Continuing the discussion from Movies You Watched Today: Youtube VHS Rip - Part 3 of XX - #2018 by mathcat.
Previous discussions:
Only God Forgives
Wonderful filmography and locations.
More metaphor and symbolism than the more realistic Pusher films.
Great movie.
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NEW TITLE NEW TITLE WHAT IS IT
Enjoyed Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. Found the runtime really flew by but might be the old fan in me.
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Movies You Watched Today: As The Director Intended
Movies 2025: The Day We Watched
It’s an extemely kitchy accomplishment I think. Completely exhausting. Like I know film is itself montage, but Elvis feels like a literal nonstop montage. But yeah it’s never boring exactly. And if you can stomach grotesque spectacles, it’s probably one of the best of late.
But maybe this is just my niche because boy was it fun to watch 31 of Elvis’ feature films in the lead up to this one
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The Baz Promise 
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Movies you watched tod4y
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Shampoo (1975)
Movie absolutely rips. Warren Beatty is very good and Goldie Hawn looks like a sexy cartoon.
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Movies You Watched Today: 35mm Scan v4.0 Regrade.mkv
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A couple weeks ago on a short trip to London I saw Picnic at Hanging Rock at BFI Southbank. The new transfer & grade is incredible. Really one of the best-looking films ever made. Even on the SD TV documentary (“Everything Begins and Ends”) from the blu-ray, the iconic picnic scene (shot at high noon, an hour at a time over the course of a week on location) is beautiful. The origin story of every film seems to be a series of clever tricks and happy accidents but this one has some pretty ethereal elements:
- Joan Lindsay refused to be direct about her inspiration and there are lots of ambiguous anecdotes about vague explanations and allusions to real people.
- A lot of the cast were transient actors but Margaret Nelson (Sara), after immersing herself in the defining character of one of the best films ever made, did like four years of Australian TV, quit acting, and doesn’t even have a wikipedia page!!
- Vivien Merchant had to pull out as increasingly unhinged headmistress Mrs. Appleyard and was serendipitously replaced by a pre-unhinged Rachel Roberts.
- Many of the girls’ voices were secretly dubbed by uncredited(!) professionals.
- They were discouraged from doing a “period” film in the 1970s, a decade defined by superior historical drama lol.
- Weir shot some duplicate close up takes for flashbacks where he asked the actors not to blink so that viewers would unconsciously detect a difference.
Producer Hal McElroy explains their solution to the challenge of adapting the central mystery to the screen:
We knew we had a movie without an ending. And so one of the decisions we made was, if these girls are gonna disappear, and we’re never gonna explain, it would be really great if they were really beautiful and looked fantastic, so when they disappeared you go ‘Damn! I miss them!’
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I think my favourite direction they took was to open with Hospital gown Tom Parker dreamwalking Vegas casinos. They really made Vegas seem like hell in a novel way
Paddington in Peru has Olivia Colman hamming it up at Tim Curry levels. but still bad. cyan orange and pompous delivery that would put Alan Partridge to shame. filmed like a christmas advert
most interesting bit was the credits, so many practical crew (construction and plasterers) for physical sets, but plate units sent to Peru for compositing backgrounds. why bother
because darkest Peru is jungle, there’s a scene with
(M-Beat feat. General Levy - Incredible)
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old movie night has a new theme
last week: Henry V (1944)
Laurence Olivier stars and directs this. wow he’s great. starting with a shockingly comprehensive miniatures shot of 16th century London & zooming into the Globe theatre for a production of Henry V. lots of authentic touches, a rain shower not stopping the play, audience cheering and applauding Ancient Pistol like Kramer as soon as he enters
as the locations get more elaborate & further from London, the film moves to sound stages & shooting on location. some wonderful hand-painted plates of French countryside & castles
I’d only seen the 1989 film years ago and not known much about the play. finding out Shakespeare invented ‘funny French accents’
and ‘an Englishman, Irishman, Welshman, & Scotsman walk into a scene’ jokes
see if the subtle clues help you tell who’s who
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this week: Hamlet (1921)
the Deutsche Filminstitute put up a restored tinted version a few years ago with no soundtrack. you can probably find a version with the new soundtrack or an alternative. requires a little more work to follow the story when completely silent
it stars Asta Nielsen (also produced by), with the premise that Hamlet was born female and raised as a son to inherit the crown.
this shines a new light on the relationship with Horatio, as they clonk heads in school after reaching for the same dropped pen
later, when Polonius tries setting Hamlet up with Ophelia & Horatio notices the fair virgin, Hamlet realised she can seduce Ophelia to prevent Horatio from pursuing her
and adds more anguish scenes, though she mainly expresses her gender dysphoria by clutching at her breasts
originally only some prints were tinted & only some scenes were also toned. a familiar palette here
there’s a lot of intertitles, the play has a lot of good/impactful dialogue. but they make the most of physical acting (and commenting on the travelling players’ demonstrations)
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I love this one. I saw the restoration in a local theater a few years ago with live accompaniment on organ, and it was great
Forever have a crush on asta nielsen because of her immaculate goth looks in this
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Mickey 17 was OK but probably Bong Joon-ho’s weakest movie. Pattinson’s performance was great and I really liked Naomi Ackie as his girlfriend. I thought she stole the show. The pacing was really weird but there were individual scenes I really liked.
Out of his filmography this is definitely most similar to Okja, but I liked that one a bit more… this one was a bit more restrained.
The narrative felt like he was making it up as he went along, really all over the place and full of asides that didn’t amount to anything. Odd that it was based on a book.
Kind of funny that the villain is just Elon Musk, but it’s also like, “oh great, now I have to watch this Elon Musk allegory for a while.”
The tardigrades were excellent.
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Continuing my Refn spree.
I watched Fear X, Bleeder, and The Neon Demon
Fear X felt a little weak. It feels like Refn doing Lynch.
Bleeder is an excellent film in his old style. Mads Mikkelsen is an adorable film geek.
The Neon Demon is an excellent film in his current style.
I think I’m going to watch every Refn film, there aren’t many left.
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