Classics Around The Dial

[klondike]

I'll bet you're right about Claudine, Mr. A, and I'll sure be setting my recorder for it.
But even if it weren't, that one-sheet promo would still be a plenty hip piece - ya gotta dig the harvest gold background & those magenta titles!
Smokin'!

[Mr. Arkadin]

Roman Polanski's debut,Knife in the Water (1962) shows on IFC early tomorrow. This erotic tale of power and domination takes place on a sailboat, where a rich man and his beautiful wife invite a drifter to join them in a holiday excursion.

Knife in the Water holds all the basic themes that characterize Polanski's work, and although he's made many great films (Cul de Sac [1966] being my personal favorite) since, this is the one that started it all and influenced everything to come.

[mrsl]

.
Mr. A:

Could it all be an unrecognized, mental defense against his feelings regarding the deaths of his wife and child?
.

[knitwit45]

wooohooo!!!! Foyle's War is on tonight on PBS Masterpiece Theater. If you've never seen it, do! and if you are a fan like me,.......wooooohoooooo!

[movieman1957]

My bride and I have been watching the series from the start. She loves it. (So do I.) When it started and she found out it was after the war and we have only been through the first series she wanted to wait. However, they have been bumped up considerably on my queue. (She even made our son watch one. At first I thought he didn't like it but turns out he did. He couldn't get his head around the idea the British citizens could be so in bed with the enemy on that episode.)

Michael Kitchen is terrific. No one can give a subtle tongue lashing like he can.

[Mr. Arkadin]

ATTENTION!

IFC is showing La Jetée (1961) this afternoon. For the uninitiated, here's an old review I did:

Time is an interesting paradox. One may have more or less of it. It’s infinite, yet we only know it as finite beings. But what if time could be enclosed, captured and used as a vehicle? That’s the premise of La Jetée.



This French film, made in 1961 is not only unique in concept, but in it’s presentation as well. First of all, La Jetée (or The Pier in English) is a very short film—only about 27 minutes long. Secondly, the film is comprised almost entirely of still images (there is one tiny filmed segment) mixed with an incredible score and unusual sound effects. Director Chris Marker uses these photographs to help us visualize time as moments suspended in air and space. It also helps us identify with the characters and story, which is a simple narrative.

Our main character lives in the future after World War III has ravaged the earth. His memory of a woman he saw at the pier (or airport) as a child before the war is something he has held onto all these years and her smile has haunted him and yet sustained him through all the tumultuous times that have followed. He is a prisoner of war, but he is in good company as the victors are trapped below ground with him. The earth has become radioactive and no one can live on the surface of the planet.

Their only hope is future technology. Looking for men with strong memories, his captors feel he is a prime candidate for testing and they propose to send him into the past, reconnecting with his memory. If he can move through time to specific places, events, and make contact with people, then he will be able to be propelled into the future to find help and solutions to problems in the present—before the human race becomes extinct.

If the plot sounds familiar, it is. Terry Gilliam remade this film in 1995 as 12 Monkeys, but it lacks the simple beauty and grace of Marker’s original film. Marker was heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo (1958), which also deals with man’s obsession with a woman and his attempt to turn back time and remake her after she has died. There is one scene in the film, which is am homage to Vertigo where the man and woman look at the cross section of a tree as a means of defining time.

La Jetée’s magic comes from it’s ability to conceptualize time and help us to actually see it differently than our everyday experiences where it—and we—are in continual motion. This makes it hard for us to view life objectively. We become defined by what we do, not who we are and our relationship to others. It also helps us to see time as a commodity to be used before our own lives are spent.

While the end of the film is heartbreaking, it’s a solemn reminder that the past, present, and future are not isolated, but indeed connected. One cannot live in the past or future and deny the present. Nor can one escape from them. Like a pool of ever widening ripples, they touch all parts of our lives and we bear their imprint.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Ever wonder what Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) might have looked like in modern horror? Suspiria (1977), which plays on the FOX Movie Channel late tonight, explores many of the same themes, but ups the gore factor a hundredfold.

While this movie is not for the squeamish, Dario Argento's beautiful images, use of color, and revelatory score (composed by The Goblins) introduce new ideas while paying homage to older gothic tales and it's the quiet suspenseful moments (like the one in the clip below) that reveal his genius.

If you miss this showing, it will replay on the 24th.

NO SPLATTER HERE:
[youtube][/youtube]

[Mr. Arkadin]

IFC will be showing the Coffin Joe Trilogy this week, Monday through Wednesday in the late hours. If you've never experienced Jose Mojica Marins' foray into the bizarre, this is an opportunity not to be missed!

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1963):

http://www.ifc.com/movies/3191/At-Midni ... -Your-Soul


This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1966):

http://www.ifc.com/movies/138882/Coffin ... our-Corpse

Awakening of the Beast (1969):

http://www.ifc.com/movies/n001/n276/n760/n000.php

[Mr. Arkadin]

A quick reminder that FMC will be showing The Bravados (1958) tomorrow afternoon (10/21). Henry King's revenge western was a huge influence on Sergio Leone, who actually recycled part of the storyline (including actors and props!) for his celebrated For a Few Dollars More (1967). It's also one of Gregory Peck's best performances and perhaps his most overlooked film.

[movieman1957]

For Netflix users it is currently on their "Watch Instantly" list if you miss it.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Turns out the movie has been held over for another week (Showing on Tuesday afternoon):

[youtube][/youtube]

[Mr. Arkadin]

Fox Movie Channel is serving up something special this Saturday with Visconti's masterpiece, The Leopard (1963). Don't blink or you'll miss it!

[moira finnie]

Fox Movie Channel is serving up something special this Saturday with Visconti's masterpiece, The Leopard (1963). Don't blink or you'll miss it!

Below are all the times when The Leopard is currently scheduled on FMC. Ark, do you know if Fox is showing the restoration of The Leopard that was recently done, a project that was shepherded by Martin Scorsese?? I can't tell from the Fox movie site, which is pretty scanty on info.

November 20, 2010 11:00 am ET
December 5, 2010 12:00 pm ET
December 22, 2010 1:00 pm ET

[MichiganJ]

While I don't get Fox Movie Channel, for those who do I hope they are showing the restoration. It's gorgeous.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Moira, I've no idea. As you mention, FMC's listings are cryptic at best, but I would guess that they would be showing the restoration, since their films are usually decent prints and in the proper aspect ratio.