What classics did you see last week? (21st June to 27th Jun)

Top Gun. I am considering it a classic. I just like it.

I think this is one of Duke's best. Before his Best Actor win for True Grit (1969), Sands of Iwo Jima had been his only nomination.

Sunday
RETURN TO OZ (1985) 35TH ANNIVERSARY. Long-awaited Live-Action sequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ is a darker affair as Fairuza Balk’s Dorothy deal with quacks, storms, a ruined Emerald City and the Gnome King (brought to live by Claymation and Nicol Williamson). Although it borrows from the 1939 MGM film (the Ruby Slippers, the Oz characters having counterparts on Earth), it follows the original OZ books MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ and OZMA OF OZ (designs based on John Neill’s illustrations) with Mombi, Ozma (minus the gender-change) and the aforementioned King. I first saw the conclusion of this film at an elementary classroom viewing sometime in the late 1980s. Much of my development to the story was from a Marvel Movie Special adaptation at my elementary Library. I eventually saw the film in 1992 on a PBS LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY program which split the film into two parts (cliffhanging at Dorothy waking up Mombi’s true head and her headless body). Buena Vista DVD.

POCAHONTAS (1995) 25TH ANNIVERSARY this month. Disney’s take on the Jamestown folklore, some have argued (at least how I experienced it) as the beginning of the end of the Disney Renaissance (although profitable, it didn’t top or equal THE LION KING’s gross). My first view of this film was our family's THE LION KING VHS showing a preview of the film’s “Colors of the Wind” number. I then listened to the soundtrack, and then saw the film in theaters with my family. Later, when ABC broadcast the film (to advertise the upcoming video sequel) they showed between commercial breaks a pencil test version of the deleted “If I Never Knew You.” I was interested enough with that sequence that when Disney released its 10th Anniversary Special Edition DVD that Summer of 2005, I rented it and later got it for my Birthday. Although I think the film is better for it, for this anniversary I viewed the Theatrical version. Buena Vista DVD.

Tuesday
THE SLAYERS (1995) “LOVELY! Amelia’s Lovely Training” 25TH ANNIVERSARY Japanese with English Subtitles. Sculptor Software DVD.

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM WING (1995) 25TH ANNIVERSARY. After the Gundam’s surrender, the story takes a look at how the disillusioned pilots are handling their new situation. Last week was about Duo and Quatre. This week is about Wufei. Japanese with English Subtitles. Bandai DVD.

Wednesday
THE BIG HOUSE (1930) 90TH ANNIVERSARY One of the first prison films, opening with Robert Montgomery wide-eyed youth getting incarcerated and centering on Wallace Beery’s violent thug and Chester Morris’ wise-but-decent tough. Karl Dane (THE BIG PARADE) makes a silent appearance, no doubt because of the voice problems that will end his career and lead to his suicide. First saw parts of this in on a Showtime Broadcast in January 1992. Videotaped it on TCM in 2004. It is this recording that I am watching.

DARLING LILI (1970) 50TH ANNIVERSARY. Another flop in the ‘End of the Musicals’ succession. This time it’s Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards in this WWI Romantic Comedy with Andrews (attempting to end her sugar-coated image) as a Mata Hari spy involved with a pilot. The expensive film’s failure temporarily put an end to the careers of Andrews (until SOB) and Edwards (until the PINK PANTHER sequels). I first saw this in 2000, due to the interest in seeing actors from the Irish comedy BALLYKISSANGEL (in this case, Doreen Keogh, who plays Lili’s loyal maid). This is the Director’s Cut version, although I also viewed the additional scenes from the Special features. Paramount DVD.

DADDY LONG LEGS (1990) "My Friends, Let's Sing Together!" 30TH ANNIVERSARY. Japanese with English Subtitles. Bootleg DVD.

Thursday
EL-HAZARD: THE MAGNIFICENT WORLD (1995) “The World of Beautiful Girls” 25TH ANNIVERSARY. The series gets its Opening, and a grand one with Seiko Nagaoka’s orchestral score! Makoto meets the lesbian Alielle (in a rather awkward meeting) and heads off to find the Priestesses, two of which Shayla Shayla and Afura Mann are introduced here. Other revelations are the Phantom Tribe, one of whom is the Prince Galus. This was my first E-H episode, from the Pioneer Dubbed VHS I bought in August 2000. Japanese with English Subtitles. Pioneer DVD.

