#terry gilliam's lovely face

[drconstellation]

Brazil and The Dream of Escape

I was delighted to find in the Xtras that the machine created to be used by Furfur to use to find out how many demons Shax could requisition for storming the bookshop was inspired by the movie Brazil. This is another nod to Monty Python member Terry Gilliam, who directed this film, and who almost directed the failed GO film in the 1990's.

I love this film. Always have. Yes, I was around when it came out in 1985. I'm that old. It's always been in my top 5 favourite films. And its totally relevant to Good Omens.

Brazil can be described as a dark dystopian story based on the novel 1984. It doesn't have a happy ending, but its funny, horrific, ludicrous, romantic and timelessly beautiful all at the same time. Its so iconic that when ever I see its influence in other productions its been unmistakable.

It stars Jonathan Pryce long before he was a James Bond villain or the head Sparrow in Game of Thrones, a comedic turn from Robert de Niro and a handful of other famous faces that you are bound to recognise, such Bob Hoskins, Ian Holm and Jim Broadbent.

Pryce, as Sam Lowry, lives in a world that is strictly controlled with paperwork that comes in multiple copies, where people are routinely arrested and tortured and a long running unexplained terrorist campaign sees bombs explode in the most random of places. Sam has dreams of a beautiful woman floating in the sky, and he is a sliver-armoured winged hero trying to rescue her. He eventually finds that she is real, and finds out her name through various means via his work and contacts. He tracks her down, but that is where it all starts to unravel as she is mixed up with an unfortunate case of mistaken identity.

Its easy to see the common themes and elements that run through the film with GO: the desire to run away and escape (that doesn't work,) a totalitarian authority controlling the masses, propaganda, piles of paperwork, an undercurrent of rebellion, torture and abuse, forbidden love between classes, a villain hidden in plain sight.

There is an art deco aesthetic to the film that also carries over to other films and shows it has influenced, and the busy work floor scene that stops on a dime to watch the tv show de jour while the boss isn't looking is one of the highlights of the film.

It was a reference of this that caught my eye in the Cohen Brothers modern fairy tale The Hudsucker Proxy, where they copied the busyness of the work floor for their mail room scenes, but also the art deco aesthetic. That's another film that is always in my top five films, and could go a round of comparisons with GO - its got time stoppage, an angel appearance and a near-godlike manipulator.

It also appears, surprisingly, in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The casino at Canto Bight is Brazil inspired, in the way its introduced to us, its decor and the music. I know some people hate this film because of what they did to Luke, but I love it, the whole thing is just utterly gorgeous to look at.

And if you've watched any of Loki recently, since S2 of that show finished not long ago, you would also seen some influence from Brazil in the retro look.

I love the classic art deco style. my grandparents had an art deco house that I spent many of my childhood hours in. The style itself is a clean, unadorned look, and often is meant to give a look of movement, speed or strength. A classic example of this is the Bentley, of course, which comes from the height of the art deco era in the 1930's.

Hell is the other place we see the Brazil influence in GO, where is looks like it's constantly several decades behind the times, with overhead projectors and manual typewriters and odd looking not-quite steampunk contraptions.

Brazil is available to stream on Disney at the moment, if you'd like to take a look. I highly recommend it, its one of those influential films that once you know it, you see its long reach in the most unexpected places.

#good omens 2 #good omens meta #good omens analysis #shax #furfur #terry gilliam brazil #monty python #the bentley #art deco

[saraunailyqistfarees]

"LOVE BITE",4'6"x3'2" By Laurie Lipton

Laurie Lipton, an artist from Los Angeles, creates intricate, large-scale drawings solely using pencil and charcoal. Her work delves into the darker aspects of human nature, exploring unthinkable images lurking in the subconscious, including her personal experiences as a woman.

Terry Gilliam, who was interviewed in the Love Bite documentary Love Bite: Laurie Lipton and Her Disturbing Black & White, said, "What she’s dealing with is what everybody has inside them in one form or another, and probably most people are frightened to recognize it. You put it down in the basement and keep the trap door shut." This observation leads to the notion that women, due to societal norms, often suppress their emotions and experiences. Throughout history, societal expectations have pressured women to embody nurturing and self-sacrificing roles. Additionally, women frequently face the suppression of their voices, fearing consequences when expressing genuine emotions or opinions.

"Laurie Lipton's "Love Bite,” a detailed charcoal drawing measuring 4'6"x3'2", captivates with its intricate features—hair strands, wrinkles, nails, veins, and texture. The close-up of a woman's face reveals wide-open eyes with an intense gaze against a white background, adorned with swirling hair patterns and dark, dramatic shading. In a compelling twist, the woman, appearing ready to bite into an apple, cradles a baby instead. While the artwork has drawn comparisons to Francisco Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son,” the two pieces convey distinct messages."

"Love Bite" delves into the emotional and psychological complexity of womanhood. The title holds metaphorical significance, suggesting emotional scars left by love, symbolizing the highs, lows, and complexities of deep emotional connections. The woman's intense gaze reflects a profound engagement with her emotions.

Her direct gaze and overall composition convey agency and inner strength, yet the white background and tangled elements hint at vulnerability, blending fragility and power. The artwork explores a woman navigating the feminine experience, scrutinizing how women negotiate the emotional landscape. The strength in the woman's gaze resonates with the depth of her emotional experiences.

Despite its impact, some find the drawing unsettling. James Scott, the documentary director, shares that he refrains from displaying "Love Bite" due to audience discomfort, highlighting the drawing's powerful effect when portraying a woman as the subject.

“I’m isolated. I’m in my head. I’m on this piece of paper. And what goes in between me and the paper... everything comes into my play, my entire life.”

Lipton challenges the stereotype prescribing that women must suppress their emotions, utilizing art as a medium to express herself and cope with trauma. This statement suggests a personal connection, as she embeds aspects of herself into each drawing. Despite her artistic intent, negative comments expressing discomfort with the drawing's disturbing nature reveal societal reluctance to embrace unconventional forms of expression. This reaction is disheartening, considering Lipton's drawings serve as a means for her to communicate and process her emotions."

One of the platforms where we can see negative comments on the art is:

"LOVE BITE",4'6"x3'2", charcoal&pencil on... - Arts, Artists, Artwork | Facebook

“My father gave me radiograph pens when I was about nine or ten. And I used to take my little book into school with me and just draw. There’s a very hurt child in all my work. very alone, very confused, and out of it. And she is still in me.”

When Lipton was 5, she experienced a deeply disturbing incident that was to colour her whole life—or perhaps one should say to remove the colour from her whole life. Lipton was the victim of a horrific kidnapping. The man who kidnapped her just recently escaped from an insane asylum, and before her, he had molested two other children.

Lipton states, "It's just one crazy incident. One accident between this man and me That changed my entire life and perception because suddenly reality shifted. It jet-propelled me to the outside. My mother turned into something else. My life turned into something else. People were dangerous. Stuff was incomprehensible. Before then, I was fearless. I was fearless. And it made me an artist.

“I know this sounds very bizarre, but I’m grateful for it. I'm not grateful for the fact that this little girl suffered. I suffered. Little Laurie suffered. I’m very grateful. It’s odd, isn’t it? You never know. You never know what kind of gift comes out of suffering. You never know.”

This incident led Laurie Lipton to develop a distinctive style of macabre black-and-white drawings, defining her prolific body of work. For Lipton, black and white symbolizes the color of ghosts, old TV shows, and memories like family photographs—an embodiment of the past, longing, and thought.

The artist stands out with surrealistic images and symbols that entertain the life-and-death cycle by emphasizing death themes. These themes emerged after her mother's passing. The consequences of the woman's actions in the drawing hint at the overarching theme of death.

In essence, the artwork portrays a woman undergoing and absorbing horrific experiences, ultimately shaping her into a person of strength. The heart-shaped earring and nails symbolize the center of emotion, suggesting a universal connection to every woman who has faced challenges, consumed difficulties, and emerged stronger.

“I’m very grateful. It’s odd, isn’t it? You never know. You never know what kind of gift comes out of suffering. You never know.”

