Movies, Mom & Me

• Who's watched: M & G
• Mentions: *1*
• 
  Commentary:  Mom: This is, to my surprise, one of my mother's favorite's of any type, despite it's darkness and irony. She's especially hooked on the last spread, the death number. I think part of the attraction for her is that it is a very well done, very watchable musical. I'm not sure about the rest of her attraction.
    Me: Its simply one of my all time favorites. We watch it every couple of months.
  Update 11/17/2021:  This post was originally published February 6, 2005. It was one of the accidental deletions that occurred, which is covered in this post.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Roy Scheider	Joseph Gideon	Jessica Lange	Angelique	Leland Palmer	Audrey Paris	Ann Reinking	Katie Jagger
  Ben Vereen	O'Connor Flood	Erzsébet Földi	Nichelle Gideon	Deborah Geffner	Victoria Porter	John Lithgow	Lucas Sergeant

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up for this movie.
    Release Date: 1979
    Directed by Bob Fosse.

Labels: dramaD, john-lithgow, satire3, shared-favorite

# posted by gail @ 14:28    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched: G [M was in the room looking at the TV for awhile, but not watching...she evetually napped.]
• Mentions: *1*
• 
  Commentary: It was on sale, I thought, sight unseen, I'd be glad I owned it...what can I say?!? I'm glad I watched it. It was one of the last few in a long line of Vietnam War movies (including the obscure) I make it a point to watch. I thought I'd want to watch this one more than once. Not really. I would have liked to have seen it when it first came out and Tom Cruise wasn't Tom Cruise. I think I would have appreciated his performance more. For some reason, as I watched this, I was continually reminded of Risky Business. I kept having to remind myself that it is based in 'truth' because it was acted for melodrama, which was distracting to the story. I doubt that I'll ever watch it again. I may pass it off to someone.
  Update 11/17/2021:  This post was originally published February 6, 2005. It was one of the accidental deletions that occurred, which is covered in this post.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Tom Cruise	Ron Kovic	Willem Dafoe	Charlie	Kyra Sedgwick	Donna	Raymond J. Barry	Mr. Kovic
  Jerry Levine	Steve Boyer	Frank Whaley	Timmy	Caroline Kava	Mrs. Kovic	Cordelia Gonzalez	Maria Elena
  Ed Lauter	Legion Commander	Stephen Baldwin	Billy Vorsovich	Bob Gunton	V.A. Dr. #1	Lili Taylor	Jamie Wilson

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1989
    Directed by Oliver Stone.

Labels: biography2, bob-gunton, dramaD, oliver-stone, period6, political5, tom-cruise, war2, willem-dafoe

# posted by gail @ 18:54    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched: M & G
• Mentions: None
• 
  Commentary: Given to us by a young friend who had the courage to think outside of the box when deciding to gift us. Yes, we've both watched it and enjoyed it, at least twice. Despite our enjoyment of it, I ended up donating this to the library after Mom's death. I can't remember why. Sometimes I wish I still had it in my collection (yes, Virginia, I occasionally make mistakes when I cull my collection), but, it's at my local branch county library and I can check it out. It's usually available when I get a yen for it.
  Update 11/17/2021:  This post was originally published February 6, 2005. It was one of the accidental deletions that occurred, which is covered in this post.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Kate Bosworth	Anne Marie Chadwick	Matthew Davis	Matt Tollman	Michelle Rodriguez	Eden	Sanoe Lake	Lena

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 2002
    Directed by John Stockwell.

Labels: dramaD, sport1

# posted by gail @ 18:39    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched: M & G
• Mentions: None
• 
  Commentary: My devotion to this movie is one of my dirty little movie secrets. I am so devoted to it that I prefer to refer to it by its original name, above, rather than it's retooled title "Bound by Honor". That's how it was billed when I originally saw it in the theater. My devotion to it is why my mother has seen it. Aside from owning the dvd, whenever it appears on network or cable, abridged or unabridged, if we're watching TV we're watching this movie. My mother tolerates it, watches it from the corner of her eye, occasionally comments on The Day of the Dead scenes (which she loves) and patiently waits for it to be over.
  Update 11/17/2021:  This post was originally published February 6, 2005. It was one of the accidental deletions that occurred, which is covered in this post.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Damian Chapa	Miko Velka	Jesse Borrego	Cruz Candelaria	Benjamin Bratt	Paco Aguilar	Enrique Castillo	Montana Seguera
  Delroy Lindo	Bonafide	Victor Rivers	Magic	Tom Towles	Red Ryder	Carlos Carrasco	Popeye
  Lanny Flaherty	Big Al	Billy Bob Thornton	Lightning	Danny Trejo	Geronimo	Theodore Wilson	Wallace

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1993
    Directed by Taylor Hackford.

