Movies Watched -- Leave Her to Heaven (1945) (Re-watch)

(That’s odd, I reviewed this six years ago this month and forgot all about it).

110 minute running time so 10 minutes too long, but this is a wonderfully weird movie. I thought it was a Sirk film given the “blazing Technicolor,” but the director was John M. Stahl (born Jacob Morris Strelitsky).

That beautiful blue sky above the “lake cabin in Maine” was actually shot in northern California. The movie stars Gene Tierney, her overbite, and her face-in-a-trance. She’s beautiful, she’s rich, she’s politically- and socially-connected, she has impeccable manners, she is beautifully dressed (for the 40s), and she is a complete psychopath. It’s a lot of fun. Weird fun.

She marries a Harvard man (editor of the Lampoon) named Dick, after unceremoniously dumping Vincent Price, the District Attorney. Dick is close to his younger brother Danny, whom she calls a “cripple” in a moment of indiscretion (maybe he has polio?). Spoilers ahead: she doesn’t like Danny around so she drowns him. See what I mean about this movie being fun?

She gets pregnant with Dick’s baby, but ends up hating the “little beast” inside her, so she throws herself down the stairs to induce a miscarriage. Let me remind you that this movie was made in 1945, the height of American myth-making in Hollywood, the opposite of the dark truths put on display here.

High on Crazy Hot Index

Dick loses interest in her after this, and spends more time with her “sister” Ruth (actually a cousin), and he even ends up dedicating his latest novel to Ruth, which leads Gene Tierney and her overbite (spoilers ahead) to kill herself while attempting to frame Ruth for “murder.” High comedy!

There’s some really great writing in this movie, great lines and dialogue. I loved everything about it. What’s weird is that it is not on ANY must-see movie list, including John Farr’s, which is a real surprise. But I strongly recommend seeing this movie, it’s wonderful, green-go!

(How could Fox’s largest-grossing movie of the ENTIRE 1940s be so unknown today?!? I think it’s because the movie is so dark, so perverse, that normal people don’t want anything to do with it… similar to Angel Face or Nightmare Alley … crazy hot people committing suicide or going mad is not something the public anxious to see.)

Movies Watched -- Letter Never Sent (1959)

In Russian. 96 minute running time so the perfect length. This is a Soviet propaganda movie at its finest. I watched the whole thing and enjoyed it and recommend it. Rating: 4.

No one explicitly picked this as a Closet Pick in the Criterion Closet, but several people mentioned it in passing, usually in the same breath as The Cranes Are Flying (which was not as good as this).

“Sergei Stepanovich. You’re tired.” (then she shakes her head so slightly)

Movies Watched -- Mr. Klein (1976)

In French. 123 minute running time so 23 minutes too long, but I watched all of this and enjoyed it and recommend it. It is yet another Holocaust movie, but it’s actually watchable and dare I say it, entertaining. Horrifying too of course, but really well made. Joseph Losey knew what he was doing. The opening scene was stunning, it made my jaw drop just like the opening of Diamonds of the Night (yes, another Holocaust movie). Rating: 4.

Once again my method of finding hidden gems proves its value: only one person recommended this as his Closet Pick in the Criterion Closet, so that’s how I discovered it. Thank you, Ari Aster, for the recommendation, but shame on you for making Midsommar, which was unspeakably awful in every way.

We've been French and Catholic since Louis XIV!

Movies Watched -- Girlfight (2000)

105 minute running time so five minutes too long, but I watched all of this and enjoyed it and recommend it. Tough kids living a tough life in Brooklyn. The movie wouldn’t have worked at all without the star, Michelle Rodriguez, who knocked it out (of the park). Boxing. Friendship. Family. Competition. Love. Rating: 4.

Once again my method of finding hidden gems proves its value: only one person recommended this as his Closet Pick in the Criterion Closet, so that’s how I discovered it.

So what's it like in Gowanus?

Movies Watched -- The Soft Skin (1964)

In French. 117 minute running time so 17 minutes too long, but I enjoyed this and recommend it. Truffaut imitating Hitchcock. Sexiness of jet air travel and hotel rooms in foreign countries. Mirrors. Probably Truffaut’s best movie, and next to no one has seen it. Rating: 4.

Once again my method of finding hidden gems proves its value: only one person recommended this as his Closet Pick in the Criterion Closet, so that’s how I discovered it.

Movies Watched -- Scenes from a Marriage (1973)

In Swedish. There are different cuts of this movie, and I watched the three hour version. I generally have a strict 100 minute rule with movies, but this one was special and gets a pass. I loved this movie, but didn’t watch it in one go … I watched an hour a night for three nights, more or less.

