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Syd
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2023 9:48 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Seduced and Abandoned is the 1964 follow-up to Divorce Italian Style and was considered a comedy, which makes it sound lighthearted, which it is anything but. "Tragicomedy" is perhaps a better term, with a scathing examination of the Sicilian practice of the time that a man can seduce or rape a 15 year-old girl and if he marries her, even through force, all charges are dropped and they live together for the rest of their unhappy lives. This is of course done for honor, for which all sorts of atrocities have been done. This practice has since been outlawed in Italy due to a famous case where a woman was forced to marry her rapist. I'd like to think this film had some influence. This film doesn't play all that well in 2023.


Last edited by Syd on Sun Feb 05, 2023 10:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

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Syd
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2023 10:25 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Yesterday is that film where a nondescipt and under-talented Paki (I think) singer-songwriter is transported into an alternate reality in which the Beatles never existed and has the golden opportunity to be the greatest singer-songwriter in the world by recreating the Beatles songbook. Cute, but not really all that good, and you have to accept that he has gone through most of a decade with Ellie (Lily James) as his fan/best friend/manager and has never once made a move on her, which suggests he is too oblivious to have been accepted as the writer of those songs, especially since he has no other romantic interests at all. Some nice points on how sudden stardom can conflict with other people's real lives.

What I discovered is that apparently having the Beatles totally vanish, as well as several other random things, had no influence whatever on the history of the world.

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bartist
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2023 1:14 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
A sweet but silly film. For reasons you elucidate. Ignoring the butterfly effect, of Chaos Theory fame, does seem to be a failing of many alternate timeline movies. Really, any small shift in causality and pretty soon you're in The Man in the High Castle territory.

Or that famous Ray Bradbury story where the tourist steps on a Cretaceous insect.

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Syd
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2023 11:01 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
I always like going through old films and coming across films that I reviewed and don't remember seeing at all. If I were more conscientious, I would never have seen "Being Julia" more than once, because I hated it the first time and forgot. I just discovered it is based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham who also wrote the stories "Of Human Bondage" and "Rain" were based on, which I absolutely hate. (He also wrote "The Painted Veil," which was a pretty good Garbo movie which succeeded because it threw out half the garbage Maugham put put in his story that would have made it unwatchable.) I've decided he is the author I hate most in the English language. And yet we still have recent films made of his works. What is the appeal?

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gromit
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2023 2:32 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
I thought Yesterday was at least clever in getting people to listen to an unknown Pakistan guy sing Beatles songs. But it didn't really go anywhere or make much of the situation. Was okay.

I really liked Seduced and Abandoned on first viewing. A good deal less the second go round.

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bartist
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2023 3:39 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
The only watchable Maugham I've seen is the forties version of Razors Edge, and the Ed Norton/Naomi Watts version of Painted Veil. The eighties Razors Edge was not very good, though Bill Murray did a commendable job of trying to hold it all together. I have heard that the Laurence Olivier tv version (1959) of Moon and Sixpence was outstanding and was showered with rave reviews, but haven't been able to find it anywhere.

Would like to see the Garbo version of PV, now that I'm aware of it. You really can't have too much Garbo.

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Syd
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:33 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Isle of Dogs is surprisingly watchable despite being a Wes Anderson film in an odd stop-motion animation, which I accepted pretty quickly, In the near future, the mayor of Megasaki decides to deal with a crisis in the canine population, which has fallen victim to canine flu and other canine-spread diseases by exiling all dogs to Trash Island. It is hinted that some sort of brainwashing made people accept this. But the brainwashing does not extend to his adopted son who goes to Trash Island to find his beloved guard dog. And by the way, a cure to the dreaded diseases has already been found but the Mayor has to suppress this because he is the latest representative of a family of cat people who hate dogs. (And you can guess why the plagues spread so quickly.)

Very strange film*, but it does work, and confirms to me that Wes Anderson should stick to animation. He doesn't do well with humans, but here the humans speak in their native languages (which fortunately is English for one character) while the dogs' barks are translated to English. And the best characters are the dogs, anyway.

*How did this occur to anybody? Was it an manga that found itself under an English speaking director? It's one of the oddest films I've ever seen.


