More Rain, More Movies

 It rained all day Thursday and much of Friday.  But the long range forecast says no more for a whole week.  We shall see.  The grass has not yet been cut, though I may try some tomorrow.  The grass is still squishy.  I managed another clear night on Wednesday, and I ended up at Hallam, the club observatory.  My friend Larry was also there.  I have not observed from there in a couple of years now, preferring to go 7 miles further east where the skies are noticeably better.  I hadn't seen Larry in a very long time, either, so it was great to talk with him (in the dark).

Last weekend and week was my bimonthly film festival.  I get to choose three extra films over my usual two per week.  For a long time now I have been concentrating on the Czech New Wave series from the 1960s that Criterion is featuring.  This month we finally saw the final two films in that experimental and quite fantastic series.

All My Good Countrymen is from 1970, and is a fairly devastating account of communism taking over well run privately owned farms, and turning traditional villages and village life into depressing, demoralizing undertakings.  Though nothing says it better than Orwell's Animal Farm, the Czech film seems to conjure up, in Deb's opinion, Eastern European folktales, as we follow the fate of seven or eight good friends before and during the advent of communism.   As one man says to one of the village directors, "You are just like the Nazis."  All in all it's a pretty impressive film.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Next was The Ear, a film about the paranoia of living in communist Czechoslovakia.  It focuses on a man and his wife as they go to a party, coming home afterwards and getting into a serious argument.  They begin to discover all the hidden microphones in their house, and their paranoia increases to a fever pitch.  It makes you wonder about all the yahoos (in Canada and elsewhere) who march for "freedom," not even knowing that the fact they can march for it means they already have it.  Trying to imagine how it would be to live in such an environment (currently Russia and Belarus, to take only two examples) is a pretty terrifying look into an alternate reality not many people would welcome.  And now in some of the US states, civilians can turn in their neighbours and friends for seeking out abortions.  Land of the free.  Anyway, this is a very taut and suspenseful film, with an ending that is both unexpected, and expected.

Now showing on Criterion. 

My 3rd festival choice was a very obscure silent film from 1928, by a virtually unknown Detroit black director, Richard Maurice.  Produced and largely filmed in Detroit, ELEVEN P.M. is "a surreal melodrama in which a poor violinist named Sundaisy (Maurice) tries to protect an orphaned girl (Wanda Maurice) from a small-time hoodlum. The story, which may or may not be a dream concocted by a struggling newspaperman, has one of the most bizarre endings in film history, when the spirit of the deceased Sundaisy possesses the body of a dog in order to take vengeance upon the crook."  One of the weirder films in the Criterion collection, I came across it in the catalogue just by chance.

Now showing on Criterion.

Now that the Czech New Wave collection has been viewed, I am moving on to something called Afro-Futurism, a collection of films that are part SF, part mystical musical, and part story of the Black experience on this planet.  Seems very promising, with lots of experimental things to watch.

Mapman Mike

 

 

November Gale

November gales are legendary on the Great Lakes, and we had a good one yesterday.  Many leaves come tumbling down as a result.  I managed to get outside for a local walk on Wednesday and snap a few photos before Thursday's wind and rain.  Of the four ships I have been watching, two are up on Lake Superior, one is in Lisbon, and the other in Togo (near Accra).  And I see on my Flight Radar site that flights to London have resumed from Detroit.  Deb has a friend who recently went to Aruba for a holiday.  They own a timeshare condo there and haven't been able to go.  Upon return, they were stuck at Toronto airport for 4 1/2 hours, being processed.  In huge crowds with no social distancing.  This is why we won't be flying anytime soon.

A small creek and forest, from my walk on Wednesday.

One of the houses on Front Rd, south of us.

And yes, to some people it's already Christmas. 

I'm way behind on my movie watching news, so I will just spare a sentence about recent views.

For the remainder of my film festival that ended the month of October, after The Raven we watched three films from the Czech New Wave series on Criterion, two features and a short.  Return of the Prodigal Son is from 1967, and concerns the life of a young man spending time in an institution (and out of it) following his attempted suicide.  It was quite good.  Then came A Report On The Party And Guests, from 1966.  It was permanently banned in Czechoslovakia.  It involves a group of party guests accosted by bullies on their way to a party, and then, after being rescued by the host, events move to the outdoor dinner party itself.  The dinner party is like a vastly expanded Mad Hatter Tea Party, with the host playing the part of Hatter.  A bizarre film, and often uncomfortable to watch, it is nevertheless worth seeing.  The short film comes from 1968, and is called A Boring Afternoon.  It is a very funny look at a city tavern mid day.  A group of local football fans leave the pub to go watch the game, leaving a small assortment of customers behind.  The film ends after the return of the fans, whose hometown team have lost the match.

Poster for Criterion's festival of Czech films.  We are slowly getting through all of them.  

Khalik Allah's 2018 film Black Mother was my regular choice for the following week, a unique kind of documentary about Jamaica, its people, and its setting.  My going away choice was The Garment Jungle.  From 1957 and starring Kerwin Matthews, it is a noirish take on trying to unionize garment workers in NYC.  It is pretty hard hitting (no pun intended) and grim, and Mathews is good as the son of the owner of a factory who hires hoodlums to keep out the union.  The movie loses its mind in the final ten minutes, however, obviously taken over by some studio numbskull.  Up to the finale, it is quite a good film.  I also chose a 10 minute short feature called Night On Bald Mountain, from 1933.  Not very much these days is as experimental as that film was!  Definitely a minor treasure from the vaults of early animation.

