Great film. Have you seen Mon Oncle too?

And M. Hulot's Holiday? And Traffic? Traffic's the lesser of these, but all are better than your average social-critique-slapstick art film.

I have seen half of Mon Oncle on a badly dubbed video cassette before deciding to wait until I could watch it properly in all its Criterion Collection goodness. It's on my Netflix queue at the moment.


Indeed I have. Lots of fun. Of the two I'd rater Play Time slightly higher, but have a feeling Mon Oncle could top all three.


No, I was hoping to add it to my queue, but it's not on there...yet.

Also, I am tracking an Amazon release that seems to be impending which compiles Mon Oncle, M. Hulot's Holiday and Jour Des Fetes, which, from its writeup, sounds HILARIOUS

Into The Wild

Bad film. I won't say terrible, but definitely not good in most ways.

This film seems really divisive.

Just finished Wristcutters. I have no idea how I'm going to find a spot in my top 20 for all the movies I loved in 2007. I didn't think this was top 5 special, but could have been in a lesser year.

Great movie-making (production design, score, cinematography), mediocre movie (flimsy story, unlikable one-dimensional characters).

We're working our way through the Preston Sturges filmography. Great stuff. Amazing dialogue, preposterous situations brought on by the strangest deus-ex-machina characters. The Coen brothers make a lot more sense now. This one might be my least favorite so far.

Singin' in the Rain: Completely exubertant and fun musical. Although, that smartassed Cosmo got on my nerves a few times. I was a little shocked at how sexy the one sequence was for something from 1952.

Imo, Singing in the rain is hands down the greatest musical ever...and how could you put down Cosmo? Donald O'Connor's screen time in that flick is legendary

I like his dancing, but he's so darned smug. lol

Truth. I won't watch any other musical, each one is annoying as fuck compared to this.

edit: sorry Beth. Actually I've never seen The Sound of Music.

Why did they feel the need to dumb down one of my all-time favorite books? They get a passing grade for conveying most of Grenouille's life, but that [spoiler]hokey business of the legend of the pharoah's tomb...the way they made the first murder seem like an accident...and the time wasted showing the bogus failed attempts to harvest Laure could have been better used to demonstrate the subtle influences of personal scent, and lack thereof, in everyday life. They barely even succeed in showing Grenouille as the sociopath he was.[/spoiler] I'm so disgruntled, this may not make it to my mid-year correction list.

So that's the anti-Into the Wild, eh? Where you can only love it if you didn't read the book?

watching this now on sundance.

Apparently I was seduced by Ebert's grand review, he being a longtime fan of the book. I think they could've done a better job portraying what it was about had they used the narration where it mattered most[spoiler]--among other things, to describe Grenouille's discovery of the unique properties and impact of the first girl's scent among the vast inventory of scents he had memorized ("Grenouille suffered agonies. For the first time, it was not just that his greedy nature was offended, but his very heart ached. He had the prescience of something extraordinary--this scent was the key for ordering all odors, one could understand nothing about odors if one did not understand this one scent, and his whole life would be bungled, if he, Grenouille, did not succeed in possessing it. He had to have it, not simply in order to possess it, but for his heart to be at peace...")[/spoiler]

Bringing Out the Dead: I think this is, nah, I know this is, my favourite Scorsese. Manages to be at once a celebration of New York, as well as a condemnation. So many great actors, doing so much, and an absolute joy to look at. I seriously cannot fathom why this is such an underrated pic.

Not his best, but yes, very underrated.

Shadow of A Doubt: 1943 Hitchcock thriller about a young girl whose favourite uncle comes to visit, until she begins to suspect he might be a serial killer. Pretty fun, though I was continually distracted throughout by outside distractions, the relationship between the uncle and niece was a little questionable at times.

TV has been good today.

Hitchcock's favorite, for what it's worth.

That's what Robert Osborne was saying. I'd need to see it again to properly evaluate it. (PS: Why is Rose McGowan co-hosting with Osborne on certain movies? Carrie Fisher, I understand. Famous, succesful actress, if not quite an award-winning one, from a famous Hollywood family, but McGowan?).


Bullit: Awesome. I much preferred this to The French Connection. The car chase scene was real filmmaking bravado, and I love the way the soundtrack just drops out to emphasize the sounds of the chase.

The pas de deux with the ribbon, I presume? Hell, the whole movie is sexy. Goshdamn, but (18-year old) Debbie Reynolds was a cutie. If I were gay, I'd totally go for Gene Kelly.

Washington library downtown now has this for checkout, and believe me, everyone of you movie geeks should check it out. I didn't know anything about Chris Marker beyond La Jetee, let alone seen it--this Criterion package includes a nice little booklet putting his career in perspective.

