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Over the top of over the top! Flying saucers from outer space…check! Absurd, drug-fueled cartoon characters…check! Thai zombies with exploding heads…check! Loud, fast, distorted rock 'n roll…CHECK! ALL SYSTEMS GO!

We're talking about the lo-fi, lo-budget Wild Zero, the 1999 punk rock Night of The Living Dead starring power trio Guitar Wolf. This Japanese cult film pays homage to all things rock 'n roll filtered through western Pacific sensibilities. Framed within the buzzsaw roars of Guitar Wolf's "jet rock 'n' roll", you're gonna get cars, motorbikes and microphones that spit fire like the 1966 Batmobile! Of course there's the Yakuza and gallons of fake blood! There's even military-grade weaponry that wouldn't seem out of place in Michigan's upper penninsula! Oh, and the soul searching…

It's a bunch of stupid fun for the whole family…if your surname is Addams or Manson! See it!

> Love knows no nationalities, genders or borders! Rock and roll!

Saw the 2021 documentary about the life of actor Paul Newman the other day, Pierre-François Gaudry's Paul Newman, derrière les yeux bleus (Paul Newman, Behind Blue Eyes). It's hard not to make a film about Newman's life without sanctifying the man, although he really did come close with all of his humanitarian work aside from all of the iconic roles he'd played in his career. But I'm not here to list his filmography nor his philantrophic endeavors today. Possibly another time.

Something Newman said, it had to be around 1977-1980 (it's unclear from the film exactly when), stuck with me as it's as timely today as it was 40-odd years ago—maybe more so.

It's very hard to take a lot of pride in your craft if the three biggest stars in America are two robots and a shark.

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Link 1: A Study of Black and White Filmmaking

Link 2: Film Noir: The Case for Black and White

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> Have you ever heard somebody say "I can't watch black and white movies?" I have a problem with this. Not because some of the most important movies are in black and white but because black and white can do just as much—if not more—than color.

Thanks, MovieSnob LinkMonkey™! Have a banana! And thanks to YouTube Channel Now You See It for both these videos succinctly and smartly analyzing the use and history of black and white in cinema.

Regarding the above opening quote (from the linked Film Noir video), an excellent recent example of this, forgive me if I'm repeating myself, is Robert Egger's 2019 The Lighthouse.

MovieSnob Ad Warning: as some YT vids are want to do, the first link contains promotional content (translated: advertising) fortunately at the end of the video (roughly at 00:13:14). Act accordingly.

How many buttons does this movie push? The cult of personality. Stalking. Delusional disorder. Prisoner of fame. Local boy makes good. If Travis Bickle had stand-up aspirations. Today in 2023, even though Todd Phillips has already 'fessed up to it, it's hard not to notice the resemblance in Todd Phillips' Joker (2019), especially with De Niro standing in for Jerry Lewis and…himself as the neurotic Bickle Pupkin. Was Scorsese just decades ahead of his time, like with New York, New York? Yes and no.

Although Scorsese himself admits an inspiration from Porter's Life of an American Fireman (1903)[^1], in my research neither our director nor any film critics mention the resemblance to Steno's post WWII comedy Un americano a Roma (1954) starring Italian national treasure Alberto Sordi (RIP). Like Scorsese's Pupkin, Steno's Nando Mericoni also has an unrealistic obsession: to be American. Just as delusional as Pupkin, Nando's particular obsession with all things American brings him to the point of speaking English-sounding gibberish: his actual command of the language is almost nonexistent so he babbles to his friends and family in what sounds like American to their ears. He does so at any opportuniy, even when detained in a German prisoner camp during wartime!

Comedian Jerry Lewis plays comedian and Johnny Carson-like late night talk show host Jerry Langford: the duality (irony?) here is that when Langford is off stage Lewis' performance is delivered as serious as the proverbial heart attack. He is a man cornered, seething with a rage, and Lewis shows his dramatic skills brilliantly. Sandra Bernhardt Bernhard as crazed heiress and Langford's other stalker shines hilariously during her scene with her masking-taped hostage. Robert De Niro is just like other NYC natives The Ramones: even when The Ramones covered Louis Armstrong's What A Wonderful World, it was still inescapably The Ramones. This is a role like not quite like other in his repertoire and De Niro tries—and mostly succeeds—as obsessed nebbish Pupkin. But it's still De Niro, a tough and menacing presence and that's hard to reconcile with the Pupkin character.

It's got laughs. Cringey laughs. As is, you'll find yourself laughing at the most uncomfortable things in this film. It could have had more laughs if Scorsese had decided to play it as a straight-up comedy. This is most likely why The King of Comedy flopped at the box office. The tide had turned: the era of The Blockbuster was in full swing and people wanted easier entertainment than the New Hollywood was giving them. Friedkin had spent (and lost) millions with his epic Sorcerer (for another post), Cimino was about to bankrupt United Artists with Heaven's Gate and the New Hollywood was in the process of being shown the door. If Scorsese had gone more Taxi Driver on the treatment and played it straight-up drama, then The King of Comedy might have won Best Picture at the 1983 Academy Awards instead of Joker at the 2020 Oscars®…?

As for the open ending…I've made my own conclusion. You?

Bonus link: Porter's The Life of an American Fireman. See if you can find the inspiration.

[^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Comedy_(film)#cite_note-15

La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016)

New York, New York (Martin Scorsese, 1977)

_{L.A. Image by 12019, N.Y.C. Image by Noel, from Pixabay.}

I'd like to thank @wilberfan@lemmy.film for posting this article from the L.A. Times over at !moviesandtv@lemmy.film. A hot topic with some interesting (and less interesting) takes on the subject. This was going to be a mere cross-posting but, of course, you're always going to get your mouth-breathing audience in any discussion regarding the—ugh—superhero genre, so I felt the need to distance myself from that.

Did you not see the name of this community?

While I might admit under pressure to some exaggeration on Prof. emeritus Scorsese's part (it's Martin Scorsese, for Buddha's sake!), he's certainly not wrong. One thing that few have understood, like Scorsese has, is that while cinema has always had cookie-cutter formulas and copycat movies, since the age of the Blockbuster and especially in this age of 3D, AI and algorithms it's all been to reduced to formula. Campbell's Hero's Journey, Save The Cat scriptwriting, Seven Basic Plots, etc. It's just a matter of choosing what color gimpsuit the test audience preferred. Scorsese, when he was making The King of Comedy or New York, New York couldn't forsee the lowest common denominator going so low or so common.

I must mention the comment by @niktemadur@lemmy.world regarding Scorsese's reference to Christopher Nolan. Just in case anyone here can't see it, there is a world of difference between [insert any MCU/DCU/SMU movie] and Nolan's Batman trilogy. Especially with the second entry, The Dark Knight, Nolan elevates the entire genre because Nolan knows what he's doing: he made movies about a comic book character, the others make comic-book movies. Nolan's work is cinematic. The others' are just big, dare I say, hulking. There's just no comparison. It's the difference between Finnegans Wake and Finnegan's corner bar.

@MIDItheKID@lemmy.world commented…

> Sure, the Marvel movies pull in more money than other movies, but the money makers are usually trash. Marvel is like the McDonald’s of movies. It’s going to pull in way more money than a fine dining establishment, but not because it’s good, because it’s the garbage that the public will take out their wallet for. There is space in the market for both of these things.

For the most part we're on the same page but there isn't space for both, really. Masked Gimpsuit IV: The Revenge of The Attack of The Revenge is always going to push any smaller (independant) release off cinema screens and (maybe) on to one of the streaming services, if not push them right out of production.

Dopamine hits used to have different flavors. Marketing has discovered dopamine doesn't even have to have a flavor, just get the drip timing right. God is in the details and the details have become flamingos.

Studio Ghibli Inc., the production company of anime director Hayao Miyazaki, is set to become a subsidiary of Nippon Television Network Corp., with the major Japanese broadcaster aiming to help manage the studio, the companies say

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.film/post/1319955

> What's the connection between the iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey and art-house purveyors The Criterion Collection? It may seem the obvious link is direct, that 2001 is part of the Criterion Collection but that's not the case—Criterion offers five of Kubrick's works and 2001 isn't among them. The connection is a terrible little English B movie from 1964 titled Devil Doll. This low-budget horror film stars Bryant Haliday, William Sylvester and Yvonne Romain but it's the first two names we're interested in today. > > Bryant Haliday, in 1959 with business partner Cyrus Harvey, Jr, founded Janus Films, an American film distribution company famous for essentially creating the American market for foreign film. Janus Films imported and distributed some the most iconic films to be created outside of American borders. Ultimately, riding out the wave of success the partners sold Janus Films in 1965, with present-day Criterion doing the distribution of the Janus Films library. > > On the other hand, William Sylvester, the "token American"" in many British productions in the 1950s and 1960s, portrayed Dr Heywood Floyd in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Permit me an aside: personally speaking, I always thought Sylvester had the makings of a bigger career. He certainly was handsome and talented enough, maybe with a small streak of ham in him. Even after his appearance in 2001 he (and/or his agent) never made the jump to bigger and better things, remaining in mostly smaller films and one-off television roles on both sides of the ocean. > > But back to our nexus at hand. Despite any positive reviews you may have read, I can't recommend this film even at a historic level. Usually I'll try to identify with the era of a film but even so in this case, Rod Serling did this type of thing better with one hand tied behind his back. In fact, he did…twice[^1][2]! That's what Devil Doll feels like: a Twilight Zone episode that goes on far too long. Apparently film critic Leonard Maltin (who?) found the film "…An exquisitely tailored, sharply edited sleeper." Well, I'll grant you the sleeper bit. > > Prepare to not be scared. For your snoozing pleasure MovieSnob Horror Theatre presents the wasted opportunity Devil Doll! Waste an hour and twenty minutes of your precious time…if you dare! > > [^1]: "The Twilight Zone," The Dummy (TV Episode 1962) - IMDb > > [^2]: "The Twilight Zone," Caesar and Me (TV Episode 1964) - IMDb

Spike Lee's 1989 masterpiece. One of the best films in the history of cinema. Yeah, you heard me. I defy you to cite an example of a more powerful film. The story and the cinematography (not to mention the actors' performances) with Lee's vision deliver a 1-2 knockout to the gut then to the head that leaves the viewer reeling. Nobody's right in this film. Nobody's wrong either. Everybody's a villian and a hero. We all have our shining moments sometimes. And it all still rings frightfully true today.

> We've got five great films here, and they're great for one reason: because they tell the truth. But there is one film missing from this list, that deserves to be on it, because ironically, it might tell the biggest truth of all, and that's Do the Right Thing.

—Kim Basinger, from her presentation of Best Picture nominees at the 1990 Academy Awards

I leave you with the closing quotes…

> Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by destroying itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

—Martin Luther King, Jr

> I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence."

—Malcolm X

Your call. Do the right thing.

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Here's one for all you not-yet-famous movie makers. As briefly as possible, lighting is essential in effective filmmaking. Like in all visual art, lighting sets the tone, be it blatently—like in classic Hollywood film noir with its German expressionist lighting—or imperceptibly, such as the flat, practical lighting in David Fincher's work.

Pouty cinematographer Rob Ellis here shows how to use a fill (secondary) light to your advantage. Of course, Mr Ellis is also trying to sell you on his master course in…forgive me, I've forgotten…but in any case it's an effective basic-level lighting tutorial.

Last Days (Gus Van Sant, 2005)

Dark Night (Tim Sutton, 2016)

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Thanks, MovieSnob LinkMonkey™! Have a banana! And thanks to @TheSparrowPrince@lemmy.world for his indirect link to this link here…you can have a banana too if you'd like.

An interesting read, this linked article, which confirms what we've suspected (knew?) for some time now. Don't tell me you believe Amazon product reviews too…?

From the linked article… > …in February, the Tomatometer score for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania debuted at 79 percent…after more critics had weighed in, its rating sank into the 40s. Quantumania had the best opening weekend of any movie in the Ant-Man series, at $106 million. In its second weekend, with its rottenness more firmly established, the film’s grosses slid 69 percent, the steepest drop-off in Marvel history.

> “The studios didn’t invent Rotten Tomatoes, and most of them don’t like it,” says the filmmaker Paul Schrader. “But the system is broken. Audiences are dumber. Normal people don’t go through reviews like they used to. Rotten Tomatoes is something the studios can game. So they do.”

> …Quentin Tarantino…admitted that he no longer reads critics’ work. “I’m told, ‘Manohla Dargis, she’s excellent.’ But when I ask what are the three movies she loved and the three she hated in the last few years, no one can answer me. Because they don’t care!”

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Bonus MovieSnob LinkMonkey™ link: Scorsese's article on Rotten Tomatoes, and box office obsession. Spoiler Alert: Scorsese talks about the film mother! and may reveal a little too much for those who haven't yet seen it.

Manji (Yasuzo Masumura, 1964)

La Noia (Damiano Damiani, 1963)

Congratulations, Signora Cavani! 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏

Better late than never...MovieSnob LinkMonkey™! 🐵 Do your stuff!

• https://deadline.com/2023/08/venice-film-festival-opening-ceremony-comandante-1235531289

• https://www.upi.com/News_Photos/view/upi/df4138aa2b34ba143ff3bfe1eaaee286/Opening-Red-Carpet-The-80th-Venice-International-Film-Festival/

• https://www.indiewire.com/news/festivals/venice-film-festival-opens-charlotte-rampling-liliana-cavani-1234900745/

*** Bonus MovieSnob LinkMonkey™ Trailer Link 01: The original 1974 US trailer of Cavani's The Night Porter

Extra-Bonus MovieSnob LinkMonkey™ Trailer Link 02: Cavani's The Night Porter, CultFilms' 2020 rerelease trailer

Compulsion (Richard Fleischer, 1959)

Io non ho paura (Gabriele Salvatores, 2003)

_{Image by StockSnap from Pixabay}

Let's talk briefly about Watcher (2022), a psychological thriller by written and directed by Chloe Okuno in her feature-length directorial debut.

