SCFZ

The aggressively lifeless Mank gets a resounding 'meh' from me. What we really need is the Marion Davies biopic.

greennui wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 9:53 pm The aggressively lifeless Mank gets a resounding 'meh' from me. What we really need is the Marion Davies biopic.

the cat's meow by bogdanovich

nrh wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:04 pm

greennui wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 9:53 pm The aggressively lifeless Mank gets a resounding 'meh' from me. What we really need is the Marion Davies biopic.

the cat's meow by bogdanovich

That's just the Thomas Ince incident, no? One could possibly do everything from the humble beginnings to the famous comedienne, Hearst relationship, Ince incident and lastly the Citizen Kane stuff. Seyfried was fine as Davies but I was amazed that they managed to get a guy that neither looked or sounded like Orson Welles.

Anyway, It seems like it's already been done, with Bob Mitchum as Hearst lol

I’m not going to watch mank, but I watched the patsy this morning. Marion Davies comic genius?

greennui wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:48 pm Anyway, It seems like it's already been done, with Bob Mitchum as Hearst lol

It's on youtube! Watched the first few minutes... looks bleak as hell. But I do think Virginia Madsen could have pulled this off in a more interesting production. Kind of feels like a pilot to a soap opera that never aired.

kanafani wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 6:18 pm I’m not going to watch mank, but I watched the patsy this morning. Marion Davies comic genius?

https://misstanwyck.tumblr.com/post/191 ... in-blondie

Monsignor Arkadin wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 6:37 pm

greennui wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:48 pm Anyway, It seems like it's already been done, with Bob Mitchum as Hearst lol

It's on youtube! Watched the first few minutes... looks bleak as hell. But I do think Virginia Madsen could have pulled this off in a more interesting production. Kind of feels like a pilot to a soap opera that never aired.

It would be interesting to see what kind of energy Mitchum would bring to a made for TV production in the mid 80's given his brilliantly lethargic performances throughout the 70's.

marion davies was a huge comedic talent that hearst kept trying to stick in period dramas. see also: jennifer jones/selznick

Check out Marion Davies in SHOW PEOPLE and THE PATSY for proof of her brilliance. She sparkles.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Higgins, 1982).

Somehow I had no idea this was a musical. The dance-troupe sequences were very professional, excellently done, and often quite funny too. Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds had good on-screen chemistry. Such a sweetheart she is!

An all-round fun film which put me in a good mood and made me forget about all the trouble in the world.

Yee haw!!

MANK stank.

And The Ship Sails On: Fellini's most misunderstood film.It's very difficult for people to understand (especially Anglophones) that it is both lampooning and lamenting the demise of old European bourgeois culture, of which opera is merely a symbol. To think that once upon a time people actually worshiped opera singers. It's like an alien dimension compared to the world of today. It has obvious problems, especially with the dubbing, which is incredibly distracting at times, and perhaps it's a tad overlong, but it's a moving elegy for a bygone era, and one of Fellini's better post-8 1/2 films. I actually prefer it to Amarcord. Has more layers/meaning. 8/10.

I Am Suzanne! (Rowland V. Lee, 1933) - Bizarre pre-code curio. The cute, kinda blank, one could almost say puppet-like dancer played by Lilian Harvey is being manipulated by her puppetmaster-like manager. A puppeteer ends up requesting her to model for a puppet and she ends up falling in love with him but he's mostly into his puppets, especially the puppet he made of her. Puppets, people, everything blends into each other and she wants to be non ones puppet!! One hell of a print as you all can see. It seems like it was meant to be tinted like a silent film.



Videograms of a Revolution (Andrei Ujica/Harun Farocki, 1992) - I watched Ujica's 'The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu' a few years ago but I wasn't really able to grasp it. This one's way more accessible and has FarGOATi fingerprints all over it which made for a much more enjoyable experience.

Adelheid (Frantisek Vlácil, 1970) - plz hook nuanced "war" and "romance" films like this one into my veins.

greennui wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 2:59 amAdelheid (Frantisek Vlácil, 1970) - plz hook nuanced "war" and "romance" films like this one into my veins.

great flick!

The Godfather Coda: the new intro changes the focus of the story, and a few cuts here and there have improved the pacing. The photography looks better than ever. Willis' contrasty interiors and day shots look incredible and would have to rank up there with the best of cinema at that time. The use of light and shadow to highlight and obscure faces creates real intensity, heightening the drama, and the opera sequence is brilliantly executed from a technical standpoint. Most of the faults lie with some of the performances and dialogue, but it has excellent moments that compensate, and Pacino owns the screen in a way that actors today simply do not and arguably cannot. Underrated. 7.5/10

Godfather III was my favourite of the series... wonder if this new version trying to rectify its failure will ruin that

The big gundown

Fun fact: good bad ugly is the THIRD best spaghetti Western from 1966 directed by someone named Sergio. U can use this knowledge to impress ppl at parties...IF u want

5/5

SAD_SCROOGE wrote: ↑Mon Dec 14, 2020 5:40 am The big gundown

Fun fact: good bad ugly is the THIRD best spaghetti Western from 1966 directed by someone named Sergio. U can use this knowledge to impress ppl at parties...IF u want

5/5

The director of this movie's son...directed the Sicario sequel?? But then also his debut feature from 2012 is just called ACAB?! This requires some attention

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS -- Welles' butchered picture of bygone days, and while the good stuff shines very brightly indeed, the fact of the film's demolition by morons can't be denied.

