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Saturday 30 April 2022
Meister Eder und sein Pumuckl (1981)
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The adventures of an old fashioned master cabinet maker in Munich and the tiny red-haired goblin Pumuckl, who becomes visible to him when he gets stuck to the pot of glue in his workshop.
From memory: Film version of a popular Bavarian TV series made for children and offers the same brand of agreeable, harmless humor that may not appeal to foreign audience; beloved actor Gustl Bayrhammer as Meister Eder is perfectly cast in both film and series.
Friday 29 April 2022
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Mommie Dearest (1981)
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The abusive and traumatic adoptive upbringing of Christina Crawford at the hands of her mother, screen queen Joan Crawford, is depicted.
From memory: High-volume bio-pic gives Faye Dunaway the chance to give her the most over-the-top performance of her career depicting Joan Crawford as a real-life monster; film is full of bone-chilling scenes you'd otherwise find in a bona fide horror movie; campy, but must be seen to be believed.
Halliwell (no star): "On the screen it all seemed too silly for words, and nobody cared anyway."
Maltin**1/2: "Vivid, well-crafted filmization of Christina Crawford's book...Knowing that the story is (allegedly) real makes watching this film a creepy experience...though now it's seen as a camp classic!"
Thursday 28 April 2022
Nippon konchûki (1963)
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Life story of a woman born in poverty trying to succeed. Through her many schemes, she faces her ups and downs in a cyclical nature, fueled mostly by self-interest.
The biography of one woman is clearly set as an allegory for the development of Japanese society in the 20th century, unsparingly showing her many unsuccessful attempts to cope with life and her often shockingly hard downfalls; made in a semi-documentary style, a large cast of good performers and an eventful narrative.
NB: The last scene is a brilliant summary of the film's story: the woman returns by foot to her mountain village walking or rather stumbling up a stony path wearing a pair of geta (Japanese wooden footwear resembling flip-flops). One of the shoes breaks, so she takes the geta off walks on bare-footed.
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My Dinner with Andre (1981)
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Two old friends meet for dinner; as one tells anecdotes detailing his experiences, the other notices their differing worldviews.
From memory: A film that presents a nearly two-hour conversation is maybe not the most inviting premise, but My Dinner With Andre is a fascinating, even mesmerizing experience, and Shawn and Gregory perform as if you were actually sitting at the next table overhearing a real and truly interesting exchange between two artists/intellectuals.
Halliwell*: "Curious two-hander which can please the right,audience, when it's in the mood; for selling tickets, forget it."
Maltin**1/2: "A daring and unique film...with moments of insight, drama, and hilarity - but not enough for a feature-length film."
Wednesday 27 April 2022
At the Circus (1939)
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The Marx Brothers try to help the owner of a circus recover some stolen funds before he finds himself out of a job.
From memory: Although not among the best of the Marx Brothers comedies, this film still has an abundance of their wild anarchistic fun and quite a few memorable scenes; the romance, however, well, you simply need to grin and bear it.
Halliwell**: "This film began the decline of the Marx Brothers; in it nothing is ill done but nothing is very fresh either apart from the rousing finale which shows what professionalism meant in the Old Hollywood. Highlights include Groucho singing about Lydia the Tattooed Lady, his seduction of Mrs Dukesbury, and the big society party."
Maltin**1/2: "Not top-grade Marx Brothers, but some good scenes..."
Tuesday 26 April 2022
Malevil (1981)
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A group of ordinary French survived a nuclear war and found themselves in the face of what was left of civilization.
From memory: Post-apocalyptic drama envisions in calm and bleak images the social and political implications of a life in a totally uprooted world, basically a pessimistic film that gives hope only in an ambiguous open ending.
Sunday 24 April 2022
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Panny z Wilka (1979)
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A man just under forty, comes to the countryside and visits his aunt and uncle`s house, as well as a nearby manor house where he spent his youthful years accompanied by the young girls living there.
From memory: A study of post-war loss and decay is presented in poetic and atmospheric images, all in good artistic taste, but without any direct political stance.
Saturday 23 April 2022
Angst (1983)
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A troubled man gets released from prison and starts taking out his sadistic fantasies on an unsuspecting family living in a secluded house.
Thoroughly told from the perspective of a serial killer, this psychological drama is almost unbearably intense, also thanks to Erwin Leder's totally immersive performance, and may cross borders for some of the audience.
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La soupe aux choux (1981)
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2 buddy farmers are visited by aliens who like their domestic cabbage soup.
From memory: This Louis de Funès' comedy is clearly one of the weakest with its crude and juvenile humor - and maybe silliest by introducing aliens to the plot.
Friday 22 April 2022
Sophie: A Murder in West Cork (2021)
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The documentary follows the investigation of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier, a French film and TV producer who was killed while at her isolated holiday cottage in West Cork, Ireland, in 1996.
A mysterious murder and its impact on the Irish small town community and its international implications is extensively analyzed and intrigues with its romantic settings in West Cork and doesn't ignore the fact that the actual case is still not fully resolved.
The Tomorrow War (2021)
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A family man is drafted to fight in a future war where the fate of humanity relies on his ability to confront the past.
Big-budget, heavily derivative sc-fi alien invasion thriller does entertain, if you don't give any thoughts to the involved time-travel aspects of the story, and the third section is also a bit humorous.
Liebeskonzil (1982)
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The playwright Oskar Panizzi was imprisoned by a Bavarian court in 1895 and committed to an insane asylum in 1904, for the rest of his life. The film covers his trial and a performance of his play.
From memory: Werner Schroeter's variation on Oscar Panizza's infamous drama is not an adaptation, but rather a depiction of the artist's fate fighting against a bigot state censorship, a bit dry and outdated topic, but the stage scenes are quite colorful and grotesque. Ironically, the film was banned in Austria for its blasphemy and is still not available to this day.
Thursday 21 April 2022
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Lenz (1982)
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An adaptation of George Buchner's novella, "Lenz", chronicling the poet Jakob Lenz's slide into insanity and madness. The setting is transposed from 18th century Germany to New York in the early 1980s.
From memory: Georg Büchner's Lenz, a classic novella of German
literature, is imaginatively and thoughtfully set into present-day New
York, told in sparse, but intensive images and conveying a person lost
in a large, nihilistic environment.
Tuesday 19 April 2022
Ils (2006)
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Lucas and Clementine live peacefully in their isolated country house, but one night they wake up to strange noise... they're not alone... and a group of hooded assailants begin to terrorize them throughout the night.
Down-to-the-basics home invasion thriller certainly knows how to turn up the suspense and deliver the scares, but in the end it has all been a bubble of air.
Maltin**1/2: "Simple, tense, terse two-character thriller has a cold, cold heart, and rates kudos for scant grue. But the disappointing Big Reveal is just a variation on the same-old same-old, brandishing a dull and rusty cutting edge."
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Kamikaze 89 (1982)
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In a totalitarian society of the future, in which the government controls all facets of the press, a homicide detective investigates a string of bombings, and finds out more than he bargained for.
From memory: Preposterous sci-fi nonsense is full of bizarre,
outlandish designs (Fassbinder's leopard suit!), bad acting
and pseudo-philosophical pretensions plus an illogical plot to boot.
NB: Among German film buffs bad German movies are rated in "Gremm-Einheiten" (Gremm units).
Maltin***: "Exciting if sometimes confusing thriller..."
Monday 18 April 2022
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