-Laurie Lipton

SOURCES

BATUR ÇAY, Meral. “Sürreali̇st Ressam Lauri̇e li̇pton’un resi̇mleri̇ndeki̇ Semboller.” İnönü Üniversitesi Kültür ve Sanat Dergisi, vol. 7, no. 2, 2021, pp. 238–248, https://doi.org/10.22252/ijca.1029513.

Chaplin, Tara M. “Gender and Emotion Expression: A Developmental Contextual Perspective.” Emotion Review : Journal of the International Society for Research on Emotion, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Jan. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4469291/#R15.

Scott, James, director. Love Bite: Laurie Lipton and Her Disturbing Black & White Drawings. Vimeo, https://vimeo.com/356729842. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

#art #laurie lipton

[commonguttersnipe]

Monty Python as Beatles songs

(Because I’m obsessed with both)

Eric Idle- I Want To Hold Your Hand

Michael Palin- And I Love Her

John Cleese- I’ve Just Seen A Face

Graham Chapman- The Long And Winding Road

Terry Gilliam- I’ll Follow The Sun

Terry Jones- Get Back

#monty python #the beatles #michael palin #john cleese #terry jones #graham chapman #eric idle #terry gilliam

[clan-of-clams]

Brazil (1985) dir. Terry Gilliam

Brazil is one of the most impressive towering achievements of film both in the 80's and of all time, and it happens to be one of my personal favorites. I decided today to check out the Love Conquers All version, where the movie was nabbed by the studio and surreptitiously recut without the director's approval to be more palatable for general audiences, lopping off a staggering 48 minutes from the movie's ultimate runtime to change nearly everything about it, and let me tell ya, it was bad. Real bad.

Right off the bat the problems begin with the opening scene, where instead of the wall of televisions being bombed, the scene immediately cuts to the end of the restaurant scene set to happen MUCH further on into the film, no elaboration or establishment of any of the characters in the slightest, just a quick cut to the end of a fantastic scene completely divorced from context before the place is bombed and the opening title appears. What is the reason for this change? Pfft, ya got me.

Whereas in the original, the smiling grandfatherly face of this future bureaucratic fascism gives an interview on the TV about how the M.O.I. are winning their fight with terrorist revolutionaries despite their bombing campaign being well into it's 14th year ("Beginner's luck!" he casually chides.), and establishing that those the department of Information Retrieval (torture) actually charge the poor tortured victims a cost for their torture, in this recut, aaaaaall of that important establishing information is gone and replaced with... Nothing! Zip! Nada! Zilch!

These sorts of ridiculously incomprehensible changes persist through the entire runtime, cutting nearly all the dream sequences and totally erasing Bob Hoskins' absolutely pitch-perfect standout character from the film except for his introduction and demise, until it mercifully comes to an end...

SPOILERS

...Or at least it fucking TRIES to. In the original film, the escape sequence is punctuated with the brilliant gut-punch of a reveal that our hero has lost his mind in the torture chair. He was never rescued by revolutionary Robert De Niro, his true love was shot and killed in their bed, and here he sits reduced to a drooling husk of his former self, driven by who he once considered a friend into a state of madness. The only happy ending he gets being the one in his dreams, forever living out a perfect life in his mind while absently humming the title song echoing into the torture chamber as credits roll...

But, as this version dictates rather clearly in the title, love must conquer all, and so instead of a challenging, interesting, heartbreaking ending that leaves an impact in the viewers mind that will not soon be forgotten... INSTEAD, it just cuts to credits at the end of the fantasy right before the reveal... A happy ending.

I regret watching this. I might very well have a greater appreciation for everything the original does right after it, but mostly I just feel angry with the knowledge that THIS is the only version some people may have seen.

#Brazil #1985 #Brazil 1985 #Terry Gilliam

[thecorsetcollection]

criterion collection

#2 Seven Samurai dir. Akira Kurosawa #6 Beauty and the Beast dir. Jean Cocteau #10 Walkabout dir. Nicholas Roeg #17 Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini #29 Picnic at Hanging Rock dir. Peter Weir #31 Great Expectations dir. David Lean #34 Andrei Rublev dir. Andrei Tarkovsky #51 Brazil dir. Terry Gilliam #62 The Passion of Joan of Arc dir. Carl Th. Dreyer #78 The Bank Dick dir. W.C. Fields #90 Kwaidan dir. Masaki Kobayashi #102 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie dir. Luis Bunuel #105 Spartacus dir. Stanley Kubrick #134 Haxan dir. Benjamin Christensen #157 The Royal Tenenbaums dir. Wes Anderson #164 Solaris dir. Andrei Tarkovsky #165 Man Bites Dog dir. Remy Belvaux, Andre Bonzel, & Benoit Poelvoorde #175 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas dir. Terry Gilliam #182 Straw Dogs dir. Sam Peckinpah #200 The Honeymoon Killers dir. Leonard Kastle #226 Onibaba dir. Kaneto Shindo #259 Fat Girl dir. Catherine Breillat #260 Eyes Without a Face dir. Georges Franju #277 My Own Private Idaho dir. Gus Van Sant #300 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou dir. Wes Anderson #332 Viridiana dir. Luis Bunuel #335 Elevator to the Gallows dir. Louis Malle #389 WR: Mysteries of the Organism dir. Dusan Makavajev #390 Sweet Movie dir. Dusan Makavajev #476 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button dir. David Fincher #483 Repulsion dir. Roman Polanski #539 House dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi #540 The Darjeeling Limited dir. Wes Anderson #542 Antichrist dir. Lars Von Trier #631 Trilogy of Life dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini - #632 The Decameron - #633 The Canterbury Tales - #634 Arabian Nights #635 Weekend dir. Jean-Luc Godard #711 A Hard Day's Night dir. Richard Lester #725 Eraserhead dir. David Lynch #779 Mullholland Dr. dir. David Lynch #790 Lady Snowblood dir. Toshiya Fujita #791 Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance dir. Toshiya Fujita #812 The Player dir. Robert Altman #888 Stalker dir. Andrei Tarkovsky #894 The Piano Teacher dir. Michael Haneke #898 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me dir. David Lynch #975 Funny Games dir. Michael Haneke #1000 Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954-1975 #1013 Teorema dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini #1051 The Elephant Man dir. David Lynch #1084 Mirror dir. Andrei Tarkovsky #1131 Pink Flamingos dir. John Waters miscellaneous: Ingmar Bergman's Cinema The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

#dvd collection #criterion collection #cult films #david lynch #pier paolo pasolini #andrei tarkovsky #godzilla #ingmar bergman #michael haneke #wes anderson

[terribletoonietuesday]

Terror Toons 4 (2023)

Terror Toons 4 (2023)Due to several reasons I have not been doing reviews as often as I used to but I needed to write this one. I NEEDED to write it. Let me set things up with expectations. I was a big fan of the first film literally 20 years ago. Not because I thought it was amazing but because it was just shockingly silly , bizzare and that kind of nonsense that would shock normie film fans. It was a lot of fun to show people just for their reactions. Then parts 2 and 3 came and went and I was not too much of a fan. It was a bit of the same and just didn' do anything for me and I'm sure would be too weird for those pre mentioned "normies"… but.. but then came part 4. I was told it was an anthology and the post covid world of low budget anthologies don't exactly excite me anymore. So I went into this worried but only 30 seconds in, things changed… forever.The opening of this film explodes into visual overload and insanity so fast it feels as if Horonamus Bosch met Terry Gilliam in the digital age. it felt like that magnavox commercial where the screen literally exploded in your face. Then the movies starts and the screaming begins. The first short starts and gives us a mixed slash warped origin of the classic Terror Toon villains. It's so much a step up in concept , feeling, pacing and technical excellence then previous with a darker , scarier atmosphere. Imagine watching Adam Wests Batman one week and then seeing a multimillion dollar Batman movie the next week.So not to give any spoilers I will just say it feels like Alex De le Iglesia directed the hell scene in Bill and Teds bogus journey . Douglas Epps take on the less cartoony yet just as insane Dr Carnage is amazing. The killer gorilla Max Assassin is legit scary now. But it's the new sweet and innocent yet completely terrifying character Derrick or was it Eric that we meet that will change your life.I won't explain anything about him but you will know him when you see him. We get several other shorts but they definitely come in second to the first short however they are needed. Brinke Stevens stars and directs a short that is a much more sensible short that may have been fine on its own but felt a bit out of place, again only because the rest of the show was so wild. Brinke had made this short before thinking of connecting it to Terror Toons 4 , I'm pretty sure. It's a nice mellow out and does get us more Linnea Quickly and Debbie Rochon. Hell the cameos in this are wild.The third and fourth shorts come at you wild and fast giving no mercy. After the second short I was literally saying to myself "wait a Joe Castro film with no sexual symbolism, that's weird." but then the short The heads of Mr Switch comes at you and picks up for sexual lost time. This short is shocking, hilarious and ends so quickly you also want to know what happens next so badly. The most original villain in eons, all that and oh my god, Lizzy Borden is back.The final short gives us a 21 gun salute and takes us into the apocalypse . Oh look it's Rob Rhine of Girls and Corpses magazine , but of course he is here again. More cameos from more scream queen and b movie legends than you can shake a stick at in this octane charge non stop visceral explosion into madness as if Aphex Twin remade Monty Python's Meaning of Life.This is a huge achievement for the B movie world and even for those normie film nerds that may not understand this film , they will still be effected and never forget this facedive diving board launch into madness. So yeah I loved it. I'm exhausted.

