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Classic Movies

04:16 / 16.11.05

About 6 months ago, after being disgusted at all the crap that constitutes popular cinema, I decided that in an attempt to get more cultural (ok you can stop laughing) I would watch all of the films on the Sight and Sound critics list. Initially, it was tough to track some of these films down, but now, regardless of how masturbatory this list is, I have seen films like I never thought existed.

Films by Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Yasujiro Ozu, Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-luc Godard, Orson Welles, Francois Truffaut, Robert Bresson, Luchino Visconti, etc, etc...

These films completely pried my eyes open. I'd always admired the work of the American & British Auteurs (Hitchcock, Kubrick, Scorsese, Coppola, etc) but I never realised how much I was missing out on. Ground-breaking influential movies that made me realise how fucking good cinema can actually be!

The thing is: I want more! There must be more out there?

So I guess what I'm proposing is that everyone suggests one film that they suspect others wont have seen (foreign, obscure, old, arthouse, whatever reason....) and give reasons why others should see it. If everyone tries to "sell" their chosen film as much as possible, we'll all get more film literate...

Anyone interested?

08:09 / 16.11.05

I guess what I'm proposing is that everyone suggests one film that they suspect others wont have seen (foreign, obscure, old, arthouse, whatever reason....)

Which kind of leaves us all having to estimate what we think others might not have seen - which is itself quite a difficult thing - My brother's girlfriend refuses to watch any film in black and white and made after her birth (in 1980)...

Which kind of means not only has she never seen Citizen Kane or Casablanca, but she never will...

And, yeah there are plenty of flims I like that I have trouble imagining other people never having seen - films like The Third Man or Lawrence of Arabia - they aren't really obscure, but then again, neither are the films that appear on sight and sound lists...

But yes, if forced to pick and if you haven't seen it, I'd say you should watch The Third Man - a truly international film set in the bombed out city of Vienna shortly after the end of world war II.

Based on a story by Graham Greene it is, like much of his work, two parts thriller to one part farce - all told with a straight face with guilt and responsibility a key theme. Holly Martins is a writer down on his luck who is offered a job by his old friend in Vienna, but when he arrives he finds his friend apparently dead and his friend to be an even more shadowy character than he suspected... It's lighting is frantastic - both in the streets and beneath them...

Hmmmm I think I have completely failed to convey the merits of this film - I'm anxious not to spoil it - but yes, the scene on the Prater Wheel is fantastic...

Mister Six, whom all the girls

12:53 / 16.11.05

Agh! I was beaten to the punch for my favorite film, the Third Man!

Just to add another beat, it features possibly the best analyzation of the 'film hero' I've ever seen. The bumbling oaf of a lead is just classic and Wells' schoolboy-ish charm which is so innocent it stops bullets (not really... this ain't the Matrix, I'm just being poetic) is just genius.

I'd add the Betty Davis film 'The Letter' which I recently saw. The aspect of ambient sound and long pauses fascinates me in old films. It makes them feel more 'real,' you know? And a lot of old films center on colonial themes with rich white industrialists placed in foreign lands (in this case, Egypt). It's entertaining to watch everyone be so fucking polite and proper while essentially being quite sinister. Not a GREAT film, but still worth seeing.

And someone far better than I can certainly sell Vertigo, possibly the best film ever made.

Aside from Buckaroo Banzai, ofcourse.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

12:59 / 16.11.05

Ofcourse I go through great pains to suggest films over at my site every month or so: zebramag, but here are two (I'm unclear... do these need to be 'old' filns or just obscure or old and obscure??):

Punishment Park
With the Vietnam war spiralling out of control and increasingly unpopular with the American public, President Nixon declares a state of national emergency and Federal authorities are given the power to detain persons judged to be a “risk to national security”.

