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We looked inside some of the posts by lephilistine-blog and here's what we found interesting.
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Young Aphrodites
Seen for the first time in November 2012.
"Young Aphrodites" is an art film. It's based on an old Greek story set about 200 years BC, and as a practical matter is about the sexual discovery of a couple of winsome, androgynous, Greek adolescents. It's beautifully and artistically shot and with enough skin for some to fairly find disturbing. I'm caught between opposing camps on that score. Let's just say that I'm hopelessly American. But I'm trying.
At the end of the day, it's a very evocative and well-shot movie, even if I didn't particularly enjoy it and don't really feel the need to see it again. Grade B-.
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Throne of Blood - Akira Kurosawa
Seen for the first time in November 2012.
"Throne of Blood" is essentially "Macbeth" directly translated into Japanese and then re-translated into English with subtitles, which probably accounts for why it's such a good adaptation, naturally losing the archaic language and iambic pentameter of Shakespeare's original without succumbing to the goofiness that occurs when attempts at an update are made.
There's an element to the end, that I don't remember in "Macbeth" that reminds me of "Ozymandias," namely the notice saying "here lies the ruins of spiderweb castle." This, in my opinion opinion provides another layer of richness to the film, bringing by implication the same things that "Ozymandias" invokes. Namely, the way time and years erase even the greatest of men. The meaningless in the end of the pursuit of great power and greatness itself, to be ultimately forgotten and have the great monuments to yourself lie in ruin.
That may just be me however, and it may be in the original Macbeth as well. I haven't read it since high school. I must make time to re-read Shakespeare and perhaps even catch some productions, though the thought of watching any actor's performance of Hamlet fills me with nausea despite the fact that I do hold that play in deep regard. Anyway, how much I liked this due to Kurosawa, and how much I liked it due to Shakespeare, I can't say. The scene with the arrows at the end is remarkable. Grade A.
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Force of Evil
Seen for the first time in November 2012.
"Force of Evil" is a nice crisp film noir. Though it may seem a run-of-the-mill example of the genre at first glance, there is something in the film elevating it to a solid second tier status of film noir, just below the heavyweights like "The Big Sleep," or "The Postman Always Rings Twice." This is a very solid film, reminiscent, probably due to the issues of brotherhood, to "On the Waterfront." They have similar endings even, though for some reason the "On the Waterfront" ending works whereas this one feels hollow and hokey.
It's not the first good film noir with a bad ending though. Bad endings actually tended to happen as often as they were avoided. And though the whole basic plot of "Force of Evil" from start to finish is more or less discernible early on, it doesn't stop the movie from commanding your attention. The background characters are as quirky as you'd want and everything is ably performed. I might like John Garfield better in this than in "The Postman Always Rings Twice." The dialogue and the voice-overs are sharp as well. All in all, other than the ending, there's no weak aspect of this noir, and plenty of strengths. Grade B+.
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Female Trouble - John Waters
Seen for the first time in November 2012.
I cannot say that I was a fan of "Female Trouble." It's noticably weaker than both "Desperate Living," and "Pink Flamingos." I don't think it's a matter of the same schtick wearing thin upon retread. I think it's a matter of too much Divine, who admittedly has the best performance, but from whom nonetheless the viewer could use a breather. There's more of a traditional plot here than "Pink Flamingos," but it still seems somehow more haphazard and made up as they went along. That was probably a strength in "Pink Flamingos," which also had stronger set-ups for gross-out and revulsion, but is a weakness here.
I also think there is less joie de vivre in this film than in the films that preceeded and followed it. This is more just a matter of unadulterated bad-actors loudly chewing the scenery. The offensiveness of the other movies is hilarious, but also pointed and commenting. It's campy, but it achieves the level of artistic. The offensiveness in "Female Trouble" on the other hand is just loud. I feel like anyone could do it. And truth be told, it doesn't feel like it's that far off from a lot of forgettable grindhouse of the era, just more self-conscious maybe. Grade C-.
