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General: [Sticky] What's the last movie you've seen?
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"Patterns" (Fielder Cook, USA 1956)
Frightening and impressive movie on the world of business, the slow destruction of a human being by the capitalist system... Great acting from both Van Heflin and Everett Sloane... the end is very impressive too. A great lost gem. 8,5/10
"Project Moon Base" (Richard Talmadge, USA 1953)
Yes, it's very cheap and camp but imdb's note is severe. The directing and the special effect are not so bad for a movie made in 10 days... The story is simple but as simple as in many today's sci-fi movies with much more means. So a good one for fans of those B's 5,5/10. -
"La venganza del sexo" (aka "The curious dr Humpp") (Emilio Vieyra, Argentina 1969)
Totlaly weird movie from argentinian vault. A strange mix of strong erotism and horror. A curious story of a man who kidnapp couples and then drains thier "blood force of the sex" to make an elixir which keeps him eternaly young. Furthermore he's keeping alive the brain of his ancient master... (see many B's of the 50's). The script is very like 50's ones, with many references. The b&w photography is nice and the sex scenes very numerous. A strange object to discover. 6,5/10 -
"The Lost World" (Irwin Allen, USA 1960)
Very entertaining pop-corn movie very cheesy, camp, full of clichés and all what you want. Nice photgraphy, some good sequences. The acting is over for almost all the characters. It can be watched as à B movie with some means... (you mean like many today's movies ?, Yes I mean...) 6,5/10
"Death Curse of Tartu" (William Grefe, USA 1968)
Ultra poor Z movie which deals with a strange tale of a dead seminole sorecerer, Tartu, brought to life by teenage students who danced on his grave and who can transform himself in various animals (this allows to use many stockshots) to kill and kill again... Bad direction, bad acting... a pure Z. 3,5/10 -
Le bruit des glaçons
The thing is: I really wanted to watch a french comedy with my parents lol but in fact I ended up showing them something quite dark actually, as always, I suck at showing my parents normal movies lol :)
Anyway ^^ they actually liked it. I mean it is Bertrand Blier, I hated his previous movie "Combien tu m'aimes?" but somehow I always give Blier a chance cause some of his movies I really loved ("Les valseuses" of course and "Trop belle pour toi"), no matter if you love it or hate it, it is always special, and "le bruit des glacons" is for sure special :) imagine if you get cancer and cancer comes to visit you, I mean what would you say to him appart from him been an awesole ^^
Dupontel (as the cancer^^) is hilarious as always, Dujardin is not bad and overall I had a good time, It is quite dark indeed and unconventional, the humour is very particular sometimes, a little too much but dark and metaphoric enough to make me laugh and there is even a little poetic touch which makes the movie stand out imo
7/10
When You're Strange
Nice docu about the Doors with plenty of never seen footage ;)
8/10
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"Sting of Death" (William Grefe, USA 1965)
Another pathetic Z movies by the Florida specialist of it. In this opus A mad and ugly scientist transform himself in an awfull jellyfish... (yes he did...) and of course kills a bunch of students and go-go dancers because he's in love with his professor's daughter who's in love with the poolboy... Truelly ridiculous it's a good "so bad that it's good". The direction and the means are a bit superior as in the" Death Curse of Tartu" by the same Gefré and the climax is the song of the movie "Do the jellyfish" certainly the most underated hit of those years... A good Z. 4,5/10 (for the costume of the jellyfish).
"The Three Stooges in Orbit" (Edward Bernds, USA 1962)
Entertaining comedy with the three pathetic Stooges (Moe, Harry and Curly-Joe) who face an invasion from Mars. SPOILERs But martians are in trouble because of the invention of an old scientist a flying submarine which can dive, fly and go on the roads... They decide to destroy the strange thing but the professor has to show it to the US Air force who seems to be interrested. But the young officer sent by the army falls in love with professor's daughter. The stooges come one night to the professor's home (they were fired from thier hotel) and are aalso in big trouble because they're going to be fired from thier tv show too if they don't find something new (sic!) The professor tells them he will help them if they help him to finish his work. But martians are also in the place and don't agry... END OF SPOILERS. Well it's a typical,comedy of those years... more funny than most of what we can see today. The humour is not very fine but some sequences are very funny. The story is rich of events and the gags very numerous. The direction is not bad by a specialist of B's. The make up of the martians are simply huge !! So 6,5/10 -
Sucker Punch (2011) 2/10
Who watches this nonsense? Who drives directors and producers to waste their energy and money? Who played so many stupid video games that they think it's normal to have bimbos running around killing dragons with samurai swords? It's you! And who holds the key that can open your eyes and set you free? It's Antituur! ;-)
Logan's Run (1976) 3/10
One wonders whether this science fiction film was intended as 'camp' from the very beginning, but considering the high budget for which it was made, that's probably not the case. Acting, screenplay, design and effects: they are all extremely poor, which causes some fun when watching.
Silent Running (1972) 6/10
Nicely focused science fiction film that keeps its plot simple. As the characters are rather simple as well, however, the film lacks some depth.
El hombre de al lado [The Man Next Door] (2009) 6/10
Successful designer lives with his wife and daughter in Le Corbusier's Casa Curutchet in Buenos Aires, when one day the neighbour tears a hole in a common wall. It's the start of an entertaining dark comedy, revolving around two unsympathetic characters, one snobbish, the other vulgar.
Sin Nombre [Without Name] (2009) 8/10
In Honduras, a teenage girl, with her father and uncle, sets off on a journey through Guatemala and Mexico in an attempt to reach the USA. In southern Mexico, a young gang member tries to escape his former life, and his former fellow gang members who want him dead. The two meet on the roof of a freight train. Part road movie, part romance, and part documentary-like, this is an impressive and captivating debut feature film by American director Cary Fukunaga.
Un secret (2007) 8/10
Maybe somewhat 'old fashioned', but nevertheless a well told and well acted story of a complex family secret. Although the story has its origin during the Holocaust, the German occupation is in fact something of a backdrop, rather than the decisive element.
Hobo With a Shotgun (2011) 8/10
Very over-the-top and very funny. Quite an achievement, to make something in the gore department that's truly enjoyable to watch.
Oko nad Prahou [Eye Above Prague] (2010) 8/10
If you're interested in architecture, this is a good documentary about Jan Kaplicky, founder of Future Systems, who escaped Czechoslovakia in 1968 and returned in 2007 after having won an international design competition for the National Library in Prague. The film documents what happens in the two years between winning the competition and Kaplicky's death in 2009. Prepare yourself for an abundance of narrow-mindedness. -
"Curse of the Fly" (Don Sharp, UK 1965)
No more fly in this second and last sequel of "the Fly" but the end of the story of the Delambre cursed family. After recovering a human form in "return of the fly", dr Henri Delambre has been geneticaly modified (up to date no?? ;)) and is victim, as one of his son, Martin, of premature olding... But he continues his researches on teleportation with som side effect especialy on Martin's first wife Judith... Martins fall in love with Patricia escaped form an asylum... The police investigates and Henri Delambre don't want them to find the terrible secret of his experiments... The screenplay is cheap and has nothing to do with the fly... The direction is not bad and the b&w scope photography nice. 6,5/10 -
I'm at the film festival of Locarno this week and hope to see some interesting new and old movies. I started yesterday with
Señorita (Vincent Sandoval, Philippines 2011).
This first film of Philippinian director Vincent Sandoval is about Sofia a transsexual prostitute who wants to start a new life away from Manila. She gets the chance in a village called Talisay where she takes care of the 12 years old son of a friend of her who went abroad for a year. When she notices that one of her former regular clients manipulates the local elections in Talisay her old life catches up with her. Sofia will do everything to avert this.
The story in this movie is very well told. It shows an interesting character development of the main figure Sofia from a transsexual beauty queen to a fallen prostitute involved in organized crime. Actually, it is a regression from the new Sofia in the village to the old Sofia in Manila. The director shows this regression by gradually exposing the viewer to more and more information about Sofia‘s past. All this is packed in an fascinating thriller plot. 7/10 -
"Gojira-Minira-Gabara: Oru kaijû daishingeki " (aka "All Monsters Attack", "Godzilla's revenge") (Ishiro Honda, Japan 1969)
A godzilla movie for children. The young Ishiro (sic!!) is a dreaming kid who spend his time in the Monsters Island where lives Godzilla and his son Minilla with all the monsters seen in previous movies... Minilla is in trouble cause of a monster Gabara... Dream and real life merge when Ishiro is kidnapped by two burglars... A good entertaining for kids with lot of stockshots of previous Honda's movies. 6,5/10.
Be Carefull the english title "All Monsters Attack" is also used for another Godzilla's (and Honda's) movie "Kaijû sôshingeki" (1968) in which evil aliens take control of all the monsters to destroy earth... -
A busy day, yesterday at the film festival:
Gangsterläufer (Christian Stahl, Deutschland 2010)
At 15 Yehya is already the boss of an Arab-boy-gang in Berlin-Neukölln. Two years later he is sentenced to three years in prison for armed robbery. In this documentary Christian Stahl follows Yehya before and during his years in prison. Since he gets a close friend of his family (a family member as he says himself), he is able to share some insights on this Palestinian refugees family otherwise not possible. However, this lack of distance is also the weak point of this movie. Too many questions are not addressed. The Q&A following the film showed, that Stahl had good reasons to leave this questions out, however, it shouldn‘t need a Q&A session to see that. 6/10 -
The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincente Minnelli, USA 1952)
Locarno has a retrospective of Vincente Minnelli this year, one of the great Hollywood directors of the 40s and 50s. The Bad and the Beautiful is probably his best work. It is a movie about the rise and fall of the brilliant movie producer Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) who ruthlessly uses everyone to get the best out of them for his movies. The story is told in flashback form throught the eyes of a director (Barry Sullivan), an actress (Lana Turner), and a writer (Dick Powell), who all had been betrayed by Shields. The movie is great Hollywood cinema. Stunning actors, beautiful cinematography and a great script with a cynical look at the inside of Hollywood. 8/10
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Tokyo Koen (Shinji Aoyama, Japan 2011)
The new movie of Aoyama revolves around the young aspiring photographer Koji Shida who is hired to follow and photograph a young woman in a park. Her husband suspects his wife to use the strolls in the park as an excuse for en extra-marital affair. This job has a great impact on Koji. It changes his look on several relationship he has with different women including his deceased mother, his step sister and the girlfriend of his best friend who died recently and still lives with him as a ghost.
Aoyama makes this movie in the style of classical Japanese cinema and does a really awesome job. The story is beautifully told with some interesting metaphors and symbolism. I especially liked the idea of the girlfriend watching all kind of zombie and vampire movies (including the awesome movie Vampyr by Dreyer) to keep her dead boyfriend at life. Great contemporal Japanese cinema. 8/10
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4 Tage im Mai (Achim von Borries, Germany/Russia/Ukraine 2011)
Four days before World War II ends a Soviet Captain an his patrol have occupied an orphanage by the Baltic sea. A German unit is camped on the beach and everyone is weary of fighting knwing the end of the war is near. Only the thirteen year old orphan Peter wants to prove he is a man and hero and tries to instigate trouble between the opposing troops. However, over the four days Peter finds a father figure in the Captain who himself sees in Peter his fallen son. In the end the Soviet patrol fights together with the German troops to defend the orphans from war crimes.
Based on a true story, this is a very well-done film in the history of anti-war movies. I really enjoyed watching it, even if it has nothing fundamental new to add to the message against war. However, as Billy Wilder (I think) said: Everything is already said against war. However, it is important to repeat all the time for the new generations to come. 7/10 -
And another four movies today:
Les Chants de Mandarin (Rabah Ameur-Zameche, France 2011)
A film about smugglers in the mid 18th century France. There isn‘t much more to say about this movie. Despite a nice cinematography with some really beautiful pictures it is a very boring film. This is mainly because of the poor script. It is unclear where the story is going who the characters are and why they are acting as they do. I really had to sit through this one and it was a pain. 4/10
Onder ons (Marco Van Geffen, Netherlands 2011)
Ewa, a Polish girl, starts as an au-pair in the Netherlands but doesn‘t get along with the new circumstances. She is very shy and lonely and only has one friend, another Polish au-pair girl. When she discovers the identity of a rapist the police is looking for, she doesn‘t know what to do with this information. Her silence puts her even deeper in isolation.
