The Sweet Hereafter

The Sweet Hereafter is an award-winning 1997 film that tells the story of a school bus accident in a small town that kills 14 children. A class-action lawsuit ensues, proving divisive in the community and becoming tied with personal and family issues. It stars Ian Holm as a lawyer involved in the case. This is a quiet, personal film, dealing with individual lives and how they are affected. I watched it on Freevee.

trailer:

Spirituality and Practice says, "This film courageously and convincingly circles around the difficult themes of death, public and private loss, and the very human need to take some meaning away from inexplicable tragedy." Variety describes it as "a rich, complex meditation on the impact of a terrible tragedy on a small town". The Roger Ebert web site has a full 4-star review which concludes by saying, "This is one of the best films of the year, an unflinching lament for the human condition." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 98%.

Join me in a hot beverage

over at the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering.

Trilogy of Terror

Trilogy of Terror is a 1975 American made-for-television anthology horror film. It features three segments (being a trilogy of terror, after all...), based on unrelated short stories by Richard Matheson and each starring Karen Black. I don't tend to like anthology films, but not liking a thing is no excuse for refusing to watch something this highly recommended. I'm glad I tried it.

via YouTube:

Moria says it is "considered a classic of horror television." 1000 Misspent Hours says, "this movie stands head and shoulders above the norm for broadcast horror." Horror News has a positive review and an extensive plot summary with screenshots. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 92%.

Poor Boy, Long Ways From Home

Poor Boy, Long Ways From Home:

by Booker White, who died in Memphis on this date in 1977

I Lost My Body

I Lost My Body is a 2019 award-winning animated film. It's not a children's film. I don't know what I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised. I watched it on Netflix.

trailer:

IndieWire calls it "profoundly moving". Rogert Ebert's web site says, "“I Lost My Body,” a surprise winner of the Critics’ Week Grand Prize this year at Cannes (the first animated movie to do so), is a visually sumptuous slice of macabre storytelling..." Rotten Tomatoes has a 97% critics consensus score.

Weekend (1967)

Weekend is a 1967 French postmodern black comedy film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. As I write this, it's available here on Internet Archive. I watched it on HBO Max.

trailer:

Roger Ebert has a full 4-star review and says,

"Weekend" is about violence, hatred, the end of ideology and the approaching cataclysm that will destroy civilization. It is also about the problem of how to make a movie about this. Movies about The Bomb are almost never effective; the subject is too large. So Godard abandons any attempt to show us "real" war or destruction. Instead, he shows us attitudes: the casual indifference to suffering that saturates our society.

Criterion opens with this: "This scathing late-sixties satire from Jean-Luc Godard is one of cinema’s great anarchic works." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 93%.

American Splendor

American Splendor is a 2003 American biographical comedy-drama film about Harvey Pekar, the author of the American Splendor comic book series. The film, which is a hybrid production featuring live actors, documentary, and animation, is in part an adaptation of the comics, which dramatize Pekar's life. Paul Giamatti stars. This is not my usual fare, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I watched it on HBO Max.

trailer:

The Guardian reviewer explains why it's her favorite film. Roger Ebert gives it a full 4 stars and a glowing review. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 94%.

Tosca

I'm repeatedly told by people who know music much better than I do that opera is all about the music and can be fully appreciated as music without knowing the language. That may be for some, but for me opera is no different from musical stage plays. Opera is story-dependent as it's performed, and I can no more fully appreciate an opera in a foreign language I don't know than I can fully appreciate a foreign film without subtitles. Go ahead, judge me, but opera was originally performed for audiences who knew the language. My prejudices stated out in the open, I've been looking for videos of Italian operas that offer subtitles and have found this one at YouTube.

Tosca is an opera in three acts by Puccini to an Italian libretto adapted into Italian from a French play, and was first performed in Rome in 1900 to an audience who spoke and understood Italian. (Am I beating a dead horse here?) In this one it's performed by the Finnish National Opera, and I'd bet precious few of the audience members understand Italian, though they may all know the plot well enough to follow what's going on.

Enjoy!

Epic Tea-Time with Alan Rickman

Epic Tea-Time with Alan Rickman:

Please post something drink related and join us at the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering hosted by the Altered Book Lovers blog.

