At the end of day 20, coming into the home stretch, the movie count is at 13 Brattle screenings and 6 non-Brattle ones. That's 16 movies (non-Brattle screenings count as half) watched for the 'thon. Here's the roll call, along with rambling on screenings from this past week...
Friday, 11/11
HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (non-Brattle)
Saturday, 11/12
A MAN ESCAPED, dir Robert Bresson, Brattle series - The Films of Jacques Doillon
Sunday, 11/13
WALLACE AND GROMMIT: CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT (non-Brattle)
PONETTE, dir Jacques Doillon, Brattle series - The Films of Jacques Doillon
Monday, 11/14
LA PURITAINE, dir Jacques Doillon, Brattle series - The Films of Jacques Doillon
MON ONCLE, dir Jacques Tati, Brattle series - The Films of Jacques Doillon
Wednesday, 11/16
RAJA, dir Jacques Doillon, Brattle series - The Films of Jacques Doillon
A MAN ESCAPED, dir Robert Bresson, Brattle series - The Films of Jacques Doillon
Friday, 11/18
THUMBSUCKER, Brattle series - Recent Raves
Sunday, 11/20
SERENITY, Brattle series - Recent Raves
SERENITY, Brattle series - Recent Raves
Thursday, 11/24
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (non-Brattle)
Gorgeous film. Excellent cast and characters. Wonderful dialogue. Who would have believed that manners and etiquete could be so fun when applied to insults, romance, and cluelessness? Students with book reports will owe much to this movie in the years to come. There was a series of scenes that played as one extended shot, visiting conversations in different rooms and lighting on people hiding and searching for each other in the course of a ball in a fabulous mansion. I could see opportunities where it separate takes could be stitched together to create the illusion of a single one, but regardless, the effect was pretty cool (please pardon the use of technical jargon - "cool").
Friday, 11/25
WALK THE LINE (non-Brattle)
Joachin is amazing in this. I want to say it's this year's RAY, but I still haven't seen RAY - oops. He and Reese do an excellent job performing their characters' music. Seeing how Cash's rise intersected with those of other stars, and came out of Sam Philips's Sun Studio in Memphis is pretty cool. The hint of Things A-Brewin', y'know? That what we see in the movie, of Cash's life and music and talent, fit into a larger movement or picture. There are moments in this that demonstrate that people do sometimes find their destinies.
Something kinda nifty... There's a scene where Johnny Cash and June Carter are side-by-side on stage during "Ring Of Fire," and it's the first time I ever made the connection that the ring in the song might refer to a wedding ring.
Sunday, 11/27
TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE Brattle series - Give Thanks For Bogie
Aside from all the goodness in this movie, it's got a lot of value for me because I can see bits here and there, and feel the ambience, that Warner Brothers animators lifted for use in almost any Bugs Bunny short that has to do with gold, as well as the "fellow American down on his luck" bit. Classic, classic stuff. And y'know what, Bogie's great in this, but I think the old-timer, the prospector guide he and his partner hook up with, steals the show.
Also - "We don't need no stinkin badges!"
Sunday, 11/27
ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL (non-Brattle)
A silent film by D.W. Griffith. Screened at the Harvard Film Archive with live piano accompaniment. Follows the lives of a family in Poland struggling to survive in the aftermath of the first world war. A longtime friend of the family courts the daughter, but until he can provide a home for her, the family will not allow her to wed. As poverty and hunger take their toll on the generally law-abiding citizenry, some turn on their own for survival. Even when desperate characters threaten to ruin their chance for happy marriage, the couple finds that their love, along with a LOT of potatos, can sustain them. Cheezy in parts, and old school melodramatic in others, but sweet, especially set against such trying, depressed times. Also, it was neat to hear what a piano might think chickens sound like.
Monday, 11/28
TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, Brattle series - Give Thanks For Bogie
THE BIG SLEEP, Brattle series - Give Thanks For Bogie
A kickass double feature! Man, Bogart and Bacall in these movies are the definition of "chemistry." Palpable stuff. Lauren Bacall is frightfully gorgeous, sharp, and tough.
The delivery of machine gun dialogue in these movies is so damn entertaining. Freshman Bacall does better than hold her own against Bogart, as they trade jibes and entendres throughout both stories. Of course, they're working with great material - Hemingway's TO HAVE (although supposedly his self-proclaimed crappiest work) via Faulkner, and Raymond Chandler's SLEEP (hardboiled eloquence) channelled by Faulkner again. Direction by Howard Hawks, who first put Bogart and Bacall together. Kickass classic stuff.
Tuesday, 11/29
AELITA: QUEEN OF MARS (non-Brattle)
Caught this at the Harvard Film Archive. All I'd known about this movie before last night was a blurb and film still from the pages of the ScienceFictionary I got as a kid. It was a pretty comprehensive one volume encyclopedia of SciFi films from the silent era to the early 80s. I read that thing cover to cover so many times and always experience a bit of satisfaction when I get to see a movie I've only known thru that book. Like a puzzle piece snapping into place. Or a bullet, sliding into the chamber.
AELITA is a Russian silent film about a Soviet rocket scientist who escapes to Mars after a domestic dispute and starts a workers' revolution with the Martian queen. It was screened with live piano accompaniment, AND, due to a mix-up in delivery somewhere, live English language dubbing of the Russian language dialogue. The pianist was a last minute sub, for the original musician, and he was flipping and shuffling sheets of different Russian music to draw from as the movie moved from scene to scene. As the film went on, he quickly learned to pull back on the forte when screens of text/dialogue would appear, to give our live translator some "room" to dub for us. I found myself kind of rooting for the whole production, as the two live parts of the movie hadn't had a chance to rehearse. A very interesting experience. The pianist reached into the piano to strum the wires inside as sound effects for Martian weapons - fun! The movie has everything - romance, intrigue, mystery, mistaken identity, and also, Martians! - although some of the plot turns are very sharp corners, probably for comedic effect, but perhaps blunted by the lag in translation. After all, comedy is all about tiiiiiiMING - TIming - tiii-mIng! The visual design/art direction fo the Mars setting is pretty freakin cool. The HFA's blurb mentioned it being a huge influence on sci-fi film design for years after its release, a major influence on Flash Gordon's Mongo (the old serials, not the Queen-fueled space opera =).
Wednesday, 11/30
KEY LARGO, Brattle series - Give Thanks For Bogie
Caught this tonight, and for the life of me, I really don't know WHAT movie Bertie Higgins watched?! Not that the movie was bad. Au contraire, mon frere, as Woodstock would chirp. It's just that in his song, he makes KEY LARGO sound like a romantic escapade, y'know? No hint of hurricane winds, twelve-foot waves, washed up bodies, and Edward G. Robinson's mobster mug. All of which figure quite prominently in the movie. Robinson is Johnny Rocco, the exiled mob boss looking to make a comeback, supported by his gang of classic thug types. They take over the Largo Hotel to use as the site for a clandestine transaction, holding its owners (Lionel Barrymore and Bacall) and off-season guests (Bogie as a World War II vet) hostage until the deal is done. Of course, this happens to coincide with the worst hurricane to hit the Keys in years, making for a very intense evening of Twister. Not as much Bogie and Bacall steam in this compared to the Howard Hawks double feature, but teaming them with Barrymore and against Robinson more than makes up for it.
That's all I've got for now...
Keep on keepin on~
The best thing I ever heard:
"Touch your lips to mine as you people do on earth..."
--- Queen Aelita, AELITA: QUEEN OF MARS
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