438 replies to this topic

[Televiper]

I've heard nothing but great things about this. Definitely gonna watch this now.

[New Blood]

Sweet Bird of Youth [Brooks, 1962] - What a disappointment.  I love southern gothic tales and I've been on a Paul Newman kick as of late but this just didn't click well with me.  I knew since it was based on a Tennessee Williams' play it was going to be melodramatic but this used melodrama at the detriment of the story.  I like the layers of Newman's character in which at first he's seen as a sympathetic character as he's trying to get his girl back from her overbearing, corrupt and hypocritical father but is seen as slimebag as he treats the faded and neurotic actress.  Rip Torn is really young in this and he plays the scumbag son of the girl's father and he's awesome in this.  Other than that, not too hot about this one.  On top of that, the ending really sucked and felt rushed and tacked on.

My current Top 21 of the second half of the 60s [65-69]:

Spoiler

2001: A Space Odyssey
Belle de Jour
Bonnie and Clyde
A Bullet for the General
Cool Hand Luke
Death Rides a Horse
The Dirty Dozen
Django
For a Few Dollars More
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The Great Silence
Hour of the Wolf
Midnight Cowboy
Night of the Living Dead
Once Upon a Time in the West
Persona
Red Beard
Le Samourai
Samurai Rebellion
The Wild Bunch
Witchfinder General

[jaedmc]

Persona (Bergman, 1966)
This is only the second Bergman film I've ever watched and I can certainly see his brilliance, and some the things he does with light and faces are pretty genius. It's not a long film, and yet I thought it could have been tightened up a little. I guess there were a few times I missed the value of what he was showing me. Still pretty great stuff and worth watching.

A Woman is a Woman (Godard, 1961)
This felt like an interesting experiment that taught me some neat lessons, but ultimately it's not a particularly great movie. The concept of using all his tools to involve his audience was cool in an interesting way, but I found it a little tedious in terms of story. It just wasn't balanced in that respect.

I'm starting to formulate my ballot to see where I stand and for organizational purposes, and I'm already beating myself over placement. I can't even decide on number 1. let alone 12, 27, 46, etc.

[jaedmc]

Late Autumn(Ozu, 1960)
This was my first Ozu and it rocked hard. Ozu, is fiendishly precise. He creates these amazing aesthetic rules and follows them perfectly through out. The key is that it never feels like it holds back the visual storytelling in anyway, it enhances it. Fun story about some meddling old doofuses (doofi?) that want to set up a widow so they can also set up her daughter. It explores the social side of the human condition in a somewhat light hearted tone, and it does it in a way that transcends Japanese culture, and allows folks from anywhere to identify with the subject matter. Some great scenes in the second half and some legit laugh out loud moments. I loved the female friend and the scene where the laid into the three old guys was tremendous. Really liked this, highly recommend.

After Ozu, I went on a Corman/Price/Poe run. I love it. LOVE IT.

Masque of the Red Death(Corman, 1964)
Fuck yeah, Vincent Price is a super diabolical asshole prince who's going to try and corrupt this little Christian lass while he and his fellow 1 Percenters hide in their castle from the Red Death. Awesome sets, and some pretty interesting development between the girl and Price make this worth watching.

Pit and the Pendulum(Corman, 1961)
Pretty cool story about a brother who shows up to investigate his sister's death. While investigating her husband, a mentally fragile Vincent Price, he finds out all kinds of crazy stuff about the family, and ultimately his sister. The ending was cool, and I didn't see it all working out the way it did. I think this is my favorite of the Corman/Poe Cycle so far.

Tomb of Ligeia (Corman, 1964)
Like all of these types of movies, atmosphere plays a huge hand in my enjoyment, and this film has a really cool setting. The story here isn't the best, but there's an ambiguity to what the hell is going on that I like. There's a somewhat "easy" explanation given at the end, but even that doesn't feel like the right answer. It feels like a late theory, just before the shit hits the fan. Was it a ghost? The cat? Hypnosis? Not sure. Could be some type of evil that we don't know, and I like that.

