tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55204127846004935612012-02-16T01:23:28.689-05:00The good, the bad and the cheesyCinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.comBlogger341100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-62131176089960007462009-09-22T01:09:00.011-04:002009-10-16T00:28:09.642-04:00

(Il y a longtemps que je t'aime, directed by Philippe Claudel, France, Germany).The best performance in a film by an actress was not nominated for an Oscar in 2009, but should have been. In a film career playing upper crustic British ladies with couture and hauteur to match, Kirstin Scott Thomas turned 360 degrees and gives an emotional slow-burn performance as an ex-convict reuniting with her

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-53563971010037927242008-10-11T18:08:00.019-04:002010-01-21T22:28:08.062-05:00

(Directed by Josef von Sternberg, 1928, USA)(Notes from the 46th New York Film Festival, 2008, Part 2)Emil Jannings was one of the great stars of the silent and early talkie cinema. In my mind, he will be forever associated with F.W. Murnau's silent version of "Faust" playing Mefistofeles, as the downsized hotel porter in Murnau's "The Last Laugh", as the jealous husband in Dupont's "Variety" and

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-30085029416118968492008-10-11T18:06:00.016-04:002009-08-03T14:30:00.732-04:00

(Directed by Olivier Assayas, 2008, France)(Notes from the 46th New York Film Festival, 2008, Part 1)Since New York's Lincoln Center is completely dug up from construction, screenings of the New York Film Festival were held at the huge movie barn of the Ziegfield, the Walter Reade theater and as usual, opening and closing nights at Avery Fisher Hall (home of the NY Philharmonic). And tix were

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-23950130240817928032008-08-11T23:02:00.004-04:002009-02-01T21:57:01.479-05:00

(Directed by Oldrich Lipský. 1966, Czechoslovakia)The mid-1960's Czech "New Wave" produced some great directors like Jiri Menzel (Closely Watched Trains, Larks on a String); Milos Forman (The Loves of a Blonde, The Firemen's Ball), and Vera Chytilová, the director of the feminist film Daisies, a film remarkably ahead of its time. And then there is Oldrich Lipský, the director of, among other

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-41745038348924699272008-07-04T17:22:00.008-04:002008-10-11T18:05:30.088-04:00

(Directed by Werner Herzog, USA, 2007)What better way to spend a long hot summer day than being in a semi-crowded theater watching a documentary about the South Pole? And what better tour guide than Werner Herzog, giving a sardonic voice-over to the proceedings? This, the latest chapter in the (as one internet wag called it) "Herzog versus Nature" series of documentaries is one of this year's

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-73086534310813549022008-05-01T16:39:00.011-04:002009-02-06T22:01:56.401-05:00

(Directed by David Hare, UK, 1985)A young man crashes a dinner party given by a middle-aged schoolteacher for her friends. Being British, they are too polite and all believe he came with or knows someone, hence his presence. The next day, the man shows up again and explains that his attending the previous night's dinner was a hypocritical lie, since he didn't know anyone and they all pretended

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-31068975790392443212008-02-03T01:02:00.009-05:002008-10-11T18:21:59.864-04:00

(Directed by Gordon Douglas, USA, 1954)For those of us of a certain age, watching 1950's sci-fi/horror films on television became something of a rite embodying somewhat ecstatic religious heights. Let's see: there were killer shrews, giant behemoths, a rampaging prehistoric lizard imported from Japan and creepy crawly spiders. And also those films involving predatory aliens in all sizes and

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-14034541459326751102008-02-03T00:47:00.007-05:002008-05-01T16:35:19.667-04:00

(L'Annee derniere a Marienbad, directed by Alain Resnais, France 1961)Last Year at Marienbad is one of the most audacious experiments in post-war film. Alain Resnais' film, based on a script by 'nouveau roman' novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet, dispenses with what we normally expect from viewing a film: a linear narrative or storyline, continuity editing (or having the filmic story make sense) and a

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-25101238247492270452008-01-25T00:10:00.008-05:002009-02-10T18:58:25.558-05:00

