Change Your Image
MOscarbradley
beneath the melted mountain,
seeing life edge by as barren trees,
picket fences enclosing sheep in pens.
the solitude of that earth, that sky
not real, not Summer tourists Christmas picnicing.
The memory was of one steep plain
and a shore where the sea came in
Given time, the ethereal feel of Ole,
a Danish student,
ocean hunting and high on heroin
will trespass as I have trespassed
on his solicitude.
Leaving us, coasters kiss the waves;
the throb of his engines,
the scent of peeling citrus in his galleys.
one of us the slave
the other, a lover
'There's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a red-headed girl'.
'Remembering all those sons of bitches who said we'd never get back up'
'And a screen without a picture since "Giant" came to town'
Worst Film Critic
Andrew Sarris - I don't know why Andrew Sarris bothered. He seemed to me to be a film critic who didn't like films, just the sound of his own voice as he rubbished almost every decent director in the history of movies in his so-called 'bible' 'The American Cinema'
Best Film Critic
David Thompson - Anyone who doesn't already own a copy of Thompson's 'Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema' should rush out and buy one as Thompson is by far the most enlightened, (and enlightening), critic the movies have seen. While he can puncture the most inflated ego with one cutting remark, unlike Sarris, he actually does seem to love movies and those whom he has championed should be forever in his debt
MY TOP 250 FILMS
1 PSYCHO (Hitchcock 1960)
2 SINGIN IN THE RAIN (Donen/Kelly 1952)
3 VIRIDIANA (Bunuel 1961)
4 PATHER PANCHALI (Ray 1955)
5 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (Welles 1942)
6 CITIZEN KANE (Welles 1941)
7 THE GODFATHER PART 2 (Coppolla 1974)
8 THE QUIET MAN (Ford 1952)
9 LES VANCANCES DE M HULOT (Tati 1953)
10 L'AVVENTURRA (Antonioni 1960)
11 DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST (Bresson 1950)
12 LA REGLE DE JEU (Renoir 1939)
13 BICYCLE THIEVES (De Sica 1948)
14 BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (Eisenstien 1925)
15 INTOLERANCE (Griffith 1916)
16 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (Kubrick 1968)
17 CASABLANCA (Curtiz 1942)
18 VERTIGO (Hitchcock 1958)
19 THE DEAD (Huston 1987)
20 MADAME DE ... (Ophuls 1953)
21 LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS (Carne 1945)
22 THE SEARCHERS (Ford 1956)
23 THE SEVEN SAMURAI (Kurosawa 1954)
24 ORDET (Dryer 1955)
25 PERSONA (Bergman 1966)
26 SALVATORE GUILIANO (Rosi 1961)
27 THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (Lubitsch 1940)
28 LAWERENCE OF ARABIA (Lean 1962)
29 SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (McKendrick 1957)
30 NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Laughton 1955)
31 THE CROWD (Vidor 1928)
32 TOUCH OF EVIL (Welles 1958)
33 THE GODFATHER (Coppolla 1972)
34 LOCAL HERO (Forsyth 1983)
35 DR STRANGELOVE or HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (Kubrick 1964)
36 MULHOLLAND DRIVE (Lynch 2001)
37 HEIMAT (Reitz 1984)
38 FANNY AND ALEXANDER (Bergman 1982)
39 THE BAND WAGON (Minelli 1953)
40 EIGHT AND A HALF (Fellini 1963)
41 LES QUATRES CENTS COUPS (Truffaut 1959)
42 BIGGER THAN LIFE (Ray 1956)
43 ALL ABOUT EVE (Mankiewicz 1950)
44 MEET ME IN ST LOUIS (Minelli 1944)
45 ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (Almodovar 1999)
46 SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING (Riesz 1960)
47 LOS OLVIDADOS (Bunuel 1950)
48 PULP FICTION (Tarantino 1994)
49 THE SEVENTH SEAL (Bergman 1957)
50 FEAR EATS THE SOUL (Fassbinder 1973)
51 THE NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (Fellini 1957)
52 ET - THE EXTRA TERRESTIAL (Spielberg 1982)
53 THE WIZARD OF OZ (Fleming 1939)
54 SOME LIKE IT HOT (Wilder 1959)
55 THE DECALOGUE (Kieslowski 1988)
56 WINGS OF DESIRE (Wenders 1987)
57 LA STRADA (Fellini 1956)
58 A BOUT DE SOUFFLE (Godard 1959)
59 THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (Pontecorvo 1965)
60 THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (Allen 1985)
61 THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY (Jackson 2001-2003)
62 ANDREI RUBLEV (Tarkovsky 1966)
63 BADLANDS (Mallick 1973)
64 NASHVILLE (Altman 1975)
65 THE PALM BEACH STORY (Sturges 1942)
66 THE THIRD MAN (Reed 1950)
