What was the last film you watched?

[Willie Oleson]

Tonight was a "schoolkids in trouble" double feature.


THE WINSLOW BOY (1948)



The alleged forgery and theft by young naval student Ronnie Winslow becomes the cataclysm in a nationwide sensation about fighting the double standard juridical system. To disagree with the navy means to disagree with the Crown, something that needs to be prevented at all costs in order to keep the system work.
Ronnie maintains his innocence and his father decides to settle the matter. This becomes a long, uphill battle that puts a lot of strain on the family - financially, physically and emotionally.
I find it a very interesting story and the film has lots of witty and sarcastic dialogue. It features a marriage proposal that can only happen in a British film.
I don't mind that the courtroom climax happened off-screen, but since the verdict in favour of Boy Winslow was so specifically mentioned I really wanted to know why and how they reached that verdict.
But the serious downside of the film is the only character who's allowed to let her emotions run wild, maid Violet, and she does it in a way that reminded me why I decided not to watch Upstairs Downstairs.



THE CHILDREN'S HOUR (1961)



What happens when you put closeted lesbianism and BAD SEED Rhoda Penmark's little bitch cousin in the same film? Big, BIG drama.
I love it, love it, love it. It's just so wonderful to see how the truth and the lie meet each other in the last part of the film. It's pleasantly confusing because it raises all kinds of questions. Was it meant to end that way, regardless of the lie? Was the lie an unintentional good thing, despite its tragic ending?
It's also interesting that it was released in the same year as Dirk Bogarde's VICTIM.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

St. Elmo's Fire (1985)

It's only taken me four decades to get around to this one.

To start out, the character-driven naturalism put me in mind of early Knots Landing. But then I realised it reminded me even more strongly of pre-Locklear Melrose Place with its group of bright-eyed, attractive young people learning life lessons as they adjust to entering adulthood. I suppose it bridges the gap nicely between the two, having Melrose's earnestness paired with Knots's emotional intelligence.

Having watched The Breakfast Club last year for the first time, I believe this is my second Brat Pack film. I'd always assumed this to be another John Hughes vehicle so was a little surprised to find that this is Joel Schumacher. It seems JH did have some input with casting suggestions, though.
​

Like Fame (which I love) and American Graffiti (which I may also never have seen), this conjures up an image of hormonal teens thrust into an intense situation leading to deep discussions and possibly high emotions. I craved a journey into that world, and to be reminded of some of the extremes of feeling that come with being in one's late teens.

While I wasn't seeking it out, I'd say I was in a similar place last night, and this film is a logical next step from The Breakfast Club on this level. We've moved from school to college, which comes with its own extremes.

It missed the mark for me slightly when it came to getting me to feel something. It didn't successfully get me to empathise with the kids and their feelings. In fact I found myself watching their tearful confessions with almost complete objectivity. I could see that the heart was there, but personally I never quite got to it.

And here's where I found St. Elmo's Fire more of a hit. Perhaps it was related to my own mood when watching, but something about this one made me reflective and almost melancholy, thinking about who I was when I was this age. Seeing the youthful joy emanating from them at the beginning was almost too painful and it felt like a relief when things inevitably began souring.


Casting is terrific, and the chemistry is terrific. I'd say this film is an example of the whole being far greater than the sum of its parts. Demi Moore isn't an actress I'd care to watch for too long. As with The Breakfast Club, I found Emilio Estevez underwhelming to the point I felt I was missing something that everyone else seems to see. But put any combination of the seven leads together and it's magic.

SARABAND FOR DEAD LOVERS (1948)

A very, very beautiful film about romance, drama and intrigue in the House of Hanover at the end of the 17th century.
It is old-fashioned, mostly in speech, but the way the characters are portrayed leaves very little to the imagination.
With its filming technique so picturesque perhaps it could be seen as a pre-Barry Lyndon.

Even though I have some of the score in my music collection I don't think I've actually seen this one, but you've certainly bumped it up my bucket list. One of these days I hope to delve into more Ealings, as well as rewatching some old favourites (which I haven't done since around 150 pages ago ).

 

[Willie Oleson]

YIELD TO THE NIGHT (1956)



If the comparison to/with/between Marilyn Monroe has to be made then I guess this was Diana's NIAGARA, and therefore it's not surprising that the fabulous Vintage Classics decided to give YIELD a "stunning new restoration" make-over.
The story has a somewhat "cold" approach and for a while I didn't know what to make of it, almost as if it refused to offer a dramatic angle.
However, this allowed the film to creep up on me and I was kind of surprised to realise how much I liked it.
I think it's mostly about hope, in both the flashback and prison scenes, and the unforgiveness when that hope ceases.
Whereas other dramas create something big from something small, YIELD takes the worst-case scenario and compresses it with a restraint that's almost torturous.
The look on main character Mary Hilton's face when the prison governess informs her of the inevitable is the big payoff.

Coincidentally, the lover's "betrayal in death" is quite similar to the one in SARABAND.

I wonder what other Diana Dors movies Studiocanal/Vintage Classics has in store for us. I like to keep supporting the stunning new restorations especially when they're released on DVD. It looks like BFI is going to follow Criterion and focus on bluray-only releases. And that ain't cool.
Another issue - completely unrelated to this film - is that amazon UK has tripled its shipping costs for no apparent reason and without giving a heads-up.
For many years it's been my "Poland" for DVD shopping but it looks like those days are gone now.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Today it was a "the trouble with brothers" double feature.

THE FINAL PROGRAMME (1973)



Protagonist Jerry Cornelius is the cocky dandy who also happens to be a renowned scientist, just like his father, the Nobel Prize winner who has developed a formula for some kind of immortality (I think). The formula, or programme, appears to be more topical than ever because the world is starting to crash under the pressure of WWIII. In fact, the world is about to end.
Not much attempt has been made to make it look that way and overall there's no sense of dread or a high-stakes situation at all.

A group of scientists contact Jerry in order to obtain a microfilm hidden in the Cornelius family mansion. The microfilm is needed to complete the Final Programme - the creation of a self-replicating hermaphrodite human being.
Jerry is more interested in settling the score with his evil and deranged brother Frank who has entrenched himself in the mansion together with their sister Catherine.
Catherine (played by Sarah Douglas) is constantly drugged by brother Frank and the whole situation kinda conjures up the idea of the Dragon who guards the princess in the castle.

So, yes, it is beyond stupid (and to think that this was based on a novel) but I can't say that it's badly made. The actors play it as if they believe to be in that world, there's enough attention to dialogue and it just doesn't look as if it failed in whatever it attempted to be.
Besides, I wasn't looking for a great story when I picked this film, I just wanted to be enterainingly outraged by something very cult-y. But I'm afraid that didn't happen.
The few cool set designs are most unfortunately overshadowed by lots of tacky and unimaginative location scenes, the violence is almost non-existent and I also think there should have been much more nudity in it.
Jerry wants to buy napalm from a man called Shades and this Shades thinks that pinball machines are part of a conspiracy. It's probably the best scene in the whole film and it also made me wonder what a filmmaker like Ken Russell would have done with The Final Programme.
I'm glad I've watched it and I think it's memorable enough, but it wasn't the leave-no-stone-unturned cult extravaganza I had hoped for.


PARANOIAC (1963)



The title shown in the film itself doesn't have the exclamation mark.
This story starts with a memorial service instead of a funeral, and it turns out that the wealthy Ashbys were also survived by two sons and one daughter (who also spends a lot of time in her bedroom).
The cruel and alcoholic son Simon Ashby (Oliver Reed) lives with his sister Eleanor and aunt Harriet in the family mansion and he's only three weeks away from coming into his inheritance. An inheritance he's reluctant to share with his sister but she's one of those frail types who could be institutionalized.
The other brother has been dead for eight years, a suicide, so that wasn't going to be an issue.

Until that very brother returns from the dead in a Philip Colby fashion (the church, Eleanor faints).
Simon and Harriet think he's an impostor and that's true, he is an impostor who's in cahoots with the son of the family notary.
Later it is revealed that Simon and Harriet knew he was an impostor because they knew what really happened to son Anthony Ashby.
The film feels a bit rushed and it also suffers from that typical Hammer hysterical melodrama, and I think this could have been a great story if they had focused on one particular angle rather than throwing everything into the mix.
The characters are one-dimensional and only defined by what they say or do, and it strongly undermines the tragedy of the family secret.
The PSYCHO style skeleton in the closet looks unintentionally hilarious.

