Last Movie Watched.... The Xenforo Edition

May Flowers #14

Equinox Flower ~ Ozu Y.

A father's somewhat modern stated views of marriage are tested when a man comes to his office to seek permission to marry his daughter. He responds negatively, citing traditional values and then faces push back on his inconsistency from the women in his life. A later entry in Ozu's filmography sees the balance of the scales tip toward the modern values of the younger generation. It also reintroduces more humor after a series of more tragic films. Equinox Flower is Ozu's first color film. He was mandated to switch by the studio. I watched a youtube video about it recently, and it took a couple films for him to get it right. He uses bold primary colors here that are striking but perhaps more distracting than necessary.

And that wraps my Bring May Flowers challenge: https://boxd.it/TSYOu. Watched 14 movies with flowers in the title with Black Narcissus, The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum, and Pale Flower being my favorites.

 

Silent Friend ~ I. Enyedi

A Chinese neuroscientist (Tony Leung) travels to Germany as a visiting scholar. The COVID pandemic closes the college, though, and he's left primarily alone without access to others needed for his research. He becomes interested in a 200 year old ginkgo biloba tree growing on the grounds and decides to test if trees perceive us as we perceive them. Two other stories from the past that centered at the college are presented, one in 1908 is the first female student admitted and interested in botany but fighting sexism. The second is a rural boy attending during 1972 while a counter cultural movement is happening. All three stories focus on an interest in botany and a sense of isolation. The loneliest character, however, is the ginkgo biloba tree planted in a botanic garden with no other trees to reproduce with.

The three different time frames are filmed in different formats which is an interesting way to create clear visual distinction. Visually the film is lovely. The actors are all quite good. My only complaint would probably be the Lea Seydoux scenes where she's supposed to be on a Zoom call with Tony Leung, but it looks impossibly clear and has none of the stupid buttons. That's not how any Zoom call has ever looked. Otherwise, great film.

 

Awesome.

 

Next up for my June Challenge:
OMG, Double Rainbow! - Watch two rounds of films with the colors of the rainbow (ROYGBIV) in the title. https://boxd.it/UM1TM.
First up: Red

The Red Shoes ~ M. Powell & E. Pressburger

Vicky is an ambitious ballerina working to get into the premier company Ballet Lermontov. Also joining is a young composer Julian. They find themselves pushed to the forefront by exacting director Lermontov in a production of Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes. They fall for each other which outrages Lermontov as he sees their relationship as limitation on her potential.

Visually, The Red Shoes is a masterpiece. The camera work is sublime. I especially love the backstage scenes following characters moving through seemingly chaotic action. Similar to Mizoguchi's Last Chrysanthemum from last month, that setting provides room for dynamic blocking and framing of terrific shots. Like Black Narcissus the art direction is also terrific. The long sequence of the ballet in the middle is engrossing. While made in 1948, the central drama that women can only have a fulfilling career or a family is still frustratingly retrograde, even if it's just the men saying it and not necessarily the film itself.

 

Great and I mean great movie.

When I watched this, I took an edible beforehand and when the ballet scene started is when it truly took effect. I could've watched that ballet scene for hours and I just felt like I was a part of that world.

 

High Noon

Year: 1952

Platform: Criterion

Summary: An outlaw returns to a town to exact his revenge on the sheriff that put him away. The sheriff's new wife wants him to reconsider but he has a sense of duty.

Rating: 8.5/10

So I didn't hear of Gary Cooper till the Sopranos, where Tony Soprano is in therapy going on about how there's no men like him anymore. The Turner Classic Movies account once did a supercut of Tony Soprano and Cooper movies. So when I saw this, I had to.

Great movie, tenses story all around, Grace Kelly looking timeless as always. But the action scenes at the end, incredible especially with the odds stacked. And then the ending, you can just feel the anger from the protagonist.

 

If you liked this one, I would recommend Man of the West, his final western, the rare kind of send-off worthy of a movie legend. And parts of it were an obvious inspiration to Tarantino's Hateful Eight. Though I have mentioned before that almost all of the nods and genre references he makes in that come from superior movies.

