Just revisited Jason and the Argonauts. Ray Harryhausen was a genius, and I never tire of watching his movies. Luckily I have some Harryhausen movies that apparently count for the upcoming Horror Movie Challenge.

Finally saw City Lights. From my Letterboxd diary:



City Lights
-X- 1920/1930 (1931)
-X- 650-700 (#680)
-X- Theme: Comedies
-X- Theme: Silent Cinema
-X- Theme: Tearjerkers

Here is Travis' earlier list of titles that double count right now:

Antichrist
The Blob
Blood for Dracula
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Carnival of Souls
Carrie
Cat People
Corridors of Blood
Cronos
The Devil's Backbone
Diabolique
Empire of Passion
Equinox
Eyes Without a Face
Fiend Without a Face
First Man into Space
Flesh for Frankenstein
Genocide
Geometria
Ghostbusters
Godzilla
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell
Halloween
The Haunted Strangler
Haxan
House
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Island of Lost Souls
Jigoku
King Kong
Kuroneko
Kwaidan
The Living Skeleton
The Night of the Hunter
Onibaba
Peeping Tom
The Phantom Carriage
Repulsion
Rosemary's Baby
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Se7en
The Silence of the Lambs
Sisters
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
The Uninvited
Vampyr
The Vanishing
Videodrome
White Dog
X from Outer Space

^ You can add Eraserhead to that list. It's in the HuluPlus collection. I may watch that in the next several hours myself, actually. I'm down to just three check marks remaining: Title not released on DVD, completed box set/top 10 list, and soundtrack.

I really screwed myself by not more aggressively working on Susie Bright's Top 10 list before my two inter-library loan requests came in. I think my best bet now is to stream I Am Curious- Yellow and I Am Curious - Blue. Which should be fun because I'm given to understand they're a bit on the cerebral/trippy side anyway and I'm medicated at present.

I just watched two interviews from the DVD edition of Two-Lane Blacktop. Both are interviews conducted by director Monte Hellman. One is with James Taylor, who starred as The Driver, and the other is with Kris Kristofferson. Kris originally tried to be cast in the film, but Hellman mentions in their interview that at the time they made the film, he was very literal-minded that actors be the same age as their characters. The gem of the whole thing, though, is that I learned La strada had been a key influence on his writing of "Me and Bobby McGee". Being a country music listener, I knew about Fred Rose having the title and handing it over to Kris to write the actual song, but I'd never heard that the Fellini film was part of it at all. Pope Francis recently cited La strada as his favorite film, so now I'm wondering what he thinks of "Bobby McGee". That'd be a fun conversation to have, I think.

(Did I mention I'm medicated right now? 'Cause I am.)

Finished off the Criterion Challenge with the new 35th Anniversary blu-ray of Halloween. It seems like a good capstone to a fun month. I look forward to doing this again next year.

End of challenge! I can safely say that this was the best CC marathon I've yet to have. It was hard to top the very first challenge (Since I watched a lot of personal favorites from my collection that year) but this was a more impressive feat to me considering I only re-watched just one movie....Well, one-and-a-half, actually (Missed the first hour of Zatoichi/Doomed Man)

My best/favorites of the bunch:
The Kid with a Bike
Summer with Monika
Certified Copy
Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival
Cría cuervos
L’enfance nue
Samaritan Zatoichi

Thanks for hosting, CGiant!

I wound up being so busy - sometimes watching, sometimes not - that I've failed to comment much over the past few weeks, annoyingly.

Got a lot watched, though! And many of them were very good indeed. I stalled out trying to tick things off the checklist (although I suspect I got most of it covered anyway) because I realised I wouldn't be able to watch any of the "Top 10" lists: mostly because neither I nor the library had enough of the titles to allow it, but also because I became a little annoyed that every time I found a list from which I could watch 8 or nine (and thus conceivably justify blind buying the final title) wound up not having ten titles, but eleven, twelve or more...! Bloody people!

Crumb was fascinating, and seemed really honest and open, which was refreshing. Made me sad at the end to read that his brother killed himself, though... and naturally led to the disturbing thought that the documentary contributed in some way.

Although much of the films was incomprehensible, I also really enjoyed the Eclipse set Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr.. They all seemed very surreal and dada-esque, which naturally linked for me directly to Monty Python. I wonder if some of the lack of enjoyment that I've noticed in various places is because they seem to me so peculiarly (weirdly) British in tone and humour. No More Excuses was my easily favourite. Didn't understand it at all - I kept feeling that all the inter-cutting was probably meant to imply something, or link cleverly (although Downey seemed to deny that in conversation with Paul Thomas Anderson) - but the humour was strong and extremely funny. Definitely reminded me of Python and Harry Enfield (and others) particularly in it's SINA segments. I didn't quite get until the interviews that he actually invaded a real baseball game dressed as a Confederate soldier, though! Marvellous...

