Movie Catch Up

There are three recent films we watched, all of them on Criterion.  For now we gave up our MUBI subscription since we are so far behind on Criterion films.  It truly is the very best channel in the world today for lovers of film. It's the kind of channel that even in one's wildest dreams could never have been conceived not so many years ago.  And yet here it is, with the world's finest films (and some lousy ones, too), for less than $150.00 Can. per year.  Wow!

 

Most recently we watched another Martin Scorcese rescue called Kamatty (Bogeyman).  It is from India in 1979 and was directed by G. Aravindan.  It is a low budget children's fantasy film from the very south of India.  The film is quite slow moving and at times quite hypnotic.  Chanting is used throughout the film, with landscape photography enhancing the timeless effect.  It seems that the film could be taking place almost anytime, except for a few later touches of more modern times.  When Kummatty arrives in a village the children are immediately attracted to him, following him on his local travels and singing and dancing along with him.  Kummatty carries bells which he jingles while he sings and dances, but he also carries several folk art animal masks.  Once the children know him and are used to him they wish to see him do some magic.  The children put on the masks and are briefly turned into various animals.  They frolic or panic according to their nature, but are soon turned back into themselves again.  However, one boy, who was turned into a cute little dog, gets chased from the scene by another dog and misses his chance to be a boy again.  The film is quite charming, with a happy ending for all, even a caged parrot that we have felt very sorry for during the film.  I don't think kids today would enjoy the film, as it is very slow moving.  It isn't a long film, though, and is definitely worth a sit through.

 

Restored by the World Cinema Project's Film Foundation, the film is 

showing on Criterion.  As usual, Scorcese gives a short intro to the film, 

and there is a 'making of' short to go along with the package.  

 

Before that came an epic film once again rediscovered and restored by Martin Scorcese and his World Cinema Project.  The Fall Of Otrar is an historical film from Kazakhstan released in 1991.  It tells the story of how Genghis Khan was able to conquer a highly fortified and strongly defended Moslem city on the steppes of Central Asia.  There is much brutality, some of it over the top, as the story is told in often breath-stopping detail.  Essentially, a scout from Otrar is sent out to investigate Genghis, and returns seven years later with some grim news.  Though he lays out before his leader exactly how the attacks will come, and who within the walls of the city is aiding the conqueror, he is not believed and is tortured for lying.  Alas, what was foretold comes to be and the great city is left abandoned and in ruins.  Based on historical documents this is like the Kazakhstan version of Russia's Alexander Nevsky.  Otrar is even more captivating with its stronger use realism and remarkable use of sepia for much of the film, with sudden leaps into full colour, usually at night in a scene by firelight.  A major film and well worth seeking out.  Introduced by Scorcese there is also an excellent 'making of' film.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Four Nights of a Dreamer is a Robert Bresson film from 1971.  Adapted from Dostoevsky's "White Nights", the film is about a young man who prevents a young girl's suicide on a bridge at night.  They meet again the next night and become friends.  On successive nights they each tell their life story, and we learn why she was about to jump.  They become better friends and then lovers.  The story is very cynical but well worth watching.  Hailed by Criterion as Bresson's great forgotten masterpiece, this restored version is engrossing and much better than many French films from the time.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

In local news, we both had phone call check ups with our physician, Dr. Alex Shen.  Deb needs some more vitamin D, but other than that we seem to be doing well if recent blood work is any indication.  We are just awaiting Deb's latest iron test results to be certain that she is still on a steady course.  We are both exercising daily, eating better than ever and getting enough sleep.  Other than our recent jaunt to London our alcohol consumption is low.  So all seems well....

 

I enjoyed one clear night recently, the first and likely only one of the June session.  It was a late night as I can only begin observing at 10:45 pm.  But I made it to bed by 3:35 am.  Summer Solstice is just around the corner (Sunday morning for us).  No definite plans have been made, though we might do a day excursion out to some small towns nearby, and to Lake Erie.

 

In piano news it has now been about six months on the new pieces.  Progress was stalled by just over three weeks of travels recently, but I am trying to continue memorization of most of my pieces.  Now that daily practice has resumed I hope to have pieces memorized by sometime in August. 

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

Astronomy Nights Bonanza

I managed five astronomy outings this month, while a sixth was cut short due to smoke from western fires.  I have had a banner spring series of great nights with the telescope, beginning actually back in February.  Though I will probably get out a few times in June, due to late night sunlight those times are brutal the next day.  Besides, a priority soon will be getting my next program played for some friends, and then continuing on to the next program.  There will be a visit coming up soon to see family in Sudbury, too, for a few days.  Mom just had her 94th birthday, and Dad's 92nd is coming soon.  And Emma Lee will be fourteen this June!

Now that astronomy nights are over till next month, my reading program can get back on track.  I lost six nights of reading last month, or about 9 hours.  I am currently enjoying my end of the month ramble through authors from Delphi Classics.  I keep adding to the list, too, as more get published every month.  Even the complete Tolkien is now available for around $4.  Haven't snagged that one, yet.

 

While I was cutting my far back lawn on Monday I finally met the new neighbour, Phil, who moved into the house behind us last autumn.  He had cut the grass for me.  I went over to talk with him.  He is a local farmer, and seems interested in buying that back piece of property from us, on the other side of the creek.  Since our bridge rotted away several years ago we have no direct access to that piece of land.  So here's hoping that we can sell off that piece, which is really a problem for us right now.  I imagine it will be a fairly involved and somewhat lengthy process.

