Foreign Films, the list

Here are the top 25 from The Satyajit Ray Memorial Anything-But-Definitive List of Non-English Language Films:

1. "The Rules of the Game" (Jean Renoir)
2. "Seven Samurai" (Akira Kurosawa)
3. "M" (Fritz Lang) (watched 9/20/2007)
4. "8 1/2" (Federico Fellini)
5. "Bicycle Thieves" (Vittorio De Sica)
6. "Persona" (Ingmar Bergman)
7. "Grand Illusion" (Jean Renoir) (watched on 9/25/2007)
8. "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" (Werner Herzog)
9. "The Battle of Algiers" (Gillo Pontecorvo)
10. "The 400 Blows" (Francois Truffaut)
11. "Fanny and Alexander" (Ingmar Bergman)
12. "Tokyo Story" (Yasujiro Ozu)
13. "Rashomon" (Akira Kurosawa)
14. "Ikiru" (Akira Kurosawa)
15. "The Seventh Seal" (Ingmar Bergman)
16. "Ran" (Akira Kurosawa)
17. "Jules and Jim" (Francois Truffaut)
18. "The Conformist" (Bernardo Bertolucci)
19. "La Dolce Vita" (Federico Fellini)
20. "Contempt" (Jean-Luc Godard)
21. "Breathless" (Jean-Luc Godard)
22. "Ugetsu Monogatari" (Kenji Mizoguchi)
23. "Playtime" (Jacques Tati)
24. "Au Hasard, Balthazar" (Robert Bresson)
25. "Andrei Rublev" (Andrei Tarkovsky)

compliments of Scanners

Ones I've seen are in bold print. Pathetic, I know. Several are in my to-be-watched stack, though, so I'll be improving my numbers by and by.

9/25/2007: I'm making inroads and enjoying the films. I'll keep updating as I watch more of these.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Based on the novel with the same name, All Quiet on the Western Front won the Academy Award for best picture in 1930. It was #54 on the original AFI list of top 100 films but does not appear at all on the 2007 update.



The movie is a grim look at war from the perspective of young German recruits during World War I.

Wilfred Owen was a World War I soldier whose poem Dulce Et Decorum Est was published posthumously:

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

There is a lot of information online about "The Great War". Here are links to a few general sites:

FirstWorldWar.com

The PBS companion site to "The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century"

BBC

9/20/2007:

1001Flicks has a review.

Gattaca

Gattaca stars Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law. I loved seeing Ernest Borgnine. It's #2 on Wired.com's list of top 20 science fiction movies. The Younger Son and I both enjoyed this movie.

I appreciate the spirit of hope in this film. It's a dystopian world, but human effort and achievement can still be successful in the face of oppression. I contrast this with Brazil, which lacks any hint of hope.

The entire film can be watched at Crackle.

Napoleon

Napoleon directed by Abel Gance, is an epic (almost 4 hours in its reconstructed and shortened form) 1927 silent film. There is an intermission at the 2 hour mark. I had never heard of it before I ran across the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. [Oops, The Elder Son says he told me about this film on numerous occasions but received a cool response from me: "A 4-hour silent? Me? You gotta be kidding! I'd just go to sleep during it." My tastes must have matured over the years. Apologies, Elder Son.] The movie takes Napoleon from his days as a school boy winning battles on the playground to his appointment as a general leading the French army into Italy. It was intended to be the first installment in a series, but the other films were never made. It lost the Oscar Award to The Jazz Singer.

Its recent copyright history is an ugly thing, and you can read about it in the wikipedia entry and the links found there and in the links at this BoingBoing story. In 1981 Carmine Coppola composed a score for a reconstruction of the film and screenings of the movie were sped up to match the sound speed. This is the only version available in this country. The BFI version uses the original film speed and a different musical accompaniment. The film itself has no sound, being a "silent" film.

[The google video of the film that I had embedded here is no longer available, and I can't find it online now.]

Was that a hurdy gurdy I saw right after the intermission at about 2:02:49?

At about 3:34 I see the triptych and understand something of the effect this would have had when seen in a theater on a big screen.

9/20/2007:

1001Flicks has a review.

Foreign Films

Edward Copeland has announced The Satyajit Ray Memorial Anything-But-Definitive List of Non-English Language Films. Several of these are on the list from the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and I've been watching some of the early silents from that list lately. A few of them are on the Arts and Faith list of 100 Most Spiritually Significant Films.

I am excited to have this list as a resource. I have many wonderful hours of movie-watching ahead of me.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ahoy there, matey. it's Talk Like a Pirate Day! Wikipedia has an informative piece that tells about the founders and the history of the observance.

later:

We watched an Addams' Family tv episode called The Great Treasure Hunt, which had pirates, a pirate flag, a treasure map and edible doubloons. Perfect!

