Cinema, Movies and Motion Pictures

From  Trouble in Paradise

Recently seen films, this is the first in an occasional series.  These are some of my favorite films that I’ve seen in the last year, in 2017 and late 2016.  I watch a lot of movies, on DVD, on VHS, on Blu-ray and at the show.

Number One: The Ernst Lubitsch film “Trouble in Paradise” is a pre-code classic, funny and romantic.  I love his work and this is one of my favorites.  Pictured above: Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins.

Number Two: “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Richard Brooks directed, it starred Humphrey Bogart and featured Kim Hunter, Paul Stewart, Jim Backus, Ed Begley and more.  Over 60 years ago, it predicted the threat to the newspaper industry via the battle over greed/self-interest versus altruism aka “call to public service.”

Number Three: Ernst Lubitsch’s “To Be or Not To Be” starring, in her last role, Carole Lombard, Jack Benny and others. I’ve seen this many times. It’s an old favorite.

Number Four: “Frankenstein” from 1931. Sure “Bride of Frankenstein” was even better, but this was a strong film. Boris Karloff!

Number Five: “The Big Combo” from 1955. Directed by Joseph H. Lewis. Photography by John Alton.

“I know how you feel.”

“Nobody knows how another person feels.”

Number Six: “Gun Crazy” from 1949. Directed by Joseph H. Lewis.  This is a great film noir following a crime spree by a young couple who really love their guns.

“Everything in these forty-eight state hurts me.”

Number Seven: “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” Directed by Don Siegel. 1956, with Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter.  It all came true!  A classic.

Number Seven: “The Manchurian Candidate” from 1962. Directed by John Frankenheimer. With Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh and Frank Sinatra. Script by George Axelrod.  Music by David Amram.

I’ve been wanting to see this again all year! A precursor to real-life political dystopia, with connections to the blacklist/ witch hunts.  A unique film

Number Eight: “Yankee Doodle Dandy” from 1942.  Directed by Michael Curtiz with James Cagney, Walter Huston, Joan Leslie and others.

Cagney is just amazing in this.  It’s too bad that he only made a few “song and dance movies.”  In the DVD bonus feature they noted that one reason that he wanted to make a patriotic film was that he was about to be investigated for being too liberal.  It was good to be patriotic in those early days of World War Two.  For personal reasons, it will be impossible to watch this movie soon, so I wanted to see it while I still could.

Number Nine: “Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words” a 2015 Swedish documentary film about Ingrid Bergman, directed by Stig Björkman.  It was a well done work including home movies and quotes from her writings. She came pretty close to marrying photographer Robert Capa.  She lived a good yet complicated life and she loved acting.

Number Ten: “Chimes at Midnight” from 1965, directed by and starring Orson Welles as Falstaff. A great one! I got to see it onscreen 3 times, once years ago. It’s great to have a restored version available on “home video.’  It includes a great battle scene, Shakespeare!

With John Gielgud, Keith Baxter, Margaret Rutherford, Jeanne Moreau and others.

Number Eleven: “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” from 1964.  Directed by Stanley Kubrick.  With Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden and Slim Pickens.  This was part of my 2017 dystopian film festival. I think that it holds up well with Scott and Sellers especially funny.

Number Twelve: “Playtime” directed by Jacques Tati from 1967, fifty years ago.

This is a big favorite.  I wish I could see it in a theatre with a big screen.  Meanwhile, I’ll try to see 3 feet from the TV screen and pay close attention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playtime

Number Thirteen: “Duck Soup” directed by Leo McCarey, from 1933.  It stars the four Marx Brothers: Groucho, Harpo, Chico and sometimes Zeppo.  It’s funny as can be and is all too timely.  Harpo’s always snipping things with scissors and pulling a fiery blow torch from beneath his coat.  It’s an anti-war musical of sorts, drunk on the absurdity of politics and the politics of the absurd.

Number Fourteen: “The Wobblies” from 1979. In this documentary filmmakers Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer profile the International Workers of the World and unionization. There’s a nice use of archival footage (including animation) and interviews with people who were around in the 1910’s.

http://www.uwosh.edu/filmandhist…/documentary/…/wobblies.php

Number Fifteen:  “Bayou Maharajah” directed by Lily Keber, from 2013.  I watched this last week, on Mardi Gras Day.  This is a good documentary about the amazing James Booker who Dr. John called “the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced.”  I started getting into his music a few years ago and I enjoyed this tribute.

http://www.lilykeber.com/

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/item/418-director-interview-lily-keber

http://www.bayoumaharajah.com/

Number Sixteen: “F for Fake” by Orson Welles, from 1972.  This was Orson Welles’ last completed feature film.  It’s a personal favorite.  I’ve seen it many times onscreen and on “home video.”  It’s experimental, fun and it captures a lot of Welles’ personality.

“I started at the top and have been working my way down ever since.”  Orson Welles

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/aug/23/f-for-fake-review

Recently seen films, Number Seventeen: “Vietnam: A Television History” A 13-hour history of the Vietnam War from 1983.  I watched it again (on library VHS tapes) in preparation for the new long, long Ken Burns “Vietnam War” film, due in September.

Recently seen films, Number Eighteen: “Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday” from 1953.  I usually watch this every year, sometime in the late Summer.  Jacques Tati is always wonderful and this is one of his best films.

From  “Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday”

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