Labels: delroy-lindo, dramaD, enrique-castillo, gang-movie, jesse-borrego, me-favorite4, revenge2, taylor-hackford, violence3

# posted by gail @ 18:35    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  This movie has haunted me ever since I saw it, a few years after it was released. I saw it on television, likely on PBS, of course, since it was made for television. I've seen it a few times since and it never fails to rivet me. It is still as probable today as it was when it was made.
    I'm going to consider this write-up, though, still Under Construction, since I just received it, have yet to view it and it's been, what, at least twenty years and probably closer to thirty plus years since I last saw it. It was, after all, initially released 37 years ago.
    Expect more later. Or, perhaps not.
    So, I watched this movie last night, 11/16/2021. I'd forgotten, and was entranced by, the studious detail brought to the staging. The movie was even more horrific than I remembered, precisely because of these details, stuff like the increasing shabbiness of the clothes on those who survive; the work involved in opening a can when you haven't got a, well, a can opener; the importance of keeping one's affect flat in order to endure what one has no choice but to endure; the desire to die in those who lived through the blast vs. the desire to live in those born after the blast. More later, maybe, maybe not, but those were my initial astonishments.
    So glad I've added this to my collection! I know I'll be watching it again!
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Paul Vaughan	Narrator	Karen Meagher	Ruth Beckett	Reece Dinsdale	Jimmy Kemp	David Brierley	Bill Kemp
  Rita May	Rita Kemp	Henry Moxon	Mr Beckett	June Broughton	Mrs Beckett	Victoria O'Keefe	Jane
  Sylvia Stoker	Granny Beckett	Harry Beety	Clive J. Sutton	Ruth Holden	Marjorie Sutton	Michael O'Hagan	Chief Superintendent Hirst

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1984
    Directed by Mick Jackson.

Labels: apocalyptic, dramaD, horror1, nuclear, political5, TV3, war2

# posted by gail @ 01:15    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  My goodness! Can you believe it? Here is a movie that completely got away from me! I didn't even realize I, or, formerly, we, had it, never entered it in my movie journal, although I know I've seen it, perhaps more than once and, certainly, with my mother. I'm sure we had it before her death. It's the kind of movie she would have liked, which is probably why it is in our collection. But, that I overlooked it! Yikes! I wonder how many other movies are sitting on the shelves that I've overlooked!
    Well, when I'm done with the project, of "picturing" movies, I think I just start from "A" on the shelves and see if there are any others I've missed. I hope not, but I'm excited about the possibility of discovering "new content", as they say in the trades, although they won't really be new, but, simply, uncatalogued. Somehow, I think there are very few. In fact, I kind of think this is the only one. Well, we'll see.
    I should probably write up this movie, my reaction, that is, but I think I need to watch it again for that!
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Shirley MacLaine	Aurora Greenway	Debra Winger	Emma Greenway-Horton	Jack Nicholson	Garrett Breedlove	Danny DeVito	Vernon Dalhart
  Jeff Daniels	Flap Horton	John Lithgow	Sam Burns	Lisa Hart Carroll	Patsy Clark	Huckleberry Fox	Teddy Horton

  
    Here is the Wikipedia write-up for this film.
    Release Date: 1983
    Directed by James L. Brooks.

Labels: dramaD, jack-nicholson, john-lithgow, mother-daughter-dynamics1, romance5, shirley-maclaine