I could pad my whole fucking list out with movies like this. Love 'em all. Can't wait to watch more of them.

[jaedmc]

The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968)
Stunk. I thought I was getting a cool exploitation flick with motorcycles and miniskirts. Well... there were some mini-skirts...and some motorcycles.... but there was a whole lot of sitting around. This could have just been a 30 minute episode of a TV show, but somehow they stretched it to an hour and a half without including gratuitous sex and violence. The ending was the best part. Loved that. I actually cheered because it was something interesting.

The Fire Within/Le feu follet(Malle, 1963)
Great film about 24hrs in the life of a guy who's set on killing himself. Maurice Ronet plays the fella, and he gives a tremendous performance. I suggest you watch Purple Noon before this. The films aren't related, but Purple Noon is a Talented Mr. Ripley adaptation from 1960 and Maurice Ronet plays the "Jude Law character" in that. So to see him go from that guy to this character, which is a recovering alcoholic dandy ready to die, makes the film even more fascinating.

Rosemary's Baby(Polanski, 1968)
I know there's a movie club thread and I'll head over there to expand my thoughts, but I just watched this for the first time, and it blew me out of my shoes. Love this film, and it's now in my favorite movies ever list. Mia Farrow is awesome and Polanski does sooooooooo much amazing work through out. A directing clinic.

[ohtani's jacket]

IN THE YEAR OF THE PIG (Emile de Antonio) -- Vietnam documentary that provided the cover for The Smiths' Meat is Murder album. Explores the origins of the Vietnam war in a rather damning light on the Americans. Kind of slight, but interesting enough. I tend to get more involved in documentaries than feature films despite the fact I rarely watch them, but this didn't provoke much of a reaction from me.

GOLDEN SWALLOW (Cheh Chang) -- Come Drink With Me sequel that's not really a Come Drink With Me sequel. This is my kind of wuxia -- violent and bloody with a high body count. The finale is ridiculous. It's Cheh Chang taken to 11. A guy who should be dead about a dozen times over from blood loss ends up killing another thousand people before he finally carks it. Glorious.

HITOKIRI (Hideo Gosha) -- this struck me as possibly Gosha's masterpiece. It was like his version of The Wild Bunch. Yukio Mishima, the famous Japanese author who committed seppuku after a failed coup, stars as a naive and decadent samurai assassin who gets used as a pawn by a creepy Tatsuya Nakadai. It's entirely predictable what will become of Mishima, but it's impeccably stylish and an excellent film. And Nakadai is just downright creepy. It's kind of like watching Henry Fonda play the villain in Once Upon a Time in the West except it seems like Nakadai has no soul.

[jaedmc]

Yeah, you posted something. I've been hanging on to these....

Tales of Terror (Corman, 1962)
Decent anthology. Drunk and crazy Peter Lorre was a hoot. I didn't really dig the third tale until the zombie melted. That looked gross. Also, I think the theme from Jaws came from this movie. There's a moment in the first act where some music does the duhnuh duhnuh duhnuh duhnuhduhnuhduhnuhduhnuh and instead of the intrument hitting a crescendo, a woman screams and it sounds eerily similar. Crazy. Anyway, it's not as good as the other Corman/Poe works I've mentioned, but it is a lot of fun if you don't have much going on besides a bottle of wine on a dark Satuday night.

The Virgin Spring(Bergman, 1960)
The clash between paganism and christianity is handled well, especially when you add a cross conflict between faith and man. Some tremendous imagery and use of motifs. Probably the most accesible of the three Bergman flicks I've watched, and a lot tighter than the sometimes rambling Persona. Really really liked this.

Planet of the Apes (Schaffner, 1968)
I thought this was pretty rad. Heston was awesome and I dug the sets. Even the make-up looks primitive by today's standards, I didn't find it distracting at all.