Jennifer's Body

Jennifer's Body is a 2009 comedy horror film, considered a cult classic by some. It's better-appreciated now than when it was first released. I watched it on Amazon Prime.

trailer:

 

 

 

That Memphis Train

That Memphis Train:

by Grandpa Jones, who died on this date in 1998

Murdoch Mysteries 42

a screenshot from The Hangman, Season 3 Episode 11:

The Europeans (1979)

The Europeans is a 1979 British Merchant Ivory film based on Henry James's novel with the same name. It stars Lee Remick. It's lovely, what of it I saw, but I didn't stay with it to the end. I'm not sure why... I watched it on Tubi. It's also free on YouTube.

trailer:

Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 80%.

Negative Emotions by Lydia Davis

image from Wikipedia

Negative Emotions is a 2012 short story by Lydia Davis. If you prefer your stories short, then you're going to love this. You can read it online here. It begins,

A well-meaning teacher, inspired by a text he had been reading, once sent all the other teachers in his school a message about negative emotions. The message consisted entirely of advice quoted from a Vietnamese Buddhist monk:
...

Limelight (1952)

Limelight is a 1952 comedy drama film starring Charlie Chaplin, Claire Bloom (who observes her 92nd birthday today), Nigel Bruce, Norman Lloyd, and Buster Keaton. What a beautiful story, a touching movie about what love means. I watched it on HBO Max.

trailer:

Criterion calls it "masterful drama" and "among the writer-director’s most touching films". Roger Ebert calls it "probably his [Chaplin's] most personal, revealing film". Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 97%.

Still life with glass with red wine and a peeled orange

Still life with glass with red wine and a peeled orange:

by Vilhelm Hammershøi, who died on February 13, 1916. There is an in-depth article on his art and influence at this link. There is a 4-minute appreciation here:

Please post something drink-related and join us at Elizabeth's T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering.

February by John Clare

February is a poem by John Clare. You can read it online here. It begins,

The snow has left the cottage top;
The thatch moss grows in brighter green;
And eaves in quick succession drop,
Where grinning icicles have been,
Pit-patting with a pleasant noise
In tubs set by the cottage-door;
While ducks and geese, with happy joys,
Plunge in the yard-pond brimming o'er.

The sun peeps through the window-pane;
Which children mark with laughing eye,
And in the wet street steal again
To tell each other spring is nigh:
Then, as young hope the past recalls,
In playing groups they often draw,
To build beside the sunny walls
Their spring-time huts of sticks or straw.
...

*******

This is a short biography of Clare:

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

What We Do in the Shadows is a 2014 mockumentary comedy horror film. This is the first installment in the franchise, which continues with a television series. This movie is great fun (96% Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus rating), but I find the TV series even funnier. The Younger Son has the movie on DVD. The series is available on Hulu.

movie trailer:

trailer for season 1 of the TV series:

Stargate

Stargate is a 1994 award-winning science fiction film directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Kurt Russell and James Spader. Mindless fun, which is often all I need in a film, and it did give rise to several TV series that stretched out for years and years and... I re-watch this every once in a while, and this time I saw it on HBO Max.

trailer:

 

 

Dracula: Prince of Darkness

Dracula: Prince of Darkness is a 1966 supernatural horror film directed by Terence Fisher and is the third entry in Hammer's Dracula series as well as the second to feature Christopher Lee as Count Dracula. It also stars Barbara Shelley. I don't see this movie streamable anywhere right now. I can't remember how I watched it. This is the kind of thing I'd encourage people to keep an eye out for at their local DVD store, but we don't have local DVD stores any more. I still mourn the loss of those opportunities.

trailer:

Diabolique Magazine closes with this:

Dracula: Prince of Darkness occupies a special place in Hammer’s history as the sequel that resurrected the Dracula franchise proper, after languishing for eight years. Stylistically it represents the kind of stately and patient storytelling that was Hammer’s hallmark, and which is almost nonexistent in today’s horror cinema. ...if you want to settle in for the evening with a good Gothic horror yarn, Dracula: Prince of Darkness suits well.

DVD Talk calls it "an effective haunted house thriller" TCM has an overview. Moria and 1000 Misspent Hours each has a positive review. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 81%.

The Pale Blue Eye

The Pale Blue Eye is a 2022 mystery thriller. The cast includes Christian Bale, Harry Melling (as Edgar Allan Poe), Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, and Robert Duvall. This is another film that didn't open to universal acclaim but which I liked. Melling, in particular, is an actor I'm appreciating more and more. I watched it on Netflix.

trailer: