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| gromit |
 Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2026 4:40 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9033
Location: Shanghai
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I've got a unique situation. After 30 years I'm leaving China. Heading to Albania long term if I like it. But I bought a huge amount of dvd's from 1999-2015 or so. The Golden Age of DVD piracy was roughly 2003-15.
So I have a huge amount of DVDs to give away. Fortunately I found a fellow movie lover who will haul them all away and appreciate them.
So I need to decide which dvds to take with me. I'll probably take a mere 20 and mail another 40 to my Euroself. I recently bought a cheap $20 projector and similar priced DVD player. So I have another 80 days to watch movies.
Last night was Death in the Garden a 1956 Bunuel action flick with conflict between miners and soldiers as the government decides to take over the diamond mines. Then becomes an escape jungle film. Simone Signoret has such a presence, as a somewhat haughty prostitute out for herself. The film is inessential, but nice to fill in some Bunuel. This was a joint Mexican-French production, before Bunuel moved to France. Michel Piccoli plays a self-righteous priest who gets mocked as often as respected. Bit of a nothing role.
Anyway, with time pressing, I'll need to decide which 80 films to watch/rewatch. The Machinist? The Descendents? Waitress? My Brothers Keeper? Pepe le Moko? Dead Man?
I guess I should prioritize films I haven't seen before. Which is why the Bunuel went on last night. Maybe I'll try to get two films in per day ...
But very tricky to decide which films to watch in the next 80 days. And which to give away forever ... |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2026 12:50 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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gromit wrote: I've got a unique situation. After 30 years I'm leaving China. Heading to Albania long term if I like it. But I bought a huge amount of dvd's from 1999-2015 or so. The Golden Age of DVD piracy was roughly 2003-15.
So I have a huge amount of DVDs to give away. Fortunately I found a fellow movie lover who will haul them all away and appreciate them.
Mazel tov! Southern Europe would be more my taste than China, so I hope it proves to be so for you.
Also envy your autonomy in weeding stuff. Married to a packrat/hoarder, it's not so easy for me. FWIW, I have usually found it rather liberating to get rid of stuff, with not many regrets. Once in a while an injudicious tossing comes back to haunt me, but it's often something that was just gonna sit in a box anyway. Might as well go to someone who will actually use it. That said, you should always keep a copy of The Wicker Man, because "Killing me won't bring back your godammn honey!" 😛 |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2026 7:46 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9033
Location: Shanghai
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I save things figuring I can use them at some indeterminate later. It's often true, but just as often I can't find where I put them when a need finally arises.
I was interested in Romania, but I'd need to get a job/have more income to qualify for a long term visa. I'd like to do a year in Bucharest and then move to Albania. But the one year visa is tricky, and I'm traveling with two cats. So one big move is better.
Albania is beautiful. Mountains, lakes, beaches. Just a ferry ride to Italy. Cheap Euro-flights. Still transitioning and modernizing. Some apartments look like US 1970's decoration. I'm a bit concerned the language (Shqip) is impossible and smoking mandatory. And the men really like doing alcohol shots with foreigners (everybody really). Good earthy people. Similar to Greeks, Macedonians, etc. They really like the US since we bombed the hell out of Serbia in order to stop the war and give Kosovo independence. Kosovars are just ethnic Albanians living in the ancient Serbian homeland. There's a Clinton highway, a George W Bush Blvd. A Statue of Liberty atop a hotel. I thought it nice the Tirana airport is named after Mother Teresa.
I'm pretty adaptable. Will just take half a year or more to figure things out. I will start in the capital Tirana and then see if I'd like to be in a smaller prettier place on the coast. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2026 8:18 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| Sic semper Tirana! |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2026 7:32 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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There will be things I miss in Shanghai. Free delivery. Paying by phone. My garden and many cat friends. But lots I'll be glad to leave behind, such as people coughing without covering their mouths (still! even after a pandemic and lockdown!). How loud everyone is. Everyone smoking (probably in Albania too). People everywhere, specializing at getting in the way, combined with poor timing. The omni-surveillance.
