SCFZ

grass - hong sang-soo (2018)

okay sneaking one in now before official como starts otherwise it'll be a month of just hong

i've been distracted again but time travelled yesterday

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i'll confess i have a weakness for john stahl melodrama even tho this isn't as good/terrible as back street irene dunne still does it like nobody else

boyer introducing her to his wife extremely french

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this has many beautiful borzage trademarks but - the story is weird and i don't like the male lead much. still margaret sullavan makes it all worth it

v precode. it's quietly made clear lambkins is pregnant before marriage with absolutely no judgement ♥

Twentieth Century (1934) - Am I the only one who thinks this has aged poorly? A petulant man-child exercising a classic case of coercive control, Jewish and Native American stereotypes played for humorous effect, etc…

Oh, and it’s not even that funny.

françaises, veillez! - léonce perret (1915)

preserved as if crazy avant-garde (scenes in wrong order, repeated, backwards) i think the plot is a rather pedestrian husband away injured in war, evil spy lodges with lonely wife, plans villainy, she catches on, saves the day and brutally murders him - but perhaps it's better out of sequence, cuz then you can marvel at just how gorgeous this is

two more psilander films got added to stumfilm.dk this week! and in this one he's got a beard!

the right of youth - august blom (1911)

starts off fun, everyone is horny (and as usual for these danish 1910s, the women have agency and devour the men) but then it lets itself down in the second half by turning into some horrible moralising nonsense. still, it looks good.

so there's filibus, there's protea, there's that german girl i forget, and now there's.....

justitia - polidor (1919)

only this time she's more in the dumb maciste line, punching 10 guys in the head at once, and constantly running and chasing, a big lass rescuing littler damsels...

RRR was my first Rajamouli and liked its outright shamelessness

Anyone seen either of these two endlessly fascinating Mexican films, with a lot of, shall we say, "interesting" subtext on gender, in particular the latter.

Ánimas Trujano (El hombre importante) / The Important Man (1961, Ismael Rodríguez)



The Important Man is intriguing for far more reasons than the fact that Rodríguez' chose to cast Toshiro Mifune as the titular Mexican, Ánimas Trujano, but let's just dwell on Mifune for a little while first. It is endlessly fascinating that what they decided to do to sell him as Mexican was to add a moustache, a bit of a tan and put him in a sombrero. If the production had in any way slipped up, or Mifune had hammed it up, this film would likely be the target of a lot of ridicule - but surprisingly, he is quite believable.I would not say it is one of his very best performances, but the film relies on his legendary comedic mannerisms and expressions to tell the tale of a good-for-nothing drunkard, and whether he can change.

The narrative follows no traditional plot structure, with Rodriguez daring to tell a tale of tragi-comic proportions that is simultaneously irreverent and very much reverent. Ánimas Trujano drinks, gets in trouble, womanizes, beats his doting wife and submissive children, drink some more and is a general embarrassment. The religious overtones, his eagerness to even make a pact with the devil, and lust for importance, riches and respect all blend together as we move towards a conclusion that may offer a chance of grace. In a further string of contradictions, the unusual plot is matched by a extremely outdone tropes, including the central theme of the beaten, ignored and cheated on wife that just love him whole-heartedly no matter what - without, I'm sorry to say, adding anything that makes this convincing beyond the idea of women being self-sacrifacing and bound to their husband - and this is also the very odd note we end the film on:

Cruces sobre el yermo / Crosses Over the Wasteland (1967, Alberto Mariscal)



Crosses Over the Wasteland is an epic of machismo, and my main issue stems from the fact that I'm not entirely sure how self-aware it is and whether it is a critical tale, or more of a tragedy. It is beautifully made, with strong b/w cinematography and a lingering sense of melancholy. I am consistently impressed by the narrative structures of these large Mexican films from the 60s, as Crosses Over the Wasteland shifts perspectives and characters as it lets months and years be stripped away. The way we can follow their stories, and see the impact of the opening events on different people gives the film a genuine sense of poetic grandeur, and there is so much to dissect and bite into.

What starts it all is an unknown rider coming to town to avenge his father, a blunt quest for justice. However, on his way, his eye catches a woman in the fields, and after scaring and intimidating her, he rapes her. What is awkward here is that the early dialogue between them is flirtatious and the rape itself, especially the lead up is shot with a degree of sensuality - yet it is never directly called a rape - the woman herself only calls it a tragedy - and the rapist, who is upset by the events himself, sees the issue as taking her innocence and feels that the way to set it right is to offer her marriage.

Time and time again phrases of manhood comes into question, and the idea of being a "real man", which translates to killing/being willing to kill. A friend is for instance shocked when a man refuses a duel, asking desperately how this could be when he knows that he is a real man. There must certainly be a question asked of what a real man should be, but even the rapist is treated as an almost gentle and respectful man, and the woman's rejection of him after the rape as a personal tragedy we should sympathise with. Meanwhile, the closest character to what we can call a hero, literally states that the issue with what happened is that the rapist had sex with a woman he owned, and that the injury done is to him. Based on the ending, visual cues and messaging (not to mention descriptions of the film) it is not a film that even wants to acknowledge that it was rape, and as mentioned above, I'm not sure how much "manliness" is truly investigated - unless it is far more subversive than I give it credit for. It is certainly a powerful and moving film, and however it was originally intended, there is so much to grab onto and explore. The western aesthetics do certainly not damper its appeal either.

Cruces Sobre El Yermo is in dialogue with a lot of earlier movies that set forth ideas about what rape represents within gender ideology, specifically -- maybe -- El Rebozo De Soledad by Gavaldon, where the characters all take seriously the idea that raping a woman is a way to lay claim to her as a wife, by making her "unsuitable" as a partner for any other man. Rape leading to marriage is a not-uncommon trope, at least up through the dawn of the 70s, though by that time it may have been devalued enough that it only worked as comedy. A step forward, then, if not exactly a leap into perfect c21 P.C.

Same director/writer/actors did a movie called Crisol immediately prior; CSEY only came about because they fniished the first movie faster and cheaper than they expected. You might like that one as well...

I think it's a waste of time to look for authorial intent or attempted 'critique' in Animas Trujano or any other of Ismael Rodriguez' films, he was more of an unfiltered conduit into his audience's culturally-determined fantasy-lives. Michael Curtiz instead of John Ford... although you can track his evolving ideas about economic progress -- or possibly his response to governmentally-issued six year plans-- in movies like Ustedes Los Ricos , where he favored pro-labor collectivism, or Borrasca En Las Almas where is advocacy went toward liberalist capitalism in the Henry Ford model, uplifting your workers enough to cement them in place as new consumers in the market economy.

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fun movie! from venice to vienna to st petersburg and back - well-paced w thrilling score. and impossibly handsome vittorio gassman as casanova

yeah i've seen both of those thanks to lencho xD

if you really want your mind blown, watch tizoc

Gassman is too delicious in that one, my word. Most sexually agreeable movie of 1948, hands down.

did someone say freda swashbuckler?

it was marvelous and vittorio gassman at 26 is the most beautiful human to ever appear on screen

he's too pretty there for me to find attractive, like em a bit rougher....eg:

anime buie - emilio ghione (1916)

dedicated mostly to shit un-diva hesperia (making what lyda, francesca & pina do look impossibly difficult) nevertheless still some mugging ghione for me to savour (especially enjoyed the brazen rummage in his jail-cell trousers)

yes i prefer him without the powdered wig and makeup but also not scratching his balls. there's a happy medium

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how can i get a copy with song lyrics subbed grrrr. i was first annoyed with raj but act 3 was so batshit he won me over.

he's still too old for the part through half the film

i was pleasantly surprised w the feminist angle but then she ran around like this for 30 mins



anyways i get it; it's some kind of psychedelic 70s masterpiece that only raj could make

Lencho of the Apes wrote: ↑Wed Sep 07, 2022 11:14 pm Cruces Sobre El Yermo is in dialogue with a lot of earlier movies that set forth ideas about what rape represents within gender ideology, specifically -- maybe -- El Rebozo De Soledad by Gavaldon, where the characters all take seriously the idea that raping a woman is a way to lay claim to her as a wife, by making her "unsuitable" as a partner for any other man. Rape leading to marriage is a not-uncommon trope, at least up through the dawn of the 70s, though by that time it may have been devalued enough that it only worked as comedy. A step forward, then, if not exactly a leap into perfect c21 P.C.