In a desert region in California, a civilian tribunal passes penal sentences on groups of dissidents but offers the alternative of 3 days in ‘Punishment Park’. Peter Watkins’ film vividly imagines a world where political dissidents are hunted down by the forces of law and order in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

As relevant today as when initially released, Punishment Park is a stunningly visual political film with strong elements of thriller. In light of Guantanamo Bay, the Patriot Act and the recent polarisation of political viewpoints in the US, the film represents a hauntingly resonant vision for the contemporary viewer. It is a savage indictment of American political consciousness from one of the most underrated of British filmmakers.

American Astronaut
Space travel has become a dirty way of life dominated by derelicts, grease monkeys, and hard-boiled interplanetary traders such as Samuel Curtis. Written, directed, and starring Cory McAbee of the legendary cult band The Billy Nayer Show, this sci-fi, musical-western uses flinty black and white photography, rugged Lo-Fi sets and the spirit of the final frontier. We follow Curtis on his Homeric journey to provide the all-female planet of Venus with a suitable male, while pursued by an enigmatic killer, Professor Hess. The film features music by The Billy Nayer Show and some of the most original rock n' roll scenes ever committed to film.

13:09 / 16.11.05

Sunset Boulevard

Co-written and directed by Billy Wilder. Starring Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond. The movie is, to the best of my knowledge, the first American film to feature a deceased protagonist during the length of the movie.

Norma Desmond is an aging film star. She used to be the best, the biggest. But as sound prevailed, her style of acting became obsolete. She hires a hack screenwriter to produce something for her comeback, but ultimately, that guy is killed.

The movie is a film noir in the sense of its style of film-making. The cinematography is dark and concealed in shadows. But the themes of the movie is not noir at all. This is almost metafiction; Gloria Swanson was also an aging silent movie star, but this movie was her "comeback" of sorts.

If the plot is uninteresting to other 'lithers, what should convince them is the screenplay. This film appears on every AFI Greatest... List including the quotes one from last year. Here's a couple classics:

Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small.

Norma Desmond: We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!

Norma: You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!... All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up

These quotes are almost iconic in an iconic movie (that was unfortunately turned into a musical by Andrew Blech Webber *shudder*)

13:36 / 16.11.05

Alex - Do step in it we are all being a bit too obvious -

Also - I think everyone could do with watching a bit more Hitchcock - even his worst films still have more about them than the current crop of cineplex fillers...

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

16:18 / 16.11.05

Three Faces of Eve? Despite being on extremely shakey psychological ground, the pulpiness makes up for it and the "non-fiction" opening and premise is sort of amusing. The cinematography is quite bland in places, but Joanne Woodward's performance is top-knotch, and the camera work does get better at one point mid-way through. It's also notable for the randomness of the musical number, which strikes me as an element of "classical Hollywood" which amuses me.

The original Psycho still impresses me with the abrupt shift in point of view; that's the kind of thing I keep trying to accomplish in my fiction and it only works about half the time...

01:18 / 17.11.05

Satyricon by Fellini is absolutely nuts, and a joy to watch for its over the top visual style. It's a story set in ancient Rome, but he approached it like a sci-fi film, presenting an alien world, and that certainly comes across in the film itself. There's a lot of disturbing imagery as well as some really funny stuff. Not everything in the film works, but it's a great trip.

I watched a lot of American stuff from the 60s and 70s this summer and I was really impressed by Midnight Cowboy. It's of those films that's been parodied a lot, and sort of accepted into the canon, but go back and you'll find something really raw and edgy. If you want to observe the direction of our culture consider that this movie won best picture, and then compare it to the past ten years of best picture winners. Nothing even approaches this level of grit or cinematic innovation.

Once Upon a Time in the West by Leone is another brilliant movie from the 60s. If film is at its core visuals and music, this is one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time, Morricone's score is incredible and Leone matches with phenomenal visuals. It's a clear predecessor to Tarantino's work, I would say it is to the traditional Western what Pulp Fiction is to the traditional crime film.