 

Two films to report on, one of them Deb's choice and one of them mine. First up was The Wayward Bus, a Hollywood film from 1957.  Based on a novel by John Steinbeck, it's part soap opera and part adventure film, starring Joan Collins and Jayne Mansfield.  Passengers transfer to a rickety old bus in southern California to get to a border city with Mexico.  But the rains are coming down, and there are landslides, destroyed bridges, and lots of mud to slow things down.  Actually a pretty good film, one that we had never heard of.

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

The wheels of the wayward bus go round and round....  Rick Jason is the driver. 

 

My main choice was The Housemaid, a Korean film like no other, from 1960.  This is one spooky and totally weird movie, one of the best pyscho-dramas I have ever seen.  Lots of Hitchcock influences here, but also much originality.  A Korean family including two kids and one on the way take in a young female housemaid, who becomes a true monster as she sets her sights on the man, a piano teacher.  Restored and now part of Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project, this is a movie that has to be seen to be believed.  Most of the film takes place in a two story house with a prominent staircase.  Even more prominent is a bottle of well used rat poison.  Some very steamy sex scenes still seem avant-garde today.  It came with a short intro by Mr. Scorsese, as well as a 15 minute extra with a young Korean filmmaker (Bong Joon-ho) talking about the film.

The Housemaid, from 1960.  Now showing on Criterion, and part of Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project.

 

Would you allow this person to be your housemaid?  Not after seeing this film. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Beethoven and Fitness

Mid-December marks 18 months of personal fitness for me, the longest streak since my late teens.  Had I been stranded in New Mexico for the pandemic, I would have hiked virtually any mountain I desired.  There are still a lot of them, plus a few I would love to reclimb.  Treadmill walking is somewhat different from real walking, however.  This past September, when I did a short trail hike and climb with my niece in Sudbury, I found I had to be quite careful walking on uneven surfaces, and that my balance was easily thrown off.  Before undertaking any mountain hiking I would, of course, have to get used to walking on rocky and uneven surfaces again.  But I figure that I am permanently about 4-5 weeks away from what I call "mountain fitness."  So there would be time to get on trails here before heading back into the mountains.  I fervently hope we can travel by Spring to NM, possibly by car.  I know I said the same thing last year at this time.

Turning now to Beethoven, the anniversary of his naming day was Dec. 16th.  We began our massive biographical and listening program just over a year ago.  While I knew that we wouldn't be finished in one year, I didn't realize how long it might take.  We do some listening every evening, and Beethoven comes up every third evening.  So it probably will take a year, as in 365 nights, to complete the project.  We have probably completed 125 by now.  And where are we?  We are still in the early 1800s, around 1802.  His hearing is going, his health is bad, and he has yet to write his 2nd symphony.  But the Op 18 quartets are done, and many fine piano sonatas, along with two piano concerti.  His early works are still trying to please his mainly aristocratic audiences, though he has been poking quite outside the Haydn/Mozart classical tradition many times, too.  We are following the Biamonti numbering system, which goes as close to chronological as possible, and we have just passed the 300 mark (out of about 900).  I am reading ahead in the biography, and penciling in paragraphs for us to read together as we go along.  Sometimes we stop on a certain piece and hear it in multiple versions.  For example we listened to the 1st Symphony four times, all with different orchestras and conductors.  The one we liked best was directed by John Eliot Gardner, using an orchestra much like Beethoven would have had access to.

In movie news, we briefly turned to Prime for a feature film.  Called The Electric Life of Louis Wain, it stars Benedict Cumberbatch as an eccentric and psychologically fragile artist (Britain seems to have been blessed with an ungodly amount of them).  Most famous in his day for his illustrations of cats, the story of his life is told with great sensitivity and detail.  The only son among a family of girls, it is his responsibility to bring home a paycheck, and though he does his best, he is not much of a success.  Cumberbatch is totally brilliant as the increasingly mad artist, and the make up department did a superb job of aging him as the film proceeds.  You do not have to love cats to love this movie.  It is a beautiful film from start to finish.

Showing on Prime in Canada. 

Deb's "going away this month" choice from Criterion was Out of the Past, Robert Mitchum starring as a private eye who crosses his hoodlum customer.  This is a great and classic film noir, fun to watch from beginning to end.  If anyone trusts a dame in a film noir, you know there is going to be trouble ahead.  Mitchum gets into plenty of it here.  Lots of cigarette smoking, too.  It becomes quite obvious watching these old adult movies, especially the b & w ones, that Hollywood was vastly responsible for encouraging smoking.  With he-men like Mitchum, and beauties like Jane Greer smoking up a storm, how could their fans resist doing the same?

Leaving Criterion Dec. 31st. 

My pick of the week was a very strange film, one of the restored ones from the World Cinema Project.  Called Revenge, it was made by a Kazakhstan director working with a writer from Korea.  If that isn't strange enough, then try the film sometime.  A teacher, in a fit of anger, kills a young girl, then flees the village.  The parents are devastated.  When a son is born, he is brought up to get revenge.  While the story sounds simple, it is anything but.  We travel to many different places, and time passes.  At times we almost forget the revenge element, but it eventually comes back, in a haunting way.  The film comes with an 18' interview with the director, who speaks English well and describes his huge respect and fascination with the writer.  He tries to follow the book as closely as he can, but had to make some concessions at the end.  While certainly worth watching, there are some scenes of animal cruelty that are very disturbing.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Turning briefly back to art, and staying on the theme of eccentric artists, here's one from the DIA that comes with no biographical info whatsoever.  And so I will present the image with no words from me.

False Faces, 1953.  Elemer A. Lakatos, American, 1910-1957. Overall: 20 × 24 inches. No more information is available.  

Mapman Mike