 

The Dark Mirror (1946)
Dir. Robert Siodmak



For once, Police Lt. Stevenson thinks he has a rather open and shut murder case. The victim, a Dr. Peralta, was stabbed in the back in his own apartment. As luck has it, two residents in the same building got a good look at the person leaving his apartment around the time of his murder: his girlfriend Terry Collins. When Stevenson subsequently interviews Collins, she gives him an alibi: she was walking in the park at the time of the murder. She gives the names of three people who saw her there and could identify her. Stevenson believes he will quickly pierce through what he deems to be obviously fake alibis. Until the three witnesses agree they each saw Terry at the park. Stevenson's puzzlement at three witnesses swearing to have seen the woman at one location and two at another is resolved when it is revealed that Terry has an identical twin, Ruth. This presents a new problem: if he does not know which of the two twins was at the apartment, how can he charge one with murder? Stevenson eventually approaches Dr. Scott Elliot, a psychologist who has specialized in the psychology of identical twins, to study the pair and figure out which of the two is the killer. Elliot does successfully approach the Collins sisters, convincing them to join his paid twins study. With neither sister knowing Elliot's ulterior motive, he ends up falling in love with one of them... and uncovering increasingly worrying personality traits in the other.

A Robert Siodmak noir I hadn't yet seen and ended up really enjoying. The strongest thing about this film is Olivia de Havilland's excellent double role as Terry and Ruth Collins. Noteworthy for elevating the split screen effect used to film de Havilland playing both sisters in a single frame by using traveling mattes and a curved split line, making the effect look much more natural. Essentially no longer having the limitations of the hard boundary line of earlier such films, which hampered the blocking of those scenes. Its one flaw imho is Lew Ayres as the Dr., who feels both too old for the role and giving too flat a performance. It's especially noteworthy in the two-hander scenes with de Havilland, who goes much bigger in her performance. Ended up not mattering that much, because this is very much Olivia de Havilland's film.

 

Double Rainbow: Orange

Soldier of Orange ~ P. Verhoeven

A group of Dutch university students are studying as World War II breaks out. As the Netherlands fall, some join the resistance and some turn Nazi collaborators. This is a good spy/war movie featuring Rutger Hauer and based on an autobiography of a member of the Dutch resistance. Pretty unsparing in depicting the fate of most of the resistance but also has some light-hearted moments.

 

Tokyo Pop

Year: 1988

Platform: Criterion

Summary: A young singer is frustrated with the music scene in New York. After receiving a letter from a friend in Japan, she decides to go over there and attempt a music career there. She encounters cultural differences.

Rating: 6.5/10

This one was ok. Maybe a nice get out the house movie but nothing more. I also was interested in it because Bubble Era Japan fascinates me. Part of what intrigued me was that I speak Japanese and know a lot of Japanese norms quite well. So it was interesting to see how an American would handle them before the Internet and the popularity of Japanese media. I will say it was cool seeing landmarks like the Kabukicho sign. One day I'll get there.

All in all, it was ok.

 

And sitll not as cynical a depiction of the realities of resistance activities as Jean-Pierre Melville's L'Arméé des ombres. Probably have to wait until Verhoeven's Black Book, nearly thirty years later, for him to tackle the subject matter with that grim POV.
Perhaps integral in that difference is that Melville was in the resistance during the war and owes his director name Melville to his codename during his resistance activities (he borrowed the name from the famous author). Similarly, Samuel Fuller real-life war experiences clearly inform his own war movies.

 

Honestly, entering the Zinnemann conversation with another of his movies is purely coincidental. There was a Bulwark podcast YouTube fed me a few days ago about the movie and I wanted to get the full experience of it.