01:37 / 17.11.05

(Funny anecdote about Satyricon. One of my classical profs had never seen the movie, but loved the book - joke - and she sat down with some friends to watch the movie and they inadvertantly put in tape two of two first because the tapes were not labeled correctly. When the credits rolled and they thought it was just Fellini being Fellini, messing with the audience, etc. It wasn't until they popped in tape one that they realized they made a mistake. Really shows the opacity of Fellini's style, if you ask my prof, that it took that long to figure it out)

I totally second Once Upon A Time in the Old West, but I also nominate its companion (of sorts) piece, Once Upon a Time in America. Probably the slowest movie I've ever seen. It's classic though. Especially for a young Jennifer Connelly (you get to see her bum (sort of)). The movie's a bildungsroman about gangsters in the turn of the century. It features one of the most uncomfortable rape scenes ever and one of the most haunting scores ever from Ennio Morricone. (Thank the heavens and the gods for that man, by the way)

07:28 / 17.11.05

I'm unclear... do these need to be 'old' filns or just obscure or old and obscure??

Just amazing films that you think maybe aren't getting the attention they deserve. I said old and obscure because these are the two types of film I have trouble trying to get other people to watch... I guess the only thing is that you want to pick films that are REALLY fucking good. Its hard to convince someone to see a film, if its only average.

The Third Man : Brilliant film. I think its one of the first films where what you don't see, is more important than what you do. I LOVE noir, and the star is only in it for 10 minutes!

Sunset Boulevard : Thats on my list at the moment. I love Wilder, so hanging out to see it. I can never seem to catch the dvd when its on the shelf at my local....

Hitchcock : Anyone that hasn't seen Vertigo, Psycho or Rear Window (to select my faves) just isn't a fan of the movies as far as I'm concerned.

Once upon a time in the West : Hell yes. That opening scene where nothing happens for ten minutes is one of the best ever. Still waiting to see America, but its length is a bit daunting.

ok my first suggestion...

Ran by Akira Kurosawa
An epic japanese retelling of King Lear which Kurosawa made to be his last film.

Why should you see this film? Ran is timeless, beautiful, masterful directing. Akira Kurosawa is one of my favourite directors. There are so many of his films that are so close to perfect it aint funny. He had spent a lifetime making mostly violent japanese movies (with of course brilliant exceptions to my generalisation) but everything he learnt is in this film.

Its use of colour, mood, music, framing, location, sound fx.... Its intelligence, spirituality, morality, wisdom....Its brilliant. I could talk on and on about it.

Quote : "Man is born crying. When he stops crying, then he dies."

just see it.

07:59 / 17.11.05

La Haine is really worth watching, particularly in the light of recent events in France...

Also Battle of Algiers - which was filmed while the situation in Algeria was far from calm - real tanks were mistaken for film tanks and many of the actors were not actors as much as the were people that had live through the struggle...

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

08:53 / 17.11.05

Soldier Blue, even for all its flaws, for the still shocking ending, and for tackling America's genocidal past head on without flinching, whatever the motivation.

19:55 / 17.11.05

Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You. (coincidentally, imDb's Film of the Day today... hmmm.)

It's a classic tale of misfits & loners vs. the wicked forces of Big Business -- except, well, the misfits aren't angry or sad. They're just decent people with their heads screwed on right.

Capra has this rep as the King of Sentimentality, but after seeing this movie, I became convinced that at heart he was a dirty little subversive and I fell in love.

It's way overdue for a remake.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

14:00 / 18.11.05

Greaser's Palace

Jessy Christ lands in the old west town via parachute, dressed in a zuit suit. He is headed for Jerusalem to become a singer/dancer. "It is written that the Agent Morris waits for me there,"

(from badmovies.org)

The entire movie is an anecdote for religion, Christianity to be precise. If you want to start splitting hairs, I think Catholicism is the basis for everything that comes to pass. Greaser's Palace is a huge saloon in some tumbleweed town out west; we can identify it as being "a church" since people come running to watch the show whenever bells begin ringing. Seaweedhead Greaser is the Catholic Church as represented by a gunslinger with itchy trigger fingers. Why in the world does he have a mariachi band and his mother locked in wooden cages? The musicians are easy to explain; they provide entertainment while Greaser tries to have bowel movements (which he is unable to do). Did I mention the outhouse is on the second or third story, located at one corner? How about everyone watching anxiously, some even leaning over the railings, for signs of success?

