As always, alphabetical order and only first time viewings.
Accident (Losey, 1967)
The Champ (Vidor, 1931)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Richardson, 1962)
Other Men’s Women (Wellman, 1931)
Pursued (Walsh, 1947)
As always, alphabetical order and only first time viewings.
Accident (Losey, 1967)
The Champ (Vidor, 1931)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Richardson, 1962)
Other Men’s Women (Wellman, 1931)
Pursued (Walsh, 1947)
July 1, 2009 at 9:35 pm
The runner looks like he’s merely walking briskly, with a hint of grumpy stomping to his movements. This is greatly misleading.
I want to see ‘Pursued’.
July 2, 2009 at 3:47 am
I just saw The Champ for the first time a few months ago (thanks again TCM) and fell in love with that corny old film. So much uncynical heart, hard to imagine in 2009.
July 2, 2009 at 2:38 pm
“Other Men’s Women” WOW! Never seen it but just the title, the director and seeing Joan Blondell in the photo make it VERY intriguing! Thanks for sharing.
Rupert
July 2, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Spengo: That’s not very fair to your countryman! He was walking at a more than brisk pace, for shame.
Brad: It is, but it isn’t. It’s still quite a dark and unhappy film, I’m not sure if it would work now though, I agree. It was remade in the 70s I think with Jon Voight and wasn’t very well received.
Rupert: It’s available on the third Forbidden Hollywood set from TCM, along with many other Wellman films. Check it out!
July 2, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Joan Blondell. Yes.
July 3, 2009 at 12:58 am
I have been shamed.
July 7, 2009 at 3:57 am
Never seen the loneliness of a long distance runner – I have put it on my list.
July 9, 2009 at 11:45 pm
I guess June didn’t have any good movie to see in theaters for you, thinking about it now for myself, I would agree that it didn’t
July 10, 2009 at 1:35 am
mrs mirth and movie have we gone on a vacation?
July 18, 2009 at 8:46 pm
I need to see some of these movies!
July 19, 2009 at 8:16 am
I just saw Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying for the 1st time a couple of hours ago . . . WHEW!!– talk about the must-see movies . . . it’s been on my list forever and a day and I can hardly say I’m disappointed . . . how can one be? It delivers pure cinema in spades!! It’s like Citizen Kane and Gone with the Wind had a baby; it gives you everything but . . . sigh. I cried quite a few times during it but not at the end because I still wasn’t sure what to expect . . . and now I’m insomnia-ridden and miserable and I want to watch it again but that’s probably not a good idea right now, and I have to watch it tomorrow, I might as well save it. Maybe I should eat something but I went through the cookies right after . . .
I think it has to go straight to my No. 4 perch, behind Fanny and Alexander, Tarkovski’s Sacrifice and Shadow of a Doubt. It’s so pure, phantasmagoric, unstoppable, gigantic– for once there’s no exaggerating what a film can do–DOES. But SO painful too! . . . and for someone who loves without hope, difficult to know how to digest! But if you HAVEN’T seen it yet . . . this is THE ONE!!! You have to drop everything and see it *right now*!!!
July 26, 2009 at 2:52 am
Yes.. .vacation.,
Jason: I’ve seen The Cranes are flying, and I have to say, I really disliked it. I don’t know wat it is… but it bored me to tears.
July 29, 2009 at 1:18 am
Oh dear!: did it really *bore you though? Because, among other things, i marvel at the sheer SPEED of “The Cranes are Flying”– it’s storytelling is so Biblical in its clip, it feels it not only doesn’t need to pad any ‘explaining’ for Veronika’s acquiescing to marry Mark after he rapes her but, as I reflected after my 3rd viewing today [you see, I did have to 'shelve' it for a week!] it doesn’t even bother to let us know when poor Grandma dies!
I was marveling at the way the narrative in the 2nd half is like a whirlwind compression of Doctor Zhivago or something? Are you sure you weren’t watching it very late late at night?! I’m a ready acolyte for its unhinged expressionistic Romanticism, so I don’t really expect everyone to be QUITE as enthusiastic as myself (perhaps!) but I’d expect many another negative would pop up before ‘bored’!
I read your (500) Days review– I HAVE been anticipating this one for a while. That ‘busload of Zooeys’ shot has to be the “money shot”– I’m sure it does express a certain powerful subjective feeling which I know all too well. . . .
July 30, 2009 at 12:54 am
I have watched many films under less than ideal circomstances, I domn’t honestly remember how I watched Cranes…
You’ll be dissapointed then… hint: It’s not in the movie.
July 30, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Oh– you mean the busfull of Zooeys? DAMNIT!!! I’ve been going along for months since I 1st saw an advance trailer going, ‘a busload of Zooey Deschanels! a busload of Zooey Deschanels!’– thinking ah yes, ‘he sees her EVERYWHERE!– what a great visual expression of his moony obsession!’ –How can they ditch that shot? they must have put some digital dollars, or other work, into it! Idiots!!
Don’t get the idea I was banking on this being a masterwork, mind you! I don’t get 80s artsy (afterh the fact?) pop & the idea of The Smiths being anyone’s idea of a cultural loadstone is anathema. I was surprised, though, to see you find Bergman references too, since everyone else was signaling only The Graduate, the music and Annie Hall, natch (plus that Amy Adams film whose title I get confused with that Anne hathaway movie, so I won’t try!)? Have the filmmakers been hitting their criterions after all? . . .
I will have to see it though, for reasons both personal and artistic. Since I *am* still writing that damn novel still (even sank a bit of dough in my ’supplies’ ystrday– have to have the right ‘canvas’) I’m sensitive to any ‘competition’ on my chosen ‘territory’. Lesson probably to be learned: don’t make my protag such a wounded poodle! Hmm, will heaping helping of misogynistic backlashing help that?!
I may have to review it myself after it arrives, since I feel an essay coming on about the ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ aspect of this equation. If I sound inscrutable now I’ll clear that up later since I know exactly what I mean . . . !
July 30, 2009 at 5:00 pm
It wasn’t in the copy I saw, it might have end up in a widerr release version or the DVD cut :/ It’s a good film, but yea… not too high. The filmmakers did hit the Criterions, it has a “classic foreign-film montage thing”.
Novel writing! Good luck :)
August 12, 2009 at 10:38 pm
The ‘novel-writing’ is still stalled, but meanwhile my 4000 word groaner on 500 Days of Summer is up on my blog, for my diss-illusioned view of the film.