67 O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU (Coen 2000)
68 UGETSU MONOGATARI (Mizoguchi 1953)
69 AMARCORD (Fellini 1973)
70 THE CHILDHOOD OF MAXIM GORKY (Donski 1938)
71 SUNRISE (Murnau 1927)
72 DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES (Davies 1988)
73 TALK TO HER (Almodovar 2001)
74 GONE WITH THE WIND (Fleming 1939)
75 THREE COLOURS RED (Kielowski 1994)
76 HUD (Ritt 1963)
77 A TASTE OF HONEY (Richardson 1961)
78 L'ATALANTE (Vigo 1934)
79 THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (Salles 2004)
80 ETRE ET AVOIR (Philibert 2002)
81 SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (Donen 1954)
82 THE MALTESE FALCON (Huston 1941)
83 SUNSET BOULEVARD (Wilder 1950)
84 THE GRAPES OF WRATH (Ford 1940)
85 BONNIE AND CLYDE (Penn 1967)
86 BLUE VELVET (Lynch 1986)
87 CHINATOWN (Polanski 1974)
88 I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING (Powell/Pressburger 1945)
89 Z (Costa-Gavras 1969)
90 MEAN STREETS (Scorcese 1973)
91 LA GRANDE ILLUSION (Renoir 1938)
92 THE AWFUL TRUTH (McCarey 1937)
93 WALKABOUT (Roeg 1970)
94 BARRY LYNDON (Kubrick 1975)
95 REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (Ray 1955)
96 BLOW UP (Antonioni 1966)
97 THE SERVANT (Losey 1963)
98 BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar 2004)
99 YOL (Goren/Guney 1982)
100 THE WAGES OF FEAR (Clouzot 1953)
101 THE WILD BUNCH (Peckinpah 1969)
102 ORPHEE (Cocteau 1950)
103 WENT THE DAY WELL (Cavalcanti 1942)
104 THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (Frankenhimer 1962)
105 THE KING OF COMEDY (Scorcese 1983)
106 LANDSCAPE IN THE MIST (Angelopolus 1988)
107 THE THIN RED LINE (Mallick 1998)
108 ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (Leone 1968)
109 THE 39 STEPS (Hitchcock 1935)
110 BELLVILLE RENDEZVOUS (Chomet 2003)
111 TAXI DRIVER (Scorcese 1976)
112 SHOWBOAT (Whale 1936)
113 NEVER ON SUNDAY (Dassin 1960)
114 LA DOLCE VITA (Fellini 1960)
115 PATHS OF GLORY (Kubrick 1958)
116 APOCOLYPSE NOW (Coppolla 1979)
117 SCHINDLER'S LIST (Spielberg 1993)
118 UNDER FIRE (Spottiswoode 1983)
119 THE PLAYER (Altman 1992)
120 TROUBLE IN PARADISE (Lubitsch 1932)
121 IMITATION OF LIFE (Sirk 1959)
122 DEATH IN VENICE (Visconti 1971)
123 SIDEWAYS (Payne 2004)
124 THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (Bunuel 1972)
125 FAR FROM HEAVEN (Hayes 2002)
126 NORTH BY NORTHWEST (Hitchcock 1959)
127 LA BELLE ET LA BETE (Cocteau 1946)
128 CITY LIGHTS (Chaplin 1931)
129 TOY STORY (Lasseter 1995)
130 ADVISE AND CONSENT (Preminger 1962)
131 JESUS OF MONTREAL (Arcand 1989)
132 THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (Arnold 1957)
133 ACCATONE (Pasolini 1961)
134 AMORES PERROS (Inarritu 2000)
135 VERA DRAKE (Leigh 2004)
136 LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (Resnais 1961)
137 ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (Sirk 1955)
138 L'ENFANT SAUVAGE (Truffaut 1970)
139 THE GOLD RUSH (Chaplin 1925)
140 THE TRAVELLING PLAYERS (Angelopolous 1975)
141 RIO BRAVO (Hawks 1959)
142 GOODFELLAS (Scorcese 1990)
143 EL (Bunuel 1953)
144 THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT (Ford 1953)
145 MANHATTEN (Allen 1979)
146 DOG DAY AFTERNOON (Lumet 1975)
147 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (Spielberg 1977)
148 LOST IN TRANSLATION (Coppolla 2004)
149 BRIEF ENCOUNTER (Lean 1946)
150 A STAR IS BORN (Cukor 1954)
151 LAURA (Preminger 1944)
152 THE APARTMENT (Wilder 1960)
153 ORDINARY PEOPLE (Redford 1980)
154 MAGNOLIA (Anderson 1999)
155 LAND AND FREEDOM (Loach 1995)
156 THE HAIRDRESSER'S HUSBAND (Leconte 1990)
157 THE GENERAL (Keaton 1927)
158 DINER (Levinson 1982)
159 NUIT ET BROUILLARD (Resnais 1955)
160 WHERE IS MY FRIEND'S HOUSE (Kiarostami 1987)
161 DO THE RIGHT THING (Lee 1989)
162 LES PARENTS TERRIBLES (Cocteau 1948)
163 ALEXANDER NEVSKY (Eisenstien 1938)
164 STRIKE (Eisenstien 1924)
165 THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY (Loach 2006)
166 TARNATION (Caouette 2004)
167 THE NEW WORLD (Mallick 2005)
168 ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (Hawks 1939)
169 CLAIRE'S KNEE (Rohmer 1970)
170 PINOCCHIO (Sharpstien/Luske 1940)
171 UNFORGIVEN (Eastwood 1992)
172 STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (Hitchcock 1951)
173 THE PRODUCERS (Brooks 1968)
174 SHANE (Stevens 1953)