Same director/writer/actors did a movie called Crisol immediately prior; CSEY only came about because they fniished the first movie faster and cheaper than they expected. You might like that one as well...

I think it's a waste of time to look for authorial intent or attempted 'critique' in Animas Trujano or any other of Ismael Rodriguez' films, he was more of an unfiltered conduit into his audience's culturally-determined fantasy-lives. Michael Curtiz instead of John Ford... although you can track his evolving ideas about economic progress -- or possibly his response to governmentally-issued six year plans-- in movies like Ustedes Los Ricos , where he favored pro-labor collectivism, or Borrasca En Las Almas where is advocacy went toward liberalist capitalism in the Henry Ford model, uplifting your workers enough to cement them in place as new consumers in the market economy.

Thanks for the in-depth commentary, Lencho. Quite sad that it continued for so long. Interestingly, I did watch Fernández' Pueblerina (1949) yesterday, and it handled rape with far more severity and clarity. The other films you mentioned in connection to the topic of rape in Mexican cinema don't seem to have English subtitles sadly. I do however intend to see more films by Rodriguez, and recently saw the film Ustedes Los Ricos is a sequel to. Appreciate the commentary on his messaging, something I will keep an eye on. Thank you also for the recommendation, rischka.

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king hu moving as far from kung fu/wuxia as he'll probably get while keeping the puzzle/caper aspects, and notably, mostly interiors. those shots of the princess made me think of petra von kant. just gorgeous filmmaking.

i watched alan rudolph's the moderns as i'm reading a book set in the period and it confirmed my impression that many of these people were insufferable

nicely done. i think lencho has a list of films in b&w AND color? you can add this one. rudolph was overshadowed by his mentor altman but he had a more romantic, impressionist sensibility. and his direction flows beautifully. gertrude stein and ernest hemingway are hilarious. and i can always watch wallace shawn. a statement on hollywood as well as expatriate paris, where poseurs spend the bulk of their time trying to impress each other

No, I don't have that list. You do it, if you want to.

Seeing Alan Rudolph do something other than his contemporary USA might help me appreciate him -- I can never get past how skunky his characters are.

lol i'm not entirely sure it would help. for myself keith carradine is off putting but i can ignore him

le homard - léonce perret (1913)

not so much a fan of perret's acting stuff when he's just mugging to camera, but these shorts as a couple with suzanne grandais are adorable. so cute!

https://twitter.com/rbgscfz/status/1571 ... 5MNxSz3sAA

like i said on twitter, i've tried to watch this before. could not get into it at all. this time i was overwhelmed. so strange when this happens i assume the very formalist aspect put me off? i know i didn't get more than halfway through it. i can only say this is now my favorite resnais ♥♥♥ and i'm so pleased i revisited. it is utterly perfect

♥

Comanche Station (Budd Boetticher, 1960) 7/10

A well-made western. It gets gradually better from the beginning to the end. I liked it more than a previous Boetticher and Scott film Ride Lonesome. A nice score by Mischa Bakaleinikoff.

Claude Akins plays a great baddie. I loved how he always responds "Hello" when someone calls him by name. Gives a sarcastic tone to his character.

NOPE IS PRETTY DAMN CREEPY

yeah i liked nope, couldn't remember if i posted that here. i preferred when i thought clouds might be laputa but nevermind. adored JUDEX esp musidora.



what a vamp

narayana - léon poirier (1920)






i want this doorbell!

check etsy!!

knives out seems very not good. also what is this accent on daniel craig? i know he wants to move on from james bond but this isn't helping his case