SCFZ

rischka wrote: ↑Sat Dec 21, 2024 2:49 am chang cheh made a film about marco polo. it's very dumb and that's what i need rn

Fun review that cheered me up. My mum died yesterday and reading this pepped me up a bit, so ty, r.

oh no pabs i'm so sorry!!

Watched the new Nosferatu. Consistent with my Eggars experiences thus far, I find myself wholly impressed, though not really moved. It's got a strange slow/staccato rhythm that I quite appreciated... but I can't really see what is gained from this version other than maybe immediate visceral thrill. It's already faded from my memory to the same degree as Herzog's version, which I saw once about 15 years ago, so I don't imagine the images (which are beautiful) will hold much lasting resonance for me personally.

I was pleasantly surprised by Skarsgaard, but he benefits very much from being backgrounded. His version works for this film, but would not maintain interest to the degree of Kinski's version had he been taken more seriously as an actual character.

Idk. I enjoyed sitting through it enough, but it's my least favorite version of Nosferatu.

i see nolan is making the odyssey and people are concerned about 'spoilers'

i'm still trying to see the italian mini series!!

Monsieur Arkadin wrote: ↑Thu Dec 26, 2024 4:44 pm Idk. I enjoyed sitting through it enough, but it's my least favorite version of Nosferatu.

The appears to be the mutual consensus I'd been hearing all along. At a certain fault, Eggers has forever been obsessed with remaking this and just as you pointed out. He successfully makes his mark/take on/homage to the original but that's kind of it. Nothing lost, nothing gained.

Word came out about Del Toro's 'Frankenstein' coming out next year too. Also feel this will equally be style over substance.

A recommendation of a Universal B for fans of vintage trash!

Meet the Wildcat (Arthur Lubin, 1940)

Fun little mystery set in Mexico City, elevated by a romance between Margaret Lindsay and Ralph Bellamy that's pretty delightfully kinky (from the writer of Susan Slept Here).








Yes, that's Allen Jenkins's shadow!

Sold!

just saw nosferatu. same, it's the least of the three, and i don't see much reason to revisit it. based on this, the vvitch, and the lighthouse i have a hard time believing eggars has ever laughed in his life. everything fits into that very dark, joyless area. even if i've never seen herzog laugh on camera, the people in his films actually seem like people rather than walking memento mori.

The Grand Budapest Hotel. Always love its quirky style and the way it balances humor with deeper themes.

rewatched the third man for at least the 5th time - with commentaries (one w soderbergh and tony gilroy, one with an asst director and a script supervisor)









as much as i love the film, i have to say the canted angles are a bit much!! certainly giving the impression that our 'hero' is 'at sea'

no man appears heroic in a dutch angle

https://www.propellermag.com/Jan2016/We ... Jan16.html

The Room Next Door - a pretty remarkable feature-length imitation of those fake movies-within-a-movie that serve as arthouse parodies or cheap re-enactments within actual movies. Would make a great double bill with Emilia Perez as another bafflingly middlebrow misfire from 2024.

(^ Not that Almodovar or Audiard aren't necessarily middlebrow to begin with. More that these are misfires in the most tasteful and middlebrow way, not so much a hot mess but seemingly written and directed by an AI generator.)

I also watched THE THIRD MAN just three weeks ago. I liked it a lot more this time, my second watch. 9.5/10

polish epic Ogniem i mieczem/with fire & sword (d. jerzy hoffman 1999)

















17th century wars between polish and lithuanian knights and ukrainians and cossacks and tatars with huge battle scenes and many striking hairstyles (not to mention mustaches!)

recommended by greg x long ago. it took me several days but if you like this kinda stuff i can also recommend it!

shout out hot men Alexandr Domogarov and Michał Żebrowski

Ryś (The Lynx) - Stanisław Różewicz




Priest-based psychological dramas are usually quite interesting when they deal with existential dread and/or dilemmas. From the praised classics such as Bergman's Winter Light, or Bresson's Diary of a County Priest, to the more modern ones like Schrader's First Reformed, and Bird's Priest.