# posted by gail @ 19:15    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  I've seen snippets of this movie, which is why I decided I not only wanted to see the whole movie, but that I wanted to own it. I'll be watching it, in toto, tonight. In the meantime, I've seen enough of it to wonder why Roger Ebert gave both this movie and the other directed by Chris Weitz to which he compared it, About a Boy, the same number of rating stars, three and a half. Although I enjoy About a Boy and own a copy of it, just from what I've seen of this movie, if I'd seen About a Boy before this movie and given it three and a half stars, I'd be inclined to give this movie four stars.
    It's not that I always agree with Roger Ebert. In fact, I whole-heartedly agree with him a little less than a quarter of the time, although I rarely find one of his reviews in which I don't agree with something he's said, and, anyway, I appreciate his insights and the extra movie info he provided in his reviews, which is why I link to a lot of them. His reviews continue to point me toward movies I haven't yet seen but might find interesting. But, I notice, of all the Chris Weitz movies Ebert reviewed (they're listed in the immediately previous link), Ebert gave only one a full four stars: The Golden Compass, a movie I really tried to get into but just couldn't. It was full of razzle dazzle, yes, but the story, to me, was old and tired and leaning so heavily on its artistic presentation that the whole of the movie just kind of crumpled. When considering Ebert's reviews against my own, I always have to remind myself, he gave The Polar Express an enthusiastic four stars both times he saw it (one review was of the IMAX version), whereas I had a dim view of that movie (my write-up of it is linked to the title, further back in this sentence) and, out of two watchings, my mother didn't like it the first time around, although she enjoyed it the second time. Nonetheless, I got rid of it. She never asked to see it again and turned an offered viewing of it down after she'd seen in a second time.
    Perhaps I'll feel differently about this movie, A Better Life, after I watch the whole thing. Perhaps I'll even feel the same as Roger Ebert and consider it not-quite-a-four-star-movie. We'll see. Stay tuned.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Demián Bichir	Carlos Galindo	José Julián	Luis Galindo	Dolores Heredia	Anita	Carlos Linares	Santiago
  Eddie "Piolín" Sotelo	Himself	Joaquín Cosío	Blasco Martinez	Nancy Lenehan	Mrs. Donnely	Gabriel Chavarria	Ramon

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 2011
    Directed by Chris Weitz.

Labels: §1, character-study, coming-of-age2, dramaD, father-son-dynamics1, gang-movie, reflective

# posted by gail @ 15:25    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  I just received this movie today, 8/30/21. I haven't yet seen it. I'm excited, though, by its reviews, including the one by Roger Ebert, linked to the title of this post, and yet another review written, importantly, 17 years later, for Roger Ebert's website by Seongyong Cho. If you're interested in this movie, read both of them, and you'll understand why it is important that the movie was reviewed, again, 17 years after its initial released.
    I'll report back once "the deed is done".
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Sean Nelson	Fresh	Giancarlo Esposito	Esteban	Samuel L. Jackson	Sam	N'Bushe Wright	Nichole
  Ron Brice	Corky	Jean-Claude La Marre	Jake	Jose Zuniga	Lt. Perez	Luis Lantigua	Chuckie
  Yul Vazquez	Chillie	Cheryl Freeman	Aunt Frances	Anthony Thomas	Red	Curtis McClarin	Darryl

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1994
    Directed by Boaz Yakin.

Labels: §2, character-study, coming-of-age2, dramaD, father-son-dynamics1, gang-movie, giancarlo-esposito, reflective, samuel-l-jackson