I appreciated W.C. Fields' films more this year, too. And was very pleasantly surprised to find myself really engaging with The Phantom Carriage. On the Waterfront and Citizen Kane were both excellent (quelle surprise), but so was The Seventh Seal, which was very interesting - I wasn't expecting to enjoy it much. Several "foreign" and "artsy" films leave me cold, so such a famous one did not inspire me to hope for much - particularly as I was under the distinct impression that it was full-allegorical and confusing, which was not my experience at all. It was just a well-told, well-acted and interesting film. I'm going to have to seek it out and buy it now, I think.

The Harder They Come was a bit odd, and I found parts of it hard to follow - but the great music compensated for all that. The Four Feathers seemed very dated (for probably obvious reasons), but was enjoyable enough, while I was sure Lonesome was a silent film going into it, but then partway through they started talking and didn't stop..! It was very slight, I felt, but well done.

Blackmail and Young and Innocent were both pretty good, Young and Innocent the stronger for me. Neither were terribly complex, and Blackmail reminded me very much of... I can't recall the title. Something I watched not long ago where the girl wanted to confess to a crime, but wound up not having to because the perceived murderer died.. in a fire..? Or maybe I've seen this before..

Evita is a film I've never seen, but know fairly well because various family members had the soundtrack as I was growing up. So many of the main songs - and story points - were extremely familiar. I was not accustomed to Mr Banderas' voice, however, and wasn't terribly impressed... but I think that thought had as much to do with my not liking much of the 'new' (to me) music - i.e. that which I did not remember - for being so un-musical and weird. Easy to see why it didn't stick with me through the years as the better songs did. Overall, though, it's a very good film. Next, I guess, I need to read up on it's accuracy (or not), to make sure I know a little about that area of history.. and have it unMadonna-ed in case the film is atrociously inaccurate.

Carrie.. I knew most of what was going to happen, but still. Shouldn't have watched it late at night... Bram Stoker's Dracula I'm enjoying - know the story, never seen the whole film. Keanu gets a lot of flak, but all I hear is a) An American trying to do a British accent, which b) Comes off very, very stilted.... which is actually not out of keeping with the straight-laced Harker's character as I've always read/watched/thought of it. So I don't have much problem with him. I was rather pleased to hear Winona Ryder say "clerk" as "clark" though. Plus Mr Hopkins' van Helsing comes across as an egocentric tw*t... which again, fits well with my reading of the story (and few adaptations). Good job!

Best of the last few weeks is probably yesterday's Brute Force. The interview I watched said it was an early and important prison film, and it's impossible to disagree. It reminded me of a lost of films that followed it, which probably speaks to it's import as much as anything. I didn't quite get the Nazi overtones that the essay and interview mentioned, because I don't tend to subscribe entirely to the 'can't be a coincidence' links they draw - it's a prison, so obviously it shares similarities with the concentration camps. I'm sure the parallels could have been deliberately placed, but I don't think they need to be for it to resonate and be an excellent film. The firm implication that Munsey actually lies to Tom about his wife (rather than, as initially it appears, withholds and releases information to suit his perverse ends) is a particularly bitter note and damning character point for this brilliantly believable villain.

Another film that I wasn't really expecting to enjoy based on the short summary I saw, was Summer Hours. Sounds dull, not much really happens... all the characters don't go far, don't really change much or learn much and overall it's just a bit sad. Which is obviously the point. It brings up important issues, questions and themes, presents all sides, hints at the "right" path, reminds us there rarely IS a 'right' path, and then just goes about its business of reminding us that death is sad, final and difficult to deal with. And that dealing with it and all the fallout is at least as difficult again. Particularly when there are final wishes (spoken, unspoken; implied, necessary; ignorable, impossible) and then even more so when those wishes conflict with the wishes of the survivors. I really felt sorry for the elder brother and his hopes to preserve the legacy of his uncle - and not just keep the house and collection together, but preserve his memories of his mother that are increasingly eroded by the memories of others of her 'true' feelings towards the artist. Clearly French films starring Ms Binoche are universally excellent!

I thought I'd read it, too, particularly since I think 12 Angry Men is one of the best films I've ever seen.

My impression - and it could be a false one - is that the author meant (my stresses added) that it was ironic that 12 "helped to define an era of filmmaking grounded in the gritty realism and frenetic energy of urban New York" when it takes place in such a confined and sterile environment. Not that, and forgive me if I'm misunderstanding you, the irony is that it's a "Hollywood" film that isn't in Hollywood, but that it's a New York film that isn't (really) in New York - which IS ironic, if the other part of the statement ("helped to define") is accurate.

