WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[MissGoddess]

For example, are you familiar with the concert work by Gustave Holst (English, even if his name wasn't) called "The Planets?" You can hear direct quotes and/or echoes of it in just about every orchestrated score for sci-fi flicks from the 1960s on (that is, scores using orchestras rather than electronic sounds). Williams is not innocent on that front, either, and composer James Horner is an even more obvious Holst-imitator.

What you say doesn't surprise me. There was one particular refrain in the Korngold score that sounded exactly like
the Star Wars (or is it Superman?) theme.

I'm not familiar with the name of Gustave Holst, but I bet if I hear that piece I'll recognize it.

[jdb1]

Now that I think of it -- as an example, if you are familiar with the "attack" music frequently used on the original Star Trek when starships engaged in battle -- it's very similar to the main theme from "Mars: Bringer of War" in Holst's "The Planets." In fact, I've heard the "Mars" theme itself in several TV commercials lately. (By the way, "The Planets" was composed around the time of the First World War, and still sounds eminently appropriate today.)

Here's how it goes:

[youtube][/youtube]

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Onibaba last night, directed by Kaneto Shinoda. It is a very beautiful film, the long swaying grass that is integral to the story is captured so beautifully and given life on the soundtrack, giving the grass a power and atomosphere that drives the story and what a story. Set in the 14th century Japan a man is forced to join the army to fight in the fuedal lord's wars. He leaves his mother and wife behind, they would starve if they didn't take to killing all the samurai on the way back from the war when they lie down to sleep in the long grass, they strip their bodies and throw the bodies down a deep hole on the ground. A deserter comes back from the war and tells of the death of the son. Soon the daughter in law and the deserter are meeting secretly and making love behind the back of the old woman. The old woman soon finds out and his jealous but does not know how to seperate them. One night she comes across a samurai who wants to find the road back to Kyoto but he is lost. He wears the mask on a demon. The old woman walks him to the hole in the ground that he doesn't see in the dark on the night and he falls to his death. The women climbs into the hole to rescue the treasure and the mask which she then uses to scare her daughter in law on her nightly assignations. She is forced to reveal to the daughter in law that it is she who was frightening her, the demon mask has attached itself to her face and won't come off, not seeing the mthoer in law falls to her death in the hole.

The film is powerful, there is partial nudity, not gratutious but not always necessary. It was made in the same year as Woman of the Dunes and shares many similarities.

[feaito]

"Vicki" (1953)

Yesterday I finished watching this Noir-Thriller starring the gorgeously beautiful actresses Jeanne Crain and Jean Peters. It’s a remake of the Betty Grable- Carole Landis 1941 film “I Wake Up Screaming”, which I haven’t seen.

Jean plays the title character; she works in a Cafeteria and becomes -rather abruptly- a famous model and cover girl, thanks to the aid of a Promoter (Elliott Reid), a Columnist (Casey Adams) and a untalented actor (Alex D’Arcy). Jeanne plays her older sister. The film begins when Jean’s dead body is found by the Police.

The film is entertaining, but not more than that. In my opinion Jean gives a stronger performance tha Jeanne, whose dramatic moments are not always believable. Elliott Reid perhaps lacks a strong screen presence, but gives a decent performance. Richard Boone on the other hand, gives the best performance of the film as the cop who is in charge of the investigation of Vicki’s crime and who is totally obsessed with her. He plays his role intensely and one really begins to dislike him, because he’s completely unpleasant for most of the film. Only in the end one feels sorry for him.

It was a great surprise to see the legendary producer Aaron Spelling in a feaured role. Worth watching once.

[moira finnie]

Wow, Fernando, I was completely unfamiliar with Vicki (1953), the remake of I Wake Up Screaming, though even when he is in terrible movies, Richard Boone in the '50s is usually a pretty compelling actor. I do find it hard to imagine him stepping into Laird Cregar's role, however. I will have to look for this one. While I like Jean Peters, there is something about Jeanne Crain that has always made me sympathize with her. Peters seemed to have a broader range, especially after seeing her in Pickup on South Street (1953) and A Blueprint for Murder (1953) recently.

