I got a little carried away this week.

Two weeks ago was a lot of getting out & around…being social and such. I enjoy that sort of schedule, but it can get a little draining after a while. As a result, I needed to balance it out with a weekend spent in. ‘Course, when I spend the weekend in, it leaves me a lot of time to do some watching.

Like I said last week, I’m rich with sources of films I’ve never seen before. So rich in fact that I managed to get to ten first-timers in one week. I’d have to sift through my back pages, but I don’t think that’s happened for me outside of a film festival before.

Nice little mix too…some cult, some docs, some anime, some classics.

Here’s The Week at Hand…

Screenings
WILD AT HEART – Watching this late on a Saturday with a good crowd was just the right atmosphere.
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN – Had I seen this before the end of last year, it would have made my top ten.

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
KEY LARGO – Solid noir with Bogey and Bacall.
HOUSE OF THE DEVIL – Sis-in-law bought this for me for Christmas even though I’d never seen it before. Turns out she’s a good guesser when it comes to my taste in movies.
THE SANDLOT – Lindsay on the other hand, not such a good guesser.
BLACK NARCISSUS – This would make a great double-feature with BLACK SWAN.
GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES – Up there with PAPRIKA as my favorites in the anime syllabus so far.
5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND – Ah, young love…
IF A TREE FALLS – The last of the Best Documentary nominees I could find, and the film that angered me the most.
THE PLACE PROMISED IN OUR EARLY DAYS – This part of the syllabus was not my favorite.
JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG – This movie is an acting clinic.
KRAMER VS. KRAMER – Good film, but I wanted a little more from it.

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Watched Before
BEING JOHN MALKOVICH – Malkovich!

Boxscore for The Year
36 First-Timers, 26 Re-Watched
11 Screenings
62 Movies in Total

How’s about you – seen anything good?

18 Replies to “Days of The Week (Films Watched Feb 11 – Feb 17”

  1. I’m The BEST! Also, Lindsay was supposed to tell you to let me know if you were gonna see “We Need To Talk About Kevin” so I could come see it with you. I would just like everybody who reads your site to know that my sister, LINDSAY!, has been dropping the ball lately in the sister department. And by dropping the ball I mean like, the ball is gone. Nobody even knows where it is anymore.

    1. The Kevin omission is partially my fault. Lindsay *did* mention it to me, but it was a week or two ago and I managed to completely forget. I’m totally up for seeing it again any night you want to come into town though.

  2. I envy you that first watch of Black Narcissus. Now you know what we’ve all been talking about.

    Anyway, my list looks short on paper, but evidently I stuck with films with short titles this week.

    New to me:
    Day for Night: Possibly my new favorite film about film.
    Chicago: Great staging, not-so-great story.
    Vivre sa Vie: Godard continues to grow on me.
    The Eye: Film for podcast–that’s the original Chinese film, by the way.
    The Hurt Locker: Intense on a par with The Wages of Fear.
    Cafeteria Man: Inspiring and excellent. Look for a screening near you.
    Kill Me Now: Funny and stupid in a good way. Enjoyed it greatly.

    Rewatches:
    Jurassic Park: I didn’t think it would, but this movie holds up.
    Amelie: Film for class. I love every damn frame.

    1. The great used book & dvd shop up the street from me has a blu-ray copy of NARCISSUS. I might finally cave next payday.

      Speaking of blu-ray’s, I bought myself a blu copy of MANHATTAN quite recently. Can’t wait to watch that glorious opening montage in hi-def

  4. Much easier to remember what I watched since I joined Letterboxd last week. Anyways…

    New:
    I Hate Valentine’s Day – Cheesy Romantic comedy staring Nia Vardalos and John Corbet. It’s no Big Fat Greek Wedding.
    The Slumber Party Massacre – Cheesy slasher film with feminist metaphors.
    Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance – In the hands of the right director, a Ghost Rider film could be fun. Neveldine/Taylor are not the right directors.

