What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2021 Edition)

[sevendaughters]

thank you to Small Man Big Horse [Great Guy!] for sending me I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS (2018, dir: Radu Jude) - about a theatre director who attempts to stage a large-scale recreation in a Bucharest car park of the Romanian massacre of Jews in Odessa, but runs into several issues.

I've been searching for this for a while now and glad I found it - this is incredible. It is impossible to pull apart all of the threads that make it up, but it is theatre (the final 30 minutes is the piece that we've been watching get made), the making of theatre, history, the making of history, film, and a critique of film as well - all whilst being primarily focused on being visually interesting and entertaining.

There's more than a fair share of impish Godardianism and a bit of Brecht about it - they're trying to put on this play that shows Romanian complicity in the Holocaust, but the watching Romanians cheer the burning of the building and help the Nazis when an actor playing a Jew runs away. The actors in the reenactment are a rum bunch too and their continued objections and obfuscations keep the film in this zone of lightness through humour contrasted with the darkness of what their opinions imply.

But then, at the very end, the director herself feels confused that she might have accidentally Alf Garnetted the holocaust, by doing something so stylised and distanced that an audience can't see which side they're meant to love or hate. So there's this backchanneling of questioning - how do you represent the worst aspects of life even when bureaucrats and pricks aren't against you?

I could really get into praising this but I pretty much liked everything about it and am giving it a first watch 10 out of 10 but not recommending it specifically as it feels made for me.

[Small Man Big Horse]

That does sound fascinating, I think I'm going to have to be in the right mood for that kind of thing before watching it, but hopefully will do before the end of the year.

[sevendaughters]

It is funny, I realise I made it sound heavy handed, but it is essentially a comedy that has a seriousness at its core.

[Famous Mortimer]

It says in the imdb trivia that the producers were certain they would win a legal battle since the phrase was so common, but decided to get the film out quickly rather than go through a prolonged court case. Since they'd already met and upset the imposing Grant, they might've also concluded it wasn't worth pissing him off any further.

The Arrow blu-ray has a mini-doc comparing the unaltered footage with the released version and it is a shame De Palma had to chop up many specifically framed shots, but at least the damage to the overall film was fairly minor.

As I recall from a LZ biog, Peter Grant bought a record label called Swan as well so he'd have a pre-dated copyright claim.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

A couple of pointless sequels:

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
I only watched the original film for the first time last year, so I don't have any nostalgic affection for it, but I liked it. It's got a lot of warmth and charm and the young Master Culkin carries it all with remarkable ease. Like many a pointless sequel, this one shamelessly rehashes everything from the first film and ends up feeling like a pale imitation.

The best part was imagining how bleak it would all seem without John Williams' whimsical score.

Zombieland Double Tap
This one sets itself apart from the first with some strange anti-millennial stuff. I'm not sure it even qualifies as subtext. Woody Harrelson's boomer ubermench has to save a bunch of 20-something pacifist strawmen (although they would probably say "straw persons") from themselves (and zombies).

I assume the writer also had a grudge against his ex, as the other half of the film consists of Emma Stone callously leaving Jesse Eisenberg, then getting all indignant when he meets someone else.

The violence is quite fun in both, but there's no reason to watch either of them over their predecessors.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Santa Claus Conquers The Martians (1964) - Technically terrible but fun to mock idiocy, not that Santa Claus conquers anyone, but he does go to Mars so I suppose part of the title is correct. There are parts of this which are quite dull, and comedy character Dropo is often annoying, but the villain Voldar is nicely snarky and the awful child acting made me laugh a good few times. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, but it's not something I regret watching. Just.  4.6/10

[sevendaughters]

OK first one from the CdC 60s lists is Ride in the Whirlwind (1966, dir: Monte Hellman). Written by and co-starring Jack Nicholson. Western nerds know all about how Hellman and cast shot this and The Shooting back-to-back and some debate rages over which one is better. I haven't seen The Shooting so I can't comment, but I reckon I will after this.

It's quite minimal and the motivations of the three groups within (outlaws holding up wagons, cowboys moving between jobs, vigilantes looking to hang outlaws) are all satisfying. The vigilantes turn up at the outlaw hideout where the cowboys have set-up camp for the night, so the vigilantes assume the cowboys are outlaws too. The cowboys slip the net, or do they?

There's no cathartic scene of explanation of the truth, no realisation the vigilantes were wrong: in a paranoid society where law has decided you are crime, there is no language to explain yourself. I can see why the French chinstrokers were drawn to this. It's not white hat/black hat cowboy stuff, but a post-John Ford wrong place/wrong time existentialist story.