#B movies #Terror toons #Terrortoons4

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #116 (Year 3/Week 12):

  🍿

The Maid by Chilean director Sebastián Silva is my favorite film of the week! A perfectly simple drama about the life of a live-in housekeeper. After 23 years of humble domestic service, aging, still-virgin Raquel is loyal to the large family that employs her, and becomes protective of her job, when they hire a second maid to help her. 10/10

🍿  

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s latest movie, Endless Poetry, is the second part and sequel of his surreal auto-biography, after ‘Dance of Reality’. Visually-rich, excessively avant-garde and inventive as always. 5/10.

🍿 

Pacifiction, my first Polynesian tour de force (actually it’s an international co-production, directed by Catalan provocateur Albert Serra). Picked by ‘Cahiers du Cinéma’ as the Best film for 2022. A moody and very slow-burn, it’s supposedly a political thriller that leisurely rolls on, aimlessly and with great intensity. The story of the French High Commissioner in Tahiti is about colonialism, white privilege and the entitled ruling class, a Graham Greene for the modern age.

Mysterious and intriguing, it reminded me of ‘The Conversation’, my all-time favorite Coppola’s, even though they had nothing in common on the surface. For nearly 3 hours of incredibly-building atmosphere it felt like a unique, transforming film experience. But then - it suddenly cut off and ended! Without any resolution, or conclusion, or even just an acknowledgement. It’s as if the last 10 pages of the script were ripped out before the end-titles. Very disappointing!

It also featured a traditional dancer, Shannah, in one of the best transgender roles I’ve ever seen.

I was planning on following this up with another of Serra’s controversial films, the pornographic ‘Liberté’ (about an orgy in the forest), but Pacifiction’s ending bummed me out so much, so I’ll keep that for another time. So only 5/10.

🍿

The Kid with a Bike, my second by the Belgian Dardenne brothers (after ‘The elephant and the butterfly’). A sad story of a difficult childhood: A 12-year-old boy had been abandoned by his father, and eventually finds some solace with a kind hairdresser. 9/10.

🍿    

5 more from Jean-Pierre Jeunet:

🍿 “Did no one ever wonder how a young waitress afforded such sophisticated decoration for a flat in Montmartre, one of Paris’s most expensive districts?”

Jeunet has just re-cut and released his 2001 comedy‘ The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain’ as a short film which reveals that Amélie was actually a KGB spy.     

🍿 A Very Long Engagement, a toned-down World War 1 fairy tale romance starring Audrey Tautou (and Jodie Foster). Bleak and surrealistic, it reminded me of Peter Jackson’s ‘They shall not grow old’. 9/10.

🍿 As a life-long (53.5 years) vegetarian, I never mustered the courage to watch his uncomfortably meat-heavy, post-apocalyptic Delicatessen, until now. A grotesque, black comedy nightmare, starring the rubber-face Dominique Pinon (who played in all his movies the last 35 years), Modern day Hieronymus Bosch canvas, wilder than Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, as surrealist as Fellini at his ‘The Clowns’ best.

I was planning on seeing also his Delicatessen-related ‘The city of lost children’, but to be honest, his overindulgent style was too much in large dozes, so I’ll keep it for another week.

🍿 Two snails go away, a quirky animated short based on a poem by Jacques Prévert, each line read by another of his many life-long collaborators.

🍿 My favorite of his is still Nonsense (Foutaises - “Things I Like, Things I Hate”) from 1989, one of the greatest shorts in Cinema IMO. [Copy is in French with no English subtitles].

🍿

I was happy to finally find a free copy of Truffaut’s romantic The Last Metro, which I haven’t seen in over 40 years, and which I always recalled as one of his best love triangles. Well, it’s top-tier maybe, but not ‘best’. Catherine Deneuve is at her most magnificence, and the score by Georges Delerue is beautiful too. Very close to ‘Day for night’ thematically, it was the 2nd part of a planned 'Entertainment world’ trilogy. (Photo Above).

🍿  

2 films about reading aloud:

🍿 Las Analfabetas, another wonderful story, my 3rd Chilean movie of the week. This one about an illiterate middle-aged woman who reluctantly learns to read, thanks to the insistence of a young teacher. 8/10.

🍿 The reader, my first (disappointing) film with French actress Miou-Miou. A literary male-gaze, Chinese-box parable about a woman who places an ad in the paper, offering an in-home reading-aloud service. As she comes into their homes, the stories that she reads to them become part of her story, moving in and out of their lives. 2/10.

🍿   

The Cabin is a quiet, meditative little movie about identity, that has no reviews on line! Like Antonioni’s David Locke (in ’The Passanger’), a restless man from Luxembourg is trying to escape his life, and it’s not clear why. But instead of the Sahara desert, he drops off an Arctic cruise at the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, wishing to go further, to the edge of the world. There’s a cabin out in the wilderness he dreams about. But also a 7-year old daughter that he left behind, without any explanations. Enigmatic mystery that does not offer closure. 7/10.

🍿    

Fucking Åmål, what it is like to be a teenager in a small Swedish town in the 1990s. A sweet budding romance between two awkward girls who feel they don’t belong.

"Varför måste vi bo i fucking jävla kuk-Åmål?" (Translation: “Why the hell do we have to live in fucking Åmål?”

🍿  

The Gunfighter, mustachioed Gregory Peck as the notorious Jimmy Ringo, the "fastest gun in the West". Another tight, well-told western with 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Bonus: The gunfighter (2014), with Nick Offerman’s mellifluous voice breaking the Forth Wall - always good for a fun re-watch.

🍿    

Timbuktu, my first award-winning masterpiece from Mauritania, by Malian film director Abderrahmane Sissako. Another harrowing story of terror in the barren Sahara desert. Senseless religious laws imposed by a patriarchal and fanatic group on simple villagers. A heart-breaking tragedy - 10/10.

Here’s the scene of the forbidden football match played with an imaginary ball.

🍿    

After the difficult, depressing ‘Timbuktu’, I had to palate-cleanse into something more hopeful, so what’s better than Chaplin’s first full-feature, the uber-sentimental The Kid (whose name was - surprise! -’John’!). A perennial favorite, a perfect balance between comedy and drama, painfully autobiographical.

🍿    

2 films about Catholic priests "molesting” children:

🍿 Deliver Us from Evil, a sad 2006 Oscar nominated documentary about one California priest who raped dozens of California kids, only to be protected by the monstrous Catholic church, as per their habit for thousands of years. A tedious narrative, well-known for decades, it follows one priest, one bishop and a couple of little girls. It gives the priest and his esteemed defenders a respectable deference, because - ‘religion’. It lets them uses passive-tense euphemisms in every sentence, even when acknowledging guilt: “The wrongs that may have happened”, “to whom I may have offended”, “I was not made aware at that particular time”.... - Utterly disgusting and hard to watch.

🍿 So I “had to” go back and watch Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight again which I saw many times, including last year. It’s a perfect ‘All the cardinal’s men’ story in every way, from every single cast member, to the Howard Shore score, to the way the story unfolds, and the investigation develops, to the emotional balance of each scene. NOT anti-Catholic, for sure. 10/10.

“If kids got raped by clowns as often as they get raped by priests, it would be against the law to take your kids to the circus”.

🍿  

Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed, a sweet Spanish period piece about a 40-something, bald and bespectacled teacher who’s a die-hard Beatles-fan, and who drives to Almeria, hoping to meet John Lennon where they are shooting his 1966 ‘How I won the war’.

I couldn’t sit through Hamesh Patel’s ‘Yesterday’, and I haven’t seen any of the other fictionalized/Inspired-by Beatles Fan Movies, but this had just the right balance of gentleness and melancholy. 7/10.

🍿  

2 more about L.A.:

🍿 How Movies Design Los Angeles (And Which One Got it Right), by Colombian José María Luna is a video essay of the kind I usually dislike, but it grew on me. Inspired by ‘Los Angeles Plays Itself‘ and peppered with quotes from Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, it postulated that movies have always shown the past as LA's golden years. But it ends by finding in Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’ a positive vision of the city - Nostalgia of the future. 7/10.

It got me itching to re-watch many films I saw ('La la land’, A marriage story’, ‘Singing in the rain’, ‘L.A. Confidential’) and others I haven’t yet (’Boyz in the hood’, 'Babylon’).

🍿 And because of the clips with limo-driver Paul Giamatti, I tried on the sentimental Saving Mr. Banks, not usually my thing. The Disney entertainment machine working full-time to create the myth of Uncle Walt the deity, but the fictional daughter-father bonds worked on me. So 5/10.

🍿  

Another random pick from the list of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet is a recent, strange film from Argentina. It tells of a random series of weird events in the life of some guy, from having his neighbors complain about his dog, to a meteor that poison the air above 4 feet. The guy soldiered on stoically through obstacles and hardships, but I didn’t get the point of the movie - 3/10.

🍿    

Re-watch: The Tin Drum, the German adaptation of Günter Grass’s masterpiece. The Danzig trilogy won him the Nobel for literature, and this film won the Oscar in 1980. German history of the 20th century told in Magical Realistic style. I liked the book better.

🍿  

'Chunky’, a terrific compilation of great dance moves from vintage movies, by awesome editor YouTuber ‘Trampsta’. More editing goodness by him on his channel.

🍿  

Whats Buzzin Buzzard, a 1943 Tex Avery MGM cartoon about two turkey vultures, that deals with the then current food shortage.

🍿  

2 films I couldn’t finish:

🍿 After watching the guy from ‘Great Art Explained’ channel talks about Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, I thought I’ll try Ferris Bueller's Day Off. But I didn’t get to the scene where they visit the Art Institute in Chicago and see the artwork, as I had to bail after 20 minutes, I guess I’m just too old.

🍿 I also did try on a whim the new lightweight Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game, but it seemed like an irritating first film student effort where the only appeal is the main character’s GINORMOUS mustache. Not among the worst films I’ve ever seen, but I had to turn it off after 11 minutes.

🍿  

Throw-back to the "Art project”: 

Disney Adora.

Adora as The kid.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

[adamwatchesmovies]

Speed Racer (2008)

I can understand why Speed Racer wasn't well-received in 2008. Having heard only negative things, I sat down with it fully expecting a catastrophe. It isn't. I’m not going to go so far as call it visionary, but it's certainly bold in its structure, visuals and direction. Like many of the Wachowski’s films, it has a lot to offer and if you go in with an open mind, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. You may even love it.

Based on the television series of the same name, itself based on the manga by Tatsuo Yoshida, 18-year-old Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) has been obsessed with racing his entire life. After his brother dies during the Casa Cristo 5000, Speed embarks on his own racing career when he is approached by E.P. Arnold Royalton (Roger Allam), owner of conglomerate Royalton Industries. Speed declines the corporation’s luxurious offers and now, the family must band together to win the Grand Prix, or lose everything to the corporate giant.

If there had been even a drop of cynicism in the 135-minute running-time, Speed Racer would've crashed and burned. Like its protagonist, the film is determined to see itself through. This picture is wild even before we get to the unusual editing, story and structure. Speed’s parents (Susan Sarandon and John Goodman) run an independent company called Racer Motors along with their youngest son, Spritle (Paulie Litt) and his pet chimpanzee Chim Chim. You’d expect the kid sidekick and his monkey to be cheap comic relief, but they’re integral parts of the story. They're never annoying because their presence never hinders Speed. Also living in their home is their mechanic Sparky. No one is ever taken aback by this or the various costumed racers participating in the multiple races seen throughout. It makes for a bizarre kind of world with its own logic you just get into. After the initial shock settles, you're surprised that the seemingly simple relationships and characters expands as the film goes. The whole thing is a cartoon, but what a cartoon it is.

Once Speed gets into his Formula One car and puts the pedal to the metal, it’s like he’s driving down that corridor of light at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s a dazzling, dizzying burst of twists, turns and sweeps so incredible they’re nearly overwheleming. It moves so fast you wish you could slow it down and catch everything, but the fact that you can’t is what makes it fantastic. The Wachowskis have thrown the rulebook on how to make a racing movie out of the window and by leaving the beaten path, they’ve reinvented moving vehicles on-screen with Speed Racer.

For the three impossible, big, flashy courses featured, the picture is worth seeing but there’s much more for you here. It’s unconventional, at times a little bit too wild, but when placed in this world that looks like a cross between a Terry Gilliam project and Lazytown, you accept it. The film is packed to the brim with moments that further develop the relationship between Speed and his family but never at the expense of the white-knuckle racing. A perfect example is in the very first competition. Speed gets so far ahead of his competitors he come face-to-face with his brother’s ghost. Not a spirit; a digital hologram of the best driver who’s ever been on that track. In the moments that follow, we learn how good Speed is at driving by comparing him to the record holder. We see how long the record has held so we understand just how big a deal it is. We get a display unlike any we’ve seen before and come to understand how much Speed respects, misses, admires and loves his brother all at once.

Speed Racer displays such imagination in its structure and racing sequences. While the film is sometimes difficult to follow because of its no-holds-barred approach, I think it may be one of the best racing film’s I’ve ever seen. (On DVD, April 7, 2018)

#Speed Racer #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #The Wachowskis #Emile Hirsch #Christina Ricci #John Goodman #Susan Sarandon #Matthew Fox #Benno Furmann #Hiroyuki Sanada #Rain #Richard Roundtree #2008 movies #2008 films

[theharpermovieblog]

#HARPERSMOVIECOLLECTION

2023

www.tumblr.com/theharpermovieblog

I re-watched Time Bandits (1981)

One of the classic 1980's fantasy films, with Terry Gilliam's sensibilities.

A young boy is taken on a journey through time by a group of little people who have stolen a map from God.

On the surface you might think Time Bandits is a kid's movie, and while Kids certainly enjoy it, it's a far more grown up film.

In this movie, Director Terry Gilliam explores history, religion and basic human nature, while taking just enough from his Monty Python days to craft a comedy/fantasy that takes nothing seriously or sacred, including existence itself.

In typical Gilliam fashion he uses many odd angles, choosing often to shoot upward toward his subjects. He loves to drop us into the middle of moments before the action catches up with them as, something he's enjoyed doing since his Python directing days.

If nothing else, Terry Gilliam is a director who makes you feel strange new things with both his visual language and his sense of design. (It was this film that first made me notice Gilliam's affection for plastic sheeting as both set-dec and costume design throughout his films.)

This is also one of the few films I can recall that features a main cast of Little People who are given a real chance to act, to have their faces seen and who are treated as actual characters rather than a part of the background atmosphere. With David Rappaport and Jack Purvis being the stand outs.

Time Bandits is a film that doesn't have a true happy ending, nor does it give you a happy message. It's about people's greed, the never ending and losing fight against our own evil nature, consumerism, war and the vast indifference of God. In fact, the depiction of God here is probably my favorite in pop culture because of his indifferent and very British attitude.

An absolute treat of perfect insanity.

[bug-light]

TIME BANDITS: 2.5/5

DIY effects work and a handful of endearing performances, buoyed by Terry Gilliam’s sense for dream-like irreverence, and his central juxtaposition: the ridiculousness of being alive vs. the stuffy social to-do’s we’ve made up to make it a very serious business. these are each seeds of what made Monty Python so evergreen. but, like with Jabberwocky, i just don’t love Gilliam’s lone voice outside of a group.

gags meander with no bite, and the bonkers surrealism that make Gilliam’s later work special is dulled by TV-movie editing and a marmite drip pace.

it takes exactly 30 minutes for the movie to get a chuckle, or to make a coherent point. the universe is designed inherently faulty. Evil is part of the design. example: our society is so obsessed with new widgets and toys, that parents ignore their child, their curiosity and ability to see the pure good in things. there. that’s the conflict. i’ve saved you 3 time jumps. the actual plot doesn’t start until the mid-point, sweet lord.

in a whimsical time-hopping sci-fi, i’m just finding myself so bored! and look, this film has a really cool cosmology and lore going for itself. everything with The Evil One and The Supreme One made me perk my ear up and listen. the bones of something bigger and bolder are here. when the movie allows itself to be a campy, hammy fantasy movie, it really does shine.  

Sean Connery’s King Agamemnon, The Supreme Being’s weird Oz head, the time holes, The Evil One’s fuckpunk HR Geiger getup, the act spent in the Time of Legends, and the immaculate production design in general — all bangin’.  

the last 30 minutes deliver on the film’s potential as a dark, whimsical fantasy of the abstract. the camp and gloom almost redeems the hour and a half of plodding along of took to get us there. 

who IS Kevin? what does he want? what’s he lacking? is it just adult attention? the Bandits kind of just….ignore him for half of the movie, and he doesn’t offer anything to the plot until he suddenly does, so, again, who is Kevin? one better: who ARE the Bandits?  what does ANYONE learn?

i could accept the lack of strong characters if the story was hooky, or if the jokes were enough to carry the movie. and it’s all so stone-faced, so buttoned-up, that the whimsy onscreen never takes your breath away like it’s supposed to. by the 4th time jump, i was just tired. the feeling of irritated claustrophobia i had as a kid when Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge was playing on Disney Channel.  

i appreciate that low/mid-budget auteur comedies like Time Bandits are almost impossible to green light today, and Terry Gilliam went on later to make Brazil, so i’m inclined to cut this some slack.

#movie thoughts #review #movie review #80s movies #terry gilliam #time bandits #movies #films

[allyear-lff]

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Summary: a carpenter facing a great tragedy is given a gift by a kind spirit using the result of a drunken creation, this leads to great adventures that will test the carpenter and his creation's beliefs and appreciation of each other.

Plot: I hope you like my summary because I found it really hard to summarise the film that I saw, which by now, Oscar earned, is a modern classic and follows very closely a Disney's classic known and loved the world over.

To say that Guillermo del Toro took a monumental challenge is an understatement, the film will have to face comparisons against Disney's original forever, this after having created a piece of work by perhaps the most arduous animation process in the filmic art (the film was done entirely using stop motion animation), del Toro also insisted that Mexican teams were heavily involved in the animation and the script places the action in fascist Italy thus making it also a partly political piece.

So what could have possibly gone wrong? Everything, the film could have been an unmitigated disaster of the scale of the now infamous film about Don Quixote that Monty Python's Terry Gilliam had to abandon once due to all kind of difficulties, but it wasn't, in fact it is one of the greatest films of the year, it should have been nominated for the Academy's best film prize, but perhaps the Academy, judiciously, wanted to ensure that del Toro wold walk with the statuette by nominating it for best animation, which it deservedly won since no other animation could possibly come close.

The plot loosely follows the same ideas of the original Disney film: there is Geppetto, but he is a carpenter, not a puppet maker, this gives the plot a chance to explore different relationships of the character with the world at war, there is Sebastian J. Cricket which, you guessed it, fulfills a similar role as Pinocchio's moral guide as its counterpart in Disney's film, there is the whale, and there is a devilish monkey that offers an unexpectedly well developed character which becomes perhaps Pinocchio's biggest nemesis in the film.

But this is a completely different style to tell the tale and the setting is more charged, Geppetto endures a tragedy as a consequence of bombing during Mussolini's rule, his creation of Pinocchio is no nostalgic longing but a demented drunken attempt at dealing with grief, the far from perfect creature infused with life by a spirit that takes pity of Geppetto is not a cosy puppet in human form, it reminded me more of a Frankenstein small monster without the nasty existential self destructive edge. The animation is a thing of wonder, it is hard to believe that the characters move with such elegance and that they inhabit a world in which attention to detail is inescapable and pleasing.

Perhaps the plot gets lost a bit here and there, taking too long to develop some themes and arriving too quickly to the conclusion of others, but overall the film moves nicely and will entertain its adult audience since it is adults for whom the film is intended, this is no cosy film with an unearned happy ending, it is a harrowing film in which the happy ending is earned with pain, tears and fear, Pan's Labyrinth eats the puppet and it is the better for it.

Rating: 4.5/5

70 of 168

Date: 5 December 2022

Venue: Curzon Bloomsbury

The list of films in the LFF 2022

#lff2022 #lff

[cakesandsnouts]

“I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!” Monty Python and the Holy Grail dir. Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam (1975)

#monty python #michael palin #john cleese #graham chapman #terry jones #terry gilliam #eric idle #i love their faces in the last one #i still cant decide if i loved this or life of brian more #and meaning of life im about to watch so #judgement yet to be made #can u believe i went 30 years of life on this god forsaken earth #without watching these films #i love that graham always plays the hunky lead #mp*

[only-johnny-deppp]

Funny moments: Hunter S. Thompson hitting Johnny and Benicio Del Toro with a bag of popcorn during the premiere of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, in New York City.  😂 😂

Here below, I’ll tell somethings about this crazy night of Johnny and Hunter S. Thompson.

> Curiosity #1: Fear and Loathing (and fights) in New York: Terry Gilliam Vs. Hunter S. Thompson.

 23 years ago, on May 19, Johnny, Benicio Del Toro and Hunter S. Thompson attended the premiere at the Sony Theatre in New York City. On that day, Hunter was a little bit nervous because two weeks prior the premiere, on May 3, 1998, The New York Times published parts of 2 and half hour conversation which was recorded, taped and sent to the newspaper, of Terry Gilliam (director of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”) and Ralph Steadman (who drew pictures for several of Hunter’s articles and books). Between talks about Gilliam’s career and the “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” movie, in the middle there were also included some hash critiques to Hunter. When it was published, Hunter was not happy about it and, on the same day, he even sent a fax to Johnny expressing his thoughts about it.

On the premiere, Thompson was so nervous about the premiere itself, facing Gilliam who talked bad things about him and the talks about the The New York Times interview, that avoided the press, paparazzi and entered on the theatre as soon as possible. Jann Wenner (publisher of the Rolling Stone Magazine) and Laila Nabulsi (producer of“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” ) tried to make Hunter go back up for more photos, but he declined saying that he couldn’t walk back. As the escalator was not working to help him (Hunter said his“legs had giving out” ), the press was invited to go to the theater for more photos, but when Hunter saw Gilliam being photographed with Johnny and Benicio, he refused to have his picture taken with him on his side or share a picture with him Johnny and Benicio, and waited until the director was gently moved to the screening room by a publicist who probably knew about the fight between them. Fortunately, nothing happened and no one noticed that the director and author were not on good terms at all. 

> Curiosity #2: Flowers and a bag of popcorn.

It was revealed that after arriving at the theatre, hunter stayed in a room at the lower lobby once no one could find the keys of the for the escalator. So in this place he took some time to relax a bit from his nervousness. But for his luck, the place he was in was where the employees stored the popcorn in huge clear plastic bags. And when Hunter saw the popcorn, he planned a prank. But first, he went to greet Johnny and gave him flowers.

It is known that Hunter loved Calla Lillies flowers and on that day, he gave them specially to Johnny. On the photos we can see that Johnny is holding a couple of them and although some people believed that Johnny brought to Hunter, in reality Hunter was seen with the flowers since leaving his hotel a couple of hours earlier the premiere. Later, he waited until Terry finished taking photos with Benicio and Johnny, and then he started his prank, grabbing the bag of popcorn, hitting Benicio on his arms, Johnny (who was laughing like a kid) on the head, and then when the bag ripped popcorn flew everywhere in everybody.

