Shadows in Paradise (rewatch)

I’m just really fucking stressed out tonight and I don’t feel like writing a damn thing.  It took me the entire fucking evening to watch a 75 minute movie because of all the demands on my time.  Anyway, my opinion is the same as last time I watched it.  Rating: 8

IMDb

Rengoku eroica (Heroic Purgatory)

Well, this is one of those movies that just makes me feel stupid.  I can deal with a movie not making sense, but sometimes I feel like I’m supposed to be getting it and I’m just not.  Here we have… fuck, I don’t know what we have.  Something about spies and maybe communism, characters whose relations to each other are constantly shifting, unexplained leaps in time that might or might not be merely subjective.  It’s willfully obtuse almost to the point of self-parody, like someone’s mocking idea of what an “art film” is.  The actors are stiff and distant, frequently staring off into space… perhaps because there’s no other reasonable way to interpret this material.  I kind of liked it, but I was also frustrated by my confusion.  However, I have to give points for style: the film is artfully composed, with characters often squeezed into the very corner of the frame, and lots of scenes blown out by blazing sunlight.  Some interesting avant-garde music as well.  I’m cautiously curious to check out more Yoshida.  Rating: 6

IMDb

A Festa de Margarette (Margarette’s Feast)

A modern Brazilian silent comedy that just fails to come together.  This was the director’s first feature film, and he doesn’t seem to fully understand storytelling, especially in a silent.  I frequently didn’t know what the hell was going on… even when accounting for some leeway considering the fantasy nature of the story, there were parts that didn’t seem to have any flow between them.  Also, the lead actor looked kind of creepy.  A few clever or amusing moments, but overall it falls flat.  Rating: 5

IMDb

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

Silly but mostly entertaining sci-fi version of the classic tale that actually sticks fairly close to the original storyline.  The first half is more interesting, things get a little stupid when “Friday” shows up.  Rating: 7

IMDb

Valley of the Bees

I don’t know why I wanted to see this, especially after not being too fond of Vlacik’s Marketa Lazarova.  Maybe I meant to take it out of the Netflix queue and forgot.  But it worked out for the best, I thought it was a good movie.  Along the same lines as Marketa, it’s a Middle Ages religious drama (shades of Seventh Seal) but much less messy and confusing.  I had little trouble following the story… it’s never made clear why Lenora has such a sudden change of heart, but it’s not that important.  Some memorable images, interesting music, and intriguing religious themes.  Makes me think I ought to re-evaluate Marketa some day.  Rating: 8

IMDb

Valerie and her Week of Wonders

A strange fantasy/nightmare about a young girl whose sexual awakening is being haunted by vampires, lesbians, lesbian vampires, incestuous vampires, incestuous non-vampires, and demented priests.  Magic earrings are also involved.  Some of the imagery is quite striking, and the music is haunting.  The non-sequitur editing reminded me a great deal of Jires’ Czech contemporary Vera Chytilova, who has a similar no-nonsense approach to nonsense.  Fans of Jodorowsky will probably enjoy this, too.  Rating: 8

IMDb

Krylya (Wings)

A fighter pilot heroine finds herself increasingly isolated and out of touch with the people around her.  There are some moments of true poetry and I thought the ending was perfect… but I also have to admit I was a bit bored some of the time.  I think I’ve been watching too many movies lately, my attention span is flagging.  Rating: 7

IMDb

Written on the Wind (rewatch)

I thought this might have been a bad purchase, since I didn’t really LOVE it the first time.  It was sort of an impulse buy.  I was going to just put it straight on eBay, but I gave it a chance and found myself getting into it quite a bit.  I don’t like it as much as some other Sirks, but it’s good enough to keep around, at least until the next time I purge my DVD collection.  Rating: 8

IMDb

The Last Metro

It seems like Truffaut stopped making great movies around the mid-70′s and settled for merely good ones.  Which isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with The Last Metro… it’s rare for Truffaut to tackle social issues, but here he does it with a delicate touch, without resorting to cheap sentimentality at all.  It’s a well-constructed, engaging film that moves swiftly and effortlessly weaves the story of the Nazi occupation with an homage to the theater.  It’s a good piece of work… but still, it lacks those precious moments that make watching Truffaut such a thrill.  Rating: 8

IMDb

Uwasa no onna (The Crucified Woman)

A film by Kenji Mizoguchi, guess what it’s about?  If you said “whores with problems,” give yourself a gold star.  He sure did find a niche for himself.  Oh, the details are different and the scenario has some new elements, but the setting (geisha house) and the message (the system perpetuates the misery of women) are familiar territory.  Still, I won’t punish one movie just because it’s like so many others.  It’s all done quite well, doesn’t rise above the pack but with no significant missteps either.  Rating: 7

IMDb