Pirate Comics.

Man with a Movie Camera

Man with a Movie Camera is a 1929 Soviet experimental documentary film, named 8th best film ever in the 2012 Sight and Sound poll. It's not really my "thing". I do like to keep an open mind, though, and it's just an hour long.

The Guardian calls it "visionary" and "transformative".

Roger Ebert has it on his list of Great Movies. The average critics score at Rotten Tomatoes is 97%. 1001Flicks has a review.

George MacDonald

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1905 of Scottish preacher, poet and fantasy writer George MacDonald. He was a powerful influence on G. K. Chesterton, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and recently deceased Madeleine L'Engle.

Phantastes, his first work of fiction, was written in 1858. It can be read online here, among other places. VictorianWeb has a section of their site devoted to the work.

The Light Princess, published in 1864, is one of MacDonald's most popular works. It can be read online here and on a single page here. Other links, including audio versions are linked here. It was well-loved by my children.

The Golden Key (1867) was one we read some when the kids were little. You can read this fairy tale on one page here or here.

The kids didn't like At the Back of the North Wind (1871) nearly as much. It is here, here and other links and an audio version are here. An illustrated version is here.

The Princess and the Goblin (online here) and The Princess and Curdie were read-alouds for us when the kids were little, but, again, these weren't the favorite repeat reads that some other books were. The first of these two was made into a film, which we have not seen, in 1993. Here's a clip from the movie:



My favorite of his books is Lilith, maybe because I discovered the legend of Lilith as Adam's first wife about the same time I discovered this book. It is online here.

LOST AND FOUND

by George MacDonald

I missed him when the sun began to bend;
I found him not when I had lost his rim;
With many tears I went in search of him,
Climbing high mountains which did still ascend,
And gave me echoes when I called my friend;
Through cities vast and charnel-houses grim,
And high cathedrals where the light was dim,
Through books and arts and works without an end,
But found him not--the friend whom I had lost.
And yet I found him--as I found the lark,
A sound in fields I heard but could not mark;
I found him nearest when I missed him most;
I found him in my heart, a life in frost,
A light I knew not till my soul was dark.

More information about George MacDonald can be found here, here at VictorianWeb and here. His son Greville wrote a biography in 1924 which is in print. The Columbia Encyclopedia entry is available at Bartleby.com. A short biography, links to related sites and links to online editions of his works are here.

Strike

Strike is a 1925 Soviet silent film telling the story of a factory strike in Russia before the revolution. Eisenstein's first feature-length film, he also made The Battleship Potemkin and October. There are a few powerful scenes, including one of a young child asking his father for his dinner and a graphic comparison at the end of the film of the defeated factory workers with slaughtered cattle.

9/20/2007:
1001Flicks has a review.

2/10/2008:
The video previously embedded from googlevideo is no longer available, but here's a 12-minute excerpt:


12/7/2008:
part 1:

part 2, part 3
The film's ending does not seem to be available.

R.I.P. Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time series, has died after a long illness. I saw the news at slashdot, who quotes The Chronicles of George:

"James Oliver Rigney Jr, author of the long-running fantasy series The Wheel of Time and better known to millions of fans by the pen name Robert Jordan, died on 16 Sept 2007 from cardiac amyloidosis. Jordan announced he had been diagnosed with the disease in March 2006 and vowed to beat the odds, but determination and gumption sometimes just aren't enough in the face of a disease with a median survival time of just over two years. Jordan was in the process of writing the twelfth and final book in the Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light, but the book was not slated for release until 2009 and is still incomplete. While there is hope that the book will still be finished from Jordan's notes, this is devastating news to all of us who have been reading the series since 1990."

obits:

Dragonmount

boingboing

SFSignal

Making Light

Cinema Blend excerpt:

As someone who’s read all eleven books, this hurts. Not just because now we’ll never know how 17 years worth of character development ends, but because Jordan seemed like a genuinely good person who loved what he was doing and loved his fans. Right now my thoughts are with his family and friends, but from now on whenever I look at his spot on my bookshelf it’ll always be to selfishly wonder what might have been.

9/17/207:

UK SF Book News

ThrowingThingsBlog has opened a thread.

TransWorldNews

Claw of the Conciliator has a nice report, including the information that Jordan was an active Episcopalian:

PS: In June, Jordan wrote this at his blog: For Piercy, I am Episcopalian, though rather High Church. I haven’t been up to attending services this last year, but either the rector or one of the deacons comes by to give me communion, so I feel that I’m not missing everything.

SFScope

DeepGenre:

Obviously it is a truism that we none of us know how long we have. And while some live a long life and come to its end feeling that they’ve accomplished everything they’ve wished for and are content with how things stand, many more go out with unfinished business or goals left unmet.

