My watching took a bit of an uptick this week, and I dare say it found the pace it’ll be at for the near future.

The first-time watches are up around where I want them thanks to a suggestion, a loaner, the blind spot series, and a pair of showings. The good thing about the first-time showings is that I still have a PVR filled with TCM offerings. Y’know, this leads me to wonder something:

Netflix Instant Watch users, with all of the bounty available on that service, how do you get anything else done?

In other news, the next entry in The Blindspot Series goes up on Tuesday. Have you watched yours yet?

Here’s The Week at Hand…

Screenings
JOHN CARTER – Oh, what could have been…
THE HUNGER GAMES – Why do I feel like there will be backlash any second now?

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
MARTY – “Hey Marty, whaddaya wanna do tonight?”
THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG – Stunning. Totally stunning.
THE LIFE OF BRIAN – A Catholic upbringing makes this even funnier
THE WHITE RIBBON – This one took a lot of patience. Stunning though.

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Watched Before
QUIZ SHOW – Made for a cheeky double-feature with MARTY
BULL DURHAM – One week until opening day gang!
THE NATURAL – Don’t tell Kurt Halfyard

Boxscore for The Year
54 First-Timers, 49 Re-Watched
21 Screenings
103 Movies in Total

How’s about you – seen anything good?

28 Replies to “Days of The Week (Films Watched Mar 17 – Mar 23)”

  1. Noticed Mary was one netflix…may need to give it a watch. As for The White Ribbon, the film has been on my PVR for about a year now…I really need to make time to watch it.

    This week I watched for the first time:

    The Hunger Games – Really enjoyed it, should have my thoughts up on the blog tomorrow.

    The Night of the Hunter – Loved the film. Robert Mitchum was fantastic.

    Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control – Been going through Errol Morris’ body of films this year. This one is okay, but not his best stuff.

    Valhalla Rising – Visually stunning, but otherwise repetitive and rather pointless

    Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow – Decent film though not always successful. Sophia Loren and Macello Mastroianni are great though

    Gates of Heaven – Another Errol Morris flick, this one is really good.

    Re-watched:

    Batman & Robin – I forgot how awful the film is.

    1. When Jessica from Velvet Cafe talked about WHITE RIBBON with me on episode 53, she mentioned how much focused it required. She wasn’t kidding. Make sure when you do sit down to watch it that you’re in the headspace to do so, otherwise I promise it’ll lose you.

      PS – Will we see you at the bar on Tuesday?

  2. First Time:

    THE PIANO: Can’t believe I only just saw this. I love Jane Campion so much.
    MY NIGHT AT MAUD’S: People who think shakycam is the only way to do subjective perspective should watch how Rohmer makes POV shots even when the camera shows the people it’s reflecting the POV of. A brilliant film, as if Billy Wilder wrote My Dinner With Andre.
    L’ARGENT: For Blind Spots. One of the best of the ’80s. Maybe even my favorite Bresson at present, though I have many gaps.
    21 JUMP STREET: What an unexpected delight/
    THE HUNGER GAMES: Sigh.

    Rewatch:

    GAMER: I will forever stand by this film. In fact, I’d hoist it up as a superior take on THE HUNGER GAMES, wherein society is divided into a leisure class and an exploited underclass made to literally serve and/or kill the rich, and our ADHD-addled bloodthirst gives rise to the extreme popularity of death. And funnily enough, the camerawork is far more spastic than Ross’ shakycam nonsense, yet 100x more coherent and inventive.
    WAR OF THE WORLDS: Gettin’ so close to being done with my tour through Spielberg. Love this movie so much, except for about two-three minutes of it (guess which part)
    MUNICH: I’m really happy with the review I wrote for this. Should go up Monday sometime depending on when I get a free moment to post at work.
    KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: The director’s cut of this is a masterpiece. MUNICH meets GANGS OF NEW YORK.
    THE SKIN I LIVE IN: People have tinkered with what Hitchcock left behind, even found new, wonderful niches, but Almodovar actually furthers Hitchcock here. This is VERTIGO taken to the next level.
    TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY: Blu-Ray has uneven grain but it wonderfully captures the texture of the film.

    1. That is one great week of watching sir, even with the way you and I differ on HUNGER GAMES. MAU’S wasn’t on my Wilder radar, but I guess I should work on nudging it up the queue, huh?

      I’m really glad to see people are catching up with THE SKIN I LIVE IN now that it’s hitting blu-ray. It was one of the few films I watched twice in 2011, and made my top five for good reason. When a director like Almodovar reaches this point in his career, he needs to do something extraordinary to add to his ‘best-of’. Skin is just so extraordinary.

