104 minute running time … zither music fairly maddening plus all the cockeyed angle camera shots, but this is a legitimate classic, a green-go, telling a story of post-war corruption in rubble-strewn Vienna, Orson Welles plays a good bad guy (like he did in The Stranger) … the final scene is perfect and apparently Carol Reed had to fight David Happy-Ending Selznick to get it made right.
Pity for dots that stop moving forever, old man?
136 minute running time so 30 minutes too long … cutey Keanu when he was young … turns into a John Woo style shoot ‘em up at the end … it’s not bad, it’s OK, everyone who likes action movies and sci-fi should probably see it. I’m sure many consider it a modern classic.
Spread ‘em
Black Ice… (link scrubbed, web exclusive lighter) … I like it… big art deco fan. Bought it.
In French. 93 minute running time … looked sort of promising in the beginning and Juliette Binoche is stunningly beautiful, but I got bored of it pretty fast and went to fast forward and can’t imagine watching the whole thing at normal speed. Another “Greatest Film of All Time” you can miss.
Do you have a cigarette? [Of course, it’s a French movie.]
135 minute running time so at least 35 minutes too long … Technicolor … probably popular with homosexuals (let me check if Farr liked it… yes, of course he recommended it, lol) and people who are into the theater and ballet, but I didn’t make it too far in before quitting. Another “Greatest Film of All Time” you can miss.
Why do you want to dance?
90 minute running time … amateur movie made by black lesbian with a shaved head … the story of Fae Richards looked interesting, but there wasn’t enough of it and I quickly quit watching this one. Clearly this is on The BFI Greatest Films of All Time list because it ticks the boxes of being a movie made by a black woman and a lesbian (a two for one deal!), but it doesn’t deserve to be on any list. It’s terrible how politics have invaded these lists… this is why it’s so important that I produce my own Greatest Films of All Time list that are truly great.
Or: money, sex and power.
Watched Booknotes episode Great Souls: Six Who Changed the Century with David Aikman. Mentioned A WORLD SPLIT APART Solzhenitsyn's Commencement Address at Harvard University on June 8, 1978
97 minute running time … a Lynne Ramsay movie desperately in need of subtitles … I didn’t understand a word so I had to fast forward through all of it… this was on the BFI list so I saw it … the lead actress Samantha Morton reminds me of Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves) … kind of a strange story, I don’t know what the audience is supposed to make of it? I’ve seen Ratcatcher (depressing), and I still think You Were Never Really Here is Ramsay’s best movie ever.
“Morvern Callar has no inner world that's penetrable, intelligible or even credible … She leaves us totally baffled about her motives, emotions and mental state.” — Alexander Walker .. it’s true, you do wonder about her…
“…rare is the movie that convincingly presents the interior life of a cracked mind.” — Michael Agger
120 minute running time … I liked this a lot but it ran about 20 minutes too long .. I never read the original short story it is based on … Susan Fogel also made Booksmart, which I hated because it was filled with F-bombs, but Cat Person was much, much better. It’s about a girl who goes to Farleigh Dickinson U. (never named), she’s a 20-year-old sophomore … I liked that her Pomfret sweatshirt identifies her as a rich kid … she’s very attractive … there’s a tall, creepy, awkward 33-year-old guy that she has a relationship with… there’s a lot of texting involved (2023 movie after all). It’s pretty insightful about youth culture, I guess, the little I know of it. The main actress is really good, British it turns out… anyway, it’s a green-go recommended movie and since I saw it in the theater, I don’t have a screen-cap. The scene of terrible sex was hilarious and brilliantly done. I think I could do a fan edit and cut out a good 20 minute though to make it perfect. I guess a lot of people are upset about the tacked on last third of the movie compared with the short story, but I see why the filmmakers did it.
Shelia O’Malley correctly wrote: “The sex scene goes on forever! It's excruciating but also hilarious. Fogel and Ashford have found a way to explore what goes on in someone's mind during a bad hook-up, a hook-up you regret not just afterward but as it is happening. This is a very important scene, so perfectly realized it could have been a stand-alone short film.”
~14 minute running time … silent movie from the 1940s, made by a woman… this was on the BFI Greatest Films of All Time list and my local library happened to have a copy, so I watched it and I have to say there wasn’t much here. I guess it was a “woke” selection since the BFI wants to include more movies by women and other “minorities,” even amateurish shorts like this one, but I can confirm that you can give Meshes of the Afternoon a miss. Tiny Maya Deren has a handsome face and good bones, but that’s about it. I guess she was interested in sex and violence and death, but don’t know for sure.
Playing with knives