Oh and it is 83 minutes which is a great amount of time for a film. Recommended.

[Dex Sawash]

Leon; The Professional (paedo film?) not as fun as I remembered.

[sevendaughters]

ah I like Leon. definitely dodgy, but I like it. Oldman is entertainingly hammy in it.

anyway I got the Cahiers du Cinema 1950s lists in full.

1951
01. The River (Renoir)
02. Diary of a Country Priest (Bresson)
03. Miracle in Milan (de Sica)
04. Los Olvidados (Bunuel)
05. All About Eve (Mankiewicz)
06. Miss Julie (Sjoberg)
07. Story of a Love Affair (Antonioni)
08. Sunset Boulevard (Wilder)
09. Edouard et Caroline (Becker)
10. The Flowers of St. Francis (Rossellini)
11. Miracles Only Happen Once (Allegret)
12. The Forbidden Christ (Malaparte)
13. A Walk in the Sun (Milestone)
14. Give us this Day (Dmytryk)
15. The Bullfighter (Braunberger)

no lists 1952-1954

1955
01. Journey in Italy (Rossellini)
02. Ordet (Dreyer)
03. The Big Knife (Aldrich)
04. Lola Montes (Ophuls)
05. Rear Window (Hitchcock)
06. Bad Liasons (Astruc)
07. La Strada (Fellini)
08. The Barefoot Contessa (Mankiewicz)
09. Johnny Guitar (Ray)
10. Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich)
11. Death of a Cyclist (Bardem)
12. To Catch a Thief (Hitchcock)
13. Rififi (Dassin)
14. Salt of the Earth (Biberman)
15. Raices (Alazraki)
16. Apache (Aldrich)
17. French Cancan (Renoir)
18. Blackboard Jungle (Brooks)
19. The White Sheik (Fellini)
20. Lourdes et ses miracles (Rouquier)

Sounds like they had a hard on for Robert Aldrich this year. Gonna check these out. You see these a lot - I think Paris was big on retrospectives, and you see in the book itself that they all went out en masse to see the Kurosawa retrospective, for example.

1956
01. A Man Escaped (Bresson)
02. Elena and Her Men (Renoir)
03. Rebel Without a Cause (Ray)
04. Confidential Report (Welles)
05. Senso (Visconti)
06. Smiles of a Summer Night (Bergman)
07. The Swindlers / The Drum (Fellini)
08. L'Amore (Rossellini)
09. Picnic (Logan)
10. Fear (Rossellini)
11. While the City Sleeps (Lang)
= It's Always Fair Weather (Donen and Kelly)
13. Bus Stop (Logan)
= The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hitchcock)
= Night and Fog (Resnais)
= The Trip Across Paris (Autant-Lara)

suffice to say they influenced the canon's formation here

1957
01. A King in New York (Chaplin)
02. Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Tashlin)
03. Nights in Cabiria (Fellini)
04. The Wrong Man (Hitchcock)
05. The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Bunuel)
06. Sawdust and Tinsel (Bergman)
07. Bigger than Life (Ray)
08. The Girl Can't Help It (Tashlin)
09. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Lang)
10. 12 Angry Men (Lumet)
11. A Face in the Crowd (Kazan)
12. Bitter Victory (Ray)
13. The House of the Angel (Torre-Nilsson)
14. Bridge on the River Kwai (Lean)
15. No Sun in Vence (Vadim)
= The Crucified Lovers (Mizoguchi)
17. Gate of Lilacs (Clair)
18. Written on the Wind (Sirk)
= Hollywood or Bust (Tashlin)
20. Toro (Velo)

1958
01. Touch of Evil (Welles)
02. The Seventh Seal (Bergman)
03. White Nights (Visconti)
04. The Cry (Antonioni)
05. Bonjour Tristesse (Preminger)
06. Journey into Autumn (Bergman)
07. One Life (Astruc)
08. Mon Oncle (Tati)
09. The Quiet American (Mankiewicz)
10. Summer Interlude (Bergman)
11. Les Girls (Cukor)
12. Les Amants (Malle)
13. Kanal (Wajda)
14. Montparnasse 19 (Becker)
15. Waiting Women (Bergman)