175 SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT (Bergman 1955)
176 RAISE THE RED LANTERN (Yimou 1991)
177 THRONE OF BLOOD (Kurosawa 1957)
178 BELLE DE JOUR (Bunuel 1967)
179 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (Scorcese 1993)
180 HEAVEN'S GATE (Cimino 1980)
181 HAPPINESS (Solondz 1998)
182 COMME UNE IMAGE (Jaoui 2004)
183 ROBIN AND MARIAN (Lester 1976)
184 A ROOM WITH A VIEW (Ivory 1985)
185 THE TIN DRUM (Schlondorff 1979)
186 TEA AND SYMPATHY (Minelli 1956)
187 FEDORA (Wilder 1978)
188 ALPHAVILLE (Godard 1965)
189 THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (Bogdanovitch 1971)
190 MAN OF ARAN (Flaherty 1934)
191 THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (Cukor 1940)
192 RAGING BULL (Scorcese 1980)
193 MAN OF MARBLE (Wajda 1977)
194 KISS ME DEADLY (Aldrich 1955)
195 AMERICA AMERICA (Kazan 1963)
196 JOHNNY GUITAR (Ray 1954)
197 NOTORIOUS (Hitchcock 1946)
198 IF ... (Anderson 1968)
199 PERFORMANCE (Roeg/Cammell 1970)
200 SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (Sturges 1941)
201 STAGECOACH (Ford 1939)
202 ON THE WATERFRONT (Kazan 1954)
203 WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (Nichols 1966)
204 THE PASSENGER (Antonioni 1975)
205 GROUNDHOG DAY (Ramis 1993)
205 KING KONG (Jackson 2005)
207 ROSEMARY'S BABY (Polanski 1968)
208 PARIS TEXAS (Wenders 1984)
209 LORD OF THE FLIES (Brooks 1963)
210 THE BIRDS (Hitchcock 1963)
211 THE NIGHT OF SAN LORENZO (Tavianni 1981)
212 THE HUSTLER (Rossen 1961)
213 WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (Aldrich 1962)
214 AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (Spielberg 2001)
215 ROME, OPEN CITY (Rossellini 1945)
216 BRINGING UP BABY (Hawks 1938)
217 WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (Almodovar 1988)
218 SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS (Kazan 1961)
219 THE WOMEN (Cukor 1939)
220 THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE (Launder 1950)
221 GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (Hawks 1953)
222 THE WAR GAME (Watkins 1966)
223 MILDRED PIERCE (Curtiz 1945)
224 MYSTIC RIVER (Eastwood 2003)
225 JACKIE BROWN (Tarantino 1997)
226 DINNER AT EIGHT (Cukor 1933)
227 YOUNG FRANKENSTIEN (Brooks 1974)
228 AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD (Herzog 1972)
229 FREAKS (Browning 1932)
230 SEPTEMBER (Allen 1987)
231 12 ANGRY MEN (Lumet 1957)
232 HIGH NOON (Zinneman 1952)
233 BLACK NARCISSUS (Powell/Pressburger (1946)
234 WOMAN IN THE DUNES (Teshigahara 1963)
235 THE RED SHOES (Powell/Pressburger 1948)
236 INTERIORS (Allen 1978)
237 GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (LeRoy 1933(
238 THE LAST WALTZ (Scorcese 1978)
239 THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (Davies 2000)
240 PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (Ross 1981)
241 TOPSY-TURVY (Leigh 1999)
242 BREAKING THE WAVES (Von Trier 1996)
243 JOUR DE FETE (Tati 1947)
244 OUR HOSPITALITY (Keaton 1923)
245 SEVEN CHANCES (Keaton 1925)
246 THE INNOCENTS (Clayton 1961)
247 THE WIND (Sjostrom 1928)
248 THE BIG HEAT (Lang 1953)
249 FIVE EASY PIECES (Rafelson 1970)
250 THE NUN'S STORY (Zinneman 1959)
MY 20 GREATEST DIRECTORS
1 ALFRED HITCHCOCK (96 votes)
2 FEDERICO FELLINI (95 votes)
3 JOHN FORD (81 votes)
4 LUIS BUNUEL (78 votes)
5 STANLEY KUBRICK (76 votes)
6 INGMAR BERGMAN (74 votes)
7 MARTIN SCORCESE (73 votes)
8 ORSON WELLES (72 votes)
9 FRANCIS FORD COPPOLLA (61 votes)
10 PEDRO ALMODOVAR (59 votes)
10 STEVEN SPIELBERG (59 votes)
12 BILLY WILDER (54 votes)
13 VINCENTE MINNELLI (50 votes)
14 DAVID LYNCH (49 votes)
15 MICHEALGELO ANTONIONI (46 votes)
16 TERRENCE MALICK (43 votes)
16 NICHOLAS RAY (43 votes)
18 STANLEY DONEN (42 votes)
18 SERGEI EISENSTIEN (42 votes)
20 JOHN HUSTON (41 votes)
Nobody does vegetables like me. I did a whole evening of vegetables Off-Broadway
Don't fuck with me fellas; this ain't my first time at the rodeo
Hell of a thing killin' a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist
This is your great winter romance, isn't it? Your last roar of passion before you settle into your emeritus years.
First we'll have an orgy then we'll go see Tony Bennett.
Morons! I've got morons on my team! Nobody is going to rob us going DOWN the mountain
The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter
Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!