AP

BBC

9/18/2007:

NYT excerpt:

Known for its epic sweep, intricate plotting and large cast of complex characters, the series centers on Rand al’Thor, a humble messianic figure who must stave off the forces of evil that threaten to overtake the faraway land in which he lives. Along the way, there are perils and portents, fair maidens, fantastical deeds and the like.

In an essay in The New York Times Book Review in 1996, Edward Rothstein wrote, “Even a reader with literary pretensions can be swept up in Mr. Jordan’s narrative of magic, prophecy and battle.”

The “Wheel of Time” books have often been compared to the work of J. R. R. Tolkien in terms of their ability to exert a magnetic hold on readers.

Dark Echo

9/28/2007:

The Independent (HT: Locus online)

Ten Days That Shook the World

October is a 1927 silent Russian film that was made to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution and gives an interesting view of the events from a Soviet perspective. It was based on the book Ten Days That Shook the World, which can be read online here. I have a Modern Library edition but have never read it. Directed by Eisenstein, who also directed Battleship Potemkin (which can be viewed online here), it is a dramatic re-telling of the historic events. Dmitri Shostakovich composed the music on the video embedded below, but his name isn't listed in the wikipedia article or at the imdb site. The film can be viewed online here or at googlevideo. This version has English inter-titles:


update 2/10/2008: That version has been removed, but Maid Marian Classic Media has this:


I was intrigued by the use of the religious imagery and the contrast with patriotic imagery. In the beginning of the movie the pictures of revolutionaries toppling the statues reminded me of certain other statue toppling that was done during the initial stages of the Iraq invasion, and I wonder how long it usually takes for the less powerful classes to realize that they've made a bad trade.

Sherlock Jr.

Sherlock Jr. is a Buster Keaton silent from 1924. It is in the public domain and can be viewed at the InternetArchive or at googlevideo.



9/20/2007:
1001Flicks has a review.

8/23/2008:
Antagony & Ecstasy has a review as part of the Movies About Movies Blogathon.

Sunday Psalm

Psalm 51

1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

KJV

La Souriante Madame Beudet

La Souriante Madame Beudet (or The Smiling Madame Beudet, is a short silent from 1921 and is often referred to as one of the first feminist films.



9/20/2007:
1001Flicks has a review.

12/10/2008:
The House of Mirth and Movies has a post that includes this line:

The Smiling Madame Beudet is ripe with nuance and depth, and feels far more modern that it’s 1923 date suggests.

The Phantom Chariot

Also known as The Phantom Carriage, this film is a 1921 silent and is based on the book Körkarlen. The old legend is that the last person to die in sin on New Year's Eve must drive the carriage that picks up the souls who die during the coming year.

via youtube:

Viewing this film I was reminded of Whittier's words

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"

Part of this movie is a vision of what "might have been" contrasted with the wasted/wastrel life. It also pictures the influence we have on others and the responsibility we bear when we deliberately lead people astray.

I do admit to feeling irritation at the do-gooder who takes no care at all for her own health even when warned of the risk. Surely taking some basic precautions while serving the poor and sick does not reflect poorly on those who serve. Her careless sacrifice is held up as exemplary, but, while I agree sacrifice is noble, I don't think the sacrifice of her life was necessary. That needless sacrifice born of careless disregard for basic health considerations deprived countless others of care.

I'm bookmarking this film with my Halloween movies because it is a ghost story, but it is also a strong moral tale well done. It's that "well done" that sets this apart, as so many moral tales are sheer schmaltzy drivel.

1000 Misspent Hours says it "earns distinction is in its extraordinary structural sophistication." Slant Magazine concludes "Overall:"Don't get killed on New Year's Eve" and "give your special effects narrative agency" are among the crucial lessons to be learned from this essential Blu-ray." Senses of Cinema notes that

Sjöström and his legendary cameraman Julius Jaenzon (credited here under his pseudonym “J. Julius”) used double exposures in The Phantom Carriage to create the illusion of two worlds – one natural, the other supernatural – in the same space.

DVD Talk says it is

a spooky morality play. A campfire parable that is to the Swedish chill what Dickens' A Christmas Carol was to English winters or It's a Wonderful Life to the American can-do spirit in difficult times.

The 1001 Flicks blog has a review, as does FilmReference.com.

Speaking of SF remakes

Capricorn One joins the list of other SF films to be in line for a remake.

And Fantastic Voyage is up for it, too. I've read the book and seen the movie. I wonder what a remake will look like.

Star Trek Inspiration

Download a Star Trek inspirational poster of your very own. I had a hard time picking, but settled on the Kirk/Spock one above.

Logan's Run

Since they are planning a remake of Logan's Run I wanted The Younger Son to see the original. Michael York was the main star in this one, but Peter Ustinov is fun. There's a trailer here. The Younger Son liked it ok but isn't putting it on his list of SFF favorites.

You can watch it online here:


The New York Times has a review. 1000 Misspent Hours gives it some praise but ends with this: "it’s a hell of a lot better than Rollerball." Moria notes "it received an almost universal panning from mainstream critics and genre fans alike," and describes it as

a film that seems like it is made by middle-aged conservatives who can’t understand what youth is rebelling about and believes that what they really need is to forsake hedonism and make a return to traditional respect for one’s elders, for the sanctity of family and marriage and the American flag.

Roger Ebert likes it, saying

is a vast, silly extravaganza that delivers a certain amount of fun, once it stops taking itself seriously.

and that it

has wit enough to work on such a level; even while we're chuckling at such an audacious use of cliche, we're having fun.

SciFi.com ends its review with this:

Despite its Oscar, this is not a special effects movie; it is a philosophy and character movie that adroitly uses effects (and action and sex). Though at times campy and problematic, in some ways Logan's Run exemplifies how a science fiction film should be made.

Stomp Tokyo starts with this:

Upon your admission that you've never seen Logan's Run, a friend or family member may turn to you and say: "You've never seen Logan's Run? What do you mean, you've never seen Logan's Run?" It's that sort of movie.

Les Vampires, 2nd Half

Click here to see parts 1-5

Parts 6-10:

Part 6 -Hypnotic Eyes:


Part 7 -Satanus:


Part 8 -The Thunder Master:


Part 9 -The Poisoner:


Part 10 -The Terrible Wedding:


9/20/2007:

1001Flicks has a review.

Les Vampires

This is on the list of 1001 must-see movies I posted on earlier. I can see that I'll have to buy this book. The list is interesting, but it tells me nothing about why these particular movies are listed. I guess that's why lists aren't copy-rightable.

Anyway, tonight I started watching Les Vampires, a 1915 silent French detective story. FilmReference.com says

It is the anarchistic view of society, the supreme disregard of logic—so appropriate when the old social order of Europe was crumbling under the impact of World War I—which led André Breton and Louis Aragon to see in Les vampires "the reality of this century. Beyond fashion. Beyond taste."

The review at FilmsdeFrance.com says

Les Vampires is widely regarded as a masterpiece of the crime/thriller genre (made long before the genre had been established). The series has entered into French popular culture, providing a great inspiration to successive generations of writers and film-makers. Famously it had an impact on the surrealists, notably André Breton and Luis Buñuel, and also the New Wave film directors Alain Renais and Georges Franju.

GreeneCine:

A runaway hit in its initial release, which proved to be a major influence on the work of Fritz Lang and Alfred Hitchcock

I can't find this 10-part serial for sale on DVD, but it is in the public domain and is available online at Internet Archive and at youtube:

Part 1 -The Severed Head:


Other parts are also available online.

9/11 Quiz

from #comments:

Rio Bravo

Rio Bravo is a western starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan and Angie Dickinson. Martin, Nelson and Brennan get to sing. The movie has had two re-makes. It is #67 on the list of TheyShootPictures.com's top 100 films. It's on Images Journal's list of 30 great westerns. FilmReference.com calls it "one of the greatest westerns".

The New York Times says, "it is well-made but awfully familiar fare". Variety has a short review. DVDTalk calls it one of Hawks' best westerns.

My Rifle, My Pony And Me:



Cindy Cindy:



Rio Bravo trailer

Add to My Profile | More Videos

12/21/2007: Fruitstand has a review.
5/7/2008: FlimSquish has a review.
3/18/2009: Edward Copeland on Film celebrates the film's 50th anniversary.
3/30/2009: 1001 Flicks has a post.

R.I.P. Joe Zawinul

Joe Zawinul, Weather Report pianist, has died.

obits:

AP
BBC
Euronews
UPI
All About Jazz
Reuters


Weather Report:







9/16/2007:

Positive Liberty has a couple of links.

Some Like It Hot

The Younger Son had not seen it before, so The Elder Son and I shared it with him over lunch. Some Like It Hot stars Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe and featues Joe E. Brown as Jack Lemmon's love interest and George Raft as the bad guy. This is a wonderful comedy with one of the best closing scenes in film history:



Here's the trailer:


1/18/2008:
1001 Flicks has a review.

Recycle Everything

Well, almost everything. Co-op America has information on how to recycle stuff you might not have realized was recyclable. Some of them are not practical for us. For example, this one:

6. Compact fluorescent bulbs: Take them to your local IKEA store for recycling: www.ikea.com.

would require quite a trek, as the closest Ikea store looks to be well over 300 miles away.

and when I search for a local place for composting bio-plastics as this point suggests:

7. Compostable bio-plastics: You probably won’t be able to compost these in your home compost bin or pile. Find a municipal composter to take them to at www.findacomposter.com.

