Quarantine Filmz

Started by WorldForgot, March 20, 2020, 11:00:21 AM

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Something Spanish

i was always more of an Armageddon guy

putneyswipe

Cronenberg's Rabid is one and also is one of his best

jenkins

i don't think he takes flight until Videodrome but you might be appreciating raw charm or something, people can appreciate whatever they want

putneyswipe

The combo of Marilyn Chambers and the sleazy, gray and depressing late 70s Canadian atmosphere just does it for me

jenkins

i've started watching the 31 non-amazon-marketplace movies i recently purchased, all of them having arrived, and just last night, for obvious reasons, i also purchased the new Thunderbean release, Popeye Original Classics In Technicolor

Model Shop -- i started with this one because i already seen it, not so long ago at the New Bev in 35mm, doubled with Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice i remember. the plot of this is like whatever but i'm obsessed with when the lead character is driving around, like when he picks up the photos and goes to the gas station. i have no fucking idea why there's the scene with him getting gas so i'm like head over heels about it for some reason i truly can't fully explain. its slow pacing is gorgeous to me. i recently heard Kiarostami say he only likes movies that make him fall asleep because with the others it feels like he's being taken hostage and maybe what i'm saying is in line with that philosophy and maybe i just find excuses to quote Kiarostami, whom a younger me considered silly arthouse stuff and an older me adores. some of this is pure chemistry

Max and the Junkmen -- i sort of regretted buying it but a friend of mine asked me to tell him what i thought of it after i watched it so i watched it right away to be polite, and it turns out that i adore this movie. the first night i began it without paying attention much, just kind of staring at it, like how Model Shop can be watched, but i admitted to myself that i didn't have any fucking idea what was going on when i returned to it the second night and started over, and like, totally. it's a whole world and it has this beautiful ending that's perfectly conceived. in any other movie that's actually a dumb fucking ending but yet this movie nails it and i'd fight you to the death about it or whatever. i'm also into sort of um partitioned narratives and this movie does a hella job compartmentalizing cops and criminals and this was when i read the wiki article about Romy Schneider whom  i wasn't already familiar with so i was able to like follow the bouncing ball there too

Quai des Orfèvres -- i've already seen this too but over a dozen years ago so it was like a first time. i didn't posses a fond memory of this movie, which i mostly bought because it was on sale, and first watched after Diabolique. and Diabolique, i didn't like it either, but thought it was better, and then i watched and still own Le Corbeau, which i thought was the least of the three. yet so this movie starts with fire and i was like hell yeah, but then there's this cop thing that's well done i guess but god i'm bored, except when the wrist cutting happens in the jail cell, so basically i think the french know how to end a movie when i generalize like that

Manhandled -- and Stage Struck -- you know what happened was i fell i love with silent cinema but when you bring that up in conversation it's kind of awkward and most people mostly nod because of course they love everything that came after silent cinema. i don't know man, some say youth is the best but probably baby shit is most awesome, when you don't even know you're becoming human, and that's what silent cinema is like to me. it's growing in front of my fucking eyes. and i'm very into the expressive acting. the titlecards give you fyi's but mostly it's about watching human behavior and i think that rules. anyway so i had kind of burnt out on silent cinema but these pulled me back in and prompted me to immediately regret not just ordering all of Kino's silent movies. they're both with Gloria Swanson and Manhandled is city-set so i'm a fan of that but definitely her wider range of acting comes through Stage Struck. this allowed me to appreciate Gloria Swanson and soon enough i'm going to go back to Sunset Boulevard, which she was only 51 when it was released by the way. she's a terrific actor. Stage Struck begins and ends in technicolor. a silent movie begins and ends in technicolor

Death Takes a Holiday -- it's kind of the inverse of Quai des Orfèvres, in that during the beginning i was like oh shit this sucks my bad (a dumb af shadow haunts them, it's death and yawn), but actually when Death appears this movie becomes hella solid. first of all bravo to doing this cool thing in which embodied Death is both a shadow and transparent. then great job Fredric March as Mortal Death. i was like, what's going to happen what's going to happen, oh how interesting, which is a fun way to watch a movie, you know. and it's a love-positive movie which is kind of complicated