# posted by gail @ 15:16    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  This movie is a remake of The Heiress, a movie of which, you'll note in my commentary, I am inordinately fond. When I discovered recently that this movie existed, I knew I not only had to see it, I had to have it in my collection as a companion, good or bad, to The Heiress. I just received it, haven't watched it yet, but will be doing so this evening (8/10/21). I'm excited, and a bit leary, because of the Wikipedia article linked at the end of this post. Although the article indicates that the movie was generally well reviewed, I notice that some critics were a bit squirrely about it. One even hissed "feminism" in his review. How weird! Makes me even more anxious to watch it. I'll be back soon, Dear Reader.
    Today, 8/19/21, I watched this movie and The Heiress back to back. I've watched both of them before, this one once before, within the last several days, The Heiress, oh my, let me think, no, let me check; okay, three times before, including the viewing a few, or so, days ago. Something I noticed tonight: although the two movies portray the same time period, the ambience of each film is clearly situated in the time period in which it was produced.
    The Heiress was released in 1949. It frames Catherine Sloper's problem in light of traditional values inculcated into society immediately after WW II, Leave It to Beaver values: Mom is the homemaker, Dad is the breadwinner, kids brimming with what we now think of as "traditional American values" are the product and, if a woman doesn't marry, well, she's stuck in her original family and/or family's homestead for the rest of her life. Catherine does not look beyond her home and her expectation of marriage to Morris Townsend, with whom she is in love, for fulfillment. When those fail, her life is portrayed to be engulfed in bitterness. When Townsend appears one last time, she bars her door against him and retreats upstairs to bed, leaving Townsend to figure out her refusal of what was surely to be yet another proposal, while he bangs on her unanswered door. This is where her screen story ends.
    In this 1997 version Catherine Sloper endures exactly the same problems as her 1949-version self, except that she is cut out of her father's will (1949 Catherine is not) and has to make do on the $10,000 yearly stipend she inherited from her mother's estate, and, of course, the home on Washington Square. This not only doesn't bother Catherine, her reaction is as though she has been released from what she considered to be her father's stranglehold. She laughs at her father's threat to withhold any inheritance. He does what he's threatened. Still and all, once he is dead, she leads what is, to her, a satisfying life, supplementing her income by running a daycare center in the home she inherited from her father. When Townsend reappears, as he did in the 1949 film, she talks to him and refuses his proposal with resolute dignity. Wikipedia writes, "He departs, leaving Catherine to reflect on the passion she once experienced." Frankly, I didn't get the idea that she was "reflect[ing] on the passion she once experienced." My interpretation at the end of the movie was that she was simply and quietly reveling in the peace, self-direction and self-awareness she had achieved once men, most notably her father and former intended, were out of the picture. All in all, this version of the story came off rather like a soft Gilmore Girls version of womanhood without the cheeky fast talk, excepting Aunt Lavinia.
    Both films are well made from the point of view of cinematography and direction. Both have fascinating, earnest and substantial actors playing all the parts. It's funny, because I've trolled the internet for reviews of both versions and, although I found several short ones and one done as a school assignment, none of the reviewers seems to quite get what I got out of them. I guess that's both movies' only problem, lack of audience coherence on the substance and impact of the movies. It appears to be a major problem because the latter version didn't earn its initial production costs back at the box office. In fact, it made back only 13% of what it cost to produce.
    Well, so what. I much enjoy both movies, am glad they are in my collection and I'll be watching them again. And again.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Jennifer Jason Leigh	Catherine Sloper	Albert Finney	Dr. Austin Sloper	Ben Chaplin	Morris Townsend	Maggie Smith	Aunt Lavinia
  Judith Ivey	Aunt Elizabeth Almond	Arthur Laupus	Mr. Almond	Jennifer Garner	Marian Almond	Robert Stanton	Arthur Townsend

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1997
    Directed by Agnieszka Holland.

Labels: dramaD, father-daughter-dynamics, female-director3, jennifer-jason-leigh, maggie-smith, romance4

# posted by gail @ 12:01    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  I watched this movie last night, 8/20/21. As with most of the movies I acquire, I'd seen it before, only once, as I recall, with my mother, and have been intrigued by it ever since. Not with the magic. Although I find watching magic immensely entertaining, it's not an entertainment upon which I've much ruminated.
    That's what I realized, last night, I enjoy about the movie. It does my ruminating for me, sparks questions in my mind about illusion, suggests answers, asks more questions, swirls all this around a romance story that could go either way, around the character developments of all the principal participants in the movie, all of which could go any way, and then comes to a satisfying but still mysterious end.
    I've called the end "mysterious" because, well, I had trouble following Inspector Uhl's (played masterfully by Paul Giamantti) summation at the end of the movie. At first I thought it was me, but as I considered the movie further after watching it and then replayed the scene containing his final summation, I realized that I think it was meant to be confusing, as, the magic of illusion is that everyone sees something different because considering any illusion has different consequences for each person who sees it. Some don't even consider an illusion illusory. Prince Leopold certainly didn't, and look what happened to him.
    Which brings us to the resolution of the romance. By the end of the movie it seems inevitable that Sophie and Eduard come together, something they've both been fighting for all their lives. But the final scene of them together has an otherworldly quality about it, as though, somehow, their lives were ended and their romance takes place in some sort of afterlife.
    Which I found satisfying to contemplate. It's as though, well, you don't get what you're striving for until you can no longer strive for it.
    'Nuff said, I think.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Edward Norton	Eisenheim The Illusionist/Eduard Abramovich	Aaron Johnson	Young Eduard Abramovich	Paul Giamatti	Chief Inspector Walter Uhl	Jessica Biel	Duchess Sophie Von Teschen
  Rufus Sewell	Crown Prince Leopold	Eddie Marsan	Josef Fischer	Jake Wood	Jurka	Tom Fisher	Willgut

  
    The Wikipedia write-up for this movie is here.
    Release Date: 2006
    Directed by Neil Burger.

