TM2YC's 1001 Movies (Chronological up to page 25/post 481)

[TM2YC]

Cría Cuervos (1976)
Director: Carlos Saura
Country: Spain
Length: 107 minutes
Type: Psychological, Drama

A film about 8-year old Ana and her two sisters in the aftermath of the death of their Spanish fascist father, following soon after the death of their English mother. There are elements that you probably aren't going to get unless you're Spanish, or read up on the film afterwards (like I did). For example, Ana repeatedly listens to a great Spanish pop 7" 'Porque te vas' by Jeanette, who sings in Spanish with an English accent, so it's meant to represent a "comfort blanket", as Ana's dead mother spoke Spanish with an English accent, or a vital plot element involves a tin of powder but if you don't read Spanish, you might not realise the significance of the label on the tin. Or just generally fully understanding the political, social and class context of the setting in the final days of General Franco's regime, and it's metaphorical application to the troubles of the family in 'Cría Cuervos'. The use of in-camera flash-backs, flash-forwards and dream sequences, plus Geraldine Chaplin playing the mother and older future Ana is very creative, yet natural feeling.

 

[mnkykungfu]

^That's a really interesting description, and something that personally jibes with my experience of film in many of the countries I've lived in. I frequently feel like how they are received by an English-speaking audience totally misses much of what the film is doing, or actively misinterprets it. I love when film critics read into films all this stuff that's not on screen, essentially making up completely different intentions and narratives in their own minds. Then when people say "huh?" they respond with, "Well you know, that's what's so great about real works of art: they're open to your own interpretation!"

It's like sure, not everything is spelled out in every movie, but a lot of "your own interpretation" is really just being ignorant of the specifics of that time/place/culture because you're a film critic who sits in little rooms all day and doesn't have all the life experiences that would make this make sense.

Not that I'm salty about it or anything.

 

[TM2YC]

^ I'd put a more positive spin on "being ignorant of the specifics of that time/place/culture" because it's an opportunity to learn about those things through journeying in space and time with a film. Also just because I or you don't see something in a piece of art (and never will) doesn't mean it isn't truly there for other people. It doesn't even matter if the artist intended it to be there or not. One obvious pop-culture example would be the homoeroticism in 'Top Gun', some people see it as clear as day, others won't notice it at all and the question of if the artist intended it to be there, or was oblivious, is still up for debate. My favourite albums are almost always ones that I don't get at first, the ones I instantly love fall away, while the ones that are open to endless reinterpretation keep me coming back.

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(^ Amazing poster. It took me a while to notice that the idyllic painting is framed by barbed wire.)

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Country: Italy
Length: 94 minutes
Type: Drama

The Finzi-Continis, a wealthy Northern-Italian-Jewish family have a beautiful expansive walled garden, which allows them bring the citizens of Ferrara in, as fascist Italy increasing wants to keep them out of the rest of the world. When they're banned from the tennis club, they invite people in to play on their court, when fellow Jewish student Giorgio is banned from the public library and university, he's invited to study in their large library. Starting with the tennis whites, the Finzi-Continis are often depicted wearing white, the colour of ghosts, angels, purity and life, until the end, when they are rounded up and are dressed all in black. The holocaust hymn 'El Malei Rachamim' which plays over the end scenes is so powerful. The great Romolo Valli plays the most interesting character, Giorgio's stern and proud Jewish father who loves Italy and Mussolini, but his heart breaks as he slowly has to accept that both have rejected him. The scene where he's talking late at night with his son Giorgio, who has had a girl reject his love, is incredible: "In life, in order to understand, to really understand the world, you must die at least once. So it's better to die young, when there's still time left to recover and live again." It's a beautiful looking and melancholy feeling film, I wish it had a better/newer HD transfer to watch.

 

[mnkykungfu]

Also just because I or you don't see something in a piece of art (and never will) doesn't mean it isn't truly there for other people. It doesn't even matter if the artist intended it to be there or not.

This is a truly generous way of looking at it that I wish I could share. haha It makes me think of specific songs, like when people think U2's "With or Without You" is a love song when it's really about Jesus. A lot of artists take the tact of preferring not to clarify their lyrics, in order to let the fans draw whatever personal meaning they want from their work. Like you said.

I, on the other hand, have far too prescriptivist of a brain. Rather than thinking "ignorance is bliss", I think of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. I want to have all the information, and then make an informed decision as to how I relate to it, otherwise I'd feel like a sap. I will admit to being highly judgmental when people watch a film like Parasite for example, thinking "wow, Korea is a crazy place!" when no, none of the stuff in that movie is normal at all! haha

I do appreciate people wanting to learn about and understand different cultures, but thinking you can get anything like an accurate picture of a culture from watching film and TV is like the Japanese who watch Friends and think it's normal for American 30-somethings to have a close group of friends that they hang out with every day in their Manhattan apartments that can fit 30 people inside. lol

 

[TM2YC]

I will admit to being highly judgmental when people watch a film like Parasite for example, thinking "wow, Korea is a crazy place!" when no, none of the stuff in that movie is normal at all! haha

Funny you should mention Parasite because the next film I watched reminded me of it...

The Servant (1963)
Director: Joseph Losey
Country: United Kingdom
Length: 115 minutes
Type: Psychological, Drama

'The Servant' is a bit like the OG 'Parasite'. Young, wealthy, indolent, nice-but-dim toff Tony, hires Barrett to be his Valet/Butler/Cook/Nanny but Barrett begins to exert a malevolent, corrupting, degrading power over his supposed master. 'Jeeves and Wooster' this is not. Themes are explored such as class-structure, lust, jealousy, sadist domination, imperialism, homoeroticism, gender and toxic relationships in general. Every frame he's on screen and every hint of smirking disgust on Dirk Bogarde's face is electric. James Fox is fantastic too, managing to be both pathetic and sympathetic. Every second of the first two acts, leading to Tony finding out the truth is perfect nail-biting tension but I was less sure about the believability of Tony quickly welcoming Barrett back into his home to further destroy his life, even with Tony's increasing alcoholism and infantilism as explanatory factors. But I suppose that does happen in coercive-controlling relationships and Tony and Barrett are in a passionate relationship of a twisted sort. As the story descends into madness, Director Joseph Losey brilliantly ramps up the use expressionist angles and shadows, the power dynamics of frame composition and shots of symbolic mirrors.

The essay video on the film between film-critic super-fans Matthew Sweet and Phuong Le on the Studio Canal blu-ray is fascinating stuff. As is the 4K restoration on the disc, so worth picking up a copy of that. It's eccentrically got the film in two negligibly different aspect ratios (1.66:1 & 1.77:1) which it's hard to really tell the difference between but I appreciate the thought.

That's 901 films down... the last 100 still to go!

 

[mnkykungfu]

^Makes me think of the polite toxic relationship/power dynamic battle in Phantom Thread.

 

[TM2YC]

Real Life (1979)
Director: Albert Brooks
Country: United States
Length: 99 minutes
Type: Satire

I'd knew almost nothing about this before I pressed play but it was just my sense of humour. 'Real Life' reminded me most of Woody Allen's early classic 'Bananas' in tone, documentary-like reality, deadpan humour, and absurd madness. But elements also recalled later comedies like 'South Park', 'Ghostbusters' (the pseudo-science stuff) and the British reality-TV and science-program spoofs 'People Like Us' and 'Look Around You' (respectively). The subject of Albert Brooks' (the real and fake person) film is real Midwestern people but the target is himself and Hollywood. The opening town-hall scene is a scream, where Brooks delivers an upbeat speech about his goal of filming unglamorous reality, before launching into a song-and-dance number. 'Real Life' maybe runs a tad low on steam in the second half and definitely became less funny for me when J. A. Preston's "straight man" Dr. Cleary leaves the movie, and stops looking hilariously annoyed by the Brooks' shenanigans. J. A. Preston's Doctor gives off major Tuvok from 'Star Trek: Voyager' vibes (or maybe that's just because I've been watching it a lot recently). I kinda wish I'd seen 'Real Life' back when I was a teenager, so I could've spent my life quoting lines from it.

The meta comedy continues in this special crazy 3D! trailer (featuring no actual footage from the film):

There isn't much footage of the film online and it seems to be pretty much out-of-print on DVD and desperately in need of an HD remaster/re-release.

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That's all films in the 1001 book from 1979 watched, I'd rank them as follows:

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Alien
3. Monty Python's Life of Brian
4. Breaking Away
5. Being There
6. Manhattan
7. Mad Max
8. Real Life
9. All That Jazz
10. My Brilliant Career
11. Kramer vs. Kramer
12. The Tin Drum
13. The Muppet Movie
14. Stalker
15. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht
16. The Jerk

 

[TM2YC]

The Leopard (1963)
Director: Luchino Visconti
Country: Italy
Length: 185 minutes
Type: Epic, Historical, Drama

The influence 'The Leopard' has on 'The Godfather' can't be overstated. Luchino Visconti's vision of Sicily, it's panoramic countryside, ancient villas and cobbled streets, it's romantic atmosphere, is Francis Ford Coppola's vision of Sicily. The relationship between Burt Lancaster's Prince Fabrizio and his nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon), echoes that of Don Corleone and Michael. The older, wise, beloved master of a fading noble era, and their successor, more impatient, less magnanimous and more ruthless in their quest for money and power. Then or course both films are 3-hour epics scored by Nino Rota, some passages of his Leopard score are either very similar to Godfather, or Coppola just wanted to use the same piece of Rota music in tribute. The 2009 BFI blu-ray release of 'The Leopard' might've been one of the first times I'd watched something in the HD format, so I remember it totally blowing me away. It's a film made to be seen in the highest possible quality and on the largest screen. I've seen a lot of great old movies remastered in stunning HD since then but 'The Leopard' still shines. The only times you're not utterly enthralled by every frame of Lancaster's powerful, virile Prince, is when Claudia Cardinale arrives in the room (always fashionably late) taking the breath away from the male characters and viewers alike. When they waltz together at the end, it's unforgettable. The grand ball metaphor of the final is shear poetry, as it's exhausted revellers fade away into the night, so does the Prince and the era he represents and loves.

With that viewed again, I think I've re-watched every film in the 1001 list which I'd already seen before, so it's 99 all-new films yet to see.

 

[TM2YC]

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Director: Amy Heckerling
Country: United States
Length: 90 minutes
Type: Coming of Age, Comedy, Drama

This would've probably had a much bigger impact on me if I'd watched it about 25-years ago but I still enjoyed and appreciated it's refreshing hard-edged take on the high-school movie. The upbeat late-70s pop-rock soundtrack, which doesn't feature any 80s synth stuff, the tasteful early 80s fashions which kids could still pull off today, and a general "could be early 90s" aesthetic, ensure it has a timeless quality. Only the embarrassing "so do we market this thing as Porkys?!?" exploitation posters and trailer used to promote the film date it (no doubt signed off by out-of-touch ageing movie execs). It's matter of fact treatment of underage sex, abortion, drugs, blow job technique and masturbation, might still feel bold today. But Amy Heckerling doesn't deliver them for shock value, it's just "this is what happens, so it's in the movie". The scene where Brad picks Stacy up from her abortion appointment and he's simply a quietly supportive older brother, no drama, felt so real. Possibly one of the best cast movies ever, it's kind of ridiculous, when you've got whole scenes acted by then-unknown/now-household-name young actors...sometimes it's just 17-year old Nicholas cage being an extra.

 

[TM2YC]

Farewell My Concubine (1993)
Director: Chen Kaige
Country: China
Length: 171 minutes
Type: Historical, Drama

I think I hate "Beijng Opera", or the sound and performance of it anyway, although the makeup and costumes are fabulous! Why anybody would enjoy cacophonous wailing and pots and pans being banged together, is beyond my powers of understanding. So it's testament to the quality of Chen Kaige's 'Farewell My Concubine' that I was engrossed by a 3-hour film about the art form. It's the complexity of the character's motivations and desires, and how their actions intertwine with and mirror both the plot of the real 1918 play 'Farewell My Concubine' aka 'The Hegemon-King Bids His Lady Farewell' and the tumult of Chinese politics and culture in the first half of the 20th century. There are three people in a tragic destructive love triangle, Xiaolou, his real life wife/concubine Juxian and his male stage concubine Dieyi. At points each commits acts of extraordinary self-sacrifice for the other two, at others points almost destroying each other. 'Farewell My Concubine' features incredible performances and gorgeous visuals on an epic scale. Not least from the late great Leslie Cheung.

Maybe I'll give the actual play a go, a decent looking version is on youtube:

 

[TM2YC]

The Last Battle (1983)
Director: Luc Besson
Country: France
Length: 93 minutes
Type: Sci-Fi, Drama

I'm halfway through bingeing Amazon's 'Fallout' adaptation (I was obsessed by the three-ish games it's based on) and then I watch Luc Besson's 'The Last Battle'. It's desolate sense of melancholy, unpredictable existential terror, and sometimes whimsically warm depiction of the last remnants of humanity, scavenging in a ruined post-apocalyptic wasteland, is everything 'Fallout' (the show) is missing. So far, the show is far too focused on adolescent humour, cartoonish violence and endless babbling from the characters, to the point where they are making no literal sense, just to avoid leaving any silence for the viewer to fill with their own thoughts. The sense the games gave you, of being alone, exploring a vast echoing graveyard of humanity is absent but it is central to 'The Last Battle'. In fact this apocalypse has rendered people mute, isolating them further than mere geography, from communication and human connection. It shows how little dialogue you really need in a film script if the visual story telling is there, I genuinely and frequently forgot that the characters were physically unable to speak. There are only two words spoken in the film and only two female characters (briefly seen), which seem to represent peace, calm and civilisation, in the otherwise chaotic bleak lives of the mostly selfish men scrabbling around for the last consumer products. There are a couple of moments in Eric Serra's eclectic score that sound nearly identical to bits of Brad Fiedel's 'The Terminator' score from the year after, or maybe they just both used the same 83-84 vintage synthesiser? It's a shame 'The Last Battle' seems to be barely in print in HD. A 4K restoration please Criterion!

The trailer is just stills, so here's a scene instead:

If you ever need to describe to a teetotaller what being drunk is like, just play them this wordless scene:

 

[mnkykungfu]

The first time I watched The Final Battle, it was in French and I didn't realize it until near the end of the film. Didn't much matter. A long while back, Besson was on my Mt. Rushmore of film directors, and I went back and did a marathon of his amazing run of films up to his first "retirement". This was the big undiscovered gem, which I absolutely love and rewatch every couple of years. It's great to see a young Jean Reno too, and you can see why Besson decided that he had more to give but wanted to capitalize on his quiet scowling.

As much as I love this film, I do think it could be fun to fanedit with a rescore. Maybe some old synth? Maybe throw some filters on? Turn this into a vibe kind of like Mandy?