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The Lady and the Duke (2001, Eric Rohmer)
“You’ll be your own downfall.” The Lady of the title is Grace Elliott, a Brit in France during the 1789-93 French Revolution. Actually the French title is L’anglaise et la duc but Grace is Scottish,...
View ArticleThe Romance of Astrée and Celadon (2007, Eric Rohmer)
Astree loves Celadon and vice versa, with the kind of suicide-pact love that mainly exists among 17-year-olds in tragi-romantic plays. His parents don’t approve so the young lovers make a public show...
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The Last Movie (1971, Dennis Hopper)
“You underprivileged bastard!” Iconic Hopper, slightly blurry: A strange movie in many ways. For instance, no opening credits then after 12 minutes it says “a film by Dennis Hopper”… then after 12 more...
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The Ceremony (1995, Claude Chabrol)
First of three Chabrol memorial screenings in September. I remember liking his Le Beau Serge and L’Enfer from the dark pre-blog days, and since then I’ve greatly enjoyed La Rupture and been slightly...
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Dr. M (1990, Claude Chabrol)
“All style, no substance.” “That’s what dreams are made of.” Dr. M, der Spieler: In between two highly-regarded Isabelle Huppert-starring late works by Chabrol, I watched this ambitious, now-obscure...
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Merci pour le chocolat (2000, Claude Chabrol)
After playing the hellraiser in Le Ceremonie, Isabelle Huppert is back to being classy and restrained in this one. She’s the first and third wife of pianist André Polonski – he had a son by his second...
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Merry-Go-Round (1981, Jacques Rivette)
When someone in the film world dies I don’t always run out and watch one of their movies – only when it’s someone meaningful to me, like Claude Chabrol, Dennis Hopper and Eric Rohmer. I once considered...
View ArticleRestrepo (2010, Tim Hetherington & Sebastian Junger)
War doc, watched with Katy because co-director Tim was just killed. Less explanation than usual in these sorts of things, and more combat than usual. The cameraman likes to be right there in the action...
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Tommy (1975, Ken Russell)
“Tommy is the only rock opera ever made” – Ken Russell Sad Ann-Margret’s husband is killed in the war. Some time later she goes on vacation and meets Bernie (Oliver Reed) at a resort. He moves in, but...
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Eduardo de Gregorio double-feature
Eduardo de Gregorio, cowriter of the great Celine and Julie Go Boating, died last month. I don’t know any of his non-Rivette works, so I watched one he wrote/directed and one he adapted from a Borges...
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The Hills Have Eyes (1977, Wes Craven)
Part two of my Wes Craven tribute, because when a horror giant dies just before SHOCKtober, memorial screenings are in order. I used to have this movie’s sequel on VHS (bought at a garage sale), and...
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Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, David Lynch)
I have mixed feelings about this one. Felt like Lynch already reclaimed Twin Peaks for himself in the final episode of the series. Sheryl Lee is great, and it’s a good movie about her increasingly...
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The Band’s Visit (2007, Eran Kolirin)
It’s Cannes Month and Kolirin’s new movie will be premiering, so per the Festifest 2.0 rules, I wanted to watch his most acclaimed previous movie. Also, the lead actress just died, and I’ve never seen...
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Shirin (2008, Abbas Kiarostami)
Fourth of July memorial screening for the great Abbas Kiarostami. As mentioned before, the rosetta stone document that kicked off my art cinema craze was Jonathan Rosenbaum’s top-ten of the 1990’s...
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The Bellboy (1960, Jerry Lewis)
Memorial screening for Jerry Lewis. I’d never seen this, didn’t realize it’s semi-plotless, casting a mute Jerry as one of many bellboys at a luxury hotel and throwing him into situations. Apparently...
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Lifeforce (1985, Tobe Hooper)
In memory of two recently-departed horror directors, who made some of the best horror films in history, I caught up with two of their worst pictures… To begin with, a bullshit voiceover lets us know...
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Monkey Shines (1988, George Romero)
Part of a Late Horror Masters’ Lesser Works double-feature. Opens with a disclaimer about the treatment of the movie’s monkeys, but they never appeared to be in any convincing danger, except maybe in...
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My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999, Isao Takahata)
Based on the style of newspaper comics, the animation has unfinished backgrounds that fade away on the edges, reminding me (in a good way) of Ernest & Celestine. Married couple, older schoolboy,...
View ArticleA Silent Voice (2016 Naoko Yamada)
A middle-school bully turned high-school pariah tries to humbly make amends, finds it isn’t so simple, goes on adventures. Multiple suicide attempts later, our group of misfits manages to find some...
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