SCFZ

Another big festival month, this time at MIFF.

- August -

Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964)
Sandra (Luchino Visconti, 1965)
Deerskin (Quentin Dupieux, 2019)
The Halt (Lav Diaz, 2019)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma, 2019)
The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão (Karim Aïnouz, 2019) ♥
It Must Be Heaven (Elia Suleiman, 2019) ♥♥
Les Misérables (Ladj Ly, 2019) ♥
Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)
Frankie (Ira Sachs, 2019)
Matthias & Maxime (Xavier Dolan, 2019)
Hyenas (Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1992)
The Hourglass Sanatorium (Wojciech Has, 1973)
Microcosmos (Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou, 1996)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019)
Black Rain (Shohei Imamura, 1989)

TV:

Orange Is the New Black (season 7)

- September -

Dusty Stacks of Mom: The Poster Project (Jodie Mack, 2013)
City of Pirates (Raúl Ruiz, 1983)
Julia (Erick Zonca, 2008)
Ludwig (Luchino Visconti, 1973)
Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Francis Ford Coppola, 1988)
Dil Se.. (Mani Ratnam, 1998)
Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (Lau Kar-leung, 1984)
The Dead Don't Die (Jim Jarmusch, 2019)
Long Day's Journey into Night (Bi Gan, 2018)
Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019)
One Cut of the Dead (Shinichiro Ueda, 2017)
The Eel (Shohei Imamura, 1997) ♥
Through the Forest (Jean-Paul Civeyrac, 2005)
The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, 2014)

TV:

Fleabag (seasons 1-2) ♥♥
Æon Flux (seasons 1-2)

September 2019


Pralinen zum Frühstück (Marc Prill, Germany 2019)
Music Hath Charms (Thomas Bentley, UK 1935) ♥
Along for the Ride (John Kaye, USA/Germany 2000)
Der scheinheilige Florian (Joe Stöckel, Germany 1941)
Zeiten ändern dich "Times Change You" (Uli Edel, Germany 2010)
Lauter Liebe (Heinz Rühmann, Germany 1940) ♥
The Railway Man (Jonathan Teplitzky, UK/Australia/Switzerland 2013)
Ad Astra (James Gray, USA/China 2019) ♥
Po feng "To the Fore" (Dante Lam, Hong Kong 2015) ♥

september -- really slowed down by the flood of news in the last week!

enchanted isles - vilardebo 1965
john wick: parabellum - stahelski 2019
magnificent obsession - stahl 1935
the girl from the marsh croft - sirk 1935 ♥
lon chaney: a thousand faces - brownlow 2000
the informer - ford 1935
toni - renoir 1935 ♥
the private eyes - hui 1976
crime and punishment - chenal 1935
the steel animal - zielke 1935
whirlpool - greville 1935
i promise you anarchy - hernandez cordon 2015
a girl must live - reed 1939
the big road/dalu - sun yu 1935
suburban cabaret - hochbaum 1935 ♥
the world in his arms - walsh 1952
good time - safdie 2017
street scenes - scorsese 1970
justin de marseille - m tourneur 1935
remember last night? - whale 1935

plus a rewatch of top hat - sandrich 1935 ♥

Best of the Month: Pestonjee (Vijaya Mehta, 1988)
Worst of the Month: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Michael Dougherty, 2019)

