My Week in Movies: July 14 - July 20
Jul. 21st, 2019 01:29 pmThis week's list is somewhat taken over by the fact that I acquired Criterion Collection's 39-film Ingmar Bergman set, so I've been watching that a lot.
Titles in italics I have seen previously.
Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
Wages of Fear (1953)
Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993)
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Crisis (1946)
A Ship to India (1947)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
To Joy (1950)
Summer Interlude (1951)
Summer with Monika (1953)
Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance (1994) (w/![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sol_se )
The Lion King (2019) (w/elipie and company)
Elevator to the Gallows was a fine French noir, the first film by Louis Malle if I understand correctly. It does a thing I greatly enjoy, which is put a lot of pressure on bad people, so you're caught between wanting them to get away with it and wanting to see them get their just desserts.
The Exterminating Angel is a goddamn masterpiece by Luis Buñuel. The very rich go to a dinner party and find they can't leave. The breakdown of social order ensues. I loved it.
The Tale of Zatoichi is the first film in a 26-film series about a blind masseuse-turned-swordsman (take that MCU). Criterion Channel has the first 25. I may or may not work my way through them. Tale was a perfectly serviceable film about criminal dealings and honor and all of that.
Wages of Fear was very good, although not the pulse-pounder I was lead to believe. Maybe if I saw it in a theater? Still, excellent storytelling and an exciting plot.
Eagle Shooting Heroes is a ridiculous parody of kung fu and wuxia. Although I was a little iffy on its sexuality politics, it was overall enjoyable and elicited more hearty guffaws out of me than most comedies do.
At this point, we enter the land of Ingmar Bergman, starting with his comedy of infidelity, Smiles of a Summer Night. I remembered this as being more of a sex farce than it actually is. Even as a comedy, it has some rueful commentary on human nature, which is exactly the kind of stuff I go to Bergman for.
Crisis, Ship to India, To Joy, and Summer Interlude are all early Bergman entries before he really found his footing. They range from kind of bad to interesting. Most of them contain some kind of flashback structure.
Wild Strawberries is excellent, winding its interests through memory, guilt, and human connection.
Summer with Monika has one truly classic shot in it, as the titular Monika stares directly into the camera, daring us to judge her for a recent immoral act.
I took a break from Bergman to watch my weekly Saturday movie date withsol_se -- Mirror Mirror 2. This is a bad movie. It is so dull and has a real hesitance to show anything actually happening. However, it does contain baby Mark Ruffalo, so it has some interest.
elipie wanted to celebrate her birthday with The Lion King, so I went. I did not care for it, but she seemed to like it and that's the really important thing.
Titles in italics I have seen previously.
Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
Wages of Fear (1953)
Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993)
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Crisis (1946)
A Ship to India (1947)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
To Joy (1950)
Summer Interlude (1951)
Summer with Monika (1953)
Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance (1994) (w/
sol_se )The Lion King (2019) (w/
elipie and company)Elevator to the Gallows was a fine French noir, the first film by Louis Malle if I understand correctly. It does a thing I greatly enjoy, which is put a lot of pressure on bad people, so you're caught between wanting them to get away with it and wanting to see them get their just desserts.
The Exterminating Angel is a goddamn masterpiece by Luis Buñuel. The very rich go to a dinner party and find they can't leave. The breakdown of social order ensues. I loved it.
The Tale of Zatoichi is the first film in a 26-film series about a blind masseuse-turned-swordsman (take that MCU). Criterion Channel has the first 25. I may or may not work my way through them. Tale was a perfectly serviceable film about criminal dealings and honor and all of that.
Wages of Fear was very good, although not the pulse-pounder I was lead to believe. Maybe if I saw it in a theater? Still, excellent storytelling and an exciting plot.
Eagle Shooting Heroes is a ridiculous parody of kung fu and wuxia. Although I was a little iffy on its sexuality politics, it was overall enjoyable and elicited more hearty guffaws out of me than most comedies do.
At this point, we enter the land of Ingmar Bergman, starting with his comedy of infidelity, Smiles of a Summer Night. I remembered this as being more of a sex farce than it actually is. Even as a comedy, it has some rueful commentary on human nature, which is exactly the kind of stuff I go to Bergman for.
Crisis, Ship to India, To Joy, and Summer Interlude are all early Bergman entries before he really found his footing. They range from kind of bad to interesting. Most of them contain some kind of flashback structure.
Wild Strawberries is excellent, winding its interests through memory, guilt, and human connection.
Summer with Monika has one truly classic shot in it, as the titular Monika stares directly into the camera, daring us to judge her for a recent immoral act.
I took a break from Bergman to watch my weekly Saturday movie date with
sol_se -- Mirror Mirror 2. This is a bad movie. It is so dull and has a real hesitance to show anything actually happening. However, it does contain baby Mark Ruffalo, so it has some interest.elipie wanted to celebrate her birthday with The Lion King, so I went. I did not care for it, but she seemed to like it and that's the really important thing. 