This is the first feature film of Van Geffen, and what an awesome one. The story of Ewa is told from three different perspectives and what seems odd in the beginning finally makes some sense in the end. Beautiful set design, great acting and a very original script. Dutch cinema isn‘t that bad as everyone says. Check this one out if you have the chance. 8/10 -
Lust for Life (Vincente Minnelli, USA 1956)
Another movie from the Minnelli retrospective, and another one with Kirk Douglas as leading actor. Douglas portrais Vincent van Gogh in this picture. The movie is a bit overdramatic but Douglas does a hell of a job. 7/10
Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland/France/Germany 2011)
What can I say? I just love Kaurismäki and this is one of his best movies from the last few years. Marcel Marx makes his living as a shoeshiner and lives a modest but contented life between his wife, his neighbours, and his favorite bar. One day his wife gets very sick and an underage African refugee is hiding in his shed. Having nothing but his optimism he sets out to solve his problems.
This movie is much lighter and more optimistic than most of Kaurismäki‘s films. I guess this is why the movie is set in France instead of Finland. The cast ist outstanding, especially André Wilms as Marcel Marx, the main character. The dialogues are very dry and very funny, some of the best dialogues I‘ve seen so far by Kaurismäki. I just love this movie and according to the applause on the Piazza Grande, so did the other 8‘000 in the audience tonight. 9/10
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Great reviews, Fungus! We should have more of them from festivals all over the world.
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@fungus, great reviews... I watche"the bad and the beautisul" and the movie was excellent...
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@Antituur and @RDPL55: thank's for your kind words. It's good to know somebody is reading this :)
This morning I watched some great short movies including a gay werewolf and a kid who collects dead animals:
Séptimo (Valentina Chomorro, Sweden 2011)
A short movie which at first seems to be a story about a shy young man (Vincent) living in a secluded place and falls in love with another guy. However, the gay love story comes to an end when the full moon changes Vincent into a werewolf. 8/10
Les Enfants de la nuit (Caroline Deruas, France 2011)
A short film about a love story between a French daughter of a resistance member and a German soldier in occupied France during the end of World War II. Beautifully told and excellent cinematography. 9/10
Brainy (Daniel Joseph Borgman, Denmark/New Zealand 2011)
A short film about an eleven year old boy who can‘t get over the dead of his grandfather. In his own fantasy world he collects dead animals and tries to send them to space so to come alive again. A very original and intriguing story, great actors and a beautiful set design. 9/10
At the Formal (Andrew Kavanagh, Australia 2010)
A very short movie who at first sight looks like an ordinary graduation party. But soon the rituals turn more and more violent. With it‘s gradually built-up twist ending this short gives you something to think about. 8/10
Short films seem to get better rating, but that's only because it's much more easier to do a great movie in 25 minutes than to elaborate a story over feature length. -
And this afternoon:
Dai Nipponjin (Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japan 2007)
A hilarious mockumentary about Big Man Japan, a Japanese super hero who is called when a giant monster attacks Japan (like this one for example: http://whatthemovie.com/shot/16343 ). In this case he goes to a power plant, where he transforms into a 30m high warrior by using electro shocks. This movie is just plain absurd and always over the top. Matsumoto of course references the great Japanese monster movies from the 50s and 60s and adds some anime heroes in the end. But even if he makes fun of these movies he still honors them and you just feel how he is fond of them. Great fun to watch, especially at a film festival where drama movies seem to be in majority. 8/10
I even got interviewed by the Japanese television after this movie. According to the Japanese tv teams, it seems to be a big thing in Japan, that Locarno shows all three movies Matsumoto directed so far: Shinboru (2009), which I'm just going to watch right now, and his new one, Saya Zamurai, which I will watch tomorrow. -
Shinboru (Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japan 2009)
Wow, what a movie. A Japanese man in yellow pajamas awakes in a white room with no windows or doors. Angels emerge from the walls and go back again leaving only their penises sticking out of the walls. The man soon discovers, that touching the penises leads to various items magically appearing. In combination these items eventually may lead to an escape. Meanwhile in Mexico a masked wrestler known as Escargot Man is preparing for an important fight.
Yes it sounds crazy and it is. It‘s quite some time since I was baffled by a movie as I was by this one. I just loved every second of it. Matsumoto not only wrote an incredibly funny script and directed this movie in an awesome way, he also plays the main character and does some great slapstick worthy of a Buster Keaton. Weird, weird, weird movie, but in the best way there can be (at least for me). 10/10
After this experience, I'm really excited to see his new movie tomorrow. -
Yes, Dai-nipponjin was a lot of fun. And I'm sure you'll enjoy Shinboru, which is, I think, even better. More poetic, or something. :-)
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Ah, there's the review already! :-)
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"L'ultimo squalo" (Enzo G. Castellari, Italy 1981)
The italian version of "Jaws" is not so bad and is not ridiculous even if very close to the original. In a small town near the coast in the US a windsurf competition is organized, but the day before the race a young surfer is attacked by a shark. The governor takes some security solutions but the shark is so big he goes through the fence the day of the race... The direction is not bad, the monster is not ridiculous at all and the stock-shots sequences are not too numerous and well used. For jaws fans... 6,5/10 -
this morning I watched a Swiss movie:
180° (Cihan Inan, Switzerland 2010)
This movie got it‘s idea from a real crime that happened in Zurich (Switzerland) about 20 years ago. A civil servant of the city lost it and went on a shooting spree where he killed some of his co-workers. This is the starting point of the movie which then revolves arount the lives of different people and their families who get affected by this shooting in an indirect way. It starts when a couple has to take a detour because the police is blocking the road. This leads to running them over a teenage couple. The girl is killed right away, while the boy gets to the hospital heavily injured.
Living myself in Zurich, I obviously went to see this movie because it was from my home town. However, knowing not that many good Swiss movies I didn‘t have high hopes, which was good. Actually, the story is very interesting and gives you something to think about. The movie is also done very well on a technical level. But the director wants too much in his first feature length film. There are too many characters shown being affected by the killing and the following accident. So it is not possible to give depth to the characters and elaborate them. Everything keeps on the surface. The quality of the acting didn‘t help, some of the actors seemed quite wooden in their performance. 6/10
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The afternoon was very experimental.
Sack Barrow (Ben Rivers, UK 2011)
This short experimental is just awesome. Ben Rivers has the qualities of artists like Matthew Barney, Pippilotti Rist or David Lynch. He actually „only“ shows the work in a small family run factory in the outskirts of London, however, the images are so beautifully photographed and edited in a great way, you just can‘t look away. Even if no real story is going on, you just want to look at this pictures. This is real art for me. 9/10
Boxing in the Philippine Islands (Lawrence S. Ang, Philippines 2011)
A very short experimental movie without any soundtrack at all. It just shows heavy distorted and filtered black and white images of boxing. The director achieves some truly interesting visual effects, by reducing the images to analogue noise signals. 7/10
The Cloud of Unknowing (Tzu Nyen Ho, Singapore 2011)
Another experimental short movie. The movie is set in a low-income housing block and revolves around eight characters in eight apartments. Each of them encounters a cloud and experiences some kind of transformation through their senses. The movie is very interesting to watch and leaves a lot of space to interpretation. I loved it. 8/10 -
Buenas noches, España (Raya Martin, Spain/Philippines 2011)
An experimental film with feature length. Well, I was intrigued by the description in the festival program which said:
„In another lifetime, a Spanish couple take drugs and teleport themselves through their television set. A troubled young man travels through the countryside and meets a lost woman. During the trip, they discover a museum housing the expatriated paintings of the most important Filipino artist of the revolution. Eventually, the Spanish couple disappear. Inspired by one of the earliest teleportation accounts, which happened between the Philippines and Mexico during the colonial period.“
However, to me it looked as if the director followed two of his friends to the woods, the museum and to a beach where they did some random stuff and goofed around. He made sure everything was filmed and that the camera never rested but was always in movement. After having about 30 minutes of film material he edited the movie to a 70 minutes long experimental movie by randomly duplicating scenes, adding digital distorion and color effects (negative images, color shifts) and adding a very annoying soundtrack reminding me of Throbbing Gristle (including feedback loops all few minutes which really hurt your ears). As you may have noticed, I didn‘t like the move at all. The director tries to reference the silent movies by adding intertitles, tinting most of the scenes in the colors used by the old silent movies, and using some sound gag effects. However, this isn‘t enough to keep such a movie interesting for 70 minutes. From the 120 people in the audience there were about 35 left in the end. Unfortunately, I was one of them. 3/10
After this one, I'm really looking forward to tonight's screening on the Piazza grande with Matsumoto's new Samurai movie and (if I'm in the mood for it) Vincente Minnelli's An American in Paris. -
Gruz 200 [Cargo 200] (2007) 9/10
Not always very well acted, but a great and hilarious film depicting the USSR in 1984. At first it's hard to decipher the genre: is it maybe some sort of art house drama? But isn't the country looking a bit too filthy and dilapidated to be real? Then it seems to turn into a slasher or horror movie. But the tone of voice (and the soundtrack!) keeps entirely deadpan and understated, however violent and grotesque the actions get. Maybe we should settle on dark comedy? But then again: one senses a bitterly serious undercurrent. It's probably most rewarding to see the film as a documentary. After all, it starts with the statement that it's based on real events. Warmly recommended. :-) -
Saya Zamurai (Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japan 2011)
The movie follows an aging samurai who threw away his sword and stopped fighting when his wife died. Together with his little daughter he is on the road to nowhere while bounty hunters try to bring him in for deserting his lord. After imprisonment he is sentenced to the „30-Day Feat“: he will be freed if he is able to make the sad little prince smile again. To accomplish this task he has 30 days and one try per day. If he fails he must commit seppuku (the Japanese ritual suicide). With the help of his daughter and two guards the samurai decides to fight again, not with a sword but with wits.
This movie is quite different from the other two Matsumoto films. As the director himself told: The first two movies were abstract paintings while this one is more of a landscape painting. The movie first seems to be a (hilarious) spoof of the classic samurai movies but finally turns out to be a real samurai movie. Matsumoto achieves this by adding a beautiful and very melodramatic ending which I think surprised the whole audience. Matsumoto took quite some risks in making this movie. One of them was casting Takaaki Nomi, a variety show personality with no acting experience. Matsumoto didn‘t even tell him the comic stints he had to do were for a movie he just should concentrate on the stints. It worked out perfectly. All in all the movie isn‘t as good as Shinboru but I didn‘t expect that. This movie is intelligent, funny, surprising and just beautiful, a worthy follower of all the great Japanese samurai movies. 8/10
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An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, USA 1951)
Well, I‘m not really a fan of musicals or dance movies with some noteable exceptions (e.g. West Side Story or The Red Shoes). This movie isn‘t one of them. It has a lot of things I don‘t like in musicals: a cheesy and almost non-existent story, characters who are not believable and actors who are hired because they are good dancers or singers but not especially good actors. However, it was nice to watch this in Technicolor on the big screen of the Piazza Grande in Locarno. And Gershwin‘s music really is outstanding. Every song in this movie is considered a standard today. 6/10
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"Night Tide" (Curtis Harrington, USA 1961)
Another lost gem of B vault... This indepndent movie made for 28000$, filmed mostly in the streets is a wonderfull story of a sailor (Denis Hopper in his first great role), falling in love with a girl, Mora, who is cursed to be a mairmaid from the antic greek legend... Indeed all previous lovers of Mora have been found dead...A great movie with a very nice screenplay looking like Tourneur's "Cat People" with the fantastic only suggested, never shown... A very nice photography and nice camera moves and angles. A very good B. 8,5/10
"The Mad Ghoul" (James P. Hogan, USA 1943)
Another movie with Boris Karloff as a monster who want to kill all the cast... In this one he's an egyptologist who is dying but he bought the "eternal light" a jewel which he wants to be burried with. But the butler steal it before funeral... Then Karloff wake up from the dead and want to take revenge... A very simple B movie but with nice dark photography... For B fans 6,5/10
"The Terror" (Richard Bird, UK 1938)
Adapted from a famous play of Edgar Wallace this small B movie from UK is pretty watchable, the screenplay is very inventive, and the directing not so bad. The acting is a bit too "theatre" but the whol is interresting. 6/10 -
Yesterday was the last day of the film festival in Locarno.