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Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity
Seen for the first time in November 2012.
"Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity" is exactly the movie one expects from its title and the year of its production (1987). It's good enough but skip-able as silly, deliberately campy sci-fi, if kind of lazy in execution. It's also a pretext for depicting scantily clad women. In this aspect, it excels. Grade B.
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House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
Read for the first time in November 2012.
My favorite thing about "House of Leaves" is the conceit, though the conceit may be one of the most traditional things about the novel. Pre-modern novels were often published as if they were a journal or collection of newspaper articles or other writings which had some other purpose. Nonetheless, the conceit is extraordinarily clever.
One aspect of this I don't like is how it can make it difficult for me to level certain criticisms. This gets difficult to talk about, for there are conceits within conceits operating in this novel. But to try, and for example, the notion that Zampano's purported work is a commentary on "The Navidson Project" completely falls apart due to his excessive summarizing of the on-screen events. This is acknowledged within the novel, but even still, it is too much. Second how long does this "Navidson Project" purport to be? 20 hours? 40 hours? It's obvious that there is no film at all, but that Zampano is merely telling the fictional Navidson story through the use of a creative conceit.
And of course, by saying this, I'm criticizing Zampano, but I don't know if I'm criticizing Danielewski. We know outright that even within the fictional world that Zampano and Johnny Truant live in, that this film does not exist. Danielewski creates a character who creates a successful but not entirely convincing conceit. I just feel like the whole thing would have worked even better if every element of the conceit within a conceit was believable in every way. If we really could believe that Zampano's work was in fact the commentary it purports to be.
Nonetheless, Zampano's description of what happens in that film is the best part of the book. This is basically a very good Stephen King story, and I think it's interesting that we care more about this fake family and what happens in this fake story than we do about the purportedly "real" characters, like Johnny Truant and Zampano. And of course this is absurd because they aren't any more real than the Navidsons just a step removed. I also especially enjoyed reading Johnny Truant's letters from his mother. Those were a highlight for me.
The structure is something I have some ambivalence about. There are times when I think putting three lines of text on a whole page enhances the experience of reading that novel. It enhances the suspense of some of the most suspenseful moments. Some of the details about crossing things out or words or pages lost to ink splots or whatever enhances a kind of fake authenticity, as well. And I think it also does a good job of reflecting structurally the mental deterioration of both Zampano and Johnny Truant. But it also is annoying at times, especially all of the footnote games around the most boring part of this thing and also, basically all of exploration number five.
I also don't know how I feel about Johnny Truant as a character. I don't know that I ever fully bought into him. Except to say, he's made to be an exceptionally good liar/story-teller and that creates another layer of question for this thing in my mind. Also the portrayal of his mental deterioration was some goddamned good writing in my opinion. But outside of that, he lacked charisma to me, and I don't know how to take his lack of education on one hand and his sometimes exceptional vocabulary on the other. I definitely feel like the Navidson's story is the one that draws our affinities and creates suspense.
One other neat trick, I thought was how everyone goes crazy. Zampano says in his work, people who thought about and wrote about the Navidson project developed mental problems. He apparently develops them himself. Johnny Truant starts to read Zampano's work and writes about it himself. Then we see him go crazy, too. And of course, here we are reading it ourselves, book in hand. Do we take the admonition not to think about it? Do we dare write about it? Shall we start down that spiral staircase or turn back?
It's a cool trick. This is a pretty cool book. Like I said, it's like a good Stephen King novel, but with experimental flourishes. I don't call it a gimmick. But I am curious as to which aspect of writing Danielewski's passions lie.
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The Awful Dr Orlof - Jess Franco
Seen for the first time in November 2012.
"The Awful Dr. Orlof" is early Jess Franco, when he was making are by today's standards respectable b movies, and before he became one of the pioneers of euro-sleaze or developed a reputation as an effort-free hack in some circles and an surrealist, experimental film-maker in others. This is a traditional, old-school, b-movie horror, competently done. It's kind of boring by today's standards, assuming one doesn't have an enthusiasm for 50's black and white horror. Franco's later, "The Diabolical Dr. Z" is better, and is evidence for the idea that Franco is a talented director. This is merely evidence that Franco is a capable director who could do more mainstream fare if given the opportunity and inclination. Grade B-.