It's a good one for a remake and I would rewrite it as a whodunnit murder mystery, with some additional family members or associates.
The only person who (pretends to) believe the impostor is the one who knows for sure that the original is dead, died by his or her hands.
But when the body of the impostor turns up dead does that mean we're dealing with one and the same killer? Etc.

 

[James from London]

St. Elmo's Fire (1985)

It's only taken me four decades to get around to this one.

I've still never actually seen this one (although I do really like The Breakfast Club), but just by chance my journey through Stereogum's 'America's Number Ones' series has just reached the fortnight the St Elmo's theme hit the top spot. So this might possibly be of interest:

The Number Ones: John Parr’s “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion)”

In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.

www.stereogum.com

 

[Willie Oleson]

AN INSPECTOR CALLS (1954)



For once, I'm glad they ignored the original film poster for the DVD artwork.

I think I would describe it as A Place To Call Home meets A Christmas Carol, or a moral whodunnit mystery.
I loved every minute of it and I think it was the first time I heard someone saying "ne'er-do-well".

 

[darkshadows38]

i watched a really bad one called "The Retirement Plan (2023) with Nicolas Cage who in this one made me think of Jimmy Stewart! i had no idea it even was him at first i got it out from the Library & i had to read the billing first but he's completely gray in it and has long gray hair it looks nothing like him at all. the film had it's moments the humor worked at least i think so Ron Perlman had these scenes with this little girl and their chemistry if that's the word i'm looking for? it was really good they played off each other well. she was a decent little actress & he was one of the as he said one of the bad guys and you never see him even attack anyone but that was written really well i think. their scenes were written well but the rest was a mess i think. Jackie Earle Haley who can be good was i think terrible in this film maybe it was only a paycheck i dunno or maybe it was the direction it was given or a movie he just didn't give a damn about? i dunno but he's been better in other things.

Ernie Hudson got shot in it at one point and to me it really looked like an effect a really low B movie would have and by low budget i mean something that you'd do with your friends it was pretty bad the way it looked. the ending was a WTF ending as it had.... i dunno how to explain it without ruining the ending but than to be fair i don't really remember much about it that's how forgettable this movie was. i've seen far Worse films that Nick Cage was in to be fair but i give this one 5/10

 

[Ome]

it's a favourite of our @Ome's which is a good enough reason to delve into this one.

Oh, how these moments give me palpitations.


It’s a while since I’ve watched the film, so reading your comments have been like a little refresher for me.

It missed the mark for me slightly when it came to getting me to feel something. It didn't successfully get me to empathise with the kids and their feelings. In fact I found myself watching their tearful confessions with almost complete objectivity. I could see that the heart was there, but personally I never quite got to it.

This took me back to my first watch and I totally get your reaction at not feeling it. I felt a little underwhelmed by it too and it wasn’t until I finished it that it clicked with me. I watched it again a few days later and I felt I had a better understanding, having seen a snippet of each of their lives and getting more of a grasp. It’s that second watch that made me realise what a gem of a movie it is.


Not, that I am suggesting you need to watch it again. I don’t think I would care about it much if I was to watch it for the first time at my age today.

I didn’t really understand the different classes in life back then as all my surroundings were pretty much equal. There was no rich kids at my school, no one stood out at being the best of anything, which made this film like a mini educational experience. It also highlights the big differences between schools in the UK compared to the US.

40 years later and the thread of this film will have played a part in many films and TV series we have seen between the mid eighties and now. There’s nothing wrong in that, I think it will harm the film to new viewers, but hopefully not taint it to those who watched it at the time


We (me and wifey) have been watching some of our favourite movies with our daughter and THE BREAKFAST CLUB has been on my mind with mixed feelings. Would my daughter get the film, or will she find it completely boring comparing it with some of her favourite ‘coming of age’ dramas.

Having watched 13 REASONS WHY, it clear to see how drama and storytelling has evolved over the years.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

just by chance my journey through Stereogum's 'America's Number Ones' series has just reached the fortnight the St Elmo's theme hit the top spot. So this might possibly be of interest

Thanks for this. A very nice read and, as you said, very perfectly timed.