This is definitely one of the better examples of this niche, and is an all out masterpiece. On top of dealing with the two topics listed above and it having a heavier set of stakes and a darker tone as it deals with WW2, it also has some very interesting uses of symbolism, showing that the character he interacts with might be not what he initially seems to be.

However, it's the vibes of this that makes it stand out. Whenever the grey tint comes in during the ethereal sequences, it is always gorgeous to look at. This also is a borderline gothic horror with the dread that can kick in, both for the priest and for the viewer, and it eventually makes the church's artwork, statues, hell (lol) even the church itself look more imposing and dark as the plot goes on.

I am honestly shocked this has no activity here. The director's other film, Birth Certificate, is #1 in the <400 list. Also, this film is more popular than that in letterboxd.

Liquid Dreams - Mark S. Manos




Came in expecting a silly softcore film, and instead I got this hypersexual yet undersexed nightmare fuel.

The Videodrome comparisons to this makes sense with its aesthetic, with "Freedom from the flesh" being a quote in the film, and the fact that only VHS rips of this are available is amusing as it adds to the overall aesthetic and atmosphere this film creates. Dream-like is a good way to put it, but it's not ethereal, rather it's more intense like a nightmare.

Everyone is damaged by sex

Its look into the sex industry is fantastic. During the opening stripper scene with the lead during the interview it comes across as a softcore film, with it still showing a more innocent sort of quality to it. Something more clean that you would expect in a film of this genre. It even has the sort of sensual softcore music with someone speaking in French with the sexy Parisian voice.

Then, the reality of the industry comes in:

It shows the women trying to be empowering in the industry. It even showed transgressive messages that are statements enby people, another minority, would say, but decades before with the text "Gender is Slavery" popping up on the screen.

However, the reality of the industry sets in. The stripteases become more surreal and disturbing. The director of them being Mink Stole, who was in plenty of John Waters' films, who would make work just as transgressive as those striper shows. Objectivity is rampant to the point that naked girl dolls are shown on the tv screens.

She then knows that she has to climb the industry to find answers about her sister, and, as the owner of the building says:

Sex is only the wrapping paper. The real message is power

It becomes even more apparent that she is literally climbing into the industry by going up on floors in the building. The higher you are in the building, the higher you are in the industry. However, this is where the transgressions become even worse for the women. The music shows this the most. The softcore music is now gone, and is replaced with industrial music that bordered on being no wave, or even power electronics.

Some of it still gives that very silly neo-noir energy that you would see in these types of erotic thrillers of the era, but because of its Cronenberg-lite aesthetic and the overall strange atmosphere, I felt like it added to the film.

Evelyn Library P.I. wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2024 4:33 pm kinky

I was so disappointed on that front. It's very Arthur Lubin, though, even down to reworking a narrative beat from Nancy Drew Reporter... and there was enough Allen Jenkins to make up for any weaknesses. It was fun, anyhow.

Ah pity, you weren't squealing when he kisses her deeply and she's out of breath and says "No brother ever kissed a sister like that before?" And he says "Oh, I'm a bad boy"? Or when he pulls a gun on her and orders her to take off her dress and get in bed, and then ties her up? Oh well, I'm a tasteless fool, but at least it had Allen Jenkins....

I was just thinking 'Gee, I loved Lindsay, and Lindsay and Bellamy had such chemistry, I wonder if they got together in real life and I wonder if they made more movies together'. Great news on both fronts: turns out, Universal also thought they had chemistry because they made the Ellery Queen series right after (four more Bellamy-Lindsay mystery-comedies), AND that Lindsay was a LESBIAN and queen of the Universal B mysteries in the '40s. Even better. I know what I'm binge-watching now, once I get tired of Wheeler & Woolsey...

I f-ing loved ANORA.

Does that make me a misogynist??