The funny scene (as well the flowers) were captured in some photos, but was eternalized in Hunter’s 2003 documentary “A Breakfast with Hunter” The popcorn mess was so memorable that almost 10 years later, in 2007, Johnny talked about it in Hunter’s book “Gonzo: The Life Of Hunter S. Thompson” “There was a photo op, and they wanted a few of us from the movie to line up—myself, Benicio [Del Toro], maybe Gilliam, and Hunter. As we were about to do it, Hunter grabbed this massive bag of popcorn and started whaling on us. Popcorn flew everywhere, of course. I think that was just Hunter staking his territory—and he was right to do it, because those kind of movie premieres, with the hullabaloo and the actors and filmmakers and celebrities or whatever—I think Hunter just felt, 'Well, hey man, let’s not forget why we’re all here in the first place.’- Johnny Depp ( for the “Gonzo: The Life Of Hunter S. Thompson” 2007 book)

> Curiosity #3: The After Party. 

As said on the invitation card sent to those specially invited for the premiere, after the screening “the trip” continued in a after party at the “China Club”, in  Manhattan. It’s unknown if Johnny attended, and there’s no photo of the party. But, although Hunter was known for his crazy life with drinks, drugs and parties, it’s been said that on that night, he indeed attended the after party, but instead of partying, Hunter chose to watch basketball in a TV in the manager’s office.

#Johnny Depp #Hunter S. Thompson #Friendship #Best Friends Forever #Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas #Premiere #Funny Moments #Lovely Moments #LMFAO

[ahalal-uralma]

Film, like everything else, is very subjective, so with not knowing where your tastes lie, I am just going to throw some random favourites of mine out there to you, which you may or may not have seen or heard of... all of which, I feel, have a dreamy surreality to them, even if only in part...

- Brazil (1985)

- Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920)

- Les Diaboliques (1955)

- Eraserhead (1977)

- Eyes Without a Face (1960)

- Hausu (1977)

- The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)

- The Innocents (1961)

- Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

- Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

- Possession (1981)

- Santa Sangre (1989)

- Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)

- Videodrome (1983)

I've tried to avoid anything ultra obscure... hopefully you find something there that resonates with you... : )

Brazil (1985)

I am not too familiar with this film. I just know there’s a scene where a woman’s face is being stretched as she is looking into the mirror and all I can wonder is if Terry Gilliam was a fan and inspired by Spielberg’s Poltergeist (1982).

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920)

I am familiar with the visuals of this one and really love them. I feel that if Edvard Munch and Edgar Allan Poe were alive to direct a film, this would have been the result. And it appears as though Gustave Doré and Pablo Picasso were hired to do production and editing. In other words, a masterpiece of artistic skill.

Les Diaboliques (1955)

I do not know this one, but it looks like a film I would enjoy. I love the classic black and white genre. I find it appealing that it has Simone Signoret and Paul Meurisse, too. I may look into it later when I find ability to do so.

Eraserhead (1977)

I usually love David Lynch and it is very stylized, which I admire; however, it has some visuals I could not handle sitting through. I do not mind things being strange, but there is a line and this one likes leaping over it a bit too much for my entertainment.

Eyes Without A Face (1960)

Another one I’m not interested in watching, however, it did inspire a great Billy Idol track. Honestly, Rebel Yell in it’s entirety is a damn good album.

Hausu (1977)

I enjoy it. I have a weakness for the Japanese Horror genre. It has nuance, depth, creativity and style that is usually very lacking in many purely American Horror films. I particularly love films The Ring (2002) and Shutter (2008). I feel there’s always a great spiritual, supernatural and/or psychological element to their films that is unique and hard to compare to anything else. Japanese Horror really knows how to balance beauty with terror in a way that doesn’t feel empty or superficial.

Here are a couple of visuals from the two films I particularly enjoy and mentioned aside from Hausu (translation for other people: House):

The Ring (2002) directed by Gore Verbinski

Shutter (2008) directed by Masayuki Ochiai

The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)

I remember watching this film when I was a lot younger. It’s very surreal and atmospheric. It feels like a feverish dream and painting all at once. Every time feels like watching it for the first time, because there are so many intricate and lovely details I might have missed before. It’s hard to take in everything completely at once. It’s a wonderful escape from reality.

The Innocents (1961)

An exquisite film. Classic. I wish I could live in this world. This era is everything to me. Just the costumes alone are breathtaking to me. I would not mind being the Governess for even a day. She’s such a beauty. And you know anything adapted by Henry James has to be a treat.

Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

I do not know this one! It feels like a crime. I have to add it to my list of growing films I need to see. It looks so glamorous and romantic. I am not sure if that’s the intention, but that’s how it appears so far to me.

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)

Ok, this one I am familiar with. A dreamy mystery with a special soundtrack. I do not know why, but the soundtrack invokes similar feelings of escapism in me that the Legend Tangerine Dream soundtrack does.

Possession (1981)

I have not seen this one. I am only familiar with The Possession (2012) which is not the same plot. I will have to look into this next. I can not say if I will enjoy this or not. When it comes to films that involve spiritual possession, I am a very tough critic to please.

Santa Sangre (1981)

It looks like a film that took concepts from Rocky Horror Picture Show and said “how can we make this even stranger” and did it. I love the music of Rocky Horror, but honestly if it wasn’t for Tim Curry I wouldn’t care for that movie, either. Tim Curry is one of those rare actors that could make a dumpster fire fun.

Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders (1970)

Let’s be honest, to not know this movie you have to have been living under a very big rock. It’s iconic.

Videodrome (1983)

I think I started to watch this once when I was a teen and promptly decided to forget what I saw. I think I did a good job. Not saying it doesn’t have some interesting visuals, but lord. Will I watch it ever again? That’s a no.

#ask #asks #answered

[365days365movies]

April 5, 2021: Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) (Recap: Part One)

Yeah, so...Spectrum exploded last night.

So, I'm unfortunately a little behind. BUT NEVER FEAR! I'll get back on time before you know it! So, uh...where were we last time? OH RIGHT! Let's talk about black comedy. And I don't mean black-and-white comedies, or comedies prominently featuring African-American culture and demographic. No, I mean dark comedies.

The "black comedy" functions off of macabre or taboo humor and jokes, and is often closely associated with biting satire and commentary in film. That definition is loose as hell, I know, but it's all about the subject matter. The most common subject matter for dark humor is death, of course, and related subjects to death. War, murder, strife, madness, and violence are also common topics here.

Some of the best comedies are black comedies, though. For example, Brazil (1985; dir. Terry Gilliam) focuses on themes of depression, dreams, terrorism, totalitarian governments, and madness. And it's GREAT. How about The Death of Stalin (2018; dir. Armando Iannucci)? The title ALONE should tell you everything you need to know about the tone and topic, AND YET...

It's HILARIOUS. And also informative! If you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it. And again, that film is about, well...the death of Stalin, and the fallout of his disastrous and murderous regime. Dark, DARK topic, but very funny movie.

Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is about war; Fargo is about murder in North Dakota; Heathers is about a toxic relationship and the death and murder of teenagers; Birdman, or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance is about an actor's existential crisis and complete mental breakdown; and Trainspotting is about the devastating effects of drug addiction and features a DEAD BABY FOR CHRIST'S SAKE...and yet they're all full of laughs! Except for the baby scene. Fuck me, the baby scene in Trainspotting.

So, yeah, these are a diverse group of films, that's for sure. But where does it all start? There's 1942's To Be or Not to Be (dir. Ernst Lubitsch), which is about a Polish theatre company who need to escape in the midst of...well, 1942 Poland. If you don't get why that's dark, you should probably look up some history, bud. Charlie Chaplin would dip into the role in 1947's Monsieur Verdoux, which I mentioned last time. And there's the seldom-talked-about Kind Hearts and Coronets (dir. Robert Hamer), a 1949 film about murder for status, essentially.

But it's hard to argue that the most prominent early black comedy is 1944's Cary Grant vehicle, Arsenic and Old Lace.

