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Rusty
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Re: Movies

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:710:
845 - The Best Things in Life Are Free (1956) - 7/10 - A biopic about the songwriting team of Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson from the 1920s. The biggest attraction is the music itself, but parts of the story are decent.

:810:
846 - Shunko (1960) - 8/10 - A new teacher (Lautaro Murúa) arrives in a small village in Argentina. Their only classroom is a set of benches and a blackboard under a tree. Parents are resistant to sending their kids because they don't see the value or want them to work in the fields. The teacher slowly wins the students and parents over and learns from them as well. I liked this one a lot.

:410:
847 - The Oscar (1966) - 4/10 - A lowlife is up for Best Actor and the film flashes back to his history and some of the nasty things that he did. The acting and story are pretty bad, though I did like seeing Jack Soo in his small role.

:610:
848 - The Pleasure Seekers (1964) - 6/10 - A remake of Three Coins in the fountain with the setting moved from Rome to Madrid. It stars Ann-Margret, Carol Lynley, and Pamela Tiffin as three American women looking for love in Spain. It's not as good as the earlier film.

:810:
849 - Treeless Mountain (2008) - 8/10 - Two little girls are left with their paternal aunt when their mother decides to try and track down their estranged father. The aunt is an alcoholic and doesn't really want the kids so they are often left to their own devices. Some won't like the film due to a lack of action or the slowness as the girls hope and wait for their mother to return, but I think it is a very good film with a nice performance from the older sister.

:810:
850 - The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991) - 8/10 - I'm sure that I watched this 30 years ago, but didn't really remember anything about it. It was pretty funny with plenty of gags.

:6510:
851 - The Return of the Living Dead (1985) - 6.5/10 - This comedy horror film wasn't really my thing. I liked it less than Romero's Dawn of the Dead and a lot less than Night of the Living Dead.
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Re: Movies

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:7510:
852 - Fail-Safe (1964) - 7.5/10 - A Cold War thriller about a bomb group that receives the go signal to bomb Moscow, possibly due to a mechanical failure, and cannot be recalled. It seemed implausible, though I wasn't around then, but it did a decent job building tension and was still fairly entertaining.

:810:
853 - Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) - 8/10 - We get to see two hours in the life of a young singer who is awaiting the results of a test to see if she has cancer. Many of her friends don't take her concerns seriously. It's beautifully shot and we get to see a number of places in Paris as she travels around the city.

:610:
854 - Golden Girl (1951) - 6/10 - Mitzi Gaynor stars as Lotta Crabtree, a popular singer and entertainer in the 1860s-1880s. We follow Lotta from her start in show business through the end of the Civil War. It was mildly entertaining, but I did get tired of the overuse of them singing "Oh them golden slippers". As a sidenote, when Crabtree died in 1924, she left behind an estate worth around $4 million at the time. Her will established a charitable trust that still exists today.

:610:
855 - Say One for Me (1959) - 6/10 - Bing Crosby stars as a priest whose parish is in the middle of a theater district. He holds a regular 2am mass for performers to attend. Debbie Reynolds is a young woman at his church whose father is a well known performer, but is now ill. In need of money, she gets a job at a sketchy night club run by Robert Wagner.

:7510:
856 - The Corsican Brothers (1941) - 7.5/10 - Twins are separated from each other (in more ways than one) not long after they are born. Their parents are killed by an enemy and the twins are raised by different parent far from each other. Circumstances reunite them 20 years later to oppose the man who killed their parents. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. does a nice job in this adventure story.

:810:
857 - À Nos Amours (1983) - 8/10 - Sandrine Bonnaire stars as Suzanne, a 16 year old girl who won't sleep with her boyfriend, but starts sleeping with a number of men, including random strangers. Her father leaves the family, leaving the older brother in charge. The brother beats Suzanne for her behavior and how it affects their mother. Bonnaire was very good and I also liked Maurice Pialat as the father.

:610:
858 - Primer (2004) - 6/10 - A group of engineers spend their free time trying to invent things in the garage. Two of them succeed and then start playing around with their discovery. This was an extremely low budget film and isn't bad for what it is.


