High Noon was a little difficult for me to get into.  McCarthyism was such a ridiculous and ignorant era of my country, that I have little patience for its themes in film.  I do understand the irony, since that’s what Zinnemann was trying to say.  After about a third of the movie had passed, I really got into it.  I liked how it was filmed in real time, and that theme song was bitchin’.  It ended up being one of my favorite western ever.

I’m still trying to make up my mind about the French horror film Martyrs.  That was some seriously messed up shit.  It disturbed me for several hours after I watched it.  And while there was more gore than most films, it didn’t so much disgust me like Hostel did.  And it was kind of actually poignant.  So while I only recommend it with plenty of reservations, I’m going to give this film thumbs up.

Pickup on South Street was a fun little con film, but I felt it was kind of a lightweight.  I feel that way about most of these types of movies from the forties and fifties.  The fear-of-communists motif was, again, a bit overt, and the sexism and violence against women made me keep it at arms length, but it was an enjoyable watch all together.  Not quite sure why it made the list of 100 Movies I haven’t Seen, though.

A Streetcar Named Desire was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be.  I’m not usually a fan of Tennessee Williams, but throw in Marlon Brando, and I can look past it.  Seriously though, the script was great.  It brought up some interesting questions for me regarding SPOILER ALERT the rape.  It actually kind of felt like dismissive to so vaguely allude to it, and that perhaps a bit more honest and gritty portrayal would serve the film well.

Sunset Boulevard was fun in large part because of its glimpse into how Hollywood worked back in the day.  There were great performances, and a great script.  Glad I watched it, but I probably won’t ever be watching it again.

The Element of Crime was a film so stylized that I couldn’t move past the intense visuals.  It’s dystopian setting served, at once, to slow everything down to allow for plenty of thinking, but also it was so overwhelming, I found myself bored because I wasn’t sure what Lars von Trier was trying for.  This is the first film of his that I really feel ambivalent about.

I’m definitely not much of a fan of comedy.  And I absolutely hated the schmatlzy, over-the-top comedy of the first half.  But I got over it and actually found there were some very charming parts of the film to be had.  Still got a creepy pedophile feel from Gene Wilder, though.

The best of all eight films in last week’s loot was certainly The Five Obstructions.  It’s a bit difficult to explain the premise of this documentary, but basically, Lars von Trier challenges the director (fellow Danish director Jorgen Leth) of his favorite short film (it’s called The Perfect Human, and you can watch it here) , to remake it within the boundaries of outrageous parameters of Trier’s choosing, five times.  The result is mesmerizing.  I can’t recommend this one enough.

Here’s this week’s loot:

Casablanca was everything I’d ever heard it would be.  Believe it or not, it’s the first Humphrey Bogart film I’ve ever seen.  I suppose this was the perfect place to start.  And I can’t get enough of Ingrid Bergman.

All Quiet on the Western Front presented two of my biggest movie-watching obstacles: made before 1930, and the war genre. To say it simply overcame these problems is an understatement.  This film was totally bitchin’.  I couldn’t believe how effective it was.  The entire thing had me glued to my seat, and I got more emotionally involved in the characters than I’d like to admit.  The one problem I had was the last two minutes.  It may be the pessimist in me, but it just didn’t work.  I see how it could have in the original book, but on the screen, it seemed kitsch.

Read My Lips was as bitchin’ as well.  I wouldn’t expect anything less awesome from Jacques Audiard (The Beat My Heart Skipped is one of my all time favorite films, and A Prophet might join the ranks soon).  I couldn’t help but be reminded of Neil Labutes In the Company of Men, the plot premises are similar, but Audiard takes the idea and mixes it with love, violence, and some of the most dexterous scenes I’ve seen in a long while.

This week’s Loot:

Ivan’s Childhood was a million times more accessible than I expected it to be, and a million times better than I thought it would be.  Not that I don’t have faith in Tarkovsky, but this was, after all, his very first film.  It was so well structured, I didn’t know what to think.  Happily, this is the first film I watched for my Inaccessible Director Challenge, and I couldn’t be off to a better start.  I’d highly recommend this.  And it’s only ninety minutes long, which is a far cry from the enormous lengths of Solaris and Andrei Rublev.

This may be film blasphemy, but I’m not quite sure what makes The French Connection such a special movie.  Perhaps it was pioneering for its day, but it seemed like a run of the mill crooks vs. cops film about drugs.  The characters (save Gene Hackman’s) were poorly developed and little flat all the way around.  It may just be that this isn’t my favorite genre, but I probably wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.

I have been waiting for over a year to see Cold Souls, my lucky-ass roommate saw it at Sundance last year, I was pretty jealous.  The wait was worth it.  There was some fantastic imagery, it’s a great story, and all the acting was superb.  It was really nice to see Lauren Ambrose working on screen again.  Lauren, stop doing plays on Broadway that I will never see, and do something like Six Feet Under again.

