# I'm out of movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 13, 2007, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037 "2007-09-13T05:40:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/121 "2007-09-20T00:55:36Z")
I could recommend some films from Brazil, a country whose cinema doesn’t always get the credit it deserves. There’s _Domésticas_ (“Maids,” in Portuguese), by the same director who made _City of God_. _Domésticas_ is very much a comedy, but it makes no effort to soften the harshness of the inequalities of Brazilian society or shield the viewer from the horrible conditions some lower-class Brazilians live in. I also think that _Brava Gente Brasileira_ is an excellent film, well worth watching. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/122 "2007-09-20T01:14:00Z")
**lissener** , if you make it to L.A. anytime soon, check out the Japanese video store in Little Tokyo. I can’t tell you the name or address, but it’s _near_ 300ish E. First St; just park somewhere and wander around Little Tokyo until you find it, since the whole area is fascinating and tightly packed together anyway. I bet you’ll find all kinds of morsels you can’t get just about anywhere else in the U.S. While you’re there, have some ramen and sushi at Daikokuya on 327 E. First St. In the meantime, wait eagerly for King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters to hit the rental stores. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/123 "2007-09-20T01:47:27Z")
Okay, I haven’t read all of the posts so forgive me if this is a repeat, but I would recommend seeing the movie **7 Women for Satan**. It is an old french (?) movie (you might have already seen it) and this is my brief synopsis of the film: Running naked through a field! Oh, wait, now there is evil… But now it is time for dancing! But more evil! But NAKED DANCING! Evil, in flashback form… And dancing! The movie ends in a pretty interesting manner, and I don’t know that I would see it twice, but it was certianly worth seeing once. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/124 "2007-09-20T02:46:49Z")
[QUOTE=Scribble] I could recommend some films from Brazil, a country whose cinema doesn’t always get the credit it deserves. [/QUOTE] Which reminds me of an old favorite of mine; **Bye Bye Brazil** , from 1979. Check it out if you haven’t seen it. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/125 "2007-09-20T03:52:19Z")
OK, the last couple days’ worth of catching up: _ **Mikey and Nicky** _\* 1976, Elaine May Just a brilliant movie. Certainly puts \*Ishtar \*into perspective: once you see May’s skewed, dark approach to the buddy film, _Ishtar_’s “flaws” fall into place. No, it’s not the kind of comedy a googleplex audience is likely to appreciate; it’s meaner and subtler than that. Too bad she had such a huge budget and was thus expected to succeed in the malls. _ **Eternity and a Day** _ 1998, Theo. Angelopolous Pretty awesome. Thanks, **AG**. Unfortunately, it was pretty much impossible to watch this without comparing it to Tarkovsky throughout. And great as it was, it was no Tarkovsky. Its specificity and postmodernism prevented it from achieving the kind of universal, mythic quality that Tarkovsky usually achieved. I got the references to Homer, etc., but there was a certain unsubtlety about the whole thing that cost the film in the long run. Mind you, that’s only due to my judging it by the absolute highest standards, which it obviously deserves. I will definitely see as much more Angelopolous as I can. _ **Foolish Wives** _\* 1921, Erich Von Stroheim Really a masterpiece. I wish the original 6+hour version would surface. I can understand the studios cutting a shorter version—understand; not condone—but I cannot fathom why they would destroy what they cut out. How does that make any kind of sense? Anyway, a pretty epic view—in its day, the most expensive movie ever made; supposedly the first film to cost over a million dollars—of human greed and corruption in the decadence of post-WWI Europe. _ **Tae Guk Gi** _ 2004, Je-gyu Kang Hmm. A spectacular effort. Awfully obvious and manipulative, though. For all its efforts at realism, the flawlessly executed goreFX eventually take over the focus of the film, at the expense of the characters. And the descent into melodrama at the end: again, effective, but a bit much. Still, worth seeing. _ **Street of No Return** _ 1989, Samuel Fuller Fuller’s last film, it’s an insanely glorious mess. He crammed it with more than his usual servings of radical politics and sex and violence; the first frame is a brick crashing into a head and it hardly lets up from there. As usual, Fuller’s enthusiasm proves difficult to manage, so there are a few camp gems. I wish I’d taken notes; I may watch it again just to get some of those awesome lines down. The only one I remember accurately is the “Byebye, Bertha,” whispered by Keith Carradine—a gutter bum who used to be a Rick Springfield-style eighties popstar, but got his throat cut by his girlfriend’s pimp—watches through a crack in wall as the bulldyke who’d imprisoned said girlfriend expires from cops’ bullets. A punch in the gut with a sprinkling of laughs. _ **Hell to Eternity** _ 1960, Phil Karlson Karlson, along with Fuller and Robert Aldrich, is one of my favorite “tough guy” directors. His _Phenix City Story_ and \*Kansas City Confidential \*are masterpieces. This was part of a discount box set of rather generic-looking war movies, but when I saw it was Karlson I decided to give it a try. Wow. Jeffrey Hunter (the blue-eyed “Indian” of _The Searchers_) plays [Guy Gabaldon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Gabaldon) who, as an orphaned juvenile delinquent–true story–was taken in by a Japanese-American family. When WWII breaks out and his family is interned in what he refers to as a concentration camp, he’s reluctant to go to war against the Japanese. Fate intervenes, and he ends up earning a Silver Star, mostly by \*not \*killing “Japs.” The movie manages to be different from any war movie I’ve ever seen, while, in signature Karlson fashion, pulls no punches–even as it hits all the standard war-hero marks. This one goes onto my list of favorite war movies. _ **Kontroll** _ 2003, Nimrod Antal Hmm. Entertaining, but messy. Felt like the directorial-debut-resume-builder that it was. _ **The Longest Yard** _ 2005, Peter Segal I’m a big Robert Aldrich fan, so I was always vaguely curious about this remake. What a load of unmitigated crap. _ **Hallelujah, I’m a Bum** _\* 1933, Lewis Milestone More radical politics, this time as an Al Jolson musical. Weird, but great. _ **Halls of Montezuma** _ 1950, Lewis Mileston Part of my Richard Widmark kick; one of the most underrated actors of mid-century Hollywood. A pretty decent, straightforward war movie, with Widmark as a lieutenant who gets migraines in the field. Great secondary cast: Karl Malden, Jack Palance, Robert Wagner, Skip Homeier, Neville Brand, Richard Boone, Jack Webb, and Martin Milner. _ **Miss Potter** _ 2007, Chris Noonan You know what? Better than I expected. I don’t think the animations added anything, except to take you out of the movie and wonder if she was really delusional, like the ridiculous “hallucinations” attributed, fictionally, to Ray Charles in _Ray_. Anyway, entertaining as a chickflick costumer. \*Repeats; I’ve seen these before, just felt the urge to see again. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/126 "2007-09-20T12:47:07Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] Will check out _Mr. Frost._ [/QUOTE] For God’s sake, noooooo! You have somethinbg to live for! Don’t do it! Oh, wait, sorry. I thought you meant [Jack Frost.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141109/) ---