A Man for All Seasons (1966)

There's one question of consequence for the King's privy council - how to convince the Pope to grant Henry VIII a divorce from the barren Catherine of Aragon so that Henry might conceive an heir with someone else. The sole member to disagree was Thomas More, secretary and personal adviser to the King and staunch Catholic. Unable to get the annulment from the Pope, Lord Chancellor Cardinal Wolsey is dismissed and dies in ignominy. The title of Lord Chancellor, head of all legal issues in the realm, goes to More. Henry resolves the issue by banning the Catholic Church and becoming the head of a Church of England. More sees the only way to survive while keeping his morals is to resign and keep silent about the whole issue. But silence isn't good enough for Henry, or at least all the power hungry people swirling around him, and everyone must sign the Oath of Succession, which among other things repudiates the authority of the Pope. Now there's only one question of consequence for More - support the King's remarriage and authority over the Church in England and live free, or stick to his morals and don't.

The most striking thing is obviously the quality of the acting, and in particular Paul Scofield as More. I also enjoyed the period setting and dress. Everything looked full and rich. The scene between More and Wolsey was amazing - the way the actors were made up and the way it was lit and framed looked like two oil paintings talking to each other. A Man for All Seasons is mostly people talking about high-minded subjects, but it's way more than just two people butting heads. There's complexity and maneuvering and More has no desire to be a martyr.

There is a powerful debate here about the limits of holding to ones morals, but you can't really separate that from the particulars of what More was holding on to, and it's one that's hard to understand in our current pluralistic society. One of the arguments used against More - only once, briefly - was that having an heir was vital to preventing a new civil war, and frankly I find that an absolute trump. Kind of says something about the mentality of the time when the likelihood of a hundred thousand painful deaths among the common people is a minor point in a moral argument.

 

There's definitely a lot of heroic, swelling music every time Rutger Hauer steps onto the bow of the ship crossing the channel. I definitely remember Melville's film to be much darker. I'm pretty sure I saw Black Book as well, but have forgotten it, lost in time, like tears in the rain.

 

Double Rainbow: Yellow

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell ~ Pham, T

Thien's sister-in-law dies leaving him to escort the body and his young nephew back to their rural home for a catholic burial. Thien reconnects with his home then goes in search of his missing brother. Every shot in this film is lovely, creative, and entirely too damn long. While a lot of contemporary films lose coherence through blender cutting, this film gains no coherence through 10 minute take after 10 minute take of near silent shots. Film editing helps create narrative momentum, and this film has none over three hours. Gorgeous to look at, interminable to sit through.

 

Double Rainbow: Green

The Green Knight ~ D. Lowery

King Arthur's nephew Gawain accepts a Christmas game with a mysterious green knight that he may strike a blow on him but must return a year later and receive the same blow. He lops off the knight's head only for him to put it back on and ride away awaiting Gawain's arrival the next Christmas. I was unfamiliar with the poem this film is based on, but reading the brief overview, they seem to have followed it fairly closely but took a much darker tone in the end. The film is visually striking in its landscapes and costuming. The score is loud and abrasive to create an eerie tone, which seems to be trying a bit too hard. Overall, I think as a mood piece it's pretty solid. I thought Dev Patel was excellent. Every other role is exceedingly minor and less effective.

 

Maybe I'm just disappointed that I didn't find Alicia Vikander to quite live up to Castle Anthrax.

 

There is a brief post-credit scene that is certainly open to interpretation, but I take it to mean Gawain's story isn't over and it isn't the same as his premonition.

 

In the Grey (2026)
Dir. Guy Ritchie



Laywer Rachel Wild specializes in recovering loans from shady individuals, her clients primarily asset management firms. On such firm, Spencer Goldstein, is dealing with a particularly nasty client, Manny Salazar, who refuses to repay a one billion dollar debt. A crime lord with his own private island and assets spread across the world, mostly hidden in shell companies, he has proven elusive. One attempt to retrieve the loan has led to the death of Rachel's former mentor Braxton, one of the reasons why Rachel and her two associates, Sid and Bronco, now zero in on Salazar. The other being the huge payday, as Wild has been promised ten percent of the loan as a fee if she successfully retrieves the money, thus a 100 million dollar payday. Wild, Sid and Bronco's tactics involve a pincer move in which Rachel attacks Salazar through legal means, whilst Sid and Bronco have a more hands on approach, by sabotaging his operations through bribery, subterfuge, espionage and technology. They slowly squeeze Salazar until he and his lawyer grow increasingly desperate, but also increasingly vengeful towards Rachel and her team.

