3/1
Sure it's important but so what? Zzzzz....beautiful to look at, though. Easily my least favorite of Kubrick's feature-length films.
All About My Mother (1999, Almodovar) - **** (Masterpiece)
3/2
Onibaba (1964, Shindo) - ****
(Masterpiece)
Powerful look at lust and solitude in Medieval
Japan. A young girl and her mother-in-law stay alive by killing
stray soldiers and selling their armor. When the girls' husband
doesn't return from the war, she turns to his friend, infuriating the
mother and driving her to attempt witchcraft. There are no good
characters here, only ones with evil and selfish intents, and Onibaba
is all the more effective because of it. Rarely is anything predictable,
yet nothing seems out of place. Visually, it's reminiscent of such
works as Woman in the Dunes and Ugetsu; Shindo
uses nature and light beautifully, and the reeds create a bleak and
hopeless atmosphere that matches the themes of the film.
Crash (1996, Cronenberg) - ***
Unique but overlong and ultimately not as
rewarding as it should be. Cronenberg makes us think about extremes
in a provocative fashion; people who get turned on by car crashes and
jeopardizing their lives. Fear as a stimulant at its highest level.
Extremely thought-provoking but becomes tedious seeing the same themes
repeated over and over for 100 minutes. Could have been done in 60.
3/3
La Ronde (1950, Ophuls) - **** (Masterpiece)
Ah, the merry-go-round of life. Charm
abounds here. Ophuls paints a delicate and accurate portrait of
love and sex and accomplishes it all without fluff. The symbolism
isn't difficult to discern but like Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh
Seal, it doesn't need to be. La Ronde is about joy
and lust, not dissecting thirty layers of Tarkovsky-esque hidden
meanings.
Spider (2002, Cronenberg) - ****
Cronenberg uses dingy streets and dark alleys
wonderfully and the grimy authenticity of Spider can't be overlooked.
Howard Shore's score perfectly accompanies this. The pacing is
certainly slow, which serves to enhance the mood. The performances
are first-rate; Fiennes barely speaks but his portrayal of Spider is
exceptional, using body language and grunts to convey emotions.
Richardson and Byrne are excellent as well. There's a bit of
obvious symbolism early on (the puzzle, the tower with legs shaped
like a spider web) but then, this might only be obvious in his mind.
3/4
Suspiria (1977, Argento) - ****
Go to my review page. For some reason, linkage won't work here.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928,
Epstein) - ***
I was never a big fan of Poe's
"The Fall of the House of Usher" but this is a solid adaptation. There's
one particularly gorgeous scene where Roderick is playing the guitar
while the visuals alternate between mist, trees, and water. It
felt like he was trying to control nature with his music. Inside
the house, the atmosphere is brooding and dark, which fits Poe's story
nicely. On the negative side, the acting is mostly hammy and I've
always found the story itself rather bland.
The Mystery of Picasso (1956, Clouzot) - ****
Miracle in Milan (1951, De Sica) - ****
Guernica (1950, Resnais) - **1/2
Princess Mononoke (1997, Miyazaki) - **** (Masterpiece)
3/6
Mouchette (1966, Bresson) - **** (Masterpiece)
The Golden Coach (1951, Renoir) - *
Shockingly unengaging and unbearably cutesy. This is the same director who gave us Rules of the Game? Hard to believe.
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971, De Sica) - **** (Masterpiece)
The film's power sneaks up on you. Exquisitely made, it develops smoothly and the characters are multi-layered. The final 20 minutes are heart-wrenching and the final montage is beyond description. De Sica's finest visual work as well; rich and colorful with no gloss. Only Umberto D is superior among his filmography.
3/7
The Wind Will Carry Us (Kiarostami, 1999) - ***
Would have been a brilliant picture at 80-85 minutes but felt overstuffed at 118. Beautiful peaceful cinematography.
The Seafarers (Kubrick, 1953) - **1/2
3/8
Grave of the Fireflies (Takahata, 1988) - ****
Flying Padre (Kubrick, 1951) - *
Can a nine minute short really drag? You bet.
3/9
Othello (Welles, 1953) - **
Disappointingly uninteresting. Welles is all ham as Othello and his showboating rubs off on the rest of the cast. Only the visuals stand out as above average.
Singin' in the Rain (Kelly, 1952) - ****
There's not a trace of subtlety here, thank God. Every musical number is presented gloriously in-your-face. All the performances are giddily over-the-top but never irritating. Just what I needed to help knock off a 103 temperature.
3/10
Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, 1975) - **** (Masterpiece)
3/11
Day of the Fight (Kubrick, 1951) - ***
Bears more than a passing resemblance to Killer's Kiss in style and content; definitely the most recognizable of the shorts as being a Kubrick film. There's not a word of dialogue in any of them - all the information is conveyed via voiceover - so it's doubtful Kubrick had much control over the process anyway.
I Was Born But... (Ozu, 1932) - ***1/2
Despite Ozu's quiet style being twice as muted in the silent era, there's lots to like here. Themes of parenthood, childhood questions, and power are successfully explored in a pure fashion. Great usage of tracking shots as well.
3/12
Dementia (Parker, 1955) - **1/2
Plays like a watered-down Eraserhead without the spice. There's lots of imagination on display and excellent use of shadows, but the film never unnerved me (Perhaps because I watched it in the middle of the day).
3/13
The Big Shave (Scorsese, 1967) - ***
Smacks of Scorsese, from the New Yorkish soundtrack down to the mass amounts of blood. It's not hard to see how this is a metaphor for the Vietnam War (which it supposedly is) and strongly hints at the power figure Scorsese will become, beginning in 1973 with Mean Streets.
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) - ***1/2
Ozu's style is a bit too quiet for my liking. Tokyo Story is a beautiful film, one that I can easily understand the great love for, but I never quite fully connected to the characters. His themes are similar in all his films but like Almodovar, he's skilled enough to make them stand out anyway.
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