The Devil Incarnate -- Mondo Macabro is by far the best thing that's ever happened to global cult cinema from my perspective. they're rather towering by my estimation. so i needed to see this fellow Paul Naschy, and that's a semi-americanized pseudonym for Jacinto Molina, a body building horror fanatic spaniard. his actual cult reputation is that he "reigns supreme as the true king of Spanish horror cinema." he died underappreciated and his older movies also suck maybe (haven't seen them) anyway i can confirm that he's a hero figure to me since The Devil Incarnate hardcore slays this deadpan insanity only perhaps rivaled by José Mojica Marins and Coffin Joe. Paul Naschy is nasty in The Devil Incarnate and not only does he not bat an eye but he even explains why, and his reasons like nail it. and you're supposed to believe that he's the victim by the end, which how funny. i regretted not ordering Inquisition

The Wild Pussycat -- i've only started this one, and i started it because i am guessing that it will be the least impressive of my Mondo Macabro purchases, although in the end it might not be, who knows. it comes with a free double, The Deserter, and giving me an extra free movie sort of impedes my faith in your initial selection. it isn't the same director it's the same country, Greece, which Mondo Macabro has a whole thing about, this is their third volume, and it's the second sex film i've ever purchased, after Radley Metzger's Score. i watched the beginning which is a suicide scene and after that there's some office stuff which is all i know so far, and what i can say is the westernized idea of 60s cool was rather homogenized and american centered, like it is now, which isn't fully accurate, especially addressing the 60s, in which British cool was the leader perhaps, except i think The Wild Pussycat feels hella american in the beginning, it hasn't even gotten into the sex stuff and it's b&w

jenkins

The Wild Pussycat  -- (Cont.) so i had clearly thought i bought trash because i wanted to, but that's not what happened at all, it's not trash, and not even how the movie is advertised. let me quote the basic website stuff which i barely knew before beginning the movie:

QuoteThe WILD PUSSYCAT is an unsung classic of exploitation cinema. Produced in Greece in 1968, it was not officially released there until 1972 and then only in a cut and compromised version. The simple plot concerns a women whose sister was exploited and driven to suicide by a sleazy pimp. In order to get revenge on him the woman seduces the man, drugs him and imprisons him in a sound proofed room, tormenting him through a large one way mirror (he can see out, no-one can see in) by performing sultry strip tease dances and having sex with men and women while he can only look on, helpless to stop it or join in. Her final vengeance on him is so shocking it raises eyebrows even today.

and

QuoteThe Blu-ray includes both the 1972 Greek version (with much of the sex removed and a plot featuring a drug dealing con inserted) and the full on, uncut export version.

it was bad-wild, aka wrong, that i read "exploitation" and "sex" and hadn't heard about this movie and thereby figured that i knew what this movie would be like, not expecting it to be any good really. thus both praising and underestimating Mondo Macabro in my previous post

here is some more basic data:

QuoteIn spite of its lurid subject matter and explicit visuals, The Wild Pussycat was not a low budget quickie with a cast of unknowns and a first time film maker. It was directed by Dimi Dadiras, one of the most successful director/producers of the period, and it features one of the big stars of Greek cinema, Gisela Dali, known in her day as "the Greek Bardot". So far as we are aware, this film has never before been released on home video anywhere in the world.

just frankly, Mondo Macabra is right about "unsung classic". this movie is on point. nails it and pitch-perfect accomplishes a big ending, while feeling like it could have been made in Hollywood, although actually more like 60s British cool indeed, definitely European in terms of its fashion i'd say, and i mean every bit of this as a compliment

funny enough you know i watched the greek version because it's original language, so i watched the least-sex version first, as the english-dubbed international version has 25 more minutes and most of the sex stuff

and i kind of shittalked there being a second movie, so i fast forwarded through the beginning of the second movie, to take a peek, and it's a different tempo, a different type of movie, more like a post-apocalyptic movie, such as Five, but i bet it totally nails that too, or consider that more possible than i previously did

WorldForgot

Just watched this one and while it deals with libido more than the shunted science, there iz ample substance in its images of the body - starkly a reduction, always rabid, or a violent act - to consider how bodies are commodified, abused, neglected, and hole'd up to one self. A doctor at the forefront isn't by accident, but this movie deals essentially in real abstracts.

Spoiler: ShowHide




jenkins

In the Cold of the Night — what a fucking treat and a half this movie was. great recommendation wilder. prompts me to reconsider my perspective on the entire Vinegar enterprise. it's slightly dumb but i think its dumbness is exaggerated and it's not dumber than most things. do marbles have a true erotic potential? no. are illuminated waterbeds dope? basically. i adore the aesthetics this movie fetishizes, and how this movie fetishizes movies. the dialogue rhythm is taken from The Lady from Shanghai in a noticeable way especially at the ending but that's a compliment. i'm glad i own this movie that i would watch again

wilder

Happenstance - my roommate bought it too and we're watching it right now. Loading up your post as it's playing on the screen.