I get a local site that specifically excludes compostable plastics. Hmmm...

But there are good ideas there. I especially like this one:

21. Stuff you just can’t recycle: When practical, send such items back to the manufacturer and tell them they need to manufacture products that close the waste loop responsibly.

I remember at one point hearing the suggestion that excess packaging be removed at the point of purchase and left at the store. The logic was that if everyone did that the stores would insist companies use more responsible and less bulky packaging. When I do it the store personnel always look at me funny.

HT: treehugger

SF Movie Remakes

Sigh. I wish they would come up with new ideas. I believe in recycling, but this is ridiculous. It seems they are going to remake The Day the Earth Stood Still, Logan's Run and Tron.

The word I'm reading is that Keanu Reeves will be Klaatu and that this remake is set to be released in 2008. You can watch The Day the Earth Stood Still online:



but each person should have a DVD of their very own.

The Logan's Run remake is set for 2010 according to the IMDB entry. I was in college when the original was released. I loved Michael York as the Sandman. I also liked him as John the Baptist -I thought the casting for Jesus of Narareth was nearly perfect, and as King Arthur on Babylon 5 -I loved that series. I haven't heard yet who will play this part in the remake, but I have heard that it'll stick closer to the original book than to the movie.

We watched Tron not too long ago, knowing Disney was planning a remake. It would be a lot of fun for me if they could re-use some of the actors I've known and loved from both Tron and Babylon 5. I've seen no word yet, though, on who the actors will be.

I've been seeing scattered news of these remakes for ages and don't remember where I first heard any of it. I do know I've seen news lately at Cinematical

/film has a Tron article here.

9/12:

SFSignal has a Tron article, too.

9/11

Here's my post from last year.

Some current reports:

CNN
GetReligion
MSNBC
NYTimes
The Freedonian
Alternet
Tennessee Guerilla Women
Claw of the Conciliator
Respectful Insolence
Questionable Authority
Laelaps
Bad Astronomy
The Daily Helmsman
Henry's Web

Slapstick Blog-a-Thon Day 4, part 3

I thought I'd finish out the Slapstick Blog-a-Thon with a Marx Brothers Mini Marathon. I'm the only one home right now so I'm starting with The Cocoanuts, their first film, and The Boys can jump on board when they get home if they like. This movie can be seen in parts online. Click here for part 1 (and links to the other parts). Here's the "Why a Duck" scene:



I do think the Marx Brothers are funny, and they are a big favorite of The Husband, so we've saved the best 'til last.

We changed the mini marathon to a double feature and are heading to bed after seeing Monkey Business. This film is viewable online in parts, with part 1 and links to the other parts here.

Slapstick Blog-a-Thon Day 4, part 2

Offerings from The Husband:

In honor of the lost art of slapstick:

Harold Lloyd was great.

ditto Snub Pollard

ditto Charley Chase

and Harry Langdon

the Keystone Cops

But then, Dick van Dyke puts it all in perspective: he did this bit for twenty years.

See? I said he'd like the Slapstick Blog-a-Thon!

R.I.P. Jane Wyman

Jane Wyman died this morning at the age of 93. I saw the news here at Edward Copeland's blog.

obits:

AP
BBC
Reuters
Wonkette
CNN
NPR

9/12:

Movie Morlocks has a post on Jane Wyman's other movies:

Slapstick Blog-a-Thon Day 4

I thought I'd watch a bit of Chaplin on this last day of the Slapstick Blog-a-Thon. This video



contains these four shorts: The Immigrant, The Adventurer, The Cure, and Easy Street. I'm not a Chaplin fan and don't think these are funny at all. Easy Street was the only one of the 4 I liked, and it's just such a sweet story.

The Kid, online here:


was Chaplin's first full-length film. Jackie Coogan plays the title character. The visual symbolism is heavy-handed, and it does seem to be an overt "message" film. Still, it's sweet, too, and I liked it. It's looking as if I like Chaplin movies to the extent they tell a tender tale. Could be, could be, but there are ones I liked ok that weren't primarily sweet stories.

We have seen The Gold Rush, but we may have rented it because I can't find it here anywhere right now. The Husband and I both liked it, but he did think the wrap-up at the end was too quick. It can be viewed online at youtube in 10 parts. Part 1:

part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10

We have also seen and liked Modern Times.

We watched The Great Dictator a while back, and I see historical significance and courage in its making. But not comedy.

Shatner and the New ST Movie

I've been bemoaning the lack of Shatner in the new Star Trek film, and I loved this part of an interview he gave:

And then there's Denny Crane. What would Shatner like to see that randy ol' attorney do in the coming season? "I'd like to see him play Captain Kirk in the new 'Star Trek' movie."

Gotta love it.

HT: TrekWeb

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

The Elder son was interested in showing this film, and I'm always up for another movie. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is not slapstick but a different kind of comedy -a comedy of errors. This heist film has everything going wrong that can go wrong and a cliff-hanger ending that reminded me a bit of Michael Caine's The Italian Job.

trailer:
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - Trailer



12/4/2008:
/film reports that this film can now be viewed at hulu.

Slapstick Blog-a-Thon Day 3

Today is Day 3 of the Slapstick Blog-a-Thon.

We watched another Laurel and Hardy -The Lucky Dog, a short film and the first time the two appeared together.

We also watched Abbot and Costello's Africa Screams. We have the b/w version on DVD, and it can be seen in b/w here or colorized here. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a staple of our annual October Monster Movie Month, but I've never been much of a fan otherwise. Except, of course, for Who's On First.

Later we watched The Ritz Brothers in The Gorilla:

Not my cup of tea. Too much screaming and fainting, not enough laughs.

Sunday Psalm

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

KJV

Slapstick Blog-a-Thon Day 2

Today we observed Day 2 of the Slapstick Blog-a-Thon by watching a bit more of the Three Stooges -Disorder in the Court, which we have on DVD but which can also be viewed online at the Internet Archive and at googlevideo. I think the funniest part of that one is Curly's swearing-in bit. Here it is:


We also watched Laurel and Hardy in The Flying Deuces. We have this one on VHS and DVD (we'll pass the VHS on to The Elder Son now that we have the DVD), but it can be viewed online at the Internet Archive and at LikeTelevision. In this film Laurel and Hardy join the French Foreign Legion, which still recruits and serves.

We closed the day with Buster Keaton in Steamboat Bill, Jr., which we also have on DVD but which can be viewed online at googlevideo and at the Internet Archive. It is an interesting coincidence that Steamboat Bill, Jr. features a storm that has high damaging winds, rain and flooding, reminding me that this is the Galveston Hurricane anniversary. We have watched Buster Keaton in The General, but not since I started keeping this blog. More recently we have seen him in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (one of my all-time favorites) and as himself in Sunset Boulevard. Shoot the Projectionist evaluates 3 by Buster Keaton as part of the blog-a-thon.

9/20/2007:

1001Flicks has a review of Steamboat Bill, Jr.

The Galveston Hurricane

Today is the anniversary of the Galveston hurricane in 1900. It was the worst natural disaster in our history, with over 6,000 dead. Some estimates are that up to 12,000 people were killed. NOAA has extensive information, including links to contemporaneous accounts and period photographs. CNN has an in-depth report here, including maps and videos. Weather.com lists the Galveston Hurricane as 4th in their list of top 10 storms of the century. The wikipedia entry on the storm is here. There is a 90-minute History Channel special you can watch online here.

Here is a silent video from 1900 of workers looking for bodies in the aftermath of the storm:


Here's a video from the Texana Review, "scenes of devastation, wreck and ruin":


Here's a 1994 news report focusing on the beach-side orphanage that was destroyed in the storm:

A ship smashed into the building, the orphanage was lifted off its foundation and the roof caved in, trapping the orphans and Catholic sisters inside. The only survivors were 3 of the children who clung to a tree where they had washed up.

R.I.P. Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle has died. I remember when I first discovered this author and first read A Wrinkle in Time. She died Thursday of natural causes at the age of 88. We mourn her passing.

NYT

AP

Episcopal Life

Slate

New York Magazine

Reuters

Guardian Unlimited

SciFiScanner:

The genre's lost one of its most important figures: a wonderful woman who led children by the hand as she nurtured in them a lifelong love of science-fiction. She'll be missed.

SFScope has an article.

SFSignal reports.

Religion News Blog:

“Why does anybody tell a story?” Ms. L’Engle once asked, even though she knew the answer.

“It does indeed have something to do with faith,” she said, “faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.”

Obit Magazine

obit from Siris

Claw of the Conciliator has a couple of links. and a later post with more links.

9/9:

Salon.com:

Nothing was enough for L'Engle. As an author, she danced with demanding philosophical questions and toyed with quantum physics. She wrote about faith with devotion, dabbled in ethics, psychology, myth, art, politics and nature. And she blended everything into stories that describe the crushing complexity of a child's life in this century. Her books are timeless, but at the same time contemporary. She made art for children, real art.

A video tribute from NPR.

9/13:

GetReligion has a post with a personal touch.

Brazil

Tonight's movie was Brazil, the Criterion edition.