    Rewatch:
    Great Train Robbery – Watched this in my continuing education film class. Thought I was include it (since it’s a classic).
    Videodrome – Got the Criterion blu-ray during the big 50% off sale this week (they deliver fast).
    Con Air – First time seeing it since 1998 or so. Fun film.

  5. For some reason my laptop had decided to ban your site. All’s good now though. So glad you liked Kevin I really have to watch Key Largo, Black Narcissus and Judgement at Nuremberg.

    Firsts: Winnie the Pooh– It was cute.
    Grand Illusion– Fantastic anti-war film.
    The Room– What horrible brilliance!
    2 Days in Paris– I really liked it. Julie Delpy is fantastic.
    Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason– I had never seen this properly. It was good-ish, though never reaches the greatness of the first one.
    M.A.S.H.– I couldn’t help but feel that it was a bit sexist, but I really enjoyed it.
    Brazil– Quite fantastic.
    Time Bandits– It was really fun, until that ending. How did kids recover from that?!
    Big Sleep– My first Bogart and Bacall film! I will hopefully see the others soon. They are quite the pair, and it was a very enjoyable film.
    Good Bye Lenin!– It was adorable, and a nice little message too.
    The French Connection– Brilliant.

    Rewatched: Casablanca– It was Valentine’s Day.
    Bridget Jones’s Diary– See above.
    Inglourious Basterds– I needed to see more of Daniel Bruhl. It’s still one of the ballsiest films I have ever seen.

    1. Nik – I always look forward to find out what you watched for the first time in a week, just because so many of them are warm favorites of mine that I would love to experience again for the first time.

      For instance, in this crop MASH and THE FRENCH CONNECTION.

      MASH, btw, is also the source of one of my favorite lines:

      “Colenol, fair’s fair; If I nail Hot Lips and hit Hawkeye can I go home too?”

  6. First Time
    GHOST RIDER: So awful. Not even memorably bad. I hope Neveldine/Taylor adds some kind of flair to this with the sequel.
    WINNEBAGO MAN: Utterly unnecessary, occasionally exploitative but overall enjoyable and witty.
    THE BLACK DAHLIA: I loved this. Found it to be a beautiful, tragic deconstruction of noir.
    REDACTED: And now for one of the worst De Palma movies. So many good ideas rolled into such an awful movie.

    Rewatch
    MINORITY REPORT: One of Spielberg’s best. Love it so much.
    TRON LEGACY: Whyyy do I keep watching this?
    THE LIMEY: My fave Soderbergh. Glad to see this on a big screen.

    1. I never actually saw THE BLACK DAHLIA, but I liked the book for all its pulpy-ness. I imagine it pales in comparison to the other Elroy adaptation though, right?

    2. Actually, no. I think THE BLACK DAHLIA captures the nastiness of L.A. better than L.A. CONFIDENTIAL. That movie is undoubtedly good, but it’s kind of sterile in its construction. Everything’s tidy, which makes for a great “Old Hollywood” picture, but De Palma captures the grimy spirit of all the art movement collisions and half-idealistic, half-repulsive nature of Hollywood at all times.

  7. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
    The Secret of Arriety
    Enter the Dragon
    Some Like It Hot
    The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand is insufferable)
    It Happened One Night

    1. (How did so many people get suckered into GHOST RIDER?)

      SOME LIKE IT HOT is a film I love more and more with each subsequent watch. There’s that old saying about how they don’t “make ’em like that anymore”? Think about the vibe that goes with every modern film about two guys in drag, and compare that to this opus.

      1. It was free for me, and my girlfriend and I were going to see Arriety immediately afterward, so it wasn’t a big deal.

        In total agreement with Some Like It Hot, those kinds of comedies don’t get made anymore. Now, we get Katherine Heigl in vibrating underwear.

  8. 5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND certainly is special, and has been kind of overlooked by many.
    Hayao Miyazaki unfairly gets all the attention.

    I’m currently rewatching, and reviewing the Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983). Been awhile since I last saw them.

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