Persona, which barely gets in under our wire, and is the first film I've written about in this thread that has a shot of an erect penis.
It certainly is...different. I'm assuming that Ullmann and Andersson are actually the same person.
Made a page for underrated director George Stevens!
"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."
Large amounts ofTexans still HATE Stevens for making that "Giant" movie. 'Twas too close to the truth about what happened in their state when Big Oil hit it for their liking. There's a bit about the controversy surrounding the movie and the Edna Ferber book it was based on in this documentary from Rich Hall:
I am trying to struggle through Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing because it got a Best Picture nomination and it doesn't have a lot of tropes on the page but it is awful awful awful. Just the worst sort of 1950s trash. If I'd taken a drink every time the word "Eurasian" is uttered I'd be dead.
That sounds dire. Perhaps Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen will take the bad taste out of your mouth? Also about the Chinese Civil War ( I guess the earlier one) about a mixed race relationship. Great film.
"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."Long Tall Shorty slowly cleans out her PVR:
- Love Affair: Great romance. No fuss, just beautiful. Both Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer had really good chemistry and this is definitely Tear Jerker material that I'm down for. I'm interested to the see the shot for shot remake with Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant (An Affair to Remember)
edited 27th May '17 6:49:43 PM by LongTallShorty64
"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."I Walked with a Zombie: pretty darn good, if not the secret classic some critics make it out to be. Certainly has some arresting visuals. That first shot of the one zombie dude standing in the sugar cane was excellent.
As a lover of Jane Eyre, I've always been intrigued by this reimagining.
"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."I saw I Walked With A Zombie a few years back, while doing research in the cinematic history of the concept of the undead. I found the ending a tad hamfisted (what with the whole "voice-over literally explains the movie's message", though I got a sense it may have been meant to be partially ironic), but it does have some excellent atmosphere and sense of dread to it. The first shot of the zombie in the sugarcane field is still pretty startling.
There's one detail I was also quite fond of, the Chekovs Gun of the statue of Saint Sebastian, the martyred saint pierced with arrows, that keeps reocurring in the scenes almost like a sacred guardian of the mansion, watching the darkness unfold. And then one of his arrows is used as a weapon to solve the whole mess the movie's about. It's a neat tidbit of narrative hook and religious symbolism.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."Speaking of spooky atmosphere and striking visuals, Onibaba is pretty good. I Walked with a Zombie isn't bad, but it didn't leave as lasting an impression on me.
Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.Just watched Fanservice: The Movie, aka Pal Joey with Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak. Novak in a Bathtub Scene, Novak in an Of Corsets Sexy scene, Hayworth and Novak in a Sexy Backless Outfit in every other damn scene, Hayworth in a Shower Scene...
Yeah, there's a lot going on in Gilda. Romanticized Abuse, Hayworth in a Little Black Dress, Argentina Is Nazi-Land, barely concealed homoeroticism...a lot going on in a movie made under the Hays Code.
Watched Gertrud by Carl Theodor Dreyer. It was good, but not great. In particular, I'm not a fan of the acting style they used; I'm sure it was intended to be subdued, but it just came off as stiff to me.
Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.Gilda also has great music numbers: Put the Blame on Mame with the famous glove strip-tease, and Amado Mio is good and shows off Hayworth's dancing skills.
"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."Made a page for Charlie Chaplin film Sunnyside, generally regarded as one of his lesser works, but with a distinctively weird ending.
Made a page for 1951 Korean War movie The Steel Helmet, which I think might be one of the best war films I've ever watched. Startlingly realistic view of war and of American racism of the era.
Long Tall Shorty slowly cleans out her PVR:
- I Walked with a Zombie: Found this without ever remembering that I had recorded it! Pretty cool and spooky: I thought it was pretty interesting.
- Movie Crazy: I love Harold Lloyd. He's my favourite of the big three silent comedians. One thing I've noticed with his films is that he always shoe-horns a cute animal somewhere. This one was filled with ducks, rabbits, and chicks. Is he considered an auteur like Chaplin? I've always wondered. It was strange hearing sound coming out of his films (even if the film did start out like a silent), but his voice really matched his glasses character.
edited 8th Jun '17 11:46:12 AM by LongTallShorty64
"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."Agree on Chaplin being an auteur, disagree on Harold Lloyd being one, considering their range of writing and especially director credits. Lloyd didn't do much directing, besides a few shorts in the 1910's, while Chaplin directed a load of movies (both short and long), where he imprinted his personal and artistic vision from start to finish.
I do tend to fall in line with the European ideas of an auteur, which means that I put more emphasis on the directing roles of a person over acting roles (even if the character conceived by said actor is iconic, which Harold Lloyd certainly did), though.
One should note that auteur theory, a theory that was proposed by Cahiers du Cinéma, was meant to identify directors whose thematic and visual consistency virtually made them 'authors' of their films. This is what I have in mind when arguing for Chaplin.
Other notable directors that are considered to be auteurs can range from D. W. Griffith to Carl Dreyer or John Ford (to name a few), from the German expressionists to the Nouvelle Vague guys.
edited 8th Jun '17 1:30:18 PM by Quag15

Ah, yes, Montgomery Clift. My favourite movie of his is I Confess, one of Alfred Hitchcock's underrated gems.
Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.