Movies

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Rusty
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Re: Movies

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:710:
1456 - The Arbor (2010) - 7/10 - This film looks at playwright Andrea Dunbar, who died at age 29 in 1990, and her children, older daughter Lorraine in particular. Andrea lived a rough life and passed this on to Lorraine as well. Lorraine was 11 when her mother died and was soon addicted to drugs plus a number of other issues. The film uses actors to lip-synch actual interviews with Andrea's family plus has a number of scenes from Andrea's first play (also called The Arbor) portrayed in a common area on the estates where Andrea lived. It's a bit odd, but also effective since Andrea based much of her play on her own life.

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1457 - Seven Up! (1964) - 7.5/10 - A group of seven year olds from diverse backgrounds are brought together for a trip to a zoo. The film looks at the children in their lives at school and interviews them on a variety of topics. It's an interesting film. Seven year olds learning latin, though...egad!

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1458 - 7 Plus Seven (1970) - 7/10 - This film catches up with 14 of the children from the first film. They are 14 now and are generally much more reserved than they were at age 7. They are only shown through interviews and flashbacks this time around and the film isn't quite as interesting as the original.

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1459 - Fire on the Marmara (2011) - 7/10 - In 2010, a flotilla of ships headed to Gaza on a relief mission. The Israelis had Gaza blockaded and sent commandos to board the ships while they were still in international waters around 80 miles from the coast. It led to a number of deaths and strained relations between Israel and Turkey. I don't really want to get into politics here, but the whole Israel-Palestine issue is major issue that will hopefully get resolved in the near future, though that seems highly unlikely.

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1460 - Santa Teresa y otras historias (2015) - 6/10 - This visual essay was interesting at times, but others might get more out of it than I did.

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1461 - Death of a Cyclist (1955) - 8/10 - Two members of Spain's upper class are having an affair. On the way home from a tryst, they hit a bicyclist and instead of helping him, flee the scene fearing discovery of their affair. Juan is deeply affected by this and gives the matter a lot of thought. Maria Jose is more interested in self preservation. It's a nice film.

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1462 - A Wednesday (2008) - 8/10 - A police commissioner who is retiring remembers a case involving a man who called him to inform him of bombs planted around the city. It's pretty entertaining.

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1463 - The Cremator (1969) - 7/10 - A man who runs a crematorium in late 1930s Czechoslovakia enjoys his work a bit too much. As the Nazis take over, he slowly descends into madness.

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1464 - Friday Foster (1975) - 7.5/10 - Pam Grier stars as photographer Friday Foster and an assignment at the airport leads to murders and a conspiracy that puts her life in danger. It's a fun film, though I think that I still enjoyed the comic strip a bit more.
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Re: Movies

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:710:
1465 - The Wishing Ring: An Idyll of Old England (1914) - 7/10 - The son of an Earl is goofing around with friends, but is the only one caught. His father gets upset when he gets expelled from college and the son has to go off on his own until he can earn a half crown. It's a decent silent film.

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1466 - The Faithful Heart (1923) - 7.5/10 - An orphan girl is raised and used for work by a barkeep, eventually being forced to be the gir of a petty thug rather than being with the kind man who loves her.

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1467 - The Painter and the Thief (2020) - 7/10 - A Czech artist living in Norway had her two most valuable paintings stolen by a couple of junkies. The thieves were soon caught, but the paintings remained missing, whereabouts unknown. The artist met one of the thieves at his trial and got his permission to paint him, leading to a friendship that lasted for years. I thought the film was pretty interesting early on, dragged in the middle, but got more interesting again toward the end.

:710:
1468 - Alamar (2009) - 7/10 - A five year old boy is about to move to Italy with his mother. Before he goes he spends time with his Mayan father and grandfather at their home on the coast of Mexico. They spend their time fishing, swimming, exploring the coral reef, and so on. It's a pretty laid back film and is nice and relaxing.
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Re: Movies

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:810:
1469 - Alice in the Cities (1974) - 8/10 - A West German journalist is traveling through the U.S., taking tons of photographs and staying at cheap motels. He's running out of money and seems rather tired of the journey so he heads back home. At the airport he translates for and befriends a woman and her 9 year old daughter. When the mother takes off, he ends up on a journey to get the girl to her grandmother. Nice performances from the man and the girl in a pretty good road movie.

