L'Avventura

Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960.

On Wikipedia: L'Avventura

On Kanopy: L'Avventura

(JTS, 3/24/2020)

Chicago

Rob Marshall, 2002.

On Wikipedia: Chicago

Two women who murdered their husbands and have now teamed up in a song and dance act - what's not to love?

Based on the Bob Fosse Broadway production.

Fun fact: WCS gave me the CD of the soundtrack, and RLB and I listen to it on just about every road trip we take!

Bonus: watch the 1927 version of Chicago by C.B. DeMille on Kanopy!

(JTS3, 4/15/2020)

A note on Kurosawa

Director Akira Kurosawa on the set with actor Toshiro Mifune.

To date on the Scarry Film Club, it looks like the single director named most often (and by the greatest number of contributors) is Akira Kurosawa.

So far we have . . .

JTS3: Ikiru (To Live)

WCS: Ran

JTS: Rashomon

I've also recently written posts on my Scarry Thoughts blog about two other Kurosawa films:

Film for the Age of COVID: "Red Beard" by Kurosawa

FILM ABOUT HIROSHIMA: Kurosawa's "I Live in Fear" (Nuclear Danger: Three Ways of Talking About the Unmentionable)

This year is the centenary of the birth of the great actor in so many of Kurosawa's films, Toshiro Mifune. The best place to watch many Kurosawa/Mifune collaborations in one place is on the Criterion Channel.

Animal House

John Landis, 1978.

On Wikipedia: Animal House

Fun Fact #1: I vividly remember going to see this in the theater when it first came out. Without naming names, I will say that one of the people who accompanied me that night found this movie wet-your-pants funny, as in, they were laughing so hard they actually wet their pants.

Fun Fact #2: I went to a college where people were so nerdy that they tried to imitate the toga party in Animal House.

(Of course, the only thing nerdier than trying to imitate a toga party in a movie would be writing an article  in the college newspaper about trying to imitate a toga party in a movie:  https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1978/11/9/toga-party-psouth-houses-budding-party/ )

Fun Fact #3: I got to know Peter Riegert, who played the character Boon, during the time we were going around giving screenings of The Response. It was fun doing some of the lines with him, like ...

Hoover: Don't screw around, they're serious this time!

Otter: Take it easy, I'm pre-law.

Boon: I thought you were pre-med.

Otter: What's the difference?

My favorite, of course was:

Flounder: I can't believe I threw up in front of Dean Wormer.

Pinto: Face it, Kent. You threw up ON Dean Wormer.

(JTS3, 3/26/2020)

Chinatown

Roman Polanski, 1974.

On Wikipedia: Chinatown

On Kanopy: Chinatown

(EMS, 3/25/2020)

For anyone who can't get enough of the backstory -- the epic scheming that brought water to Los Angeles -- watch Cadillac Desert (available on Youtube as a series of short segments). (JTS3, 4/6/2020)

Doubt

John Patrick Shanley, 2008.

On Wikipedia: Doubt

(ASHS, 2/25/2020)

Warsaw Bridge

Pere Portabella, 1990.

On Wikipedia: Warsaw Bridge

This entire film is composed of a series of vignettes that challenge us to find connections. At first one discovers a few very explicit statements of this challenge, and then it becomes apparent that it permeates every aspect of the film. (Where, for instance, does the "Warsaw Bridge" of the title fit in?)

For me, it seems the film is about the utter magic of how people manage to step out of their individual universes and find points of connection.

It is very difficult to find an opportunity to see this film - it sometimes turns up in festivals of films by contemporary Spanish filmmakers. But every time I do manage to see it, it reconfirms that this film is really special!

A favorite moment: one character sits inside a car and communicates with someone outside the car by tracing a word in the fog coating the window. (The word? CONSTANTINOPLE)

(JTS3, 2/28/2020)

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Sidney Lumet, 2007.

On Wikipedia: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

(Seemingly) worldly wise older brother (Philip Seymour Hoffman) induces suggestible younger brother (Ethan Hawke) to do the dirty work to pull off the perfect heist. Things don't go as planned.

Every time I watch this film, I feel a wave of gratitude that the imaginary older brother I always fantasized about having was, ultimately, never more than an imaginary older brother :-)

The best part of the film is the pacing: things go from bad to worse, and Sidney Lumet never gives you a moment to catch your breath.

(JTS3, 2/28/2020)

All That Jazz

Bob Fosse, 1979.

On Wikipedia: All That Jazz

Based on the career and lifestyle of Fosse, breakthrough choreographer of Cabaret, Pippin, Chicago, and many more.

I saw this when it first came out, at the end of my college years. It showed me one version of what "success" might look like for a man -- simultaneously seductive and terrifying.

One wry and unforgettable thread in the film is that among the protagonist's many projects, one is a documentary of a stand-up comic who uses Kübler-Ross' five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) as material. (Guess where this is going.)