Only Yesterday (John M. Stahl, 1933)
Golden Exits (Alex Ross Perry, 2017)
Unfinished Business (Gregory La Cava, 1941)
Eight Hours Don't Make a Day (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972)
A Man There Was (Victor Sjöström, 1917) ♥
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Jake Kasdan, 2017)
Song of the Exile (Ann Hui, 1990)
The Song Is Over (Géza von Bolváry, 1930)♥
It Comes at Night (Trey Edward Shults, 2017)
My Young Auntie (Liu Chia-Liang, 1981)♥
Eight Taels of Gold (Mabel Cheung, 1989)
The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)
When Tomorrow Comes (John M. Stahl, 1939)
The Blue Sky Maiden (Yasuzô Masumura, 1957)
Rajnigandha (Basu Chatterjee, 1974) ♥
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Michael Dougherty, 2019)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (Michael Radford, 1984)
Pestonjee (Vijaya Mehta, 1988)
Full Contact (Ringo Lam, 1992) ♥
L'Homme Atlantique (Marguerite Duras, 1981)
Cold Pursuit (Hans Petter Moland, 2019)
Life Begins Tomorrow (Werner Hochbaum, 1933)
The Girl from the Marsh Croft (Douglas Sirk, 1935) ♥
Sicario: Day of the Soldado (Stefano Sollima, 2018)
California Company Town (Lee Anne Schmitt, 2008) ♥
Typhoon Club (Shinji Sômai, 1985)
Thoovanathumbikal (P Padmarajan, 1987) ♥
Police Story (Jackie Chan, 1985)
Mossane (Safi Faye, 1996)

2019. 9

Delphine and Carole (Callisto McNulty, 2019)
The Sea of Itami Jun (Jung Da-woon, 2019)
It : Chapter Two (Andy Muschietti, 2019)
Typhoon Club (Shinji Somai, 1985) ♥
Ghost Walk (Yu Eun-jeong, 2018)
Happiness (Aleksandr Medvedkin, 1935)
Steamboat Round the Bend (John Ford, 1935) ♥
The Girl in the Rumor (Mikio Naruse, 1935) ♥
Sazen Tange and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo (Sadao Yamanaka, 1935) ♥
Toni (Jean Renoir, 1935)
The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)
Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey, 1935) ♥
A Single Man (Tom Ford, 2009)
Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019)
Mid90s (Jonah Hill, 2018)
Our Body (Han Ka-ram, 2018)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019)

and

Twin Peaks Season 1~Season 2 Ep4 (gonna end Twin Peaks(till The Return) before the end of year, I hope...)

:

The Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir, 1947)
Simple Men (Hal Hartley, 1992)
As Bodas de Deus (João César Monteiro, 1999)
Cleópatra (Júlio Bressane, 2007)
Night and Day (Hong Sang-soo, 2008)

* = rewatch. Scores are out of 10.


Chasers* (Hopper) - 4.5
Body Bags* (Carpeter/Hooper) - 4.5
Cracking Up (Lewis) - 5
Gleaming The Cube* (who cares) - 4
Shrunken Heads* (Elfman) - 4.5
The Dirt (no idea) - 5
The Fanatic (Durst) - 4
In Fabric (Strickland) - 6
Sleeping Beauty* (1959) - 6
The Dead Don't Die (Jarmusch) - 5
Stan and Ollie (no idea) - 5.5
Rio Bravo* (Hawks) - 8
The Truman Show* (Weir) - 6.5
Robocop 2* (Kirschner) - 5.5
Fatal Instinct* (Reiner) - 4
Autofocus* (Schrader) - 7.5
Hellboy (Marshall) - 3.5
Child's Play (2019) - 5
John Wick 3 (Stahelski) - 5.5
Pet Semetary (2019) - 4.5

Bad month for me. Poor choices.

Best: Rio Bravo

Worst: Hellboy

santa claus conquers the martians (nicholas webster)
mad love (karl freund)
double suicide (masahiro shinoda)
the strange world of planet x (gilbert gunn)
spl 2: a time for consequences (cheang pou-soi)
murder mystery (kyle newacheck)
ek hasina thi (sriram raghavan)
the lives of others (florian henckel von donnersmarck)
office (hong won-chan)
swades (ashutosh gowariker)
mr. virgin (anthony chan)

♥♥
The 39 Steps (1935, Alfred Hitchcock) (rewatch)
Pocahontas (1995, Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg) (rewatch)