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1470 - Kes (1969) - 7.5/10 - Billy Casper is a 15 year old boy who is bullied at school and also by his older brother. He takes an interest in a falcon that he finds in the wild and eventually trains it, naming it Kes. He spends much of his time with the bird. This is a decent movie, though some of the school scenes grated a bit, but that might be my teaching background influencing things.

:810:
1471 - Causeway (2022) - 8/10 - Jennifer Lawrence stars as a soldier who is recovering from a brain injury suffered due to an IED injury in Afghanistan. She makes a friend in an auto mechanic (Brian Tyree Henry) who is still dealing with his own trauma. This is a very slow movie, but I enjoyed it and the performances from both Lawrence and Henry are very good.

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1472 - Cool and Crazy (2001) - 6/10 - This film profiles the members of a choir from a remote fishing village in Norway. It was okay, but definitely not the most interesting documentary I've seen this month, but at least they did sing fairly well.

:710:
1473 - Tillsammans (2000) - 7/10 - Life in a communal house in Stockholm has its ups and downs. It's a good film, though I wasn't wowed by it.
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Re: Movies

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:6510:
1 - Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) - 6.5/10 - Abbott and Costello end up on a rocketship and have a few adventures through various misadventures. It wasn't bad, but doesn't rise to the level of their better work.

:410:
2 - The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961) - 4/10 - KGB agents pursue a defecting scientist near atomic testing grounds. An atom bomb turns the scientist into a monster of sorts. It's a pretty poor film.

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3 - Miss Minoes (2001) - 7.5/10 - A cat gets turned into a human, though she still retains her cat instincts and the ability to talk to other cats. The woman befriends a sad sack reporter and uses cat gossip to help him write stories that help his career. The two start investigating a prominent citizen with the help of a neighbor girl. They investigate because the cats of the town say that he is not the pet friendly upstanding citizen that he appears to be. It's a fun film with nice performances from Carice von Houten as Minoes and Sarah Bannier as Bibi, the neighbor girl.

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4 - Beyond Tomorrow (1940) - 6.5/10 - Three wealthy old men come back as ghosts after they pass away to try and help a young couple that they helped meet. The ghosts don't really do much other then fret, but are likable enough. The film is fairly predictable.
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Re: Movies

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:710:
5 - The Passion Play (1903) - 7/10 - The story of the life of Jesus Christ. Not bad for 1903.
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Re: Movies

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:5510:
6 - First Spaceship on Venus (1960) - 5.5/10 - A team of scientists is assembled to travel to Venus to investigate an object that was found on Earth. There are a number of interesting things in the film, but it gets bogged down with a rather dull story.

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7 - I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) - 6/10 - Before herding cattle on the Ponderosa, or living on a prairie in Minnesota, or helping people in need as an angel, Michael Landon was an angry young man with a violent temper. An unethical psychiatrist experiments on him without his knowledge and he ends up as a werewolf. This started the trend of "I Was a Teenage..." stories that lasted for a while. The movie itself is so-so.

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8 - Not of This Earth (1957) - 6/10 - A member of a dying race comes to Earth to see if the blood of humans will serve to extend his life and those of his people. He is able to exert mind control over people in order to complete his mission.

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9 - Re-Animator (1985) - 7/10 - A medical student at Miskatonik University does experiments in a basement lab and has created a formula capable of bringing the dead back to life. This is a decent sci-fi horror comedy.

Walking from Munich to Berlin (1927) (4 minutes)

icm <400
Ghost (1984) (6 minutes)
Thunder (1982) (5 minutes)
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Re: Movies

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:810:
10 - Pitfall (1962) - 8/10 - A miner is traveling with his son and looking for work when he is ambushed and killed. His ghost lingers and watches further events unfold, unable to have any impact. The film is well told and effective.

