My Week in Movies: December 15 - 21

[jetpack_monkey]

This week, I decided to prep for Rise of Skywalker by walking through all of the non-prequel Star Wars movies.

Movies I've seen before are in italics.

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Dark Victory (1939)
Star Wars (1977) (I will go to my grave insisting that it's called that)
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)

The Passion of Joan of Arc is one of those films where it says what it is on the tin but I still didn't understand. It's not passion like feelings. It's passion like a passion play. Her trial, judgement, and execution, done largely in close-ups and only half of the (silent) dialogue intertitled. A very good film, but very difficult to watch.

Dark Victory is like the ur-example of the woman who's dying of a horrible disease but looks perfectly healthy up until she drops dead. Bette Davis kills it, though. Humphrey Bogart's also here, trying for an Irish accent.

The many Wars of Star held up. I was especially nervous about rewatching The Last Jedi, because I fought for it over the last two years and what if it doesn't stand up? Well, dear reader, it stands up. I love it! Just a great movie altogether.

Comments

[shannonsequitur]

Heh, there’s a restaurant close to my work that (at least used to; I haven’t been there in quite a while) have a few Trivial Pursuit cards on each table. Except that the cards were/are presumably from the ‘80s and contain references to West/East Germany and the Soviet Union, and all of the cultural references are things that only Boomers would know. One of the questions is about the title of the first Star Wars film and the answer is simply “Star Wars”. What a time capsule. 😂

Good luck with your ep 9 viewing; based on some vague-ish spoilers, I’m not sure that I even want to bother.

[jetpack_monkey]

Yeah, at this point it's more cultural completionism than anything.

[shannonsequitur]

I didn’t get that invested in the sequel trilogy, which right now seems like is for the best.

ETA: Based on stuff I’ve been hearing about this movie, I’m calling it now that in a few years, someone on the inside will write a tell-all memoir about the making of the movie a la The Disaster Artist, Disney/Lucasfilm will try to block it, and there will be a big court case.