1959
01. Ugetsu (Mizoguchi)
02. Hiroshima mon amour (Resnais)
03. Ivan the Terrible pt. 2 (Eisenstein)
04. Pickpocket (Bresson)
05. The 400 Blows (Truffaut)
06. Rio Bravo (Hawks)
07. Wild Strawberries (Bergman)
08. Vertigo (Hitchcock)
09. Princess Yang Kwei Fei (Mizoguchi)
10. The Tiger of Eschnapur (Lang)
11. Moi, un noir (Rouch)
12. Anatomy of a Murder (Preminger)
13. Le dejeuner sur l'herbe (Renoir)
14. Head Against the Wall (Franju)
15. General Della Rovere (Rossellini)
16. Run of the Arrow (Fuller)
17. The Cousins (Chabrol)
18. Big Deal on Madonna Street (Monicelli)
19. Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys (McCarey)
20. Two Men in Manhattan (Melville)
21. Wind Across the Everglades (Ray)

BONUS - they released their own best films of all time list in 1958 as a reaction to a conference which did the same in Brussels. The editor's note here is that the choices were emblematic of the directors they admired rather than the film itself, hence some directors having odd choices appended to them.

01. Sunrise (Murnau)
02. The Rules of the Game (Renoir)
03. Journey in Italy (Rossellini)
04. Ivan the Terrible (Eisenstein)
05. Birth of a Nation (Griffith)
06. Confidential Report (Welles)
07. Ordet (Dreyer)
08. Ugetsu (Mizoguchi)
09. L'Atalante (Vigo)
10. The Wedding March (von Stroheim)
11. Under Capricorn (Hitchcock)
12. Monsieur Verdoux (Chaplin)

think they were smoking crack for this one

[Famous Mortimer]

I used to like them but I tried watching Carry On Screaming earlier this year but got bored after about twenty minutes.

I just saw that "Carry On Camping" has made its way to some US torrent site, and it's claimed to be a 1080P remaster. I'm not sure how much clarity Sid James' leering face needs, but I'll give it a go.

[zomgmouse]

No End. Polish drama by Krzysztof Kieślowski about a woman grieving for her dead husband amidst a state of martial law. Truly touching and blends the personal and political rather masterfully. Some people have labelled this as a dry run for the Three Colours trilogy and it does feel like that to a certain extent but is also an incredible film in its own right.

God's Country. Documentary by Louis Malle about a small town in Missouri which provides a great ethnographic account of this community and essentially a microcosm of America at large. Innovatively comes back to the same town 6 years later and chronicles the various changes the place has undergone (particularly after the election of Ronald Reagan). However this last section is only approximately 15 minutes long and fascinating as it is feels vastly underdeveloped and I wished there had been more of this pre-post comparison. But still quite a fantastic documentary.

Trouble in Mind. Neo-noir by Alan Rudolph  Kris Kristofferson and Keith Carradine as the leads, an ex-con and a rising petty criminal respectively. Also features Divine in a non-drag role. Feels like it's trying to exert a particular style but I really couldn't get into it at all. Surprised by all the majorly positive reviews.

Our Hospitality. Excellent Buster Keaton film with one of the best climaxes he's ever done (on the waterfall). Really consistent and interconnected gags. Heaps of fun.

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb. Oddball stop-motion animation (including with real people). The animation style is brilliant and there are cool images in it all. Overall I liked it but it doesn't seem to go anywhere.

Krull. Much maligned sci-fi/fantasy film is actually a whole lot more decent than its reputation. What stands out is the cinematography and art direction - the plot is a little more raggedy, there's not that much room for emotions to breathe, lacks a bit of oomph in that regard. But the cast all get heavily into it and there's some major names in here. Eminently watchable even if it's not a particular masterpiece.

[zomgmouse]

Did a little Schrader retrospective before catching up with his latest. This included:

Light Sleeper. Shimmering. Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon on a whole other level here. Everything seems like it could just go the way of yet another bog standard neo-noir but something about the atmosphere elevates it to a really quite touching piece.

The Walker. Not so good, not so bad. In a way somewhat reminiscent of something like All the King's Men. Obviously great collection of cast, ok mystery, a little above average on the whole.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Krull. Much maligned sci-fi/fantasy film is actually a whole lot more decent than its reputation. What stands out is the cinematography and art direction - the plot is a little more raggedy, there's not that much room for emotions to breathe, lacks a bit of oomph in that regard. But the cast all get heavily into it and there's some major names in here. Eminently watchable even if it's not a particular masterpiece.

That was the first film I ever rented when we got a video in 1986, and I've fond memories of it, I've never revisited it but it's been sitting on my hard drive for about two years and I may well finally get round to watching it again now.

[Famous Mortimer]

God's Country. Documentary by Louis Malle about a small town in Missouri

Missouri is delightful (well, not really) but "God's Country" is about Minnesota, I believe. This might be my most pedantic post ever and I apologise.