Hm, I see your point, but I don't quite agree again. I'll add my own stress to try and explain my reading:

"It is not surprising that Lumet, whose lifetime coincided with so many of the injustices of the twentieth century—from the Holocaust to the Hollywood blacklist—would choose as the subject of his first feature a story painted in the gray brushstrokes of prejudice."

I don't see them being lumped together offhand, but merely used as bookends of that particular period. I don't even think it flippant to equate the two, since the point being made is about prejudice. Yes, the Holocaust was far, far more awful than the blacklist, but the point being made - the link found between the two - is that of blind prejudice. The equation is Hitler on Jews, Gypsies, etc.; McCarthy on Communists; Ed Begley and Lee Cobb's Jurors 10 and 3 on, essentially, immigrant kids. It's a drawing of parallels between opinions and prejudices, not between particular events.

But since the word used is merely that Lumet's life "coincided" with these events, I don't feel that your criticism is valid: it isn't, I feel, terribly important that he was/is Jewish and/or blacklisted: a non-Jew, non-blacklisted person whose life was also lived alongside those events could have made the same points. Anyone can comment on such prejudice, whether or not they've actually been a victim of it.

Ah, nuts. I meant to get to that one too.

While I didn't watch as much as I would have liked, I did enjoy what I watched, so I would consider it a successful challenge. Thanks for another fun challenge Cardiff.

well wow, the list thread was dropped like a lead penny for the sake of the Horror Challenge... usually the lists stay up for at least a couple of days after the challenge has ended.

Wait, can't you do something about that now?

yes I actually can - I hope the mod who did release the thread wont mind if I reinstate it for a couple of more days.

I would hope not. I know some people don't appreciate the "attention" that the Challenges get, but I think they help the site. So several days a month (last couple and first few perhaps) of two stickied threads at the top of one sub-forum can hopefully be tolerated by all.

In the last two weeks of the Challenge, I only watched two films. The big project I've been working on for the last two weeks is my YouTube channel. I've finally found a way to transfer VHS tape to my computer, so I've been mining tapes filled with footage I shot decades ago to find suitable clips for YouTube. Lots of Times Square and Central Park stuff. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Ashitaka6

The last film I watched for this challenge was GENOCIDE (1968), a nod to the Horror Challenge, which I won't be participating in (too busy with other projects). It's a fascinating Japanese eco-horror-thriller about swarms of insects on a rampage on an island off Japan, all done with real insects, as far as I can tell. It's got significant participation from non-Japanese actors, all of whom speak Japanese to everyone else, including each other. (All post-dubbed.) One of them, black actor Chico Roland, was in two of Koreyoshi Kurahara's films (found on an Eclipse set that I watched for last year's challenge), and he turns up in Sonny Chiba's THE STREET FIGHTER (1974) as the poor bastard who suffers emasculation at the hands of Chiba. There is real tension between the Japanese characters and the American officers who come to the island and throw their weight around after a plane carrying an H-bomb crashlands there. There is a blond woman who's an Auschwitz survivor and may play a part in the insects' erratic behavior. Quite a mix of unusual elements at play here and a lot harder-edged than, say, THE GREEN SLIME, another Japanese sci-fi film from that year.

Flash Sale! Happening now.

Picked up a 6 titles. I guess my Criterion Challenge will continue.

I still have to finish updating my list. I fell short of the checklist, but not by much...I'll update later tonight.

They *would* do that when I'm pretty much tapped out!

My list will be easy to update. I really slacked off and only watched *one* Criterion title all month. I'll even have to look at the "uncataloged" pile (watched but not yet in the database) to see which one I watched! The past couple of years finally caught up and I rested some in anticipation of the Horror Challenge.

Came pretty close to completing the check list with my 18 viewed items. Completed all decades but missed 4 blocks of spine numbers; did not get to an Eclipse title but watched 2 titles not on DVD (both in a theatre no less); was one short on interviews and did not get an entire set done nor did I listen to a soundtrack. Everything else was completed. I’m certainly satisfied with those results.

I watched 7 discs of my own (all DVDs, for some reason I did not watch any of my own blu-rays), 9 from the library (8 blu-rays and 1 DVD), and 2 at the theatre (as I mentioned). I don’t know why I got so many from the library, when I have so many of my own that I could have watched.

Watched one crossover title, Eyes Without a Face, before falling asleep at about 1pm last night.

Watched Heaven’s Gate last night. It was very long, over 3.5 hours, and had one of the bleakest endings in my recent movie watching history, except for a movie from the Netherlands that I saw at the Calgary International Film Festival the other day called The Fifth Season. It’s a good candidate for Criterion, actually!

Finally got Seven Samurai watched, which I enjoyed the second half of more than the first.

Anyway, see you all back next year, hopefully. Now on to the ‘horrors’ of October!