♥
Top Hat (1935, Mark Sandrich)
A Scandal in Paris (1946, Douglas Sirk)
Straight Shooting (1917, John Ford)

liked
The Fugitive (1993, Andrew Davis)
Along Came Jones (1945, Stuart Heisler)
The Pilgrim (1923, Charles Chaplin)
Novyy Gulliver / The New Gulliver (1935, Aleksandr Ptushko)
Hop-a-Long Cassidy (1935, Howard Bretherton)

less
U.S. Marshals (1998, Stuart Baird)
Lassie Come Home (1943, Fred M. Wilcox)
Son of Lassie (1945, S. Sylvan Simon)
The Mystery Man (1935, Ray McCarey)
The Client (1994, Joel Schumacher)

shorts:
The Butcher Boy (1917, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle) ♥
Robin Hood Makes Good (1939, Chuck Jones) ♥
Plane Dippy (1936, Tex Avery)
L'école des facteurs / The School for Postmen (1947, Jacques Tati)
Gold Diggers of '49 (1935, Tex Avery)
A Trip Thru a Hollywood Studio (1935, Ralph Staub)
Dog Gone Modern (1939, Chuck Jones)
I Haven't Got a Hat (1935, Friz Freleng)
Prest-O Change-O (1939, Chuck Jones)
I'd Love to Take Orders from You (1936, Tex Avery)
Fatty and Mabel at the San Diego Exposition (1915, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle)

September 2019

Re-watch

At the cinema

The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert, 1977) 8/10
Masquerade (Bob Swaim, 1988) 6/10
After Dark My Sweet (James Foley, 1990) 8/10
I Love You to Death (Lawrence Kasdan, 1990) 7/10
The Hard Way (John Badham, 1991) 7/10
Poison Ivy (Katt Shea, 1992) 2/10
Judgment Night (Stephen Hopkins, 1993) 5/10
Malice (Harold Becker, 1993) 6/10
Body of Evidence (Uli Edel, 1993) 5/10
Another stakeout (John Badham, 1993) 5/10
Point of No Return (John Badham, 1993) 6/10
Outbreak (Wolfgang Petersen, 1995) 7/10
The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995) 9/10
Fear (James Foley, 1996) 5/10
Chain Reaction (Andrew Davis, 1996) 6/10
Cop Land (James Mangold, 1997) 7/10
Incognito (John Badham, 1997) 5/10
U Turn (Oliver Stone, 1997) 6/10
Cruel Intentions (Roger Kumble, 1999) 7/10
Under Suspicion (Stephen Hopkins, 2000) 5/10
Domestic Disturbance (Harold Becker, 2001) 3/10
Frailty (Bill Paxton, 2001) 7/10
Just Friends (Roger Kumble, 2005) 5/10
Poseidon (Wolfgang Petersen, 2006) 2/10
Perfect Stranger (James Foley, 2007) 6/10
Whiteout (Dominic Sena, 2009) 4/10
Dealt (Luke Korem, 2017) 8/10
Beirut (Brad Anderson, 2018) 3/10
The Mule (Clint Eastwood, 2018) 5/10
Ophelia (Claire McCarthy, 2018) 6/10
Anna (Luc Besson, 2019) 7/10
Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019) 9/10

Best: Ad Astra, After Dark My Sweet, The Usual Suspects
Worst: Poseidon, Beirut, Poison Ivy

not much of a month:

Deadwood (Daniel Minahan, 2019) - 7/10
Breakout from Oppression (Lau Kar-Leung/Fan Yang/Chia-Hui Liu, 1978) - 6/10
Us (Jordan Peele, 2019) - 5/10
Anna (Luc Besson, 2019) - 5/10
Long Shot (Jonathan Levine, 2019) - 4/10
Yesterday (Danny Boyle, 2019) - 2/10

top 5 watches:
Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)
The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980)
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel, 2012)
Werewolf Woman (Rino Di Silvestro, 1976)
The Beasts’ Carnival (Paul Naschy, 1980)

top 5 rewatches:
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
Mr. Sardonicus (William Castle, 1961)

September, 2019

wonderful new discovery
rewatch
at the cinema
"short film"

0919 (XIX, vi)

