The Last Ten Films I’ve Seen

1. The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies)
2. Crybaby (John Waters)
3. Monty Python & The Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam/Terry Jones)
4. Barbie (Greta Gerwig)
5. The Executioner (Luis Garcia Berlanga)
6. The Exorcist (William Friedkin)
7. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
8. Walk Hard (Jake Kasdan)
9. The Rapture (Michael Tolkin)
10. Fanny and Alexander – Television Version (Ingmar Bergman) 

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1- John Waters is often referred to as the Pope of Trash or as a shockmeister.  Those labels might have referred to his early films from the Divine era.  His later films are actually sweet and funny.  The shocks are on par with a six year old making you look and them opening their mouth to show you a mouth full of chewed food.  Shocking? No? Cute? A little    Cry Baby is sweet and dopey in the vein of Hairspray. Fun to watch and Johnny Depp is beautiful with his glycerine tears.   I had fun watching it, but not a lot of nourishment here

2- I feel like I don’t need to write anything about Barbie. It’s all been said.  I certainly had a good time and laughed a lot, which I haven’t done in a contemporary movie in a long time.  But is it Feminism 2.0?  Not so sure, but it certainly isn’t the reactionary film that a lot of people are accusing it of being.  My big question is why was it such a phenomenon?

3- I am continuing my exploration of Berlanga’s movies (thank you Criterion Collection).  I was told that The Execution is among his most highly regarded works.  I see why. It is wickedly funny in the vein of Bunuel, but not as cruel 

4-  I saw The Exorcist when it first came out with another Jewish friend. We were both expecting to be terrified out of our wits.  Instead,  we found it engaging and interesting from an anthropological point of view but not terrifying at all.  When I saw that my Catholic friends were traumatized by the movie, I understood it was because as a Jew I didn’t have the idea of the Devil luring me into temptation leading to eternal damnation. Watching it again, I think it is extremely well-made.  The plight of Father Damian is particularly touching.  But as a whole I was more interested in the concept than terrified by it.

5-  I don’t know how I missed Walk Hard.  It is the best send-up of a biopic I have ever seen.  All the cliches of a struggling musicians climb to the top are there.  Unlike This Is Spinal Tap it doesn’t mock the characters but it mocks the conventions of the genre.  The humor is quite broad and often ridiculous, but the whole enterprise is a sophisticated piece of film criticism

6- The Rapture is another film that I saw when it first came out.  It seems to be completely forgotten today, which is a shame.  In this un-nuanced time, a nuanced consideration of fundamentalist religion is exactly what is needed but we will never get it.  The character Mimi Rodgers plays is possibly the bravest character I have seen in a film

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Last Ten Films I’ve Seen

1. Murders in the Rue Morgue (Robert Florey)
2. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
3. Curse of the Cat People (Robert Wise)
4. Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson)
5. The Old Dark House (James Whale)
6. The Mystery of the Wax Museum (Michael Curtiz)
7. Experiment Perilous (Jacques Tourneur)
8. Carnival of Souls (Herk Hervey)
9. White Zombie (Victor Halperin)
10. Drums Along The Mohawk (John Ford)

1- My annual Halloween revels included many old favorites. I watched Val Lewton masterpieces – Cat People, Curse of the Cat People and Isle of the Dead and some pre-code Horror courtesy of The Criterion Collection. It seems like these early 1930’s horror films all have certain elements in common. Their look is heavily indebted to the German expressionism of the time, so they all look fantastic. Since we are in the pre-Code era, there is ample opportunity for women to be show running around in undergarments or tight-fitting dresses. One thing they also have in common is a very garish comic streak. The Old Dark House is more of an Addams Family creepy comedy than a pure horror film. The comedy in The Mystery of the Wax Museum comes from a pair of squabbling newspaper reporters, very reminiscent of the later His Girl Friday. The ‘pure’ horror film, White Zombie, is disaster in every sense except for art direction. Once again, a heavy debt is made to German Expressionism and the film looks gorgeous. But the plot! Yikes. The scenery chewing of Bela Lugosi is embarrassing. You wish that the young lovers could have remained zombies.

2- For me, the most satisfying Halloween viewing is always Carnival of Souls. I’ve written about it probably every year. Repeated viewing only makes me realize how miraculous a film it is. Shoestring budgets and non-professional actors give it a bit of an amateur patina, but man! What atmosphere.

3- I am a devotee of John Ford, as should we all be. I hadn’t seen Drums Along the Mohawk in years, but remembered loving it. I was not disappointed. It is unusual in Ford’s output, and the output of Classic Hollywood in general, in that it is set in the Revolutionary War. This is a theme that is not dealt with very often, certainly not with the frequency of films about The West or The Civil War. What makes this so different also is the depiction of the young marriage between Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda. They are both gorgeous here. Their relationship is strong and, unusually for Hollywood of the time, reflects a very strong, healthy sexual bond. Plus you get Edna May Oliver. Enjoy!