The last 48 hours were something of a slog, and I still failed to complete the checklist. The last film I got to was I Am Curious (Yellow). I was simply too exhausted to watch its (Blue) counterpart. From my Letterboxd diary:



I Am Curious (Yellow)
-X- 1960 (167)
-X- 151-200 (#180)
-X- Language: Swedish
-X- Theme: Cult Movies
-X- Essay: Still Curious by Gary Giddins
1/10 List: Brie Larson's Top 10

I've still got to review Ivan's Childhood, respond to some things in this discussion thread, and write up my end-of-challenge remarks. I've got reviewing fatigue right now, though, so it's all gonna have to wait another day!

That reading of it makes sense, I suppose. I have a hair-trigger when it comes to use of the word "ironic", and I didn't feel that Rosenbaum made clear just what the irony was.

I'm the guy who wants to slap people who try to say "you can't compare" two things, or fail to understand that comparing =/= equating. I get your argument here. My issue here is that it feels Rosenbaum name-dropped the Holocaust without justifying the reference.

That's kind of my point, actually: So what? So what that these things occurred while Sidney Lumet drew breath? What do they have to do with Lumet and 12 Angry Men? That unanswered question is why I take umbrage with Rosenbaum's essay. I'm not saying there's no relationship. I'm just saying that Rosenbaum never established one.

He could have said that the film was made for audiences who had witnessed the Holocaust and McCarthy's witch hunt, and at least that would have established a connection between the name-checked events and the film at hand. But instead, the connection is made through, and to, Lumet - but without any meaning. It's lazy writing, using "Holocaust" and "McCarthy" as little more than provocative buzzwords.

Looking Back

I set out with a few objectives. One was to watch the five discs in my library that were eligible for this challenge but that I had not yet logged in my DVD Profiler. On that score, I went 3-2. Another goal was to make use of a free trial of Amazon Prime to stream the movies they had that aren't in The Criterion Collection on HuluPlus. I was successful there, watching all eight that I found in my audit. I intended to write several pieces for Flickchart. I turned in two, though what held up writing a third is that I didn't get to the supplemental content on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. My last goal was to complete the checklist. I ended the challenge at 56/59 checkmarks.

Revisitations
I went back to four films during this year's challenge that I had previously seen, three of them because they were discs in my library I hadn't logged in DVD Profiler. Of those three, two were films I had seen during their original theatrical runs but not since: Being John Malkovich and Rushmore. Now, as then, I enjoyed the former and wasn't in love with the latter. The others were the adaptation of John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and 12 Angry Men, which my friend hadn't seen. It's a masterpiece that wows me every time.

The 70s
For whatever reason, I've done very little exploration of film of the 1970's over the years. I didn't consciously set out to focus on that decade during this challenge, but I watched more films from that decade (six) than any other. Each decade feels distinct, but it wasn't until this challenge that I finally got a sense of the 70's. Commentary on social issues is more muted than films of the 60's, or even of the 90's. There are more shades of gray, and it's more apparent to me now that filmmakers hadn't abandoned the civil rights movements of the 60's; they were, in their own way, trying to portray a more sophisticated look at the world in hopes of engaging cynical audiences.

I look at the casual criminals of The Friends of Eddie Coyle, for instance, or the business-as-usual corruption in The Harder They Come. Mon oncle Antoine was very much a "zeitgeist" film for Quebecoise audiences in 1971, tapping into themes of identity that were meant to be read in a specific context, but which are accessible even without it. There is an unasked, and unanswered, question at the end of that film that I think exists in all the 70's movies I watched: "Where do we take it from here?"

Class
In previous years, my selections have skewed more toward intimate, personal relationship stories but this year, the most dominant theme was easily one of class. It started with my first movie, Gomorrah, and ran all the way through the last, I Am Curious (Yellow), the latter film explicitly discussing the nature of class in Sweden. The contexts and objectives were as different as their settings, but the universal theme was that people are divided by class. I didn't deliberately set out to watch any of these films for the purpose of exploring that theme, but it emerged all the same.

In some films, class differences were played for laughs (City Lights, My Man Godfrey). In others, it was intrinsically linked to race (12 Angry Men, Do the Right Thing). There were films about class in different countries (The Harder They Come, Mon oncle Antoine, I Am Curious (Yellow). I saw class at war (In Which We Serve), in school (Rushmore), and in real life (Crumb, Harlan County U.S.A.).

What was most striking was how identifiable most of those films still are. Even something as benign and privileged as My Man Godfrey still plays as something of a poor man's daydream. Not just because Godfrey winds up showing up the pompous rich family, but because he gets the satisfaction of telling them off. Finding out in the end that he had been born with a silver spoon and had just walked away from it all in a fit of self-pity detracts from our identification with him, but even if he's not *really* one of us, we feel like he understands us.

My List, Ranked by End-of-Challenge Position on My Flickchart
(Rank is out of 1584 movies.)