Last edited by Syd on Thu Feb 23, 2023 7:40 pm; edited 1 time in total

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bartist
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2023 12:04 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
Thought I had reviewed Isle of Dogs here, but can't find it at all. I remember liking it as one of Anderson's better efforts. But weird, yes. I wonder if the title in any way refers to London's financial district, which was built on an area originally called the Isle of Dogs. (I get the pun part of it, I Love Dogs)

At the time I saw it, IIRC a review mentioned that IOD drew inspiration from a 1980s film called The Plague Dogs. Which was based on a Richard Adams novel I see now when I wiki it.

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gromit
Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2023 2:14 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
Sight & Sound poll of Best Films has been out for a couple months. But they just got around to putting out the individual lists.
Someone compiled the Directors Lists:
https://letterboxd.com/alexanderson/list/sight-sound-2022-directors-list/
and if you click Read Notes, you can see how many votes each fim received and from whom.
or click this link:
https://letterboxd.com/alexanderson/list/sight-sound-2022-directors-list/detail/

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gromit
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2023 1:19 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
Observations & thoughts:

Agnes Varda was well represented. Probably boosted by her somewhat recent passing plus a push to recognize more female directors and more films focusing on female leads. I was surprised that Vagabond (#45, 14 votes) was more popular than Cleo (#53, 12 votes).

For a number of directors, I'm lukewarm on their canonical film, preferring other films. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is fine and a fairly representative mid-career Fassbinder. Notably, was his breakthrough film. But I much prefer the harrowing, emotional In a Year with 13 Moons and the more classical Veronica Voss, a Teutonic Sunset Blvd.

I'd take most Ozu over the revered Tokyo Story, which seems rather ham handed to me. Probably like There Was A Father best. Followed by some of those marry-off-the-daughter dramas, especially where she is headstrong and unwilling. I never seem to keep the Ozu titles straight in my head.

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gromit
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2023 1:20 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
...

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Syd
Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2023 12:08 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
gromit wrote:
Observations & thoughts:

Agnes Varda was well represented. Probably boosted by her somewhat recent passing plus a push to recognize more female directors and more films focusing on female leads. I was surprised that Vagabond (#45, 14 votes) was more popular than Cleo (#53, 12 votes).

For a number of directors, I'm lukewarm on their canonical film, preferring other films. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is fine and a fairly representative mid-career Fassbinder. Notably, was his breakthrough film. But I much prefer the harrowing, emotional In a Year with 13 Moons and the more classical Veronica Voss, a Teutonic Sunset Blvd.

I'd take most Ozu over the revered Tokyo Story, which seems rather ham handed to me. Probably like There Was A Father best. Followed by some of those marry-off-the-daughter dramas, especially where she is headstrong and unwilling. I never seem to keep the Ozu titles straight in my head.


I thought it was an odd list, but I like to see Agnes Varda well represented. With the exception of "Cleo from 5 to 7", I think her best work was in documentaries. I didn't like Vagabond.

I mostly like "Tokyo Story", but I like "Early Summer." "Late Spring" and "There Was a Father" a lot better. Apparently the poll favors people selecting a consensus film for each director which is not even he director's best film. Though I will concede "Tokyo Story" was a reasonable choice despite my thinking it wasn't Ozu's best film.

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Syd
Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2023 5:28 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Mirai is the animated story of how a four-year old kid learns to become a big brother after guidance from his sister's teenage self his great-grandfather's younger self and more. Our protagonist Kun is naturally jealous of the new arrival and all the attention paid to her, and that his mother has to go back to work although his father is working from home. Being four years old and having his life suddenly changed, he reacts like you'd expect a four-year-old to act, which is often a trial. There is an exceptional sequence toward the end where Kun gets to return home.

Director is Mamoru Hosada, who earlier directed "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" which I liked, and "Wolf Children," which I want to see. This one was the first non-Studio Ghibli Japanese film to be nominated for the Best Animated Film at the Oscars, and was a worthy nominee.

Hosada, by the way, was to have directed Howl's Moving Castle but left because the studio wanted him to make an imitation Miyazaki film and Hosada wanted to do it his way. It might have turned out better if he had.

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gromit
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2023 10:11 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
Vertigo far from my fave Hitch. In fact, I find it kind of silly and snoozy. Definitely Strangers on a Train for me. Then maybe N x NW.

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Syd
Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2023 11:29 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
gromit wrote:
Vertigo far from my fave Hitch. In fact, I find it kind of silly and snoozy. Definitely Strangers on a Train for me. Then maybe N x NW.


For me, also Strangers on a Train followed by Rear Window and maybe Foreign Correspondent or .The Lady Vanishes

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