Saudade (Katsuya Tomita, Japan 2011)
This is a movie about the problems of immigration in Japan. It mainly follows Takeshi, a member of the local hip-hop group Army Village and some of his co-workers on a construction site.
While the movie may be ground-breaking in Japan, I didn't like it. It is constructed from an observatory point of view as in a documentary without a narrator. This makes it difficult to follow the story and the different groups portrayed (Japanese, Brazilians, Thai, Philippines). Especially at the beginning I only noticed that the people shown on the screen had to be immigrants because of the Japanese subtitles popping up. Furthermore, immigration problems may be a relatively new issue in Japan, but here in Europe tons of movies already have dealt with this object. So it doesn't add something new, at least for me which made the 165 minutes of the movie very long. 5/10
Terri (Azazel Jacobs, USA 2011)
Terri is a troubled teenager living with his senile uncle in a small town in the nowhere of the US. He is so big he only wears pajamas to high school where he is of course one of the outsiders. The school principal (John C. Reilly) being himself an outsider in his high school time tries to help Terri.
The theme of the movie seems very well-known and many movies were made about it. The troublesome time high school misfits during puberty. Which makes this movie interesting and something distinct from others is that the director doesn't initiate a transformative experience for the "hero" as seen in so many other movies. The only thing he tries to accomplish is to give a bit of dignity to a kid desperately in need of it. The cast of this movie is quite astonishing. Besides the great John C. Reilly and Creed Bratton (best known from The Office) the young actors Jacob Wysocki, Bridger Zadina, and Olivia Crocicchia do a wonderful job. Even if the movie has some lengths it is absolutely worth watching and good closing for me for this years film festival in Locarno. 7/10
All in all, the film festival was very enjoyable this year. I only had some few movies I didn't like and some truly great ones I'll remember for a long time. The best thing for me was my discovery of Matsumoto, which I have partly to thank whatthemovie for. When I looked at the program of the festival I immediately recognized stills from his movies which I had seen here on the site. I remembered being intrigued by these stills and finally decided to go watch his movies. So thank's for WTM for still letting me discover such interesting movies. -
"Passion in the Sun" (aka "The Girl and the Geek") (Dale Berry, USA 1964)
One of the most inept thing you can dream to watch... A must for Z fans. A stripgirl is kidnapped by two cuban thieves on the run, pursued by police. At the same time a monster escapes from the circus he's closed. The girl escapes, one of the thieves kill the other one and then puersues the strip girl... The monster comes then kills the guy and persues the girl back to the circus... Completly ridiculous movie. 3/10 but for Z fans a must to see and 10/10 !! -
@fungus thanks for you Locarno's chronicles !!
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No Fun City (2010) 6/10
A documentary about 'counter attacking a boring city', as one of the participants puts it. It's a film about the underground music venues in Vancouver that are shut down one after the other, despite the 'counter attacks'. It's fun to see the energy of the bands that are performing, but the film doesn't do much more than complain and show how everything goes downhill.
The Trip (2010) 7/10
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play fictionalized versions of themselves, on a road trip through the north of England, reviewing upscale restaurants for the Observer. The film falls short on many levels, repeating itself too often, but is nevertheless entertaining because of the witty conversations and impersonations, and the differences in the characters that gradually surface.
Meek's Cutoff (2010) 8/10
In 1845, somewhere along the Oregon Trail, three pioneer families traveling by wagon are lost in the wilderness. Will they find water in time? Will they encounter Indians? Meek's Cutoff is a Western unlike all others. It has hardly any action, nor dialogue, no beginning and no end. But it's the very convincing experience of a journey drenched in uncertainty.
Nous Trois (2010) 8/10
90 minutes of Emmanuelle Béart, a colourful nostalgic 1970s setting, a dysfunctional family with equally dysfunctional neighbours, a nosy 6 years old kid with an obsession for the Queen of England and a soundtrack including Demis Roussos (well, Aphrodite's Child, actually): I think it's a great mix of ingredients leading to a film that's aesthetic, ironic and tragic and very enjoyable to watch. But not many people agree. It seems the film was not a success in France and was hardly shown anywhere else. Maybe it was impossible to compete with the comparable (but much more cute) Le petit Nicolas of the previous year? -
Funny Games (1997)
A fantastic film for anyone who's into tropes, movie/genre conventions, analysis of plot devices, etc. If you look at it as a mere piece of entertainment, there's not too much to say. Some parts of the film are merely excruciating (although most of the violence is happening offscreen), others morbidly funny. It draws most of its intensity from the fantastic acting of the ensemble cast. -
Saint-Jacques... La Mecque (2005) 3/10
Got lured into watching this due to some nice stills here at WTM. Bad idea. It's a farce, with simplistic ideas and caricatures for characters. A group of silly, overacting people on a pilgrimage.
Kiraware Matsuko no isshô [Memories of Matsuko] (2006) 6/10
A young man cleans out the apartment of his murdered aunt and gradually pieces together the story of her life, which is marked by violence, prostitution and other hardship. But it's not a story that's told in an easy way. There's a lot going on. Tetsuya Nakashima's film is exuberant, stylish, playful and energetically edited. Which is all a pleasure to watch. The problem is that it's hard to relate to the characters. All the attention for structure, surface and form gets in the way of the actual acting.
Chonmage purin [A Boy and His Samurai] (2010) 6/10
A family film, set in present day Tokyo. It's about a 6 year old boy and his single parent mother who one day 'find' a samurai from the Edo period on the street and take him home. He has some trouble to adapt, but then finds his vocation: baking cakes. This sounds utterly silly, but director Yoshiro Nakamura finds the right balance between the weird and the casual, and never resorts to easy jokes.
Submarine (2010) 7/10
Nice British debut coming-of-age drama with a great cast of convincingly peculiar and unadapted characters.
Le Quattro Volte (2010) 8/10
Not a word is spoken in this documentary style depiction of (the cycle of) life in rural Calabria, Italy. Main characters are a dying man, a newborn goat and a tree trunk. It's mesmerizing. -
"Sadko" (Aleksandr Ptushko, USSR 1953)
Colourfull movie of the golden age of fantastci soviet cinema.Sadko is an aventurer who looks for the "bird of happyness". To find it he will travel around the world and have lot of adventures. Nice photography, inventive special effects for that time. A good entertaining even if the screenplay is simple and youth oriented. 7/10
"Fiend Without a Face" (Arthur Crabtree, UK 1958)
One of the best horror movie of the golden age from the UK... Very creepy story of monsters born from the thougth of a mad doctor and that are growin g and growing thanks to the missuse of atomic energy... The creeepy creatures at first invisible suck your brain and spinal chrd dry... letting on your face an unseen sight of terror... Good screenplay, good directing, creepy monster making a terrifying sound when they approach... A very good B 7,5/10 -
3:10 to Yuma (2007) 3/10
It's hard to watch this movie, as many of the decisions taken by the characters make no sense. And how convincing is a man with a wooden leg effortlessly jumping from roof to roof, dozens of gunmen vanishing into thin air when the script has no more use for them, or a bounty hunter shot in the stomach and bleeding to death in one scene and being back on horseback as if nothing happened in the next? The only thing one can do is imagine it's a parody of a western and try to have a good laugh now and then.
Enemy at the Gates (2001) 5/10
Apart from all these Russians and Germans speaking English, which remains ridiculous, the problem here is that we never get the feeling that the action is taking place in a city, that it's part of real life, a real war. It's an isolated industrial wasteland in which the red team and the brown team play a sniper game. Moreover, the game is muddled by a sketchy romance.
Cowboys and Aliens (2011) 5/10
Mixing three genres - western, science fiction and 'memory loss thriller' - may sound funny and indeed causes some laughs, but Cowboys and Aliens also feels like a formula film to the third degree, with three times the predictable stuff in exactly the right place. Entertaining? Yes. Does it have any artistic merit? Nope.
The Beaver (2011) 6/10
Well, guess what, I didn't think this was so bad. The premise of the film - man speaks through his hand puppet beaver in an attempt to suppress the negative parts of his personality - is totally ludicrous, but it's presented with such intensity that it almost starts to convince. The sub-plot concerning his son has some promise to mirror the main story in an interesting way, but unfortunately doesn't really deliver. -
Some movies this week-end...
"The Dark Eyes of London" (Walter Summers, UK 1939)
Bela Lugosi is the mad doctor Orloff (Hey Jess!!) a murderer who kill the people who just have taken an insurance policy... he get the money of course... He's also the director of an institution for blinds... (but nobody knows it...he's diguised) and uses a monstruous blind colossus to kill people who are found in the Thames... First adaptation of this novel of Edgar Wallace it's worth of watching. 6,5/10
"Sult " ( aka "Hunger") (Henning Carlsen, Sweden, Denmark, Norway 1966)
Great adaptation of Knut Hamsun autobiographic eponymous novel. The story of the trials and tribulations of a young writter in Kristiania, his humiliations, frustrations and... the hunger. Great acting and photography. A nice one 8,5/10
"The Lawless Breed" (Raoul Walsh, USA 1953)
A nice western with Rock Hudson and Julie Adams. The story of a man pushed to crime and who'll find redemption. A classic story (told as true but completly different from the original one) well filmed by Walsh. Good acting, a touch of cynicisme (as usual) and lot of action (as usual too). A good "small" Walsh 7/10
"Montana Belle" (Allan Dwan, USA 1952)
Another Howard Hugues movie with his own star Jane Russell here as Montana Belle a dangerous and clever female outlaw who will fall in love with a former victim of her and her gang... But the Daltons brothers do not agry and furthermore Bob Dalton is in love too... A sexy western full of action and a very nice Jane Russell... 7/10
"Mr. Wong, Detective" (William Nigh, USA 1938)
First adventure of MR Wong played by Boris Karloff. A dark story of Murder of scientists by small glass bulbs of Gas... Good screenplay, acting not so bad... A good small B 6,5/10
"Dick Tracy's Dilemma" (John Rawlins, USA 1947)
Last feature of the adventures of the famous detective with Ralph Byrd acting. This Time Dick is in charge of a furs robberry and perhaps a swindling of insurance... Furthermore a mad kille "The Claw" commited the hold-up... A good B movie very entertaining. 7/10
"Mermaids of Tiburon" (John Lamb, USA 1962)
Totaly weird movie of a scientist who explore an unknown Island and discover pretty topless mairmaids... (the only interrest of the movie, as everyboby noticed it) At the same time a bad guy want to steal the wonderfull pearls hidden in Mermaids's cave...Nice underwater shots for this senseless story... 4/10 (but more for the cute mermaids...)