Poor social skills -- I'm convinced largely due to the Cultural Revolution, but also the one child policy, and pushing kids to study all the time without time for friends or fun.
The actual transition will be bumpy and I doubt you rent as good an apartment as if you had more time and knew the city and ins&outs better. Albania is highly bureaucratic, but once you get on the residency permit track, which you have a short time to do, then it's fairly straightforward to extend annually. 5 years and you get a green card. Albania hopes to join the EU in 2027 and hopefully that won't mess up my plans ... |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2026 7:54 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Recent watches:
I Die Each Day -- prison isn't much fun for Cagney & Raft
Dead Man -- odd film. I like weird journeys. The Neil Young score is pretty forceful. Draws attention to the music. Fits in. Put me in mind of Odd Man Out, where the hero is wounded and barely functional, while oddball characters determine his fate. The tracking and gunfights get a little repetitious. But between the unusual Nobody and the jarring music, you don't really notice.
Thelma & Louise -- well put together. I liked the music and its use. Geena Davis and Brad Pitt make a hot couple. The men are also useless grown children, prone to violence. The film isn't subtle. But it is good to see a female buddy pic. And men are problematic. Their decision to flee isn't really convincing. Though we all can make bad decisions, and maybe she realized that actually the shooting wasn't really justified at that point. I like outlaw and on the run films. Always seems a metaphor for life ...
Port of Shadows
There's a nice mood to this. Some of the views of the docks and port
have a sort of poetic griminess. Love the beret and see-through raincoat. And the baddies coats. Good dog part. Famous as a proto-noir. It's on the cusp of achieving something. But none of the characters are likeable. The bad guys are foolish. And maybe better if you understand French and the dialogue. Always feels like an interesting film, with fine moments, but lacking something and so a near miss for me. Perhaps my 4th viewing. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2026 8:31 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Seconds (1966)
The late 60's saw a willingness to make some weird and experimental films. Directed by John Frankenheimer, James Wong Howe cinematographer, music by Jerry Goldsmith. Rock Hudson in a rather out of character role. A lot of talent. A paranoid thriller with a sinister company at its core. But it never really feels convincing. How does this body replacement work? Why is Rock unhappy with his pretty nice new life and much better physical appearance? Well, sure there is a fakeness involved. But a good deal isn't explained. The films pace is sluggish throughout. Just seems like the plot and storytelling didn't fully come together. It's still an interesting film. But not much immediacy. Keeps the viewer at a remove. A film like Alphaville or Brazil are more effective in conjuring a world and a feeling of dread. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2026 8:32 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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My wife loathes Thelma et Louise, but I would have to rewatch to remember why.
If Albania allows Netflix, I would recommend Train Dreams, a beautiful poetic meditation on loss and finding meaning while living an isolated life in the PNW woods. The novella it's based on won literary awards and was shortlisted for a Pulitzer but they didn't give any award that year in that category.
Haven't looked at Oacar results yet, but it wouldn't affect my viewing picks anyway. I really want to see Hamnet, partly for its bardic subject matter, partly due to my ongoing obsession with Jesse Buckley. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2026 6:17 pm |
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Albania has apparently improved immensely since the Hoxha dictatorship (when basically they were a hermit dictatorship) and the later period of kleptocracy. They've really opened up to the world as of to make up for the years of isolation.
The country apparently is full of bunkers because Hoxha was expecting an invasion which never came (perhaps because there were so many bunkers). I wonder if they can use them for wine cellars like Switzerland's bomb shelters. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2026 1:11 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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World's biggest wine cellars are in Moldova. Two wineries each have like 100 miles of storage. We toured Cricova last year. We also slipped into Ukraine and spent three days in Odessa. This around Oct 1 2025 when the Russkies were predominantly bombing Kyiv.
When Kosovo gained their independence in the late 90's thanks largely to Bill Clinton, they naturally looked to Albania as a model. But soon discovered how backward and bureaucratic their fellow Albanians were, even poorer than Kosovo, itself a backwards corner of former Yugoslavia. So Kosovo had to looked more towards newly formed Croatia and Montenegro as possible models. It was a bit of a shock to them that Albania was so poorly run.