End of the World (2002) - (9 minutes)
Comedy (2002) - (11 minutes)
Dan Petory Kyoushu no Yuutsu (2002) - (8 minutes)
Higan (2002) - (8 minutes)
A Well-Ordered Restaurant (1992) - (19 minutes)

Voices of a Distant Star (2002) - (25 minutes)
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Re: Movies

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:210:
859 - Maniac (1934) - 2/10 - Well, that was weird.

:710:
860 - A Certain Smile (1958) - 7/10 - A young woman (Christine Carère) in college falls for her boyfriend's uncle (Rossano Brazzi), even though he is married and the wife (Joan Fontaine) is really nice.

:810:
861- The Proud and Profane (1956) - 8/10 - A Red Cross volunteer (Deborah Kerr) arrives in the South Pacific, hoping to be able to visit the place where her husband died on Guadalcanal. She is full of self-pity and comes under the sell of a rough and mean colonel (William Holden). A number of experiences in the islands serve to change her. Kerr and Holden are pretty good as is Thelma Ritter in a supporting role.

:7510:
862 - Take a Letter, Darling (1942) - 7.5/10 - In a reversal of typical gender roles, Rosalind Russell is a successful advertising executive who hires Fred MacMurray to be her personal secretary. Russell plans to use MacMurray as eye candy to help land accounts, but starts to fall for him. It's a fun romantic comedy.

:710:
863 - My Son, My Son! (1940) - 7/10 - William Essex (Brian Aherne) pulled himself up from poverty and became a successful author. He doted and indulged his son (Louis Hayward) so much that the son grew up to be spoiled, self-centered, and somewhat amoral. Then they find themselves interested in the same woman. A bit too melodramatic at times, perhaps, but I liked it.

:810:
864 - The Big Clock (1948) - 8/10 - The editor of a crime magazine (Ray Milland) wants to go on his honeymoon with his wife (Maureen O'Sullivan). It has been postponed for a long time due to the demands of his job. He finally gets away, but has to return when he realizes that he is being framed for a murder and he has to figure it out before they pin it on him. A nice noir film with a fair amount of humor,.

The Girl from Carthage (1924) - (18 minutes)
The Big Shave (1967) - (6 minutes)
Opening Day of Close-Up (1996) - (7 minutes)
Associations (1975) - (7 minutes)
Begone Dull Care (1950) - (8 minutes)
Powers of Ten (1977) - (9 minutes)
The Girl Chewing Gum (1976) - (12 minutes)
Eaux d'artifice (1953) - (13 minutes)
The Games of Angels (1964) - (12 minutes)
The Perfect Human (1968) - (13 minutes)
Rose Hobart (1936) - (19 minutes)
Report (1967) - (13 minutes)
Unsere Afrikareise (1966) - (13 minutes)
Window Water Baby Moving (1959) - (13 minutes)
A Movie (1958) - (12 minutes)
Ten Minutes Older (1978) - (10 minutes)
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Re: Movies

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:710:
865 - Winter Light (1963) - 7/10 - A pastor who lacks faith finds it difficult to counsel the few people who attend his service, including a suicidal man and a schoolteacher who is in love with him. This is beautifully shot, but I found it hard to get engaged with the story.

:810:
866 - The Double Life of Veronique (1991) - 8/10 - A young woman named Weronika is an aspiring singer in Poland. She has an identical, but unrelated, twin named Veronique who is a French music teacher. Weronika auditions for a job with an orchestra and Veronique pursues a relationship with a puppeteer.

:7510:
867 - The Mummy (1969) - 7.5/10 - This film takes place in 1881 and relates how Egyptian authorities track down the source of antiquities being sold on the black market by local tribesmen and discover a cache of royal mummies. I thought the film started out very strong, but became a bit less interesting in the second half.

:8510:
868 - Cairo Station (1958) - 8.5/10 - The story revolves around people who make their living at Cairo Station. Hanuma is a young woman who sells cold drinks to passengers. Her fiance, Abu Siri, is a porter who wants to set up a union. Qinawai walks with a limp, sells newspapers, isn't quite right in the head, and is obsessed with women, especially Hanuma. I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

:710:
869 - Up in Arms (1944) - 7/10 - Danny Kaye stars as Danny Weems, a hypochondriac elevator who is drafted along with his best friend. He likes a nurse named Mary, but Mary is in love with Danny's friend Joe while Joe is dating Virginia who is secretly in love with Danny. The women enlist as army nurses and all four get shipped out to the South Pacific. It's kind of dumb and crazy, but there is plenty of music along with humor.