Labels: dramaD, edward-norton, fantasy4, historical4, paul-giamatti, period6, romance4

# posted by gail @ 13:59    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction.
    This movie was originally listed in the post Movies I've Seen, Do Not Own but Can't Forget. I own this movie, now. Here is the commentary I wrote for it in my wish list post: "Okay. This is yet another of my juicy fetishes. I love the story: corruption galore, even within the best of the characters. Laurence Fishburne: come on, how can you resist this character of his?!? [How can you resist anything done by Laurence Fishburne?!?] And Goldblum's rendering of Jason, and the way the pair plays off one another, oh, my, my! This movie, for me, falls into the same category as the Equalizer movies and the John Wick movies. Although I enjoy all of them, I have to say, I favor this one because the character is not squeaky clean, like Washington's McCall, nor is he on a sacred rampage, like Reeves' Wick. In fact, at the end of the movie, you are left wondering about the content of Stevens' character. I can't help but think that Fishburne, Goldblum and their fellow actors had loads of fun making this movie."
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Laurence Fishburne	DEA Agt. Russell Stevens Jr./John Hull	Jeff Goldblum	David Jason	Yvette Heyden	Nancy Jason	Charles Martin Smith	DEA Agt. Gerry Carver
  Victoria Dillard	Betty McCutcheon	Gregory Sierra	Felix Barbosa	David Weixelbaum	Chino	Glynn Turman	Russell Stevens Sr.
  Arthur Mendoza	Anton Gallegos	Clarence Williams III	Dt. Taft	Roger Guenveur Smith	Eddie	James T. Morris	Ivy

  
    Here is the Wikipedia write-up for this film.
    Release Date: 1992
    Directed by Bill Duke.

Labels: Criterion2, dramaD, laurence-fishburne, loose-cannon-cop, neo-noirB, police-procedural, violence3

# posted by gail @ 12:37    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  I enjoyed this movie so much the first time around I watched it again, this afternoon (7/23/2021)! It's an interesting and curious story about a daughter who, even after his death, can't get out from underneath the restrictive hand of her father. It's my first movie under the category "father-daughter-dynamics". Seems odd that I haven't noticed any others to which that label applies, so I'll have to check through and see if I just didn't notice this with any other obvious possibilities.
    This movie features a sweet, retiring "older" single daughter who feels so protected in her father's all-encompassing care that she doesn't realize until some years later in her life, well after her father's death, that the dynamics between her and her father have warped her for any semblance of enjoyable male-female relations. In addition, her first, and last, suitor is the smoothest and most dastardly of cads, but this is something she doesn't realize until it is too late, emotionally, for her to even consider pursuing any sexual bond. Her aunt, as well, doesn't help. She is a widow who so idealizes her one marriage that she is completely blind to what the audience sees developing almost immediately. In this blindness she offers her niece, Catherine, who is completely untutored in romantic relationships, such cockamamie advice that this smart, but, unfortunately, naive, niece of hers is simply locked in a web of well-meant but treacherous deceit. And don't even get me started on her father! Fathers, and aunts, and cads, oh my!
    Very well acted. Very well written. Her change of character seemed sadly inevitable as I watched it happen, but her life and her reactions are fleshed out so well that, by the end, I did't feel pity for her but simply acknowledged her personal resolve. Yes, dear reader, I was surprised by my final reaction.
  Update 8/10/21:  I just obtained the 1997 remake of this film, or, rather, a re-filming of this story, Washington Square. At this precise moment I have not viewed it, yet, but I will be doing so tonight. I may, or may not, have comments to add, here, about the correspondences (or lack, thereof) between these two films. Stay tuned.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Olivia de Havilland	Catherine Sloper	Ralph Richardson	Dr. Austin Sloper	Miriam Hopkins	Lavinia Penniman	Montgomery Clift	Morris Townsend
  Vanessa Brown	Maria	Betty Linley	Mrs. Montgomery	Ray Collins	Jefferson Almond	Mona Freeman	Marian Almond
  Selena Royle	Elizabeth Almond	Paul Lees	Arthur Townsend	Harry Antrim	Mr. Abeel	Russ Conway	Quintus

  
    Here is the Wikipedia write-up for this movie.
    Release Date: 1949
    Directed by William Wyler.