Directed by Frank Capra, this film was based on a 1941 stage play, and is about...well, we'll get to it. While its prominence as a black comedy is one reason I'm watching this movie, the other is...well, to be honest, this is a movie I heard about CONSTANTLY from my Mom, as this is one of her favorites. And yet, like Dirty Dancing, I've somehow never seen it! Let's remedy that.

So, without further ado, let's get into it! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

The film starts off with a BANG, as a man calls me a “big simp” to my face! Actually, he’s screaming at a Brooklyn Dodgers game, where a massive fight breaks out. This fight quickly transitions to a city hall, where a line of people are waiting to file marriage licenses. Amongst the line is Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) and Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane).

Brewster is hiding from the press, as he’s a famous reviewer, and author of the Bachelor’s Bible, and it would be quite the scandal for him to get married. And yet, he’s head over heels in love with Elaine. After going through an existential crisis about the whole thing, he gives into Elaine’s sweet demeanor, and the two file their marriage license officially.

It’s Halloween day, and we move from the city to the suburbs of Brooklyn, where two policemen, O’Hara (Jack Carson) and Sanders (John RIdgely) are on patrol. Sanders tells O’Hara of the kindly Brewster Sisters, the sweetest women on Earth, both of whom live in the neighborhood. Currently, they are being visited by Reverend Harper (Grant Mitchell), Elaine’s father. He’s speaking with Abby (Josephine Hull) and Martha Brewster (Jean Adair), the kindly aunts of Mortimer. 

Also living there is Mortimer’s brother Teddy Brewster (John Alexander), who apparently believes that he’s Teddy Roosevelt, which is...hilarious. Dude is hilarious, seriously. The cops come over to visit the two, and collect some clothes and toys for local charity. Also, Teddy only leaves a room by screaming “CHAAAAARGE!!!”, and running up the stairs, and I love Teddy a lot.

Reverend Harper and the cops leave for the night, and the sisters settle down for the evening. Abby and Martha state that their plans for Elaine and Mortimer should go as scheduled, which is probably talking about their marriage. Abby also mentions that she’s done something while she was away, to Martha’s delight and surprise. They tell Teddy that he’ll soon be digging a new lock for the Panama Canal...whatever that means.

Martha’s about to go to the basement to see what Abby’s done, but she states that because she was all by herself, the surprise is in the window seat. As she’s about to look at the surprise, Elaine shows up in the window, and the two arrive to give the happy news that they’re married. Elaine goes to tell her father of the news, while Mortimer goes to tell his sweet aunts. Afterwards, the two will be on their honeymoon, going to Niagara Falls. And I should say, they’re quite a sweet couple.

After telling the news to his aunts, he asks them where his notes are for his new controversial book, Mind Over Matrimony. They go to look for it around the house, and Teddy comes downstairs, dressed up in attire to “go to Panama.” Aunt Abby comes across a childhood picture of Jonathan, Mortimer’s brother and apparently a violent sociopath or some sort. She goes to burn the picture (geez), and Mortimer continues to look for the notes. He goes to the window seat.

Yup! It’s a body! Looks like Abby and Martha’s sweet old lady act is a guise for some myurder! Which I know, just because it’s the most famous thing about the movie. However, Mortimer thinks the murderer is Teddy, and tells his sweet old aunts about the body, asking that he gets put into an asylum. But Abby notes that Teddy didn’t kill the man, and they already know about the body!

Which, yeah, surprises Mortimer, obviously.

Abby cheerfully admits that the man, Mr. Hoskins, was poisoned by a tainted glass of elderberry wine, and that they did so on purpose, hiding the body before the Reverend came for a visit. The whole thing isn’t a big deal; it’s just Abby and Martha’s little secret!

After they leave, and brush off the whole thing as easy as needlepoint or macramé as a hobby, Mortimer, is completely broken by the whole affair, and is partially convinced that he’s dreaming. All the while, Elaine’s trying to get Mortimer to come over and speak with her father. But Mortimer can’t exactly forget about this whole silly murder thing, and goes to confront his aunts about it. He learns that Teddy’s digging not a lock, but a grave in the cellar. As he’s done with 10 other bodies. Or maybe it’s 11 others?

After picking up a phone call from Elaine, then hanging up abruptly (and understandably), Mortimer finds out how this whole thing started. See, the two have a “Renters Wanted” sign in their front lawn, and the neighborhood thinks that it’s there so the two sweet old ladies can offer help to anyone in need, even though they aren’t actually renting to anyone. In reality...well, they do it for another reason.

See, an older gentleman stopped by a bit ago, and he had a heart attack right there in the living room. After seeing how peaceful he looked, the two decided to bring in other lonely old men and bring in the same kind of peace. And from there...well, yeah, you get the general idea. They’ve been poisoning them with arsenic, strychnine, and cyanide mixed in with elderberry wine. Apparently, Martha’s got the mixture just right so that it tastes delicious. With all this explained, they offer Mortimer a sip of wine. Which he’s understandably nervous about.

But with all of that done, Elaine comes over to check in on him. But he’s not able to tell her anything, which greatly (and understandably) confuses her. He basically kicks her out (which enrages her, once again understandably), and calls a judge with the intent to frame the whole affair on Teddy, who’s always been.unstable. Which, for the record, is not even SLIGHTLY going to solve the problem.

But as he’s on the phone, a man named Gibbs (Edward McWade) comes in to rent an apartment. He’s all alone in the world, with nobody to care for him. And of course, this leads to the women trying to poison him with the wine. It’s a funny yet tense moment as he stops just short of drinking the wine, distracted by Mortimer’s freakout over the phone. But Mortimer gets off the phone JUST in time to scare Gibbs away and stop him from drinking the wine. And it is...VERY funny, goddamn.

As Mortimer tries to tell the aunts exactly what’s wrong with what they’re doing, the phone rings. It’s a call from Witherspoon (Edward Everett Horton), who runs an asylum that Mortimer wants Teddy committed into. However, they don’t quite have room for him, as they have too many Theodore Roosevelts at present. However, they do need more Napoleon Bonapartes. I love this goddamn movie.

Still, Witherspoon agrees to take him in despite that, and Mortimer head out to get the paperwork done. However, he asks his aunts to not do anything until he gets back, and he also proises that he’ll attend the “services” for their latest victim. He leaves, and kinda steals a cabbie’s car in the process (I love this movie, I’m telling you), and Abby and Martha start shutting things down for the night. However, as they do, they get a mysterious knock on the door. They pretend not to be home...only for a man with an ominous scar to enter the room regardless.

Let’s pause here, shall we? See you in Part 2!

#arsenic and old lace #frank capra #joseph kesselring #cary grant #priscilla lane #raymond massey #jack carson #peter lorre #jean adait #josephine hull #john alexander #john ridgely #userveil #johnsonshildy #userkeanu #usersasha #user365 #comedy april #365days365movies #365 movie challenge #365 movies 365 days #365 Days 365 Movies #365 movies a year

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #128 (Year 3/Week 24):

Nils Malmros’s Tree of knowledge (”Kundskabens træ”) has always been my favorite Danish movie, and also one of my general All-time Top-Five favorites - Ever. Together with Truffault’s ‘Small Change’, it’s also the best movie about the pains of puberty and the joys of adolescence.

It was hard to find online, and seeing it again after many years, is like meeting an old lover after 40 years apart, and they hasn’t age a day. It’s a perfect masterpiece without a single faulty frame.

A nostalgic trip to provincial Århus at the end of the 1950′s, Malmros spent two years filming a group of teens as they struggle with first loves and heartbreaks. A tragic story of innocent lost. (Photo Above).

Later Edit:

A second viewing the next day confirmed that it is indeed an impeccable classic, subtle and precise. So many Friday night jazz parties where for their first time the kids are allowed to dance in the dark cheek to cheek to Gershwin’s ‘The man I love’.

“You probably don’t get that there’s only has to be very little for people to talk”:  The misery that befalls Erin as she turns from the popular girl into a pariah is crushing. 10/10.

🍿   Lourdes, my 1st film by Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner, starring the incomparable Léa Seydoux as a young nun with a twinkle in her eye. A rarely seen subject of Catholic cripples and handicapped pilgrims who flock to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, searching for a miracle. With priests who look like Cardinal Mahoney, Holy water sprinkled around and piously praying invalids, it feels very much like a blanding of Buñuel and Haneke. It must have been shot with the permission of the church, as much of it looks like part of the real rituals going on there. However, it hides a certain unorthodox subversiveness. 7/10. 

