last movie you watched

[Greystoke]

I watched The Marvels again this afternoon, which I enjoyed first time round at the cinema, and I felt much the same today. Granted, the MCU isn't nearly as compelling or exciting as it once was, but with a fine cast and a sense of fun at its centre, i still found much to enjoy.

Next I watched Romance, Catherine Breillat's explicit and provocative drama, which I last saw in 1999 or 2000, I would think. This was one of the first films in a phase of movies that featured unsimulated sex, which pushed the boundaries of cinema at the time, and certainly, few filmmakers or actors since have pushed those boundaries this far, outside of porn.

The story centres around Caroline Ducey's Marie, a young schoolteacher who is frustrated with the lack of sex in her relationship. She's unable to stimulate any interest from her boyfriend, and instead enters into a series of sexual escapades which, much like Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac, grow increasingly dark and dangerous.

Marie narrates the story, although it's unclear as to when or why, and whilst the sex is frequent and full-on, it isn't erotic. Instead, there's a disconnect between the body and mind of a woman who is searching for something more than she's finding on both an emotional and a physical level.

This is a woman whose thoughts don't seem to halt for a minute, and whilst she takes chances with her encounters, these soon blur the line of consent, although she remains defiant to the last. Even when the film goes into murky waters and raises questions it doesn't have answers for.

There is, however, a coldness and an aloofness to this film, right down to the clean and white decor of Marie's bedroom, which presents a clinical environment that foreshadows things to come. It's a flawed film, though. With a myopic streak at its core, and statements about impulses and nihilistic tendencies that are hindered by how alienating it all is.

Breillat, however, is bold and audacious as a filmmaker, and she grapples with a lot of themes and ideas here. Themes she may not overcome convincingly, but she does say a lot about sexual freedom in radical, albeit, humourless and passionless ways. Even if this - at times - feels counterintuitive to the film's central conceit.

[Greystoke]

Next tonight, I watched Crime Story, Jackie Chan's fact-based 1993 action film, which featured Chan in a less heroic and less bulletproof role than he typically played. Here, he's once again a cop, but with a reduced amount of martial arts and more personal baggage, this movie is more akin to the likes of the Long Arm of the Law films than Police Story.

Chan is on good form, and there are certainly elements of his film persona apparent in a movie that aspires to be authentic and serious, although it does remain stylised and focused on action set pieces. With the story concerning efforts to return a kidnapped Hong Kong businessman who was under Chan's protection.

Kirk Wong co-directs along with Jackie, although Chan's fingerprints are all over the film, which features typically excellent stunt work and great locations filming. The cast is also very good, especially Kent Chen as a corrupt police inspector, whose role somewhat foreshadows aspects of Andy Lau and Alan Mak's terrific 2002 film, Infernal Affairs.

The female cast is underwritten, but it's gripping stuff and it leads towards a thrilling finale whilst managing to find some poignant notes along the way. It isn't quite up there with Jackie's best, although it's among his better films of a more serious nature.

[Greystoke]

I watched Hypnotic this afternoon, Robert Rodriguez's latest film, which stars Ben Affleck as a cop whose young daughter went missing some years before. He's still in therapy, but continues to work, with a tip off about a bank robbery leading him down a rabbit hole he never expected.

It's a film with big ideas, although those ideas draw liberally from the likes of Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, and Brian De Palma, with Rodriguez unable to say or do anything new or exciting with a story about mind control.

There are moments when kernels of whatever ideas drove this project glimmer through, but as the plot thickens and grows more stupid, it becomes further hindered by a dearth of originality and production values that are sorely wanting. Whilst Affleck, unfortunately, can't do anything to overcome clunking direction and risible dialogue in a film that takes itself much to seriously.

William Fichtner co-stars as a villainous hypnotist whose Jedi-like mind tricks control everyone and everything around him, but his character - ironically - is completely one dimensional, although there isn't much more to Affleck's role. It's a major misfire, and a film that craves some simplicity during a mercifully brief runtime.