Labels: character-study, Criterion2, dramaD, father-daughter-dynamics, miriam-hopkins, romance4

# posted by gail @ 19:13    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  I remember the first time I saw this movie. I was a mid-teen (or, perhaps, a little younger), continuing to take dancing classes but not toward any particular goal. I don't know how it happened but the local university managed to wrangle a a copy of this movie for an exclusive showing. My dance teacher, who considered me talented but unmotivated, badgered me until I asked my mother to take me to the showing of the movie.
    It didn't motivate my dancing but it did accelerate my interest in romantic tragedy. I remember audibly gasping at the scene of Vicky Page's death. I was not expecting it. This brought the movie into focus for me and I've had a hankering to watch it, again. Now, it's a part of my collection.
    So far, I've only watched it once. During that watching, I couldn't help but compare it to the story portrayed in Black Swan, which I've seen, but, you'll note, I do not own, and doubt that I ever will, unless someone gifts me with it. Anyway, it occurred to me as I was watching this, and, mind you, this consideration is based on a relatively poor memory of Black Swan, that Black Swan portrays the interior danger of living for one's art and this film portrays the external danger of living for one's art. Not that I particularly, well, sympathize with either of the movies' statements. But, there you have it, an off-the-cuff thought about these two movies.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Anton Walbrook	Boris Lermontov	Marius Goring	Julian Craster	Moira Shearer	Victoria Page	Robert Helpmann	Ivan Boleslawsky
  Léonide Massine	Grischa Ljubov	Albert Bassermann	Sergei Ratov	Ludmilla Tchérina	Irina Boronskaya	Esmond Knight	Livingstone Montague

  
    One of Roger Ebert's Great Movies.
    The Wikipedia write-up for this movie is here.
    Release Date: 1948
    Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger.

Labels: §1, Criterion2, dance, dramaD, fantasy4, romance4

# posted by gail @ 17:56    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction. In same case as Lady Snowblood.
    When you click into the link in the title of this post, you can access the review for Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengence by scrolling down the page. It is after the review for Lady Snowblood.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Meiko Kaji	Yuki Kashima/Lady Snowblood	Juzo Itami	Ransui Tokunaga	Kazuko Yoshiyuki	Aya Tokunaga	Yoshio Harada	Shusuke Tokunaga
  Shin Kishida	Seishiro Kikui	Toru Abe	Kendo Terauchi	Rin'ichi Yamamoto	Inspector Maruyama	Kôji Nanbara	Toad

  
    The Wikipedia write-up for this movie is here.
    Release Date: 1974
    Directed by Toshiya Fujita.

Labels: §, action3, adventure4, Criterion2, dramaD, gender-bender, period6, revenge2, samurai, violence3

# posted by gail @ 17:40    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction. In same case as Lady Snowblood: Song of Vengeance.
    When you click into the link in the title of this post, you can access the review for Lady Snowblood at the top of the page. It is before the review for Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Meiko Kaji	Yuki Kashima/Lady Snowblood	Mayumi Maemura	Young Yuki	Kō Nishimura	Dōkai the priest	Toshio Kurosawa	Ryūrei Ashio
  Masaaki Daimon	Gō Kashima	Miyoko Akaza	Sayo Kashima	Eiji Okada	Gishirō Tsukamoto	Sanae Nakahara	Okono Kitahama

  
    The Wikipedia link for this film is here.
    Release Date: 1973
    Directed by Toshiya Fujita.

Labels: §, action3, adventure4, Criterion2, dramaD, gender-bender, period6, revenge2, samurai, violence3

# posted by gail @ 17:27    0 comments    email......this post

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  Commentary:  If you want to watch a film about the mob, this is the film you want to see. This film isn't, like the Godfather trilogy, deadly but beautiful and somewhat sympathetic. This film is gritty, grim and deadly. There is no sympathy for the organization it portrays, nor the actors and their motivations within the organization. There is no beauty in this dump of corruption. At times, it's like watching a documentary shot undercover. This is probably due to the fact that it is based on a non-fiction book of the same name written by Roberto Saviano.
    If you want a romantic portrayal of crime syndicates that, despite it's savagery, manages to put on gorgeous weddings and muster a certain ethical construct that is almost understandable to "just regular people", watch the Godfather Trilogy. This movie is not that trilogy.
    Although this movie garnered much acclaim, not everyone appreciated it. Dan Schneider of Critical Movie Critics had several bones to pick with the movie and, frankly, he's not wrong. In fact, what disturbed me about the movie is that, typically, even documentaries attempt to entertain, if only to keep eyes on the screen. This movie, whether objectively considered a documentary, docudrama or the term Dan Schneider attaches to it, cinema verité, allows the viewer, me, that is, no place to seek a little sultry refuge for awhile. It's bare bones dread and death. Many times for no discernable reason. And that's it. Which fascinates me. So, I'll watch it, again. I'm glad I have it in my collection. To my (paltry) knowledge of film, it's one of a kind. What does that admission say about me?
    This movie has a list of Actors/Characters as long as my two arms. The following table contains only the first twelve, even though, in some movie tables, I've gone as far as listing twenty. So many of the characters in this movie die, though, after a few minutes on screen ...
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Toni Servillo	Franco	Gianfelice Imparato	Don Ciro	Maria Nazionale	Maria	Salvatore Cantalupo	Pasquale
  Gigio Morra	Iavarone	Salvatore Abruzzese	Totò	Marco Macor	Marco	Ciro Petrone	Ciro
  Carmine Paternoster	Roberto	Giovanni Venosa	Don Giovanni	Vittorio Russo	Zio Vittorio	Bernardino Terracciano	Zio Bernardino