A rather big disappointment. This is barely a film imho. It has some moderately entertaining action sequences, but around those, the movie is largely about characters delivering dialogue in a mocking tone and heavy overuse of voice-over narration, to the point where it becomes annoying. What is most surprising is that Ritchie has made enjoyable films out of similar material. Like the bare bones of his Man from U.N.C.L.E. adaptation was also a trio consisting of two men and a woman engaged in covert operations, only that film actually managed to be charming. I am very surprised to have read Jake Gyllenhaal talk about how much he enjoys being in Guy Ritchie movies. Gyllenhaal is an actor I have seen do interesting work on occasion (like in Nightcrawler and Prisoners). I can't really believe he gets satisfaction from playing a cardboard, snarky dialogue dispenser.

By chance, the same night I saw this, I came upon JCVD's Legionnaire, and I watched like fifteen minutes of it and immediately was struck how much better a film that is than Ritchie's latest efforts. All of the characters have their own motivations, distinct personalities and the dialogue sounds like real people talking to each other. I needed a small snippet of a 28 year old JCVD film to realize that in many ways, In the Grey barely feels like a real film.

 

It was fantastic I'll say that.

The end scene where Cooper just chucks his badge on the ground and you can tell he wants to call them ungrateful.

 

Double Rainbow: Red

The Red Turtle ~ M. Dudok de Wit

A shipwrecked man tries to get off an uninhabited island but is thwarted seemingly by a red turtle. He clubs and flips the creature on the beach, but after it dies and he feels bad for a bit, it turns into a beautiful woman to be his lifelong companion. That's probably a harsh description of this Ghibli/French co-production, but I don't really feel like sugar-coating it. The animation is nice.

 

Double Rainbow: Indigo

Mood Indigo ~ M. Gondry

In a surreal Paris, Colin meets a girl, Chloe, falls in love, gets married, but then Chloe gets sick. The surrealism is the kind of the driving force in a mixture of stop motion and farce that proceed at an unpleasant crawl for the first third of the film before really kicking into gear as the story goes from absurd to tragic. Maybe that slow build helps establish the state of Paris the film inhabits, but it's definitely a hurdle to get into. Visually, it's inventive, though thematically, I'm not sure it really comes together.

 

Deep Valley (1947)
Dir. Jean Negulesco



Libby Saul is a young woman who has grown up in a tense, isolated environment: a remote, isolated farm near the California coast line, where she has lived since childhood in the cold war of her parents ruined marriage: her abusive father has driven Libby's mother to living a recluse's existence in her bedroom. Libby's mother takes some of her frustrations out on her daughter, whom she emotionally manipulates. The traumatic childhood has left Libby with low self-esteem and a stammer. Lately she has gone off wandering with her dog to observe the progress of a work crew which is building a new sea-side road. Among the workers are chain gang convicts. Libby has a fascination for one convict in particular, Barry. When a landslide occurs shortly after the work detail has used explosives to clear a hillside, several workers perish, and Barry uses the confusion to escape. At the same time, Libby, who is finally tired of living under her parents thumb, has run away from their farm. She has a chance encounter with escapee Barry at an abandoned shack. The pair form an unlikely romantic pairing and make crazy plans to escape to San Francisco together. In the real world, a posse is searching the hills surrounding the Saul farm and it is only a matter of time before Libby and Barry's hide-out is discovered...

I am a great admirer of Ida Lupino, both as an actor and as a director. It was primarily for her involvement that I was interested in this movie, and she is easily the best thing about this melodrama. Essentially a love story between two unhappy, unlucky individuals who briefly share a moment of happiness. A somewhat different turn from the femme fatale roles that were a staple of Lupino's in the 1940s.