 2008 -- nice deconstruction of the romantic comedy with the maestro keeping SO MANY balls in the air. i can't 100% love it but the amount of sheer cleverness on display here is kinda staggering. it's a lot. but surely not ALL lol.

[greennui]

The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier, 2021) - Man, what a film! It''ll be tough to beat for my MOTY. A must watch for anyone who loved Trier's previous Oslo films.

[rischka]

watched dune finally - not horrible, same old hero's journey with some nice visuals - i have to say jason momoa, oscar isaac and josh brolin were plenty of eye candy for me. sadly i think they all died? so dunno if i'm watching part 2 haha. i think i read this book at some point but not entirely sure. i barely remember the lynch film but it was funny to watch after reading this recent guardian article

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... u-prophesy

[sally]

i'm still binge-watching crappy serial killer cliche-fests.

most recent was the devil's throat, typical tortured detective tropes all the way through, so dull! why do i keep watching them! well this one was bulgarian and i've never seen a bulgarian tv show before so even assuming it was made for export still interesting to see how the christian/muslim history etc etc is handled for entertainment (is it only from claudio magris that i remember anything about the place?). plus the amazing countryside. and the bad mad guy was so fucking hot. (even if he was a bit dismembery, he got naked at one point so it evens out)

[sally]

rule of mountains/mtis kanoni/закон гор/მთის კანონი - boris mikhin (1927)

er, i didn't think i was that hormonal but um what i said above. amazing countryside, guy was so fucking hot. except this time it's a movie! georgia, 1927, i think, the best looking one i've seen from there, from that period (the print is good, makes so much difference) heavy mountain doom-revenge film, but georgian so think overtones (i mean, proportional to it being 1927) of vedreba-esque poetry (and all the other gorgeous georgian films that there are, your chronicle, your big green valley etc)

but mainly this guy (one of the main characters). in 1927. in georgia. (he was in abrek zaur as well by the same director but i don't think he looked like this in that!) omg



watch it here (there are no subs but who cares when you're licking the screen)

https://www.culture.ru/movies/19078/zak ... avaya-mest

[...]

Huh. That guy has a really strong contemporary look, with the shaved head, moderate facial hair and with his general physique, not a look you see that often in movies from the 20s or so. I suppose his demeanor here helps too, as he doesn't come across as "actorly" in the same way most actors from the time do as trends now are so different.

[sally]

yeah that's what i found remarkable (aside from the fact that he's hot) i've not really seen anything like it in a silent film. all his bros had shaved heads and facial hair so that's a period thing but none of them took their shirts off and casually flexed like that. and the scene it was in was irrelevant to the action, its only purpose was just to display him (thanks director!) - i'm assuming considering the plot (he accidentally kills his best friend's brother, sparking tragic tension between personal & communal needs for justice) that it was to situate him in the virile, guileless but cruel innocence of Nature, but i've no idea if there's any titillation there as well.

not the greatest silent film made but deserves more than the 0 views it had on letterboxd

[...]

Where'd you see it? I gotta admit to being curious about it now myself. Oh, you gave a link, nevermind. I missed it staring at the time traveler dude.

[sally]

captain salvation - john s robertson (1927)

gotta think that the overweening parasitic-hysteric saviour dude stuff is intentional? i mean it's the title? the cost of imposing his moral law just obviously horrendous (community disruption, murder, the suicide of a capable & coping woman, sheer sentimental despotism at end)

take that griffith!


(the unchanging sea, but boxed in commentary with the winking net-snare)