Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[Reza]

The Man I Love (Raoul Walsh, 1947) 6/10

A tough gal chanteuse (Ida Lupino) fends off sleazy nightclub owner (Robert Alda) and falls hard for lovelorn failed jazz pianist (Bruce Bennett) while her two sisters (Andrea King, Martha Vickers) go through their own romantic issues. Elements of noir are offset by the soap opera plot with every character enmeshed in complicated matters of the heart. Once more Ida Lupino rises above trite material and shines and she gets to sing (dubbed) the Gershwin title tune during the film's mesmerising opening sequence. Pity they made no room for her at Warners and concentrated instead on Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

[Precious Doll]

A Woman's Life (2016) Stephane Brize 8/10
The Death and Life of Otto Bloom (2017) Cris Jones 5/10
Short Night of Glass Doll (1971) Aldo Lado 6/10
The Birth of a Nation (2016) Nate Parker 2/10
A Journey Through French Cinema (2016) Bertrand Tavernier 7/10
In a Bedroom (2012) Tomasz Wasilewski 6/10
Souvenir (2016) Bavo Defurne 2/10
The Eyes of My Mother (2016) Nicolas Pesce 4/10
Beauty and the Beast (2017) Bill Condon 5/10
Canoa (1976) Felipe Cazals 7/10
Moka (2016) Frederic Mermoud 7/10
Lost in Paris (2017) Dominique Abel & Fiona Gordon 5/10

Repeat viewings

Criss Cross (1949) Robert Siodmak 6/10
S.O.B. (1981) Blake Edwards 6/10
The 400 Blows (1959) Francois Truffaut 8/10

[Reza]

Beauty and the Beast (Bill Condon, 2017) 9/10

This tale is absolutely fool proof and Disney takes it yet again and runs away with it in their live-action version of their own animated classic from 1991. A tale "as old as time" this was first brought stunningly to the screen in french by Jean Cocteau in the classic "La Belle et la Bête" with Jean Marais magnificent as the beast - the story goes that when Marais transformed into the Prince at the end Greta Garbo famously exclaimed "Give me back my Beast". The film's memorable gothic set design was replicated in the animated version as it is here in all it's epic splendor. Condon not only remakes the animated film but brings many additional visual flourishes to it with the camera playing a major character swooping all over the place through pans, dolly and crane shots emphasising the grandeur of the story. At heart, of course, it is a simple story about love and finding it deep within a person's soul instead of concentrating on a person's outward appearance. Belle (Emma Watson), considered an oddball in her provincial french village - she reads books - lives with her inventor father (Kevin Kline) and is loved by the boorish narcissist Gaston (Luke Evans). When her father stumbles upon a castle in the woods he is held prisoner by the ferocious beast (Dan Stevens) who is under an evil spell that can only be broken via a girl falling in love with him. Enter Belle who gets help in doing just that by talking in-animate objects in the castle - a Clock (Sir Ian McKellen), a Candelabra (Ewan McGregor gets to sing the show stopping "Be Our Guest" number), a Teapot (Emma Thompson) and a dust feather (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). The film's highlights are the familiar songs - "Belle", "Gaston", "Be Our Guest", "Beauty and the Beast" (sung by Emma Thompson as Belle and the Beast dance in the ballroom) and "Evermore" a wonderful new song written for the Beast and sung magnificently by Dan Stevens. The only weak links in the film are the two leads - Watson carries off the sweet girl-next-door quality but seems ill at ease in the part (maybe she had a bad gut feeling for having turned down the lead in "La La Land" for this part ) while Stevens is bland as both the Beast and the Prince (can someone please shoot the costume designer for making him wear that turquoise colored outfit with ribbon in hair at the end). Overall the film has immense zest and is a feast for the eyes with every song enchanting - watch Condon pay homage during a sequence to Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" - and with eye popping sets and costume design. I'm going to count this one amongst my favorite musicals just as the animated one was as well.

I watched this with a cinema full of 5 to 12 year old kids and I clapped, cheered and cried along with all of them. Don't miss this film.

