Film Festival Weekend

April 27th and we are getting June weather.  The heat is on this coming week, and I don't mean the furnace.  Very warm temps and humidity have arrived a month early.  No surprise there, after this past year of record temps in these parts.  The grass received its first cut of the season yesterday, after the tractor was returned to us following its annual oil change and tune up.  And I got my teeth cleaned!  Let's see, what else happened yesterday.  Ah, we had a small natural gas leak fixed, and the gas was off much of the day.  And the new beer fridge was delivered, and is up and running in the basement.  But there is still a lingering smell of gas in the basement.  Just waiting a few minutes before going to check it again.

 

For travel buffs, I have finally completed my road trip blog on our recent trip to the deep south.  Find the road trip blog in the upper left margin, and scroll down towards part 1 (it's in 5 parts).

 

It's my turn for the film festival this month.  Each month one of us gets to pick three extra films to watch.  Combined with the two regular choices we each get in turn, that makes five in a row for me every two months (and for Deb).  At least one of the films must be chosen from the 'leaving soon' list, either from Mubi or from Criterion.  The others can come from anywhere.  So far we have completed watching three of my five choices.  Most recently we re-watched The Tale of Zatoichi #1 in the terrific samurai series from Japan starring Shintaro Katsu as the blind swordsman.  This first film, in widescreen b & w, contains all of the ingredients of the films that would follow in the series, though the pacing is much slower and more meditative here.  Ichi does not kill a mass of warriors, either.  He dispatches two who are sent to kill him for hearing a conversation, and he kills another master swordsman at the very end.  At this point he is bothered by killing, finding it a huge waste of human life.  Though we have seen this film at least four times now, there is always something new to discover or appreciate.  Highly recommended series, best watched in order.

 

Always showing on Criterion. 

 

Before that came a short BBC film part of their Screen Two series.  From the description on Prime:  Sin Bin stars Oscar nominee Pete Postlethwaite as a psychiatric guard at odds with a brutal system in this unflinching but darkly humorous view at humanity at its best and worst. In a prison for the criminally insane, Mitch witnesses an assault on a patient who dies 24 hours later. Compelled by his conscience to speak out, Mitch is forced to choose between self-preservation and justice.  Quite a disturbing and tension-filled little film, from a play by Catherine Johnson.  The tension builds as the union fully supports the offender.  Postlethwaite is a fine actor who can share slight nuances really well.  Recommended viewing.

 

Showing on Prime.

 

My leaving choice came first in this festival, a b & w comedy from 1941 called Here Comes Mr. Jordan.  Robert Montgomery stars as a boxer who crashed his plane on the way to a big prize fight, and is killed.  Only he wasn't.  It was a clerical error.  Or something.  He ends up having his personality placed inside another body, a man who has just been murdered.  The film was nominated for 7 Oscars (it won two--best story and best screenplay).  Mr. Jordan is a bureaucratic angel who helps the boxer get along in his new shoes.  Diverting, but not essential.

 

Leaving Criterion April 30th. 

 

Two films remaining, one of which is another BBC screen Two production, and the other the winner of the Oscar for best foreign film.  Stay tuned.  And it's almost time for the monthly books read summary, too. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

A Brief Catching Up

It was a doozy of a cold, and I still have that cotton in my brain feeling two weeks later.  My last cold was in December 2018, after returning from a sleepless but fun week in Vienna.  Deb's last cold was literally decades ago.  Her overcharged immune system has protected her till now.  She is a few days behind me in her recovery, but doing well.  We have both been sleeping a lot.  Whenever I try to read, I fall asleep, so along with the travelling we did my October reading list will be on the short side.  Deb's wrist seems to be healing well, with 3 weeks left to wear the cast.  And her lung is slowly healing, too, with far fewer painful episodes.  All will be well again someday soon.

 

We were away for 8 days instead of 17, so the piano program didn't suffer too much.  I did light practice during the worst of my cold.  Things are still a bit wobbly, but memorization of the Beethoven proceeds apace.  I resumed some light physical exercise a week ago, including a few outdoor walks, some yard work, and cutting the grass.  So only 50 more weeks until I get another chance at hiking in New Mexico.  5 of those 8 days we had were lots of fun; the last 3 not so much.

 

I have been working on the trip blog, and have the Cincinnati portion published.  Look on the American Midwest blog link, upper left on this page.  I am currently working on the second part, and might publish it by tomorrow.  I did get some really good photos, even in Oklahoma.  I haven't printed any yet, but soon.  

 

In film news, some really good ones on which to report.  But first, Deb's SF film is being shown this weekend in Manchester at their incredible SF festival.  Her film was one of only 6 chosen from a thousand entries that will be shown during the main event, and is in competition.  This looks like such a fun event, and we would love to attend, perhaps next year.

 

Mandalay is from 1934, and directed by Michael Curtiz.  Quite a good picture, when a woman dumped by her criminal lover has to fend for herself, taking an unpleasant job as a night club hostess in SE Asia.  She meets an alcoholic doctor and they seem to hit it off, until lover boy returns, expecting the woman to help him out.  Kay Francis is a knockout beauty in this short feature.

 

Leaving Criterion Oct. 31st. 

 

The Coconuts is from 1929, and is the first appearance on screen of the Marx Brothers.  While they are very funny, and their routines are well timed (the auction scene is one of their funniest), the movie screeches to a halt far too many times for some very lame songs, sung very lamely by others.  Harpo's harp solo, on the other hand, is very good, as is Chico's piano solo.  Fast forward during the other songs and all will be well.

Leaving Criterion Oct. 31st. 

 

Genghis Cohn is one of dozens of BBC films and filmed plays that were released as a multi-season anthology series called Screen Two.  Prime seems to have picked up a half dozen or so of these films.  This one is exceptionally good.  From 1994, it features a Jewish comedian who is murdered by the Nazis in a mass killing of Jews during the war.  His ghost comes back to haunt the commandant in charge of the killings, until he gets his sweet revenge.  This could easily have been a horror story, or a really heavy drama.  But it is actually more of a comedy!  And it has some very funny moments, too.  A real sleeper gem, and worth seeing more than once. 

 

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Another Screen Two BBC presentation on Prime was called Small Faces, from 1996.  It takes place in Glasgow in 1968, with a young boy growing up amidst the violence and despair of life in a poor inner city.  It was well acted, but the story it told could have happened anywhere, including Milan or St. Louis.  Not really that memorable, unless, perhaps, viewers grew up in Glasgow in 1968.

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Legend of the Red Dragon is a Chinese kung fu film from 2002.  Despite the violence, it is mostly a comedy, as a small team of do gooders, led by Jet Li, takes on the evil folk in charge of the country.  More a display of insane acrobatics than martial arts, it also features an invincible bad guy, who literally cannot be stopped.  He drives an all-silver steam powered racing car!  This one also features a group of young boys, including the hero's son.  Five of the boys have part of a treasure map tattooed on their backs, which the bad guys are after.  A very silly way to spend two hours.

 

Starring Jet Li, and showing on Prime. 

 

Next came a mind bending SF film, which seems to really be a play that was filmed.  Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth is from 2007.  From the description on Prime: An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he has a longer and stranger past than they can imagine.  Well scripted and very well acted, this is one of those rare, highly intelligent scripts that tell truths most people do not wish to hear about.  The expose of Christian religion (having all been taken from earlier mythologies from other parts of the world) could have been written by Joseph Campbell.  This is a very highly recommended film, with a few surprises at the very end.  There is a sequel which it seems it might be better to avoid.  We'll see.

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Mapman Mike