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11 - I'm Your Man (2021) - 7.5/10 - A lonely archaeologist agrees to test a humanoid companion robot for three weeks. It is designed to be her perfect match and she finds herself falling for it, even though she resists at first. The film has a fair amount of gentle humor and romance with a melancholy undertone. I think it is pretty good.

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12 - The Blood of a Poet (1932) - 6/10 - This is a pretty odd film with some interesting imagery.

:510:
13 - The Blood of Jesus (1941) - 5/10 - When a woman is accidentally shot by her husband, she has to make her way to the crossroads and avoid the devil's temptations. There is plenty of decent gospel music here, but the acting and story aren't really very good.

icm <400
Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1992) (20 minutes)

Czech
The Flat (1968) (13 minutes)
Darkness Light Darkness (1989) (8 minutes)
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Re: Movies

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:710:
14 - Children of the Damned (1964) - 7/10 - The kids with psychic powers and glowing eyes return. This time they come from 6 different nations. They want to live in peace, but are met with guns. I liked it, though I thought it wasn't quite as good as Village.

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15 - Doctor X (1932) - 6/10 - A reporter is looking into the grotesque murders committed by the "Moon Killer". We get doctors, scientists, police, and a mad killer, but the film is actually kind of dull through much of it. The technicolor does look nice, though.
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Re: Movies

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:610:
16 - The Omega Man (1971) - 6/10 - Charlton Heston is a scientist who survived a deadly plague thanks to an experimental vaccine. For the last couple of years, he's roamed Los Angeles by day, gathering supplies, and trying to avoid the only survivors that he knows about. These survivors are now sensitive to light and are homicidal. Then he encounters other normal survivors and things change. This was okay, but I thought that it had the potential to be much better than it ended up being.

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17 - The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) - 6/10 - A spaceship containing three astronauts crashes into a field upon returning to Earth. Only one of the astronauts has survived, and he appears to be changed mentally and is changing physically. This sci-fi horror film is a bit dull, but watchable.

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18 - Quatermass 2 (1957) - 7/10 - Scientists have developed plans for a moon base and they discover that a replica of the base has been set up in a remote part of England where small meteorites seem to fall on a regular basis. Quatermass and a colleague investigate and find that a number of people have been infected by an alien organism and have expansion plans in motion. This was definitely better than the first film.

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19 - Quatermass and the Pit (1967) - 7/10 - An ancient Martian spaceship is found buried in London and this leads to a number of problems. I liked Quatermass 2 a little bit more, but this wasn't bad.

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20 - Silent Running (1972) - 7/10 - In the future, large domes are stationed near Saturn and are used to grow plants and food. Orders are received to blow up the domes and return the ships that tend them to active service, but one botanist (Bruce Dern) rebels and attempts to save his habitat. I enjoyed it, though I thought it had the potential to be much better.

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21 - your name. (2016) - 8/10 - Taki is a high school boy in Tokyo whose mind starts randomly switching places with a high school girl named Mitsuha who lives in a rural part of Japan. They initially think that they are dreaming, but eventually realize there is much more going on than a dream and they have to adjust. The animation and story are each very good.

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22 - Yeelen (1987) - 7/10 - A young man with magical powers goes in search of his uncle for help when he learns that his father is out to kill him. The father also has magical powers, but uses them for his own gain. The film contains both the journey and the pursuit with the father being much more animated than the son. I enjoyed it.
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Re: Movies

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:710:
23 - Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) - 7/10 - Boonmee is slowly dying from a kidney ailment when he is visited by the ghost of his late wife. His long lost son also returns in a different form. The movie moves at a very languid pace and even the appearance of the wife and son don't engender any excitement. The most animated the film gets is probably at the end with the song over the end credits. Still, I did generally like the film and appreciated some of the imagery.