[Reza]

Kong: Skull Island (Jordan Vogt-Rogers, 2017) 7/10

This time around they depart from the old premise slightly but manage to retain the old fashioned sense of awe and wonder when the giant monkey appears. The twist here is that the script combines elements from "Apocalypse Now" and "Jurassic Park" and throws in the familiar elements from "King Kong". Set during the Nixon era with Vietnam a tightening noose around the neck of the United States - the President nods his head in a funny scene (you'll know when you see it) - as a motley group of people embark in search of a mythical island somewhere in the South Pacific. There is the conspiracy nut (John Goodman), a mysterious tracker (a dull Tom Hidelston), a photographer (Brie Larson) in search of the Pulitzer, the gung ho army officer (Samuel L. Jackson) fresh off the fields of 'Nam, a WWII survivor (John C. Reilly) whom they discover living amongst the local tribe along with assorted characters who are around to play the various food items for the rampaging beasts. Not only does Kong rule Skull island he gets competition from the likes of a giant bison, a tall spider, tiny flying raptors, an enormous octopus and a mean spirited vomiting lizard which is alarmingly relentless in its pursuit of not only human sandwich but also terrifyingly takes on the mighty Kong. We also get the psychosexual tension between beauty and the beast - she gets to gently touch his face and ride his hand although Brie Larson (post Academy Award) makes for a rather bored spectator in front of the smitten primate - Fay Wray, Jessica Lange & Naomie Watts are sorely missed in comparison to sexless Brie (dull like the cheese). The best scenes are of the helicopters flying onto the island with Creedence Clearwater blasting through speakers and Kong deciding to play a game of tennis with them using his giant paw as a racquet. There is nothing new here but the film manages to keep a roller coaster pace with enough thrills to keep the satisfaction level at a dull fever pitch.

[Reza]

Abduction (John Singleton, 2011) 5/10

Farfetched and confusing thriller has a teenager (Taylor Lautner) discovering that the parents (Jason Issacs & Maria Bello) he has lived with are not his own and has to go on the run with the girl next door (Lily Collins) after they are killed in front of him by two mysterious goons. The CIA (Alfred Molina) is involved along with Russian thugs led by Michael Nyqvist. Oh yes, Sigourney Weaver appears as the boy's psychiatrist who comes to their rescue, hurriedly gives confused plot points and tells them to run. There are assorted absurd action set pieces including a fight on a train â la "From Russia With Love" - a rather pale imitation of it - and the young kids (who are now in love) run and run not unlike Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll of Hitchcock"s " The 39 Steps" fame. As a thriller it's not boring by any means. Just pretty mediocre like all of Singleton's film. Lautner is spunky and was rewarded with a Razzie nomination for worst actor of the year while Collins goes through the paces as his damsel in distress.

[Reza]

The American President (Rob Reiner, 1995) 6/10

The American President (Michael Douglas), a widower, gets into a relationship with the lobbyist (Annette Bening) hired to help in his second campaign as the media goes into a frenzy and a senator from the opposition (Richard Dreyfuss) bares his teeth smelling for a scandal. Typically cute, silly and old fashioned Rob Reiner film with simplistic situations and stock characters played by an all-star cast - Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Samantha Mathis, Anna Deveare Smith, John Mahoney, Wendy Malick, Gail Strickland. The breezy screenplay chugs along like a 1930s comedy - the term "Capraesque" is bandied about - and it's all very antiseptic with a smug Douglas outshined by sassy Bening.

[Reza]

Logan (James Mangold, 2017) 6/10

The novelty here is seeing Logan (Hugh Jackson) aka "Wolverine" as a battle scarred, weary alcoholic who is down in the dumps and caring for an ailing Professor X (Patrick Stewart) somewhere on a farm near the Mexican border. His reflexes are slow and even though he gets into skirmishes with local goons and the glinting knives do come out he ends up getting beaten. Into his life comes a woman who offers him money to take her little daughter to North Dakota so she can be smuggled into Canada in order to escape the clutches of some really "bad men" - a rogue military group and a Mengele-like sadist (Richard E. Grant). The child is a mutant, like Wolverine, and so in "demand" along with a bunch of other mutant children by the bad guys to be used as weapons of mass destruction. Despite this being a character study we get the obligatory chase sequences laced with bone crunching brutality. The film, which is actually a noir western, evokes memories of "Shane", "Mad Max" and "Carrie" and goes on far too long. This new persona of the comic book hero is risky and personally I found it a tad dull - Jackman's brooding character quickly gets tiresome although some of the action set pieces are superbly staged if rather hollow and repetitous. This is apparently Wolverine's last outing but who knows he may re-appear if Hollywood feels they need another boxoffice sensation sometime in the future.