(JTS3, 2/28/2020)

Women Without Men

Shirin Neshat, 2009.

On Wikipedia: Women Without Men

On Kanopy: Women Without Men

At the time of the 1953 coup in Iran that brought the Shah to power, several women are seen pursuing an independent existence.

The voice of the filmmaker, Shirin Neshat, is so strong in this film! The first time I saw this film, I walked right out to the box office and bought a ticket to see it again at the next showing!

The film is full of surprises. It is based on an important work in modern Iran literature by Shahrnush Parsipur, and does many creative things to realize on the screen the magical elements of the book.

(JTS3, 2/28/2020)

The Hours

Stephen Daldry, 2002.

On Wikipedia: The Hours

On Kanopy: The Hours

A creative adaptation of the Virginia Woolf novel, Mrs. Dalloway.

Like a great poem, this film bears many, many viewings, and each time one discovers more interesting interconnections between the parts.

There are so many great performances in this film. Perhaps the most extraordinary is Nicole Kidman as Woolf!

(JTS3, 2/28/2020)

A City of Sadness

 Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989.

On Wikipedia: A City of Sadness

Discover the beautiful films of Hou Hsiao-hsien ("HHH") with this story set in Taiwan in the years immediately following the end of World War II. The former Japanese colony has just been turned over to the government of Nationalist China, and we watch one family experience the birth pangs of a new society.

I've lived in, studied in, and traveled for business many times to Taiwan, but it was this film that really helped me understand how multi-faceted Taiwan's history is.

Many parts of the film challenge our notions that people in Taiwan are "mainly Chinese" or "mainly Taiwanese," and reminds us to pay attention to the question of where Japanese culture fits in, too.

(JTS3, 2/28/2020)

The Third Man

Carol Reed, 1949.

On Wikipedia: The Third Man

Joseph Cotten (as a pulp novel writer, Holly Martins) arrives in post-war Vienna and tries to figure out why everyone seems to have a different story about his dear, departed friend, Harry Lime.

To fully explain why I love this film so much, I'd have to give away too much of the plot. Just watch it! -- and then talk to me . . . .

Favorite part:

CALLOWAY: What happened to your finger?

MARTINS: A parrot bit me.

CALLOWAY: Oh, stop being a fool, Martins!

(JTS3, 2/28/2020)

Some fun facts:

When I visited Vienna about 30 years ago, I insisted on visiting all the identifiable locations from the film, starting with the bar where Martins and Calloway talk near the beginning. The highlight was having a zither player the Wiener Rathauskeller play "The Theme from The Third Man" for us.

About ten years ago, a group of us attended an outdoor screening of The Third Man in Evanston. I ordered a rich, chocolatey Sacher torte from Bennison's Bakery, decorated with the words "R.I.P. Harry Lime" in dark red icing.

Later, I took inspiration from a Harry Lime speech for one of my blog posts about drones: Drone Victims: Just Dots? Just Dirt?

(JTS3, 3/27/2020)

Gimme Shelter

Albert and David Maysles, 1970

On Wikipedia: Gimme Shelter

The best single snapshot of rock music in the U.S. c. 1970 -- how the no-longer-so-revolutionary youth culture . . . still hungry for the yummy appeal of British rockers . . .  joined to a great heaping helping of the U.S. blues tradition . . . combined to call forth the personae the Rolling Stones projected on stage.

My middle school band, The Evil Sun, picked up many of the songs we covered from Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, the album of this Rolling Stones tour. The film reminds me how much I loved playing "Honkey Tonk Woman" . . . and makes me wonder what the 13-year-old me thought a "honkey tonk woman" was, anyway :-)

Best part: Mick Jagger dancing.

(JTS3, 2/27/2020)

Ikiru (To Live)

Akira Kurosawa, 1952.

On Wikipedia: Ikiru

On Kanopy: Ikiru

A bureaucrat living a life of drudgery decides to make a change when he gets bad news at the doctor's office.

I was tickled to realize there was this whole other side to Kurosawa, who I thought of as the Master of the Samurai Film. It opened a whole new world to me.

I love the scene of the old man rocking slowly by himself on a swing in a snowy playground, humming a song from his childhood.

(JTS3, 2/27/2020)

Wings of Desire

Wim Wenders, 1987.

On Wikipedia: Wings of Desire

On Kanopy: Wings of Desire

Two characters -- lugubrious or transcendent (or both), depending on your point of view -- traverse Berlin in their long overcoats, just . . . observing. One of them decides that he is feeling a yearning: to be more than an observer!

This was one of the first films that convinced me that spirituality is central to the life I want to live.

One of my favorite parts is Peter Falk (as the actor, Peter Falk, come to Germany to play the role of Columbo in a film) interacting with the unseen Bruno Ganz (as Damiel) at a coffee stand.

(JTS3, 2/27/2020)