Black Sun(Kurahara, 1963)
So this was interesting. You've got a Japanese hoodlum guy who loves Jazz. You've got a black G.I. who seems to have lost his mind and killed some one. Let's bring them together and see what happens. It's a pretty interesting way of calling attention to race in Japan. The Japanese character, Mei, tells the G.I. "I love blacks." because, all the black people he knows are pretty damn cool. Ellington, Porter, Roach, etc etc. And when things with the G.I. turn ugly the Mei responds with, "I hate blacks." It sounds racist of hell, there's even a scene in black face at one point, but it does call to attention the very insular Japanese point of view when it comes to outsiders, and people outside of the country can still relate to it. I can imagine some kid in the American suburbs listening to Kanye West and Jay-Z, saying the same stuff. It's a strange and wild buddy film that I definitely recommend to others on here if you can find it.

Viridiana (Buñuel, 1961)
I really enjoyed this, maybe more so than Vigin Spring. They explore somewhat similar stuff, particularly in the faith department. Viridiana is significantly more subversive than Bergman's film. The story itself follows a Nun(sort of, I don't know the rules, she hasn't said her vows) who visits her uncle one last time before he dies. Well her uncle is kind of a creep. Sort of. It's complicated. This kind of reminds me of Almodovar's films where people have strong flaws that you kind of want to forgive them but it's really hard to do. Really liked this one.

Mamma Roma(Pasolini, 1962)
Great film. It'll do well with me. Mamma Roma is this Italian prostitute that is trying to leave her life behind and help guide her teenage son to life better than what she had. Anna Magnani, who plays the title character, is incredible and it's worth grabbing just for her performance. This is probably one of my favorite discoveries since starting this project.


The Raven(Corman, 1963)
Another of the Price/Corman/Poe movies. This one features Karloff, Peter Lorre, and a very young Jack Nicholson. It's played more for laughs than I expected, but the atmosphere that I've grown to love from the other films is still present. I don't know who started it, but Nicholson keeps fucking with Lorre whenever they're together, and it's pretty funny. He just keeps picking at his clothes and buttoning and unbuttoning his shirt. Lorre keeps having to stop and go, "WILL YOU CUT IT OUT!" I bet this was a blast to work on.

[ohtani's jacket]

Glad you liked Viridiana and Mamma Roma, two of my favourites from this decade. Since you've been watching all this Corman are you going to delve into some Bava?

[jaedmc]

Sure, why not. Any recommendations? I know I've seen his Black Sabbath, and I think that's it. There's some cool shit in that flick so I know I'd definitely be interested in his other stuff.

And since I'm here...

House of Usher(Corman, 1960)
Price rocks the house AGAIN and this time it's with some blonde locks. MADNESS. It's pretty awesome to see him change stuff between all of these Corman flicks to make each character different and memorable. His Roderick Usher is like a combo of his character from Pit and the Pendulum and his creeper from Tomb of Ligeia. The two love birds aren't anything special and they kind of drag the second act, but man does it get wild in the final third. This is either my second or third favorite of the "cycle". It's also one, I think, 4 of these movies that features the same burning house cuts at the end. Corman, I love you, you cheap bastard.

[ohtani's jacket]

Black Sunday and Kill, Baby, Kill are his best films. Blood and Black Lace is good as well, though it's more of a thriller than a horror.

[ohtani's jacket]

CAPE FEAR (J. Lee Thompson) -- watched this on account of caley. Really good film. Mitchum is out of this world awesome. I wasn't really sold on the wife and daughter; it seemed to me that they should have been far more terrified than they actually were and by the same token Peck wasn't as desperate as he could've been, but I guess you can't expect that sort of naturalism in a studio flick. They're basically foils for the Mitchum tour de force. Nevermind, loved the film noir photography and some of the overtones are staggering for an early 60s flick.

[jaedmc]

I'll check those Bava's out. Plus, I really need to see that Cape Fear. Mitchum rocked my socks in Night of the Hunter, so that sounds up my alley.