[Reza]

Silence (Martin Scorsese, 2016) 9/10

Scorsese's passion project (which took him 30 years to bring to the screen and based on Shusaku Endo's acclaimed novel) about Christianity in peril has an epic grandeur not unlike past films like Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" and "Ran" and Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" - films about great battles. Only here the battle is about faith, doubt and love (for Christ) that quietly rages - almost in silence - within the souls of men and women. Two young Portugese Jesuit priests (Andrew Garfield & Adam Driver) travel to medeival Japan in search of their mentor (Liam Neeson) who appears to have disappeared with rumours of him denouncing God after being threatened by local inquisitors. The journey for the two priests - helped and abetted along the way - is full of conflict, torture, beheadings and drownings as local Christians are systematically brought to their knees and their faith put to trial with God supposedly watching in silence without coming to the rescue of the tortured and dying converts. Scorsese's ambitious and extremely compelling journey is a demanding one which questions faith but manages to convey the true spirit of religion for those who have belief. The film has been breathtakingly shot by Rodriego Prieto on location in Taiwan (substituting for Japan) with stunning images of the countryside and nature that are beautiful to look at as well as invoke horror with the angry ocean claiming precious lives. This is one of Scorsese's best films.

[Precious Doll]

David Stratton: A Cinematic Life (2017) Sally Aitken 6/10
From the Land of the Moon (2016) Nicole Garcia 1/10
Being Charlie (2016) Rob Reiner 2/10
Trolls (2016) Mike Mitchell & Walt Dohrn 4/10
The Midwife (2017) Martin Provost 7/10
Heal the Living (2016) Katell Quillevere 7/10
The Young Pope (2016) Pablo Sorrentino 5/10
A Kid (2016) Philippe Lioret 6/10
Trash Fire (2016) Richard Bates Jr. 7/10

Repeat viewings

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) Carl Reiner 8/10
The Crying Game (1992) Neil Jordan 10/10

[Precious Doll]

Bleak Street (2015) Arturo Ripstein 8/10
Alone in Berlin (2016) Vincent Perez 5/10
Restless City (2011) Andrew Dosunmu 4/10
Through the Wall (2016) Rama Burshtein 7/10
The Whole Truth (2016) Courtney Hunt 4/10
The Family Fang (2016) Jason Bateman 1/10
Francisca (1981) Manoel de Oliveira 6/10
Alice of the Last Esopade (1977) Claude Chabrol 3/10
Eternity (2016) Tran Anh Hung 6/10 (His French language film debut)
Strangers in the House (1942) Henri Decoin 7/10
Sylvie and the Phantom (1946) Claude Autant-Lara 4/10
Daguerrotype (2016) Kiyoshi Kurosawa 4/10 (His French language film debut)
A Street Cat Named Bob (2016) Roger Spottiswoode 7/10
The Black Hen (2015) Min Bahadur Bham 4/10

[ITALIANO]

Thanks for those recommendations Italiano.

I have heard of Don't Torture a Duckling but have never seen it. I'll add them all the my 'want to see list'.

Dario Argento & Mario Bava are well known internationally and have rather large fan bases abroad (outside Italy). Dario Argento's golden period started with his first film in 1970 The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and ended in 1982 with Tenebre. All the films (with the exception of Le Cinque Giornate) in this period are by far his best known and respected works, particularly Deep Red & Suspiria. His fils post Tenebre are a very mixed bag and I think the only standout is Sleepless (2001) starring Max von Sydow. Argento also attracted lots of international stars to his pictures over the years including Karl Malden, Jessica Harper, Joan Bennett, David Hemmings, Jennifer Connelly, Piper Laurie, Max von Sydow, Adrian Brody, Ian Charleson, William McNamarra, James Russo, Brad Dourif, Frederic Forrest, Thomas Kretschmann, Udo Kier, Julian Sands, Donal Pleasence, John Saxon, Leigh McCloskey & Irene Miracle (she was Brad Davis' girlfriend in Midnight Express). Legend Alida Valli also appeared in a couple of Argento's films. My favourites are Deep Reed, Suspiria & Tenebre. Soundtracks to these films in particular are outstanding and Tenebre was considered quite daring in it's day for showing murders committed graphically in broad daylight or under bright lighting at night. It bucked the conventions of filming murder scenes which were darkly lit.