The movie is about a bunch of uncertain and frequently stupid young people getting into romantic entanglements with each other. The song is a grandly motivational you-can-do-anything rocker. Maybe that’s why the song broke through in ways that the movie didn’t.

That sums it up perfectly. And the video for the song takes it to another level again since it's a pseudo-sequel.

This took me back to my first watch and I totally get your reaction at not feeling it. I felt a little underwhelmed by it too and it wasn’t until I finished it that it clicked with me. I watched it again a few days later and I felt I had a better understanding, having seen a snippet of each of their lives and getting more of a grasp. It’s that second watch that made me realise what a gem of a movie it is.

Yes - I can imagine it The Breakfast Club would be a film that looks quite different the second time around. I certainly wouldn't rule out watching it again sometime, and hope I would remember just enough to view it differently.

We (me and wifey) have been watching some of our favourite movies with our daughter and THE BREAKFAST CLUB has been on my mind with mixed feelings. Would my daughter get the film, or will she find it completely boring comparing it with some of her favourite ‘coming of age’ dramas.

What a great experience to pass on your favourite stuff to a younger generation like this. I'm sure it must be fascinating to see how it's viewed through your daughter's eyes.

The Breakfast Club certainly has heart to it, so it would be interesting to know how it's received. I hope you'll let us know if and when you watch it together.

I think I would describe it as A Place To Call Home meets A Christmas Carol, or a moral whodunnit mystery.

Wow. I like the sound of that.

I can't actually remember if I've watched this one. I don't think I have, but I do remember something about it really grabbed me when we studied the playbook as part of the Drama curriculum back in secondary school.

 

[James from London]

We (me and wifey) have been watching some of our favourite movies with our daughter and THE BREAKFAST CLUB has been on my mind with mixed feelings. Would my daughter get the film, or will she find it completely boring comparing it with some of her favourite ‘coming of age’ dramas.

Funnily enough, I recently listened to a really interesting podcast where Molly Ringwald, who's obviously in The Breakfast Club, talks about the experience of showing it to her own teenage daughter.

The Blunder Years - This American Life

Producer Ben Calhoun talks about the moment when the cool teacher at school told the girls they should pay attention to Ben, and they did.

www.thisamericanlife.org

(If you fast-forward the red line at the top to where it's just above halfway through the word "Listen", that should take you to the right part.)

 

[Willie Oleson]

Today was a "Trevor Howard's Way" double feature.

THE THIRD MAN (1949)



There's Abigail and there's Ann-Margret, and then there's the actress who's credited only by her last name. How novel!
Peyton Place star Wilfrid Hyde-White features in a supporting role and I think I need to see more of him, in leading roles.

I understood some of the German spoken dialogue and even though it was only trivial to the story (unless someone translated it to Joseph Cotten) it kinda felt like hearing more than I should.
Trevor Howard is the cool and practical Major Calloway in glossy leather and Orson Welles plays Harry Lime who gets involved with the more sordid part of the black market.
The story plays out like a conspiracy murder mystery, but the film is so bedazzling with all its awesome scenery and many characters I don't think I was paying too much attention to it.
What intrigued me the most was the one thing they didn't show - the friendship between Holly Martins and Harry Lime.

It's possible that I've missed it but I still don't know exactly what kind of job Harry had in mind for Holly.
Since (Alida) Valli's character was so much in love with Harry - or was it disproportionate gratitude? - it's hard to think of him as a villain.
I have this funny theory that he felt he had gone too far, and wanted to be caught. Not by the authorities and definitely not without kicking and screaming, it needed to be a true defeat.
I think he plotted the whole intrigue just to make sure that his friend would get involved. And so Holly Martins became the gunslinger hero in his own real-life potboiler.
But what the heck do I know? I don't even know who the third man was.


So pretty.


BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945)



When the very first scene, before I even get to know the characters, oozes with drama and heartbreak, then I just know it's going to be a very good one.
In many ways it feels more like a 1970s drama, I kept thinking of some of the Woody Allen films.
Celia Johnson's fantastic narration informs us of the how and what and when, and of course everything she felt at that time.
But it's done in such a spontaneous way that it also comments on trivial stuff, like "being sick of musicals", and some of her thoughts are unintentionally catty.
"Perhaps she (Dr. Alec's unseen wife Madeline) is upstairs in her bedroom, not feeling well".
It's easy to imagine a remake starring Mia Farrow and Ben Cross.