Fuego Negro/Dark Forces - Bernardo Aellano, 2020

My first 2020 release, and it's apparently a Netflix thing? Whatever, there were no theatrical releases for 75% of the year.

Mannered, extremely visual horror movie, more stylized/stylish than Jean-Jacques Beineix but not less stupid. I love this guy's color-palette, I'm going to look for his four earlier movies.

File under: Trashy trying to be arty

Lencho of the Apes wrote: ↑Tue Dec 15, 2020 11:18 pm File under: Trashy trying to be arty

Ooh added to my watchlist

Center Stage (Stanley Kwan, 1991) - Rewatch
An incredibly elegant and beautiful movie. Excuse my male gaze, but, Maggie Cheung... One of the most graceful actresses of any era, anywhere.

https://i.imgur.com/VITTm6g.png

https://i.imgur.com/M0tezS3.png

https://i.imgur.com/lMWYLt5.png

https://i.imgur.com/m5lGVp5.png

K channeling his inner Lencho with that idiosyncratic image uploading.

Lencho of the Apes wrote: ↑Tue Dec 15, 2020 11:18 pmapparently a Netflix thing?

whoa. looks giallo-esque. and a 2.5/10 on imdb? hell yeah! will slip this in before my presumptive shitflix cancellation

THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK, a 1977 film for TV based ever so loosely on Dumas. A tasty slice of costume drama entertainment brought off with sense and some wit and a fine cast and a fine script. Shot by Freddie Young (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, ZHIVAGO, RYAN'S DAUGHTER) it looks very good indeed in location scenes, but director Mike Newell isn't always able to transcend what seem to be some budget considerations. Some action scenes fall very flat indeed, and it's made up for by the likes of Louis Jourdan, Ralph Richardson, Vivien Merchant, Jenny Agutter and Patrick McGoohan. And Richard Chamberlain has the dual roles of the King and his twin, and has a grand old time as the debauched reprobate King Louis XIV. A rarity in that it never once insults the intelligence, even if I wish Newell had gone for some second takes of a few moments.

MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM -- August Wilson's play has been cut to less than 90 minutes and filmed with maximum bogus cinematicness by George C. Wolfe. Camerawork all over the place, lighting and editing all over the place, and the cast and story get lost in the shuffle of all the technique. A couple moments of humanity struggle to the surface, usually when Wolfe lets me look at those actors for more than a few seconds or a single line of dialogue. A real pity -- this piece of work deserves better than to be demolished by idiocy this way. I'd seen a frankly not stellar Broadway revival a few years back, which, whatever else could be said about it, didn't diminish the quality of the play. It took George C. Wolfe and his behind the camera collaborators to do that.

NO MORE FLEEING (Herbert Vesely, 1955)
https://letterboxd.com/film/fleeing-no-more/

A devastating comment on the mid-century European mood. A macabre landscape of impotence and absurdity, peopled by ambiguous travelers, finally explodes into senseless violence.

"Fleeing no more" as there is nowhere to flee.
All-around just a post-apocalyptic dreamlike Ground Zero.
(Filmed in the arid landscape of Andalusia, the "European Arizona".)


It's nowhere to go but some are still traveling (and looking chic).


There is nowhere to go, nothing to be done, and all (be it child, or adult) are preoccupied with some pointless activity.


It's a delightful film (free of annoying & deluding optimism of any kind).
Music composed by Gerhard Rühm of the Wiener Gruppe...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiener_Gruppe

I noticed NO MORE FLEEING is being compared to MIRAGE (Peter Weiss, 1959) which goes now to my watchlist...
https://letterboxd.com/film/mirage-1959/

A young man comes to Stockholm and experiences several bizarre and surrealistic situations.

Let Them All Talk (Soderbergh, 2020)

I didn't give two hoots for any of the characters in this story, but the boat was splendid and the acting perfect.

6

SATANTANGO -- the second half, watched yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed.

STELLA DA FALLA (Jacques Sandoz, Reto Andrea Savoldelli, 1972)
https://letterboxd.com/film/stella-da-falla/

A quest film about a young man on a wondrous and strange trip around the world has more in common with medieval mystery plays than with most modern films, as it is rich in symbols and low in explanatory materials.

https://youtu.be/CJINQr5A-PA

I started off the year with a bang by watching The Old Man in The Cottage and I'm finishing it in style with the same director's My Eye Is Reflecting (1992). Wish I had a better word for it, but yeah, very Piavolian.







Also enjoyed the new Hong. I've found some of his recent films quite slight but this one was top drawer stuff.