      1. Oh no, sorry, MY NIGHT AT MAUD’S is an Erich Rohmer film. That was just me playing the comparison game. But his dialogue is truly something else. Makes philosophy conversational and playful, like Wilder dialogue.

        And I’ve been plugging SKIN for a while. I saw it during its all-too-brief Atlanta run and absolutely adored it. The Blu-Ray does it justice.

      2. Let me echo Jake on My Night At Maud’s – a truly exceptional film. I guarantee you’ll want to see more Rohmer after watching it.

        I’m not going to add Gamer to the list until I see Crank, OK Jake? B-)

  3. Highlight of the week goes to THE SKIN I LIVE IN. Basically Almadovar’s response to all the South Korean revenge films and oh it’s awesomely fucked up.

      1. TALK TO HER is one of my all-time favorite films, begin with that.

        Other essentials are ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, VOLVER, TIE ME UP TIE ME DOWN, WOMAN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, and BAD EDUCATION.

    1. I keep meaning to watch MEEK’S again, because as much as I loved it in the theatre, the projection was so dim that all of the campfire scenes played too dim.

      I might just pull the trigger and buy it.

  5. Life of Brian is really hard to come by. I so want to watch it.

    Firsts: An American Werewolf in London– I really enjoyed it. Mostly because it wasn’t really that scary.
    Welcome to the Dollhouse– I did not find it very funny. Kind of made me thankful for my life as it is, which is a *really* scary thought.
    The Fall– Yes, it is very pretty. Couldn’t feel anything else for it.
    The Hunger Games– I really liked it. I want to throw a Capitol style party really bad now. I’ll be Effie 🙂
    2001: A Space Odyssey– Finally sat through it. And it’s not that dull. God knows why this took me soo long. Also, is it me or were the sets and effects in this better than in The Hunger Games?
    A History of Violence– I liked it.
    Elephant– Woah. That was weird and scary and awesome.

    Rewatched: Lost in Translation– Why in the world did Bill Murray not get the Oscar for this?!
    The Adventures of Tintin– Had to show my little brother. That Bagghar chase is too epic for words.
    Anchorman– “I’m in a glass case of emotion!”
    Marie Antoinette– I love love love this one.

    1. THE FALL is one of those films I’ve been meaning to tackle for a long time, but never get around to. What’s worse, Sasha james (from the latest Matineecast) keeps talking about loaning it to us to watch, but thinks twice because apparently she wants to be here when we watch it.

      2001 is a film I only like at first but fell hard in love with in 2011 – seeing it on a big screen in 70mm certainly helped!

  6. A standard week, but a pretty good one.

    New to me:
    Attack the Gas Station!: Not as good as many South Korean films, but still better than many, many films.
    The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: Beautiful despite playing into my phobias.
    Man of Iron: Odd. An interesting counterpoint to Man of Marble.
    October: Hooray for the proletariat!
    Un Chien Andalou: Hiccup bicycle green floating birch weevils.

    Rewatches:
    Gladiator: Braveheart meets Spartacus…with tigers!
    Ladyhawke: It’s a shame about the soundtrack.
    Throne of Blood: I remember I liked it. I didn’t remember that I. Love. It.

  7. First Time:
    Silent House – Pretty well executed, though I guessed where it was going early
    The Mechanic – So-so Jason Statham film.
    Serenity – Finished off the entire series of Firefly while sick, concluded with the film. Pretty decent (though I liked the show better).
    Being Elmo – A nice behind-the-scenes look into the world of Muppets, through the eyes of Kevin Clash
    The Raid: Redemption – Loved the film, though I wish I saw it at Midnight Madness before the new score and tacked-on subtitle
    The Hunger Games – Midnight screening at the ol’ Humber Cinema
    Spirited Away – My second Miyazaki film. This one gets a little weird (though it’s still good).

    Re-Watch:
    Gremlins 2 – Still a joy to watch.
    Grindhouse – Cracked open my blu-ray of the full double feature (complete with trailers). Definitely the best way to experience the film (despite the 3+ hr length).

    P.S. I expect to get my White Ribbon blu-ray back next time I see you. 😛

    1. Thanks again for loaning me THE WHITE RIBBON.

      Not sure if you noticed but SPIRITED AWAY was actually the film that kicked off the entire Anime Syllabus. Twelve films into the project, I’m secure in saying that it might be the best entry point into the genre that I’ve come across.

  8. Excellent…Haven’t seen you in awhile.

    I might actually rate White Ribbon as my favourite Haneke – and that’s pretty high praise since I think Cache and Code Unknown are fantastic. I guess calling it slow isn’t an inaccurate statement, but I found it very engaging. The way it depicts a possible beginning to all the hatred that follows that period of time is remarkable. It was almost suffocating watching it as you felt helpless to prevent the wider implications of where things were headed.

    The Night Of The Hunter is simply one of the greatest films ever made.

    I’ve got Marty in my NetFlix queue too – not sure when I’ll get to it though.

    As for Hunger Games, I’m in the “Meh” camp. Love Jennifer Lawrence and was mostly engaged with it throughout, but felt it missed so many opportunities to give us a better idea of the world as well as give more room to love/hate the other characters. The action scenes were quite poorly realized (though I guess that may have been done on purpose to get a PG-13) and the CGI wasn’t impressive. I have NOT read the book – I don’t think I ever felt lost or scratching my head, so they didn’t lose me anywhere, but it really felt like 1) they left a lot of good stuff out (I never really felt the challenge to survive in the game – all that initial talk of water, the elements, etc. didn’t pan out) and 2) there are several problems with the book’s story as well (I didn’t like how they could easily change the rules of the game and thought the entire concept to be a very bad idea for keeping the districts under control). I should listen to the podcast before tomorrow though.

    1. I think the saddest thing about NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is still the fact that the director was convinced by the studio that he had royally screwed up and never made another film.

      Give MARTY a look. I was actually quite surprised that it won Best Picture as in hindsight it doesn’t feel like *that* sort of movie.

  9. Oh, I forgot to say that I’m so glad you liked Umbrellas Of Cherbourg. I can’t even list how many ways that film is truly wonderful.

    Having said that, I like “Young Girls Of Rochefort” even more. It is so much fun.

    And while I’m here, last week was roughly like this:

    Cat Ballou – Jane Fonda western/comedy/musical/whatever-else-they-could-think-of. Not bad and mostly entertaining, but how it made the AFIs top list of Comedies is completely beyond any objective reasoning.

    Mandrill – From the guys who brought you Mirageman and Kiltro. Not bad, but it skimps on action.

    3:10 To Yuma – I had just finished watching this and put up a screenshot from it when I noticed you had watched the remake (in your post from last week). They are both really good – I give the 1957 version a bump because it has really fantastic Black/White cinematography and the ending just feels a bit more realistic.

    Team America: World Police – My son wanted to see it and I said OK. ‘m not sure if that makes me the best parent ever or one of the worst…Let’s just say, we had some good conversations afterwards (and during).

    Stardust Memories – One of the most underrated Woody Allen films – I can see why as it is very much pulling from Fellini’s 8 1/2, but it’s a lot of fun watching Woody work out his creative crisis.

    Easy A – Enmma Stone is so damn good here. Almost as good as Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci as her parents.

    Les Bonnes Femmes – A lesser Claude Chabrol. I liked pieces and the ending went to an unexpected and disturbing place (unless you’ve seen Chabrol, then you kind of expect it).

    Napoleon Dynamite – The Boy’s choice – wasn’t sure how he would like the rather odd and different comedic pace. He liked it in the end, but certainly wasn’t what he expected.

    21 Jump Street – Yeah, that was fun.

    Alice – More Woody. A very odd and erratic entry. Some great moments and a bunch of strangely realized ones too.

    The Tunnel – Really so-so and pretty dull POV horror as a news crew go underground into abandoned tunnels.

    Stand By Me, The Tin Drum – You’ll see why tomorrow…

  10. When I am at home, watching something I Netflix, I don’t get anything done. The one thing I do experience is guilt, though – such as, shouldn’t I be doing something better with my time? Of course I think the answer to that question is “no” most times (I did say ‘most’ on purpose.), but I grew up being told that watching TV/movies is a waste of time. Hard to break that thought process down.

    Also, I crave human interaction. After a couple movies, I’m ready to talk them out to people. Even people who have no desire to hear what I have to say, much less see said film I’m talking about. Ahh, it’s great. Thank God for movie geek friends online who watch just as many (and many more) movies than I do 🙂

    1. Yeah, when I’m home watching something I haven’t watched before I’m pretty useless…but that’s why I asked about Netflix Instant – because it’s totally filled with things I’ve never seen before.

      I can only imagine the chores that wouldn’t get done, the people I wouldn’t see, and the writing I wouldn’t get done!

    1. Light week, eh?

      I was quite happy to learn yesterday that there will be a showing of NORTH BY NORTHWEST playing at the Lightbox this spring. Can’t wait to catch that one on a big screen!

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