4 Recent Films

Actually, there are five.  But we'll get to that one a bit later.  First the Criterion Channel viewing.  We haven't seen Bergman's The 7th Seal in so many years.  Deb chose it for her weekly viewing, and we were both mesmerized by it.  It's worth the price of admission just to stare at Max Von Sydow as a knight just returned from the Crusades.  He and his squire are disillusioned men, returning to find their homeland ravaged by plague, and crackpot Christians doing everything but helping.  We had forgotten the moments of humour the film offers, remembering it only as grim and unrelenting.  But it isn't, as the final dance of death affirms.  This is one of two images of the film that sticks in the viewer's mind, the other being the chess game.  This is one of the best movies about medieval times I have ever seen.

Now showing of Criterion. 

Her leaving Oct. 31st choice was The African Queen, directed by John Huston and starring Bogart and Hepburn as two unlikely allied fighters in Africa against the Germans.  This is a great adventure film, always fun to watch.  Filmed in Africa, the role won Bogey his only Oscar.

A Hollywood classic, and a great film, too.  Showing on Criterion. 

I chose Point Blank, an unrelenting crime story starring Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson, and directed by John Boorman.  Marvin is double crossed and is shot and left for dead during a heist.  His pal and crime partner also leaves with Marvin's wife.  When Marvin survives he goes after his $93,000.  And nothing is going to stop him from getting it.  Marvin is pure ice as he goes after big guy after big guy, until the final showdown.  Not to everyone's taste, and there are some brutally violent scenes, but Marvin never once actually kills anyone, and I really liked the pacing of the film.

Lee is da man.  Showing on Criterion. 

 A lot of John Huston films are leaving October 31st, so we will be watching a lot of them.  My going away choice was called Fat City, starring Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, and, in an Oscar-nominated role as a soused barfly, the unforgettable Susan Tyrell.  As a rule, I try to avoid boxing films.  For example, I have never seen any of the Rocky pictures.  This is a boxing picture, but it is just so good in all its detail that I easily watched the entire thing, including some pretty gruesome fight scenes.  Keach is fantastic in a role that Huston wanted Brando for, giving the right amount of burnout and emptiness to the performance, as well as having some hope for a better future.  When we see him give up alcohol, return to the ring, train to get into shape,and then finally win a fight, he is given $100 for his effort from his manager.  This reality check sets him back forever, and the image below is from the final scene of the film.  There are so many good performances and wonderful small moments in the film that it is pure enjoyment and enlightenment from the get-go.

A still from the final scene of Fat City, showing on Criterion until Oct. 31st.  

And now on to the mystery 5th film.  I watched Apollo 13 in Sudbury with my brother and sister-in-law last weekend, and really enjoyed it.  I remember the events well, though I was in high school at the time, and a lot happened during the night.  There were no all-news channels, only bulletins and updates on the regular news.  The things that went wrong on that flight, and how they managed to fix them, would never be believed if this was a SF film or novel.  Truth is certainly stranger than fiction.  An excellent film.

I think we watched this in Sudbury on Netflix. 

Look for another update by the weekend.  My next project is to write the October article for our astronomy club's newsletter, which I hope to begin working on tonight.  things are slowly coming back into focus for me, as we have had a barrage of cloudy, rainy nights, with more of the same on the way.  While it is disappointing not to have any more clear nights this lunar cycle, it is also good to have my life back again.

Mapman Mike 

 

 

Mogi Update

Mogi is well on his way to a full recovery.  We are halfway through day 6, post-op, and so far doing well.  The vet called today, and the report given was all positive.  Let it be said, however, that Mogi is still not impressed with his cone.  After eating he tries to wash himself, and we have to watch with sadness as he licks the plastic cone, with his paw held up just beneath it.  Anyway, here is an updated photo from today that shows his improvement.  9 more days of cone life, however.

 

Looking much better on Day 6.  Still not a pretty sight, though. 

 

In movie news, Deb's short film "King of the Cats" has placed first in the Gold Star Movie Awards, winning the micro-short category!  I wish we had a thousand dollars for every festival she has won with one of her movies.  We wouldn't be rich, but we'd have thousands of dollars....

 

In Criterion film news, Deb had chosen The Ninth Configuration, a film from 1980, as her going away soon choice.  We had seen it many years ago and liked it, so we tried again.  It stars Stacy Keach, who I usually don't like very much, but is quite good in this one.  He plays Killer Kane, a marine who went psycho in Vietnam, killing so many people that he seems beyond help.  He is sent to an isolated military asylum, mostly filled with draft dodgers faking insanity to escape the service, but first appears as a psychiatrist there to help the other men.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your beliefs), it becomes tangled in a kind of Christian redemption theme, something that usually doesn't work too well in film.  And the redemption comes via a sadistic biker in a bar, who taunts Kane to his breaking point, a very painful episode to view.  So, mixed reviews for this one, also hampered by the overdone antics of the inmates trying to prove their insanity.  From the novel "Twinkle Twinkle, Killer Kane," and by the author of "The Exorcist."

Showing on Criterion until April 30th. 

 

For my regular choice of the week, I chose two short films by Ousmane Sembene, everyone's favourite Senegalese filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with a 20' film called Borom Sarret, a totally brilliant little film about a day in the life of a man with a horse drawn cart in Dakar.  Two extras came with the film, which seems to encapsulate so much about developing African countries, and the way so many people have been left behind.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Next came his 1966, 59' feature called Black Girl, about a girl who is hired by a French couple to look after their three children.  However, when they take her back to France, she becomes a live-in slave, without friends, and is put to work full time as maid, cook, and babysitter.  The film, which we have seen before, is a harsh look at colonial attitudes in the 60s, and makes a good pairing with the previous film, above.  Both films have been newly restored with the aid of Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project.  I am slowly working my way through all of these world films.  There are three extras with this film, including a contemporary interview with the lead actress.

 

Now showing on Criterion, as part of the World Cinema Project. 

 

Mapman Mike