🍿   

2 more by British director Michael Radford:

🍿 “...If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever...”

Nineteen Eighty-Four, the original hopeless dystopia. Orwell’s frightening vision of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, thought-police and total repression was anti-Stalinist when he wrote it, but it became a real-life blue-print for today’s hyper-Capitalist societies too.

Many of the scenes were shot on the days noted originally in the novel. The scene where Winston Smith writes in his diary, dating the entry April 4, 1984, was filmed on April 4, 1984. It was Richard Burton’s final film, and was photographed by Roger Deakins. 9/10.

Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’ came a year later and also described a doomed love story in a cheerless bureaucratic nightmare. But unlike Brazil, 1984 had only dark and painful reality to deal with, no flights of surrealism and fancy.

"...Oranges and lemons, Say the bells of St. Clement's.  You owe me five farthings, Say the bells of St. Martin's...”

🍿 Lovable 80-year-olds Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer fall in love in New Orleans in Elsa and Fred. He’s reserved and bitter, she’s exuberant and over-whelming, and there’s a Picasso drawing of her that is used as ‘Chekhov’s gun’.  Also, it was George Segal’s last film. 5/10.

I love it when an unusual musical note in a movie signifys an emotional high-point, and when checking the clock, it’s exactly 47:30 minutes in - the middle of the movie!

Maybe it’s time to watch Fellini’s ‘8 1/2′ again [The Anita Ekberg dive in the Trevi Fountain is the film’s driver].

🍿

The Farewell Party (’Good Death’ in Hebrew) is a tragic-comic story about old age and mercy killing. A group of seniors at an assisted living home develop a machine for self-euthanasia. They reluctantly use it on one of their dying friends, but once the word gets around, more and more people want it. 7/10. 

🍿   First watch: Bergman’s magnetic, early romance film Summer with Monika. It was considered scandalous at the time, because of “frank” nude scenes. Star-making vehicle to young rebel Harriet Andersson (still alive and 91-year-old). 100% score on ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ and no argument from me there. Terrific Mise-en-scène, crisp cinematography and rich visual story-telling.

It featured Åke Fridell (’Plog’ from ‘The Seventh Seal’) as her father. On the official Bergman site, there’s a good list of many of his other collaborators.

[There are some early Bergman’s films I haven’t seen yet, which I have to remedy ASAP] 🍿

2 more with Robert De Nero: 

🍿 Sergio Leone’s last, overrated film, Once upon a time in America, the 229-min. Cut. It’s a crime saga about Jewish gangsters, a Spaghetti Godfather if you will, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Coppola’s. ‘The Godfather’ is perfect in spirit and execution, and every element in it works. Leone’s facsimile is epic and stylish, but most of it feels like a vacant rip-off. Some good performance from De Nero, and some great romantic scenes (Jennifer Connelly reading the Psalms, and reuniting with Deborah again), but the young characters (and many of the others, including wooden James Wood) are bland and unauthentic.

Without Ennio Morricone’s swiping score elevating every scene it plays with, the film wouldn’t get half the accolades it received. And the brutal, unprovoked rape scene was shocking and uncalled for. Not a superb film - 5/10. 

RIP, Treat Williams!

🍿 Ellis, a short (15 min.) poetic evocation of the large hospital complex in Ellis Island. Basically it’s Robert De Nero, “The immigrant”, walking slowly in abandoned corridors, accompanied by some vaguely-moody piano chords, reciting in a somber voice-over some vaguely impressionist lines about dreams and immigrants and yearnings. 1/10.

🍿 

2 very different documentaries:

🍿 Close to Vermeer is a very moving Dutch documentary about the staging and preparation of last year’s Rijksmuseum Vermeer exhibition, the largest ever mounted. Only 34 paintings are universally attributed to him today, and the museum’s curators were able to bring a total of 28 of them for this magnificent event. Scholars and researchers, collectors and art historians participate in this sober, quiet and passionate exploration of the enigmatic 'Sphinx of Delft‘.

Close to transcendence - 10/10.

(The trailer in inferior to the film itself.)

[This is the 3rd Vermeer film that I’ve seen (after Penn & Teller’s documentary ‘Tim’s Vermeer’ and Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, both terrific!). As a completist, I now discovered 6 more films that I will watch in the near future: ‘All The Vermeers In New York’, ‘Brush with fate’, Dan Friedkin‘s ‘The last Vermeer’ (That one sounds odd!), the Dutch ‘A real Vermeer’, and two more documentaries, ‘Vermeer: Master of Light’ narrated by Meryl Streep, and the newest ‘Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition’, about this same exhibition at the Rijksmuseum. Can’t wait!]

🍿 The art of the prank is a fun 2015 documentary about provocative Culture Jammer Joey Skaggs, who had been staging elaborate media pranks since the 60′s. Like previous hoaxers ‘Coyle and Sharpe’, and later ones ‘Yes Men’ and ‘Improv Everywhere’, he builds ‘Fake news’ performances art events, designed to stir shit and embarrass the inane world of television news. Things like ‘Cathouse for dogs’, ‘Celebrity sperm bank’ and ‘Comacocoon’.

🍿  Hacksaw Ridge, my first film directed by known homophobe / antisemite Mel Gibson. [Watched after encouragement from Ahmad]. I’m not big on war dramas, even when they’re about a real-life conscientious objector. Trying to combine the opening from ‘Saving Private Ryan’ with ‘Full Metal Jacket’ boot camp hysterics. But I still can’t stand Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn is no Lee Ermey, and the war parts were simply not interesting. 4/10.

🍿 

“I Really Don’t Like Netflix” X 2:

🍿 Inside the mind of a cat, a typically-trash Netflix documentary, narrated by a highly-irritating “pleasant” voice. The only way to endure it is by turning of the sound and reading the subtitles. Lazy and un-inteligent, but “Hey: Cats!” - The second most-common reason to go on the internet.

🍿 After years of anticipation, Season 6 of Black Mirror finally dropped. Was it as good as some of the previous ones? An Emphatic No!

Episode 1, ‘Joan is awful’, was awful. An average woman is stunned to discover that Netflix has launched a prestige TV drama adaptation of her life, in which she is portrayed by Salma Hayek, and taking a shit in a church. Inception-like Meta-Netflix labyrinth with an unlikable cast making fun of themselves. 3/10.

Episode 2, ‘Loch Henry’, a meta-making of a True Crime series about a notorious serial killer who tortured his victims in a quaint faraway Scottish village. Unoriginal horror tale. 2/10.

Episode 3, ‘Beyond the sea’ too was sub-par on every level. A sadistic sci-fi, all superficial with no depth of emotions. Using Charles Trenet’s “La Mer” improves any movie immeasurably, from the opening to LA Story to the ending of Mr. Bean. But here, in a typical Netflix appropriation, it felt 100% fake. 2/10.

Episode 4, ‘Mazey Day’: Another hit-and-run thriller + unscrupulous paparazzi + LA Thomas Guide (which means it’s the early 2000′s!) which turns into a gory ‘American werewolf in London’ fantasy-thingy. 4/10.

The set up of Episode 5, ‘Demon 79′ was ridiculous: “A young Indian Sales Assistant accidentally frees a ruthless and handsome demon-in-training who is required to damn a soul to hell in order to become a full-fledged demon. The sales assistant is told she must kill three people for the demon-in-training, with the demon threatening to cause a nuclear apocalypse if she refuses”. But it was the only episode in this season that worked, and the only one that will be worth re-visiting. It was directed by the guy who also did ‘USS Callister’, another absurd concept that he got right. 8/10.

🍿 

2 shorts from ‘Nag:

🍿 Morocco Arise, by nomadic vlogger Brandon Li. His ‘Director Commentary’ was just as captivating.

🍿 Greenpeace takes aim at “fossil fuel party” with Don’t stop, a star-studded Fleetwood Mac cover. Exec-produced by Steve McQueen.

🍿 

Throw-back to the "Art project”:  

1984 Adora.

Adora with the pearl earring.

Black Mirror Adora.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here).

#movies