I love the smell of napalm in the morning
Keep your friends close but your enemies closer
I'm a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk
Top 12 Films of 2006 in alphabetical order:
BEFORE SUNSET (Linklater) - seen for first time
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Lee)
THE DEPARTED (Scorcese)
L'ENFANT (Dardenne Brothers)
HIDDEN (Haneke)
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (Dayton and Faris)
PAN'S LABYRINTH (Del Toro)
SPIRITED AWAY (Miyazaki) - seen for first time
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (Baumbach)
UNITED 93 (Greengrass)
VOLVER (Almodovar)
THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY (Loach)
The 100 greatest performances
1 Marlon Brando in ON THE WATERFRONT
2 Albert Finney in SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING
3 Bette Davis in ALL ABOUT EVE
4 Orson Welles in CITIZEN KANE
5 Laurence Olivier in RICHARD 111
6 Monica Vitti in L'AVVENTURRA
7 Celia Johnston in BRIEF ENCOUNTER
8 James Dean in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
9 Peter O'Toole in LAWERENCE OF ARABIA
10 Katharine Hepburn in LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
11 Robert DeNiro in TAXI DRIVER
12 Anthony Perkins in PSYCHO
13 Jane Fonda in KLUTE
14 Michael Redgrave in THE BROWNING VERSION
15 Daniel Day-Lewis in MY LEFT FOOT
16 Geraldine Page in INTERIORS
17 Alec Guiness in THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
18 Emily Watson in BREAKING THE WAVES
19 Al Pacino in THE GODFATHER PART 2
20 Agnes Moorehead in THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
21 Marlon Brando in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
22 Elizabeth Taylor in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF
23 Robert DeNiro in MEAN STREETS
24 Lila Kedrova in ZORBA THE GREEK
25 Jack Lemmon in MISSING
26 Alec Guiness in KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS
27 Al Pacino in DOG DAY AFTERNOON
28 Robert DeNiro in RAGING BULL
29 Dirk Bogarde in THE SERVANT
30 Jean Louis Barrault in LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Perfect Days (2023)
Perfect.
Wim Wenders' idea of an 'action' movie is having someone stumble after silently walking down a street for ten minutes of screen time. He is, in other words, a minimalist who draws you slowly but inexorably into his sagas of lonely men living largely isolated existences and his new film, "Perfect Days", is no exception.
His hero, Hirayama, is a middle-aged Tokyo toilet cleaner, superbly played by Koji Yakusho, (he won Best Actor at Cannes), without doing almost anything at all and Wenders simply follows him through his mostly silent days and nights as he cleans toilets, tends to his plants, takes the occasional photo, reads William Faulkner and listens to a lot of sixties and seventies American music on what we now might think of as ancient cassettes. Considering how fully Yakusho embodies his role this could just as easily be a documentary about a real toilet cleaner.
Of course, it won't be a film for everyone; its simplicity and lack of what we might call a plot could prove off-putting to a lot of people, (perhaps the nearest thing to a plot in the film deals with the love life, or lack of it, of Hirayama's co-worker). Naturally, among the music Hirayama listens to is Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day' and while his life might seem conventional and even boring to most people to Hirayama every day is perfect. So, too, is Wenders' film which, on reflection, you could even call his Japanese "Paris, Texas".
Possession (1981)
40 years on it still stinks to high heaven.
My Turkey of the Year back in 1981 I've naturally avoided watching "Possession" again during the last 40 plus years but then it has built up something of a cult critical reputation and Isabelle Adjani did win both the Best Actress prize at Cannes and the Cesar for her performance so perhaps I was wrong? Let's just say that it's definitely an acquired taste and one that I didn't have back in the day. Now, having seen it again, I can safely say it's a taste I have yet to acquire nor one that I want to.
Back then I thought it was just a 'bad' movie but now it's almost like a parody of a bad movie, part horror film and part send-up of those deeply serious Eastern European or Nordic sagas of failed marriages, shot in English, (big mistake thought I'm sure subtitles wouldn't work any better), and appallingly acted by both Adjani, (Best Actress? What were the Cannes jury thinking of?), and Sam Neill. I can understand it having a cult reputation in the 'bad movie' stakes but I certainly can't understand the critical praise that's been heaped on it over the years. Yes, forty years on it still stinks to high heavens!
Challengers (2024)
How sexy do you find tennis?
How sexy you find tennis probably depends very much on how sexy you find the players; the men's sweaty, muscular bodies when the shirts come off; the women racing around the court in their short skirts. The whole idea is more like something out of the comic 'Viz' than the real thing and it's this element that Luca Guadagnino wants us to keep in the forefront of our minds when watching "Challengers".
Guadagnino's latest is as much about the sex as it is about the tennis and very enjoyable it is, too. Never one to shy away from laying things on a tad thickly he goes all out here in a steamy tale of sexual as well as professional rivalry. Tashi, (Zendaya), is the up-and-coming potential champion while Patrick, (Josh O'Connor), and Art, (Mike Faist), are the young turks and boyhood friends who both spy her at the same time, both wanting her as much perhaps as they may even want each other.
At the centre of the film is a long tennis match between the two men, one of whom is now Tashi's ex-lover and the other, her husband but the action is broken up by flashbacks telling us how all three have reached this point in their lives. It's a technique that works surprisingly well both in building up a picture of the protagonists, (the three leads are superb), as well as naturally building up suspense, at least until the climax which isn't so much treated as a tennis match as a battle between two young gods on the slopes of Mount Olympus with an ending bordering on parody. Still, this is top-notch multiplex fare, brilliantly shot, edited and acted and further proof that Guadagnino is up there with the best of them.
Monkey Man (2024)
Yet another John Wick reboot.
There's no doubt that Dev Patel is a fine actor and now, with his first film as a director, someone who clearly knows the ropes. Unfortunately that film, "Monkey Man" is just another "John Wick" rip-off set in Mumbai, an ultra-violent revenge fantasy distinguished, if at all, by a subplot involving a community of Hijiras living on the margins who help our hero when he needs it most.
Otherwise it's business as usual and something of a vanity project for Patel, very well made but hardly pleasant viewing. With its main plot involving political corruption and the rise of right-wing politics in India as well as murder and revenge, it's a tad more intelligent than the Wick movies and the action scenes should ensure its success at the box-office but personally I found the excessive violence a turn-off.
That They May Face the Rising Sun (2023)
A masterpiece.