"You Only Live Once" (Fritz Lang, USA 1937)
Second american movie for Lang, a mix of melodrama and film-noir with stong politic commitments. the couple Fonda/Sylvia Sydney is very touching on this road movie which prefigures movies such "They Live by Night" "Gun Crazy" or even "Bonnie and Clyde"... A good screenplay, good directing and nice visual findings. 8/10
"The Comedy of Terrors" (Jacques Tourneur, USA 1963)
A nice parody of Horror movies with a bunch of stars : Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Peter Lorre and Vincent Price... A hall of fame !! Parody of shakespeare dramas too, the movie produced by the tandem Nicholson/Arkoff of AIP has been missunderstood and had no succes at the time... But it's very entertaining and with lot of cynicisme and "grand Guignol" Humour. Nice one 7/10 -
"The Creeping Flesh" (Freddie Francis, UK 1973)
A non-Hammer production with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as two scientific brothers... Peter Cushing come back from New Guinea with a strange humanoid skeleton... he discovers that when in contact with water, the bones cover with flesh... an ancient legend of new guinea says... "when tears will drop on the bones evil comes back to earth"... A very inventive and creepy story where horror is mostly suggested untill the end... Good directing by Francis, a specialist of the genre and good acting by the eternal tandem Cushing/Lee... 7,5/10
"The Crimson Ghost" (Fred C. Brannon, William Witney, USA 1946)
Last serial of the master of the genre W. Witney and co-directed with his successor at Republic Pictures Fred C. Brannon. This one is well known for his vilain, the ugly Crimson Ghost (the mask will be used very often even by punk rock groups like the Misfits in the early 80's) who want to steal the Cyclotrode a powerfull weapon that will make him the master of the world as usual... But Dr Duncan Richards (Charles Quigley) and his pretty assistant Diana Farnsworth (Linda Stirling, one of the queen of the serial) will stop him... The whole is very entertaining and is with lot of action as usual in those productions, and lot of improbabilities of course :)... but that's not very important indeed. A good one 7,5/10 -
"The Saint in New York" (Ben Holmes, USA 1938)
First adaptation of the famous character created by Leslie Charteris, Hitchcock wanted to direct it but could not... Here the Saint is, Louis Hayward. The Saint has to clean-up New York of gangters by using any means even the most reprehensible... He has to face many criminals and a dangerous fatal woman. Good directing and a good down-town atmosphere... 7,5/10
"The Saint Strikes Back" (John Farrow, USA 1939)
Second movie od the serie this time the Simon Templar alias The Saint is played by George Sanders, more sweet by as violent as his predecessor he's trying to find who pushed a cop to suicide, accused of corruption. He will help the cop's daughter, decided to revange by using unusual methods... A good Sequel 7/10 -
- CommentAuthormarinaraujo
- CommentTimeSep 1st 2011 edited
Vivre Sa Vie - I need to watch more of Godard. All of his films I've seen are different but also very similar to each other in some way. This one was good and some lines were really smart. 7/10
The Matrix - Ok, it took me too long to watch this one. But I'm glad I finally did, I liked it very much. 8/10
Les Amours Imaginaires - Lovely, fresh film with an uncompromised script and good soundtrack. I didn't even notice the time passing by. 8/10
Last Tango in Paris - Good film but I had such high expectations about it... I ended up a little bit frustrated. 7,5/10
Turtles Can Fly - Such a gripping film about the situation of the Kurds living in Iraq's border before Saddam Hussein's fall. So sensitive and true. Made me cry like a baby. 8/10
My Own Private Idaho - A portrait of male prostitution, the story was pretty different from what I was expecting and I felt like there was something missing... good one nonetheless. 6,5/10
The Great Train Robbery - Funny short from 1903, good to discover early cinema. 7/10
Carnival of Souls - What a nightmare (in a good meaning)! After an acident, an organ player mysteriously survives and doesn't have a memory of what happened before. She starts to be tormented by the view of a creepy man, associated to the presence of a haunted carnival in the town. I loved the way it was filmed, loved the acting, loved everything! 9,5/10
Mysterious Skin - Crazy stuff about two boys who have different memories from the same period in their childhoods, one of which even thinks has been abducted by ET's... I thought it would go too wild, but overall I found it a good film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt seemed so young in this one (actually, he doesn't seem to age as years pass by). 7,5/10
Boys Don't Cry - Strong film about a girl who transvests herself as a boy. Hilary Swank's Oscar for her role in this one was more than deserved. 8/10
Rise of the Planet of the Apes - I watched the trailer and thought it'd could be fun, but it didn't bring anything new apart from what I was expecting. Plus, some subplots could have been better explored and Jesus, Freida Pinto was just put there to be a decorative figure. The film had a good potential, though, was entreteining and never boring. 6/10 -
"Okraina" (aka "The Patriots") (Boris Barnet, USSR 1933)
Excellent movie about WWI, the story of a small town where life goes on with misery, strikes and all the small daily happyness and sadness. Then war is declared... A man send his two sons to the front, the will discover the butchery, one will e killed, the other one will be shoot because he don't want to fight anymore... At the same time in the village german prisonners are allowed to find work in the area to survive... Marika a young girl fall in love with a young soldier... Gret movie, huge editing and filming. A strong dose of poetry in this difficult movie. All important things are shown in smal shots, small details, short sequences which show us how people lived and died at that time. Barnet is to (re)discover one of the most interesssant (and underated) soviet director.
"Christina, princesse de l'érotisme" (aka "Among the Living Dead") (Jesus Franco, Belgium, France, Italy, Liechtenstein 1973)
Another Jess Franco Movie very interresting story of a girl who entered a cursed manor haunted by the spirits of the ancient inhabitants, all members of her family. Totaly weird and broke as usual !! 6,5/10 -
@marinaraujo !! Completly agry with you on "Carnival of souls" !! I love this movie. "The great train robbery" is also very interresting...
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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008) 4/10
There is a certain potential in the idea of showing the Holocaust through the eyes of an innocent 8-year old boy, but the result here is rather childish. Apart from the cast speaking English and the amazing absence of guards at the concentration camp fence (breaking in/out is taking a kid only a couple of minutes, in clear daylight) the bad guy (the commandant of the camp) is conveniently punished for being evil: his mother and wife turn away from him and his son is killed by accident in his own death camp. Haha, commandant, you didn't expect that, did you? Serves you right!
The Future (2011) 7/10
As I happen to like Miranda July's humour and irony, I think the film has plenty of nice moments, but it certainly is not as strong as her debut film Me and You and Everyone We Know. In 30 days time a young couple will get their adoption cat, meaning (they think) they will need to live responsible lives from then on. So they decide to spend the last month of their free lives 'reprioritizing'. It's honest, quirky and absurd, but it lacks a good story line.