(Directed by Vittorio de Sica, Italy, 1960)Turner Classic Movies recently aired this as a selection of John Sayles' favorite movies. I have always been intrigued by this film and in 1960 it won Sophia Loren an Oscar for Best Actress from 1962 - the first time that a foreign actress in a foreign film ever won that award. Basically, De Sica's story is perhaps one of the great anti-war films and its

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-46754481649681445902007-11-27T16:38:00.006-05:002009-08-03T15:18:26.631-04:00

A cartoon in a recent New Yorker mag depicted two bums leaning against a wall, one saying "So which Dylan do you want to be?" Which one indeed...such is the subject of Todd Haynes' audacious film I'm Not There, in which six actors play various aspects of the many personas of Bob Dylan. I would love to know what Bob Dylan thinks of this film. Todd Haynes has created an audacious experimental film

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-72453046327050656532007-10-17T20:45:00.000-04:002008-01-09T18:54:34.007-05:00

(Directed by Catherine Breillat, France, 2007)(New York Film Festival Notes, Part 2 of 2)"Une vielle Maitresse" is a wonderful period piece directed by Catherine Breillat, who had a modest success here some years ago with the films "36 Fillette" and "Fat Girl".Based on a novel by the 19th century French writer Barbey d'Aurevilly (best known for "Les Diaboliques" among other works that remain

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-82881039249681926802007-10-17T20:40:00.000-04:002007-11-14T15:21:53.133-05:00

(Directed by Cristian Mungiu, Rumania, 2007)(Winner of the Palme d'Or, Cannes Film Festival, 2007)New York Film Festival Notes Part 1At the last minute, an enterprising friend of mine took me to the 45th New York Film Festival. Getting past the unfortunate choice of venue (Rose Theater), we saw "Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days", a Rumanian film that won the Palme d'Or this year at

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-52803078555320954502007-09-30T22:51:00.000-04:002007-10-22T16:26:45.441-04:00

(Directed by Ken Russell, UK, 1972)"Savage Messiah" is an intriguing film from director Ken Russell. After a trio of great films: "Women in Love", "The Music Lovers" and "The Devils", "Savage Messiah" was a failure. The film depicts a fictionalized version of the pre-modernist artist and sculptor Henri Gaudier (as played by Scott Antony). At the very beginning of Russell's film he meets a Polish

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-26439007195858126942007-09-09T01:28:00.000-04:002007-09-20T17:57:10.720-04:00

(Directed by Rob Zombie, 2007, USA)Usually I try to never see sequels because I am sure to be disappointed.While having very fond memories of John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), I guess I should have stuck to my basic rule: NO WATCHING REMAKES. Rob Zombie's Halloween starts off with good intentions, but doesn't go anywhere. Yes, we see the young teen Michael Myers with his unhappy homelife: drunk

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-71762082195037783872007-08-31T19:04:00.000-04:002007-09-02T18:51:47.067-04:00

(Directed by Charles Ferguson, 2007, USA)"No End in Sight" is an amazing documentary about the aftermath of the Iraq War, from the US involvement post-9/11/2001 to the current Iraqi Occupation. There are various interviews with former Washington 'insiders': generals, government officials and a few marines, giving their views and insights on the occupation. While wisely not focusing on the reasons

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-38959002454347169902007-08-31T18:52:00.001-04:002010-02-07T17:18:20.131-05:00

(Directed by Louis Malle, 1974, France)Lacombe, Lucien is a powerful study of life under the Vichy Occupation of France, during the waning years of the Second World War. Lucien (Pierre Blaise) is a country hick who tries to get involved with the Resistance and, failing that, goes to work with the local collaborators. Being a young, naive farmboy hick, he does not realize the implications of his

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-40595539634558964132007-08-24T12:33:00.000-04:002007-08-31T19:03:23.670-04:00

(Original Title: Bande a Part, Directed by Jean-Luc Godard, 1964, France)Band of Outsiders is a happy-go-lucky anomaly among Jean-Luc Godard's early 1960's work, made between Le Mepris (Contempt) and Alphaville. The film is a modified gangster story (based on a crime novel) that never quite seems to take itself seriously and contains numerous inside jokes. Two pals Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-15060447591370262092007-08-20T21:51:00.000-04:002007-08-26T21:16:12.347-04:00