Joe, (Barry Ward), and Kate, (Anna Bederke), have returned from London to rural Ireland. He writes, perhaps a novel, perhaps not, while she sketches and makes little decorative pieces from twigs and bits of wood. The rest of the time they simply try to manage the small farm holding on which they live, mostly with the help of kindly neighbors. The seasons pass and nothing out of the ordinary happens; one neighbor marries and another dies and we simply observe the small details that make up these people's lives.
Based on John McGahern's novel, Pat Collins' really quite extraordinary and quite extraordinarily moving film "That They May Face the Rising Sun" could best be described as Ireland's answer to the films of Ermanno Olmi or maybe the Taviani Brothers. Gorgeously shot on location in County Galway this is one of the greatest of films about rural life and the day-to-day existence of people who have nothing and yet who want for nothing.
Director Collins is fundamentally a documentary film-maker and he brings a documentarian's eye to bear on proceedings here drawing extraordinarily naturalistic performances from his cast. Veteran Irish actors like Sean McGinley, Lalor Roddy, Ruth McCabe and Brendan Conroy are doing perhaps their best work here and it's hard to believe that Phillip Dolan as one kindly neighbor has never acted in a film before. Leads Barry Ward and Anna Bederke are also superb in their quietude and their empathy, outsiders who nevertheless feel like the backbone of their community, magnets drawing others to them for help or just for a listening ear. A masterpiece that simply has to be seen.
Roter Himmel (2023)
This quiet character study is surely one of the best films of the year.
I still tend to think of Christian Petzold as a 'new' director though he has made 10 feature films in the past 23 years. German born, you might say he's an art-house director who makes commercial films or at least films that are accessible to a commercial audience but which are intelligent and more cerebral than anything you are likely to see in your average multiplex.
"Afire" begins and remains something of a chamber piece as holiday-makers Leon, (a superbly sullen Thomas Schubert), and Felix, (Langston Uibel), are forced to share their holiday home in a forest on the coast with Nadja, (Paula Beer), a friend of the owner who happens to be Felix's mother. Initially not a lot happens as the two men bicker over work assignments, (Thomas is a writer and Felix is a photographer), and household chores while Nadja is having rather loud sex in an adjoining room while the forest fires that have been plaguing the area move closer.
Petzold's genius is for taking the banalities of everyday life and building them into a series of little dramas helped considerably by the brilliant performances of his small cast and by not giving too much away. Are Leon and Felix lovers or just very good friends and who is Nadja and why is she even there and is Devid, (Enno Trebs from "The White Ribbon"), Nadja's summer fling or something more?
Petzold only lets us get to know his characters gradually just like we might get to know them in life and they turn out to be affectionate and funny people in what is really an affectionate and funny film but also a very sad one. Life may deal us a bad hand but we make the most of it just like the people in Petzold's lovely, if ultimately tragic, new film.
Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)
Cringe-worthy!
In the late fifties and early sixties a lot of highly colored, widescreen Hollywood drivel passed themselves off as comedies though laughs were largely absent but perhaps the most dishonest of the lot was Charles Walters' "Please Don't Eat the Daisies", a 'comedy' in name only based on Jean Kerr's novel which, in turn, was largely about life with her husband, the drama critic Walter Kerr.
Here David Niven is the drama critic and Doris Day the wife who doesn't like what her husband is turning into. They also have four young boys who are so different from each other it's as if they had four different fathers; certainly none of them could be the progeny of Mr. Niven. This whimsy is meant to be heart-warming. (they even have a big cuddly dog and live, not too happily. In a New York apartment which is why they move to the country), but not a frame of it rings true. It's a one joke movie in which the joke isn't funny.
Day is good in that ingratiating, strident Doris Day way of hers but Niven is horribly miscast while talented supporting players like Spring Byington, Richard Haydn, Jack Weston, Patsy Kelly and, worst of all, Janis Paige, (they don't even give her a musical number), are totally wasted with most of the 'gags' revolving around the appalling children, (and keeping the baby locked in a cage is the most tasteless joke of all). Perhaps what's most unforgivable is that given Kerr's role as part of the Broadway elite this should be so flat, unfunny and false. I cringed throughout.
The Proud Ones (1956)
A good old-fashioned western.
As Dilys Powell said, there are no bad westerns; there are great westerns, there are good westerns and there are just plain westerns and "The Proud Ones" is certainly a good one. The director was Robert D. Webb, hardly an auteur but a decent jobbing director and this thoroughly old-fashioned oater, nicely shot in Cinemascope, starred Robert Ryan, (the good guy), Jeffrey Hunter, (not quite the bad guy he first appears to be), and Virginia Mayo, (somewhat wasted as the girl in love with Ryan), while the fine supporting cast includes Walter Brennan, Arthur O'Connell and Robert Middleton, (the real bad guy), and thanks to an above-average screenplay from Edmund H. North and Joseph Petracca and highly watchable work from its highly watchable cast it's consistently enjoyable. As Dilys said, there are no bad westerns.
Welcome to Hard Times (1967)
Surely destined for cult status.
Could "Welcome to Hard Times" be the most bizarre western ever made? It's certainly the most bizarre western Burt Kennedy has ever been associated with, (he wrote and directed it). Unusually violent and clearly influenced by the Spaghetti Westerns and not dissimilar at times to Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider" it's about crazed psychopath Aldo Ray's terrorizing and destruction of the small town of Hard Times. (well, more a couple of buildings calling itself a town), in which Henry Fonda is the mayor who refuses to stand up to him, (there doesn't appear to be a sheriff).