30 The Good Bad Man (Allan Dwan, 1916) -- 2.5/4
29 Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019) -- 4/4
26 Guest of Honour (Atom Egoyan, 2019) -- 3/4
25 The Approach of Autumn (Mikio Naruse, 1960) -- 3/4
22 Macbeth (Béla Tarr, 1982) -- 1.5/4
22 Fjols til fjells (Edith Carlmar, 1957) -- 2/4
22 The Rules for Everything (Kim Hiorthøy, 2017) -- 3.5/4
21 Have Dreams, Will Travel (Brad Isaacs, 2007) -- 4/4
20 The Murder Man (Tim Whelan, 1935) -- 2.5/4
17 Crazed Fruit (Kô Nakahira, 1956) -- 4/4
13 Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May, 1976) -- 4/4
13 Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Walter Ruttmann, 1927) -- 4/4
10 "No. 3: Interwoven" (Harry Smith, 1948) -- 2.5/4
10 "No. 2: Message From the Sun" (Harry Smith, 1948) -- 2.5/4
10 "No. 1: A Strange Dream" (Harry Smith, 1939) -- 3/4
10 Les ombres (Jean-Claude Brisseau, 1982) -- 3/4
10 The Bird People in China (Takashi Miike, 1998) -- 4/4
09 The Chess Player (Jean Dréville, 1938) -- 3/4
08 "A Colour Box" (Len Lye, 1935) -- 2.5/4
07 Executioners from Shaolin (Lau Kar-leung, 1977) -- 2/4
07 "En rachâchant" (Jean-Marie Straub/Danièle Huillet, 1982) -- 2.5/4
04 Whale Rider (Niki Caro, 2002) -- 3.5/4
03 Distance (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2001) -- 3/4
01 "Live from Shiva's Dance Floor" (Richard Linklater, 2003) -- 3/4
01 Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (Lau Kar-leung, 1984) -- 4/4

https://letterboxd.com/arkheia/list/sep ... ilm-notes/

A pretty good month, in terms of finding time for lots of films. The Brakhage shorts from the Lovesongs VHS was a nice treat and our Tashlin poll gave me a chance to look back at some enjoyable WB cartoons. Some 2019 releases yielded intriguing results (Astra, Saaho), others not so much. Some Came Running would have to be my personal highlight of the month but the film I'm most interested in revisiting is the mysterious Jamais plus toujours.

Some Came Running (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)
In the White City (Alain Tanner, 1983)
Whirlpool (Edmond T. Gréville, 1935)
Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019)
Jamais plus toujours (Yannick Bellon, 1976)
Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
Wichita (Jacques Tourneur, 1955)
Shanghai Fortress (Teng Hua-Tao, 2019)
Paradise Hills (Alice Waddington, 2019)
Saaho (Sujeeth, 2019)
K.G.F: Chapter 1 (Prashanth Neel, 2018)
The Monster (Shyam Ramsay, Tulsi Ramsay, 1993)
Elementary Phrases (Stan Brakhage, Phil Solomon, 1994)
Concrescence (Stan Brakhage, Phil Solomon, 1996)
Comingled Containers (Stan Brakhage, 1997)
Coupling (Stan Brakhage, 1999)
Beautiful Funerals (Stan Brakhage, 1996)
Earthen Aerie (Stan Brakhage, 1995)
Porky Pig’s Feat (Frank Tashlin, 1943)
The Unruly Hare (Frank Tashlin, 1945)
Nasty Quacks (Frank Tashlin, 1945)
Hare Remover (Frank Tashlin, 1946)

- October -

Audition (Takashi Miike, 1999) ♥
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920)
Brouillard: Passage #14 (Alexandre Larose, 2013)
Joker (Todd Phillips, 2019)
A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)
Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov, 2019)
Shadow (Zhang Yimou, 2018)
Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962) ♥
The Mad Fox (Tomu Uchida, 1962) ♥
Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
A Woman's Revenge (Rita Azevedo Gomes, 2012)

TV:

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

* = rewatches. All scores out of 10.