Melancholia (2011) 9/10
Wonderful atmospheric drama about the last days before the destruction of our planet. Lars von Trier's film does have some strange aspects, though. The setting is confined to a luxurious mansion, cut off from the rest of the world. And apart from some peeks on 'the Internet', there is no attempt to gain information from, for instance, television news. That doesn't feel very convincing. Another strange thing is that the dramatic wedding that takes up the first half of the film does not really have any link to the apocalyptic event; it's only used as a means to introduce the main characters. It's as if two different films have been merged at some point. Nevertheless, an exciting film about desperation, fear and emptiness, and a great pleasure to watch.
Io sono l'amore [I Am Love] (2009) 9/10
Portrait of an Italian family of aristocrats. Below the surface we feel some frictions developing, but for a long time it's not clear which of those will unsettle things. The cinematography is brilliant in creating atmosphere and tension and the images often say more than the words. -
"Gamera tai Shinkai kaijû Jigura " (Noriaki Yuasa, Japan 1971)
7th movie of the adventure of Gamera the giant turtle friend of children... This time aliens from planet Zigra come to earth to live in our oceans and feed with human beings... But they are unquiet because our oceans are very dirty... Two childrens with the help of Gamra will defeat the alien and thier bad monter a giant shark!! 6/10
"The Far Country" (Anthony Mann, USA 1954)
Another wonderfull collaboration Mann/Stewart for this huge western, filmed in the Jasper National Park in Canada... Wonderfull story of a man who'll learn, thanks to a young smart girl to live with others (paradoxal in the western code), that helping each others is the best way of living. Very good directing and acting, a good dose of cynicism and humor. 9/10 -
"The Fighting Devil Dogs" (John English, William Witney, USA 1938)
This serial, made in honnor to the Marines, is one of the most brocke made by the Republic, but one of the most entertaining... We're going from China to New-York, to Unknown Island with savage native tribes, undersea fighting... It uses scenes from other Republic Serials like S.O.S Coastguards, Dick Tracy, or Dick Tracy vs Crime inc. but who cares ? The most incredible is once more the vilain. One of the moste famous with the Crimson Ghost or the Scorpion : The Lightning with his black suit and mask is unforgatable. And that's not George Lucas who will say the contrary : Look at the Lighting and Derth Vader... you'll see where comes the inspiration... A good B movie from that time when people had no money but ideas... 7,5/10 -
"Voodoo Man" (William Beaudine, USA 1944)
A cast of dream in this movie a all (B) stars : Bela Lugosi as the mad doctor Marlowe who wants to bring back to life his wife by using the power of Nicolas a voodoo priest (George Zucco) who transforms young girls in Zombies and then drains thier life to transfert it to Marlowe's wife... For the kidnapping a mad guy (John Carradine absolutly incredible) is used... But a screnplay writer, sent in the area for marrying and searching a screeplay for a horror movie will defeat the villains... One mor B by a true king of the genre, as broke and funny as usual... 5/10 for B fans 8/10 !!
"The Mysterious Mr. Wong" (William Nigh, 1934)
Another movie with Bela Lugosi here as a mad mad who wants to recover the twelve golden coins of Confusius to become the king of a large part of China... In that purpose he kills and kills people in Chinatown to get the coins... The police becomes nervous and a newspaper man is investigating... Another poor B movie with Lugosi disguised in chinese with nice moustit racists but so ache... The dialogues are ridiculous and obviously racist and parernalist... but in a so obvious and ridiculous way that the effect now is almost the contrary... funny. 5,5ling../10
"Doomed to Die" (William Nigh, USA 1940)
Another investigation of the famous chinese detective Mr Wong (Boris Karloff) (no relation with the previous movie!!) by the prolific William Nigh again. Here, the detective investigates on the murder of a a shipping magnate involved in smuggling with China... Wong will be helped by a young smart reporter Roberta 'Bobbie' Logan (the charming Marjorie Reynolds)... A good small B 6,5/10
"Baba Yaga" (Corrado Farina, Italy/France, 1971)
The weird tale of a pretty youg photograph, Valentina (Isabelle De Funès) cursed by a witch Baba Yaga (Carroll Baker) who attract her in torture and lesbian sex... A strange movie adapted from the famous comics of Guido Crepax with the character of Valentina inspired by Louise Brooks... A good one 6,5/10
"Hangman's House" (John Ford, USA 1928)
Very nice silent drama from John Ford. The story of an irish patriot Denis Logan (Victor McLaglen) engaged in French Foreign Legion in Africa who'll come back to Ireland to revenge from an aristocrat D'Arcy (Earle Foxe) who push his sister to suicide after abandoning her... D'Arcy is is Ireland to marry Conn (June Collyer) the nice daugthter of a terrible judge in love with Dermot McDermot (Larry Kent) a nice guy... Very nice filming, good acting. A nice story. A movie to watch. 8/10 -
Crazy Stupid Love - 90/100- lovely romantic comedy with wqonderful performance from Ryan Gosling - perhaps the sweetest comedy since Love Actually
Midnight in Paris - 92/100 - lovely, charming postcard from Woody Allen himself, too bad he didn't use Brody and Sheen enough -
"Where Danger Lives" (John Farrow, USA 1940)
Excellent Film Noir about the famous theme of the hunted couple. Here Robert Mitchum as a young doctor fall in love with Faith Domergue, a dangerous and beautifull young woman married with an older man (Claude Rains). What the doctor doesn't know is that Faith is mentaly disturbed... One evening an argument goes wrong and Mitchum kill rains by accident (that's what he thinks) but he'ss also seriously injured... The couple try to cross the border of Mexico... perhaps thier last journey... Excellent movie making you think of course of Gun Crazy, They live by night... Good acting, good directing. 8,5/10
"Side Street" (Anthony Mann, 1950)
A great Noir, by Mann with the same couple of Actors as Ray in "they live by night" Here Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell are a young couple of new-yorkers having a baby. But life is difficult and money's lacking cruelly. One day in an office he steals what he supposed to be 200$... but it's 30000$ he finds... he try to bring it back but it's dirty money, linked to the murder of a call-girl... Great movie with good directing and acting, nice photography of New-York, the city is a full character of the movie and the final car pursuit in the streets is simply huge !! 8,5/10