Still watching all the Rutger Hauer films and as we get to the 2007 - 2009 period there are a number of films in which he appears without being in the main cast but he still has a few main roles to deliverâŚ
Last films aside spagvember listings:
- Kenton: Ghost of Frankenstein 6/10
- von Gerlach: The Chronicles of the Greyhouse 6/10
- Gilliam: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 6/10
- Badger: Hands up! 5/10
- Neill: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man 6/10
- Kenton: House of Frankenstein 5/10
- Japrisot: Les mal partis (cinema) 7/10
- Kenton: House of Dracula 4/10
- Pavlou: Rawhead Rex (cinema) 5/10
- Nikki: 100 litraa sahtia 7/10
- Barton: Abbot and Costello Meets the Frankenstein 3/10
- Almodovar: Madre paralelas 7/10
- De Martino: Il consigliore (cinema) 7/10
- Jarmusch: Dead Man (cinema) 10/10
- Stefansdottir: Natatorium 5/10
for my dutch friends on here, I am watching the following film at the moment:
DAKOTA
Thunderheart
Good, somewhat forgotten and underated, thriller. Val Kilmer pretty early in his career.
Nice score by James Horner.
The Secret Agent (Mendonça Filho): quite something, wow.
Back from my week in Germany and Spagvemberfest behind me Iâm back on my journey through cinema in chronological order and starting on 1953. Iâve got quite a pile from this year and have made a start with some British films to get going.
Bad Blonde (le Borg / 5/10)
Four Sided Triangle (Fisher / 5/10)
Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? (Elvey / 5/10)
Turn the Key Softly (Lee / 6/10)
Cosh Boy (Gilbert / 6/10)
Another couple of early Hammers (Bad Blonde & Four Sided Triangle) and both starring American bad girl Barbara Payton. âHoneymoonâ is a comedy starring British blonde bombshell Diana Dors while Cosh Boy & Turn the Key Softly feature new starlet Joan Collins. Cosh Boy is an interesting glimpse at the opinions of the day as it sets itself out from the start asan âissuesâ film about the problems with juvenile delinquents and ends with the clear message that what they all need is a damn good thrashing. No namby pamby, hoity toity, fannying about for them then.
Finally saw The Parallax View. Solid flick but I was underwhelmedâŚ
Iâve been on a Martin Scorsese kick since the end of Spagvemberfest. I was partly inspired by the absorbing documentary Mr. Scorsese on a AppleTV that a friend of mine and I have been watching.
There are some (like Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Last Temptation of Christ) that Iâve seen several times since I first watched them as a teenager. Others (Raging Bull and New York Stories âLife Lessonsâ) that I havenât seen in 30 years. And still others (Whoâs That Knocking at My Door, After Hours and King of Comedy), I never saw before.
Watching Raging Bull was a powerful experience. My tastes have changed since 1995, when I first saw it. Even though boxer Jake Lamotta was a violent thug and batterer of women, I found myself moved by DeNiroâs performance to the point of tears. Iâm at Goodfellas (1990), which is one of my favorite movies and a slightly more upbeat reprieve after Martyâs dramatic â80s decade (Raging Bull and Last Temptation). I plan to end my Scorsese film festival with Killers of the Flower Moon. Another hole in my Scorsese resume.
His Motorbike, her Island. Very nice.
Still on 1953 and one of the big themes of this year in cinema was it was the peak of the 3D craze so have watched a few shot in that format.
The Stranger Wore a Gun (De Toth / 5/10)
House of Wax (De Toth / 6/10)
Hondo (Farrow / 8/10)
Turns out that although I watched all these films in 2D that didnât spoil the experience that most people had in 1953 because more people saw them in 2D that 3D back then too. Especially Hondo which was released late in the year, by which time the craze had pretty much run itself out. Apparently, the difficulties in screening with 2 projectors precisely aligned were such that more often than not it didnât work too well and people got headaches. It was also costlier and more restrictive for the exhibitors so pretty quickly they were just showing them in 2D instead.
In truth, watching them now it can be said that the more the filmmaker leaned into the tricks of the format the worse the overall film and the less they did so, the better the film. The Stranger Wore a Gun is pretty much non-stop action with stuff being thrown straight at you. Hondo only has a few moments in fight scenes where someone plunges a weapon directly at or to the side of the lens. Hondo is by far the better film. In fact, possibly one of Wayneâs best for me. House of Wax sits in the middle and has enjoyable moments. Interesting to see that De Toth was obviously considered the go-to guy for 3D in â53.
Exactly how I felt after I watched it.
A handful of 1953 westerns for me.
Shane (Stevens / 8/10)
The Naked Spur (Mann / 9/10)
Escape From Fort Bravo (Sturges / 6/10)
Pony Express (Hopper / 5/10)
Fort Vengeance (Selander / 4/10)
A couple of classics, a mid range and a couple of poor examples of the 1950s American western. One of the things I love about Shane is all the untold back stories and the unspoken, unacknowledged frisson between Jean Arthur and Alan Ladd that adds another level of tension without anything being played out. Subtle but impactful. Naked Spur is a perfect example to show someone who thinks that all American westerns were simple good guy versus bad guy stories. There are no good guys here. Everyone has weaknesses and even Jimmy Stewart is played unsympathetic for large chunks of the film before finding some form of closure at the end. Mannâs westerns are all top rate. This one is possibly his best. But that opinion might change the next time I watch one of his others.
Pony Express is a good one, at least it was much better than expected. Simple stuff, sure, but Heston is pretty good, and the directing is often dynamic.
I rewatched most of the Mann westerns in the last weeks, and The Naked Spur is indeed the best together with Man of the West. Apart from the last Cimarron (1960) they are all recommended. And Cimarron was a troubled production and cut down.
Just finished Shane for the first time. I know itâs a mega classic and all but I canât say it was for me(a little too much 50âs melodrama for my personal liking). Enjoyable enough watch but I donât think it will be one that I will be rushing back to rewatch.
Jay Kelly. Solid, some parts fantastic, overall of course flawed, but worth the time.
The wolf of snow hollow. Quite the let down. Cummings needs to have better directors implement his quirky ideas.