This film is the middle one in Terry Gilliam's thematic trilogy, the first being Time Bandits and the third being The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. I had already seen these other two and like them better. There's some hope in the other two, but Brazil is a dystopian nightmare, reminding me of Metropolis without the happy ending. I've read books that gave me this same helpless feeling....

Brazil is visually stunning. It is #5 on Wired.com's 2002 list of top 20 scifi movies. The Criterion Contraption blog has an extensive review here. We watched the Love-Conquers-All version here.

trailer:

The making of Brazil in 3 parts: (has been removed as I check on 12/1/2009)

It's Franz Kafka meets Walter Mitty

and that quote from the making-of series might be the best description I've seen.

3/4/2009: Flimsquish has a review.

Slapstick Blog-a-Thon

Slapstick Blogathon, Day 2
Day 3
Day 4, part 1
Day 4, part 2
Day 4, part 3

Day 1:
I thought The Husband might appreciate the Slapstick Blog-a-Thon, and sho nuf, he got out The Three Stooges VHS containing A Pain in the Pullman (viewable online in two parts, part 1 and part 2), Gents Without Cents and Termites of 1938 (view online here).

Niagara Falls (from Gents Without Cents) was one of the few Stooges bits I thought was funny, but we acted out Slowly I Turned a lot when we were kids. Here it is:

Sunset Boulevard

The last of the film noir we'll be watching for a while, Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 film starring William Holden and Gloria Swanson. This film is #17 on the AFI Top 100 list and #1 on the IMDB list of top film noir. I watched it recently and wrote a bit about it here.

trailer:

Roger Ebert calls it a "great movie" and "the best drama ever made about the movies ". In their 1950 review, Variety notes the acting: "Performances by the entire cast, and particularly William Holden and Gloria Swanson, are exceptionally fine."

12/22/2007: Film Noir of the Week has a review.

4/2/2008: 1001Flicks has a review.

8/18/2008: Movie Zeal has a review.

8/23/2008: Film of the Year has a review as part of the Movies About Movies Blogathon.

4/1/2009: Only the Cinema has a review.

Explosion?

Did you say, "Explosion"?


http://view.break.com/334365 - Watch more free videos

Now there's a chemistry experiment to get excited about. From a distance.

Dance With the Cthulhu Brothers

Dance With the Cthulhu Brothers.

HT: SFSignal

photo from wikipedia

International Harvester

The NYT has an article in their series on collectible cars which includes mention of the International Harvester Scout.

Dance Hall of the Dead

Book #9 for the Book Awards Reading Challenge

Dance Hall of the Dead, the second Lt. Joe Leaphorn mystery, was written by Tony Hillerman and won the Edgar Award in 1974.

Tony Hillerman is a consistent writer, and I was not disappointed in this book. Characterization was solid and the plot moved along and held my interest throughout.

from the back of the book:

Two young boys suddenly disappear. One of them, a Zuni, leaves a pool of blood behind. Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police tracks the brutal killer. Three things complicate the search: an archeological dig, a steel hypodermic needle, and the strange laws of the Zuni. Compelling, terrifying and highly suspenseful, Dance Hall of the Dead never relents from first page till last.

I enjoyed the peek into the different religious beliefs of some of the native peoples.

I loved this bit when Leaphorn and a couple of others are being filled in on their jobs in this case:

The FBI people always seemed to be O'Malleys -trimmed, scrubbed, tidy, able to work untroubled by any special measure of intelligence. O'Malley was still talking. Leaphorn looked at him, wondering about this FBI policy. Where did they find so many O'Malleys? He had a sudden vision of an office in the Department of Justice building in Washington, a clerk sending out draft notices to sll the male cheerleaders and drum majors st U.S.C., Brigham Young, Arizona State, and Notre Dame, ordering them to get their hair cut and report for duty.

There was also a Memphis mention -one of the characters was a graduate of Memphis State.

R.I.P. Pavarotti

Pavarotti has died of cancer at the age of 71.

obits:

Reuters
BBC News
CNN
Guardian Unlimited
Time
Billboard
Times Online
MSNBC

Nessun Dorma -from 1998 concert:


Ave Maria:


a medley with the Three Tenors:


another 3 Tenors medley:


update:
The Edward Copeland on Film blog has an article.

from Variety

update: 9/9:

Obit Magazine has a less flattering obit. It takes a while for me to see the more critical reports.

NPR's Farewell to Pavarotti, links to stories and audio reports.

Charade

Charade stars Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It also has James Coburn, who is a favorite of mine since I saw my first Flint movie. Younger Son thought it would be a much more serious film, but it is a romantic comedy as much as it's a suspense thriller. It has a distinctive style, with music by Henry Mancini and credit animations by Maurice Binder, the man who did most of the James Bond movies.