It’s a stage play, not really a movie, just two people talking (mainly). It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s insightful, it’s maddening. Maybe it’s only enjoyable for people who have been married twenty years? Anyway, it’s a green-go recommended movie. Of course John Farr recommended it too (“long and demanding, but richly rewarding”) and said it is “peak Bergman.”

Four visitors to the Criterion Closet picked it out; you can see who they are here.

Liv Ullman was both beautiful and a great actress.

“Yes, she has lovely breasts.”

Movies Watched -- A Face in the Crowd (1957)

125 minute running time so a bit on the long side, but this was an interesting movie I’d never heard about before four people picked it in their Criterion closet picks videos. (Look at the master list to see who those four people are.) I should add that the reliable John Farr also recommended it too.

Budd Schulberg and Elia Kazan “cooperated” with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the early 1950s and probably felt pretty awful about it, so they made a political movie like this one to make amends maybe? It’s about the rise of a “demagogue in denim” and how TV’s invention has shaped American politics.

This movie reminded me of Nightmare Alley (1947) in a way (another movie I love and recommend) … sort of stripping away and laying bare the mythology of America. Andy Griffith’s breakout role and young Walter Matthau also appears. This is a green-go recommended movie.

… outcasts, hobos, nobodies, gentlemen loafers... one time or all time losers, call us what you want to...

Movies Watched -- Days of Being Wild (1991)

In Cantonese / Shanghainese / Mandarin … 94 minute running time so the perfect length. One of Wong Kar-wai’s earliest movies, I think. The first half is great, the second half is weaker, and the ending is really disconnected / mysterious, which is a shame because it almost makes it not a green-go.

Anyway, I love the way Wong Kar-wai frames shots … he has a unique approach, not conventional, and it makes his movies interesting, even if the story is sort of weak or dumb. He creates a mood that is really wonderful, esp. around romance-that-could-have-happened-but-doesn’t. (In this movie, the would-be romance happens between Maggie Cheung and the local beat cop, played by a gorgeous Andy Lau. All the Chinese men are beautiful in Wong Kar-wai movies, which is another reason he has a huge number of homosexual fans.)

Leslie Cheung plays a pretty-boy bastard playboy who beds both the always graceful Maggie Cheung and, later, a bratty, immature Carina Lau. They are both crushed when he dumps them.

The second half story is Leslie’s trip to the Philippines to find his mother who abandoned him as a baby. He improbably meets up with the local HK cop who has since become a sailor. There’s some kung fu. Another story line about Leslie’s friend falling for Carina Lau. It’s weaker.

Green-go if you are a Wong Kar-wai completist or if you just want to watch the first half of the movie.

Today is... April 16, 1960, one minute before 3 pm. You are with me. Because of you, I'll remember that one minute from now on.

Movies Watched -- A Single Girl (1995)

In French. 90 minute running time. The perfect length. I really enjoyed this movie, green-go. It’s the story of a beautiful 19-year-old Parisian girl named Valérie, played by Virginie Ledoyen. The camera stays tight on her face and steady gaze for nearly the entire length of the movie. She’s tough and sticks up for herself, but also has a sense of humor and playfulness. It’s hard being a beautiful young woman (all men filled with lust, all women filled with envy).

She is four-weeks pregnant and the movie begins with her disclosing this fact to her loser boyfriend. I have to say that the boy who played that role blew me away with his reaction, late in the movie, to her final remark.

She has a new job as a room service waitress in a hotel, and encounters all the awful stuff that normally happens in hotels, just within her first hour of work. Farr (thanks for the reco, John) says “she battles conditions that would wilt most mortals of any age.” She keeps moving forward, keeps her chin up, and her pace quick. There’s a determination there that you admire. And she’s beautiful, just stunning … and not a rich kid, not spoiled.

Very interesting camera work. Handheld on the streets of Paris, no permit, natural light, bystanders looking on curiously, but the filmmaker doesn’t care, it’s beautifully done.

Loved it, highly recommended.

Movies Watched -- Birth (2004)

100 minute running time so the perfect length … I’m a huge fan of Jonathan Glazer, but had never seen his second movie, Birth. It is a weird one and the mainstream critics HATED it, but I didn’t mind it, in fact I liked it, it’s definitely NOT terrible, and I’ve added a copy to my permanent collection. I love Nicole Kidman, she’s super talented. It’s a love story, but a twisted one. I would recommend it if you like Glazer and are a completist like me. Green-go!

[Not just the Wagner getting to her]