:7510:
870 - Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) - 7.5/10 - Eddie Cantor stars in two roles here - as a demanding version of himself and as a lookalike who gives Hollywood tours. Eddie's antics threaten the all-star show that two producers (Edward Everett Horton and S.Z. Sakall) are trying to set up for the war effort. There are plenty of stars here, including Olivia de Havilland, Dinah Shore, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Ida Lupino, and many more. It's a fun movie with plenty of music and humor.

:710:
871 - Centennial Summer (1946) - 7/10 - It's 1876 and America's hundredth birthday is here. Two sisters (Jeanne Crain and Linda Darnell) in Philadelphia vie for the attention of the same frenchman (Cornel Wilde) who has arrived to set up the French pavilion at the Centennial Exposition. The girls' father (Walter Brennan) works for the railroad and has dreams of being an inventor.


Colour in Clay (1941) - (11 minutes)
I Am Twenty (1967) - (19 minutes)
Before My Eyes (1989) - (26 minutes)
A Ship Aground (1988) - (26 minutes)
Figures of Thought (1990) - (32 minutes)
15/67: TV (1967) - (4 minutes)
What Goes Up (2003) - (5 minutes)
Trade Tattoo (1937) - (5 minutes)
Stadt in Flammen (1984) - (5 minutes)
Dresden Dynamo (1971) - (5 minutes)
Blinkity Blank (1955) - (5 minutes)
Appunti su un fatto di cronaca (1953) - (5 minutes)
The Heart of the World (2000) - (6 minutes)
Wait (1968) - (5 minutes)
The Ducksters (1950) - (7 minutes)
Rabbit's Moon (1950) - (7 minutes)
T.G.: Psychic Rally in Heaven (1981) - (8 minutes)
Last Words (1968) - (13 minutes)
Post-Haste (1934) - (9 minutes)
Last edited by Rusty on Tue Aug 30, 2022 10:13 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Movies

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:7510:
872 - Kiss Me Deadly (1955) - 7.5/10 - Mike Hammer picks up a woman wearing only a trenchcoat who is running down a dirt road. This leads him into the arms of a group of thugs who torture the woman for information and later set their sights on Hammer. He tries to figure out what they are after, but clues are hard to come by. It's a pretty decent noir film.

:710:
873 - Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948) - 7/10 - At 16, Sophie Dorothea was married to George Louis of Hanover who would go on to be George I of England. It was an arranged and loveless marriage. Nearly a decade later, Sophie Dorothea was reunited with a childhood friend and the two fell in love. They hoped to escape together, but much was against them. It is a good period drama.

:810:
874 - Jalsaghar / The Music Room (1958) - 8/10 - A once wealthy landlord spends a large portion of his wealth to give concerts for the locals in his music room. It's a nice film, with the music and dancing integral to the story instead of just entertainment interludes.

:710:
875 - Shock Corridor (1963) - 7/10 - A journalist has dreams of winning a pulitzer Prize when he enlists the help of a psychiatrist and his girlfriend to get himself committed to a state mental asylum so that he can solve a murder. Is he really ready for the experience inside the asylum, though.

Shipyard (1935) - (24 minutes)
Talking Heads (1980) - (14 minutes)
Housing Problems (1935) - (15 minutes)
Les raquetteurs (1958) - (15 minutes)
Necrology (1971) - (12 minutes)
Coal Face (1935) - (11 minutes)
The Inextinguishable Fire (1969) - (22 minutes)
Night Mail (1936) - (23 minutes)
Mädchen in Wittstock (1975) - (19 minutes)
Granton Trawler (1934) - (11 minutes)
In the Street (1948) - (12 minutes)
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Re: Movies

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Paní Le Murie (1993) - (34 minutes)
Joseph Kilian (1963) - (37 minutes)

No.4 (1966) - (6 minutes) - 387 checks

:7510:
876 - Kitty (1945) - 7.5/10 - Kitty (Paulette Goddard) is a pickpocket with a sharp cockney accent. A painter gets her cleaned up and paints her portrait. This gains her notice from a few members of the aristocracy. One of them (Ray Milland) knows her true identity and teaches her to be a lady before introducing her into high society. It's a familiar premise, but I thought it was carried out well and the movie was entertaining.