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24 - Summer Days with Coo (2007) - 8/10 - A young boy finds a small kappa child that has survived in hibernation inside a rock for 200 years. The boy's family befriends and adopts the kappa. They also help him search for others of his kind who may have survived, but public attention soon finds them. I thought this was pretty nice with a good story and animation.
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:610:
25 - Under the Skin (2013) - 6/10 - An alien takes on human form and then travels around Scotland seducing men, The film looks very nice, but the story didn't really do much for me.

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26 - Melancholia (2011) - 7.5/10 - Two sisters spend time together as a rogue planet approaches the Earth. I thought Kirsten Dunst was pretty good here and even though the pace was fairly slow, I did enjoy the film.

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27 - Save the Green Planet (2003) - 7.5/10 - A young man is convinced that it is his job to save the world from aliens who live among us on Earth. he kidnaps a corporate executive and holds him for torture and interrogation. This science fiction comedy is pretty over the top and a bit weird, but entertaining.

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28 - The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1978) - 7.5/10 - A homeless boy becomes an apprentice to a miller, but soon discovers that the miller is really an evil sorcerer who keeps a dozen apprentices and puts them to work for his own ends. The animation style is a bit different, but I liked it quite a bit. I also enjoyed the story.

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29 - Miracle in Milan (1951) - 7.5/10 - An orphan boy goes out into the world when he becomes a young man. He is full of energy and good cheer and he soon transforms a place where the homeless live into a thriving shanty town. When oil is discovered on the property, the owner tries to move them off the land. I was a bit bored with the film during the first half, though it wasn't bad. It became a lot more fun after that.
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:610:
30 - Tropical Malady (2004) - 6/10 - A tale of two pictures. The first half features a romance between two men, but it's pretty easygoing for the most part. That story didn't do much for me, but I thought some of the scenery and the views of life in another land were interesting. The second half has a hunt through the jungle for a shaman in tiger form. This part was less interesting than the first part.

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31 - Il Mare (2000) - 7/10 - This cross-time romance centers around a mailbox at a lake house. A woman leaves a note in there when she moves out in December 1999 asking the next resident to forward her mail. However, the note is delivered to the previous tenant of the house in December 1997. I saw the American remake 'The Lake House' when it came out in 2006 and liked it, but this is a little bit better. The acting is good and the film is nice, even if it doesn't really break any new ground.

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32 - Okja (2017) - 8/10 - Mija is a young girl who grew up on a remote mountain with a large intelligent animal called Okja. Okja is a genetically engineered super pig and, unknown to Mija, is part of a program to create a new food source. When the company reclaims Okja, Mija sets out to get her back. This is a pretty good satire with a nice lead performance from the girl who played Mija. The cgi for the super pigs is pretty good and the story moves along at a nice pace.

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33 - Rare Exports (2010) - 7/10 - A dig in northern Finland unearths an evil creature which was the basis for the Santa Claus legends, but had been buried in a mountain for centuries. This is a decent horror comedy. The two shorts that preceded the film are worth watching.

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34 - The Lift (1983) - 7.5/10 - The lifts in a building in Amsterdam start to act in an erratic fashion and people end up dead. The lifts seemingly have a mind of their own at times. A repairman is sent by the lift company to investigate, but can find nothing wrong and the lifts appear to be operating normally while he is there. He starts to dig deeper, even though he is taken off the case by his boss. I enjoyed this science fiction horror film a lot more than I expected.

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35 - The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha (1969) - 7/10 - Two inept musicians are driven out of town and meet in the woods. Their music pleases the King of Ghosts, though, and he grants them three boons. I did enjoy the music in the film and the story wasn't bad.

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36 - The Forgotten Pistolero (1969) - 7.5/10 - A Mexican general is murdered by his wife and her lover. Years later, their son is a gunfighter who enlists the aid of his sister and his childhood friend to get revenge. I enjoyed it and the music was decent as well.

