Film Discussion / Now Watching

[SS1535]

I just watched Sorcerer last week as well, by strange coincidence. It took me a bit to get into it, but I really enjoyed it by the end.

[Scream & Writhe]

One of my all-time favourites. Scheider's face in the cantina at the end is everything.

It's five minutes before nine, in Paris...

[Natalia]

A movie I saw recently that really stuck with me is Farewell (1983) directed by Elem Klimov, perhaps most famous for directing the 1985 Soviet war film Come and See. This movie is about a small peasant village in the Soviet Union who are told their home will be flooded for the construction of a dam. They are then tasked with having to take apart their own village before the scheduled flooding. It deals with a lot of complicated ideas about the march of progress and modernity, what we sacrifice in that process, as well as grief and deep-rooted attachments to home and land. I found the soundtrack especially to be haunting and beautiful. It's a movie with a lot of soul that really struck me emotionally.

Learning about the background of the film cast my feelings in a new context, that Larisa Shepitko, acclaimed Soviet director (most known for war film The Ascent) and wife of Elem Kilimov, was originally going to direct this film, and died in a motor accident while scouting for locations. Elem then completed the film, in his own form. For me, knowing this imbues the film with a greater layer of weight and grief. Depressing stuff.

[33033]

Watched The Last Voyage Of The Demeter (2023) and hoped it was going to be a little more grim, and it's definitely missing a few things that would have made it really good. Wasn't the worst but didn't really deliver on anything too new. Sort of like Alien at sea.

[sandrabarry]

Has anybody seen Scream 2023??

[holy ghost]

Has anybody seen Scream 2023??

It was pretty good! I didn't remember watching the previous one but my wife swears we did.

I watched Confess, Fletch the other night and it was really funny. Jon Hamm is very amusing.

[sandrabarry]

Yes exactly it was really trilling especially the ghost face costume looked really scary throughout the movie. I have also watched Dont look away but the movie was very bad. SO i can say proudly that scream is my favorite horror film this year.

[Scream & Writhe]

September highlights:

Lost Highway (Lynch, 1997) - 35mm
Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)
Johnny Guitar (Ray, 1954)
Anchoress (Newby, 1993)
Medea (Pasolini, 1969)
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (Ritt, 1965)
Cabaret (Fosse, 1972)
Freaks (Browning, 1932) - 35mm

[SS1535]

September highlights:

Lost Highway (Lynch, 1997) - 35mm
Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)
Johnny Guitar (Ray, 1954)
Anchoress (Newby, 1993)
Medea (Pasolini, 1969)
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (Ritt, 1965)
Cabaret (Fosse, 1972)
Freaks (Browning, 1932) - 35mm

Freaks, Lynch, and Pasolini sounds like a winning combination (especially the first two!).

[Scream & Writhe]

I watched the 1977 film "The Haunting of Julia" (aka "Full Circle") earlier, a remarkable film about grief, and was rather enamoured by Colin Towns' haunting and majestic synth score. The soundtrack isn't streaming anywhere, so here's a video someone filming the track "Kate" from the record playing on their stereo: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=tr9kFyjz_l0

[murmur]

I watched Horror Express (1972) last night, which was a ton of fun. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are always great, but this one is particularly good. It’s a Spanish/UK production, and is like Carpenter’s The Thing if it took place on the Trans-Siberian railroad, a la Murder on the Orient Express. The monster is super cool, there are a lot of surprising details that make it more interesting than it might have been, and the score is really good. Plus it’s on YouTube for free!

https://youtu.be/4LCtzLEebBI?si=bEDj14ZFR9-1b7f9

[Antirealist]

time to time rewatching the 80's soviet sci-fi classics Kin-Dza-Dza. it was forbidden for some years and reappeared in 1989, when censorship started to decline. it is absurd humor filled postapocalyptic dystopia with leading actors of the time. despite that it can look quite like b-movie because of minimalist scenery and obviously the budget cuts, i wonder how they could even get any budget for this out of the soviet system. here it is on yt with english subtitles
https://youtu.be/EYHv8eJrW2Y

[housepig]

a friend and I went to see The Vanishing last night - such a quiet movie for something so consistently tense.

[PetiteSoles]

Sometimes working at Half-Price Books really has it's perks. I found a copy of "The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler" box set that Severin released and with my discount (and money put on my employee card for my anniversary) I was able to get it for around $20. The Hollywood Strangler Meets The Skid Row Slasher is a favorite of mine. Sinthia: The Devil's Doll was great also. But other than that I think they'll be new to me. Unless I watched some in my drinking days and forgot. But I'm definitely looking forward to watching these soon.

[SS1535]

a friend and I went to see The Vanishing last night - such a quiet movie for something so consistently tense.

The original one? I just watched it for the first time a few months ago---fantastic.

[housepig]

a friend and I went to see The Vanishing last night - such a quiet movie for something so consistently tense.

The original one? I just watched it for the first time a few months ago---fantastic.

Correct. I saw it for the first time about a year ago, and he had heard of it but had never seen it. A couple of weeks ago I took a different friend to see a secret screening which turned out to be Bob Clark's "Dead Of Night" (aka "Deathdream") on 16mm, and he had never seen that one - always nice to expose friends to stuff and have them enjoy.

[SS1535]

a friend and I went to see The Vanishing last night - such a quiet movie for something so consistently tense.

