Vultural

Die Frau, Nach Der Man Sich Sehnt - 1929 - 6/10
AKA - The Woman Men Yearn For // Three Loves

Young heir to powerful industrialist embarks on his honeymoon.
One the night train, his wife slides into the sheets and eagerly awaits locomotive revels.
While out in the corridor, the heir spies Stascha, a damsel in distress.
What to do? Oh - Stascha is played by a young Marlene Dietrich.
He dumps his bride, halts the train, dashes across snowy woodlands, into a posh resort.
Story of naive swell getting embroiled with a shady couple.
Borders on melodrama, but the camera work is fluid and often ingenious.
Rollicking New Years Eve party is a highlight. Must for Dietrich aficionados.

Note - I’ve watched this Silent with two different soundtracks. Orchestral and piano.
Neither seemed to enhance the proceedings. Better luck, you.

Crooked House - 2017 - 6/10

Stylish adaptation of the Agatha Christie murder mystery.
Ostracized private detective is approached by his old flame to investigate her family.
She suspects grandpapa was poisoned.
Family being wealthy and politically influential, police are hesitant to delve.
Once inside the suffocating manor, the detective realizes he is in a viper pit.
The beholden heirs hated or resented grandpapa, almost as much as they loathe each other and themselves.
Everyone, it transpires, is suspect. Everyone.

Argon - 2017 - 6/10
AKA - 아르곤

K-drama about a television magazine news show.
Not the news/weather/sports show, but the special features.
Exposes, scoops, headlines, and human interest fluff.
Juvenile comedy mars first couple of episodes, though that vanishes if you hang with the series.
Decent drama, though few care about “news” any more. People hunt for, and believe what they want.
Limited crying in this, thank God, and no real romance.
Nice premise of rookie employee looking up to mentor she admired when she was younger.

Maiden - 2018 - 7/10

High seas documentary.
In 1989, an all-female crew entered the Whitbread, round-the-world, sailing competition.
Scoffers declare women will quit, women will never get along, women are weak.
The girls do have problems, mostly through inexperience.
But they are also fairly fearless, taking the tightest route near Antarctica to shave time.

Mix of still photos, crewmates (and competitors) reflecting, newscasts, and home footage.
What is equally astonishing is the sheer amount of film taken at the time.
Well done, though the DVD extras bored me.

Einsatzgruppen: The Nazi Death Squads - 2009 - 7/10

Four part documentary of the units that accompanied or followed the Wehrmacht.
Maps, disturbing home movies, somber music, and interviewees.
The interviewees include historians, survivors, witnesses, and men who pulled the triggers.
The home movies are revealing on two levels. How German officers photographed the dirty work carried out by Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russians against Jews, Catholics, intelligentsia, neighbors …
And that those films would have been developed back in the Fatherland, challenging the later claim of, “We didn’t know! That wasn’t anyone I knew!”
Similar themes can be found in Lost Home Movies Of Nazi Germany (2019).
Both are powerful reminders of what humanity is capable of. And likely will be capable of in our future.

El Monte De Las Bujas - 1973 - 5/10
AKA - The Witches Mountain

Early on, we follow Carla as she arrives home to discover her cat has been killed.
By her young sister-cousin-daughter (?), because the cat terrorized her pet snake.
In quick order, Carla sets fire to the snake and child, flees to her ex-boyfriend (who says No), then drops from the film.
From there, the narrative follows the ex, Mario, a photographer, who takes an assignment to a cursed mountain.
Yeah, hang on, the story jumps throughout.
Though desolate, Mario’s camera catches images in the abandoned village, which the eye overlooks.

I enjoyed the photography. The atmosphere is forbidding, and the clothes and look drip 1970’s.
The ending is rushed and downright confusing. Nor is there any sort of mountain backstory.
Music reminiscent of Diamanda Galás.
Deeply flawed film “may” appeal to those who appreciate mood over mayhem.

Our Kind Of Traitor - 2016 - 6/10

While vacationing - trying to rebuild broken marriage - in Morocco, professor Perry meets mafia boss, Dima.
They strike up a friendship. Then Dima asks for a favor.
Contrived, implausible spy thriller based on Le Carre’s novel.
Slick, yet empty headed, and, in many ways, this feels like a plot from the 80’s.
As turistas, middle aged Perry and wife Gail, make decisions teen travelers would avoid.
If you can go with the flow and switch your brain off, this is another way to kill two hours of your life.

Love In Memory - 2013 - 6/10
AKA - 러브 인 메모리

Bittersweet K-drama of the lingering ghost.
Female has been in steady relationship with her dependable, analytical consort for seven years.
At times, however, she recalls the other boyfriend, her first love, whom she abandoned.
They were too different, she reminds herself.
She was ambitious, career driven, while he was an artist, head in the clouds.
Then she catches sight of him, and memories, accurate or nostalgic, gnaw her heart.
Refreshing to see how emotions of regret, hope and fondness are elaborated.
At one point I imagined a Hollywood remake - - and cringed.

5 Fingers - 1952 - 6/10

Consider Diello, lowly valet at the British embassy in neutral Turkey during World War II.
He is trusted, he has access to confidential documents, and he has aspirations elevate his social class.
That takes money, however. Money that the Nazis will pay … for documents.
Based on the real life spy, “Cicero,” James Mason plays the cold, cynical opportunist.
Though set in Ankara, most of the exteriors are Istanbul, and downright exotic.
Fans of Harry Lime will nod in approval of Diello.

Savage Sword of Conan: Mask of Archeron (Conan The Barbarian) - Agent9

Say what? Which Conan? That 2011 dud?
Nice overhaul of the Jason Momoa reboot, courtesy Agent9.
For a supposedly lite edit, the film has been trimmed a hefty 25% of the running time, the original score replaced with the Poledouris score, and the film recolored.

Still, axe 25% of the narrative, can the plot still make cohesive sense? Well - yes.
C’mon, you ever read any of the Robert E Howard original tales? They pound like a racing cheetah.
As does this edit and is the better for it. Plot is sheer pulp, with few lulls.
Plus, being briefer, I could have loaded up another barbarian quickie.
Ooh, Hundra, maybe.

X-Files: Exordium (taken from S01 episodes) - ThrowgnCpr

An excellent introduction to “X-Files,” especially for newcomers.
“X-Files” found an audience readily enough, but finding its narrative footing took longer.
Neither Duchovny nor Anderson seem comfortable in their roles in the Pilot, though by “Deep Throat,” Duchovny had found his Mulder. The “Erlenmeyer Flask” section is by far the strongest, with Anderson secure as Scully.

Video - Grain is to be expected (all my “X-Files” DVDs suffer from it). Cropping to create a widescreen view worsens this, but blacks remain solid and aside from a few pan jitters, the look is fine.
Editing is OK, though it is apparent when one episode concludes and another begins.

Audio - Solid work here, as well. I could do without the final music at the end. Editor’s perogative, I understand.

Narrative - The three episodes selected are wise choices of the earliest views on the “myth” strands of arcs that would be elaborated and explored to dizzying heights in subsequent seasons.
Did this feel like a movie? No. The three stories never transition or connect well.
Best intentions notwithstanding, the resultant edit remains locked in its episodic roots. Not that this is a bad thing. For me, however, the Season 01 pales in comparison with S02, S03 and S04.

Enjoyment - Very much, though, again, I am not a fan of S01. Aside from a handful of episodes, I never view that season. This edit, however, I suspect I will return to numerous times. If nothing else, it is a concise package showing Duchovny and Anderson grow into characters, and spotlights how swiftly the overall writing improved.

Kafka - 1991 - 7/10

Non-descript insurance clerk (and part time writer), Franz Kafka, finds himself entangled with revolutionaries, secret police, anarchists, spies, and the imperious palisade known as The Castle.
Highly stylized film by Soderbergh is part Noir, part Gothic.
Unsettling narrative steeped in paranoia and anxiety.
Third act “Castle” sequence borrows heavily from Brazil. The same black humor abides, though in Kafka it is more brittle, less fatalistic.
Dialogue often conveyed multiple meanings so one has to keep alert.
Outstanding set design (Prague) of empty streets, endless midnight.
Kafka’s works, like Orwell’s, grow disturbingly relevant to our era.

Hagazussa - 2017 - 7/10
AKA - A Heathen’s Curse

Labeled as Horror, though I don’t necessarily agree.
Close in tone to 2016’s The VVitch, only the environment is more primitive, and the community more fragmented.
A mother and daughter live isolated from the nearby village. They raise goats, barter milk.
Because they are isolated, they are viewed with suspicion. Outsiders.
Film beautifully captures the austerity of hardship.
While slow (the girl, later woman, Albrun, often spends great lengths staring, seemingly vacantly), there is a lot going on. An immersion, if you will, into Nature, the pulsing life force.
This is also a tale of vengeance, though the distracted will probably miss it.
Well worth your time. And I still dislike the Horror label as I fear that will mislead casual sorts into expecting modern attitudes and plot devices. I wish there was another label.

Pain And Glory - 2019 - 6/10
AKA - Dolor y Gloria

I watched because this is by Almodóvar, who I view as a spiritual nephew of Woody Allen.
And, as with Allen, just because this bears Almodóvar’s name, the result may not be a masterpiece.
Anyway, a renowned director (Almodóvar), suffers physical pain and creative crises.
Childhood reveries wash over his thoughts, he tries to connect with old friends and colleagues.
Banderas is exemplary is this, yet the actual story is so much watered down milk.
Damn little of the life on parade is noteworthy or compelling.
Perhaps golden to the aging director, the chapters come across as banal.

Gwen - 2018 - 6/10

“Steal a sheep and they’ll take your hand. Steal a mountain and they’ll make you a lord.”

Gwen, young sister Mari, and their mum struggle to keep their Welsh farm.
Mid 19th century, and Dad is away at war, understand? Things are difficult.
Dialogue is minimal in this, as is human interaction. The story is seen from Gwen’s eye,
The atmosphere, the natural world, crushes down. By and by, you realize the family is ostracized.
Standing in the back, not even lurking in the shadows, is a man of wealth and power.
An old story, one that extends into prehistory, of small people trying to hold onto what little they own.

I Wake Up Screaming - 1941 - 7/10

A rising socialite is found murdered! Prime suspects - her sportswriter boyfriend and her own sister.
The detective in charge is convinced of the boyfriend’s guilt and he begins to grind him down.
Highly influential, half forgotten thriller / mystery filled with flashbacks, pungent dialogue and pursuits.
For me, this is where the American "look” of Film Noir begins.

The story and characters are not Noir, however. Time is still, barely, pre World War II.
Returning G.I.s would carry disillusionment and a grimmer outlook. The tone of this harks to an earlier time.
An underrated Victor Mature fine as the cornered sportswriter.
Betty Grable, before her mass popularity, radiant as lush American good girl.
The star, though, is Laird Cregar (only 24, looks older), tackle sized with purring voice.

Cregar, and brilliantly stylized camera work.
I Wake Up Screaming is packed with angles, shadows, and inventive camera movement.
DVD has outstanding commentary by Eddie Muller: anecdotes, histories, tragic lives of Cregar and Landis.

Flirting With Fate - 1916 - 6/10

August is broke, behind on rent, can’t feed his two dogs. What’s his problem?
Oh, he’s a struggling artist. Say no more.
Still, he encounters a prim, starchy miss who makes his heart go boom-boom-boom.
Misunderstandings follow and then she troths to a rival.
In despair, Auggie hires Automatic Joe to murder him!
At which point, Fate laughs and turns the artist’s fortunes around.
Then the pace roars full throttle, with madcap chases, dizzying stunts, and farce humor.
Creaky film, threadbare plot, yet an excellent chance to witness Douglas Fairbanks in his prime.
Before he started making longer, heroic adventure films (not that those are lesser).

Die Fälscher - 2007 - 6/10
AKA - The Counterfeiters

Based on Operation Bernhard, the secret unit inside Camp Sachsenhausen.
Objective, to counterfeit Bank Of England notes, then use the Luftwaffe to shower Britain.
This focuses on Salomon Sorowitsch, a master forger (also a Jewish prisoner) who ran quality control.
He is a “survivor’ compared with other characters who act as ethical pillars.
The film is based on a true story, but individuals have been modified and / or embellished.
Timelines have also been modified, and this also merges Operation Bernhard with Operation Andreas.
This is a solid film with brisk storytelling. The unnecessary historical tamperings irk me.

The Great Nazi Cash Swindle - 2004 - 6/10

Highly watchable documentary of a shadowy footnote in World War II.
Nazis decide to counterfeit Bank of English notes, then drop millions of them into the cities.
Afterward, rely on human greed and self-interest to hurl the country into financial chaos.
Interviews range from historians and financial experts, to a few, still surviving, actual counterfeiters, Jewish men from concentration camps.
The story takes interesting turns and will appeal to budding tycoons.
Nations have dodgy histories of counterfeiting during war times. Perhaps during peace times, too!

Tweddell, Benjamin - Sermons In A House Of Grief

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things …”

Problem is, childhood connections are often as strong as steel, and impossible to break from.
Controversial Professor Eskola delivers, apparently, his final, firebrand lecture.
Overnight, weariness has become overwhelming. Time to put this career, his second, to rest.
An encounter with an old colleague, childhood colleague, leads to an impulsive journey.
The train rumbles into the past, into a bitter childhood filled with memories that have begun flowering.
This brooding novella, set primarily in backwoods Finnish hamlets, is a troubling one of abuse and worship.
The sect of Kartanoism, with its terrors of the apocalypse, is neither more nor less relevant today.
Nor is the exploitation of children and the stripping of innocence.
Mr Tweddell has unearthed a distant sect (and perhaps still lingering) and given it wings. Black wings.
As always with this publisher, the book is a work of art in itself. Beautiful endpapers, haunting photos.

After reading, I began crawling through history’s rabbit hole of Alma Kartano and Tilda Reunanen, ending with the congregation Mansion.
True faith is ever the hard path.

The Black Cat - 1981 - 6/10
AKA - Gatto Nero

Alright feline fanatics, and cat haters, line up!
In small village England, a medium tries to communicate with the dead.
He’d best hurry, because the deaths mount. All instigated by a growling black cat!
Odd Lucia Fulci film, loosely based on Poe (ha!), suffers from almost incoherent plot and poorly interacting characters.
The demises, of which there are quite a few, differ and are imaginative, especially when you keep in mind that the cat has to be a plausible killer.
Nonetheless, I’d like to hear how the feline(s) took direction.

Poms - 2019 - 5/10

Diane Keaton, Jacki Weaver, Pam Grier, Rhea Perlman play residents in a retirement community.
They decline the existing, rather cliquish, clubs, and instead form a cheerleading squad.
I kid you not. (And more proof I don’t control the remote.)
Formulaic, clichéd storyline wastes a good cast trapped in by-the-numbers script.
Who was the target audience anyway? Over 60’s females? Do enough still frequent movie houses to make a hit?
The females I watched Poms with enjoyed it more than I, and they laughed throughout.
Go figure.

Mrs. Lowry & Son - 2019 - 6/10

By day, L S Lowry collects rent in impoverished neighborhoods.
At night, he dotes on his mother and paints his thoughts and moods on canvas.
His mother, who once had social aspirations, is controlling, cruel, and belittling.
No encouragement from that quarter whatsoever.
Not so much a character study as a “couple” study. Mother and son.
Aside from brief street scenes, and a few ghostly flashbacks, the dramatics play out inside their shared flat.
Acting is superb, but this is very stagebound.
Downbeat film may appeal to creative sorts, who generally receive limited encouragement.

Sideshow:
^

During a lunch break at the bygone job, I was scribbling another masterpiece.
One of my coworkers, an artist, said, “It’s so easy for you. All you need is a pen and any sort of paper. None of the expense of pads, canvases, paints, etc …”
“Oh yeah? How many of the girls here have you drawn, at your apartment?”
“Three, four,” he shrugged.
“And how many have asked you to sketch them?”
“Another five,” he smiled.
“You know how many girls ask me to write about them?” I asked. “Zero!”
Another coworker spoke. “You guys should be musicians. Girls throw themselves at us.”
^

Murder Is My Beat - 1955 - 5/10

My mistake. I mistook Barbara Payton for Beverly Michaels and grabbed this from my stash.
Pretty bad film from the get-go. Note police captain in awful black n white checked sportcoat. Ugh.
Dead man found in fireplace, face and hands burned beyond recognition.
Blame falls on girlfriend - clubgirl - hooker at cheap bar.
Cop traces her to mountain cabin (chance to see snow for no reason).
Atrocious dialogue, like the writer attempted wiseguy Noir and ended up with junior high mimicry.
Acting uniformly bad. Photography ranges from static to overused stock. No pace.
There must have been ten minutes of trains roaring past. Plus, a couple minutes tour inside a ceramics factory!
Blows, man. Payton’s final film. From this point on, her story was ugly.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0668510/bio

Ready Or Not - 2019 - 6/10

Family traditions are often the worst, especially those of the in-laws, particularly “new” in-laws.
Poor but pure Grace marries Alex, filthy rich, member of a family of uncountable wealth.
Nightfall after every wedding, there is a game, played by all.
Almost always inconsequential. Harmless. On rare occasions, though …
Grace draws the dire hand. She runs for her life, the family draw traditional weapons.
Old premise is reworked as foul mouthed, savage comedy.