I think the breakout of home video in the early 1980's had a negative effect on Argento's career. The last film of his released in cinemas in Ausrtralia was Tenebre (which I still remember seeing at a theatre called 'The Barclay' on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in October 1983 after spending the morning soaking up the sun at the beach). After that his films were regulated to home video and his more recent films haven't been released in any format that I am aware of. I have had to import his most recent ones.

Mario Bava was a staple of repertory cinemas and late night TV. Home video and the 1980's also filled in some gaps for me. Funnily enough my 2 favourite Bava films were seen at repertory cinemas - Black Sunday (1960) & Planet of the Vampires (1965) which many people believe was a direct influence on Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). The best version of Black Sunday to buy is the UK Blu-Ray which has two versions of the film.

I found this link to Wikipdea of Giallo films: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giallo

A couple I can recommend are The Pajama Girl Case (1977) directed by Flavio Mogherini based on a real life murder mystery that happened in Australia. It was filmed in Sydney and Italian and starred Ray Milliand, Mel Ferrer, Australian actor Rod Mullinar & a young Michele Placido. The film also features an original song sung by Amanda Lear called 'Your Yellow Pyjama'. Funnily enough the film was never released in cinemas in Australia and I first saw it as part of the retrospective strand of the 2013 Melbourne Film Festival. The audience reaction was very positive.

Another recommendation (and not included on the Wikepdia list) is La Donna della Domenica (The Sunday Woman) (1975) directed by Luigi Comencini with the stellar cast of Marcello Mastroianni, Jacqueline Bisset & Jean-Louis Trintignant. It's a murder/mystery who-done-it with comedy undertones.

Giallo films is a sub genre I hope to get up to speed on in coming years. A number of labels in the U.K. are releasing various titles so I'll keep an eye out for the goodies.

I can only agree with you on Dario Argento. Despite his reputation, sadly he stopped being a truly interesting director after Tenebrae. But the movies he made before are all at least interesting (Le Cinque Giornate, of course, isn't a giallo and was a big flop). I can understand why he's so famous abroad even today, and considered a master, though it's a bit sad that other great director of the same period and genre - Fulci and Lenzi especially - are only known by real aficionados. They weren't less good, and they often had smaller budgets to work with.

And of course I know both The Pajama Girl Case (I even personally interviewed then-starlet Dalila Di Lazzaro on this one) and my personal favorite The Sunday Woman. But then as you said The Sunday Woman isn't really a giallo - it's a well-written whodunit with a very good cast and an appropriately surprising ending, with a real feeling for the city it is set in (Turin). Based on a famous (in Italy) novel, it is an important movie with international ambitions, while giallos - though very popular at the time, and not only in Italy - were considered by critics as minor, commercial efforts.

Sergio Martino is also a director who did good things in this genre - at least The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (with that unforgettable music score composed by the pianist Nora Orlandi) and the famous - and much-imitated - Torso should be seen.

Giallos bring one back to a visceral era of filmmaking which seems to be over. They may be absurd, at times campy even - but the talent and the fantasy behind the best of them are undeniable.

[Precious Doll]

Thanks for those recommendations Italiano.

I have heard of Don't Torture a Duckling but have never seen it. I'll add them all the my 'want to see list'.

Dario Argento & Mario Bava are well known internationally and have rather large fan bases abroad (outside Italy). Dario Argento's golden period started with his first film in 1970 The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and ended in 1982 with Tenebre. All the films (with the exception of Le Cinque Giornate) in this period are by far his best known and respected works, particularly Deep Red & Suspiria. His fils post Tenebre are a very mixed bag and I think the only standout is Sleepless (2001) starring Max von Sydow. Argento also attracted lots of international stars to his pictures over the years including Karl Malden, Jessica Harper, Joan Bennett, David Hemmings, Jennifer Connelly, Piper Laurie, Max von Sydow, Adrian Brody, Ian Charleson, William McNamarra, James Russo, Brad Dourif, Frederic Forrest, Thomas Kretschmann, Udo Kier, Julian Sands, Donal Pleasence, John Saxon, Leigh McCloskey & Irene Miracle (she was Brad Davis' girlfriend in Midnight Express). Legend Alida Valli also appeared in a couple of Argento's films. My favourites are Deep Reed, Suspiria & Tenebre. Soundtracks to these films in particular are outstanding and Tenebre was considered quite daring in it's day for showing murders committed graphically in broad daylight or under bright lighting at night. It bucked the conventions of filming murder scenes which were darkly lit.