About halfway the film the affair becomes a de facto thing and that takes some of the pleasant tension out of it, but then I began to realise that her monologue was an imaginary confession to her husband, and then it's almost as if that becomes the love story.
It's just incredibly well done. Incredibly.
With Anton Karas' Third Man Theme still ringing in my ears it kinda overbears the Brief Encounters soundtrack, but that's OK. It works for both films.

 

[James from London]

What a double bill! Somehow I don't think I'd ever consciously (Joseph) cottoned onto the fact that Trevor Howard starred in both. He just sort of disappears into each role in a terribly discreet, English sort of way.

THE THIRD MAN (1949)

I always think of this film in conjunction with The Fallen Idol, a little gem of a British film made a year earlier with the same writer (Graham Greene) and director (Carol 'father of Oliver' Reed).

In many ways it feels more like a 1970s drama, I kept thinking of some of the Woody Allen films.

There is a 1970s remake of Brief Encounter which I've never seen and which sounds highly blasphemous, but because of its casting, also irresistible:

If I've got this right, Brief Encounter itself was originally adapted from a one-act stage play called Still Life which was also adapted for TV in the 90s, bizarrely featuring Joan Collins as the gossipy tea-lady at the station who won't stop talking. (I haven't seen that either.)



What I have seen is Falling in Love, an unofficial American remake, from the 80s, starring Robert de Niro and Meryl Streep at their most twitchy and inarticulate, which I don't think is very popular, but which I absolutely loved.

It's just incredibly well done. Incredibly.

"Thank you for coming back to me." Yes, it's just perfect.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Today was a "psycho killer" double feature.

AND SOON THE DARKNESS (1970)



I don't know if it was the first, but it's a great example of what would become the "tourist horror" subgenre.
The film looks contemporary but not fashionable by 1970s standards and it really helps to create the feeling that this could be happening now.
Its fantastic opening-and-recurring theme is very fashionable and those who are old enough to feel nostalgic about the seventies will want to step right into the film.

Of course I already knew that this wasn't going to be a gay little holiday story, and the camera work is very effective in creating a sense of uneasiness even before anything happens.
I am familiar with those old cafés in the middle of nowhere-ish and somehow it never looks more depressing than it does in France and Belgium. But I'm always fascinated by life in obscure locations, or obscurely constructed - like houses built on steep hills.
Here it's all about the openness and endlessness contrasted by bits of forest that seem inherently secretive and foreboding, which is why Red Riding Hood's mother told her daughter not to go there.

Pamela Franklin and Michele Dotrice are very enjoyable as the bickering friends and I would have liked to see more of it. In case that would have undermined the flow of the story then I'd gladly watch an hour of deleted scenes.
The supporting cast is great and everybody looks just suspicious enough. I wondered if it was going to be one of those "evil community" crimes, like the Wicker Man without a Wicker Man.
It's co-written by Brian Clemens and it does indeed look like Thriller - THE MOVIE. Directed by Robert Fuest (The Final Programme, The Avengers).
The DVD special features features an interview with Kim Newman (he also did it for The Final Programme) and the way he talks about the director and his films kind of explained (to me) why SOON looks so awesome and why PROGRAMME didn't look awesome enough.

No matter how much suspense is created, at some point the characters are going to realise that they are in "that" scenario, followed by actions and the conclusion.
And just when I thought that the film would end with a minor dip there was that unexpected "gosh!" moment.
What struck the most was that Pamela Franklin, the uncrowned queen of scream, remained dead silent. There's zero blood and yet it's so horrific.

I figured this would be a great warm-up to the previously infamous and now much celebrated British nasty PEEPING TOM (1960)



Camera man Mark Lewis tells tenant Helen that he's lived in the house his whole life, which also means that he's the landlord that nobody knew.
I thought it was a peculiar comment because the bizarre casting of Karlheinz Böhm almost suggests as if they're retconning him into the history of British cinema.
And why him, indeed? And talk about against-type-casting, the former Prince Charming of the SISSI films. Maybe we should do a thread about that too.

The film with all its popping colours is pretty to look at but doesn't have any of the alluring sordidness that, say, WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR has.
Whereas TEDDY BEAR almost makes the viewer an accomplice, TOM is a little judgmental and kept me at arm's length (or should I say spear's length?), the POV theme notwithstanding.
The sound and vision of the documentary of little boy Mark Lewis is effective, but grown-up Mark as a weird loner seem to have no personality at all.

Some of the more dramatic moments are unintentionally hilarious.
The police men discuss the particularly disturbing facial expression of the victims - "never seen anything like it before!" - and it just felt like watching a scene from Commissioner Gordon's office. Discussing what will turn out to be the Joker's latest prank.
In one of the last moments, Mark tells Helen: You'll be safe as long as I can't see you frightened. So stand in the shadows, please.
I found it inappropriately gothic and bombastic, as if he were about to turn into a vampire or something. "Don't show the blood...I can't, I can't...resist".

PEEPING TOM has been in my to-watch list for years but somehow it was always unavailable or out-of-print. This DVD is so new I had to pre-order it.
Unfortunately it won't make the shelves because I can't think of any reason why I would want to watch it again. It's not offensively awful like DRESSED TO KILL, but I feel it's all reputation and no substance.

The Fallen Idol, a little gem of a British film

It is a gem, and a love story that sort of happens from the corner of the eye.

bizarrely featuring Joan Collins as the gossipy tea-lady at the station who won't stop talking

What a great find!
It's a small world, isn't it.

Falling in Love, an unofficial American remake

Thanks. I watched the trailer and it has a lot of generic 80s music in it, but I'll watch it when it pops up on prime.
It looks like a film that these actors really really really didn't need to do in order to advance their careers so perhaps it has a guilty pleasure flavour.

 

[Seaviewer]

Great cast. Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda have become quite the double act, haven't they?

I was reminded of this while watching Laugh-In on Tubi the other night.
I'm up to the later seasons now. Most of the original cast have left and the show is definitely past its peak. One saving grace is the addition of a young Lily Tomlin and her now-iconic characters Ernestine and Edith Ann.
In this particular episode there was joke about Jane Fonda, who was then not only a major movie star but a controversial figure due to her anti-Vietnam war activities. The idea that Tomlin and Fonda would be collaborating years later was probably the furthest thing from anybody's mind.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Yesterday was an "Alan Bates, mon amour" double feature + an Isabelle Huppert revenge bonus feature.

A KIND OF LOVING (1962)



Apart from being a great time capsule I think it is, as the film poster suggests, "astonishing in its daring frankness".
Whereas glamorous fictional characters or freaks like Peeping Tom is about "them", Vic Brown (Alan Bates) and Ingrid (June Ritchie) is about the "us" of that time, and therefore more confrontational in a way that cannot be shrugged off so easily.
I'm not saying that people are always aware of their place in history at the time it happens, in fact I think it usually takes some retrospection to see the bigger picture.

Nevertheless, the rise of realistic working-class drama in film must have signalled the possibility to watch "ourselves" on the big screen.
Of course this is just my personal interpretation but I felt that this change spills over in the story itself since Vic and Ingrid are of a generation that was precisely in the middle of the old ways and the new ways.
Vic Brown may not represent an entire generation but there's a sense of new opportunities and choices that cannot be achieved yet because it's too early to dismiss the traditions of how it "should be done".
The previous generations didn't think they had to worry about love and happiness and idealism and individualism, but the characters in A KIND OF LOVING do.
However, not so much that it goes full on counterculture and anti-establisment. It's the beginning, just the smell of it, that puts these characters in the could-have-beens and possible missed-out-ons, especially in that particular way of living.
It is therefore not surprising that it ends with a compromise by lowering the stakes and just hoping for the best, and I'm sure this is what happened to many people of the very last Till Death Do Us Part generation.