Here are the opening titles seen against the Mancini score:


Here's the theatrical trailer:


It is in the public domain due to a copyright oversight, and can be viewed online in 21 short episodes here. We have this DVD, but it is available as a Criterion edition.

9/12/2007:

I had a previous post on this film.

The Criterion Contraption has a review.

2/20/2008:

Criterion Confessions has a review.

Charade is available at youtube in 12 parts. Here is the first part:

Passage

Book #8 for the Book Awards Reading Challenge

Passage was written by Connie Willis and won the Locus award for best novel in 2002. I found this book impossible to put down. I would finally fall asleep over it at night only to pick it right back up when I woke up. Riveting. It's as much philosophy as science fiction -more so, really. And it has poor babes in the woods, poor babes in the woods:

My dear do you know,
How a long time ago,
Two poor little children,
Whose names I don't know,
Were stolen away
On a fine summer's day,
And left in a wood,
As I've heard people say,
Poor babes in the wood! Poor babes in the wood!
Oh! don't you remember the babes in the wood?

And when it was night,
So sad was their plight,
The sun it went down,
And the moon gave no light!
They sobbed and they sighed,
And they bitterly cried,
And the poor little things,
They lay down and died.
Poor babes in the wood! Poor babes in the wood!
Oh! don't you remember the babes in the wood?

And when they were dead,
The robins so red,
Brought strawberry leaves,
And over them spread;
And all the day long,
The branches among,
They mournfully whistled,
And this was their song;
Poor babes in the wood! Poor babes in the wood!
Oh! don't you remember the babes in the wood?

from the back of the book:

Dr. Joanna Lander is a psychologist specializing in near-death experiences. She is about to get help from a new doctor with the power to give her the chance to get as close to death as anyone can. A brilliant young neurologist, Dr. Richard Wright has come up with a way to manufacture the near-death experience using a psychoactive drug. Joanna’s first NDE is as fascinating as she imagined — so astounding that she knows she must go back, if only to find out why that place is so hauntingly familiar. But each time Joanna goes under, her sense of dread begins to grow, because part of her already knows why the experience is so familiar, and why she has every reason to be afraid. Yet just when Joanna thinks she understands, she’s in for the biggest surprise of all — a shattering scenario that will keep you feverishly reading until the final climactic page.

I've only read one other book by Connie Willis -Doomsday Book, which I liked.

A Case of Need

Book #7 for the Book Awards Reading Challenge

A Case of Need, written under a pseudonym by Michael Crichton and re-released under his own name, won the Edgar Award in 1969. It is a medical mystery centering on illegal abortions and thus is quite dated. It's a good enough story, though, and an easy read.

from the back of the book:

Was it murder? Was it horribly botched surgery - accidental malpractice? Was someone in the great Boston medical center violating the Hippocratic oath? No one knows exactly.... Only one doctor is willing to push his way through the mysterious maze of hidden medical data and shocking secrets to learn the truth. This explosive medical thriller is vintage Michael Crichton - with the breathtaking blend of riveting suspense and authentic medical detail that has made him one of today's most fascinating writers.

Sunday Psalm

Psalm 112

1 Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.

2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.

3 Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever.

4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.

5 A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.

6 Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.

7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.

8 His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.

9 He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour.

10 The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.

KJV

Hugo Awards

The winners of this year's Hugo have been announced. I saw the news here at the sfawardswatch blog. Best novel went to Vernor Vinge for Rainbows End. This book also won a Locus Award.

Otherlands

I've never been to Otherlands at night, but they are a good daytime coffee shop. They have a variety of coffees, some food, seating in comfy chairs or at tables next to a window or in a more secluded area... It's easy to get to and seems popular but not too crowded.

The photo is from the Otherlands myspace site linked above.

Guilty Pleasures

I had seen the Anita Blake vampire books in stores but had never read one, and when I saw The Elder Son with this first in the series I asked if I could borrow it when he was through reading it. I'm glad I didn't pay good money for Guilty Pleasures. The sleaze quality in this Laurell K. Hamilton vampire incarnation is a bit high for my taste. The wikipedia entry on the series says

Due to the increased sexual and relationship content, the later books are sometimes shelved in romance

but I can clearly see it coming even in this first book. I've never been able to develop a taste for romance; perhaps my active distaste gets in the way? I won't be reading more.

from the back of the book:

No one knows the dark desires of the soul better than New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton. In Guilty Pleasures, she introduces Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter. Anita's small, dark, and dangerous. But when the city's most powerful vampire comes to her for help, Anita is faced with her greatest fear--a man capable of arousing in her a hunger strong enough to match his own...

It figures that Anita Blake sleeps with stuffed penguins....