Last Watched

[Lencho of the Apes]

Glorious technicolor fluff, the cotton-candy version of Minnelli or 50s Renoir. Outperforms any musician-biopic from Hollywood that I can think of (except maybe Yankee Doodle Dandy.)

https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/subtit ... n-veils-en

[rischka]

thx lencho! it's just what i needed ♥



charming and very colorful

[rischka]

i watched east german western Die Söhne der großen Bärin - the sons of the great bear (d josef mach 1966) if you don't mind everyone speaking german it's not bad!

(if not exactly good)

filmed in saxony according to imdb

[culinan881]

thx lencho! it's just what i needed ♥



charming and very colorful

It is next on my list .

[rischka]

watched megalopolis - that was some weird shit. obsessive fans only



aubrey plaza is giving me audrey totter. the film itself is giving me ayn rand

[cinesmith]

Epic film. Really loved this one. I wish Scott Walker was still around to have been able to do the soundtrack like he had for Corbet's prior two films but it's still a fantastic picture.

Btw. This was the color of the CTA buses in Chicago throughout the seventies and eighties so I have such a visceral response to this image despite it's effort to look like Philly.

[rischka]

route one/ usa d. robert kramer (1989)













this was a great thing to watch today ♥

[cinesmith]

Il Boemo aka The Bohemian (2022) Petr Václav
The Story of the 18th century composer Josef Myslivecek

[Jürka]

Il Boemo aka The Bohemian (2022) Petr Václav
The Story of the 18th century composer Josef Myslivecek

since i noticed this film exists (it got quite an extensive promo in my homeland) i was mildly tempted to watch it.
i believe Josef Mysliveček was an interesting figure and Petr Václav is not a bad director.
but somehow i am still afraid it might be too bombastic (one of those triumphalist biopics celebrating the true genius) and thus i haven’t dared to watch it yet.
so, how was it? would you recommend it?

[rischka]

i'm almost through another jerzy hoffman epic - potop/the deluge (1974) -- polish history was one bloody invasion after another, this time it's the swedes

great entertainment, constantly surprising, amazing actors and period detail - it's a swashbuckling riot if a bit hard to finish at almost 5 hours. i took 3 days

distractions are good actually ...

[rischka]

thanks to greg x for recommending this director to me eons ago ♥

[cinesmith]

Il Boemo aka The Bohemian (2022) Petr Václav
The Story of the 18th century composer Josef Myslivecek

since i noticed this film exists (it got quite an extensive promo in my homeland) i was mildly tempted to watch it.
i believe Josef Mysliveček was an interesting figure and Petr Václav is not a bad director.
but somehow i am still afraid it might be too bombastic (one of those triumphalist biopics celebrating the true genius) and thus i haven’t dared to watch it yet.
so, how was it? would you recommend it?

Yes, I would highly recommend it. Not nearly as bombastic as it would seem. Mozart is recognized as the boy genius. This fellow precedes him but was hardly a grand character. Nor someone who appeared to push very hard for his way. In some respects it suggests that a good deal of his success had to do with the people he befriends and as well as a good deal of luck sometimes. (No clue as to any degree of being historically accurate or not) It was a surprisingly wonderful portrayal with all the solid art direction and costumes that make these kinds of period pieces worthwhile.
.

[cinesmith]

Forgotten Love (2023) Michel Gazda


Superb Polish Drama based on the novel

[cinesmith]

NR 24 (2024) John Andreas Andersen
Based on the story of Gunnar Sønsteby who led the Oslo Gang of Resistance during the occupation in WWII.
Really excellent film that beats the Max Manus espionage thriller by raising the stakes of how uncertain things could really get.

[frisson]

Hi all, it's been a while since I posted last. A few days ago I watched Ya tebya pomnyu AKA I Remember You from 1985 directed by Ali Khamraev, it having only 100 views on letterboxd at the time of writing is pretty unbelievable. I watched his Man Follows Birds many months ago and so came in with pretty high expectations but it blew whatever I had in mind out of the water, really took the previous exploits of colors and angles to a different level. Recommended.

[frisson]

Nirbachana (1994) by Biplab Roy Chowdhury.

(first Oriya-language film!)

I left a lil review for this film on letterboxd, I'm not the greatest at writing but maybe it'll pique your interest.
https://letterboxd.com/leom1/film/nirbachana/

But man, in addition to how haunting this film's message is, it really is gorgeous. Really does the best with its beautiful setting.

[rischka]

the final piece of henryk sienkiewicz' trilogy of the polish-lithuanian commonwealth, Pan Wolodyjowski (hoffman 1969) this time poland is invaded by the turks - https://culture.pl/en/article/potop-red ... the-screen

they just can't catch a break. highly enjoyable swashbuckling and epic battle scenes. this might be the most fun of the three.

filmed in reverse order - with fire and sword (1999) - the deluge (1974) - colonel wolodyjowski (1969) any of these can stand alone

[Monsieur Arkadin]

(barely) Made it to Rotterdam for the film festival. Flight cancellations and slow driving almost cost me the festival...