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The Dictator - Sacha Baron-Cohen
Seen for the first time in November 2012.
I think I liked "The Dictator" more than the consensus of initial reactions. I thought there were many funny moments, despite a good bit of admittedly lazy humor. It was better than "Bruno," which was more annoying than funny. But I didn't laugh as much as I laughed at "Borat." Though I wonder if I would still laugh at "Borat" if I saw it today.
Either way, "Borat" was something uniquely funny upon arrival, not just funnier than most other comedies, but so seemingly different as well that its difficult to rank as a comedy and not just as a funny aberrant form that exists outside of the comedy movie paradigm. Like if I ranked the top 5 movies of the first decade of the twenty first century, I'd tentatively include in some order that I have not determined: "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," "Zoolander," "Super Troopers," "Wet Hot American Summer," "Observe and Report," or maybe if I could only include half of a movie, I'd find a way to fit in the first third of "Superbad." "Borat" is as consistently and thoroughly funny as many of these movies, but somehow it is just so different an entity from these movies it would never occur to me to think of it when drawing up that list.
"The Dictator" is a more traditional comedy. And on that score, it succeeds with plenty of laughs. It is, for example, much better than "Don't Mess With the Zohan," to which one might draw comparisons. "The Dictator" is unsurprisingly politically lazy and, though I love Anna Faris maybe more than any woman alive, a lot of the humor surrounding her character is hackishly lazy. And yet the repeated jokes of the "are you having a boy or an abortion" vein drew laughs from me. Grade B+.
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The Cat O'Nine Tails - Dario Argento
Seen for the first time in November 2012.
Between this and "Suspiria," I don't really understand Dario Argento's outsized reputation. I liked this a lot better than I liked "Suspiria." This is legitimately riveting and suspenseful. But still, it doesn't stand out amongst the works of Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, or Umberto Lenzi in the world of giallo. To its credit, when the mystery is solved, the plot is a bit convoluted but it isn't the Rube Goldberg machine similar films often end up seeming plotwise. This is a better than average thriller, but I feel like Argento needs to be either grimmer, grimier, or sleazier or else he's just second-rate Italian Hitchcock. By which I mean, one either needs to be as good as Hitchcock or they need to compensate somehow, cause this is a nice film and all, but it's no "Vertigo." Grade B+.
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Suicide Club
Seen for the first time in November 2012.
This movie was a little boring and unengaging to me. Toward the end, I began to lean on the fast-forward button a bit, so it would probably be unfair to say its a little non-sensical. Though, I think its more concerned about atmosphere than sense in and of its self. The real drawback is it's concept of cool is, at this moment in time, probably at its nadir in terms of fashion. Movies should probably not even try to be cool however. Grade C.
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A Cool Million - Nathaneal West
Read for the first time in October 2012.
Nathaneal West is in my opinion one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century based on the strength of "Dear Miss Lonelyhearts" and "The Day of the Locust." "A Cool Million" is a lesser work. A sometimes clever and occasionally funny satire, it is of its time. It's part "Candide" spoof and part Horatio Alger spoof that works to indict the American dream. It retains some resonance today, particularly in these times of economic woe, but the humor and the politics are unfortunately dated. The phrase, "International Jewish Bankers," for example, is funny only for its quaintness as an opinion to ridicule. That paranoia has been replaced by different paranoias.
But how good might this have been in its own day? Probably not as good as Sinclair Lewis's "Babbitt," but nonetheless certainly darker. This is filled with straight up black comedy that makes Sinclair Lewis's anti-Americanisms seem downright wholesome. Rape, forced prostitution, racism and mutilation are played for jokes here. And that might be something I would frown upon in a different context, but here ambition and reputation meet the method of ironic distance in an equilibrium that does not trouble me.