Awesome you were so into it. I've gotta rewatch Lady from Shanghai to see what you're talking about. There's definitely a bit of Robocop in there, down to the casting. Brainscan and Lost Highway also have similar aspects. Something serious was in the air in the early 90s with all these characters having pixelated visions of themselves murdering people around them. Great sub-genre.

jenkins

nice nice nice. whenever it's being philosophical it's cribbing this in terms of even speaking like this


WorldForgot

TAMMY N THE T REX (1993) on VS'z blu ray and ) on Criterion Channel.

One iz delusional, with the text and atmosphere of a children's film and violent, horny content of an adult magazine, Mad Magazine in the way the film Clifford ('94) rollz, if you're familiar. But add John Carl Buechler.

Maurice Pialat's iz just as horny but more polite about it. A precursor to Dazed & Confused, it's got an actual shape to its character arcs and includes notable Lens soccer footage.

jenkins

Time to Die -- it's grossly perfect to the extent that there's a video intro of Alex Cox trying to deal with the fact that Arturo Ripstein refutes it as part of his canon while it's better than anything Alex Cox ever made, which isn't an insult to Cox but a compliment to Ripstein of course. it's kind of insane what you're looking at here, genuine best-of-the-best stuff: Arturo was 25 and his father was a notable producer in the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, and one might think "oh just a privileged son" except also he rules so hard, the editor is Carlos Savage, who descended from Mexican presidents, and he kills it, the actors were towering figures in their cultural era, and i'm leaving out a script by Gabriel García Marquez, with revisions by Carlos Fuentes. lol. i'd keep going but i'm out of breath

jenkins

Putney Swope — it really is that good and everything. it's rather ingenious because it allows a distanced perspective at why society does anything, and meanwhile it's playful the whole while. so it's both rebellious and lighthearted, which is a winning combination. its potential only flaw is that using a person of short stature as the president makes fun of the president at the expense of a person with short stature

putneyswipe

I've been going through some of John Singleton's 90s output that I hadn't seen before. I was really impressed by Poetic Justice... definitely 2pac's strongest screen performance and the movie is a really enjoyable slice of black neorealism that segues nicely between hangout and road movie and romance without getting soggy

jenkins

Gran Bollito -- it's sort of tough to explain how good it is. Shelley Winters has tremendous acting ability, she plays a flimic interpretation of Leonarda Cianciulli, men wear dresses while acting as if women, for example Max von Sydow does this, and it's a serial killer melodrama with piano moments, gorgeously intimate closeups, and i'm basically obsessed with the main song



QuoteLife life, what do you give me?
At least give me him
And he never comes
Why does he never come?

Life life, what are you doing?
You don't even give me him
And he will never come
Why will he never come?

Life life, I would give you
I would give life
But don't kidnap him
I only have him

what's funny is i bought it during the Twilight Time closing sale because it was a foreign film among quite few foreign films, so i'd never heard of it but thought it must stick out for some reason or other, and dvdtalk didn't shittalk it, except i reread the dvdtalk review after watching the movie and what the writers says is funny really

QuoteGran Bollito is far from a typical serial killer movie. Even though it might bore genre hounds and might be too weird for anyone expecting a straight melodrama, it's certainly an original and unique experience.

you got yourself a "too weird to live, too rare to die" moment happening in film criticism. this whole "it's different from other movies and maybe that's actually a good idea, i can't tell for sure since it's so different" perspective is also used by Ebert in his review of Clifford, which i plan to stream tonight

so this is how his review begins:

QuoteA movie like this is a deep mystery. It asks the question: What went wrong? "Clifford" is not bad on the acting, directing or even writing levels. It fails on a deeper level still, the level of the underlying conception. Something about the material itself is profoundly not funny. Irredeemably not funny, so that it doesn't matter what the actors do, because they are in a movie that should never have been made.

and this is how it ends:

QuoteIt's not bad in any usual way. It's bad in a new way all its own. There is something extraterrestrial about it, as if it's based on the sense of humor of an alien race with a completely different relationship to the physical universe. The movie is so odd, it's almost worth seeing just because we'll never see anything like it again. I hope.