Gene Kelly>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Fred Astaire

Part Monster- Saw this a few years ago in London and it was on tv last night.
and i realized how much i love this film, the final scene with the rat, gets my heart racing everytime.

The cover photo is completely unrecognizable. Is the whole film that clear? I think I've only seen this on VHS.

You are asking about La Jetee, I'm guessing...as clear as black & white photos go for this film, it's probably as best as Marker had intended. It *is* a Criterion release after all.

EDIT: Library bugs...don't expect this back in circulation until at least Thursday after I return it.

She was only 18??? Love this movie. My 2 year old has the entire dance sequence to Make Em' Laugh down, though she can't yet climb the walls.

Double checking 'net sources, actually 19 when she was hired...still....

The old vhs tapes were VERY shoddy. Although it is a shame if this DVD doesn't also feature Bambi vs. Godzilla.

Just as long as you're good at tap.





Also, in reference to the sexy scene I was talking about...hubba hubba.

Damn, I wish I had time to watch the number of movies you do, Caley. I miss those days.

I got the Don Hertzfeld DVD collection of animated shorts for my bday last week. Rejected is still the best, but it's interesting to see his style evolve. I'm not sure I understood his newest one, other than the experimentation with color and computer animation. I still prefer his humorous stuff.

I also saw Talk To Me this weekend. It wasn't great, but enjoyable. I love Cheadle in just about everything.

really nice doc. all about the 60's and the new art scene

What a jerk. My crush on 50s-era Kelly is officially done.

Excellent. If you enjoy a well done horror/thriller, this is for you. It's about a small town in Alaska that is approaching 30 days of night where the town gets completely cutoff from society. As that moment approaches, some strange thigns start occurring.....



Excellent again. Fast paced, interesting characters and great special fx.

I highly recommend both of these.

8 1/2: This is one of those films I watch and feel like I'm ill-equipped going in. I could see this being a huge favourite after years of film school, film theory, etc. etc. But, at the mo, it's just kind of interesting. There are stretches that really interested me, and stretches that kind of bored/irritated me. Mastroianni is quite good. I could see revisiting this later and being really in love with it, or revisiting it later, and disliking it quite a bit.

waitaminnit..Was that Stanley Donen or Kelly who said it (if it's true?)

Look at the three quotes from that post that you didn't reference, about Kelly being a giant douche. I think that's why the crush ended.

Too bad they didn't have pay-per-view fights back then. A 1950 cage match to the death between Gene Kelly and Bing Crosby would have been worth $50.

Romance & Cigarettes

I didn't know what to expect when I popped this movie in, but a musical was total surprise. Fun little flick with a spectacular cast.
Rent it.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The title is the biggest spoiler of all time. This movie went on a little too long for me. A couple of teriffic performances by Affleck and Pitt. Casey Affleck is quickly becoming a great actor. The slow deliberate pace of this movie makes the violence a little more shocking and real than if they'd made it all about the gun fights
Rent it.

What Bob said.

watched Cat People yesterday. still holds up and hey home alone father, i would have done the same thing @ the end. you are a true gentleman.

For A Few Dollars More: I liked Fistful of Dollars a bit more, but this was good, too. I liked the rivalry/friendship of Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef. And, as always, tremendous score by Morricone.


There Will Be Blood: Liked this quite a bit more on the re-watch. I don't know if it was expectations, hyperbolic criticism, or irritating people in the theater (Did you know the audience when my brother went to see actually laughed when [spoiler]Grown-up and deaf H.W. spoke to his father...seriously laughed at his voice![/spoiler]) but I wasn't blown away the first time I saw it. I was a lot closer to being blown away this time. Spectacular.

I had a similar experience rewatching NCFOM. The audience in the theater was very vocal in their dislike for the movie, and obnoxiously so. They probably left the theater early, walked in whatever Tyler Perry production was playing that month, and laughed their asses off.

Watching comedies in the theater is even more dependent on the crowd. I remember not liking Wedding Crashers at all when I saw it in the theater, because no one laughed. Same with Dumb and Dumber.

(cue smartass comebacks from people who don't like those movies...)

Um, it's entirely historically accurate. And it's pretty obvious from the beginning how that relationship is going to end. How is that title a spoiler? The drama doesn't come from wondering whether or not he's going to kill James. For me, this movie was all about the journey.

re: spoiler
tongue was planted in cheek

next time I'll be sure to include emoticons to better convey my whimsical nature.

I was gonna say, I thought I knew you better than that.

So I watched the original, Raymond Burr-less Japanese-centric version. It's still a B-movie, but laced with visual intimations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that make me wonder if the phrase "TOO SOON!" was shouted by sensitive Japanese citizens. Cool featurette about the construction of the Godzilla suit. It's all worth a look for historical perspective...I want to rent it again to view the Burr-version and hear the commentary.

i personally love this film.


but i did study it in school.