[zomgmouse]

That was the first film I ever rented when we got a video in 1986, and I've fond memories of it, I've never revisited it but it's been sitting on my hard drive for about two years and I may well finally get round to watching it again now.

I think a lot of people hate it and I wouldn't begrudge them for it but it looks beautiful and there's some good lines along the way.

Missouri is delightful (well, not really) but "God's Country" is about Minnesota, I believe. This might be my most pedantic post ever and I apologise.

Shit! You're right. Thanks

[sevendaughters]

watched Bad Education (2004, dir: Pedro Almodovar) and finally my resistance to PA is knocked down. I get it and was just too uptight in the past. love how surface-y it seems and then BAM it's actually quite traumatised piece of metafiction. really liked it. like an MTV Fassbinder?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Seder-Masochism (2018) - Nina "Sita Sings The Blues" Paley's latest animation, a mix of biblical tales, interviews with her Jewish father, and samples of audio about Jewish traditions, the majority of which are set to a number of songs, some of which are very famous while some are less well known. Paley injects a lot of humour in to these absurd stories and practices, while also attacking elements of religion, the patriarchy and the violence both created, and it's a fascinating watch packed with very memorable imagery. 8.0/10

[Small Man Big Horse]

Thanks to Dr Rock's suggestion on the previous page I've just started watching all of the Hitchcock films I have yet to see, beginning with:

Dial M For Murder (1954) - Posh ex-tennis player Tony (Ray Milland) knows his wife Margot (Grace Kelly) had an affair and when her mystery novelist boyfriend Mark (Robert Cummings) is back in town he decides to murder her, setting up a supposedly perfect alibi,

Spoiler alert

but it all goes wrong when she stabs the killer to death. Tony comes up with another plan to make it seem like the killing was purposefully carried out, and I can't quite explain why but I really wanted him to get away with it, and for Grace Kelly to be unfairly executed, possibly as there's little to her character and though I like Kelly elsewhere thought she was dull in this. Sadly she doesn't meet the grim reaper,

[close]

and while the rest of the film is gripping Hitchcock dragged out the ending a little too much for my liking. 7.1/10

[Famous Mortimer]

Fatal Instinct (1993)

Carl Reiner did a parody of "Fatal Attraction" and "Basic Instinct", with bits and bobs from classic film noir like "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice", but absolutely packed it full of gags, so many it makes "Airplane" look sluggish. Really really good, and I can't believe it's taken me this long to see it.

Armand Assante is a perfect straight man (he plays a cop / defence attorney, defending everyone he arrests), Sherilyn Fenn and Sean Young are both brilliant, Christopher MacDonald is great too...plus, there are some future stars in tiny roles - Jane Lynch is one of bunch of court reporters and George Lopez is a cop, but you only ever see the side of his face and he gets no lines.

I was just watching the special features, and Dudley Moore is in a deleted scene as the mother of killer Max Shady, and I can tell why they cut it. It feels like he improvised his scene, and it's shot weirdly, like they never really intended to use it.

According to IMDB trivia, it had a disastrous marketing campaign in the US and went straight to VHS in Britain. Which is a shame as it's easily as good as the first "Hot Shots", from around the same time and a huge hit. But then I liked "Loaded Weapon 1", and that was a flop too (to be fair, it's not as good as this).

[sevendaughters]

THE SEARCHERS - am looking for the great pre-revisionism westerns at the moment and where better to start than the #1 western of several polls? The central narrative is very good and I rate Wayne as a screen presence, but I sort of think of him as The Rock in his wrestling days: so central and star-like and unflappable that everyone in his presence is reduced rather than elevated. A lot of the stuff that isn't central to the actual searching of the title is a little baggy.

BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY - early 70s film from guy who would find western fame on Battle Royale. It is basically The Godfather as done by Peter Watkins - all earnest docudrama and wild-eyed acting rather than slowburn. Impressively unsentimental and violent, but some seem to say this is a lost classic on the Kurosawa level. It is good, but come on.

[dissolute ocelot]

THE SEARCHERS - am looking for the great pre-revisionism westerns at the moment and where better to start than the #1 western of several polls? The central narrative is very good and I rate Wayne as a screen presence, but I sort of think of him as The Rock in his wrestling days: so central and star-like and unflappable that everyone in his presence is reduced rather than elevated. A lot of the stuff that isn't central to the actual searching of the title is a little baggy.