:710:
877 - Lady in the Dark (1944) - 7/10 - Ginger Rogers stars as a successful magazine editor who has been feeling off for about 6 months so she goes to see a psychoanalyst. She tends to be in control in most situations, but now feels like she is starting to come unraveled. One of her key subordinates (Ray Milland) knows how to push her buttons and seems to relish ticking her off. Rogers is pretty good in her role. Milland is also good, though his character generally isn't very likeable.
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Re: Movies

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:710:
878 - Forever Amber (1947) - 7/10 - Linda Darnell stars as Amber St. Clair. Amber was orphaned as a baby during the English Civil War and raised by a Puritan family. She runs away from them to London in 1660 during the Restoration and becomes involved with a Cavalier named Bruce (Cornel Wilde). After he leaves to become a privateer, she ends up in Newgate, becomes involved with a highwayman, the count, and the king. The film has nice use of color and looks great, though it is a bit slow in places. I liked Darnell in her role and it is a decent film.

:7510:
879 - Rhapsody in Blue (1945) - 7.5/10 - An entertaining biopic on the life of George Gershwin with a number of people in his life (such as Oscar Levant) playing themselves. It's too bad that they had to fictionalize things by adding in a couple of love interests and leaving out two of his siblings.

Oil Gobblers (1988) - (20 minutes)
Fotel (1964) - (6 minutes)
Samadhi (1967) - (5 minutes)
Jamestown Baloos (1957) - (5 minutes)
The Machine (1961) - (6 minutes)
Warszawa 1956 (1956) - (7 minutes)
Wszystko jest liczba (1967) - (7 minutes) - This would have been fun to show to some of my math classes when I was still teaching
Canyon (1970) - (6 minutes)
The End of One (1973) - (7 minutes)
Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure (1929) - (6 minutes)
Jan 69 (1969) - (8 minutes)
Maria-Empfängnis-Aktion Hermann Nitsch (1969) - (7 minutes)
Visual Training (1969) - (8 minutes)
To Live (1958) - (6 minutes)
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Re: Movies

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:810:
880 - By the Law (1926) - 8/10 - Five people are searching for gold in the Yukon. However, one of them is made to do a lot of the dirty work while also getting picked on by the rest. Then one day he snaps.

:810:
881 - Destiny (1921) - 8/10 - Death takes away a woman's fiance and gives her three chances to win the fiance back from his grasp. Visually it is pretty well done.

:8510:
882 - He Who Gets Slapped (1924) - 8.5/10 - Lon Chaney is excellent as a man whose accomplishments and woman are stolen from him by his mentor. In his sorrow, he becomes a clown that specializes in getting slapped by other clowns in order to make the crowd laugh. He becomes fond of a new member of the circus (Norma Shearer), but the man who betrayed him sets his sights on her as well.

:810:
883 - Show People (1928) - 8/10 - Marion Davies stars as a woman who becomes a star in comedy pictures, but really wants to do drama. When she gets her chance, she forgets the good times she had and essentially becomes a whole new person. Davies is pretty funny here, though I liked the first half with the comedy segments more than the second half, though she is good in both. William Haines co-stars as the actor who got her into the comedy pictures. There are lots of cameos, including Charlie Chaplin, King Vidor, and even Marion Davies.

:810:
884 - Stachka / Strike (1925) - 8/10 - Workers at a Russian factory in 1903 decide to go on strike. Things seem to be going their way at first and they issue a number of demands to the bosses. However, the bosses have ideas of their own. There are some really nice shots here and good uses of crowd scenes.
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Re: Movies

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Bellezze italiche: Lagune e paesaggi (1912) - (15 minutes) - Italy - Beautiful scenery
Seelische Konstruktionen (1927) - (6 minutes) - A nice animated short
Brumes d'automne (1929) - (12 minutes) - France
Manhatta (1921) - (10 minutes)
A Propos de Nice (1930) - (23 minutes) - France
När Kapten Grogg skulle porträtteras (1917) - (5 minutes)
Ghosts Before Breakfast (1928) - (9 minutes)


:7510:
885 - Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ (1925) - 7.5/10 - Some of the scenes are definitely on a big scale and I liked the technicolor sequences. I enjoyed the film, though thought it moved a bit slowly in places. The chariot race at the end was good, though it is unfortunate that they apparently treated animals very poorly in the making of this film.

:8510:
886 - Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) - 8.5/10 - Louise Brooks stars as a young woman named Thymian who is raped by her father's assistant. When she refuses to marry the man, her father sends her off to a strict reform school for wayward girls. Life there is unpleasant, but she is able to escape with a friend. Brooks does a fine job in her role. Thymian undergoes a series of unpleasant experiences, but is able to grow from the naive young woman that she started as into a mature and generous person as she gains more control over her life.

:710:
887 - Flesh and the Devil (1926) - 7/10 - John Gilbert stars as a man who falls for a woman (Greta Garbo) only to find out later that she is married. This leads to a duel and his exile to Africa for a number of years. When he returns, he finds that his best friend has married the woman, not knowing about his love for her as well.

:8510:
888 - Lucky Star (1929) - 8.5/10 - Janet Gaynor stars as Mary, a teenage farm girl who writes to Tim (Charles Farrell), a man in her town who gets drafted and sent to fight in WWI. He returns home without the use of his legs and she visits him regularly with the two falling for each other. Mary's mother prefers a slick talking former sergeant to a 'cripple'. Gaynor and Farrell are each really good and I liked this one about as much as 7th Heaven.
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Re: Movies

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:810:
889 - The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) - 8/10 - The earliest surviving animated feature uses a silhouette technique that is pretty cool and effective. The film itself is a mix of stories from Arabian Nights combined into a story that is pretty good.

:810:
890 - The Phantom Carriage (1921) - 8/10 - There is a legend that if a great sinner dies late on New Year's Eve, they will be responsible for driving Death's chariot to collect the souls of the dead for the next year. David Holm is one such sinner and we learn much of his story through flashback on New Year's Eve. There are some nice camera tricks here, but also a fairly involved and entertaining story.

:710:
891 - La Aldea Maldita / The Cursed Village (1930) - 7/10 - A hailstorm ruins the crops that Juan worked hard to grow. He ends up in prison after an argument and his wife leaves the village with their son, thinking the village is cursed. Three years later, Juan gets out of prison and goes in search of his wife.

:710:
892 - Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922) - 7/10 - Criminal mastermind Dr. Mabuse has a counterfeiting ring and also uses hypnosis to cheat at cards. I think this is a decent film, but it also felt like it was bloated and meandering. I much prefer the sequel, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse.

:810:
893 - Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge (1924) - 8/10 - I enjoyed this film a lot more than the first part with Siegfried.

:810:
894 - The Man Who Laughs (1928) - 8/10 - In 1690, a young boy has his face permanently disfigured into a smile because of an order from the king. He is later abandoned by those who did the deed and is raised by a man with a small traveling circus act. The boy becomes a well known clown when he grows up, though has plenty of sadness due to how people react to his looks. Conrad Veidt is very good as Gwynplaine and I can definitely see how his likeness was an inspiration for the Joker.

:510:
895 - Hill of Freedom (2014) - 5/10 - Mori is a Japanese language teacher who travels to South Korea in search of a woman that he knew years earlier. He befriends the lady who runs the place where he stays, her nephew, and the lady who runs a cafe. It's pretty laid back and kind of dull.

Cinq minutes de cinéma pur (1926) - (5 minutes)
The Lonedale Operator (1911) - (17 minutes)
The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) - (18 minutes)
The Battle of Elderbush Gulch (1913) - (29 minutes)
Filmstudie (1926) - (4 minutes)
Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse (1925) - (8 minutes)
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Re: Movies

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:610:
896 - I Don't Want to Be a Man (1918) - 6/10 - Ossi Oswalda stars as a spoiled tomboy in a wealthy family who likes to smoke, play cards, and do whatever she wants. Tired of restrictions being forced on her, she dresses up as a man to go out and enjoy life, but discovers that men can have it tough, too. The comedy here didn't really hit for me much of the time. It liked The Oyster Princess and The Doll, but this one was more of a miss.

:710:
897 - Shoes (1916) - 7/10 - A teenage girl has to support her parents and three sisters with what she makes at the 5 and 10 cent store she works at. meanwhile, she suffers through each day on a ratty old pair of shoes, unable to afford a new pair. Her father seems to prefer reading and smoking to looking for work. The film hammers the poverty message hard and the actress playing the lead seems mostly devoid of emotion, though that could be because of the mental fatigue from her situation. Her sister and coworker are much more animated and lively. Still, it's not a bad film.

:710:
898 - Don't Change Your Husband (1919) - 7/10 - Gloria Swanson stars as a woman whose wealthy husband takes her for granted. The husband spends a lot of time at work, forgets their anniversary, eats lots of onions, and is fairly sloppy around home. She decides to divorce him and ends up marrying a slick acquaintance who has been trying to woo her away from her husband. However, she finds that her new married life comes with its own set of problems. I thought the film was decent, though her marrying the second guy when she had mostly shown disdain for him until then seemed a bit odd. Elliott Dexter as the first husband was pretty good.

:810:
899 - Terje Vigen (1917) - 8/10 - In 1809, a British ship is blocking a Norwegian port. One man is desperate to feed his family and takes a small boat to Denmark for food. He is captured and imprisoned until the war is over, but finds that much has changed when he returns home. The film has good scenes at sea and I thought the acting was mostly pretty good.

:7510:
900 - True Heart Susie (1919) - 7.5/10 - Lillian Gish plays Susie, a farm girl who is in love with her neighbor William. She secretly pays for him to go to college, but when he returns years later after becoming a minister, he marries another woman. Susie continues to pine for William while he finds himself in a marriage that is a mismatch for both parties. Susie and William are each naive and a bit slow in their own way, but good hearted.

:810:
901 - Taste of Cherry (1997) - 8/10 - A man drives around the city and the hills outside the city looking for someone willing to bury his body after he kills himself. There is a lot of driving across a fairly barren landscape and finding a willing person is tough. It's a good film, though it took me a while to warm to it.

:8510:
902 - J'Accuse (1919) - 8.5/10 - Jean loves his neighbor Edith. Edith happens to be married to Francois and she cares for both men. When the world war starts, the two men join the army with Francois ending up a sergeant and Jean a lieutenant in the same unit. The two men are antagonistic toward each other at first and I liked how the relationship between the two men developed over time. The film shows some fighting, but is more about the relationship between the two men and Edith along with showing some of the suffering that happens during wartime. Romuald Joubé was particularly good as Jean and Abel Gance did a very nice job directing the film.
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Re: Movies

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:7510:
903 - The Blue Bird (1918) - 7.5/10 - Two kids go off looking for the bluebird of happiness. I think this is a nice fairy tale adaptation of the play. I certainly liked it a lot more than the later version with Shirley Temple. That film looked nice, but wasn't as good. The kids in this version are very animated and do a great job. The supporting cast is also good.

:810:
904 - The Dragon Painter (1919) - 8/10 - A famous painter is looking for a successor, but is having no luck in that regard. Finally, a worthy successor is found in the form of a man living in the mountains who seems half crazy, but paints beautifully. His inspiration is his lost fiancee who has been turned into a dragon and has been sleeping under the earth for 1000 years. The exterior shots are beautiful and I liked the sets as well. I also thought the acting and story were good.

:7510:
905 - The Hoodlum (1919) - 7.5/10 - Mary Pickford is the spoiled granddaughter of a wealthy businessman. Her life changes when she turns down her grandfather's plan of a trip to Europe to move to the slums with her not-so-wealthy father. She quickly adapts to life there, though. Pickford is pretty good here and there is plenty of humor, including a nice drive in the country.

:7510:
906 - The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) - 7.5/10 - Mary Pickford stars as a little girl whose 11th birthday is approaching. She is neglected by her parents who are more interested in making money and their social position. She is also bossed around by the servants. There are some fun parts including a mud fight and an interesting way to take a bath. The picture grew on my as it went along, thanks in large part to Pickford.