The original one? I just watched it for the first time a few months ago---fantastic.

Correct. I saw it for the first time about a year ago, and he had heard of it but had never seen it. A couple of weeks ago I took a different friend to see a secret screening which turned out to be Bob Clark's "Dead Of Night" (aka "Deathdream") on 16mm, and he had never seen that one - always nice to expose friends to stuff and have them enjoy.

Dead of Night is one of those movies that I always forget the name---but never the movie itself. I remember being totally mezmerized with the looping structure when I first saw it some years ago... and the evil doll too, of course! It had to be awesome to see it in a theater!

[housepig]

Dead of Night is one of those movies that I always forget the name---but never the movie itself. I remember being totally mezmerized with the looping structure when I first saw it some years ago... and the evil doll too, of course! It had to be awesome to see it in a theater!

Different "Dead of Night", you're probably thinking about the 1945 British anthology movie with the ventriloquist dummy story. This one was 1972, by Bob Clark (Porky's, Christmas Story, Black Christmas, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things), about a soldier reported killed in Viet Nam who returns home to his family.

[SS1535]

Dead of Night is one of those movies that I always forget the name---but never the movie itself. I remember being totally mezmerized with the looping structure when I first saw it some years ago... and the evil doll too, of course! It had to be awesome to see it in a theater!

Different "Dead of Night", you're probably thinking about the 1945 British anthology movie with the ventriloquist dummy story. This one was 1972, by Bob Clark (Porky's, Christmas Story, Black Christmas, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things), about a soldier reported killed in Viet Nam who returns home to his family.

haha---that's the one. Darn these repeat names! The one you saw still sounds interesting, though.

[Antirealist]

here are some recommended movies by Alexey Fedorchenko
cross post from Special Interests forum.

First on the Moon
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459929/?r ... mg_t_14_dr
perhaps one of the most artful pseudodocumentaries ever, a fake history of soviet cosmic programm in 1930's. shot on film!

Angels of Revolution
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4163138/
Together with five Soviet avant-garde artists, hero of the Russian revolution Polina Schneider travels to Siberia to 'civilize' the native Khanty and Nenets tribes, for whom interaction with foreigners is forbidden by the gods, through art. executed in very nice psychedelic colors.

Railway
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386956/?r ... mg_t_11_dr
A school principal and his friend hijack an old steam locomotive and start a travel along the abandoned railroad - to deal in coal. The film plot is seemingly simple: two friends (a school principal Parentsov and a truck driver who is referred to as Father) steal a large amount of coal and take it by an old abandoned rail into the vast borderless steppe where they want to sell it. Driver's numb son Misha and a strange and formidable being, Engine Driver, accompany them. The story of a huge locomotive that the group uses for transporting the coal runs parallel to the main plot line.
It's kind of funny movie with slight hints of magic realism and easy surreal feeling.

Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2536306/?r ... lmg_t_8_dr
23 short stories about the Mari women, their mythology, folk magic traditions and today of the Mari people. some mythic, some funny, some vernacular horror'ish.

[holy ghost]

Finally caught Barbarian - great! I really enjoyed it. The first half was v scary and the second half really went a unique direction. I'd suggest it to anyone I know.

[holy ghost]

I also watched The Fall Of The House Of Usher on NF. 10/10 sort of stuff. I worship at the Corman/Poe/Price flicks of the 70's and this had clearly a higher budget but maintained the spirit of schlock while mixing a weird Succession kind of vibe.

[Scream & Writhe]

October highlights:

Beasts (Nigel Kneale ATV miniseries, 1976)
Bloody Moon (Franco, 1981)
Don't Torture a Duckling (Fulci, 1972)
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (Fulci, 1971)
The Sweet Body of Deborah (Guerrieri, 1968)
A Quiet Place in the Country (Petri, 1968)
Star Time (Cassini, 1992)
The Haunting of Julia (Loncraine, 1977)
Poison (Haynes, 1991)
Siberia (Ferrara, 2020)
The Wailing (Na Hong-jin, 2016)
Poison for the Fairies (Taboada, 1986)

[Antirealist]

another crosspost from Special Interests forum.

movies by Hungarian director György Pálfi, diverse, uncommon, surreal. approximately Lynch'ish, but no copycat stuff.

Taxidermia (2006)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410730/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
three generations of freaks, a pervert soldier after ww2, professional speedeater in soviet Hungary and an embalmer from modern times. a must see, i did it 4 times.

Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen (2012)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2243299/?r ... lmg_t_4_dr
short cut up scenes from hundreds of old movies are made into archetypical story of man and woman. this plays with your brain unexpectedly.

Free Fall (2014)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3671480/?ref_=nm_knf_t_3
seven surreal stories from same house, one from each floor, different families, different moods. a must see, going to do it third time in nearest days.

[PetiteSoles]

Aenigma, 1987, Dir. Lucio Fulci

A fun, hallucinogenic, supernatural horror film. Later Fulci.

The popular mean girls at an all-girls catholic school set up some poor spazz, a prank that ends tragically causing an extended stay in the ICU.
But she has her revenge, telekinetic murder. Lots of good kill scenes (like the infamous death by snail infestation), nightmare scenarios and a lot of posters of hunky American movie stars.

I'd seen this one once before when this Severin blu ray was first released and it was just as good on the second viewing a couple years later.

It's no New York Ripper but I'd recommend it if you're into Fulci's films.