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SCREENING LOG
- 4/24/2006-4/30/2006
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The Sign of the Cross (1932, Cecil B. DeMille)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023470/
Second best scene in the movie: Christian girl gets abducted by horny Roman officer and about to be raped at orgy by lesbian belly dancer -- but a group of Christian prisoners marching outside to their deaths are singing hymnsa the top of their lungs, wrecking the mood of the debauchery. Don't you just love Pre-Code Hollywood?
yes (YES YES for the arena sequence - best scene in the movie, best Roman arena sequence EVER -- the alligators advancing towards the half-naked tied down girl was icing on the cake -- but pre-King Kong gorilla approaching the half-naked tied up girl was icing on the icing)
The Massacre (1913, D.W. Griffith)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0002350/
Remarkably constructed riff on Custer's Last Stand. This time the Griffithian woman-in-peril finds herself clutching her newborn in the middle of a cavalry regiment being circled and massacred by angry natives (whose own village had been pillaged by over-zealous US troops). Somewhat reminiscent of the climax to HEAVEN'S GATE.
yes (#5 for 1913 between THE EVIDENCE OF THE FILM and THE BATTLE OF ELDERBRUSH GULCH)
The Golden Chance (1915, Cecil B. DeMille)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0005402/
I think DeMille ripped off Griffith's parallel narrative structures, but he adds a lot in terms of psychological complexity -- unprecedented in its time, I think. I wonder why he eventually let spectacle get in the way.
yes (#6 for 1915 between THE CHEAT and A NIGHT AT THE SHOW)
War and Peace (1956, King Vidor)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049934/
TSPDT #846
yes
The Tingler (1959, William Castle)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053363/
TSPDT #847
yes
The Innocents (1961, Jack Clayton)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055018/
TSPDT #848
what to make of that ending? Was it real, or all in her mind? I think the movie is a little too coy about this ambiguity. Would really like to read TURN OF THE SCREW now though.
yes
Ishtar (1987, Elaine May)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093278/
Not as bad as it's reputation suggests -- it starts off kind of painful, but I think that's par for the course with Elaine May. Her sensibilities take some getting used to, they can be grating, whether purposely or purposefully. Hoffman and Beatty act in a way that makes me uncomfortable, as it must have back when it was released, because they seem to be embarrassing themselves, with their awful singing and all around buffoonishness. If it were Will Ferrell or Robin Williams it would probably have been a huge hit, but to have a-list dramatic actors acting stupid just seems inappropriate. But that's kind of the point, and it's in line with May's tinkering attitude towards male leads. But once you settle in things get really good -- and when you get to the point where Beatty and Hoffman are firing rocket launchers at US Army helicopters, your jaw just drops that a movie like this was made in the era of Rambo and Delta Force, when Reaganism was at an all time high. This film is wicked sharp about the lunatic meddling of US foreign policy (love the undercover CIA agents whose shirt collars and ties are showing underneath their Muslim disguises), which makes it look better now than it might have 20 years ago.
Rosenbaum #573
yes
Judith of Bethulia (1914, D.W. Griffith)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004181/
yes (#6 for 1914 between CABIRIA and SHEP'S RACE WITH DEATH)
Mother (1952, Mikio Naruse)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044986/
Perhaps more accessible than most Naruse films, with its mix of melodrama and comedy and the universalist treatment of its subject matter -- but not top shelf Naruse in my book because it doesn't dig its teeth as much in the complexities and impossibilities of living in everyday reality, which is Naruse's inimitable artistry. He does a few things to subvert or challenge the Kinuyo Tanaka suffering woman myth, but in the end the iconography seems to win out.
yes
Bae Du-Na mini-retrospective:
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002, Park Chan-wook) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310775/
YES (#8 for 2002 between 10 and 25TH HOUR)
Take Care of My Cat (2001, Jeong Jae-Eun) third viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296658/
YES (#6 for 2001 between SPIRITED AWAY and Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN)
Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000, Bong Joon-Ho) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0269743/
upgraded from yes to YES (#5 for 2000 between PEPPERMINT CANDY and ESTHER KAHN)
Linda Linda Linda (2005, Nobuhiro Yamashita) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468795/
yes
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