  
    Here is the Wikipedia write-up for this movie.
    Release Date: 2008
    Directed by Matteo Garrone.

Labels: §, Criterion2, dramaD, gang-movie, violence3

# posted by gail @ 17:10    0 comments    email......this post

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  Commentary:  Under construction.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Noémie Merlant	Marianne	Adèle Haenel	Héloïse	Luàna Bajrami	Sophie	Valeria Golino	The Countess

  
    Here is the Wikipedia write-up for this movie.
    Release Date: 2019
    Directed by Céline Sciamma.

Labels: §1, Criterion2, dramaD, female-director2, historical4, period6, romance4

# posted by gail @ 16:53    0 comments    email......this post

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  Commentary:  Under construction.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Song Kang-ho	Park Doo-man	Kim Sang-kyung	Seo Tae-yoon	Kim Roi-ha	Cho Yong-koo	Song Jae-ho	Sgt. Shin Dong-chul
  Byun Hee-bong	Sgt. Koo Hee-bong	Go Seo-hee	Ofc. Kwon Kwi-ok	Ryu Tae-Ho	Jo Byeong-Sun	Park No-shik	Baek Kwang-ho
  Park Hae-il	Park Hyeon-gyu	Jeon Mi-seon	Kwok Seol-yung	Seo Young-hwa	Eon Deok-nyeo	Woo Go-na	Kim So-hyeon

  
    Here is the Wikipedia write-up for this movie.
    Release Date: 2003
    Directed by Bong Joon-ho.