TENCHI MUYO TV (1995) “The Time & Space Adventures Part 3” 25TH ANNIVERSARY The conclusion of this trilogy of alternate realities centers on Mihoshi (as a housewife to Tenchi) and finally Ryoko as a Bonnie Parker outlaw with Tenchi her reluctant partner. The story concludes as Ryoko finally realizes she is in love with Tenchi and that forcing him into this ‘reality’ is not for her. Japanese with English Subtitles. Pioneer DVD.

Friday
THE GOLD RUSH (1925) 95TH ANNIVERSARY. The first Comedy Epic, with Charles Chaplin’s Little Tramp in the Klondike Gold Rush, dealing with outlaws, blizzards, hunger, cannibalism, love, betrayal, and a tottering cabin. I believe my first viewing of the film was in clips from many shows (MUPPET BABIES). I finally saw the whole film (the 1942 Director’s Cut) from a video rental around my Birthday in 1989. For a while, I thought this was the actual cut (which confused me when the CENTENNIAL COLLECTION trailers would list the film’s date as ‘1942’). It wasn’t until an early morning USA Network broadcast on Easter 1990 that I saw parts of the silent version (and even later that I saw the actual ending that Chaplin removed in his cut). For this Anniversary viewing, I watched two prints. The first is the Photoplay restoration on Criterion DVD. The other is the Paul Killiam Print (copyrighted 50 years ago this July) with William Perry’s Piano Score (his ‘Georgina’ theme would become the intro for PBS’ influential THE SILENT YEARS) from Republic Home Video VHS.

PRESENTING THE GOLD RUSH (2012) Kevin Brownlow and Jeffrey Vance discuss the many cuts of the film. From TGR Criterion DVD.

Saw Parts of:
UNKNOWN CHAPLIN (1983) "The Great Director" The parts of the making of the Gold Rush with an interview by Georgia Hale. I always liked Carl Davis' orchestration of Chaplin's score. Too bad he didn't orchestrate the Photoplay version. A&E Home Video DVD.

Hi all,I hope everyone had a good weekend,and I had a great time exploring the year:

Cinema of 1974 fest:


A Iran New Wave title I think you both would enjoy manfromplanetx  Fox in the Snow

With Eng Subs:



Harmonica (1974) 10

Placing the camera at the height of the children, writer/director Amir Naderi & cinematographer Ali Reza Zarrindast play a incredibly intimate, documentary-inspired atmosphere from the camera being kept at the height of the children, who see the adults looking disapprovingly down at them, and the child who has gained power from a harmonica being in his hands, towering above them and forcing all to fellow his demands, even sticking a head through (personal prison) bars in a window, just for a moments play.



Filmed on the southern coast of Iran, Naderi goes up the beach with fluid Iran New Wave (INW) panning shots from above, looking down at the dots of children in the middle of a bustling market, where the sound of a harmonica rings out between the background noise. Crashing the waves of childhood innocence being lost, Naderi jump-cuts to the aggressive faces of the children shoving the others to gain the harmonica, until Naderi breaks the fighting up with a poetic, over saturated INW freeze frame final.

Bringing the harmonica into town via a outsider, the screenplay by Naderi thoughtfully touches on the use of power to keep the population under the bidding of a person, with the mother of the most severely bullied boy telling her son that she does not want to see him "Oppressed", leading to him kicking back from those who view him as their faithful stupid "Donkey",and drowning the power which has been held over him,which finally allows him to play his own tune.






Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974) 8

Left on the shelf for two years after filming, then dumped at cinemas leaving the openings made for a franchise dead, the screenplay by writer/director Brian Clemens offers a tantalising taste on what this could have been if turned into a franchise, thanks to Clemens bringing the genre-crossing creativity he gave The Avengers TV series, by successfully mixing Swashbuckler Comedy (!) into the Hammer Horror Gothic chills.

Galloping into a merry spoofing of the witch-finder strand of British Horror as Kronos and his handy hunchback sidekick Hieronymus Grost travel round towns freeing them from vampires who don’t just kill,but cast a spell on fair maidens leaving them looking like old hags. Playing around with the mythology of Hammer vampires by introducing several varieties, Clemens has Kronos and his team of Grost and worried local Dr. Marcus steak a wonderfully pulpy adventure,where they come up with new invented ways (toads buried in the ground) to take down the vampires.

Dubbed by Julian Holloway due to his German accent being deemed too strong, Horst Janson gives a jolly turn as Kronos,who Janson has charge in with a gleeful dashing pompousness, showing no fear to any fangs on show. Joining Kronos, Hammer regular John Carson gives a wonderfully ripe,dry wit performance as Dr. Marcus and sultry Caroline Munro (in her final Hammer) gives a lively turn, kicking away from the local mutterings,in order to join the fight with the good captain.


Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) 10



Later saying that for the resulting film, "I did it exactly the way I wanted to. Good or bad,like it or not,that was my film." co-writer/(with Gordon T. Dawson and Frank Kowalski) directing auteur "Bloody" Sam Peckinpah presents a unfiltered examination of the former Wild West outlaw and Bennie's code of conduct in making this a swift bounty pick up, getting smashed on the floor in a bloody mess. Bonding with cinematographer Alex Phillips Jr. Over a shared dislike of wide-angle lenses, and a admiration for zooms and multiple camera set ups, Bloody Sam continues to brutally build upon his major recurring themes and motifs, with the bruising action scenes crystallized in ballets full of bullets twirling in Sam's distinctive slow-motion and sawn-off zoom-ins heightening the unflinching Action atmosphere.

Subtly targeting the viewer to gaze into the unrelenting darkness in the final shot, Peckinpah and Phillips Jr bring a emotional weight to the violence, in gritty whip-pans dragged across the dusty town Bennie drives through with his girlfriend Elita, who brings warm, natural colours along when Bennie relaxes in the wild with her away from the grubby, murky coloured bar Bennie works at. Grinding down the stray bright sparks Elita brings, Peckinpah sinks any chance Bennie and Elita have of returning to their old lives, by sinking them in a hauntingly poetic graveyard set-piece,that leaves Bennie confronting the consequences of disrupting the status quo of life.

In the middle of macho personalities both on and off screen, Isela Vega gives a irresistible turn as Elita, who Vega has display a fiery push back when Bennie crosses a line, but also a calm thoughtfulness of something better being on the horizon. Basing his performance on Peckinpah,Warren Oates gives a fantastic performance as Bennie, thanks to Oates placing at the center of the grizzled, battered outlaw, a determination to bring back the head of Alfredo Garcia.


China Girl (1974) 8



Holding back for 30 minutes before thrusting to a steamy set-piece, director Paul Aratow & cinematographer Red Dawson display a keen eye in emphasizing the build up to a sensual Neo-Noir atmosphere, coldly opening the title with a mob boss doing business in the chilly outdoors. Flipping over to pleasure, rather than torture as a method to get info out of the scientists, Aratow holds back from overly graphic close-ups, instead washing everyone over with Hadley Caliman’s smoky Jazz score cast across close-ups capturing everyone being on the edge of pleasure.

Wisely deciding to play out the Dragon crime syndicate plans to make Dr. Olinsky and microbiologist Dr. Teresa Hardgrave give them details to the formula seriously, the screenplay by Edwin Brown releases pleasure not only from the steamy antics, but also tension from the Neo-Noir kidnapping, with Brown placing the power in the palms of the quick-witted Hardgrave, and the clinical Madame Woo determined to slide out Hardgrave and dim Dr. Olinsky’s secrets.

Getting hands on with the project by directing her own set-piece sequence with three guys,fit Annette Haven gives a wonderful performance as Hardgrave, who Haven has sizzle with a casual sensuality, whilst also a awareness from Hardgrave of a desire from all for her to leak info. In her lone credit,Pamela Yen gives a terrific performance as Woo, thanks to Yen bringing a seductive edge to Woo’s precise plan to get Hardgrave and Dr. Olinsky to leak the info with pleasure.

Other flicks!

Starship Troopers (1997)10



Revealing in various Q&A's over the years that being told they were getting cast because they look like airheads was not the most flattering thing to be told, the ensemble cast give pitch-perfect performances, with Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards playing up on their doe-eyed teen idol looks as recruits who never flinch in their blind loyalty to the final push,whilst crusty generals played by Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown bare the cost of various failed wars on their faces, but continue to love being on the march against a enemy who they have little interest in learning more about.

Reuniting after making his script debut with RoboCop, the screenplay by Edward Neumeier dumps Robert A. Heinlein's novel,for a incredibly witty satire on Fascism, bringing the new recruits into the Starship where they have been taught since childhood to always be loyal and obedient towards, to the point where military officials shooting injured fellow generals is unblinkingly accepted as being done for the greater cause.

Opening with a expansion of the fake TV footage of RoboCop via a newsreel introduction based on Triumph of the Will, The Dirty Dutchman directing auteur Paul Verhoeven reunites with his regular cinematographer Jost Vacano,and superbly builds on the militarism of the police and media propaganda themes and motifs of RoboCop, by taking it to the most extreme, blowing up the Creature Feature bugs with (spectacular) ultra splatter violence (a recurring motif of Verhoeven) backed by a rousing score from Basil Poledouris.