The Milky Way (Buñuel, 1969)
Buñuel takes on the Catholic church in a pretty humorous way. This actually kind of feels like a Monty Python movie in terms of style. We follow two modern day beggars through time and space as they go on a pilgrimage. Along the way we meet Jesus, heretics, and I think the Spanish Inquisition. My problem was more me being really dumb with Christianity and Catholicism. I'm neither so some of the more studious observations were lost on me. I did get the more simple stuff like Nun's getting crucified(I've heard of those things!) Thankfully, my wife, who is kind of scholarly when it comes to the Bible was able to fill me in. But even with me at a slight disadvantage when it came to getting the jokes, I found myself entertained, and actually wanting to learn more about the the stuff so I can watch it again a learned man. So if any of that sounds interesting to you, you might like this movie.

The Last Man On Earth(Ragona & Salkow, 1964)
I think Vincent Price was kind of miscast here. Pains me to say it, too. He's great in the more quiet or dramatic elements of the film, but when it comes to chasing after a dog or running after a girl, or killing zombie vampires he looks... not good. Otherwise it's a pretty cool movie with some amazing imagery. It's kind of crazy how much it feels like Night of the Living Dead, from appearance and style. It's not as good as that movie, but it might be a good companion to that flick if you've got nothing to do on a rainy Saturday Night.

[Tim Evans]

Cape Fear is a awesome movie. Right up there with Night of the Hunter with Evil Mitchum.

Some 60's movies I've been watching:

Hurry Sundown (Preminger 1967
Michael Caine stars as a racist landowner who tries to steal land from a black guy and white guy in 1940's Georgia. I enjoyed this a lot as Caine was great in his role and so was Jane Fonda as his wife.  Only problem with it was Michael Caine's annoying son. Fuck that kid he was annoying with his screaming. Will rank high on my list.

True Grit (Hathaway 1969)
I saw this after a I saw the one with Jeff Bridges. While I enjoyed this one with John Wayne doing great as Rooster Cogburn, I liked the newer one better. Wasn't a big fan of Glen Campbell and the girl that played Mattie.

The Knack... And How to get it {Lester 1965)
Not a big fan of British comedies much but this was pretty funny. It's about a guy that tries to help his landlord pick up the ladies. Michael Crawford and Ray Brooks were cast perfectly as the two male leads. My favorite part was the "Rape" song part. Will be on the bottom of my list.

[ohtani's jacket]

THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? (Sydney Pollack) -- this was okay. The dance marathon was an interesting gimmick but wore thin after a while. I realise it was the depression but did it have to be so miserable? I kind of want some joy to go along with the misery to get the full movie going experience. Didn't really buy the ending either. The transition from them finding out that they'd be screwed if they won the competition to the events that transpire afterwards was weak, but the script and/or director struggled to move the film along in general. Fonda was pretty good, though.

TUNES OF GLORY (Ronald Neame) -- Alec Guinness' Glasgow accent is terrible but that aside this is a decent watch. I found my sympathies drawn towards the John Mills character and didn't know what to make of the ending. It took a rather dark turn, which made it a deeper character study than I expected but really sullied the Guinness character. Interesting turn of events, though.

DEATH RIDES A HORSE (Giulio Petroni) -- one of the quintessential spaghetti westerns mainly because of Lee Van Cleef. Low budget and derivative it's also consistently entertaining, which is what lands it in most people's top ten lists. Stylistically, it's no match for Corbucci or Leone but Van Cleef is so awesome that he holds the whole thing together. One of his best performances, IMO. Entertaining though it may be, it's difficult to imagine it being memorable in the least without Van Cleef at his finest. This is particularly evident in the way he carries a cast that doesn't have a whole lot of charisma. A must see if you like Van Cleef, which of course you all do.

[Televiper]

ohtani, on May 21 2012, 10:45 AM, said:

DEATH RIDES A HORSE (Giulio Petroni) -- one of the quintessential spaghetti westerns mainly because of Lee Van Cleef. Low budget and derivative it's also consistently entertaining, which is what lands it in most people's top ten lists. Stylistically, it's no match for Corbucci or Leone but Van Cleef is so awesome that he holds the whole thing together. One of his best performances, IMO. Entertaining though it may be, it's difficult to imagine it being memorable in the least without Van Cleef at his finest. This is particularly evident in the way he carries a cast that doesn't have a whole lot of charisma. A must see if you like Van Cleef, which of course you all do.

