davidh777

Watched a vintage-porn double feature yesterday: Lovelace and American Hustle. Neither is a fun watch, but I liked the gritty feel of Lovelace compared to the sanitized Hustle, though I always like Amy Adams.

mrcellophane

I've not seen Lovelace, but I did enjoy American Hustle quite a bit, especially Amy Adams' character. In fact I'm hoping to rewatch the film this month.

Tuesday, I watched Primary to distract myself from our current antics. The film basically follows Hubert Humphrey and John F. Kennedy during the 1960 Wisconsin primary. It's a candid look at the campaign trail and all its tedium and complexities.

Yesterday, I watched Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Silence de la Mer. The few Melville films I've seen have been excellent, and this one was one exception. It follows a Frenchman and his niece as they stalwartly ignore the Nazi commander living in their house during the occupation.

Trevor

Just finished The Finest Hours, the recent Coast Giard rescue film about perhaps the most amazing rescue in Coast Guard history. Pretty standard hollywood, but enjoyable, and it appears to have followed the real event very closely.

shadokitty

I just finished a good first time view on Encore, called Lay the Favorite. It's about a former stripper who goes to work for a professional gambler in Las Vegas. The movie stars Bruce Willis, Rebecca Hall, and Catherine Zeta Jones, and is based on the memoirs of Beth Raymer.

davidh777

I'm a big Astaire-Rogers fan, and it's true that the plots are threadbare and repetitious from film to film. The difference for me is that the songs were written for the films rather than the other way around, and are often written to move the plot forward. And such good songs that they became standards!

I watched a bunch of their films for a MYOC then ran out of time and watched The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle because that's the only one that counted for May.

I've watched many many Astaire films but I think only one of the Hayworths. It's kind of one of those cases where I'm holding off on watching the last of the peak Astaire films because then there'll be no more new ones for me.

Ash Ketchum

I've seen a number of great films for this challenge (see #26 on the list thread), some repeat viewings, some first-time, but I really lucked out today.

I bought an R2 PAL DVD of Kenji Mizoguchi's PRINCESS YANG KWEI FEI (1955) in Paris two summers ago and I finally got around to watching it. It's much more intimate than most Mizoguchi films and the camera moves much closer to its pair of lovers (the Emperor and his new concubine) than most Mizoguchi films. Their relationship causes a number of disruptions at court that lead to a major revolt by the army.

This was later remade in Hong Kong by Shaw Bros. as THE MAGNIFICENT CONCUBINE (1960) and that's a bit more of a spectacle and also worth seeing.

Then, on TCM-HD this evening, I watched Delmer Daves' 1956 western, JUBAL, with the powerhouse cast of Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine (fresh off his Best Actor win for MARTY), Rod Steiger (who'd played Marty on TV), Charles Bronson and Jack Elam. It's a grand melodrama about a cattleman, an unfaithful wife, a jealous cowhand, manslaughter, a posse and a wagon train filled with true believers seeking a promised land. It's got an over-the-top performance by Steiger whose southern accent here makes his character in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT look like a genteel southern gent. It was shot in Cinemascope in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and every outdoor frame is just gorgeous.


Interestingly, the star of YANG KWEI FEI, Machiko Kyo, would appear with the star of JUBAL, Glenn Ford, in a Hollywood film, TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON, the same year as JUBAL. I love coincidences like that.

shadokitty

I just finished an interesting episode of How Booze Built America, on AHC. It was about alcohol in the colonial times. I never knew how big a part alcohol played in the start of the American Revolution.

Gobear

For anyone who enjoys jazz and blues, HBO is showing Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, an adaptation of the Broadway production about Billie Holiday, starring the amazing Audra McDonald.

shadokitty

I just finished an interesting episode of Big Ten Icons, on the Big Ten Network. It was all about Iowa's only Heisman winner, Nile Kinnick, and how he saved Iowa's 1939 season.

mrcellophane

This month I've watched three documentaries about various liberation and power movements during the 60s and 70s: Vito, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, and She's Beautiful When She's Angry. It's heartening to see just how much these movements impacted and changed our society and the way that various minority groups are treated. Unfortunately, they also show just how much further we have to go. Recent history is littered with too many dead, innocent African-American, anti-LGBT laws, and rape victims. Too many tragedies, big and small. I can get very discouraged about our current world. However, these documentaries show the resilience of humanity, and our willingness to fight for our rights, fight to make the world a better place. All three are available through Netflix Instant, and I would highly recommend them. If anyone has any other documentary suggestions on this topic, please let me know.

ntnon

GW also turns up at the start of Alexander Hamilton to give his farewell speech to the Continental Army.

Ash Ketchum

I watched ALEXANDER HAMILTON earlier this year. Odd but fascinating film. George Arliss was 30 years too old for the role of Hamilton, yet the hot blond actress who plays his wife is the right age. And he makes sure to have kissing scenes with her.

George Washington is a character in one of the films I saw for this challenge: WHEN THE REDSKINS RODE (1951). He's Colonel Washington in it and it's the lead-up to the French and Indian War and he's working with the local Delaware tribe to try and get them to side with the British. James Seay plays him and he's something of an action hero. Low-budget, but fast-paced and full of action and incident.

I've seen a lot of great films for this challenge. Please check out post #26 in the list thread.

TheBigDave

Over the weekend, I binged Houdini & Doyle: Season One and Ripper Street: Season One. I wasn't crazy about H&D, but Ripper Street was very good. I might continue watching Seasons 2 & 3.

Last night I switched gears and did an Iraq/Afghan War marathon:

The Hurt Locker (2008)
American Sniper (2014)
The Lone Survivor (2013)

shadokitty

Since I'm getting excited about my upcoming trip to Airventure in Oshkosh, I broke out my Oshkosh: Best of the 80s DVD. Seeing the Concorde arrive in 85 must have been a sight to behold.

mrcellophane

I looked it up, and Airventure looks like a blast! I hope you have a wonderful time! I live close to the University of Oklahoma and drive by their airfield almost daily, so I get to see a lot of small planes take off and land. It always give me a thrill.

Gobear

I just watched this. Very stiff and creaky film that really needed some Lin-Manuel Miranda on the soundtrack. And you are right about Arliss being far too old to play Hamilton.

shadokitty

Thanks. This will be my fourth year in a row, and I love it every year.

ntnon

Not quite as good coincidences, but finishing Alexander Hamilton today, it amused me that in the space of a few minutes one line mentioned 'making bricks without straw' (c.f. Green Pastures from yesterday), and then a toast to George Washington mocked his "..great big nose!".

Right before Green Pastures, I thoroughly enjoyed Cyrano de Bergerac.

All three were excellent. AH perhaps didn't have as much plot, and GP was only hazily applicable this month (but charmingly-then-"modern" biblical myth-tory seems fair enough), but I will definitely look forward to seeing all three again sometime.

ntnon

I'm going to seek out more Arliss, though - old, maybe, but excelkent actor.

Reading about him was fascinating, too.

davidh777

Finally watched the last episode of the first season of Rome, after watching the first 10 for last year's historical challenge!

Trevor

That should earn you a special badge or achievement. Hmmm....

Ash Ketchum

Quite by chance I've seen six films from 1956 so far for this challenge, four of them westerns: THE SEARCHERS, LUST FOR LIFE, JUBAL, RAW EDGE, DAKOTA INCIDENT, and ATTACK!

I've got others from 1956 I want to see for this, all previously seen but not in decades: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and ALEXANDER THE GREAT, with AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS as a possibility also.

Four of them are among my favorite movies: TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE SEARCHERS, LUST FOR LIFE, ATTACK! It was a good year for movies.

mrcellophane

After watching Robert Drew's Primary last week, I finally finished the other documentaries that are part of the Criterion set. Here are my belief thoughts:

ABD Close-Up!: Adventures on the New Frontier: This is basically a day-in-the-life of President Kennedy who was such a fan of Primary that he invited Drew and company into the Oval Office. It's a wonderful look at Kennedy's various duties. At one point, his sister shows up to get some photographs autographed, and he meets with the Secretary of Labor about a strike. It's a compelling piece of cinema, and you can see that Drew and Kennedy are basically inventing a narrative form that still persists. In fact this is very much like Weiner without the devastating sex scandal.

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment: This is so very, very good! The documentary follows President Kennedy and Governor George Wallace as they clash over integration of Alabama's state universities. Robert Kennedy plays a key role, and the documentary makes him seem a lot nicer than he is reported to have been. I was intrigued and repulsed by Wallace who is certain that denying African-Americans entry is morally and ethically right. He betrays no doubt about his stance. When Kennedy overrides him, Wallace sets himself up as the reasonable pacifist against a brutish despot. It's easy to draw parallels to current politics, especially the opponents of LGBT rights. I look at hard-nosed politicians like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and I think that if they are remembered by history, it won't be fondly.

Faces of November: The set ends with this 12 minute short, compiled of footage from Kennedy's funeral without any commentary. Drew's camera focuses on distraught faces in the crowd, some familiar and some not. It's a moving piece of cinema about a nation in mourning.

All of the documentaries are worth checking out, and I'm glad that Criterion decided to put out this set.

Giles

do we get 'wild cards' for this challenge?

saw the 4K DCP of 'Excalibur' last night and wasn't sure if I can include it.

BobO'Link

^I'd count it without a wild card and do the same for any movie about the Aurthurian legends.