A Quickie

Busy times here at the Homestead, so I will be extra brief tonight.

Touch of Evil, directed by Orson Welles and from 1958, features the director playing one of the most hideous characters to ever infect the big screen.  The action takes place in border cities of Mexico and the USA, likely based on Tijuana and its adjacent American counterpart.  Welles seems to relish playing bad guys who are far beyond morality.  With Janet Leigh and Charlton Heston (as a Mexican!).  In b & w, and perhaps the noiriest noir ever put on film.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Deb's weekend picks began with a Hong Kong "Wuxia" film called Raining In The Mountain  Directed by King Hu, it is from 1979.  Filmed at a Buddhist Monastery, where most of the plot and action take place, this one is sizeable notch above the average film of its type.  For one thing, there is very little fighting, and much more intrigue.  Timing in some of the scenes, as one character enters and another exits, is often brilliant and very funny.  Bad guys are after a sacred scroll, and a new leader of the monks is about to be chosen.  Long film, but the time flies.  Good fun.

 

Leaving Criterion very soon.

 

It's actually Deb's festival weekend, so she gets five picks in a row. From Mubi, she chose Swan Song, from 2021.  Directed by Todd Stephens, the film was entirely shot in Sandusky, Ohio, a Lake Erie city that used to be a hangout for us.  An aging hairdresser escapes his nursing home and embarks on an odyssey across his small town to style a dead woman’s hair for her funeral, rediscovering his sparkle along the way.  The first part in the nursing home is very grim (he compulsively folds napkins), but once he escapes and heads into town, things take a really fun turn.  Udo Kier seems perfect in the role, and his fashion sense and charm are on full display.

Showing on Mubi. 

Next came Flowers of Tapei: Taiwan New Cinema, a documentary from 2014 about Taiwan cinema of the 1980s.  We have seen a few of the films, and thought that the doc might be of some interest.  However, it was very poorly constructed, and really didn't have much to say about the pictures from that time.  One of the very few unhelpful documentaries I have seen lately.  Disappointing.  Watch the movies from that time instead.

Now showing on Mubi. 

Deb still has two choices left, so more on those later.  And we are not far away from the March reading summary.  See everyone soon.

Mapman Mike