There's one very good line where the main character's mentor tells him "My boy, I believe I once told you that you had an almost certain chance to succeed because you were born poor and on a farm. Let me now tell you that your chance is even better because you have been to prison." Another is the exchange where the main character expresses his innocence to a crime and the prosecutor responds "So was Christ and they nailed him." Those were probably the two memorable laugh out loud moments for me.
All in all, this is an entertaining novella, if a bit slight, but nonetheless indicative of the potential West would later reveal. The darkness of some of the content is probably the most notable thing about it though.
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The Seventh Seal - Ingmar Bergman
Seen for the first time in October 2012.
This may very well be - and by head and shoulders at that - the very best film I have ever seen in my life. I can think of no other movie which attempts this amount of philosophical weight, and yet is also this good, and also this beautifully shot. Or to paraphrase someone else, what either movie has attempted this depth, and not been destroyed by these same attempts at depth?
Beyond the obvious heft of its ideas, like all great art and not mere treatise, it depicts the human experience without resort to sensationalism or sentimentality, or any other dodge. Bergman "paints things as they are," and people can do as they like. The word amazing is oft abused. I do not abuse it here. It is an amazing accomplishment and filled with resonance. Grade A.
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Absalom, Absalom! - William Faulkner
Read for the second time in October 2012.
I've long held this, along with "The Sound and the Fury" as my two favorite Faulkner novels, though "The Sound and the Fury" is the one which I have found myself re-reading with periodic frequency. This is possibly because so much of the first half of the "The Sound and the Fury" is difficult to comprehend. I still don't quite know where Benji gets castrated for example, and I've read the book probably five times.
"Absalom, Absalom!" is just as difficult it turns out. Faulkner's prose, which has no equal that I am aware of, frequently ascends into some kind of exalted gibberish, more difficult to parse than anything in "The Sound and The Fury." I don't try to parse it all. I somehow absorb the story and relish in the beauty of his writing and let my incomprehension evaporate into the ether.
But what I love about Faulkner, at his best, is the way real human suffering is imposed from real human character's attempts to assert control over a universe in which they have none. There is, from the onset, a palpable sense of fated doom. This is Shakespeare brought to the South. One parallel between "Absalom, Absalom!" and "The Sound and the Fury" which may account for the reverence for which I hold each, is the ineffectual internal indecisiveness of Henry Sutpen and Quentin Compson (in "The Sound and The Fury" specifically though he appears in both). Faulkner does an exceedingly good job of depicting internal struggle and anguish in his novels, of characters torn by internal conflict.
I'm also impressed by Faulkner's mockery of manifestations of human vanity, things like honor and glory. He writes a nice soap opera, and the richness of the southern background. Of pride mixed with the humiliation of defeat. Of a way of life that he criticizes bitterly and yet still will not fully repudiate. Faulkner's depiction of the human condition is so focused and honest, it's jaw-dropping. He's never swayed by sentimentality or misplaced anguish, but seems to always be endeavoring for the truth despite the futility involved.
With a keen eye, Faulkner grapples with and depicts the truth as honestly as he possibly can, and yet despite that truth, human emotion and suffering are still treated with importance. He does not take the god's eye view of humanity where nihilism is taken to its most logical end and suffering is a source of lighthearted diversion. He gives us the world as it is, lack of meaning and futility and all, and allows us to feel the self-created anguish of real characters without ironic distance, and thus all the more poignant because we know just how futile it is.
This is why Faulkner is the best to me, and why the post-modernists with their educated references and empty intellectualism and comic-book tones are only entertainment. I distinguish between literature for intellectuals and literature as art. And, to me, Faulkner is literature as art, and the very best of it at that.
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Pink Flamingos - John Waters
Seen for the first time in October 2012.
For a long time I never watched this movie because I had assumed that I had already seen it, recalling it as sort of mid-period glossier John Waters, in the vein of "Hairspray" or "Cry Baby" which were the sort of films I watched with my parents growing up. But no this is much different. It's great, and at times appalling, but nonetheless always engaging.