(Directed by John Waters, 1971, in lovely Baltimore, USA)I knew I just couldn't stay away from great trash, so "Multiple Maniacs" was watched again recently, during one of those ever more frequent "there's nothing on TV" nights. As a real cinemaphile, I never saw a John Waters movie until "Polyester" came out with the tacky scratch-n-sniff cards in the early 1980's. I knew right away that Divine

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-86833612192843856202007-08-16T17:14:00.000-04:002007-08-21T00:54:29.907-04:00

(Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960, Italy)L'Avventura continues to have a polarizing effect on viewers since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival 47 years ago: either you like Antonioni's masterpiece or you don't. On the internet movie database page for this film, the plot keywords give it all: unsolved mystery, very little dialogue (a personal favorite), island, missing person, human

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-45873884484560245222007-08-14T20:28:00.000-04:002007-08-20T21:06:03.515-04:00

(AKA Hogs and Warships) (Buta to Gunkan, Directed by Shohei Imamura, 1961, Japan)The late, great Shohei Imamura was one of the leading directors in 1960's Japanese cinema. In a ten year period he directed films as Pigs and Battleships; The Insect Woman, Intentions of Murder, The Pornographers: An Introduction to Anthropology, A Man Vanishes and The Profound Desire of the Gods. As a director whose

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-1621841567585223892007-08-04T22:27:00.000-04:002007-08-10T23:52:52.306-04:00

(Viskningar och rop, Directed by Ingmar Bergman, 1972, Sweden)Agnes (Harriet Anderson) is dying and her two sisters Karin (Ingrid Thulin) and Maria (Liv Ullmann) take turns watching over her as well as a servant Anna (Kari Sylwan), in an upper-class manor in turn of the century Sweden. From this premise, Bergman explores relationships between the three sisters and the aftermath on them following

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-58363578545645927222007-08-04T22:11:00.000-04:002007-08-14T12:29:13.173-04:00

Ingmar Bergman (July 14, 1918 -July 30, 2007)Michelangelo Antonioni (September 29, 1914 - July 30, 2007)Cinema High and Low is rather depressed to report that two giants of cinema past have passed on to that great screening room in the skies. The fact that Bergman and Antonioni died rather within hours of each other on the same day is rather ironic. Both explored the human condition and both took

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-68627749577117716772007-07-27T23:54:00.000-04:002007-08-04T22:28:47.407-04:00

(Directed by Michael Moore, 2007, USA)Michael Moore's latest documentary "Sicko" is rather depressing to watch, as the realization that 47 million Americans are without health insurance (a point mentioned at the beginning of the film). Well at least I was depressed. Moore makes the case that the American system of health care is broken, corrupt and needs to be fixed. Sure, that's very much what

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-83549391538052386492007-07-25T22:10:00.000-04:002007-07-31T22:45:10.789-04:00

(Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928, France)This classic silent film existed in a few different versions for years until a print was discovered in an insane asylum in Norway. The version shown today was struck from that one and restored by the Cinematheque Francaise sometime in the mid-1980s. It is a vast improvement from the muddied one I saw on a rental during film school. A short prologue

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-52491579382293450272007-07-25T22:01:00.001-04:002007-07-27T22:07:24.997-04:00

(Directed by Larry Cohen, 1976, USA)"God Told Me To" is a good example of a neat B-movie thriller going off the cinematic rails into plot insanity after a good hour or so of murder and mayhem.Tony Lo Bianco plays a detective investigating a series of murders wherein random, seemingly normal people start killing others for no reason except that God told them to. How can you go wrong with that? A

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-79659493007807767372007-07-12T18:06:00.000-04:002007-07-18T00:23:27.044-04:00

(Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, USA, 1971)Another birthday and I had nothing to do so I watched this because it was on. It's interesting that this film had so much impact when I was a 'youngun' and now the shock value seems to have completely diminished. I think the main brouhaha was about premarital sex amongst teens (and frank talk about it) in a dull 1951 Texas small town being shown on film

