My Week in Movies: July 7 - July 13
Jul. 14th, 2019 02:32 pmTrying something new here to get back into the habit of posting. Since I started up with Criterion Channel (and, more accurately, since it actually started working), I've been voraciously consuming all sorts of cinema. I thought I'd keep a log here with notes, where warranted, on my thoughts.
Films in italics I'd seen before.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
All About My Mother (1999)
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Talk To Her (2002)
My Brother's Wedding (1982)
The African Queen (1951)
Harold and Maude (1971)
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Night of the Demons (1988) (w/![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sol_se)
Volver (2006)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
With the exception of Night of the Demons, these were all watched on Criterion Channel.
As you might have gathered, they put up a collection of Pedro Almodóvar films on Criterion Channel and I've been voracious. I had never seen one of his films before and I'm really enjoying them. Great character work, interesting situations, solid storytelling. I think I like Women on the Verge... best, but All About My Mother is a strong second. I wanted to like Talk To Her more, but the last act asks sympathies from me I am not willing to give. Also, I feel like Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! could use an extra half-hour to sell its major plot development. It also could stand to be half-a-measure kinkier, especially given the title. Volver came up with a great anti-twist that surprised me.
For its reputation, I thought I'd be more into Cleo from 5 to 7, but it wasn't my kind of movie. Probably didn't help that I watched immediately after the dentist.
My Brother's Wedding is an interesting entry in African-American cinema, a real slice-of-life piece. Overall, though, I was hit by the embarrassment squicks hard in the latter half and had to keep pausing and hiding.
The African Queen is a goddamn delight. I only knew it by reputation previously, but nobody told me Katharine Hepburn's character turns out to be an adrenaline junkie. The pairing makes more sense now than it did on the surface.
Harold and Maude still holds up. One of my all-time favorites. Now that I can see it in HD, I'm able to catch a lot of little details I missed before.
In the world where I'm still making favorite film lists every six months, The Rules of the Game is a strong contender. It is a delightful comedy of manners, good and ill. It is only slightly let down by the fact that it drags out its ending for one last unnecessary plot point. Jean Renoir is a genius who stages scenes with both foreground and background strongly laid out, so the world always seems to be moving and bustling.
For our Saturday movie date,sol_se and I watched Night of the Demons, a film that I had always been fascinated by based on its VHS cover art. It does not live up to the promises of the box. It has a solid premise, but devolves into a series of running down corridors and barely escaping monsters for its entire second half. It does contain some real gross-out moments that will stick with me, for better or worse.
Battleship Potemkin is another film I watched out of a sort of historical necessity. It is very good, suuuuuper propagantastic. The Odessa Steps sequence is the only part that I had seen previously, but it is still effective even on repeat.
Films in italics I'd seen before.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
All About My Mother (1999)
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Talk To Her (2002)
My Brother's Wedding (1982)
The African Queen (1951)
Harold and Maude (1971)
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Night of the Demons (1988) (w/
sol_se)Volver (2006)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
With the exception of Night of the Demons, these were all watched on Criterion Channel.
As you might have gathered, they put up a collection of Pedro Almodóvar films on Criterion Channel and I've been voracious. I had never seen one of his films before and I'm really enjoying them. Great character work, interesting situations, solid storytelling. I think I like Women on the Verge... best, but All About My Mother is a strong second. I wanted to like Talk To Her more, but the last act asks sympathies from me I am not willing to give. Also, I feel like Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! could use an extra half-hour to sell its major plot development. It also could stand to be half-a-measure kinkier, especially given the title. Volver came up with a great anti-twist that surprised me.
For its reputation, I thought I'd be more into Cleo from 5 to 7, but it wasn't my kind of movie. Probably didn't help that I watched immediately after the dentist.
My Brother's Wedding is an interesting entry in African-American cinema, a real slice-of-life piece. Overall, though, I was hit by the embarrassment squicks hard in the latter half and had to keep pausing and hiding.
The African Queen is a goddamn delight. I only knew it by reputation previously, but nobody told me Katharine Hepburn's character turns out to be an adrenaline junkie. The pairing makes more sense now than it did on the surface.
Harold and Maude still holds up. One of my all-time favorites. Now that I can see it in HD, I'm able to catch a lot of little details I missed before.
In the world where I'm still making favorite film lists every six months, The Rules of the Game is a strong contender. It is a delightful comedy of manners, good and ill. It is only slightly let down by the fact that it drags out its ending for one last unnecessary plot point. Jean Renoir is a genius who stages scenes with both foreground and background strongly laid out, so the world always seems to be moving and bustling.
For our Saturday movie date,
sol_se and I watched Night of the Demons, a film that I had always been fascinated by based on its VHS cover art. It does not live up to the promises of the box. It has a solid premise, but devolves into a series of running down corridors and barely escaping monsters for its entire second half. It does contain some real gross-out moments that will stick with me, for better or worse.Battleship Potemkin is another film I watched out of a sort of historical necessity. It is very good, suuuuuper propagantastic. The Odessa Steps sequence is the only part that I had seen previously, but it is still effective even on repeat.