I’ve avoided Cabaret so long because I’m not a huge fan of musicals.  If someone had told me this was a musical during the Nazi regime that deals with death and abortion, sadly, I would have seen it sooner.  This is the first time I’d seen Liza Minnelli act, I was quite impressed.  It wasn’t too campy, and I really enjoyed the story.

Ben-Hur was pretty great as well.  I’m not one for epics, but this story was great.  I got a little nervous every time Jesus was on screen in the first half, but happily, it stayed away from preaching, and lent itself to some outrageously good cinematography and story.  The chariot racing scene was ridiculously entertaining.  Glad to have this one under my belt.

The best of this loot was definitely Eric Rohmer’s My Night at Maud’s, which was extremely dialogue heavy.  I love those types of films.  I was worried after the first thirty minutes that the whole thing would be lost on me since the subject matter was Catholicism-heavy, but the ideas tossed around quickly evolved into more general aspects of religion and philosophy.  I really didn’t want this one to end.

I didn’t get to The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, so I rechecked it out this week.

Here’s this week’s loot:

Last week’s loot was exceptionally good.  I was pleased with all nine selections, and I actually managed to watch a few extracurricular films as well, these included 9 (which really, really worked for me). and the French movies Love Songs (for a musical, it gets an A in my book).

Crisis was very interesting when it’s noted as Ingmar Bergman’s very first film.  It’s also interesting without considering that.  The best part of it was seeing the seeds planted, the subtleties that would later be thrown to the wind.  There’s no shortage of human anguish, and I can never get enough of that, especially when it’s brought to me by Bergman (if you haven’t noticed, he’s my new religion).

The Searchers was interesting.  I have to say, that I did enjoy it.  I didn’t feel bored or like the film lagged at any part.  But I’ve never liked westerns, and I will always take issue with the melodrama, racism, and too much horse riding.

Nanook of the North was bitter sweet.  The images captured were breathtaking, and I understand why it was a big deal, especially when it came out almost a hundred years ago.  But, knowing that the majority of things caught on film (and yes, I understand the reasons why it had to be like that), took away a bit of the magic.  Like when I learned the Bear Grylls is neither named Bear, nor actually does the stuff he pretends to on his show.  Still, I’ve now resolved to be a better igloo builder.

I felt that Bergman Island was a bit of a disappointment, only because I was expecting more.  I really wanted him to discuss his films, the meaning behind them, working with his disciples, that sort of stuff.  What I got was still interesting, but it wasn’t that.  There were lots of existential ponderings on life, the afterlife, family grief, and it really did shed some light on my new hero.

I have avoided Jules and Jim for quite a while because I’ve been told by several people that it was really boring.  These people are out of their freaking minds.  This was fantastic, certainly one of the very best of the French New Wave films I’ve seen.  This with Band Apart are ridiculously good.  I’d highly recommend it.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf was another one that made me angry I’ve been putting off so long because of how much I enjoyed.  Recently, since I started watching these older films, I’ve taken up calling my grandmas and asking them how it was received when in theatres, was thought about it (they all grew up in rural Idaho towns, so often I’m met with phone silence, but still).  They all reported (there are three of them, don’t ask) that it was a worthless film about drunk mean people.  I did not get this at all.  I loved every second of it (besides the ridiculous non-sequiturs that should have been stopped).

The Apu Trilogy (Pather Panchali, Aparajito, The World of Apu) when this week’s prize.  I was only required by my list of 100 Movies I Haven’t Seen, to watch Pather Panchali, but I thought I might as well check them all out.  They are remarkable, and the first Indian films I’ve seen.  Ray had an amazing amount of talent, considering PP was his very first film ever.  I was engrossed in the story the entire way through, and this is a considerable time investment of over three hundred minutes.

Here’s this week’s loot:

I should have listened to her.

I didn’t get to all of the loot, just a bit more than half.

I knew that Downloading Nancy wasn’t going to be any good.  Friends that I trust when it comes to movies warned me about it.  The New York Times was quite vicious.  But the premise of the film was morbidly fascinating for me, and I love Maria Bello.  Everyone was right, it sucked.  The day after, I could barely remember how it ended.

Freaks, on the other hand, was fantastic.  Not all of it was perfect, but that last ten minutes was horrifying.  And since then I’ve been singing, ‘we accept her, we accept her. One of us.  One of us.’  Seriously, this is a messed up movie.  I really wish the stuff they cut out in the 30s wasn’t lost.

I liked Strangers on a Train quite a bit.  It’s no Rear Window, but it had an interesting plot and was tense enough.  Nothing life changing, but it continued to nudge me towards becoming a Hitchcock fan, so I suppose it served its purpose.

I didn’t get to the rest, and since I didn’t even go to the library today, all I’ve got is what Netflix sent me.  Here’s what I’ll be working on this week.

I’m happy to report that I did enjoy Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  That is, after I got past the first forty minutes.  I was so annoyed at how loud everything was, and all the background noise.  I can’t for the life of me understand what that was all about.  But once I got into it, I was very impressed.  And I’m not usually one for Steven Spielberg movies.

