the last of my shilling for criterion for now

seduced and abandoned, fishing with john, lord of the flies, double suicide

another film canon i am actively working on is to see the entire criterion collection. this one is going to take a while. the problem is that criterion has a tendency of releasing discs with a lot of stuff and i need to watch all of it (john laurie commenting on fishing!? WHY NOT!). i am shameless lover of the criterion collection, eclipse, and janus films. in fact, im a total whore for them. i need to buy a shirt. since my netflix queue is ordered into adding bursts (a bunch of j horror, new releases, eric rohmer, etc) i had a crapload of random criterions arrive and here is quick round up ordered from favorite to least favorite:

FISHING WITH JOHN

plot: john laurie fishes around the world with celebrities (willem dafoe, jim jarmusch, dennis hopper, matt dillon, tom waits)

results: hilarity

this is basically watching a jim jarmusch film that wasnt written or directed by the man himself. instead it was all laurie who was an integral star of jarmusch's most celebrated works (stranger than paradise and down by law). this was a TV series that aired on PBS in the early 90s and still holds up as a funny, clever, and original anti-sports sporting show.

also, gotta love that theme song (fiiiiiiiiiiishiiiiiing wiiiiiiith joooooohn. fiiiiiiiiishing wiiiiiiiiith joooooohn, etc.)

SEDUCED AND ABANDONED

im suprised i waited so long to watch this pietro germi italian comedy. i loved his previous film, divorce italian style and greatly admired it for its fellini-lite madcapness. like divorce, seduced was a madcap social satire. equal parts laugh out loud comedy and dry subtle wit, germi is really a great underappreciated director.

corpulent star saro urzi is perfect as a paranoid patriarch of an italian family obsessed with maintained their honor after their daughter agnese is knocked up by their other daughter's fiance. agnese is played with tragic fare by the beautiful stefania sandrelli who also starred in divorce italian style.

i dont really care for the works of mario monicelli perhaps because its too subtle but germi is very accessible and has stood up very well over time

LORD OF THE FLIES

peter brook did an admirable job of adapting this very disturbing novel onto the screen without a gloss or sheen that later hollywood adaptions had. using non professional actors and island shooting the film had a practical realism to it. the de-evolution into savages by the choir is elegantly stated and the death of piggy is adequately tragic.

the film seems short though. not much else to say about it.

DOUBLE SUICIDE

i was really disappointed i found this film so boring. after digesting a bunch of imamura and oshima, i was really looking forward to this important film of japanese 60s cinema. stylically, it was admirable and i liked the direction but nothing else really jumped out at me.

and so ends this edition of shilling for criterion

movies i saw over the weekend round up

sometimes, i see a movie and dont really react too much either way. the purpose of this blog isnt to review movies but to use a film as a springboard to talk abou things. its secondary purpose is a reminder to chart what movies ive seen and what i thought of them. i will return to the first tomorrow when i discuss twilight but for now, im just gonna quickly sum up my weekend watching

THE LONG GOOD GOODBYE

ive always liked bob hoskins and have always found helen mirren ridiculously hot and any opportunity to see both of them is a treat. this is hoskin's breakout role and he doesnt look exceptionally young. he, like spencer tracy and walter matthau, was born old looking and proceeded not to really age that much. anyway, good british gangster film with an especially performance from its leads

THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE

another helen mirren film though nigel hawthorne is what made this exceptionally interesting play on film work. i particularly watching the film from a historical perspective. my wife is a big fan of reading books involving things that happened in the past so she was impressed at its historical accuracy. hawthorne was fantastic and deserved his oscar nod but this did not need to included on the new york times top 1000 (ditto long goodbye as reviewed above)

THE KILLER IS LOOSE

you ever rent or DVR a movie and then slowly realize youve seen the movie before? yup. i totally saw this joseph cotton film noir. luckily, i enjoyed it quite a bit the first time i saw and was happy to watch it again. i forgot who costarred but he was exceptionally creepy. just click on the link and it was the guy who WASNT the great joseph cotton. like many b film noirs, the ending is cut wicked short so you have denoume, resolution, and conclusion is about 3 minutes.

WOMEN IN LOVE

another british film! i havent seen any ken russell but i heard he's pretty good. ive been meaning to see the devils (my fave hockey team, natch. NJ rokz) but havent been able to get a good torrent of it and since it will get released on DVD, its my only means. anywho, a bit dull but not a bad movie. well shot and well acted, the highlight of it is a hot full on nude wrestling match between alan bates and oliver reed. homoerotic to the max! also, i believe glenda jackson is a memeber of hte british government and she is naked too. so for everyone who wanted to see a member of the government (i.e. no one), this one is for you

THE MARRYING KIND

this one i will talk about a little more and actually deserves an entry all on its own. i take that back, judy holliday deserves a blog entry on her own (illl rewatch adams rib and post it). this was a very interesting film that was told in flashback. it begins with a couple going through divorce proceedings (as played by holliday and hot new star aldo ray) telling their stories of misery to the counselor but through the flashback you can see that the experiences werent that miserable and they inside love each other very much. the juxtaposition of the angry current voiceovers and the visuals of the events as they happened told a very interesting story of a marriage. i actually think this one almost belongs on the new york times best of list (which it is included on but ill give them this one)

i do want to say a bit about judy holliday who i believe was one of the golden age of hollywood's saddest stories. she rocketed to fame in adam's rib and later won an oscar for born yesterday, an excellent film that she made after the marrying kind. she didnt make a lot of movies but the ones she was in were memorable. she perfected the blonde bimbo and i think was genuinely more talented than marilyn monroe. she had a sadness and charisma that monroe never managed to get. holliday was pretty and played dumb but she always made the viewer think that she was capable of more and always illicited sympathy.

anyway, after she born yesterday and a couple other films she was on a list of actors and questioned by the anti-american hearings at the government (mccarthyism). while she was not blacklisted from movies she was blacklisted from radio and TV which tainted her career for a while and just as she was getting back to her previous stardom she died from breast cancer several weeks before she was to turn 43.

holliday was a gifted oscar and tony award winning actresses whose career was unfairly cut short. in her major years from 1949-1960 she was nominated for either an oscar or golden globe for virtually all of her roles (only 10). i would love see a biopic made about her but im not sure the motivation is there.

ok, thats it for now. ill post my review and thoughts on twilight tomorrow

2 english films

its time to play six degrees with powell/pressburger's night ambush (aka ill met by moonlight) and tony richardson's the entertainer. easy. roger livesly was the title character in powell/pressburger's life and death of colonel blimp and in the entertainer he is billy rice, olivier's father in the entertainer.

neither film is that great. powell/pressburger are one of the greatest writer/director teams in history and tony richardson was a very capable director who did his fare share of classics (lonliness of the long distance runner, taste of cherry). neither of these films are that great though

as for the entertainer, if it wasnt for olivier and livesly, the film would be a total waste of film. suprise, it was on NYT's top 1000 list. as for night ambush, it aired on TCM as part of a powell/press day. i never saw it and since their films are pretty rare, i take any to part one of their films on TV. it was pretty boring despite the presence of dirk bograde one of my favorite cool swinging 60s english actors.

yeah, neither film was that great but hey, im going to review everything i see.

both films get 2/5

MORE FILM NERDINESS ALERT

i named this post two english films...a play on the film two english girls, a film by truffaut which was my last review

im going to play wii now