[Greystoke]

I watched Rye Lane again this afternoon, this being a film I really liked when I saw it around a year ago, and it truly is a gem of a movie. It's the directorial debut of Raine Allen-Miller, who leans into romcom sensibilities with fresh and inventive flourishes, and splendid performances from the film's leads, Vivian Oparah and David Jonsson.

The story largely takes place over the course of a single day, after an awkward moment takes place between the two across the stalls of a mixed sex public toilet. A meet cute ensues during an unusual art exhibition, with the two characters bonding over recent breakups as they decide to walk through Peckham and Brixton together.

In some respects, I was reminded of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, although it's a very different film, but it does have flights of fantasy, charming visual inventiveness, and a pop cultural sensibility at its core. And whilst the stakes are low, as they often are with regards to romantic comedies, this is an 82 minute delight, that's brimming with humour, intelligence, and charm.

[pmp]

Tonight I revisited Went the Day Well, a film I've seen more often than most other movies, and I find that enjoyment doesn't decrease with each viewing. This story of the Germans arriving in a quaint English village is a stunning piece of work that is up there with the very best films of the period, not least because of its frank, and often shocking, depiction of violence, which is still quite jarring today. The viewer is lulled into a false sense of security when kindly Mervyn Johns introduces us to the village of Bramley End and starts to tell his story. You think you're about to enter the whimsical world of, perhaps, Tawny Pipit (1944) or, at worst, perhaps Miss Marple will pop up to find out who's writing the poison pen letters that are upsetting the vicar. That false sense of comfort is so brilliantly played that when the first killing comes, it's quite an eye-opener - especially given who it is that gets killed.

The cast is wonderful, too, and includes Leslie Banks as the German sympathiser, giving the invaders the help they need. I presume he must have suffered an illness prior to the film, as he looks rather unwell (he seems to have limited movement on one side of his face), and made very few films afterwards. Still, he is excellent here, as stalwarts like Thora Hird, Patricia Hayes, Mervyn Johns, and a young Harry Fowler, who is really wonderful here in a difficult and pivotal role. Which reminds me, I quite fancy taking off Hue and Cry and giving that another watch sometime soon.

[Greystoke]

Tonight I revisited Went the Day Well, a film I've seen more often than most other movies, and I find that enjoyment doesn't decrease with each viewing. This story of the Germans arriving in a quaint English village is a stunning piece of work that is up there with the very best films of the period, not least because of its frank, and often shocking, depiction of violence, which is still quite jarring today. The viewer is lulled into a false sense of security when kindly Mervyn Johns introduces us to the village of Bramley End and starts to tell his story. You think you're about to enter the whimsical world of, perhaps, Tawny Pipit (1944) or, at worst, perhaps Miss Marple will pop up to find out who's writing the poison pen letters that are upsetting the vicar. That false sense of comfort is so brilliantly played that when the first killing comes, it's quite an eye-opener - especially given who it is that gets killed.

The cast is wonderful, too, and includes Leslie Banks as the German sympathiser, giving the invaders the help they need. I presume he must have suffered an illness prior to the film, as he looks rather unwell (he seems to have limited movement on one side of his face), and made very few films afterwards. Still, he is excellent here, as stalwarts like Thora Hird, Patricia Hayes, Mervyn Johns, and a young Harry Fowler, who is really wonderful here in a difficult and pivotal role. Which reminds me, I quite fancy taking off Hue and Cry and giving that another watch sometime soon.

Went the Day Well is truly splendid. It's a few years since I last watched it, and I haven't seen Hue and Cry in a while, either. But they both hold up with every viewing. And I can say the exact same about In the Mood for Love, which I watched tonight. This immediately became a favourite of mine when I saw it on release, and it's still among my favourite films. I always find it to be spellbinding.

[Walter Hale 4]

Watched the original M.A.S.H film (on my Sunday evening) made in 1970 or 1971, directed by Robert Altman and starred Elliott Gould , Donald Sutherland and but one main female cast , Sally Kellerman as Major "Hot Lips" Houlihan.