After Ray rides out, leaving very little behind but ashes, Fonda persuades the survivors to rebuild the town, welcoming any newcomers who come riding by and then...you don't have to be too smart to figure what's coming. It's certainly got a sterling cast; as well as Fonda and Ray there's Janice Rule, Janis Paige, Keenan Wynn, Lon Chaney Jr., Warren Oates and Fay Spain and Kennedy's screenplay, from E. L. Doctorow's first novel, is so off-the-wall it's impossible to dismiss it. In fact, if any western from the sixties, or indeed from any period, deserves a cult following it's this one. Is it any good? Of course not but you certainly won't see another one quite like it.
Ochazuke no aji (1952)
Perhaps the least highly regarded of Ozu's masterpieces.
In post-war Japan a middle-aged couple's arranged marriage is in trouble. Made just before "Tokyo Story", Yasujiro Ozu's "The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice" is one of the director's least highly regarded works and yet this is as incisive a study of marriage as anything by Bergman or Albee, the only difference being that Ozu's characters are so much more gentle, more humane. Even as the wife, (Michiyo Kogure, superb), wishes her husband would just disappear there is none of the harshness we find in films and plays from the West. Ozu clearly has a deep affection for all the characters in his films.
The husband Mokichi, (an equally superb Shin Saburi), may be a bore to his wife for no reason other than he is a good, quiet man whose life is simple and unexciting yet neither is she a typical harridan , just a woman who could have had more and who has, not too unhappily, settled for what she sees as her lot.
There is a subplot involving the wife's niece, (Keiko Tsushhima, excellent), who is now rebelling against her own planned arranged marriage and once again Ozu seems very much on her side. Like so much of Ozu's work this is another study of the role of women in Japanese society, mature, often very funny and absolutely essential.
The Eternal Daughter (2022)
Is this really a ghost story?
Having made two films on the essence of cinema or at least on the filmmaker's craft, (her own), Joanna Hogg has now turned her attention to ... a ghost story albeit one without a conventional ghost. "The Eternal Daughter" is set in the kind of hotel that says very loudly either 'Downton Abbey' or 'The Haunting' and it's on the latter than Miss Hogg has decided to concentrate but being an art-house kind of director this is no "Scream"; rather it's closer in tone to the kind of ghost story or horror movie Chantal Akerman might have made in her best "Jeanne Dielman..." mode.
Tilda Swinton is the daughter and she's also her mother and they are staying in this stately pile together and they both seem to be cut from the same cloth but Swinton, who is at her very best here, isn't someone you would want to spend too much time with. For a start all the creaks and bangs and the things we usually associate with haunted houses all seem to start with her, at least with the daughter, (her mother is more amenable).
It appears that the hotel was once the mother's family home and Hogg's film is really a journey into the past, an attempt to reconnect that doesn't appear to be working. In both roles Swinton is superb, the daughter presumably yet another incarnation of Hogg herself and apart from a few minor characters, she's really the only person on screen. In dramatic terms nothing really happens and yet the film is haunting in its own pervasive way, proof that Swinton could hold our attention just reading the telephone book and that Hogg is a singular talent no matter what material she turns her hand to. Hopefully next time, however, she will make something a little more lively.
Ripley (2024)
The best on-screen Ripley so far!
I didn't think it possible to improve on what I considered to be perfection but Steven Zallian's 8 part television series "Ripley" puts all previous screen 'Ripley's' in the shade. Adapted from Patricia Highsmith's novel "The Talented Mr. Riley" it has in Andrew Scott a Ripley not so much talented as lucky. Tom Ripley kills twice in the course of the series without really thinking too much about the consequences of his actions and once he decides to take over the identity of his first victim, Dickie Greenleaf, he seems to be living entirely on his wits as well as on Dickie's money, barely keeping one step ahead of the police.
Scott, one of our finest actors, is simply magnificent as Ripley, full of nervous charm and tightly controlled terror and there's terrific work, too, from Dakota Fanning as Dickie's girlfriend Marge, suspicious of Tom's motives from the start and from Maurizio Lombardi as the dogged Italian detective on Ripley's trail without actually knowing whose trail he's on.
The murders themselves, (the two take up almost all of two of the eight episodes), are messy and gripping in ways that murders seldom are on film and benefit considerably from being shot, 'Psycho-style', in perhaps the best black and white cinematography I've seen on any screen, large or small, certainly in recent times; the cinematographer is the great Robert Elswit. In fact I'm pretty sure I won't see anything better than this again in the coming twelve months. Oh, and it's also very funny in its grisly way and has the best 'performance' by a cat that I can remember seeing...ever.
Luminous Procuress (1971)
Perfect 'Midnight Matinee' fare for those who like this sort of thing.
Clearly aimed, if aimed at anyone, then at a 'midnight matinee' audience turned on by experimental erotica, "Luminous Procuress", like "Pink Narcissus" which came out the same year, came and went in the blink of an eye only to be rediscovered decades later and heralded as something of a cult classic.
Plotless, dialogue free, except for some 'spoken' gibberish, and impossible to describe, this is a partly engaging though, more often than not, mostly boring piece of pop art that makes no real sense and, like so many films of its kind, is also highly pretentious; a home-movie accessible only to those involved and yet, in its wildly over-the-top fashion, it is also difficult to dismiss. Visually it's often remarkable and in the end, like other similar experimental pieces, perhaps best seen as an installation in a gallery rather than in a cinema.
Tótem (2023)
Establishes Aviles as a director with quite a future ahead.
Tona is dying and this is the day of his birthday and his family are holding a party for him. Lila Aviles' stunning debut feature "Totem" observes the events of the day in almost forensic detail and how they impact on all the participants; Tona's father, his sisters, his extended family and friends, his carer and most of all on his young daughter, Sol, who doesn't know her father is dying yet senses it nevertheless.