:510:
907 - Umirayushchiy lebed (1917) - 5/10 - A mute woman is spurned in love and then becomes a famous ballerina, known for performing the Dying Swan. This film didn't interest me all that much, unfortunately.

:610:
908 - Satan's Rhapsody (1917) - 6/10 - An old woman makes a deal with Mephisto to restore her youth and beauty, but of course there's a catch. The film has nice uses of red and green.

Italy
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Rusty
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Re: Movies

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:610:
909 - Riff-Raff (1991) - 6/10 - A homeless man gets a job at a construction site not known for being concerned for worker safety. His coworkers help him find a place to stay. He later meets an Irish singer and they start a relationship. There were some parts that were fun or interesting, but overall it was do-do.

:8510:
910 - Tih Minh (1918) - 8.5/10 - (384 minutes) - This spy serial looks great after its recent restoration. I found it very entertaining with its action and intrigue along with shootouts, kidnappings, hypnosis, and much more. Placide was my favorite character with his occasional comic relief along with his ingenuity.


Arbuckle/Keaton shorts
Back Stage (1919) - (21 minutes)
Coney Island (1917) - (26 minutes)
Good Night, Nurse! (1918) - (23 minutes)
His Wedding Night (1917) - (20 minutes)
Moonshine (1918) - (18 minutes)
Oh Doctor! (1917) - (24 minutes)
Out West (1918) - (21 minutes)
The Bell Boy (1918) - (26 minutes)
The Cook (1918) - (20 minutes)
The Garage (1920) - (22 minutes)
The Hayseed (1919) - (22 minutes)

The Butcher Boy (1917) - (25 minutes)
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Rusty
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Re: Movies

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:710:
911 - Yol (1982) - 7/10 - A group of Kurdish prisoners are granted one week of home leave. If they don't return on time, they will be considered to be fugitives. While out of prison, they face discrimination and also family problems. It gives a picture of what life was like in Turkey for some at the time.

:7510:
912 - Shall We Dance? (1996) - 7.5/10 - A 40-something accountant is successful, but something is missing. He starts taking ballroom dance lessons in secret and it fills that need. I saw the American remake when it came out and enjoyed that. This was fun as well with some interesting characters. The main character was a bit bland most of the time, but a lot of that might have been him needing to come out of his shell. The film has a nice supporting cast.

:710:
913 - Takový je život / Such is Life (1930) - 7/10 - We get a look into the lives of a family in Prague - the mother who works hard washing laundry and trying to keep the family going. The father who shovels coal, but whose alcoholism gets the better of him. The adult daughter who works as a manicurist, but seems a bit under the weather so she goes to a doctor to find out why. It's a nice film with minimal intertitles.

:6510:
914 - Les vampires (1915) - 6.5/10 - (400+ minutes) - This Louis Feuillade serial is about a group of criminals known as The Vampires and the work of a journalist and others to bring them down. It was okay, but unfortunately I didn't like this nearly as much as Tih Minh. I liked Fantômas more than this as well. The plot seemed much less cohesive and kind of all over the place. I don't regret watching it, but it could certainly have been better.
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Re: Movies

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:610:
915 - Different from the Others (1919) - 6/10 - This propaganda film attempted to educate people in Germany about homosexuality so that they would hopefully get rid of the law that made it illegal. It's a good message, though not a particularly good film.

:610:
916 - The Cheat (1915) - 6/10 - A businessman is waiting for his investments to pay off and asks his wife to show restraint. HIs spoiled wife likes to spend, spend, spend and decides to secretly invest charity funds on a get rich quick scheme that backfires, leading to more problems. Sessue Hayakawa was good, but Fannie Ward's style of acting hasn't aged well.

:710:
917 - The Queen of Spades (1916) - 7/10 - Sixty years earlier, a countess is said to have learned a secret that allowed her to play three cards in a certain order and erase her gambling debt. A man sets out to find out that secret.

:710:
918 - The President (1919) - 7/10 - A son swears an oath to his father just before the father passes away. This oath comes back to haunt him many years later.
Last edited by Rusty on Fri Sep 09, 2022 10:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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