Another of the films i believe that hasn't aged well or holds up today.

Anyone here seen and either liked or dislike M.A.S.H 1970 ?


spoiler alert...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M*A*S*H_(film)

[Rob]

[Greystoke]

I watched Kids Return last night, which is still one of Takeshi Kitano's best films, in my opinion. It was quite different to his usual projects at the time of its release, but I've always found its central premise and two young leads to be akin to a contemporary Dead End Kids. And certainly in an era when disenfranchised youths and delinquency was being depicted in Japanese cinema, Kids Return was very much at the centre of this until Battle Royale a few years later.

Ken Kaneko and Masanobu Ando star as the two young schoolboys whose pranks, bullying, theft, and destruction of property takes them both down different paths -- one into the boxing ring, and the other, among local yakuza. Kitano directs with a deft touch and an optimistic energy that remains wholly on side with the two boys despite their behaviour. And the film is heightened even further by Joe Hisashi's marvellous score, which fully taps into the mood and tone of the film and it's characters. A true gem and a pleasure to revisit every time.

[Greystoke]

Watched the original M.A.S.H film (on my Sunday evening) made in 1970 or 1971, directed by Robert Altman and starred Elliott Gould , Donald Sutherland and but one main female cast , Sally Kellerman as Major "Hot Lips" Houlihan.

Another of the films i believe that hasn't aged well or holds up today.

Anyone here seen and either liked or dislike M.A.S.H 1970 ?


spoiler alert...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M*A*S*H_(film)

I haven't seen M.A.S.H. in a very long time. Probably twenty years. I'll have to watch it again soon.

[pmp]

Due to life issues, I haven't sat down to many films of late, but I have been nibbling away at a rewatch of BBC3's Wreck, ahead of season two appearing some time in the spring probably. I thought this was really excellent - with the exception of the CGI ship. The final third of the series borrows heavily from a 1930s adventure thriller we both know rather well, but which I shall not name in order to avoid spoilers - but that "borrowing" does come as a surprise. It's a genuine twist. Although presumably aimed at teenagers and 20-somethings, there's much to enjoy here, and it doesn't take itself too seriously.

[Walter Hale 4]

i watched Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn movie on Tuesday night called Suddenly Last Summer from the days i used to taped these flicks off the TCM channel when i had subscription TV.

It's, by far, my favourite film with Elizabeth, not that i've watched every single film she starred , but Suddenly Last Summer (1959) and also A Place in the Sun (1951), are easily two of her movies, i can watch over and over again and never loose my enthusiasm.

Tonight's a toss-up on two more Elizabeth films, either A Place in the Sun or Reflections of a Golden Eye, co-starring Marlon Brando. The latter i have not played my copy , since 2010.


Anyone here seen and either likes or dislikes the Elizabeth Taylor's film, Suddenly Last Summer ?


Here's a legendary trailer -




good TCM review here:

[Greystoke]

I watched Hollow Man last night, which is a film I've never been very fond of, although the visual effects were great for their time, but I've always considered it somewhat of a misfire that draws from too many other films, without enough new ideas.

Ostensibly, it's another take on H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man, but Andrew Marlowe's screenplay leans into a lot of familiar territory ranging from The Fly to The Thing, and The Thing from Another World, whilst Rear Window is also a touch point. And this is something the film's director, Paul Verhoeven, seems to relish in.

The cast is fairly good, even if Josh Brolin and Elisabeth Shue have little to work with. But it's Kevin Bacon who holds the screen and keeps the film together with a charismatic central performance in spite of everything else that's around him. However, the film and the story's more sinister and morally dubious undertones are quicky cast aside in favour of a rampaging finale.

[pmp]

I watched Hollow Man last night, which is a film I've never been very fond of, although the visual effects were great for their time, but I've always considered it somewhat of a misfire that draws from too many other films, without enough new ideas.