Kosovo = Albanians in the original/traditional homeland of Serbia.
Albania keeps almost busting out as a major tourist destination. I think it was named hottest destination in 2018 or 2019, then soon enough Covid took over the world for a few years starting early 2020.
And that knocked Albania back a few years of potential development.
Albania has beautiful beaches, mountains, lakes. Kushner is involved in some major resort project in the south.
We were in north Albania and the capital Tirana circa 2013. The whole economy seemed to be based on wooden furniture and car washes. The roads were terrible. Larry Summers famously said no one washes a rental car. My retort: he's never been to Albania.
It seems there are a number of infrastructure projects. Train lines, better highways. Apparently the road from Tirana to the beach town of Durres just 20 miles gets very congested. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2026 7:43 am |
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| I've heard that about Moldova, and that you can freely cross the border with Romania. There were a few years where Vampire wine from Romania showed up around Hallowe'en. It was, of course, a red wine. The company changed their production to an American wine that wasn't as good. The Romanian wine showed up under a different name, probably Werewolf. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2026 11:43 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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| Moldovans are basically Romanians who got trapped in the Soviet Union. There's periodic talk of merging with Romania, but it partly never happens because 2/3rds of Moldovans, including the president, have Romanian citizenship. So they have EU passports, can vote in Romania, etc. Such an escape hatch makes actually joining the EU by the backdoor much less urgent or attractive. Currently Moldova rationing electricity as the line from Ukraine was missiled. Moldova's infrastructure largely dates from the USSR Era, so their grid is connected to Ukraine more than Romania. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2026 12:12 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I have youtube on my TV now (I have a TV now), so Ive started watching some old movies.
An old espionage/crime noir, Dangerous Partners (1945) was kind of fun, both menacing at times and also a bit lighthearted. I liked how everybody keeps swapping roles and identities to scam each other.
And I always enjoy the slightly off-kilter charm and sass of Audrey Totter. While Signe Hasso's zany hairdo deserves its own credit. The plot is almost irrelevant (funding escaped Nazis). I didn't realize when I watched that it was released June 1945, which makes fleeing Nazis a much more immediate concern -- but we don't learn that until 3/4 of the way thru, so probably it wouldn't have altered my experience. Its a trifle with B actors, but reasonably entertaining.
Howard Hughes initially promoted Swedish Signe Hasso as the next Garbo, then lost interest. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2026 7:19 pm |
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Location: Shanghai
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Never really liked The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. Just seems clunky and poorly constructed. Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglass and even Stanwyck have little to do. Van Heflin is the protag and he wears on me after a while. He's like a cross between Cagney and Spencer Tracy, the latter another actor who annoys me. Heflin is supposed to be around 30 but looks and acts like he's 50. Seems he was 38 when the film came out.
I like the opening with the kids and then the switch to 17 years later.
The plot doesn't happen without the DA (Douglas) blundering badly and mentioning blackmail, before he knows that's what Heflin intended. Thus alerting Heflin something is up and a score is possible. A contrivance.
The DA has some goons beat up Heflin and drop him off in a ditch 28 miles from Iverstown. But since his car is still in the town, it cant be too surprising he returns. Did they expect him to abandon his car and girl and possessions and the blackmail angle?
Then there's the weird way all the females fall for van Heflin, even the DAs secretary, even though he's a gambler, possesses little charm, is just passing thru, and was a delinquent in town as a child.
There's just a lot that seems phony here. Lizabeth Scott seemed the only possible saving grace. But they keep her in Bacall mode, a sweet troubled lass. I perked up when she admits to Heflin that she just got out of jail and is on parole, but turns out she was railroaded and really is sweet and trusting.
I'm actually a big Stanwyck fan, which is why I rewatched this, but here she has little screen time, not enough to develop a character, as the film is concerned with plot. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2026 7:38 pm |
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| When I saw the title I was confusing it with "The Strange Love of Molly Louvain" which is a delight and very funny. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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