Haunted Honeymoon* (Wilder) - 4.5
Roy Colt and Winchester Jack (Bava) - 4
Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie - 7
The Circus* (Chaplin) - 7.5
Creed 2 (who cares) - 4.5
The Curse of The Weeping Woman (who cares) - 4.5
Climax (Noe) - 7
Anabelle Comes Home (who cares) - 5
Observe and Report* (Hill) - 7
Dumb and Dumber* (Farrelley) - 6
Us (Peele) - 5
Return of The Living Dead 3* (Yuzna) - 4.5
Jaws The Revenge* (Sargeant) - 2
Ferris Bueller's Day Off* (Hughes) - 6.5
Dolemite Is My Name (Brewer) - 6.5
The Nutty Professor* (Shadyac) - 6
Ugetsu* (Mizoguchi) - 7.5
Life* (Demme) - 5

Best: The Circus
Worst: Jaws The Revenge

Around 1.5 hours through Syberberg's 5 hour interview film with Winifred Wagner. Unfortunately I won't be able to finish it until early Nov.

2019. 10

Joker (Todd Phillips, 2019)
Outer Space (Peter Tscherkassky, 1999) *short ♥
The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (Djibril Diop Mambety, 1999) ♥
Sicily! (Daniele Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, 1999)
The Letter (Manoel de Oliveira, 1999)
Night Wind (Philippe Garrel, 1999)
Audition (Takashi Miike, 1999)
Christmas in August (Hur Jin-ho, 1998) ♥
The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999)
Willow and Wind (Mohammad-Ali Talebi, 1999) ♥
The Laundromat (Steven Soderbergh, 2019)
Wild Rose (Tom Harper, 2018)
Terminator: Dark Fate (Tim Miller, 2019)
Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932) ♥
The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)
Lucky Chan-Sil (Kim Cho-hee, 2019)
Stand by Me (Rob Reiner, 1986)
My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, 1991)
The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kirostami, 1999) ♥
Charisma (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1999)
Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 (Kim Do-young, 2019)
Border (Ali Abbasi, 2018)
High Life (Claire Denis, 2018)
Sibyl (Justine Triet, 2019)
Doctor Sleep (Mike Flanagan, 2019)

wisconsin death trip (marsh 1999)
the wind will carry us (kiarostami 1999) ♥♥
tragic ceremony (freda 1972)
my neighbors the yamadas (takahata 1999) ♥
el camino: a breaking bad movie (gilligan 2019)
the little girl who sold the sun (mambety 1999) ♥
the witches (roeg 1990)
tempting heart (chang 1999) ♥
charisma (kurosawa 1999)
as bodas de deus (monteiro 1999)
fascination (rollin 1979)
sicilia! (straub/huillet 1999)
where does your hidden smile lie? (costa 2001) ♥
la maledicion de la llorona (baledon 1961)
midsommar (aster 2019) -- fell asleep will finish this today

♥♥
M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder / M (1931, Fritz Lang)
Dead Poets Society (1989, Peter Weir) (rewatch)

♥
National Treasure (2004, Jon Turteltaub) (rewatch)
Diabolique (1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot)

great
Un Chien Andalou (1929, Luis Buñuel) (short)
Page Miss Glory (1936, Tex Avery) (short)
The Furies (1950, Anthony Mann)
Dziewczyny do wziecia / Marriageable Girls (1972, Janusz Kondratiuk)

good
To the Wonder (2012, Terrence Malick)
Three Daring Daughters (1948, Fred M. Wilcox)
The Most Dangerous Game (1932, Irving Pichel, Ernest B. Schoedsack)
Until They Get Me (1917, Frank Borzage)
Jammin' the Blues (1944, Gjon Mili) (short)
The Debussy Film (1965, Ken Russell)
The Public Enemy (1931, William A. Wellman)
Les antiquités de Rome / The Antiquities of Rome (1991, Jean-Claude Rousseau)
The Adventures of Dollie (1908, D.W. Griffith)
Jeune femme à sa fenêtre lisant une lettre (1983, Jean-Claude Rousseau)
Mauvaise graine / Bad Seed (1934, Billy Wilder, Alexander Esway)

less
National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007, Jon Turteltaub)
Murder on the Orient Express (2017, Kenneth Branagh)
Double, Double, Toil and Trouble (1993, Stuart Margolin)
Arthur and the Haunted Tree House (2017, Marc Brown)
Coco (2017, Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina)
The Monkey's Paw (1948, Norman Lee)