Ostensibly, it's another take on H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man, but Andrew Marlowe's screenplay leans into a lot of familiar territory ranging from The Fly to The Thing, and The Thing from Another World, whilst Rear Window is also a touch point. And this is something the film's director, Paul Verhoeven, seems to relish in.

The cast is fairly good, even if Josh Brolin and Elisabeth Shue have little to work with. But it's Kevin Bacon who holds the screen and keeps the film together with a charismatic central performance in spite of everything else that's around him. However, the film and the story's more sinister and morally dubious undertones are quicky cast aside in favour of a rampaging finale.

I don't think I've seen Hollow Man, but this was a time when Bacon's career was rather revitalised, I think, by a sequence of horror/sci-fi/thriller type movies, which I remember being very popular - Stir or Echoes, Mystic River, Wild Things (which I thought was pretty awful), and Hollow Man. I don't think he'd actually gone anywhere, or had been off-screen, but they seemed to get him back as an A-lister. And he's been remarkably prolific since. He seems to be very good at reinventing himself.

[Greystoke]

I watched Hollow Man last night, which is a film I've never been very fond of, although the visual effects were great for their time, but I've always considered it somewhat of a misfire that draws from too many other films, without enough new ideas.

Ostensibly, it's another take on H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man, but Andrew Marlowe's screenplay leans into a lot of familiar territory ranging from The Fly to The Thing, and The Thing from Another World, whilst Rear Window is also a touch point. And this is something the film's director, Paul Verhoeven, seems to relish in.

The cast is fairly good, even if Josh Brolin and Elisabeth Shue have little to work with. But it's Kevin Bacon who holds the screen and keeps the film together with a charismatic central performance in spite of everything else that's around him. However, the film and the story's more sinister and morally dubious undertones are quicky cast aside in favour of a rampaging finale.

I don't think I've seen Hollow Man, but this was a time when Bacon's career was rather revitalised, I think, by a sequence of horror/sci-fi/thriller type movies, which I remember being very popular - Stir or Echoes, Mystic River, Wild Things (which I thought was pretty awful), and Hollow Man. I don't think he'd actually gone anywhere, or had been off-screen, but they seemed to get him back as an A-lister. And he's been remarkably prolific since. He seems to be very good at reinventing himself.

I've been meaning to watch Mystic River again. He also starred in The Woodsman around that time, which gave him quite a daring role. And he was also in Jane Campion's provocative, In the Cut.

[Greystoke]

I saw The Iron Claw and Bob Marley: One Love at the cinema today. Both are biopics, although both are quite different, not just in subject matter, but how conventional the latter is. Whilst the former bristles with angst, muscular energy, and genuine poignancy. Terrific performances, too. Especially from Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich, one of the Von Erich clan of professional wrestlers, whose family is struck by one tragedy after another.

Efron has never been better, whilst Sean Durkin continues to impress as a writer and a director. This said, Kingsley Ben-Adir is very good as Bob Marley in One Love. Unfortunately, this is the type of biopic that not only begins and ends in predictable fashion, it's also a series of events that are strung together in a way that hinders the story's narrative potential.

The musical aspects are very good, but the screenplay is underwritten and badly wanting for greater depth and nuance, which, at times, keeps Marley quite aloof. Although there's genuine warmth and charisma aplenty in Kingsley's performance. And granted, he doesn't resemble Marley in features or physical stature, but he pays his character a great service with a sensitive and intelligent performance

[pmp]

I notice that Indicator have announce a blu ray set containing all of the Whistler films with Richard Dix. I have some old ropey versions of a couple of them on a hard drive, but have never watched any of them. But it looks like an interesting series, and I'll given the first one or two a look in the coming weeks to see if I fancy buying the set. This one came out of nowhere - I don't think the films are on blu ray in other countries.

[Walter Hale 4]

I've watched the Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor 1967 movie called Reflections in a Golden Eye but found it disappointing and cringey. The film also starred Julie Harris (who once co-starred opposite James Dean in East of Eden) and Brian Keith.