The story is about a young American couple that move to Bucharest for Romanian-American husband Francis' career (Francis played by Karl Glusman). Wife Julia (played by Maika Monroe), who doesn't yet speak the language, tries to adapt to the new apartment and foreign surroundings alone—Francis often has to work late—when she gets the sense that a mysterious neighbor from across the street is stalking her.

It's a well-made, smart, subdued film. The performances are extremely subtle but valid; Monroe's performance waivers like the needle on some delicate scientific instrument from mildly amused to quietly bored to paranoid. The film itself is extremely stylish with an equally subtle cinematography (by Benjamin Nielsen) and befittingly moody color scheme. I wanted to like this movie but the screenplay, minimalist as it is, is purposely flabby, drawn out for a self-serving motive like a weak joke with an annoyingly long set-up. The problem is it pushes you along instead of pulling.

I understand the film has an underlying message. I got that. I might have loved it; again, it's styley enough. There's a reason why that air of doubt is maintained in Okuno's film. Okuno splendidly achieved the paranoia she sought to express but couldn't sustain the interest…which may have been the whole point of this film.

MovieSnob In-A-Nutshell-Ruin-Everything Spoiler Alert

Watcher = The Woman Who Cried Wolf

cross-posted from: https://lemux.minnix.dev/post/62635

Our friend @minnix@lemux.minnix.dev, admin, creator and moderator of !cultfilms@lemux.minnix.dev writes… > Small slice-of-life drama that proves a story doesn't have to be big to make an impact. No elaborate sets, no nail biting tension, no over-acting. It's all very subtle and the barren and run down north Texas backdrop suits it to a T. Even with his understated and quiet presence, Duvall carries this film on his back the whole way with a little help from Tess Harper as his new wife and Betty Buckley as his ex. Yes, it is a redemption story, but definitely not a dramatic one and promotes realism instead of Hollywood fantasies. > > ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ out of ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

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Part I: https://yt.artemislena.eu/watch?v=VASwKZAUVSo

Part II: https://yt.artemislena.eu/watch?v=RtjERWANv38

--- Good monkey! Have a peanut.

MovieSnob Ad Warning: as some YT vids are want to do, these are "brought-to-you-by" sponsored videos. Act accordingly.

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I'm the MovieSnob LinkMonkey™! 🔗🐒 Enjoy this link!

Lang's film, beyond being seminal cinema (and possibly because it is such), has been cannibalized, cross-referenced and just plain appropriated so many times, it's incredible it's still influencing movie makers and art directors to this day, almost 100 years later.

Make it a drinking game! Every time someone sees a film's element that's referenced in another (future) film, drink!

Extra-Fritzy Bonus Link: William Friedkin interviews the master in 1975! *** SnobThanks to @Synecdoche@feddit.de for this original post in !moviesandtv@lemmy.film!

Bambini e bambine, don't worry. The King will be back in the skyrise offices of MovieSnob HQ in a day or so. Baci!

I created a poll to our listeners and they voted on which Summer movie had the best visual FX, fight scenes, profit, most disappointing. We got some interesting results. You will be surprised where Oppenheimer placed. Tell us your thoughts.

So 11 years ago, on reddit, I contributed to a "what mind blowing..." something or other thread with my Kill Bill theory.

It blew up, spawned the creation of /r/fantheories, I got a nice note from Miramax asking if they could use it on their blog (legal killed it :( ).

Then it grew legs and walked all over the internet and YouTube.

I'm not gonna link back to reddit, because fuck Spez. But here's a copypasta. Looks like I might have to re-do some busted screenshots at some point...

The basic premise is this - Beatrix doesn't actually kill Bill in "Kill Bill". In order to understand how this theory works you have to first put events in chronological order:

Beatrix is trained by Pai Mei. He teaches her the eye pluck move that he himself used on Elle Driver to remove her right eye, it's the same move Beatrix uses in part 2 to remove her left eye. He also teaches her the 3" punch which allows her to escape the coffin trap.

At no point are we shown her learning the "5 Point Palm Fist of Death Technique".

01 - Pai Mei Training http://imgur.com/a/0iXc0

Beatrix's first life change event comes when she first learns she's pregnant. Mentally she's making the shift from stone cold assassin to mom. We see that reflected in her refusal to kill her own attempted assassin, even when she has the clear opportunity. For her abandonment of duty, she's shot in the head and wakes up 4 years later.

Waking up and realizing she's not a mom anymore, takes that assassin switch and flips it back on. Her reaction after that is sudden and predictable.

02 - Congratulations! http://imgur.com/a/xLbWz

Beatrix kills her rapist and pimp in the hospital, flies to Japan and wipes out the tea house then kills O-Ren. She shows two acts of mercy, the first being in the tea house itself when she's confronted by a sword weildiing child, slapping his butt with the flat of the sword and sending him home, and leaving behind a mutilated Sophie as a gruesome calling card.

03 - Kill Crazy Rampage! http://imgur.com/a/TNhpD

The second name on the Death List results in another fundamental change. When Beatrix realizes that Nikki has seen her mother's death, her first reaction is shame. She tries to hide the knife behind her leg. From this point on, Beatrix doesn't kill another person, even people who really deserve it.

04 - Nikki http://imgur.com/a/KfGbe

Budd is bitten by a Black Mamba, courtesy of Elle. Beatrix pluck's Elle's eye out, but leaves her alive. She also doesn't injure Esteban, the sadistic pimp in Mexico who ultimately leads her to Bill. She also doesn't hunt down and kill the guy who helped Budd bury her.

05 - The Non-Kills: http://imgur.com/a/lF8qR

Upon reaching Bill's hacienda, BB gets the drop on her mother and what ensues is an elaborate play act. They pretend to shoot each other and pretend to be dead. This is foreshadowing the "death" of Bill. It's all just one big play act.

This is the 3rd switch flip for Beatrix. She went from killer to mom back in the hotel room when she found she was pregnant, she went back from mom to killer when she woke up in the hospital. Now she's a mom again.

06 - Play Acting: http://imgur.com/a/LK93A

Beatrix hits Bill with the 5 point palm fist of death technique, but it seems that she's using the same form as the eye pluck learned from Pai Mei and it also looks like she hits Bill 6 times, not 5 as you'd expect.

07 - 5 Point Palm: http://imgur.com/a/IKXku

Bill seems to be bleeding from a bit lip, not internal injuries as he asks "Pai Mei taught you that...?"

Beatrix responds "Sure he did", but the whole time she's shaking her head "No."

08 - Sure he did: http://imgur.com/a/1PKTA

Bill then takes his 5 step walk of death, but if you look at his weight placement, he actually takes 6 steps. This is his acknowledgement. She hit him 6 times, not 5. so he takes 6 steps, not 5. It's a quiet acknowledgement that "If I pretend to kill you, you pretend to be dead."

09 - Walk of death: http://imgur.com/a/VvF7j

At the end of the film Beatrix is on the floor of a motel bathroom 1/2 laughing and 1/2 crying and saying "Thank you!" Who is she thanking? Bill. Why? For letting them all go. Pretending to kill him and him pretending to die is the only way either of them can exit the situation gracefully. They both love each other, they don't really want to kill each other, espectially not after it turns out BB is not only still alive, but has been cared for by Bill all these years.

BB meanwhile is watching a classic Heckyl and Jeckyl cartoon. Previously Beatrix and BB had been watching Shogun Assassin, the story of a Japanese assassin and his son killing their way across Japan (based on the manga "Lone Wolf and Cub".) Drawing the obvious parallel, the Bride and her daughter aren't killers anymore, they're trickster crows.

10 - Thank you! http://imgur.com/a/3LzBP

There are two credit sequences at the end of Kill Bill, Vol. 2. The first being in color. Everyone who dies is shown at a point from the film where they were still alive. Except Bill. Or is he? If you look closely and compare his body position to where he was when he fell, his feet have moved.

11 - Color credits: http://imgur.com/a/Mkt5G

But was moving his feet a continuity error or a deliberate hint? For the answer to that you have only to look at the black and white credit sequence. Every actor on the death list who dies has their name crossed off. Daryl Hannah, whose character was blinded but left alive is marked with a huge question mark. But David Carradine? His name is not marked at all.

The only conclusion based on this entire sequence is that Beatrix does not kill Bill in Kill Bill.

12 - B&W Credits: http://imgur.com/a/hgzIz

I know all you junior MovieSnobs, subscribed or not, have been distraught, crying your eyes out on the lack of posts here lately. That's because I'm writing you from the sunny Mediterranean coast instead of the skyrise MovieSnob offices. Since the beaches of southern mid-Italy aren't conducive to journalistic cinematic concentration and the fact I hate composing on my telefonino, I shine the spotlight on you, the potential discriminating cinema aficionado and journalist.

Go ahead, I double-dog dare ya! Post yer snobby opinion on whatever cinematic subject you desire! Think Gravity was the best science-fiction of the 21^st century and you're ready to defend that bold statement? Wanna expound on how Inland Empire was Lynch's finest moment (it wasn't)? Take your best shot!

Don't fret...I'll be around lemmy.film. But now, if you'll excuse me, I have spritzes and bikinis waiting for me.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/3111234 *** Mongoose message: I'm crossposting this to !moviesnob@lemmy.film because I feel this post not only is getting lost at sea in !moviesandtv@lemmy.film but is also more suited to this community. I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time today. -- Mongoose *** > I originally saw this movie during a late night TV marathon for all the movies these two actors made together. I fell in love with them as an acting duo and recommended a few of their movies to multiple people. But years passed and I eventually forgot their names and the title of the movie. > > Has anyone seen this movie recently? I saw it back in the 90's and I thought it was brilliant, passionate, romantic, and tragic. But I also remember it being quite crude with the dialogue and it's probably pretty sexist by today's standards. > > I have always wanted to share this movie with my wife, but I couldn't remember what it was called. I have asked around before and no one knew what it was, based on my description. I just asked ChatGPT and it instantly identified it. I haven't seen it in 25 years, and I'm wondering if it holds up. Is this a good movie? Do you think it is wise to recommend to my wife that we watch this?

Crossposted from https://lemmy.film/c/moviesandtv. Thanks to @wilberfan@lemmy.film!

• Direct link to the Los Angeles Times article
• Internet Archive capture

-- Mongoose

Still in shock about the death of the great William Friedkin. I thought you were one of the best, Mr. Friedkin. And I can't wait to see his now-to-be-posthumously-released The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.

Going down that rabbit hole, reading the various articles on his passing, I came across the posted linked article originally from 2015 which just illustrates why, besides being one of the milestone movie directors of our times, he was a damned fine and funny racconteur.

If you're interested further on "Billy" telling stories, by all means check out this earlier post, but specifically the bonus links at the bottom. Also highly recommended is Francesco Zippel's 2018 documentary, Friedkin Uncut.

I'm speechless. One of the greats of modern cinema, one of the original "New Hollywood" directors of 1970s. He made it all look so dangerously real.

• BBC
• Variety
• Wikipedia ***

_{Photo: Elen Nivrae from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons}

From the linked article…

> Duncan Jones’s low budget directorial debut is a wonderful piece of intelligent sci-fi

…and The King would agree! 👍

It's summer, grommies! Surf's up! Catch a wave and you're sittin' on…well, most likely a whirl of microplastics, urine and algae. I remember grabbing my board and goin' down the Belt Parkway to catch a wave off of the 69th Street Pier, sometimes pipelining all the way to the Verrazzano…but I digress.

Big Wednesday is John Milius' 1978 surfer movie and what a wipeout it is. The 120-minute-plus movie in all the time it has to expound on the relationships of the three main characters—Banana Splits co-star and World's Greatest Athlete Jan-Michael Vincent, future Greatest American Hero, William Katt, and Buddy Holly impersonator and future reality-show staple, Gary Busey—never connects emotionally on any level. Director and co-scripter (with journalist Dennis Aaberg) Milius apparently preferred to remain squarely in melodramatic and nostalgic territory, despite the supposedly autobiographical screenplay. There are no big laughs, no big dramas, there's nothing big except for the swells and the film's title.

Beyond the surfing there's only a superficial bond between the three "friends", Katt's and Vincent's romantic relationships are two dimensional at best and any other of the film's relationships, such as between surfboard maker "The Bear" and the boys, are never developed at any real level. The movie is just one anecdote after another with all the connections left out.

To add insult to the skin-deep injury is Basil Poledouris' full-orchestra heroic soundtrack which is far better suited to something that could withstand the weight; at times it seemed it was almost mocking the visuals.

The only really spectacular parts of this film are the surfing sequences, many actually performed by Vincent, Katt and Busey, plus surfer Gerry Lopez. If you must see it, see it only for that.

Fun fact: this movie actually launched the fictitious Bear brand of surfing gear and sportswear, which, unlike the movie Bear brand, these days is under license to Italian sportswear company, Cisalfa.

Edit 21:37:36, CEST: stupid typographical errors.

R.I.P. Paul Reubens

Robert Eggars' The Lighthouse (2019) escapes easy genre-pigeonholing. It is Edgar Allan Poe-inspired, it also has strong elements of Gothic Romanticism, psychological thriller and touches of the surreal, but here the whole is truly greater—and stranger—than the proverbial sum of its parts. One thing doesn't escape classification: it is beautifully shot in a sumptuous palette of grays on 35mm film and framed in an almost perfect square (actually 1.19:1 ratio). Forget about that pathetic trend of releasing black and white versions of movies (presumably to give them an art-house aesthetic they never remotely had to begin with), Eggars and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke have created a film that was born to be in black and white, dare I say, that would have suffered if shot in color.