There's nothing sentimental nor particularly dramatic in Aviles' film. It's as if she and her camera just dropped by to record the events of just one day in these people's lives and what happens is both funny and moving like life itself. All the performances are superb and Naima Senties is often quite extraordinary as Sol. On the strength of this one film Aviles would seem to have quite a future ahead of her.
The Quick and the Dead (1995)
More of a parody than a homage.
More of a parody than a homage, Sam Raimi's western "The Quick and the Dead" is something of a one-off, an ultra stylish exercise in what might best be described a 'pure cinema' with style of the pop-art variety dominating virtually every frame and if the, admittedly gorgeous imagery isn't enough, there's always that cast, (Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Pat Hingle, Keith David, Kevin Conway, Lance Henriksen, Gary Sinise, Roberts Blossom et al).
The thin plot has Stone riding into town with the sole intention of avenging her father's killing only to find herself in the middle of a gunfight competition, a kind of last man, (or in this case, woman), standing and the incentive for all this gun-play and almost surrealistic killing is a large pot of money for the eventual winner.
Of course, Raimi's name on the credits should be a clue as to what kind of film you are going to get. Dante Spinotti provides the sometimes mind-boggling images and Pietro Scalia's editing is as quickfire as the gun play but it's Hackman who owns the film, giving it that added touch of class it would otherwise have lacked. Naturally it draws attention to itself from one frame to the next but it's also ridiculously entertaining. Perhaps too popular to be called a 'cult movie' it's some sort of classic nevertheless.
Rye Lane (2023)
Funny, charming and inventive.
When the opening credits of a film announce 'a BBC film and/or B. F. I presents' I still get a frisson of pleasure because I know from past experience the film is likely to be pretty good and "Rye Lane" is certainly no exception, even if the opening scene just might make you cringe which, of course, it's meant to do.
Debut director Raine Allen-Miller has fashioned a genuinely sweet romantic comedy about a couple of strangers who meet in, of all places, a unisex toilet and spend a day together in South London, getting to know each other and basically falling in love.
It's a small film with a very big heart and leads David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah are superbly cast; they don't seem to be acting at all, just being themselves which works perfectly in a film like this. At times it might look like a series of sketches but it also looks great, makes terrific use of its London locations, is funny, charming and inventive and of how many films can you say that these days. I loved it.
Inner Sanctum (1948)
If the production values had been better this might have been a classic.
Don't worry if you haven't heard of "Inner Sanctum"; I certainly hadn't until now but this 1948 B-Movie is surprisingly good, if not in terms of cinematic skill then at least in terms of storytelling. It's actually a story within a story as the mysterious and apparently psychic Dr. Valonius, (Fritz Leiber), regales a woman on a train with a tale of a murderer hiding out in a small-town boarding house.
Clocking in at just 62 minutes it's the kind of story you might find in something like "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" and it has a surprisingly good script and some very decent performances from the likes of Lee Patrick, Billy House and Roscoe Ates. There's even a lot of genuinely funny and intentional humor running through the picture as well as some real suspense. If it isn't quite in the class of "Detour" it's still a Grade A Guilty Pleasure.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Do we really need a Part Three?
When Denis Villeneuve decided to remake David Lynch's film "Dune", or rather adapt Frank Herbert's novel for the screen, he claimed there was too much material for just one film and that a "Dune Part Two" would follow. Well now it seems even a lengthy Part Two can't contain it all and it ends, like any other serial, with audiences hungry for what-happens-next. Or are they since Villeneuve's "Dune Part Two" is no "Star Wars" but an often ponderous meditation on the mystical, more Tarkovsky than George Lucas and whether audiences will really want to come back for more remains to be seen.
Whereas Villeneuve's first "Dune" film was an exciting sci-fi adventure yarn, coupled with just the right amount of character development to draw audiences in, this second film seems to have dispensed with character development altogether, save for making its hero, Paul Atreides, (a glum Timothee Chalamet), arrogant and not very likeable. Instead it opts to go heavily into the quasi-religious mysticism hinted at in the first film, a plot device that only succeeds in weighing the film down and it isn't until close on the halfway mark it actually kicks off thanks in no small measure to Austin Butler's first appearance in a sequence filmed in black and white in a massive CGI arena.
Butler is one of the villains of the piece and like the Devil he has all the best tunes. It isn't a big part but he steals every scene he's in. It's hardly great acting but it's definitely a star turn. For acting one must look to the great Stellan Skarsgard as the film's chief villain and perhaps to Charlotte Rampling but neither have sufficient screen time to make much of an impact. Visually, of course, it's a treat; a movie to be seen in cinemas on the largest screen possible. The action scenes are splendid and they do manage to keep boredom at bay but a third part? Surely not, Denis; "Dune Part Two" conjures up enough mystical gobbledygook to last a lifetime. Enough is enough.
Fremont (2023)
Jarmusch and Kaurismaki would be proud.
Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismaki would be proud. Babak Julali's gorgeous "Fremont" is minimalism gone wild. So little happens over the ninety or so minute running time you might (just) be forgiven if you drift off. Donya, (newcomer Anaita Wall Zada), is an Afghan who worked as a translator for the US military and who now lives in Fremont, working in a fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. Desperately lonely and unable to sleep she cheats her way into seeing a psychiatrist, (a wonderfully deadpan Gregg Turkington), who just wants to read Jack London's "White Fang" to her.