Marlon and Elizabeth are in a somewhat open marriage and there's a scene early on where Elizabeth is playing a psychological cat and mouse game with Marlon's emotions where she disrobes and slowly climbs the steps, but Marlon does nothing about following her there. You see, Marlon plays a repressed, bisexual character in the movie.


However the scene that really had me puzzled was where Marlon is riding along a horse who turns wild. The horse causes him to fall and right then he's deeply anguished where he then gets back up and beats the horse several times with a stick. Marlon then collapses and starts sobbing in agony (he has cuts on the side of his face). The next thing, some naked bare-butted man gently walks past Brando and takes the horse away back to it's stable. Now that is weird I gave up watching soon after that.


Anyone here seen Reflections in a Golden Eye ?


Spoiler alert...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflections_in_a_Golden_Eye_(film)

[Greystoke]

I've watched the Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor 1967 movie called Reflections in a Golden Eye but found it disappointing and cringey. The film also starred Julie Harris (who once co-starred opposite James Dean in East of Eden) and Brian Keith.

Marlon and Elizabeth are in a somewhat open marriage and there's a scene early on where Elizabeth is playing a psychological cat and mouse game with Marlon's emotions where she disrobes and slowly climbs the steps, but Marlon does nothing about following her there. You see, Marlon plays a repressed, bisexual character in the movie.


However the scene that really had me puzzled was where Marlon is riding along a horse who turns wild. The horse causes him to fall and right then he's deeply anguished where he then gets back up and beats the horse several times with a stick. Marlon then collapses and starts sobbing in agony (he has cuts on the side of his face). The next thing, some naked bare-butted man gently walks past Brando and takes the horse away back to it's stable. Now that is weird I gave up watching soon after that.


Anyone here seen Reflections in a Golden Eye ?


Spoiler alert...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflections_in_a_Golden_Eye_(film)

I think it's a fascinating film, although it's deeply flawed, but Brando is really good here, and so is Taylor. I think it was Brando's best and most interesting performance in years, but it's directed with a heavy hand and a lack of care or affection for its characters.

In some respects, it's in the same conversation with The Detective, being a film that wants to be current and forward-thinking, and wants to depict attitudes and lifestyles hitherto lesser seen in American cinema, in a progressive way. And in a nonjudgmental way that normalised their characters to some degree.

Unfortunately, Reflection in a Golden Eye is thinly plotted and shifts wildly in tone. It was ambitious, though. And whilst I can't say it's a film I'm especially fond of, there's a lot that draws my attention amidst the conflicting elements.

[Walter Hale 4]

Footnote: Had a look online from other fans reviews and comments are mixed. One reader commented that the movie was supposed to depict 1940's at a military station however Elizabeth Taylor's hairstyle and wardrobe were too present 1960's looking.
I agree but i wouldn't single out Elizabeth Taylor. Almost all the cast were dressed and looked too sixties and therefore out of context. Perhaps the film should have been made in black and white.



Found this vintage review by Roger Ebert...


It seemed fishy to begin with that "Reflections in a Golden Eye" crept into town so silently. Here was a movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando, no less, and the director was that great man himself, John Huston. So shouldn't we have read millions of words about it by now? Every time Liz blows her nose, she makes the cover of Look. But not this time. Why not? Was the movie so wretchedly bad that Warner Bros. decided to keep it a secret?

Or could it be, perhaps, that it was too good? Perhaps it could. To begin with, somebody slipped up and did an honest screen play based on the novel by Carson McCullers. And then Huston and his cast journeyed bravely into the dark, twisted world of the McCullers characters, and nobody told them they were supposed to snicker. So they didn't.

The story is set on an Army base in the South. Brando plays a major who gives disjointed lectures about leadership and courage as his repressed homosexuality begins to emerge. Miss Taylor, as his wife, plays a domineering, emasculating female who rides a white stallion and carries, a whip (in case you missed the symbolism). Next door, a neurotic and self -doubting woman (Julie Harris) lives with her husband, Brian Keith, who is really a pretty decent sort, even though he is Miss Taylor's lover.