**Author:** ![Einmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Einmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Einmon)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/127 "2007-09-20T12:49:58Z")
I’m going to go with international recommendations (aka German films what I liked) in the hopes that a subtitled version will be available. You’ve probably seen it, but since you named a couple of Austrian directors, I thought I’d mention [Indien](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107214/), which seemed to be a canon movie for everybody in my generation (Germany in the 80s, fortunately, it was also available with German subtitles for those who had problems with the Austrian accent). There’s also [Wer früher stirbt, ist länger tot](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780180/), a nice little comedy which was a surprise hit in Germany last summer - I thought it was quite enjoyable, though not as groundbreaking as everybody made it out to be. To stay within the realm of “quirky comedy”, I also enjoy movies directed by [Detlev Buck](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0118345/), especially [Karniggels](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102190/) and [Wir können auch anders](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108574/). Oh, and there’s [Knockin’ on heaven’s door](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119472/), which, again, is a comedy, but with tragic overtones. It stars Til Schweiger, making you (almost) go easy on him for later participating in the agony that was “Driven”. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/128 "2007-09-20T14:28:20Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] _ **Hell to Eternity** _ 1960, Phil Karlson Karlson, along with Fuller and Robert Aldrich, is one of my favorite “tough guy” directors. His _Phenix City Story_ and \*Kansas City Confidential \*are masterpieces. This was part of a discount box set of rather generic-looking war movies, but when I saw it was Karlson I decided to give it a try. Wow. Jeffrey Hunter (the blue-eyed “Indian” of _The Searchers_) plays [Guy Gabaldon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Gabaldon) who, as an orphaned juvenile delinquent–true story–was taken in by a Japanese-American family. When WWII breaks out and his family is interned in what he refers to as a concentration camp, he’s reluctant to go to war against the Japanese. Fate intervenes, and he ends up earning a Silver Star, mostly by \*not \*killing “Japs.” The movie manages to be different from any war movie I’ve ever seen, while, in signature Karlson fashion, pulls no punches–even as it hits all the standard war-hero marks. This one goes onto my list of favorite war movies. [/QUOTE] This sounds fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/129 "2007-09-20T14:40:15Z")
In an adaptation of one of Edward Abbey’s novels, Kirk Douglas plays a ‘60s cowboy ill at ease with the constraints placed upon him by a modern society. It was filmed around Albuquerque and was Douglas’ favorite movie. **Lonely Are the Brave** , a real classic. ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/130 "2007-09-20T15:43:18Z")
As for beloved obscure stuff, I would heartily recommend **My Life As A Dog** (Mitt Liv Som Hund, Swedish). One of my favorites all-time. ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/131 "2007-09-20T15:50:30Z")
Oh, and noticing that you haven’t seen **Before Sunrise** and **Before Sunset** , go see those, too. When I first heard about Before Sunrise, I wasn’t interested, but it turned out to be a fantastic love story, perhaps the best I’ve seen. Before Sunset is a well done coda to the affair. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/132 "2007-09-20T21:47:35Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] This sounds fantastic. [/QUOTE] Yes, with the added bonus of the young George Takei, still deeply encloseted, having to act intimate brother-to-brother scenes with the extremely [hot](http://deadasadoornail.com/deadpeople/0971ad8f7eb19e92d3ceecec960Jeffrey-Hunter.jpg) Jeffrey Hunter. Poor George. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037/133 "2007-09-20T22:24:38Z")
[QUOTE=Einmon] I’m going to go with international recommendations (aka German films what I liked) in the hopes that a subtitled version will be available. You’ve probably seen it, but since you named a couple of Austrian directors, I thought I’d mention [Indien](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107214/), which seemed to be a canon movie for everybody in my generation (Germany in the 80s, fortunately, it was also available with German subtitles for those who had problems with the Austrian accent). There’s also [Wer früher stirbt, ist länger tot](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780180/), a nice little comedy which was a surprise hit in Germany last summer - I thought it was quite enjoyable, though not as groundbreaking as everybody made it out to be. To stay within the realm of “quirky comedy”, I also enjoy movies directed by [Detlev Buck](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0118345/), especially [Karniggels](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102190/) and [Wir können auch anders](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108574/). Oh, and there’s [Knockin’ on heaven’s door](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119472/), which, again, is a comedy, but with tragic overtones. It stars Til Schweiger, making you (almost) go easy on him for later participating in the agony that was “Driven”. [/QUOTE] Cool suggestions. Thanks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-out-of-movies/419037.md?page=6)