I'm seeing this at Film Forum next month. Very intrigued. I'm a huge Van Cleef fan. They're also showing Sabata and The Big Gundown.

[caley]

Televiper, on May 21 2012, 06:55 PM, said:

ohtani, on May 21 2012, 10:45 AM, said:

DEATH RIDES A HORSE (Giulio Petroni) -- one of the quintessential spaghetti westerns mainly because of Lee Van Cleef. Low budget and derivative it's also consistently entertaining, which is what lands it in most people's top ten lists. Stylistically, it's no match for Corbucci or Leone but Van Cleef is so awesome that he holds the whole thing together. One of his best performances, IMO. Entertaining though it may be, it's difficult to imagine it being memorable in the least without Van Cleef at his finest. This is particularly evident in the way he carries a cast that doesn't have a whole lot of charisma. A must see if you like Van Cleef, which of course you all do.

I'm seeing this at Film Forum next month. Very intrigued. I'm a huge Van Cleef fan. They're also showing Sabata and The Big Gundown.

Sabata's a helluva lot of fun and one of the most ridiculous westerns I've ever seen.  The sequels are nowhere near as good, unfortunately.

[Evil Ash]

ohtani, on May 3 2012, 06:03 AM, said:

HITOKIRI (Hideo Gosha) -- this struck me as possibly Gosha's masterpiece. It was like his version of The Wild Bunch. Yukio Mishima, the famous Japanese author who committed seppuku after a failed coup, stars as a naive and decadent samurai assassin who gets used as a pawn by a creepy Tatsuya Nakadai. It's entirely predictable what will become of Mishima, but it's impeccably stylish and an excellent film. And Nakadai is just downright creepy. It's kind of like watching Henry Fonda play the villain in Once Upon a Time in the West except it seems like Nakadai has no soul.

Awesome that somebody else even saw this.  Quite a few people rank it as Gosha's best.  I'd have to see it again to be sure.  I'm a sucker for the swashbuckling adventure of GOYOKIN.  Starting with HITOKIRI, Gosha's films take a distinct turn to the nihilistic.  Shintaro Katsu is fantastic, and Nakadai is one of my favourite actors of all time.

[ohtani's jacket]

Televiper, on May 21 2012, 06:55 PM, said:

I'm seeing this at Film Forum next month. Very intrigued. I'm a huge Van Cleef fan. They're also showing Sabata and The Big Gundown.

The Big Gundown is decent. Both the score and intro are amazing:

[Randy]

I know that Fail-Safe came out the same year as Dr. Strangelove and is basically about the same topic, but I really enjoyed it.  Especially the first telephone scene with Henry Fonda and Larry Hagman.  Also Walter Mathau, with his itellelectual arrogance, makes you want to punch him in the face.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

Haven't watched owt for about a fortnight, so Bande A Part was really the perfect film to get me back in the groove. I get the impression that Godard isn't particularly well-liked around here, but I always enjoy his stuff, and will probably have 4 or 5 of his films on my final ballot, including this one.

This is pretty typical Godard/nouvelle vague American B-movie homage stuff. A couple of low-rent crooks, Arthur and Franz, get tipped off on a big score by the naive Odile (Anna Karina). Between planning the heist, the two friends both make plays for Odile, who chooses the hard-boiled Arthur over the more sincere Franz. What I really liked about this film is the way that all the characters move in this highly-choreographed way. There's a great scene where the three of them dance together in a cafe, but even before that there's a sequence where they are all sitting together, but constantly moving chairs as they each try to affect their ideal seating situation (Franz wants to sit next to Odile, Odile wants to sit next to Arthur). There are sequences like this throughout the film, and it really plays up to what I love most about Godard's films. You get all these stylististic elements that could encumber the film, but they all feel so effortless and playful and spontaneous.