The Devil's Backbone

Saw The Devil's Backbone. Not as scary as I'd thought, more eerie. A horror of the 'sad ghosts' variety. Like the only other del Toro movie I've seen (Pan's Labyrinth) this one used fantastical elements to tell a more realistic story. This one I could not parse. I saw almost every image in the film duplicated (the hunters bringing down a mammoth with spears, two pairs of drownings, the opening lines are also the closing lines, a bombing seen from both the bomber and bomb-ee) and thematic duplications as well, with the little war in the school beginning just before the larger Spanish Civil War itself intrudes on the school (another parallel: the dead innocent and the dead bomb seem equally powerful.) There is an interesting bunch of parallels and duplications, but I can't see what the point of it is. It's neat, and that can be a justification in itself, but I felt like there was something I'm missing.

I also think I might have seen this one before? I hate this feeling.

The Battle of Algiers

Saw The Battle of Algiers. It was a shot in a pseudo-documentary style. The filmmaker had obviously gone to lengths to make sure the content matched reality, so it seems hard to comment on the film without becoming (or already being) a bit of a historian. Of course though the film is historical fiction it is still fiction and thus has its own little moments of audience-manipulation and plot development. The story is quite bare however, mostly declaring via voice-over that thus-and-such happened. It didn't obviously take sides, so I liked it.

Come and See

Saw Come and See. It was a very tough movie. I think I'm gonna go lie down on the floor now.

In the Heat of the Night

Saw In the Heat of the Night. It was a pleasant police procedural that spiced things up with race issues. I thought Mr. Tibbs was a little magical (the scene when he's determining the handed-ness of a suspect especially) but he was incorrect in a big way at another point and so was redeemed from mere perfection. I could see this made into a show.

Silent Hill 3D

Saw Silent Hill 3D. It was okay, but not very imaginative. Clowns and dolls? Yes, yes. Also had a villain who knew she was a villain and a thing that jumped OUT OF THE SCREEN at you!!(3D)!!

Audition

Saw Audition. It was pretty harrowing. I handled this Takashi Miike film much better than the last I saw (Ichi the Killer, which I saw not having any idea what I was in for) but it was still pretty harrowing. Enough had been spoiler-ed for me so I knew most of the big scenes already (kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri!) but I hadn't been told of the psycho-drama beforehand which I got a kick out of. I wish we'd seen more of the girl. Her back story was covered in a very hand-waving way I felt. I'm perhaps morbidly interested in more of her.

The Departed

So I apparently already have seen The Departed in theaters. I didn't remember because I had no record of it. Such are the dangers of keeping your memory in a spreadsheet. It was much more comprehensible this time 'round. Cute rat at the end, Martin :|

Barry Lyndon

Saw Barry Lyndon. It portrayed the rise and fall of a man in Gregorian England. I found the main character to be kind of an anti-hero in that I hated him as he rose and loved him as he fell. The film is shot beautifully. Some scenes could be mistaken for oil paintings. The whole thing is very slow and deliberate, but hey, it's Kubrick. What do you expect?

Police Story

Saw Police Story. It was a lot of fun. Very simplistic story that anyway only exists to provide kick-ass fight scenes and explosions. I like Jackie Chan's playful stunts. There's a scene with telephones that's positively Chaplinesque. The ending betrays the moral foundations of the main character in a big way. I don't think it was purposeful, just lazy philosophy.

Sinister

Saw Sinister from under a protective cloak of alcohol. It was okay and I had been told (and enjoyed spotting) the references to The Shining. A lot of annoying jumps, but the movie had the courtesy to loudly telegraph when the jump was about to happen. There is an interesting attempt at meta-horror (ala The Ring) which feels a little tacked on and silly and anyway only leads to one last jump. One early scene with a boy in a box I really dug (you can pretty much see it in the trailer.) All else: it was a movie.

How Green Was My Valley

Saw How Green Was My Valley. It was an epic of the Thorton Wilder type (a family's adventures through the ages.) It was very episodic, almost a series of anecdotes. The whole affair was extremely sentimental. It had enough going on inside of it to support and sort of earn the sentiment, but it still annoyed me. The lead in particular was sometimes just too precious. It dealt with class warfare, society vs the individual, family, etc etc. There was a vignette about a lot of things. There was a neat Metropolis-esque sequence where miners march into the whirring elevator of the coal mine, swallowed whole.

Crimson Gold

Saw Crimson Gold. It had the deliberate, removed camerawork of a modern arty film. It was about a man being constantly faced with the perpetual, low-level humiliation of poverty. There is nothing overtly sad in this film, but by under-selling the grimness of the story, it hits all the harder. It culminates in a botched jewelry store robbery which is shown at the beginning of the film in a move to heighten the feeling of sad inevitability. A good movie, but kind of a lite bummer.

Ladyhawke

Saw Ladyhawke. It was alright as long as you played along with it. The ending was fairly goofy, but I loved the transformation sequence in the snow. Another of those weird epic, slightly magical, medieval films.

Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Saw Aguirre: The Wrath of God. It was very interesting. Its gaze is so detached as to be almost anthropological, yet of course it is a fiction. There are jabs at the arrogance of the Spaniards, what with the sedan chair being hauled along for miles and the horse on the raft. There's also grim looks at power and ambition driving us to ruin such as the crowning of one character as the 'king of Eldorado', and the titular monologue (which is awesome.) I found the jungle to be the most interesting. It is never shown to be particularly hostile or threatening. It is just lush and indifferent.

A Patch of Blue

Saw A Patch of Blue. It was fairly touching, but I could see where it was going a mile off. The central romance was oddly unromantic which I found interesting and novel. Could it be that a man is altruistically interested in the well-being of a woman? But they ultimately succumbed to romance. Romance in drama is like the force of gravity: unrelenting and inevitable.

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs

Saw Get Out Your Handkerchiefs. Not an old movie as I'd suspected, but a relatively modern french comedy. It reminded me of Wes Anderson's stuff, with childish adults and adult-acting children. I think it was a sort of art-y comedy. Aggravating in parts.