The action is fairly simple, beginning with Brando's abortive attempt to ride his wife's horse. It throws him he whips it and later, at a party, she whips him in front of the entire officer corps. Brando begins to disintegrate, his carefully built facade of "leadership qualities" destroyed. In a horrifying and effective scene, he goes to pieces in the middle of a lecture.

In this scene and others, Brando regains the peak of his magnificent talent. After his series of six or seven disastrous performances, even his admirers had given him up for lost. But it was too soon. There is a scene in which he slowly breaks down and begins to cry, and his face screws up in misery. The audience laughed, perhaps because it's supposed to be "funny" to see a man cry. The audience should have been taken outside and shot.

Indeed, the audience was perhaps the greatest problem with this very good film. It was filled with matrons, who found it necessary to shriek loudly and giggle hideously through three-quarters of it, and their husbands, who delivered obligatory guffaws in counterpoint. They had never seen anything funnier in their lives, I guess, than Brando nervously brushing down his hair when he thinks a handsome young private is coming to see him.

But if you can set that aside, then "Reflections" is a better film than we had any right to expect. It follows the McCullers story faithfully and without compromise. The performances are superb. Besides Brando, there is Miss Taylor, proving once again as she did in "Virginia Woolf" that she really can act, believe it or not. There is Keith, all understatement and quiet sympathy. The photography is restrained, shot in a process which drains almost all the color out of color film, leaving only reds and pinks and an occasional hint of blue or green. The result is a bleak landscape, within which lonely and miserable people try to account for themselves.


by Roger EBERT, October 17 1967

[Greystoke]

I notice that Indicator have announce a blu ray set containing all of the Whistler films with Richard Dix. I have some old ropey versions of a couple of them on a hard drive, but have never watched any of them. But it looks like an interesting series, and I'll given the first one or two a look in the coming weeks to see if I fancy buying the set. This one came out of nowhere - I don't think the films are on blu ray in other countries.

I haven't seen these in years. I don't think it's a set I'll rush to buy, but I'll probably get it later on when Indicator has another sale.

Criterion's also announced a new 4K release of Yasujiro Ozu's A Story of Floating Weeds and Floating Weeds, and this is one I'll pick up quickly. I'll do the same with Kino's High Noon 4K.

I also noticed that Second Sight are releasing The Borderlands in a new limited edition. I'll probably wait for the standard edition, but that's a thrilling film.

[Walter Hale 4]

Good one greystoke, My 14 year old DVD started to play up with abrupt pauses over on my stand-alone panasonic player so that's another reason why i stopped.

I just tried checking and playing it on my Toshiba laptop and it plays OK here. Will try to watch the last 40 minutes of it tomorrow night.


Thanks for reminding me on The Detective (1968). Yes that's a fave i not seen is 4-5 years.

[Greystoke]

Footnote: Had a look online from other fans reviews and comments are mixed. One reader commented that the movie was supposed to depict 1940's at a military station however Elizabeth Taylor's hairstyle and wardrobe were too present 1960's looking.
I agree but i wouldn't single out Elizabeth Taylor. Almost all the cast were dressed and looked too sixties and therefore out of context. Perhaps the film should have been made in black and white.

It was originally released with a golden filter applied, which is another interesting aspect of the movie. The Warner Archive Blu-ray features both the original golden filter and the colour version. Both look terrific in their own right. Whilst Toshiro Mayuzumi's excellent score sounds especially good on this release.

[Walter Hale 4]

what was the one that was in the late sixties vintage, where two gay women are working on a farm, the appear to be estranged from society? Halfway into the movie, a male character arrives and one of the women falls in love with him, or so it seems ?

Anyone know the film title and who the three stars was ? Think the movie, it just revolved around the three characters.

[Walter Hale 4]

Nothing beats 1960's both Film and Music, my friends If you haven't guessed by now, it's My favorite era