Vic and Ingrid are, for better or worse, guided by various family members, most notably the parents.
Ingrid's mother is a real horror show who constantly criticizes "these people" who are standing in the way of a comfortable life for everyone, thus completely contradicting herself. She's a lot of fun to watch.
As the situation becomes more unbearable they are taking sides from a male or female point of view, and this turns out to be the heart and soul of the story.
"It's rotten to be a girl, sometimes" Ingrid says.
But when there's more than one woman in the room then it can also be rotten to be a boy.
From a female point of view there's the exhausting need for validation, over and over again. From a male point of view there's the ongoing expectations of performing in a satisfyingly manner.
One could argue that they had to go through all this in order to reach the end point which is actually more like a new marriage.

I searched the internet for CALL DR. MARTIN, Ingrid's favourite soap, but it looks like it only exists in this film.


THE GO-BETWEEN (1971)



Interestingly, A KIND OF LOVING also featured a go-between in order to advance the romance between Vic and Ingrid.
I experienced this film from 1971 as a LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER without the loving, and the way young protagonist Leo becomes part of that romance doesn't quite pack a punch as it did in THE FALLEN IDOL.
Even for a boy in the first phases of puberty in Edwardian England he comes across as frustratingly simple-minded. Instead on focusing on the erotic forbiddingness complicated by that very puberty we spend a lot of time with the most boring hoity-toity characters. In the gardens, in the carriage, in the breakfast rooms.

Michel Legrand's score is nice but it's often used in nonsensical and startling ways. On the other hand, this may have prevented me from dozing off.
Alan Bates' solo performance was the best musical contribution to the film, imo.
There's one character (forgot his name) who delivers a little bit of humour, with varying results.

I did spend some time thinking about it after the film had ended, and while I'd normally consider this to be a good thing in this case I found myself wishful thinking more drama into it than there really was.
To add insult to injury I started to realise that Julie Christie's character was a bit of a cunt and it just totalled up to a strong feeling of dissatisfaction.
I had to watch something to make that feeling go away.


THE PIANO TEACHER (2001)



It's possible that I got more than I had bargained for, but at least the images of boring beautiful gardens were exorcised from my mind.
I think I'm going to buy a Schubert greatest hits CD. It's very interesting stuff.

 

[Willie Oleson]

BEAU IS AFRAID (2023)



I think this is a very interesting film with some distinctive tonal shifts and it's obvious that the filmmaker didn't want to make any concessions to make it more like a "film experience".
The first part is almost like a standard dark comedy, a nervous man who lives in a nerve-racking world.
"Extremely dangerous violin spider on the loose!"
I loved the play in the woods and the story within that story, and it was only the last part with the mother that felt like waiting for it to end.

Beau is sleau, and he responds sleauly, after pauses. It doesn't really help to overcome the film's epic running time.
As far as chronicles/odyssey type of stories go I think THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT did it better, but still it's interesting to see how the maker of BEAU has pieced together the various chapters.
On a side note, casting the very talented film favourite Joaquin Phoenix in the main role does feel like a a concession - a safe choice, as it were.
It would have been great if the role had been given to a somewhat "forgotten" actor, the way it happened in Lars von Trier's film.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Last night was a "German chaos" double feature.

AGUIRRE(,) (THE) WRATH OF GOD (1972)



There doesn't seem to be a definitive title, hence the (parentheses).
AGUIRRE is, without doubt, the most beautiful, most powerful and most important film I have ever seen in my entire life.
The overwhelmingly profound and emotionally devastating intensity of this film turned me into a blubbering mess. Masterpiece, masterpiece!

Even if it was supposed to be a documentary-style retelling of an historical event then it still wouldn't be good enough, but since it was promoted as a Klaus Kinski film I'm sure it wanted to be more than a dramatized documentary.
The story is completely devoid of drama and character, it hops from scene to scene in a very clunky way and as for the actors - well let me put it this way: I've seen better performances from theme park crew members walking around in Goofy or Mickey Mouse costumes.
Apparently, Klaus Kinski performed more ferociously off-screen (and in this case I can't blame him) and as for Werner Herzog himself he seems to make the most of Kinski's infamy. I think there's something tacky about it.