Labels: §2, bong-joon-ho, Criterion2, detective1, dramaD, mystery2, neo-noirC

# posted by gail @ 16:34    0 comments    email......this post

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  Commentary:  If this movie isn't the most controversial movie I own, it's very close to the top of that list. Check out the Wikipedia article on it linked below in the usual place and you'll see what I mean. By "controversial", I don't mean "universally panned". There are those who unabashedly love it (I belong in this category), those who four-square despise or dismiss it (think Roger Ebert in the review to which the title of this post is linked), and people who fall at all points in between.
    It's not just the structure of the movie that provokes comment. Everything, including Faye Dunaway's performance (which even she has expressed reservations about), the audacity of basing it on a controversial memoir, the directing, the editing, the choice of material upon which the screenplay was based, even scene placement comes up for comment.
    Well, sorry, everyone, I love, love, love this movie! I've been wanting to own it for awhile, despite the fact that I neglected to include it in Movies I've Seen, Do Not Own but Can't Forget. Ever since I began hankering for it, it's been in my "very pricey" category. Last week I noticed that, while still in that category, the price had dropped by five bucks (it didn't drop, at all, during any of those recent, much ballyhooed sales on certain purchasing sites), so I decided, okay, I'm going for it.
    I received it yesterday. Watched it last night. Rarely have I been so satisfied with a purchase! The movie is so over-the-top that I was surprised to discover that, those scenes and moments I remembered previous to purchase, well, I'd remembered them exactly!
    Truthfully, I'm sorry to read (in the article pegged to the title, above) that Dunaway has reservations not only about her performance, but, as well, the directing of that performance. I am not one of those who loves this movie because it's "campy", as it's been labeled numerous times, although I understand why it is so labeled. By the time this movie was initially released, Joan Crawford had become camp. She was partially responsible for this, considering the movie choices she made later in her life (think Trog and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, the latter of which, in the words of the attached Wikipedia article: "...spawned a succession of horror/thriller films featuring psychotic older women, later dubbed the psycho-biddy subgenre...").
    I don't consider this movie campy. I don't necessarily consider it to be the unvarnished history of Joan Crawford's life, either. It was, after all, based on a book written by an abused and conflicted daughter. But, let's face it, people. Those who lead lives that glitter, especially those who choose those lives, in part, because of the glitter they'll don, well, the "truths" of their lives will always partly distract, as well as attract. That is, in large part, why we, as members of the audience, are hungry to know more about them and doomed to never know the unglittered truth.
    Here's the interesting part: If you own a copy of Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce © 2005 Turner Entertainment Company, check out the documentary profile included as a special feature, Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star. Although there is some information in the movie that is not addressed in the documentary (how she treated her first two children, for instance), nothing in the documentary refutes, or is refuted by, anything in Mommie Dearest. I can attest to this because, immediately after I watched the movie, last night, I was driven to watch the documentary, precisely because I wondered about this. The immediately previous link, by the way, is to a different article about the movie; here is yet another, full of interesting backstory. It looks like no one can get enough of this movie, which is fine with me because I thoroughly enjoyed it, last night, and expect to, again.
    There are a couple of other articles at RogerEbert.com that meditate on the movie, while it was still in production, by Roger Ebert (although it was published after the movie was released and after Ebert's final review of the movie) and many years after it was released, by Angelica Jade Bastien. No matter what your reaction to the movie, they make for intriguing reading, especially the second article.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Faye Dunaway	Joan Crawford	Diana Scarwid	Christina Crawford	Steve Forrest	Gregg Savitt	Howard Da Silva	Louis B. Mayer
  Rutanya Alda	Carol Ann	Harry Goz	Alfred Steele	Michael Edwards	Ted Gilbert	Jocelyn Brando	Barbara Bennett
  Priscilla Pointer	Margaret Lee Chadwick	Xander Berkeley	Christopher Crawford	Belita Moreno	Belinda Rosenberg	Alice Nunn	Helga

  
    Here's the Wikipedia write-up for this movie.
    Release Date: 1981
    Directed by Frank Perry.

Labels: aging, biography2, coming-of-age2, dramaD, faye-dunaway, historical4, period6, popcorn-and-soda6

# posted by gail @ 15:05    0 comments    email......this post

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  Commentary:  This is a curious Tracey/Hepburn production, initially badly reviewed but its reputation improved greatly over time; just check out the Reception section of the Wikipedia write-up for it. That section is detailed in its explanation of the film being revived in the view of critics. I think its reassessment has a lot to do with the times we live in right now and the furor over anti-fascism that the recent Trump Presidency brought us.
    When I initially acquired it, I wasn't thinking specifically of its anti-fascist slant. For some months I had been vividly remembering scenes from it without bothering to consider why those scenes continued to reappear in my memory. I'm quite sure, even without a specific memory of my first viewing, that I initially saw the movie before 2008 when my mother was alive and we had a streaming service that featured TCM, and haven't watched it since. I think, this time, my interest was revived by a wayward waltz, over the last few weeks, through all my Tracey/Hepburn and Hepburn movies, which ignited interest in those I either hadn't seen or didn't own. At any rate, a few weeks ago my interest in this movie became so great, and I found a price so low, that I decided to acquire it.
    I'll write more about my reactions to this movie, later. Right now, I'm going to create a post (which will appear immediately above this one) about how it also triggered my interest in anti-fascist movies, of the early 20th century through now, and explore that, a bit.
    More on this specific movie later, I'm sure, including my offense at the ending, where I attempt a stab at why it ended as it did and whether the ending was stupid, or merely inevitable because of the time in which it was made.
  P.S.  This movie is mentioned in the review I wrote for Undercurrent.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Spencer Tracy	Steven O'Malley	Katharine Hepburn	Christine Forrest	Richard Whorf	Clive Kerndon	Margaret Wycherly	Mrs. Forrest
  Forrest Tucker	Geoffrey Midford	Frank Craven	Doctor Fielding	Stephen McNally	Freddie Ridges	Percy Kilbride	Orion Peabody
  Audrey Christie	Jane Harding	Darryl Hickman	Jeb Rickards	Donald Meek	Mr. Arbuthnot	Howard Da Silva	Jason Rickards

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1942
    Directed by George Cukor.

Labels: anti-fascist, dramaD, katharine-hepburn, melodramaA, spencer-tracy, tracy-hepburn

# posted by gail @ 02:55    0 comments    email......this post