Mikey Madison is incredible.

rischka wrote: ↑Tue Dec 24, 2024 3:21 am oh no pabs i'm so sorry!!

ty. it's been tough but i'm getting through it. Two weeks now.

pabs wrote: ↑Sun Jan 05, 2025 1:23 pm I f-ing loved ANORA.

Does that make me a misogynist??

Mikey Madison is incredible.

no ofc not but it is a cinderella story and it's hard (for me) to believe she'd fall for it

i love his other films that i've seen

kindgom of the planet of the apes wasn't good lol

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/under-the-table/

here's a rather good piece on anora ...

Well, if I can still be trusted, here's a B comedy from 1940 that I think at least Lencho and maybe others (Gusottertrout whereareya?) may be curious to see. I doubt you'll like it, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't engage ya.

Public Deb No. 1 (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1940) — A screwball comedy of Republican anti-communist propaganda ghostwritten by self-hating lesbian gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell. Brenda Joyce is a debutante who joins a Communist rally after reading the Stalinist handbook of her butler Mischa Auer. All-American waiter George Murphy decides to publicly spank her! Guess what happens next. Features a cavalcade of character actors, including Ralph Bellamy, Charles Ruggles, Franklin Pangborn, Maxie Rosenbloom—even a young Elisha Cook Jr. as a proud red! It's in the place...

lol thx looks like a hoot

Funny, Elisha Cook J also played a proud red in... Pigskin Parade (1936)(? I'll check that in a minute and if it's wrong, I'll come back and correct.

well i loved soundtrack to a coup d'etat - but i would wouldn't i. lots of great history (and music) here





a shame to see black musicians like louis armstrong and nina simone exploited by the cia on top of everything else

colonization of africa still informs the world and white supremacists stay winning

also enjoyed a rainha diaba (the devil queen) d. anotonio carlos da fontoura (1974)



practically an exploitation film about a gay crime boss in the favela. very colorful. and bloody!

Love is a Gun (1994)




It is a meme to say it, but this actually feels Lynchian. Not in the sense of "hey this is ALL WEIRD", but with its surrealism it has both this realistic mixed with dream logic quality to it, the very dark and silly humour that seem out of place on the spot but fits right into the big picture, and some stylized acting. I mean hell, both films even have their use of electricity buzzing.

The things that make this worse than a Lynch film? It is easier to understand despite the surrealism of it as the film goes on. I guess you can say that it's on the same level as Lost Highway. However, he literally explains how it works in the film at one point a la the doctor in Psycho. At least there are enough twists to balance it out, even if they're Lifetime level absurd.

The things that make this better than a Lynch film? Eric fucking Roberts. Glad to see he was also like this when he was younger. He has this post-ironic acting style where even with his work on stuff like Lifetime and DeCoteau's work he shines in them. The fact that people can't tell if he's being sincere or not when it comes to discourse about him shows the magic of his acting. I'm shocked he's not a household name yet Nicolas Cage is. As much as I love him, why Does Wicker Man have classic status for his meltdowns, but not the vastly superior Stalked by my Doctor films? Both for the meltdowns and being legit good.

His acting style is perfect for a Lynchian type film. When he does the meltdowns he's known for, it fits perfectly. It's a sight to behold.

mr lucky (hc potter 1943) strange mix of screwball, wartime romance and crime thriller? cary holds it all together. this (false) ending nearly knocked the wind out of me

really really enjoyed - the odd one dies (1997)



not least for takeshi kaneshiro. lots of wild energy. i think i prefer it to fallen angels

i like what gilman said: like wkw bursting out of ringo lam's chest

in other hong kong news https://variety.com/2025/film/news/john ... 236272850/

The deal, which brings together Hollywood’s indie powerhouse with one of Hong Kong cinema’s most prestigious catalogs, includes genre-defining works from directing legends John Woo and Tsui Hark, alongside star-studded vehicles featuring Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Leslie Cheung.