Renaissance (Walerian Borowczyk, 1963) - 8/10
This Is Not A Film (Jafar Panahi/Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, 2011) - 7/10
Les Jeux des Anges (Walerian Borowczyk, 1964) - 7/10
Deadwood: The Movie (Daniel Minahan, 2019) - 7/10
Morning Glory (Roger Michell, 2010) - 6/10
Us (Jordan Peele, 2019) - 5/10
Booksmart (Olivia Wilde, 2019) - 5/10
Anna (Luc Besson, 2019) - 5/10
Between Two Ferns: The Movie (Scott Aukerman, 2019) - 5/10
Banner of Youth (Walerian Borowczyk/Jan Lenica, 1957) - 5/10
Two On the Sidewalk (Lisandro Alonso/Catriel Vildosola, 1995) - 4/10
L'Amour Monstre de Tous les Temps (Walerian Borowczyk, 1977) - 4/10
Long Shot (Jonathan Levine, 2019) - 4/10
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Matthew Vaughn, 2017) - 3/10
Yesterday (Danny Boyle, 2019) - 2/10
Silver Linings Playbook (David O Russell, 2012) - 1/10

October 2019

Re-watch

At the cinema

Piranha (Joe Dante, 1978) 4/10
Final Exam (Jimmy Huston, 1981) 6/10
The Entity (Sidney J. Furie, 1982) 3/10
The Keep (Michael Mann, 1983) 5/10
The House on Sorority Row (Mark Rosman, 1983) 3/10
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (Tom McLoughlin, 1986) 8/10
Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (Michael A. Simpson, 1988) 4/10
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (Dominique Othenin-Girard, 1989) 2/10
Hard to Kill (Bruce Malmuth, 1990) 6/10
The Guardian (William Friedkin, 1990) 4/10
Candyman (Bernard Rose, 1992) 9/10
Species (Roger Donaldson, 1995) 6/10
The Island of Dr. Moreau (John Frankenheimer, 1996) 4/10
Mimic (Guillermo del Toro, 1997) 6/10
The Faculty (Robert Rodriguez, 1998) 5/10
Lake Placid (Steve Miner, 1999) 6/10
The 4th Floor (Josh Klausner, 1999) 6/10
House on Haunted Hill (William Malone, 1999) 4/10
Resurrection (Russell Mulcahy, 1999) 7/10
Storm of the Century (Craig R. Baxley, 1999) 5/10
Virus (John Bruno, 1999) 5/10
Ali (Michael Mann, 2001) 9/10
Ghosts of Mars (John Carpenter, 2001) 2/10
The Man Who Wasn't There (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, 2001) 10/10
Still Life (Jia Zhangke, 2006) 8/10
The Eye (David Moreau & Xavier Palud, 2008) 3/10
Jennifer's Body (Karyn Kusama, 2009) 6/10
Sinatra: All or Nothing at All (Alex Gibney, 2015) 8/10
The Autopsy of Jane Doe (André Øvredal, 2016) 6/10
The Farthest (Emer Reynolds, 2017) 9/10
Summer of 84 (François Simard, Anouk Whissell & Yoann-Karl Whissell, 2018) 7/10
Hustlers (Lorene Scafaria, 2019) 5/10
Annabelle Comes Home (Gary Dauberman, 2019) 4/10
Joker (Todd Phillips, 2019) 8/10
Crawl (Alexandre Aja, 2019) 3/10
Ma (Tate Taylor, 2019) 6/10
Child's Play (Lars Klevberg, 2019) 5/10

Best: The Man Who Wasn't There, Candyman, Ali
Worst: Ghosts of Mars, Halloween 5, The Eye

Not a great month. Favorites highlighted.