Essentially this movie is a mix of a parody of sensationalism (both artistic and media driven), a mockery of bourgeoise outrage, and with unrelenting gratuitous grossness. There are at least three scenes in this movie in which something is depicted which I would honestly prefer that I had never seen: that anus trick, Divine explicitly going down on that dude, and that coda for which this film is so infamous.
Nevertheless I loved it. I can understand why this is regarded as John Waters's masterpiece, though I still prefer "Desperate Living." They have the same energy and the same sensibility, but "Desperate Living" lacks the disgustingness, though is just as committed to the same assault on bourgeoise attitudes, and with the same vivid dialogue.
An important point to make about Waters in general, and Pink Flamingos, in particular; what sets him apart is not the shocking and offensive material in and of itself, but the fact that it is not delivered with the grim seriousness of his contemporaries and so many others who have made movies in bad taste over the years. John Waters makes these films with an impish glee that somehow makes being disgusted almost delightful. It's like Kurt Vonnegut drawing a picture of his own asshole with childish glee, but Waters shows you a real asshole and then he makes it do things you would never want to watch someone's asshole do. Not as bad as goatse.cx but still. The dialogue, by the way, is amazing. Grade A.
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Moontide
Seen for the first time in October 2012.
I had to force myself to watch this film. I don't really know why I thought it was so important to watch it. I knew early on it was unexceptional, and I don't believe anyone on the planet thinks its in any way essential or that there would ever be a moment in any person's life, much less my own, where a failure to see this particular movie would ever be noticed much less regretted. Yet I forced myself to watch it anyway, past the point where I wanted to stop. For very little reward.
Jean Gabin reminds me of Tommy Wiseau at times in this. It's the accent plus a certain carefree elan. Maybe the unrealistic love and romance is a part of it too. Merely reminiscent though, not as crude.
There are some holes in the plot. Ida Lupino goes from suicide to half of a happy couple with no transition or explanation. Also this turns out to be a total bummer of a movie. Sometimes that's a good thing, but this movie seems too trivial to justify its grim moments. At best, this movie is watchable, but nothing more. Grade C-.
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Le Corbeau - Henri-Georges Clouzot
Seen for the first time in October 2012.
For most of this film, I was convinced the teenage girl was the one behind the letters. So convinced that I thought it was flaw not to make it explicit, elsewise people might think it a weak mystery rather than fairly strong suspense. I was wrong though. In fairness the mystery aspect is still not a strength of this movie in my opinion. Who is Le Corbeau doesn't really matter. Especially since it seems as though everyone in the town probably wrote at least a letter or two as Le Corbeau.
Its strengths, I suppose, lie in its damning of typical human pettiness and its opposition to bourgeois morality. But it's not all urbane moralizing either. It's an engaging movie, that while not thrilling, is engrossing. It is suspenseful. It's also very dialogue driven. I would call it theatrical. A little bit of Agatha Christie. A little bit of Hitchcock.
I can't say I understand why the Gestapo would care about this film one way or the other. Don't care to find out either. I don't think it's relevant to my engagement with this film. Just a good suspenseful film filled with small-town folks being provincial. Grade B.
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Where the Sidewalk Ends - Otto Preminger
Seen for the first time in October 2012.
This movie begins in an unassuming manner. It's straight underwhelming and then it gets kind of good. The last ten minutes are great. But otherwise it's sort of like watching an old tv show on the boring channel for 90 minutes. Dana Andrews plays his role really well throughout. Gene Tierney, on the other hand, doesn't have anything interesting to do. The main villain has a good moment toward the end, but he otherwise doesn't have anything interesting to do either. The supporting cast was probably huffing carbon monoxide between takes. At it's top level best, this uninspired film is still sort of noir-by-the-numbers. I love the ending because I love noir, but this thing almost never has any sort of pulse. Grade C+
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