So, we should adore it because the locations (allegedly) made the filming process such an incredible challenge? Well, it's nice to know that all the other filmmakers had had so easy.
There's beautiful scenery in it but that was already there. Personally I'm more impressed by fabulous sets exclusively constructed for one particular film.
Nobody has to create a sea or jungle or mountains, it only needs to be filmed.
AGUIRRE has a very lovely, synthy-trance-y score, and the more I watched it the more I was convinced that this should have been a non-talkie movie.
Perhaps a psychedelic mood piece like this:

To illustrate just how bad this El Dorado film is, the Goombay Dance Band did it better.

DAS BOOT (1981)



It's certainly a step up from the previous chaos feature. The way the U-boat dives in and rises up from the sea gives it an almost fairy tale-esque quality.
Overall, it looks like an extremely well-organised production, Jürgen Prochnow is a very handsome lead and the sound is simply amazing.
But...after an hour or so it gets a bit repetitive and since I was watching the Director's Cut...well.

To quote Alexis from season 9: auf wiedersehn.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Last night was a "the kids of '52" double feature.

FORBIDDEN GAMES (1952)



Since I had been searching for the best of this-or-that in the various online recommendation lists, and because I found this one, I already had an idea what it was all about.
The first surprise was the opening theme, I hadn't heard it before but I knew the music from Julio Iglesias' 1975 smash hit "Quiero".
The second surprise was the humorous tone of the story, most of it is in the Hatfields & McCoys feud between the neighbours.
Michel and Paulette's forbidden games is perhaps somewhat similar to the "imaginary friend", a place where they can go and have their own secret which is based on Paulette's confusion and Michel's desire to indulge her. It's something that the war can't touch.
A great film, all my expectations have been fulfilled.


HUNTED (1952)



Orphan Robbie may as well have been Paulette's twin brother, his white-blond hair makes him look like a lightbulb in the darker scenery.
This unlikely duo of runaways has to do a lot of jumping, climbing and ducking, and just like Michel in the first feature little Robbie gets shoved about quite a lot.

The murder committed by Dirk Bogarde's character is a crime passionnel and it's easy to see from the very beginning that he's not an evil or dangerous bastard.
Or maybe it's because he looks like Cliff Richard in The Young Ones.
As a result, the story leans towards melodrama. Perhaps the darkest part of the story is Chris Lloyd's wife, a treacherous femme fatale.
Then there's Chris' brother who sneakily crams his own community sub-plotline into the chase drama. I always love this sort of details.

The reason I picked this film is because Dirk Bogarde talked about it in an interview - possibly a special feature on THE SERVANT or VICTIM dvd - and he mentioned that child actor Jon Whiteley started to cry during a scene in which his character was told that he wasn't wanted anymore. He believed it was the actor rather than the fictional Chris Lloyd who told him that.

Again, I got exactly what I wanted and that makes it the most double of the double features. It's also the last one because the rest of the (short) list cannot be combined. Unless I would do "two films released in 1970" but that's a bit lame.

 

[Willie Oleson]

LE CERCLE ROUGE (1970)



The story is OK but the film looks a bit sterile without character drama. They never stopped being strangers.


EASTERN PROMISES (2007)



I find it surprisingly mainstream for a David Cronenberg film but that doesn't matter because it's a lot of fun to watch. Shoulda been Part I of a trilogy rather than ending it this way. Viggo butt naked on all fours, what more do you want?
Ten years later we got MCMAFFIA but that also ended too soon.

 

[Willie Oleson]

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE (1990)



I wasn't sure if I was going to like the film because there was something about Ron Silver's character that irritated me. Maybe it was the basketball game in the opening scene, I hate that sport.
Somehow this put me in the same position as that very character, who had to deal with Jeremy Irons with a phat accent.
In the end, Ron Silver didn't manage to win me over but I'm glad I stuck with him.

As the story goes on and adds layers to certain key scenes, the hedunnit?/hedinnit? gets overshadowed by the question: should Sunny von Bulow have lived longer?
She didn't actually die and was still alive when the film was made - 28 years of care and medication to keep one single person alive. That's perverse.
Overall, a thought-provoking mystery, and that also goes for the village, the mansions without land. It looks absolutely ridiculous.
The inside of the mansion used for the film is awful, it's just a huge space with lots of rooms crammed with expensive stuff. Was there a plan when they decorated the house?
There are lots of people in this world who ought to be prosecuted for Bad Taste.