Milla (Valérie Massadian, 2017)
Model (Frederick Wiseman, 1981)
Day of Despair (Manoel de Oliveira, 1992)
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (Chad Stahelski, 2019)
Basic Training (Frederick Wiseman, 1971)
Booksmart (Olivia Wilde, 2019)
Braven (Lin Oeding, 2018)
The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman (Kihachi Okamoto, 1963)
The Green Years (Paulo Rocha, 1963)
Aniara (Pella Kågerman, Hugo Lilja, 2018)
First Graders (Abbas Kiarostami, 1984)
The Graceful Brute (Yuzo Kawashima, 1962)
Dark Phoenix (Simon Kinberg, 2019)
The Evil Deeds Of Cheriyachan (John Abraham, 1979)
The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (Hong Sang-soo, 1996)
47 Meters Down (Johannes Roberts, 2017)
Hunter Killer (Donovan Marsh, 2018)
Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)
Like You Know It All (Hong Sang-soo, 2009)
Nirmalyam (M T Vasudevan Nair, 1973)
Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke, 2018)
As Above, So Below (John Erick Dowdle, 2014)
The Third Generation (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979)
Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)
The Snowman (Tomas Alfredson, 2017)
The Gate of the Sun (Yousry Nasrallah, 2004)
Fast-Walking (James B. Harris, 1982)

I only saw 56 films in October. I usually join "challenges" over at another forum where we dedicate a month of a specific category of films, this month I skipped that completely. As such could set aside the time to watch quite a few films I have been meaning to see. In terms of quality October had a very slow start, and many of the highly anticipated films I caught up to either disappointed, including Centre Stage, Kolja, Mahjong(?! What the hell Yang?), Liverpool, Salón México, Time to Love, Krava and Riff-Raff. Similarly, films I were anticipated as likely favourites, such as Cyclo and Aesthetic Syndrome ended up merely being great. Still, two new solid favourites is a step up from last month.

The greats:

9s
It is Better to be Rich and Healthy than Poor and Ill (1992, Juraj Jakubisko)
Pájaros de verano / Birds of Passage (2018, Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra)
8.5s
Synonymes (2019, Nadav Lapid)
Na wylot / Through and Through (1973, Grzegorz Królikiewicz)
8s
La vie de Jésus (1997, Bruno Dumont)
La meilleure façon de marcher / The Best Way to Walk (1976, Claude Miller)
Tanczacy jastrzab / The Dancing Hawk (1977, Grzegorz Królikiewicz)
Antigone (1992, Hulliet & Straub)
Mosaico (1970, Néstor Paternostro)
An Ambiguous Report About the End of the World (1997, Juraj Jakubisko)
La notte di San Lorenzo / Night of the Shooting Stars (1982, The Taviani Brothers)
Astenicheskiy sindrom / The Asthenic Syndrome (1989, Kira Muratova)
Xích lô (1995, Anh Hung Tran)
Hotel pro cizince / Hotel for Strangers (1967, Antonin Masa)
Obecná skola / The Elementary School (1991, Jan Sverak)
Varda par Agnès (2019, Agnes Varda)
Wieczne pretensje / Permanent Objections (1975, Grzegorz Królikiewicz)

island of lost souls (erle c. kenton)
another son of sam (dave a. adams)
the robot vs. the aztec mummy (rafael portillo)
the city of the dead (john llewellyn moxey)
game over (ashwin saravanan)
domino (brian de palma)
the medium (jacek koprowicz)
ghoulies (luca bercovici)
the unknown (tod browning)
nang nak (nonzee nimibutr)
unknown pleasures (jia zhangke)
sugar hill (paul maslansky)
the devil-doll (tod browning)
forgotten (jang hang-jun)
tusk (kevin smith)
the forest of love (sion sono)
the town that deaded sundown (charles b. pierce)
bell, book and candle (richard quine)
poltergeist (tobe hooper)

October, 2019

wonderful new discovery
rewatch
at the cinema
"short film"

1019 (XVII, xv)

