http://www.tcm.com/schedule/monthly.htm ... 2014-11-01
Kingrat, Le Silence de la Mer (1949) is fascinating but daunting in a way that most modern movies are not. The film has what I think of as very "Melvillian" sequences without much dialogue, as occurred in two of his greatest movies, Le Samourai (1967) and Army of Shadows (1969). For the most part, the speech that does occur in the film is a monologue by the poor German schmo of a lieutenant, since the old man and young woman whose house he is billeted in refuse to speak to him in a passive-aggressive kind of mute protest. It becomes more and more maddening for the Nazi.kingrat wrote:Sunday night has a Film Imports double feature I'm eager to see: LE SILENCE DE LA MER (SILENCE OF THE SEA) and LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES (on the schedule as "THE STRANGE ONES"), both directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, the later based on a work of Jean Cocteau. These have not been shown at least in the last five years, so grab the chance if you're interested. I've never seen either.
I am curious about the Cocteau-derived Les Enfants Terribles (1950) since many people hate it or love it--but few seem to just like it.
I am pretty excited about the silent stars feature that is running all month long on Mondays (and spilling over to Tuesdays) with a good variety of movies each week. The Mondays are each devoted to the ladies, the gents, the dramatic and the comic, with everyone from Clara Bow to Emil Jannings on the schedule [Maybe this is the trial run for my dream delusional month when Douglas Fairbanks & Doug Jr. might be the focus of the spotlight!]
One rarely shown movie on the schedule:
Our Mother's House (1967-Jack Clayton) @6pm (ET) on 11/12
The director who made The Innocents (1961), The Pumpkin Eater (1964) and Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) uses his skill with children and creating an unnerving atmosphere on screen to tell the story of a group of children whose mother has died and whose stepfather (?) is a very creepy Dirk Bogarde (they should have shown this on Halloween).
Bad Movies Alert:
11/11:
The Whip Hand (1951-William Cameron Menzies) @6:30pm (ET): with Elliot Reid as the saviour of the American Way, even though he seems to be a hapless guy who stumbles on a town with some big, honking secrets happening out by the old pond (Raymond Burr is wonderfully funny as the guy who runs the tackle shop). One of my favorite "Commies-under-the-mattress" movies.
11/12:
Torch Song (1953-Charles Walters) @ 2pm ET on Nov. 12th. Joan Crawford returns to MGM in the worst way imaginable. You haven't lived until you see this jaw-dropper. Marjorie Rambeau & Harry Morgan play the only recognizable humans. (Is this the last major studio movie to use blackface? Maybe, though the same year saw Warners using it with The Eddie Cantor Story, which was really horrible, not just entertaining in a bizarrely weird way).