I think the breakout of home video in the early 1980's had a negative effect on Argento's career. The last film of his released in cinemas in Ausrtralia was Tenebre (which I still remember seeing at a theatre called 'The Barclay' on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in October 1983 after spending the morning soaking up the sun at the beach). After that his films were regulated to home video and his more recent films haven't been released in any format that I am aware of. I have had to import his most recent ones.

Mario Bava was a staple of repertory cinemas and late night TV. Home video and the 1980's also filled in some gaps for me. Funnily enough my 2 favourite Bava films were seen at repertory cinemas - Black Sunday (1960) & Planet of the Vampires (1965) which many people believe was a direct influence on Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). The best version of Black Sunday to buy is the UK Blu-Ray which has two versions of the film.

I found this link to Wikipdea of Giallo films: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giallo

A couple I can recommend are The Pajama Girl Case (1977) directed by Flavio Mogherini based on a real life murder mystery that happened in Australia. It was filmed in Sydney and Italian and starred Ray Milliand, Mel Ferrer, Australian actor Rod Mullinar & a young Michele Placido. The film also features an original song sung by Amanda Lear called 'Your Yellow Pyjama'. Funnily enough the film was never released in cinemas in Australia and I first saw it as part of the retrospective strand of the 2013 Melbourne Film Festival. The audience reaction was very positive.

Another recommendation (and not included on the Wikepdia list) is La Donna della Domenica (The Sunday Woman) (1975) directed by Luigi Comencini with the stellar cast of Marcello Mastroianni, Jacqueline Bisset & Jean-Louis Trintignant. It's a murder/mystery who-done-it with comedy undertones.

Giallo films is a sub genre I hope to get up to speed on in coming years. A number of labels in the U.K. are releasing various titles so I'll keep an eye out for the goodies.

[Reza]

A classic giallo, with a memorable ending. If you like giallos, I have at least three or four titles which you should absolutely see.

Yes please recommend.[/quote]


Check those I just recommended to Precious Doll. They are ery famous, so you may have already seen them, but who knows.[/quote]

Yes will do....just read your post.

[ITALIANO]

La corta notte delle bambole di vetro / Short Night of Glass Dolls (Aldo Lado, 1971) 7/10

Italian gialo invoking Sunset Blvd with the corpse of a journalist (Jean Sorel) in a morgue recalling the story of how he died. Is he really dead? Will he wake up before the doctors perform an autopsy on him? More important is the mystery of the disappearance of his girlfriend (Barbara Bach who is incredibly sexy in a short silver dress during the party sequence ), his relationship with his jealous and prickly colleague (Ingrid Thulin) and the satanic cult with scenes of a writhing orgy of geriatrics. Like all dubbed films there is a jarring quality to the film but the stars, with or without their clothes, and the overheated melodrama with bloody interludes make these gialos fun to watch. The atmospheric on location filming in Prague and Slovenia is a major plus along with the Ennio Morricone score which signals every horrific moment on screen.

A classic giallo, with a memorable ending. If you like giallos, I have at least three or four titles which you should absolutely see.

Yes please recommend.

Check those I just recommended to Precious Doll. They are ery famous, so you may have already seen them, but who knows.

[Reza]

La corta notte delle bambole di vetro / Short Night of Glass Dolls (Aldo Lado, 1971) 7/10

Italian gialo invoking Sunset Blvd with the corpse of a journalist (Jean Sorel) in a morgue recalling the story of how he died. Is he really dead? Will he wake up before the doctors perform an autopsy on him? More important is the mystery of the disappearance of his girlfriend (Barbara Bach who is incredibly sexy in a short silver dress during the party sequence ), his relationship with his jealous and prickly colleague (Ingrid Thulin) and the satanic cult with scenes of a writhing orgy of geriatrics. Like all dubbed films there is a jarring quality to the film but the stars, with or without their clothes, and the overheated melodrama with bloody interludes make these gialos fun to watch. The atmospheric on location filming in Prague and Slovenia is a major plus along with the Ennio Morricone score which signals every horrific moment on screen.

A classic giallo, with a memorable ending. If you like giallos, I have at least three or four titles which you should absolutely see.

Yes please recommend.