31 Shadow of the Vampire (E. Elias Merhige, 2000) -- 2.5/4
28 Laggies (Lynn Shelton, 2014) -- 1.5/4
27 Your Sister's Sister (Lynn Shelton, 2011) -- 1/4
27 "The Hilarious Posters" (Georges Méliès, 1906) -- 2/4
27 "A Funny Shave" (Segundo de Chomón, 1906) -- 2.5/4
27 "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces" (J. Stuart Blackton, 1906) -- 2.5/4
27 "The '?' Motorist" (Walter R. Booth, 1906) -- 2.5/4
27 "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend" (Edwin S. Porter/Wallace McCutcheon, 1906) -- 2/4
27 "Three American Beauties" (Edwin S. Porter/Wallace McCutcheon, 1906) -- 0/4
27 Booksmart (Olivia Wilde, 2019) -- 3.5/4
26 "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" (Chuck Jones, 1975) -- 2/4
26 "Fuses" (Carolee Schneemann, 1967) -- 2/4
26 Corridors of Blood (Robert Day, 1958) -- 3/4
26 The Haunted Strangler (Robert Day, 1958) -- 2/4
24 The Death & Life of John F. Donovan (Xavier Dolan, 2018) -- 2.5/4
18 Fingers (James Toback, 1978) -- 1.5/4
15 Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the '60s in Brussels (Chantal Akerman, 1994) -- 3.5/4
15 U.S. Go Home (Claire Denis, 1994) -- 3.5/4
12 "Fever Dream" (Chick Strand, 1979) -- 2/4
12 "Cartoon Le Mousse" (Chick Strand, 1979) -- 2.5/4
09 Ethnic Notions (Marlon Riggs, 1986) -- 3/4
09 "Artificial Paradise" (Chick Strand, 1986) -- 2/4
09 "Kristallnacht" (Chick Strand, 1979) -- 2.5/4
09 "Fake Fruit Factory" (Chick Strand, 1986) -- 3/4
05 Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma, 2019) -- 4/4
04 Slow Fiction (Chick Strand, 1979) -- 4/4
04 The Whistlers (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2019) -- 2/4
02 "The Tell-Tale Heart" (Ted Parmalee, 1953) -- 2.5/4
02 "Rooty Toot Toot" (John Hubley, 1951) -- 2.5/4
02 Rock Hudson's Home Movies (Mark Rappaport, 1992) -- 3.5/4
02 Tenderness (Elyer Ishmukhamedov, 1967) -- 3/4
02 A Skin So Soft (Denis Côté, 2017) -- 3.5/4

All marks out of 10. * = rewatch


Boo: A Madea Halloween (Perry) - 3
The Crucified Lovers (Mizoguchi) - 7.5
The Woman in Red (Wilder) - 4
Night of The Demon (Tournier) - 7
The Confessions of Winifred Wagner (Syberberg) - 7.5 (5 hr version)
Mobsters* (who cares) - 3.5
Clouds of Sil Maria (Assayas) - 5
Michael* (Dreyer) - 7
La Bamba* (no idea) - 6
Police Academy* (Wilson) - 6.5
Brewster's Millions* (Hill) - 5
Joe Versus the Volcano* (no idea) - 5
American History X* (Kaye) - 6
The Life of Oharu (Mizoguchi) - 7
Clueless* (Heckerling) - 6
The Irishman (Scorsese) - 6.5
Tobacco Road (Ford) - 6.5

- November -

Killing (Shinya Tsukamoto, 2018)
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (Vincent Ward, 1988)
Pedicab Driver (Sammo Hung, 1989)
Sinbad (Zoltán Huszárik, 1971)
Conversation Piece (Luchino Visconti, 1974) ♥
Accident (Joseph Losey, 1967)
The Duellists (Ridley Scott, 1977)
Dr. Akagi (Shohei Imamura, 1998)
Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno, 2016) ♥♥
Bitter Rice (Giuseppe De Santis, 1949)
I Am Not Madame Bovary (Feng Xiaogang, 2016)