Right from the start it is evident that Greaser hates Lamy Homo (pronounced as "lay me homo"). He shoots, stabs, and even dumps the little guy down a well. The Church's efforts to eradicate his homo problem are to no avail; Jessy keeps bringing the reluctant Lazarus back. Lamy consistently recites the same story upon his return from the other side and it's a trip. Readers old enough to remember when Puff relaxed immigration laws and all those runny noses invaded Honah-Lee (Honalee? Hon-a-lee? Who knows?) might identify with me. It's that weird.

Any movie about Western religion would be incomplete without Martin Luther; so where is he? He is the poor man trying to perform a card trick for Seaweedhead. Check it out, the would-be magician does the old "pick a card, any card" bit. He then holds up card after card, inquiring "This one? How about this one? That one?" Poor Martin Luther, trying in vain to decide which interpretation is correct. History says the man finally gave up and just wrote something to the effect of "Figure it out for yourself!"

14:05 / 18.11.05

Must see this movie... must...

What year is it, Mister Six? And is it an American production?

Mister Six, whom all the girls

14:19 / 18.11.05

early 70's and it's American, yeah.

I doubt you'll make it all the way through, but the opening musical number by Jessy is priceless.

I want that in my MP3 player in the worst way.

03:31 / 21.11.05

Would anyone be interested in having a more organised approach to these movies? I was thinking that we could have a kind of film club where we all decide on a film to watch, and then we get a fortnight to track it down and watch it, and then we could all discuss?

Does this sound interesting to anyone? I know discussing a film each fortnight would really float my boat, but then I'm a film nerd....

Of course we'd have to sort out details, but I was thinking that this could be kinda fun, and lead to open discussion about cinema....

04:14 / 21.11.05

Netflix has certainly given me greater access to these kind of archived gems than I had going through my usual video store route. Comes right to the mailbox, no late fees, I can keep them for a month if I want to. I go through about 24 movies a month for $18.

In fact, thanks to matt's recommendation, I just watched Once Upon A Time In America over the weekend... and completely loved it. Much appreciated, matt.

So I'm game for any film club stuffing.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

15:31 / 21.11.05

Awesome idea.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

15:38 / 21.11.05

Yeah, good idea. Start the thread, or develop this one accordingly.

16:01 / 21.11.05

so, what are we going to start with?

the third man or something else...?

16:08 / 21.11.05

Count me in for The Third Man

16:41 / 21.11.05

Hieronymus has rain in him - glad you enjoyed it. How'd you like the ending? Pretty strange, huh?

18:02 / 21.11.05

Bring on the Third Man. I've seen it already, but I could go back and give it another viewing. It's been too long since I heard the zither.

19:10 / 21.11.05

Hieronymus has rain in him - glad you enjoyed it. How'd you like the ending? Pretty strange, huh?

SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN Once Upon A Time In America:

It's funny because the more and more I've read about the opium dream theory, the less I think it's applicable. To me the movie was far more about memory and the power therein, the ethereal truth of it (did Max die, etc) than an attempt to strap it to a prescient dream. Too much of what Noodles remembered was to spot-on to the actual 60s than he could've foreseen in the 1930s. And it kind of cheapens the story of his life, really.

It was a beautiful film. And you're right. Morricone's score made that movie.

19:11 / 21.11.05

I'll start up a new thread for those Lithers who want to join in on the film club extravaganza.

03:12 / 22.11.05

Morricone's score made that movie.

I dunno if I'd agree with that. The music was fantastic, but Leone's patient confident direction is hard to match. Plus the deconstructed plot.

03:17 / 22.11.05

Morricone's soundtrack may rule, but I have to agree. It was the slow and steady pace of this movie that won me over. I'd never before seen an American film that took its time and was so ponderous on the nature of memory.