I must mention that, besides the luxurious cinematography, another vital aspect of this film are the performances of both Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson that run the gamut from understated to over-the-top.

Replacement worker Winslow (Pattinson) arrives on a remote island outpost as assistant to lighthouse caretaker Wake (Dafoe). From there, the story begins to churn like the sea surrounding the island itself. Scores of seagulls seem to hang stationary in the lonely island air, nailed to the sky like a butterfly collection. The surrounding sea's pounding, crashing waves underline the isolation and transmit the inescapable feeling of a primal force so belittling, so humbling, so invincible; resistence seems truly futile. The only light in this film is that of the lighthouse's arc light, and even that has something of the sinister about it.

Between mermaids, seagulls and fever dreams, there are secrets under the surface of everything and everybody that, like corpses buried at sea, eventually bubble up and reveal themselves. Everything seems to get trapped, drowning, in the tar-black of Eggars' film, unable to free itself, sinking deeper, further entrenched. Nothing is as presented except the indominable sea.

Snob Shorthand: this is cinema! Big screen it!

This was going to be an article about why Singing In The Rain is one of the great films in the history of cinema, inspired by…well, it happened to be on TV. In my research I found this article, an excerpt from Jeanine Basinger's 2019 book The Movie Musical reprinted in The Atlantic. Personally, I think she says it best. So if you really need to have explained why this film is No. 10 on the BFI's decennial Greatest Films of All Time list, or No. 5 on the AFI's 100 Greatest American Films of All Time list, or on countless other cineastic "best of" lists, go read Basinger's article.

But…

Before you rush off, I want to bring to your attention to the film's unseen dancer, the invisible ballet going on during the entire film. While everyone is crying with laughter during O'Connor's flying, wire-fu-less Make 'Em Laugh (or whenever Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont opens her mouth), while the trio of Kelly, O'Connor and little Debbie Reynolds (who'd never danced in a movie before!) "effortlessly" tap-dance their way across the apartment and furniture in Good Morning and especially while Kelly effectively does the decathalon dancing without breaking a sweat in Broadway Melody, there is always the unseen dance partner, gliding, swaying and following the stars every shimmy.

Next time you watch Singing In The Rain pay close attention to ace director of photography Harold Rosson's gliding co-star camera work throughout and think about all the crane and dolly shot choreography that went into every one of the unforgettable musical numbers and the straight comedic or dramatic scenes. We are so normally wowed by Kelly and co-director Stanley Donen's choreography, the main cast's fabulous performances, or just the fact that it really is a funny romantic comedy, that we're unaware of Rosson's swooping, spinning and sliding camera is just as lithe as any dancer in the film. But as we say in VFX: if you can see my work, I didn't do my job properly.

_{Image: Photoplay, 1934, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons}

Just who the hell is Zach Braff? Yeah, yeah, I know who he is but first allow me to blow away some personal…prejudices.

I mean, he's a funny guy. We all know him and love him as J.D. from the hit TV series Scrubs (2001-2010). Then the guy goes all auteur on us, writing and directing his first motion picture, Garden State (2004), a quirky, original and extremely enjoyable little comedic drama that actually made money, go figure. Nevertheless, in my mind he's still the guy from Scrubs who's got a pretty good movie under his belt.

Jump-cut to 2023: I saw a film today that had no shootouts, no chase scenes, no aliens, no superheroes, no explosions and only one car crash. What it did have is great acting from the entire ensemble, especially the magnificent performances by the incredible Florence Pugh and dare-I-say national treasure Morgan Freeman. A beautiful, down-to-earth film set in New Jersey titled A Good Person (2023) about the aforementioned car crash, the people and the families involved, specifically the driver of the vehicle, and how they cope with the incident and more. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes grim, with the light occasionally breaking through, it may sometimes lean into melodrama but nevertheless remains grounded. The film shows that when our lives fall apart, despite the proverbial best laid plans (demonstrated in Freeman's character Daniel and his model railroad), there is no manual on how to reassemble the pieces. Sometimes the pieces no longer even fit together.

"But, Mongoose, baby…who made this bittersweet drama?", I know you're asking. Well, it was written and directed by Zach Braff. This is my formal apology: no longer will I first think of Braff from Scrubs but instead "Oh, that talented, sometimes brilliant screenwriter/director/actor who tells life-size stories."