[feaito]

Moira,

On the other hand, I'd like to see "I Wake Up Screaming", since I've read that both Victor Mature and Betty Grable give unusually strong performances and Laird Cregar is superb! Jeanne Crain is very likable, but Jean definitely has the flashier role in "Vicki", which I rented in a Video Club -it's a Zone 1 Fox DVD release.

[MissGoddess]

I agree with Fernando's conclusions on Vicki---it's worth one look out of curiosity, but I
still prefer the original. Elliot Reed is no Victor Mature. Vic always managed to inject just
enough naughtiness in his characters that you couldn't be too sure if he "did or he didn't" and
that is perfect for that part. With Elliot---who cares!

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Smile of a Summer Night, it felt very unlike my other experience of Bergman. It's a comedy built around sexual desire or lack of them, it's not gratutious, I found it witty, ironic and amusing and in some places very moving. It's beautifully filmed and much of the action takes place in the most gorgeous house and summer pavillion. The actresses are stunning looking women, they drive the plot forward, the men seem to be merely pawns in their scheming. I need to watch some more Bergman to get a better idea about the director.

[Synnove]

I'm very glad you liked Smiles of the Summer Night. It's a bit different, but from what I understand Bergman developed a great deal as a film maker over the long period of time when he made movies. In the 1960's, for instance, he would deal with his themes in a darker way. The 50's was a lighter period. That's still the period I'm the most familiar with. The strong self-assured women vs. weak, emotionally torn men was also a theme in the 50's apparently. In my opinion no-one could do those women better than Eva Dahlbeck. I'm also going to have to explore more, Cries and Whispers is on my list.

I watched Radio Days, Woody Allen's film dedicated to the role radio played in people's lives in the 30's and 40's. It's really nostalgic, and also very funny, definitively one of his better movies.

[srowley75]

The Killing of Sister George had come recommended to me -- it was actually screening here in town a couple of weeks ago, at Lincoln Center, but between ticket price and car fare it cost less to purchase the DVD, so I did. I have to admit it was interesting even though I found all of the characters very much unlikeable. Coral Browne was the best of the lot, I think -- she was quite good.

I believe Bette Davis was up for the part of June/Sister George at one time, but she insisted Beryl Reid (who played the character onstage) also star in the movie version.

I derive fiendish delight from this film - perhaps it's because, aside from the unsympathetic nature of George's character, I can nevertheless identify with some of her anger and lately I honestly wish I had the balls to throw dignity and propriety to the wind and tear through arrogant and cruel people as she does. She's been used by people and thrown aside like so much rubbish. As such, she's wanting to get revenge, yet (abominably) she doesn't differentiate between the jerks and those who've been on her side.

Different people have different takes on the film's portrayal of issues related to lesbianism. Personally, I think it's treated as something that just is, though I do see Aldrich's film as (in a manner typical for him) exploiting that issue to compound the shock value. But outside of that, I don't see where it matters that much to the film's major theme, which seems to be that appearances and our perception of the truth are often so far off the mark that it's not even funny. In several instances you're led to make snap judgments about people or situations but as more is revealed, you realize there's more to it than what you think.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched one of the rawest and painful of women's films. Women of the Night 1948 is made in the style of Italian neo realism and is included in the Mizoguchi set of Fallen Women. Set soon after the war it follows the life of three women. Fusako who's baby is dying of TB, her teenage sister in law and her sister. Fusako's son dies of TB and she discovers that her husband was killed in the war, no longer wanting to be a burden on her husband's family she gets a job from a man who has shown an interest in her. His interest is more than having her as his secretary but for the time being it suits whilst he continues to try and seduce her. Fusako finds her sister, Natsuko again after two years and discovers her parents have died of malnutrition. Her sister works as a dance hall hostess. Not long after she discovers her sister is sleeping with her boss whilst she is at work. Fusako dissappears, the next we know she has been spotted working in the red light district. Her sister goes to find her but gets rounded up by the police as a suspected prostitute. At the hospital where she is taken she finds her sister. Natsuko has syphilis and is pregnant by the boss who is also an opium smuggler. She decides to keep the baby but drinks to relieve her misery. The baby is born in a women's shelter but dies. Fusako again goes to work on the street. There she meets her young sister in law who is getting beaten up by other prostitutes because she has trespassed on their territory. The story of the sister in law is probably the worst of all. She leaves her parents house and runs away to Osaka. There she meets a student who takes her for a meal in a restuarant, shown to a private room he attacks her, takes her money then rapes her. He then leaves her only for her to be stripped for her clothes by the women who have been downstairs in the restuarant. She in turn has no money to return has to sell her body.