Building on the militarism of the police in RoboCop, Verhoeven unleashes the authoritarianism of the army stamping anything which gets in the way (like the faceless bugs) of their rule, in Fascist uniforms worn by cannon fodder exposed by Verhoeven in the fake newsreel as being generational, whose thin trace of humanity is wiped off when they join the starship troopers.



The Big Lebowski (1998) 8

Making The Dude sit at ease as they both reunite with the film makers,John Goodman,Steve Buscemi and Jeff Bridges each give outstanding performances which make the moments where the film just hangs out with the friends a joy to witness, as the laid-back state Bridges holds Dude in bounces off the the ticking time bomb Goodman has Sobchak's linked to, whilst Buscemi's nervous, neurotic Donny hilariously tries to find a groove between Dude and Sobchak's big personalities.

Bowling in a reunion with cinematographer Roger Deakins on POV shot from the perspective of a bowling ball, co-writers/co-directors the Coen brothers continue to successfully strike in continuing to build on their recurring themes and motifs, with the Coen's and Deakins playing on the LA stereotypes in dusty, warm yellow wide-shots descending to the trio,which acts as a canvas to the darkly comedic outbursts of violence and a startling Musical dream sequence.

Scoring a intimate atmosphere in long tracking shots lounging round the streets with Dude, Donny and Sobchak, the screenplay by the Coen's takes a Raymond Chandler (Joel Coen later stated that they had been wanting to do a Chandler-style story) mystery, and twists it into a Comedy jam packed with hilarious dialogue spun from the three oddballs trying to repair the rug of the mistaken big Lebowski.



Yoru no kawa (1956)10

Turning to colour for the first time by being inspired from kimono patterns, directing auteur Kozaburo Yoshimura makes an immaculate entrance, drawing with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (cinematographer for Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) a lush water colour design, surrounding Kiwa's family workplace in bright, luxury material lining the walls being colour coded with the Kimono patterns the family put their soul in making, bringing out a refined elegance to Kiwa's romantic drama.

Revealing later that the use of red, white and blue in his works is to represent "liberty, equality and fraternity." and printed in the middle of his 1951-1960 period of works on working women in the ancient capital city of Kyoto, (a city Miyagawa called "A film makers dream.") Yoshimura gazes on the remains of Kyoto's wooden architect landscape in beautiful wide-shots which descend on the family textile workplace, where they continue to work the traditional way with rustic colours,as Yoshimura keeps the glossy colours of the modern world seeping towards them, as the sunbeam of Yoshimura's red,white and blue blazes across the skyline in a dazzling closing shot.

The first of two times he would work with Yoshimura, (the other being Onna no saka (1960)) Hisao Sawano is joined by female screenwriter Sumie Tanaka in weaving a delicate screenplay. Tanaka's touch brings a sharp focus to Yoshimura's major recurring theme of the personal drama experienced by women exploring the dilemma of a country in the midst of frantic and irreversible transformations, as Kiwa starts a passionate affair with Professor Takemura, placing Kiwa in the middle of keeping to tradition with the family workplace, and that of the modern scientist/ professor.

Lighting up the family workplace the moment she walks on screen,Fujiko Yamamoto gives a incredibly subtle performance as Kiwa,thanks to Yamamoto expressing in her body language the underlying love she has for Takemura, (played by a terrific, measured Ken Uehara) and the strings of care which connect her to the family business, as Kiwa watches the river by night.

Shorts:

Waffle (2020)6

Returning to short films after a run directing TV shows, director Carlyn Hudson & cinematographer Richard Diaz charge up a quirky Horror atmosphere,as the bright colors of Katie and Kerry's sleepover are jabbed by swift zoom-ins and phone beeps, locking on that all is not as friendly as it seems.Co-producing,writing and starring in the film, Kerry Barker and Katie Marovitch pack the short run time with a impressive level of creativity, via giving the psycho friend Horror sub-genre a amusing Sci-Fi twist, in a phone app keeping friendships on a timer which Marovitch uses to turn Katie kooky on a pile of waffles.

Maggie May (2018)3

Hammering the message home that not taking action in the middle of a crisis can lead to horrific, tragic results, writer/director Mia Kate Russell & cinematographer Tim Egan jab at a unpleasant atmosphere of ugly fish eye lens shots and grating howling baby noises. Having the potential to explore the psychological horror across the entire family in the home, the screenplay by Russell stays away from the subtle, to instead go for grotesque nihilistic venom, which fails to unlock any details in the house of Maggie May.