Deb chose The Invisible Man, directed by James Whale and from 1933.  This is a really sadistic film, and having not read the book yet I have to think that some of murders are likely contained in Wells' story.  Claude Rains sings and dances and pulls pranks (like sending a train off a cliff killing a hundred people) as the invisible one, among some of the greatest special effects ever to come to cinema.  Even today some of the effects are eye popping.  Her going away choice was called The Last Tree, from 2018.  Autobiographical in nature, it tells of the idyllic life of a young black male in foster care in Lincolnshire.  Suddenly mama appears and takes him back to London, where she lives, as we see him as a teen trying to deal with school, friends, and important choices he must make.

Lastly, my regular choice for this week is called Downpour, another filmed banned in its home country, namely Iran.  From 1972, the b & w gem was restored under Scorcese's Film Foundation.  Only one print remained, and it was badly damaged and in the director's possession.  Other prints of this tragi-comedy had been destroyed by the regime that took over after a period of freedom in Iran.  The film concerns a hopeless loser trying to make his way as a teacher in a small village, and the impact he makes before he is transferred (for becoming too popular).  This is a really strange film, but ultimately quite likeable.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Jenn will visit from Cambridge, meeting us in Kingsville.  Jenn and I will partake of local craft beer while Deb visits her mom, joining us afterwards.  Likely some photos to follow.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

Czech New Wave

 My film festival choices for this month centered around films from the 1960s from then Czechoslovakia.  Many of these films spent time with ordinary people and their daily struggles, as opposed to films that more or less toed the party line, making things seem just a bit more wonderful than they actually were.  Inspired by post war Italian movies, several brave directors unleashed more truth about their country in just a few years than in the previous decades.  Some are hard to view because of the subject matter.  In addition to breaking new ground politically and socially, these films were also firmly entrenched in avant garde film techniques, such as long dolly shots, flashbacks, multiple solutions to a problem, making it difficult to find out exactly what is going on.  They are mostly b & w films.  Criterion currently has 34 of them on view.

There is a 7 minute short intro to the series, which we watched first, followed by three shorter films ,and then three features.  So begins our journey into early Czech film.  The three shorts were called Uncle, a 6 minute film from 1959 that hilariously shows a rather unproductive robbery attempt by a male burglar; Footprints, from 1960, and The Hall of Lost Footsteps, also from 1960.  The last two are 12 minutes long, and becoming increasingly complex.

The first feature was called Something Different, from 1963 and directed by Vera Chytilova, one of the very few Czech female directors at the time.  It tells the story of two very different women, one a stay at home mom trying to deal with the boredom and frustration of raising a very active little boy, with a husband who has drifted away from her.  The other woman is a top gymnast (played by gold medal winner Eva Bosakova) who is aging and tiring of her incessant, brutal training regime.  These are not happy little communists going about their happy days, but very real and very mixed up women, trying to deal the hand that has been dealt them.  I liked this film a lot.

 

Something Different, a Czech film from 1963.  Showing on Criterion. 

 

Next was Courage For Every Day, from 1964 and directed by Evald Schorm.  A factory worker who puts his heart and soul into communist party politics, is eventually disillusioned and becomes a lost soul as the movie progresses.  His moodiness and temperament lead to the loss of his fun loving girlfriend, who can't comprehend his descent into self pity and helplessness.  We are getting hard looks at the real state of things, not the state sponsored view of how things should be.  These little films (all under 90 minutes) were undoubtedly shocking in their time and place, no doubt sparking endless discussion and individual soul searching.  Scenes of the grim factory and the even grimmer town life are unforgettable.

 

Courage for Every Day, 1964.  Showing on Criterion.

 

Lastly came the most inventive of the films so far, Diamonds of the Night, from 1964 and directed by Jan Nemic.  The film tells the story of two boys escaping German custody during WW 2 by leaping from a train and going on the run.  They have one pair of shoes between them, and no food or water.  The film opens with the longest dolly shot in Czech film history, and one that took up nearly half the budget of the film, as the two boys race up a clear-cut hill, as guards fire at them from down below.  The story is told not only in flashback, but also in fantasy flashback and fantasy possible outcomes in various present situations.  For example, starving, one of the boys goes to a farmhouse and encounters the wife.  He imagines himself having to kill her several times, and even having sex with her on a bed.  What actually happens is that she gives him bread and milk, and as they leave she puts on her kerchief to report them.  While not a fun film to watch, it is highly innovative in its way of telling a simple story.  You will never forget the old timer German posse that eventually captures them, nor their celebration afterwards at their daring deed.

Now showing on Criterion, one of 34 Czech New Wave films on demand. 

 The spring of 2021 will always be known around here as the Lilac Spring.  We have two lilac bushes in the middle back yard, planted by us when we moved here more than 30 years ago.  One produces white flowers, the other lilac colour.  they smell heavenly.  usually one looms well one year, and the next year the other takes a turn.  But this year was different.  they both bloomed, and far beyond what they normally produce.  It was the best lilac showing ever, though the photos don't quite capture the magic in the same way as really seeing them.  Also, our lawn has spawned a fine floral bouquet, too.

One side of our white lilac bush.

Our purple lilac bush.

Tiny little yellow flowers (cinque foiles) have sprouted on one part of our lawn, looking like a mini-fairy garden.

In local news, Deb's mom is now finished with her 14 day quarantine, and can come out of her room.  Deb still needs to wear a mask and face shield when she visits, but not the gown.  And she will begin visiting every other day now, instead of every day.

Back soon with more fascinating details of life at Lone Mtn. Homestead.

Mapman Mike