One day Donya slips a message into one of the fortune cookies giving her name and phone number and waits for the result, hoping it will lead to romance or at least a blind date like the ones her friend and colleague Joanne, (Hilda Schmelling), goes on. What happens next is as sweet and unexpected as you will find in any rom-com for, in its quiet, unassuming way, that's what "Fremont" surely is. Beautifully photographed in black and white by Laura Valladao and superbly acted by the entire cast this is an out-of-nowhere gem that really shouldn't be missed.
No Hard Feelings (2023)
One of the best comedies you are likely to see this year.
If you think Jennifer Lawrence has sold out her street cred for rom-com anonymity think again, "No Hard Feelings" is no ordinary rom-com. For starters it's a lot raunchier and a lot funnier than your average rom-rom and Lawrence is as good as she's ever been. She's the foul-mouthed, over-sexed bartender who answers an ad to date a shy 19 year old college student, (placed by his parents, no less, in order to bring him out of his shell). She does this because she needs a car and that's what's on offer.
With a cracker of a script by Gene Stupnitsky and John Phillips and surprisingly intelligent direction from Stupnitsky as well as a terrific performance from newcomer Andrew Barth Feldman as the son, (and nice work, too, from Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti as his parents), this is as sweet-natured as it is laugh-out-loud funny and is certainly a cut above most multiplex movies aimed at a young audience. One for all the family, in fact, just so long as the family are over fifteen.
Das Lehrerzimmer (2023)
Hitchcock himself would be proud.
Nominated for Best International Film at this year's Oscars "The Teacher's Lounge" is a genuinely disquieting thriller and one that is all the more chilling since it involves children. It begins with an investigation into a number of thefts at the school with a child the prime suspect, (he is also the child of immigrants), but the child's teacher, (a superb Leonie Benesch), has considerable reservations about the way the school authorities are conducting their investigations. As she pursues her own line of enquiry what she discovers makes her question where she stands in her relationships both with the students and her fellow staff members.
The fact that Ilker Catak's film only once, and then briefly, leaves the confines of the school adds to its claustrophobic effect and the heightening tension. What begins as perhaps a small problem becomes a powder keg about to explode. Here is a thriller filmed with an almost documentary-like zeal and it's brilliantly played by the entire cast, adult and child alike. It's definitely a movie to put knots in your stomach and yet one that is ultimately deeply moving. Hitchcock himself would be proud.
Soleil rouge (1971)
Surprisingly good action-packed western.
As international co-productions go, Terence Young's "Red Sun" isn't at all bad, thanks in large part to its starry cast, (Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Alain Delon, Ursula Andress and Capucine). It opens with a fairly spectacular train robbery and it never really lets up after that. Best of all is the plot. You see, on that train is the first Japanese ambassador to the US and he's carrying a valuable ceremonial sword as a gift for the President. When Delon steals the sword and tries to kill fellow train-robber Bronson the chase is on to retrieve it with Mifune's samurai naturally taking centre stage turning this into a highly enjoyable Samurai Western, ("Yojimbo" meets Randolph Scott by way of Sergio Leone). Very handsomely shot by Henri Alekan, action-packed throughout, (the climax is an Indian attack), and, of course, Mifune and Delon add that touch of class if might otherwise not have had.
Nyad (2023)
Lifted out of the ordinary by Bening.
"Nyad" is yet another inspirational, true-life story, this time about how champion long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad reached the age of sixty and decided she wanted to fulfill her lifelong ambition of swimming from Cuba to Florida, something she attempted in her late twenties but failed at and it's distinguished, not so much by its story, exciting as it is, but by a terrific performance by Annette Bening in the title role. Indeed Bening is so good she lifts the movie out of the realms of the merely conventional bio-pic.
Co-directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi just seem to have sat back and allowed Bening loose on the material. Perhaps not knowing anything about Diana Nyad helped me to appreciate the handling better. There is a good script by Julia Cox, fine supporting performances from Jodie Foster and Rhys Ifans and it's beautifully photographed by Claudio Miranda and while it may not break any new ground on its own level it really is rather good.
Carrie (1976)
A camp horror classic.
A camp horror classic and one of the most enjoyable horror films ever made, "Carrie" was the film that really launched Brian De Palma and Sissy Spacek into the big time. Based on Stephen King's novel it's about the high school ugly duckling with telekinetic powers who is the victim of a truly cruel 'prank' at her school prom and who then uses her powers to take revenge on the perpetrators.
As Carrie, Spacek is simply magnificent and Piper Laurie, in her first film role in 15 years, is scene-stealingly brilliant as Carrie's mad-as-a-hatter mother. As somewhat over-aged students John Travolta, William Katt, Amy Irving and Nancy Allen work wonders with their formulaic roles. It's also, as you might expect from its director, ultra-stylish while the bloody prom climax and final shock ending have already passed into film folklore Almost 50 years on it still stands up and in 2010 was voted the greatest horror film ever made by the Guardian newspaper.
The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1951)
If it's not a masterpiece it comes close...
Trimmed to a sharp ninety or so minutes and 'told' in flashback, (Othello's dead, Iago's a prisoner), Welles' version of "Othello" is naturally more Wellsian than Shakespearean and is none the worse for it, (no written credits; they are spoken by Welles and it's visually stunning despite, or perhaps because of, the five credited DoP's).
It had a troubled production and was filmed over a period of three years so it's not just remarkable that it's as good as it is but that it exists at all. It's not perfect and purists may hate it but if it seems less than great Shakespeare, it's certainly great Welles. He's a wonderful Othello yet even he is upstaged by Micheal MacLiammoir's Iago. Suzzane Cloutier's Desdemona is a weak link as is Michael Laurence's Cassio but when everything else is so good that's a small price to pay. It's also a hundred times better than Welles' disastrous version of "Macbeth".