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.
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.
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.
Which reminds me of an old favorite of mine; Bye Bye Brazil, from 1979. Check it out if you haven’t seen it.
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 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.
For God’s sake, noooooo! You have somethinbg to live for! Don’t do it!
Oh, wait, sorry.
I thought you meant Jack Frost.
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, 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, 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, especially Karniggels and Wir können auch anders.
Oh, and there’s Knockin’ on heaven’s door, 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”.
This sounds fantastic.
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.
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.
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.
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 Jeffrey Hunter. Poor George.
Cool suggestions. Thanks.