But I was there in time to catch the re-premiere of Bachtiar Siagian's Turang which was very exciting. I quite liked the film, and I'm looking forward to some day saying more of his work if/when it is rediscovered. Also I got to meet Yuki (many of us are mutual friends on Letterboxd) in person, who worked to bring the film to IFFR.

Also got to see:
A new restoration of Tengiz Abuladze's first solo directed film Someone Else's Children which was excellent.

Ali Khamraev's new documentary about Sergei Parajanov called The Lilac Wind of Parajanov which felt very home movie-ish. A lot of archival materials that can be found on youtube, etc. And Khamraev pissed off the audience before his film even started because of (what seemed to me) confusion over the decision to program a different short before his feature. It seems he doesn't speak any English, and I'm not sure how/what of everything was communicated to him. Didn't mind watching it, but it wasn't something that will stand out in his filmography other than as a DVD special-feature.

Also the new Garin Nugroho, which was quite interesting.

[flip]

i'm doing my annual tour of oscar nominees, and i think the best one i've seen so far, in an alarmingly weak year, is the animated film flow

[cinesmith]

Freaks Out aka Freaks Vs The third Reich (2021) Gabriele Mainetti

This was a visual feast despite it's absurd premise. This was his second feature film. His debut was 'They call me Jeeg' (2015)
which I've not viewed yet.

[rischka]

moulin rouge! first time in 20 years. some fans dressed up.

it was awesome

[rischka]

wild 1934 l'herbier, bizarre plot but quite beautiful. also an openly queer michel simon. le bonheur



boyer plays an anarchist (?) who falls in love with his intended victim, actress gaby morlay. and ofc she returns his affection, even after he shoots her



because who could say no to this man???



bonus michel simon in his dressing gown. top notch acting from all the cast

[Lencho of the Apes]

Oh, no! It's Raj Kapoor's version of LImelight. And it is bathetic like you wouldn't believe, levels of mawk that would give even Jerry Lewis pause.

limelight 1.jpg (160.71 KiB) Viewed 2383 times

But maybe that's par for the course in Indian film kultur so maybe I should just shut up and take it on its own terms Maybe. At least it's got plenty of dazzle, at least toward the end. The system isn't allowing me to post those caps, though.

[wba]

Umi no junjô "Pure Emotions of the Sea"
Seijun Suzuki, Japan 1956

Fun early film by Suzuki. Recommended.

[nrh]

Oh, no! It's Raj Kapoor's version of LImelight. And it is bathetic like you wouldn't believe, levels of mawk that would give even Jerry
But maybe that's par for the course in Indian film kultur so maybe I should just shut up and take it on its own terms Maybe.

don't agree with the description of either joker or the total filmmaker, but it was wildly out of step with the popular taste of the time (the biggest hindi movie of 1970 was dev and vijay andand's sporty crime thriller johnny mera naam), combined with the incredible length (i don't think 4 hours 10 minutes was bested until jp dutta's loc kargill in the early 2000s) and expense it was the biggest flop of raj kapoor's career, and one of the biggest disasters in all of hindi film. it's pretty much widely considered a masterpiece now, but for years it was treated as an embarrassing curiosity at best, and raj kapoor never starred in another movie (his next movie bobby, which launched his son, was a course correction).

[Lencho of the Apes]

4 hours 10 minutes

Tastes differ, so I won't address that... but now I understand why the subs I had didn't mesh; the version I watched was only 3 hours long, and there were whole scenes transcribed into the srt file that I didn't have in the copy I was watching. Had to stop it at the beginning of each new scene and read the subs in notepad.

[rischka]

i watched flow -- stressful! my cat bailed

[pabs]

Liverpool (Alonso, 2008). It was very good. I loved the locations and the lack of dialogue.

The Brutalist (2024). Didn't like it at all. Too many stereotypes.

[rischka]

i watched pathaan (2023) in which srk's hair was the real star






also a strange garbo film, 'as you desire me' (1932)





stroheim vs melvin douglas

[rischka]

then a couple of east german space movies - signale (1970)





and even wackier Im Staub der Sterne (1976) both directed by gottfried kolditz





a nice distraction from the daily horror show. best review courtesy mr balihai:

Imagine, if you can, a movie that cross-pollinates the social philosophy of Star Trek with the trippiness of Roger Corman's Sixties acidsploitation films, cringe-worthy dialogue reminiscent of Plan 9 From Outer Space, aliens wearing vinyl and leather bondage outfits straight out of some seedy gay nightclub in Berlin, and a healthy dollop of semi-nude Raquel Welch-style Space Girl dancing on top. Now imagine that this movie was produced by the repressive, Stalinist regime of East Germany, and you have all the ingredients necessary to create an utterly improbable viewing experience, filled with a random parade of enchantingly retro-futuristic WTF Moments, set to an eccentric soundtrack of 8-bit synth noises, wah-wah pedal funk, and ethereal Teutonic folksinging.

Is your mind blown yet? It will be.