This is no film showing the tradition of the geisha in Japan, it's about prostitutes who are at a much lower rung in society.

It's powerful, almost too powerful. The end of the film is Fusako pleading that no other women should have to live like them, can't just one of them have the chance to be set free, this scene is set amongst the ruins of a Christian church and images of the Virgin Mary. The film is sad because they have no choice, they would rather have family lives, all the women are prostituting themselves just to survive.

[feaito]

On the afternoon I watched an amusing, colorful swashbuckler starring gorgeous Maureen O'Hara "The Spanish Main" (1945) which was directed by Frank Borzage. It's a quite formulaic adventure film and only in certain moments between Maureen and Paul Henreid (who plays a good natured dutchman who becomes a Pirate), especially when they first meet and feel attracted to each other, one catches small glimpses of Borzage's talent in handling romance. Walter Slezak. whom I recently saw as the villainous Baron in "Once Upon a Honeymoon" (1942) plays the evil Viceroy of New Granada and Tallulah Bankhead's husband John Emery plays another treacherous character. Barton Mac Lane has a small role as a Pirate; Binnie Barnes gives one of the best, most colorful performances of the film as Pirate Anne Bonney and it was good to see so many familiar faces: Fritz Leiber as a Bishop, Antonio Moreno as Slezak's Commander in chief, Ian Keith, Mike Mazurki, Jack La Rue et all. Even Marcelle Corday, who appeared in many Silents such as "When a Man Loves" (1927), "The Scarlet Letter" (1926) and "The Flesh as the Devil" (1926) is also in the cast as one of Maureen's "Dueñas".


After watching this sawshbuckler I've only to watch "Frenchman's Creek" (1944) to complete the sawshbucklers that are pending in my Must-See List -and yes, to re watch "The Corsican Brothers" (1941), which has eluded me for many years.

[Birdy]

I'm in the middle of a Boston Blackie jag. No need to get to deep about it, but I'm interested in seeing what character actors show up.
I'm confused, though, I thought he had a mustache?
B

[feaito]

Last night I watched "Blindness" (2008) a movie that depicts an ugly world and that is hard to take at certain points. The plot is based upon a novel by José Saramago and is thought-provoking... a sudden, strange blindness epidemy affects a whole city...and the rest of the world? It stars Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo and is interesting but not a pleasant experience.

[MikeBSG]

"Onibaba" is a terrific movie. It is very powerful and makes me regret that black-and-white movies fell by the wayside.

Last week I watched a Soviet movie from the early '70s, "The Dawns Are Quiet Here." It is about a male soldier who has to command an anti-aircraft battery of women in WWII. It starts out with some comedy, but then a German patrol comes through, and several of the women die in the resulting fight.

It was so so. The action sequences were superb, but to get there, there was some mediocre humor and dream-like flashbacks that were really jarring.

BUT what interested me about the film was its structure. It starts with footage of an obviously 1970s Soviet woman in color. The WWII stuff is in black-and-white. The film cuts between the two, and we realize that the woman and her companions are in the same area where the war story took place, separated by 30 years. Then at the end of the film, the woman finds the monument to the fallen women and meets a now-aged survivor from the war story. The whole thing made me think of the structure of "Saving Private Ryan." I'd bet Spielberg knew about this film.