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marantzo
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2010 4:12 pm Reply with quote
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Only saw Tunes of Glory on TV. Terrific movie, and I love bagpipes.
billyweeds
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2010 5:46 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
gromit et al--Seance on a Wet Afternoon is indeed an amazing movie, the rare case where the thriller quotient is equal to the great acting and vice versa, and where both depend on the other. Stanley and Attenborough are magnificent (she was nominated for the Oscar) and make it an emotional rollercoaster as well as a chiller-diller. This easily could have become a camp classic in the hands of Bette Davis or someone else, but Kim Stanley never loses control.
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gromit
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2010 8:24 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928) – This wowed me. One of the best silent films I’ve seen. Very inventive camera work, from the golden age of silents. A great film for anyone who thinks silent cinema was boring. Would make an excellent contrast to the static early talkies when the sound room was as big as my kitchen and the camera was immobile. Just exceptionally vibrant and inventive, including great scenes of the rides at Coney Island.

The only problem is that it’s not out on legit dvd, which is one reason why it is overlooked & underseen. There is a decent “public domain” Bo Ying (Hong Kong) edition.

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Syd
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:05 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
The Avenging Conscience: or "Thou Shalt Not Kill": D. W. Griffith's last film before The Birth of a Nation, this film originally ran 78 minutes, which makes it a feature film. It's a horror film blending Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart with Annabel Lee about a man who murders his disapproving uncle so that he can afford to marry his love. However, his conscience conspires to make his life a nightmare. A strange film for Griffith, and one of my two favorite films by him. (The other is "The Musketeers of Pig Alley.")

Five Star Final: Not overlooked in its time - it was nominated for Best Picture, this is a searing film about the bottom-feeders of journalism, starring Edward G. Robinson as an editor who decides to boost circulation by revisiting a twenty-year-old murder story. The results are tragic. With Boris Karloff as an unscrupulous investigative reporter, one of the most loathsome characters in movie history. A pre-Code film which is finally available on commercial DVD.

The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
: Not entirely overlooked by pre-Code devotees, this stars Ann Dvorak as a girl who likes to take up with dubious characters instead of the innocent boys who loves her, and finds herself interrogated as the boss madam of a gang that is only in the police's imagination. Lee Tracy is the dubious character who comes to her rescue. Directed by Michael Curtiz, better known for Casablanca. Available on DVD in the Archive Collection.

Housekeeping: Christine Lahti as a rather sweet but rather mad aunt trying to raise two teenage girls. One of the girls manages to bond with her, though under the circumstances, it's difficult to say what the aunt feels for her, while the other girl is repelled and runs away. As near as I can tell, this excellent film has never been released on DVD.

The Wizard of Speed and Time: A satire of Hollywood filmmaking about a stop-motion special effects wizard trying to make a successful film for virtually nothing while one step ahead of the police. Expanded from a short film by a stop-motion special effects wizard who made a successful short film for virtually nothing. One of the fun things is that you get to see the short being put together, there seems no way it could turn into anything decent, and the results are delightful. Another film inexplicably not on DVD.

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billyweeds
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 1:23 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
Syd--All of your choices sound amazing, but the only one Netflix has is The Avenging Conscience, so it's now on top of my queue, but where did you get the other ones?
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Syd
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 2:12 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Housekeeping I rented from Blockbuster on VHS, Wizard I bought from Amazon, and Five Star Final and The Strange Love of Molly Louvain from a site that transferred public domain films onto DVD. All of them are for sale on Amazon.com, and Five Star Final and The Strange Love of Molly Louvain are for sale from TCM. (Archive Collection is from them.)

Housekeeping and Wizard don't seem to be available on DVD which is why they're not on Netflix. Five Star Final was only recently released on commercial DVD. I'm not sure why they don't have Molly Louvain.

The one that really surprised me is Housekeeping, since it stars Lahti, is based on a novel that was nominated for a Pulitzer prize, was highly regarded and is directed by Bill Forsyth, whose two previous films were Local Hero and Comfort and Joy. I have to think there's some sort of legal dispute.

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gromit
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 5:13 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
Haven't seen any of those Syd.
I really want to see more DW Griffith.
I've only seen a few of the biggest film and some clips of others.

I've heard of The Strange Love of Molly Louvain, but I've been limited to the Warner pre-code sets, and a very few pre-Codes which have turned up here.

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gromit
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 11:31 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
I had a little bit of trouble deciding which films to select. Whether to choose fairly obscure films I really liked, films I loved but are very hard to obtain, or available films which should be seen more.
I kind of split the difference, mixing it up with some of each category, and sticking with films I would rec to anyone and everyone.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I also liked selecting different types of films: a silent, a doc, one horror, one surreal, and a tragicomic drama.


Last edited by gromit on Thu Nov 25, 2010 1:45 pm; edited 2 times in total

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gromit
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 11:35 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
The Shop on Main Street (1965)
My favorite Czech film, which is high praise.
Also, the best Holocaust film I’ve seen. Its genius is to focus on just a few individuals, and let us watch how ineptly a regular working-class apolitical guy gets caught up in the Nazification of the country. Basically, evil can triumph when average folks do nothing and go along, but handled in a tragic-comedy manner, with
great performances. Realistic and affecting.

This is in the Criterion collection so should be widely available. I remember that Yambu tried this based on my rave in the Best Film List forum, and he had pretty much the same reaction I did. Terrific film.


Last edited by gromit on Thu Nov 25, 2010 11:38 am; edited 1 time in total

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gromit
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 11:37 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
Three Crowns of the Sailor (Raoul Ruiz, 1983)
A rather convoluted tale told by a sailor who has traveled aboard a cursed Ship of the Dead. The tales all weave around and interconnect at times, so that the film, with its mix of fantasy and reality, forms a Borgesian labyrinth. Probably not for everyone, but I found this to be invigorating.

An intriguing film which has made Ruiz’s films something of a grail for me, but somehow they don’t exist in China. Maybe if I follow the sound of the foghorn down to the water's edge, perhaps I might meet a man, in the fog, who can tell me, perhaps ...

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gromit
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 11:38 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
Brother’s Keeper (1992)
Possibly my favorite documentary.
Just a few old brothers in upstate NY and the rural town they grew up in.
Oh, almost forgot, there's a murder trial too.

A fascinating look at poverty and how legal issues and social norms often apply poorly to those who are truly poor. Very well put together. A real wrenching, emotional ride. Not sure how well-known/unknown this is, but it’s one of those films I hope everyone has seen.

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Marj
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:57 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan
Since I wanted to rent The Strange Loves of Martha Louvain but that's unavailable, I'll skip from Syd to gromit's choices. I'm going to rent them all! (Well not a few I've seen.) However it may take some time. I'm cutting back on Netflix for financial reasons.
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gromit
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 1:42 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
Netflix just jacked up their rental prices.
They are trying to switch to being a streaming company, spending their money on servers and software instead of postal charges.

Marj, Shop on Main Street is a good follow-up to Focus. Same issues of how a corrupt ideology spreads based on fear and greed and other basic human emotions. But there's a good deal of black humor in the mix.

Did you know that Sinclair Lewis wrote a novel in 1935, It Can't Happen Here. I should probably try to get hold of that.

And don't forget that I put Billy's list and comments up on the 1st page of this forum.

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yambu
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 3:44 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 6441 Location: SF Bay Area
Bagdad Cafe (1987), with Marianne Sagebrecht (who?!), Jack Palance, et al. Sagebrech is this frumpy German spinster who suddenly shows up at a rundown motel in the middle of the Arizona desert. She's Polyanna in disguise, and quietly makes over everyone she meets, including a hilariously eccentric Palance. One character you will never forget is the Navajo sheriff, a giant of a man, with long braids hanging down his uniform blouse.
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billyweeds
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 4:06 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
Bagdad Cafe is a great little movie, with a terrific performance by CCH Pounder in addition to the others. Palance's performance is an acting class in itself. And the song that is the centerpiece of the cabaret act late in the movie is a real charmer. There's also the Oscar-nominated tune "Calling You."
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