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]

Movies Watched -- The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)

In Italian … 179 minute running time … normally I’d say this is twice as long as it should be, but this was a special movie and gets a pass because it had many beautiful moments … it’s not a single story, but a series of dozens of vignettes… the life of Italian peasants at the turn of the 20th century.

I liked it and am glad I saw it and can recommend it and would have also voted for it if I were on the Palme d’Or committee, but be warned, it’s three hours long.

From the Criterion blurb: “Through the cycle of seasons, of backbreaking labor, love and marriage, birth and death, faith and superstition, Olmi naturalistically evokes an existence very close to nature, celebrating its beauty, humor, and simplicity but also acknowledging the feudal cruelty that governs it. Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1978, The Tree of Wooden Clogs is intimate in scale but epic in scope—a towering, heart-stirring work of humanist filmmaking.”

Marriage is a Holy Sacrament

Movies Watched -- The Headless Woman (2009)

In Spanish. 89 minute running time so the perfect length. SPOILERS … this is art house stuff from Argentina, shows you what Argentine society is like… a professional woman (a dentist) (probably) hits and kills a peasant boy and his dog and gets away with it (I say probably because it’s never made clear what actually happened, which is part of the movie’s charm) … her brother is also a dentist, and her lover (not her husband) is a doctor and they both help her cover her tracks, but the victim is just a peasant boy so no authorities would ever pursue the case, but just in case, they do manage a pretty thorough cover-up … but the woman, the killer, she’s sort of a basket case (the woman lost her head, get it?) because of the accident, or maybe she was always a basket case, it’s hard to tell … it wasn’t bad, just very art-housey, so not good for a Murkan audience.

Argentina is all screwed up because of the time when political enemies were “disappeared.” The class differences in Argentina are stark. This is a movie about guilt. I thought the kid’s handprint on her car window was a little, er, heavy-handed, but this woman director is talented, no doubt.

UPDATE: I’ve been thinking about this movie a lot since I watched it and decided to upgrade it to green-go as a result.

Movies Watched -- The Celebration (1998)

In Danish. 106 minute running time. I LOVED this movie and I have NO IDEA how it came out twenty-five years ago and I never saw it… John Farr said it well: “this stinging parable about the facades of respectability and the ugly frailties they hide is one disturbing, skin-crawling ride.” Totally blown away by this, I just sat there agog, wow. GREEN GO!

You will always be my children and I have loved you and love you…

Movies Watched -- Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

In Mandarin Chinese. 125 minute running time which I’d normally say is 25 minutes too long, but I loved this movie and have seen it many times… Zhang Yimou may have been at his peak here and he had a real star in Gong Li … this is so beautifully shot. I was an exchange student in China in 1991 so I have a special connection to this movie. This is a green-go. John Farr recommends it too.

按照老规矩。。。

Movies Watched -- The Gift (2015)

108 minute running time so just 8 minutes too long, but I liked this one a lot… it was a re-watch for me. A W.D.S. By Movie (written, directed, and starring the same guy) … Edgerton is a talented Australian and the beautiful Rebecca Hall is British … American Jason Bateman plays a great scumbag yuppie … this was well-made and a good thriller. Green-go! John Farr recommends it too.

And I want to make crazy, weird love to you, with my creepy, with my creepy little pee-pee pleasey-weasy.