I really like The Searchers but it's definitely unusual in Wayne's filmography. Most of his films from the late 40s to the late 60s are more or less comedies, where he's some kind of stern but kindly paternal figure surrounded by comic drunks and attractive young people (many of whom do a bit of singing); Wayne sorts everybody's life out and everybody looks at him admiringly in the end. None of his films really feel like he's in competition with anyone, he's just there to be the big daddy. Even Red River, which has Freud and method acting, eventually follows the same model.

The Searchers still has some slapstick, but also a lot more darker material, and it feels the closest to Wayne stopping being this all-powerful (as you say) Rock-like figure; he gives a powerful, tortured performance but he still seems surrounded by the women and children of the other lighter-toned films, rather than anyone who can challenge him. His films often seem to be more about the relationship between Wayne and his director, rather than Wayne vs any on-screen character, which is why you seldom get real drama.

[Crenners]

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=87104.0

We had a thread on it. One I'm planning to rewatch over Crimb. I loved the the unspoken romance stuff and the cinematography. Tonally odd film, but not necessarily worse for it.

[Dr Rock]

Thanks to Dr Rock's suggestion on the previous page I've just started watching all of the Hitchcock films I have yet to see

Yay. I suggested it because my last gf has seen all of them and I was mighty impressed.

I've got 'Seance On Wet Afternoon' here any good?

[rjd2]

Pierrot Le Fou 4/5

Enjoyable Bonnie and Clyde type thriller from Goddard. A  chap stuck in a comfortable but boring relationship runs off with a volatile old flame and they get up to all sorts of high jinx.

All Hands On Deck 4/5

French film from this year on Mubi which follows two lads who go on a camping holiday where one seems a little infatuated with a lass. It's quite charming, heartbreaking without been to cheesy. The skies are blue and the cast is quite engaging. It's only 90 minutes long but a nice diversion from current day bullshit.

Il Divo (3/5) & The Consequences of Love (4/5).

Il Divo was fine, ticks a lot of boxes, stylish, well made, cast are solid but zero interest in revisiting and forgot all about it the next day.
The Consequences of Love however I found much more interesting. A middle aged man has been living in a drab hotel for ten years and nobody is quite sure why. It's got a great soundtrack, looks magnificent, poetic dialogue and captivating lead.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've got 'Seance On A Wet Afternoon' here any good?

Can't say I've ever heard of it but that's a fantastic title.

Song Of The South (1946) - One of those "Well, I don't quite see what the problem is, sure it's of its time and...Oh...Ah... Jesus...Yeah, that's fucked up" kind of films. But if you can get past that (not that you necessarily should) it's of some interest as a historical document, and there are some amusing parts like Johnny being teased about "Wearing a lace collar" and

Spoiler alert

being mauled by a bull

[close]

, his friendships with Jenny, Toby and Uncle Remus are rather sweet natured, and there's a couple of decent enough songs, though the animated Brer Rabbit bits are the film at its weakest. I feel odd rating it given it's content, but ignoring the horrible parts I'd give it 5.4/10.

[Egyptian Feast]

I've got 'Seance On Wet Afternoon' here any good?

Yeah, it's a good 'un. Great leading performances.

[phantom_power]

Il Divo was fine, ticks a lot of boxes, stylish, well made, cast are solid but zero interest in revisiting and forgot all about it the next day.
The Consequences of Love however I found much more interesting. A middle aged man has been living in a drab hotel for ten years and nobody is quite sure why. It's got a great soundtrack, looks magnificent, poetic dialogue and captivating lead.

I love Paulo Sorrentino. I found Consequences of Love to be mesmeric, despite not a lot happening. His TV series the Young Pope (and to a lesser extent the sequel The New Pope) is also wonderful with an amazing performance by Jude Law

[Small Man Big Horse]

Big Man Japan (2007) - A film crew follows around a Japanese superhero as he goes about his nearly always dull day, and only occasionally has to fight a giant monster. It has a very dry, droll sense of humour, the monsters are nicely weird, there's a fair amount of satire concerning the media, and an absolutely bat shit crazy ending which I'm still not quite sure about now, but overall I really liked it. 7.5/10

[Small Man Big Horse]

Robo-Geisha (2009) - From Noboru Iguchi, the director of The Machine Girl and Mutant Girls Squad, comes another gore fest which is very silly, childish and puerile, and the way many of its female cast spend much of the film in their underwear is indefensible. But if you're able to ignore that the violence is often very funny, it's pretty inventive and pleasingly ridiculous, and the ending really delivers. 7.8/10

[sevendaughters]

I watched Nic Roeg's EUREKA which is entertainingly mad