Rear Window is the first Hitchcock film that I really, really got in to.  I was super tense for the last thirty minutes or so, and those final scenes were super effective.  I was quite impressed, and it motivated me to finish off the last few Hitchcock films on the list immediately.

I didn’t expect to like Bringing Up Baby as much as I did.  I’m not usually one for comedies, especially comedies of this era. But Baby elicited more than a few out loud laughs.  Some of the visual gags were tired (imagine, a man forced to wear a woman’s robe! or a drunk Irish man…), but the dialog was fantastic.

The Serpent’s Egg is the 20th Bergman film I’ve seen.  I had heard it wasn’t any good.  A friend of mine said it made the film Holy Smoke! look like a masterpiece, so I wasn’t expecting much.  But I did end up enjoying it quite a bit.  Especially concerning the scenario that surrounded its making.  It’s definitely different than all the rest of his I’ve seen.

Citizen Kane was very impressive.  It lived up to all my expectations, and I’m looking forward to watching it again.

The winner of the week, however, was Godard’s Weekend.  I liked it so much, that once it was over, I immediately watched the whole thing again with the commentary by David Sterritt, which only made me like it more (I haven’t been inclined to do this in its entirety since the Norton, Pitt, Carter commentary on the Fight Club DVD) .  Yes, it was hard to watch, especially the last twenty minutes or so (what’s with European filmmakers always showing actual animals put to death? PETA needs to set up an office over there), but I can understand why Godard ended the film with ‘The End of Cinema.’  This is truly a bitchin’ film.

Here’s this week’s loot.  Although I’m not sure how much I’ll get to since Sundance starts.

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance officially marks the last of Michael Haneke’s films that I haven’t seen (besides White Ribbon which finally comes to my area next week, and a three minute short he did for the completely impossible to find documentary Lumiere and Company).  I didn’t so much enjoy Fragments.  It was very disjointed, and I felt like the point of it all eluded me.  Not completely, like Code Unknown, but I had a hard time seeing the point of it all.  I probably won’t watch this again or recommend this.

Rebel Without a Cause was really great, but struck uncomfortably close to home with my own daddy issues.  So that was a trip.  I was pretty bummed to see how good of an actor James Dean was.  Struck down in the prime of his life.  Damn.  The melodrama started getting a little old at the end, especially with the way his parents completely unrealistically dealt with Jim.  But still, I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would.

The Magic Flute was more of a challenge to watch than I expected.  I talked about act I last week.  This week I finished act II.  I love that opera, propaganda and all, but I’d rather go see it at an opera house.  Considering it as an homage to theatre by Bergman, I can see the great respect he had and the point of it all, but this was mostly forgettable.

Lawrence of Arabia wins the prize of the week.  Despite the four hour run time, I was enthralled for three and a half hours of it.  From the second Peter O’toole stepped on screen, I was blown away by his skill.  It wasn’t his fault that the epic peters out at the end.  It’s my untested theory that there is no way for an epic to finish as strongly as it started.  Still, this was freaking fantastic.  I will probably watch this again on a long weekend where I have four free hours.

This weeks loot!  There’s a couple second attempts here, stuff I didn’t manage to watch the first time I rented it.  I’m excited.

PS – Can any programming wizards tell me what the hell I’m doing wrong in my code to make the pictures below line up like they’re drunk Russians? I swear I tell the images to be the same size and align themselves correctly, but they just won’t do it since the upgrade to WordPress 2.9.

As for last week’s loot, I didn’t manage to see 71 Fragments, Rebel without a Cause, or Weekend.  Actually, Netflix was supposed to send me Weekend, but there’s a short wait.  So they sent me Lawrence of Arabia.  I didn’t watch that either.  And I only watched half of The Magic Flute.  Yeah, big FAIL.

As for The Magic Flute act one, I enjoyed it.  This is another Bergman film that I didn’t do the research on, so I didn’t really realize that it was pretty much just the opera filmed.  So far, so good.  Although I am following the plot with the Wikipedia synopsis up on my BlackBerry.  That way I’m sure I’m not missing major plot points, or subtleties.  It’s strange hearing the opera sung in Swedish.  I had only heard it in German before.  Looking forward to the nonsensical propaganda of act two.

Vertigo was a certainly a solid film, but I fear I’ll never be a great admirer of Alfred Hitchcock.  I’m never bored in his films, which is a feat, but I’m never wow-ed after the film is over.  Hearing A.O. Scott discuss it on nytimes.com afterwards did shed some revelation on the film, and I do appreciate it, but that’s as far as I go.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, on the other hand, was beautiful, and moving, and everything I’d been told it would be.  It seems the entire cast comes from my favorite french films of the last few years (A Christmas Tale, Tell No One), and they were all fantastic.  It took a while getting used to the style of filming since, as I’m sure you all know, the majority of the first half is literally the point of view of a severally paralyzed man.  I actually watched parts of this movie twice.  Thanks for the recommendation Mad Hatter.

Next week’s loot: