Where I Fail to Come Up with a Witty Title

I had big plans for some other posts this week, but I couldn't find a way to convert VOB or .m4v to .avi or .mpeg or anything I could edit in iMovie. At least not of free and on a Mac. Hopefully I can get it worked out next week. The effort I put in for a bit of silliness. As it stand, you're stuck with another account of my Netflix watching, you lucky things, you.

Girly (aka Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny, Girly) -- Freddie Frances

I talked about this briefly in my Cinematographers as Directors, but not to much substance. Girly is one of the weirder films I've ever seen and I (kind of) highly recommend checking it out. It's bizarre and doesn't make much sense it's also pretty unsettling due mostly to the portrayal of the family unit. The Netflix description does not prepare the viewer remotely for the experience:

Girly (Vanessa Howard), a fetching but evil-minded schoolgirl, shares a dark hobby with her oddball household: she lures unsuspecting men to their mansion on the outskirts of London, then engages them in "games" that inevitably end in their deaths. The horrific family project runs smoothly until Girly brings home a new friend (Michael Bryant) who's operating under his own set of rules. Soon, he turns the entire household upside-down.

Basically, that's right, but it's also fairly misleading. I can see watching this film with others and laughing the whole way through it, but watching it alone, it kind of creeped me out (not unlike my experience watching The Other).

The Hallelujah Trail -- John Sturges

I have an issue with comedies that are over two hours (and if I'm being completely honest, over 90 minutes, but there are many exceptions to that). Comedy needs to sustain a certain amount of energy both from the film and the viewer and as a viewer, it can be difficult to stay engaged for much longer than that and The Hallelujah Trail runs about 2.5 hours. Fortunately, it does feature some interesting action set pieces and the film frequently looks great, but unfortunately, it's not really funny. There's plenty of conflict to mine from trying to get many barrels of alcohol through Indian territory into a town run dry, but the story throws in obnoxious temperance movementeers that really drag the film down. I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie where the temperance movement added anything good (though depending on my mood, Elmer Gantry could be an exception). The best I've seen it handled is in The Wild Bunch where it's in the background. However, I'd probably jump at the chance to see it in 70mm.

Intolerance -- D.W. Griffith

Thoughts can be found here.

Red Riding 1974 -- Julian Jarrold

I'm of two minds about this first film of a made-for-television trilogy. It looks amazing (shot on 16mm) and the acting is quite good, but it's basically a procedural that veers off track and features lots of "arty" shots that have little to do with anything (my taste for those type of shots may be at its nadir since I'm reading a book of interviews with Sidney Lumet and he firmly believes that the camera should not be detected). I'm curious to move on to the other films, but that's partially because I feel like nothing was done in this first one to forward the investigation into the murder(s). Still, there's a lot of nice stuff going on and I'm jealous that they can get away with swearing and nudity on British television.

Antichrist -- Lars von Trier

I read a quote from von Trier that I love regarding this film. Paraphrasing, he said that he tried to make a musical and ended up with Dancer in the Dark and he tried to make a horror movie and ended up with Antichrist. The film is pretty disturbing with some intense imagery and shocking scenes (which I won't spoil for you). It falls in the "intense, hyper-real melodramatic horror" category I previously reserved only for Possession. Now that's a double feature that will melt your brain. The only other von Trier work I've seen is Riget and I'm fascinated by the man. I'm going to have to dive into his other works.

Tapeheads -- Bill Fishman

It's a little weird to me including the director when no one really knows who the person is. Whether you buy into the auteur theory or not, it generally tells you something about the film. Anyway, you can find my thoughts here, but clearly discussion of this film is lacking.

A Virgin Among the Living Dead -- Jesus Franco (as Jess Franco)

They may as well call him "Je-zoom Franco" with the constant in and out of the zoom lens. Those of you who read this piece regularly know I'm a masochist when it come to Franco, not unlike my friend who is watching all the Twilight movies just to be culturally up-to-date. I've only kind of liked one of his films and this one just sucked. Reading the title, I bet you thought to yourself, "Ooooo... a zombie movie!" That's what I thought. Holy lord, I was wrong. I can't even get mad at the film because technically, there are many living dead in the film. This falls squarely under the classic exploitation tactic of naming the movie something crazy and having an awesome poster to get an audience. There were two really cool shots in the film, so it wasn't a total loss, golly, it's a stinker.

Midway --Jack Smight

My viewing of Midway was greatly shaded by my general annoyance at American politics. This film is very "Rah, rah, America!" and my feelings are quite the opposite. Plus, the film is not that good. It has an absolutely stacked cast, but no one gets much to do. The most interesting aspect of the film is that they use actual combat footage in the fight scenes, though occasionally that feels a little exploitative. Plus, with Toshiro Mifune leading the Japanese, it's hard to believe that the Americans could best him. After all, Mifune is the ultimate badass.

Ran -- Akira Kurosawa

I can't think of a better segue than Mifune to Kurosawa. Ran is a beautiful film that's basically the story of King Lear. Possibly the most amazing thing about the film is that Kurosawa made it when he was 75. It's not my favorite of his films, but given how many directors fail to make good movies in their old age, it's pretty remarkable. He also fully embraces gore in this film, which could be viewed as a bit over the top, but I found the occasional rivers of blood to be quite aesthetically pleasing (I also have an image from another of his films, which I can't remember right now, of a geyser of blood shooting from a man's chest). But really, this makes me want to rewatch Seven Samurai.