Oh, it's not perfect: the Amor Fate plot thread seemed either an afterthought or an undeveloped idea left in the final cut. I did initially question Daniel's decision to not let Allison (Pugh's character) leave the therapy group but instead invite her to stay. I don't know if I would be so welcoming to someone who changed my life so unexpectedly and drastically, were I ever in a similar situation. Maybe that says more about me than the film. With any luck, I hope I (and by extension, you) never have to find out.

I ask you, how is it that Braff has written and directed only three films with tiny budgets since 2004 —one apparently Kickstarter-funded!—when directors like M. Night Shayamalan are allowed big-budget low-brow turkey after turkey?—we'll get into that specific topic another time soon.

I'm now a Braff fan. What's next?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.film/post/309377 ***

Leave the emotional blackmail to Spielberg and Disney. Some movies don't need to resort to incinerating toys or deer, or hunting down dying, friendly aliens to elicit an emotional reaction less lizard-brain than a jump scare from an audience.

It was truly touching in its subtlety, Ma vie de Courgette (2016), a French-Swiss co-production released as My Life as a Courgette (UK) or My Life as a Zucchini (North America), a stop-motion animated featurette by Swiss director Claude Barras, based on the novel, Autobiographie d'une Courgette by Gilles Paris.

The plot revolves around a child nicknamed Courgette, how he ends up in an orphanage, his adjustment to his new life and to the other children living there. This isn't Annie or Oliver!: although it's an animated film, these ugly-cute characters are rarely cartoonish. After Courgette's arrival at the orphanage, the film then goes into the other orphan's stories. While their stories are obviously never pleasant, some are downright tragic with accompanying emotional scarring.

Director Barras never goes for shock or melodrama during Courgette. It's his restraint that gives the film its strength. The film is airy, but not lightweight. The characters and their personal tragedies are presented as matter of fact, enough to give them depth but not to horrify or titillate. Despite the character design they are all presented as realistic, from the children to the policeman that handles Courgette's case to the administrators of the orphanage. Despite the subject matter, the children and the staff bring plenty of genuine smiles and occasional laughs to the table throughout the film. There are two especially touching moments—one, Rosy, the orphanage worker, kisses the children good night on the cheek; the other when Courgette and Camille hold hands on the schoolbus—that could have been merely maudlin tropes but instead illustrate how loving physical contact is as necessary as eating and breathing.

The only "cartoon" character is the aunt of Camille, a newly arrived orphan, and her storyline was the only discordant note of the film, veering out into cliché territory, but under Barras' direction, not too far out.

Ma vie de Courgette was nominated for the 2017 Academy Awards' Best Animated Feature Film and won Best Animated Film at France's 42^nd Cesár Awards, but who cares? If you didn't catch it the first time around or if you're looking for a poignant film that won't insult your intelligence, I strongly suggest you see Courgette.

_{Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, fair use}

Forget about plastic dolls come to life, puffy-faced 60-year-old men jumping around in front of greenscreens and American 20^th century witchhunts! If you click the image next to the post title, you can watch the original summer blockbuster, the first epic movie (sez Scorsese), one of the first colossal films, 1914's Cabiria by Giovanni Pastrone in 720HD! All this and an accompanying soundtrack, yet!

If we wanna push definitions, it's one of the first superhero movies or, with less definition pushing, the first "action hero" movie, introducing the perennial Italian-cinema superman, nascent cinema's Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maciste!

Besides inspiring the later American epics of D.W. Griffith, Cabiria also gave birth to the (by today's standards) simple idea of putting the camera on wheels (dollying), henceforth naming said camera technique "the Cabiria shot."

Even more impressive, generations raised on weak scientists turning into giant, green musclemen or wisecracking, belligerent raccoons would do well to note, the sets in Cabiria were not 3D nor miniatures[^note]. Those babies were either constructed, old school, life-size! or shot on location, taking advantage of the Roman Empire's slave labor hundreds of years earlier, thus getting around various unions and guilds—that's a IATSE joke. Among the most impressive are the scenes of Mount Etna's eruption and ensuing destruction, and most famously, the temple of Moloch and the human sacrifice!

• Yes, it's in (gasp!) black and white, although this copy is hand tinted. Pretty!

• No, the intertitles are in Italian but never fear: the King Mongoose has a link for you all to an English-language version from our friends at The Internet Archive. Unfortunately, it's at a lower resolution and no accompanying soundtrack.

• Yes, this version comes in at 02:34:22 and isn't exactly paced like a Fast and Furious movie. Set the video to 1.5x speed if you get fidgety; oddly enough, the film doesn't suffer but the soundtrack may seem a little frenetic. YMMV.

[^note]: That is not to say miniatures were not used among the few cinematic tricks, to wit, the film's eruption of Mount Etna, coupled with double exposure.

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