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-31719121153299559492007-07-05T23:51:00.000-04:002007-08-16T22:55:24.086-04:00

(Directed by Luchino Visconti, 1943, Italy)"Ossessione", Luchino Visconti's first film is the also the first filmed adaptation of James M. Cain's potboiler "The Postman Always Rings Twice". It is slightly different than the 1946 John Garfield/Lana Turner version or the 1981 Bob Rafaelson/Nicholson/Lange version, but the basic plot stays the same, except moved to Italy. To me it's amazing that

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-8932207709651921112007-07-01T22:51:00.000-04:002007-07-16T22:55:51.311-04:00

(Directed by Max Ophuls, 1955, France)"Lola Montes" was Max Ophuls's last movie, a critical flop on its theatrical release. It is a remarkable achievement, the first French widescreen Cinemascope release and beautifully shot in majestic color. The film depicts the legendary 19th century adventuress Lola Montes, (a Victorian Paris Hilton without the money), forced to tell her scandalous life story

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-37397957295398695632007-06-27T21:38:00.000-04:002007-07-01T20:55:25.852-04:00

(Directed by Harold P. Warren, 1966, USA)Ouch! my brain still hurts!This dreck is so bad it makes many B-movie cheesy flicks look like fine cinematic masterpieces. After this 16mm celluloid crime was lifted from obscurity (where it should have remained for all eternity) as the subject of a famous episode of MST3K in the early 90's, "Manos" still retains its awfulness among the true cinematic

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-80791397843024313722007-06-18T18:15:00.001-04:002007-06-29T19:49:28.359-04:00

(Planet Terror directed by Robert Rodriguez,Death Proof directed by Quentin Tarantino, Trailers: Machete directed by Robert Rodriguez,Thanksgiving directed by Eli Roth, Werewolf Women of the SS directed by Rob Zombie,Don't directed by Edgar Wright. USA, 2007)"Grindhouse" consists of two movies: "Planet Terror" directed by Robert Rodrigues and "Death Proof" directed by Quentin Tarantino. Along

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-19801842193338992082007-06-10T01:15:00.001-04:002007-06-29T19:42:58.876-04:00

(Directed by Lewis Milestone, 1932, USA)Ah! Pre-code Hollywood! Was there ever a time that Hollywood movies were unexpectedly naughty and inexplicably innocent at the same time; with dialogue full of coded sexual innuendo? For pre-code unbelievabilty, there is the recently restored and released "Baby Face" from 1933 with the immortal Barbara Stanwyck (eventually I'll write about that classic

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-71738865390820803312007-06-07T23:36:00.000-04:002007-06-29T00:05:09.873-04:00

(Directed by Guy Maddin, Canada, 2006)The Canadian director Guy Maddin seems to make movies for film geeks and afficionados, obviously being one himself. His films are beautifully photographed, while his stories are deliberately over the top, so much so that they defy any attempt at synopsis and analysis. His latest work "Brand Upon the Brain!" is being shown theatrically in two ways: as a live

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-32339855303208518202007-06-05T18:54:00.002-04:002009-08-26T20:09:45.945-04:00

(Directed by Frank Perry, 1981, USA)What can be said about "Mommie Dearest" that hasn't already been said? Since I've never read Christina Crawford's 'tell-all' memoir, I can't really compare between her book and the campy, cheesy cinematic train wreck/adaptation that is this cult film. Yes, 'it's so bad it's good' comes to mind, Faye Dunaway does an exceptional acting job channelling Crawford

Cinema High and Lowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11360197737292903152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520412784600493561.post-5222438008289996712007-06-03T01:30:00.000-04:002007-06-28T23:01:48.628-04:00

(Directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa, Japan, 1926)As my first entry , I am pleased to offer an appreciation of "A Page of Madness", an avant-garde Japanese silent film from 1926, directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa.The BackstorySupposedly made without knowledge of the current silent cinema of the time, "A Page of Madness" (aka "A Crazy Page" or "A Page Out of Order") is a classic work of silent Japanese

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