Rare Exports, Inc. (2003) (7 minutes)
The Official Rare Exports Inc. Safety Instructions (2005) (10 minutes)

icm<400
Fire in Castilla (Tactilvision from the Moor of the Fright) (1961) (18 minutes)
Walking from Munich to Berlin (1927) (3 minutes)
Brouillard: Passage #14 (2014) (10 minutes)
Mirror of Holland (1950) (9 minutes)
A Year Along the Abandoned Road (1991) (12 minutes)
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Re: Movies

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:7510:
37 - Cemetery Without Crosses (1969) - 7.5/10 - When a large cattle rancher and his sons hang her husband, Maria seeks out a gunfighter who is an old flame to get revenge. This is a pretty good western.

:810:
38 - A Day Off (1968) - 8/10 - Heo Uk is always broke and often scams rides and cigarettes. He meets his girlfriend on Sundays and they have something serious to discuss this week. She is pregnant and needs an abortion, but neither has the money for it. The landscape is bleak and their situation is as well. The film is gorgeously filmed in black and white and Sung-il Shin gives a nice performance in the lead role. The film was banned when completed and didn't receive a release until rediscovered in 2005.

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39 - 4:44 Last Day on Earth (2011) - 6/10 - It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine). Life on Earth will end at 4:44 in the morning and Willem DaFoe spends most of the day hanging out with his girlfriend (Shanyn Leigh), a painter in NYC. It's not a great film, but wasn't as bad as I feared.

:310:
40 - King Lear (1987) - 3/10 - This was mostly garbage.

:510:
41 - Robot Monster (1953) - 5/10 - Aliens are bent on destroying all life on Earth, but somehow one family has eluded them so far. This low budget film is not very good, but it is still quite a bit better than King Lear.

:510:
42 - Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (1992) - 5/10 - Lots of clips from movies, news, ads, etc. are assembled in this conspiracy theory 'documentary'. It really wasn't my thing.

Passageraren (1966) (27 minutes)
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Re: Movies

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:710:
43 - Things to Come (1936) - 7/10 - A war starts in 1940 that lasts for decades, returning most areas to a feudal state. A WWII pilot returns home in a plane and helps usher in a new age of progress. This eventually leads to a planned moon mission in 2036, though there are detractors who rail against technology. There are some interesting things in this film, including some of the design elements, but other parts haven't aged quite as well.

:610:
44 - The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) - 6/10 - David Bowie stars as an alien who comes to Earth in order to bring water back to his dying planet. He uses his advanced knowledge to gain wealth as he develops a way to get the water back to his planet. The premise isn't bad, but unfortunately I found much of the film to not be very interesting.

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45 - Dreams (1990) - 8.5/10 - Akira Kurosawa wrote and directed this film based on recurring dreams that he had. There are eight vignettes covering a variety of scenarios. I enjoyed them all, though my favorites are probably the first one with the little boy and the kitsune and the one where he meets van Gogh. The funeral procession near the end was cool, too.

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46 - Dark Star (1974) - 6/10 - A group of scientists are on a long mission to destroy unstable planets. There are a few funny moments, but overall I didn't think the acting and story were very good.

White Funeral (1997) (30 minutes)

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47 - Os Canibais / The Cannibals (1988) - 7/10 - This Portuguese opera starts at a wedding and the festivities seem happy enough, but they eventually take a few dark turns. I'm not an opera fan and the singing had a sameness to it that didn't help, but the costumes and settings were pretty cool and the story isn't exactly what one might expect.
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Re: Movies

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:510:
48 - Introduction (2021) - 5/10 - A young man goes to visit his father, his girlfriend, and his mother. Conversation ensues plus lots of smoking. Not a very interesting film.

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49 - Chorus (1975) - 7.5/10 - A small company advertises for 100 jobs, but gets 30,000 applicants, mostly poor people who desperately need a job. There are too many people to handle and riots break out with people thinking the job listing was just a hoax.

:510:
50 - Whistle and I’ll Come to You (1968) - 5/10 - A professor visits the coast while on vacation. He bathes, he eats, he mutters to himself, he gets scared out of his wits.

La Cabina (1972) (35 minutes)
The Signalman (1976) (38 minutes)
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