Frankenweenie
Ever have one of those weeks that just passes in a blur? That was this last week for me.

It seems strange to sit here and list off that cluster of first-time watches. All four of the dvd titles listed in the ‘first time’ batch were seen last weekend, and last weekend feels like it might as well have been last month.

Even more amusing is that I’m not quite out of the blur yet …

Pray for me people…

 

Here’s The Week at Hand…

 

Screenings
BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN – Oh Lordy! I’ll have thoughts on this tomorrow.

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS – Splendid. Just splendid…
THE HUNT – This came highly recommended, and now I see why.
VIVA LAS VEGAS – My first Elvis movie!
BLACKFISH – Swell, but slightly overrated.

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Watched Before
HARD BOILED – Guys, there are doves…
O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? – Every time I watch this, songs get stuck in my head for weeks.
A MIGHTY WIND – For Matineecast purposes.
WINTER’S BONE – Still one of the best films of this decade so far.

 

Boxscore for The Year
263 First-Timers, 171 Re-Watched
104 Screenings
434 Movies in Total
How’s about you – seen anything good?

25 Replies to “Days of The Week (Films Watched Nov 9 – Nov 15)”

  1. Yess, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on BCB. Sunrise is one of my favorite silent movies, actually one of the few I genuinely enjoy.

    I also watched The Hunt last week, in Danish class, and it was the first time nobody talked during a movie. It’s *so* good, right? Then I watched most of The Tin Drum, in German class – absolutely weird, that one – and three surprise films noirs for our next podcast episode.

    1. Ask and ye shall receive – my thoughts on BROKEN are up in both written and audio format. Have at ’em young lady!

      Can’t say I’ve ever seen THE TIN DRUM, but I’ll add it to the list. And it always gives me goosebumps when a film can transfix a room into total silence. I watched it at home, but didn’t so much as flinch after I pressed play.

  2. First-Timers: Blue is the Warmest Color, Luis Bunuel’s 1954 film version of Robinson Crusoe, For Ellen, Down by Law, the new Wes Anderson short Castello Cavalcanti, and later tonight, The Apartment.

    Re-Watches: Fools Rush In and Some Like It Hot.

  3. Oh wow, you’d never seen Sunrise? That’s a movie!

    For me, all first-time:

    Beware! The Blob
    White Men Can’t Jump
    Hats Off
    Finger of Doom

    1. I don’t know what I’d imagined SUNRISE would be, but I certainly didn’t expect that. It’s glorious! I might even have to buy myself a copy.

      Ah, another victim of WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP. My condolences.

  4. Sunrise is so amazing. I watched it in early 2012 and couldn’t believe it had taken me that long to see it.

    This week – Lesser-known John Ford! And a 2013 film!

    THIS IS THE END – I enjoyed this overall, especially all the cameos. It does have some obvious jokes that don’t really work, but it was fun on the whole.

    WAGON MASTER – This was a surprise and has a lot going for it. It’s a John Ford film without John Wayne or Henry Fonda, and it’s still really strong.

    DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK – This one was a bit rougher. The surprisingly brutal final battle helped, but it’s such a mixed bag. Also, Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert are such good people that they’re pretty boring.

    1. I feel like I am deeply lacking in my John Ford knowledge…but then the man has *so* many features, that I’d barely know where to begin! I’ve only seen five of his pictures so that would leave me with 72 to tackle…

      Oy vey.

    2. I know what you mean. I’d seen only six Ford films before starting this marathon. He has like 140 credits! Of course, a lot of them are lost to time, so it’s not that much. I’m going to do at least five movies, but that will only scratch the surface. I won’t even bother trying to do a Top 5 list for him. There’s too much that I haven’t seen.

  5. Man, I *love* Sunrise. I haven’t brought myself to watch it again (but the DVD has been sitting proudly in my DVD collection for two years), but holy heck, sometimes I wish I was alive back then so I could make movies like that. The Hunt was also very good, and definitely one of the most depressing films I’ve seen.

    As for things I saw this week, I managed to get quite a bit of watching done in between studying and not having other school crises happen around me. My first timers were Pride & Prejudice, Disconnect (which is so, so good), Broken, Michael Clayton, The Look of Love and What Maisie Knew (also so, so good). Did a bit of rewatching too, with a couple of viewings of Atonement for my English exam, There will be Blood because of my current Daniel Day-Lewis phase, Taxi Driver and Mulholland Dr. Been a while since I’ve had a movie week like this!

    2. Joe Wright version, just in case there was a question on his work in our English exam. I liked it enough. I have also seen the 1940 version, but yet to see the 1995 version.

  6. Screener:
    Dallas Buyers Club
    Enough Said

    Never Seen Before:
    Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (Rockwell should get more lead parts)
    Elite Squad 2
    Upstream Color (wasn’t quite as pleased with this as I was Primer)
    Munich
    I Thing I Love My Wife

    1. If you have some time, give a listen to our Matineecast on UPSTREAM COLOR. Bob and I had a pretty good conversation about it.

      Was your “Enough” screener sent to you through OFCS? Just wondering if I have something to look forward to in my mailbox.

      1. Here’s hoping! The screeners haven’t quite been as hard & fast as they were last year, but perhaps that will speed up with december approaching. That said, I can’t complain since Tribecca just sent me THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN one day after my four-star review.

  7. Sunrise blew me away too. I need to rewatch The Hunt, but I don’t know if I have it in me to go through that again.

    I must admit I feel a bit smug commenting this week 😛

    Firsts: Thor: The Dark World– I really enjoyed it. It was so pretty too.
    The Maltese Falcon– Noirvember is here.
    Blancanieves– Oh stunning and delightful, apart from that horrid ending.
    Don Jon– Awesomesauce. LOVED ScarJo.
    Of Good Report– I was bored and creeped out. Not a good combination.
    Elmer Gantry– Not sure what I was expecting but I did really like it.
    Night Train to Lisbon– Painfully mediocre, especially considering the talent involved.
    The Future– Strange and interesting. I liked it. Nice to see Rutger Hauer in things.
    The Artist & Model– Very pretty and although it wasn’t anything special, I liked it all the same.
    Rock Ba-Casba– One of my favourite accidental viewings (randomly running into any theatre because I had time to spend).
    Bastards– Worst movie experience due to the theatre and seating. The film was okay.
    Lessons in Forgetting– Crude but raised some important points.
    Jealousy– I can’t really give it an unbiased opinion since it had Louis Garrel looking just drop dead beautiful in black and white.
    The Past– Another fantastic one from Farhadi. I like when hype lives up to the actual product.
    Ko: Yad– Assamese movie. I thought it was very sentimental, which put me off.
    Pieta– The only movie of the festival that I like more the more I think about it. Brutal, bleak and has the most unexpected of themes at play.
    Blue is the Warmest Colour– Speaking of hype, this was my most anticipated film of the festival and boy, did I love it. Stunning movie with even more dazzling performances.
    Winter of Discontent– I was totally dazed after Blue and couldn’t concentrate on it. It was about the Egyptian crisis and seemed good. Yeah…
    Paradise: Hope– I quite liked it. Didn’t see the first part of the trilogy because I badly needed some sleep, but a pretty unflinching series of movies.
    The Deep– So I feel asleep in this one. Again, whatever I saw, I liked. Mette compares it to Gravity.
    Papilio Buddha– It’s a film censored in India because it tackles one of the country’s biggest political issues. I totally respected it for doing that and overall, a very beautifully shot movie.
    Paradise: Faith– I really liked this one. Reminded me the works of Michael Haneke and Yorgos Lanthimos.
    Touch of the Light– Another great accidental viewing. Would make the happiest of double features with The Intouchables.
    The Great Beauty– Pretty and vacant.
    Young & Beautiful– A rather good movie to end my festival experience with. Marine Vacth is so gorgeous, I want to cry.

    Rewatched: Sweet Smell of Success– I want to talk like them so bad.
    Sabrina– The joy of a whole cinema hall full people breaking out in applaud at random moments in this film 🙂
    The Apartment– I WATCHED IT ON A BIG SCREEN! WOO HOO!!!!
    Gone with the Wind– You know what, I like it so much more now.
    Sunset Boulevard– Still effing brilliant.

    1. Never ever feel smug about a week like this: It’s such a great experience for a film lover and something so rare.

      If you were to assemble a top five of the titles you watched at KIFF, what would they be (I want to know what to keep an eye out for)

    2. I’ll give you a top 7 because I can’t decided between some of them. I’m guessing you’ve seen most of them already.
      Blue is the Warmest Colour
      Don Jon
      Blancanieves
      Paradise: Faith
      The Past
      Touch of the Light
      Pieta

      Interestingly, I saw The Hunt at last year’s KIFF and it was my favourite from the ones I saw.

  8. Your first Elvis movie?! I am a full-fledged devotee of Elvis movies, knowing very well that many of them are crap. I just get such a kick out of them. And you started with my FAVORITE Elvis movie! God, I love “Viva Las Vegas.” Just bought the Deluxe blu ray as a matter of fact. Did you like it? (Lie to me if you didn’t.)

    1. I’m a Beatles guy. So….

      But yes, VLV was a lot of fun to watch. I put it on right after THE HUNT and SUNRISE, so it made for a wonderful dessert after a very heavy meal. The world needs more Ann Margaret.

  9. I was blown away by The Hunt, it was tough to watch at times but oh so worth it!

    Been wanting to check out John Woo’s earlier film, HARD BOILED is one of them. Ahah yeah, he has a dove fetish 😀 I do love how he used them in Face/Off, my ultimate action guilty pleasure!

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