I'm currently tracking my progress with icheckmovies, and at the rate I'm going it might as well take the rest of my lifetime... (91 films after 5 years... uh...) although part of the reason for that is because I didn't watch any of the films on my to-watch list for the past year or so out of circumstance. But anyway, after a random conversation with a coworker, I decided to try and get back on it again, and I'm slowly getting there!
I'm not sure what exactly it was that inspired me to do this... aside from The Godfather being the first movie that got me wanting to watch more movies of this sort, I guess. During the year where I started getting more into this, I also took a course on Race and American Film (under African American studies, interestingly enough; the class had the most racially diverse demographic I'd ever seen on campus) for Berkeley's AC requirement, which wound up being one of the best courses I ever took at Berkeley. The first half of the week would be like history class (plus the film viewing at night), and the second half was like a film class where we'd critically analyze the films themselves, some scenes shot by shot, using the proper terminology and such. It's also the class that got me started on The Wire, but that's another story.
I'm not sure what exactly it was that inspired me to do this... aside from The Godfather being the first movie that got me wanting to watch more movies of this sort, I guess. During the year where I started getting more into this, I also took a course on Race and American Film (under African American studies, interestingly enough; the class had the most racially diverse demographic I'd ever seen on campus) for Berkeley's AC requirement, which wound up being one of the best courses I ever took at Berkeley. The first half of the week would be like history class (plus the film viewing at night), and the second half was like a film class where we'd critically analyze the films themselves, some scenes shot by shot, using the proper terminology and such. It's also the class that got me started on The Wire, but that's another story.
Lately I've been finding that Netflix has been actually useful for finding some of these movies. After running through the rating system randomly for a while, it's gotten to the point now where most of the movies that it thinks I'd rate with more than 4 stars winds up being a film on the They Shoot Pictures list, which is pretty cool. Of course, it's probable that I'm self-selecting this process by purposefully rating movies that I've already seen on the list highly... although I'm not exactly trying to rate them highly just for being on the list. It'd honestly be easier if there were a mapping from the list to available entries on Netflix... hm, maybe an idea for a web app.
Recently seen (not including stuff from theaters this year):
- West Side Story (1961).
Don't know why I never saw it before even though I kinda knew most of the songs already without realizing it. It's pretty good, although part of me likes Gypsy more...? as a Sondheim pre-composition era musical anyway. It might just be that I'm a little tired of the typical Romeo and Juliet storyline by now, although the songs were still good. "America" is still my favorite song, although I found out that apparently all modern day stage productions ever since that movie are forbidden from casting that song with male performers (although the original stage production had that song with only females to begin with). I have trouble picturing it being sung without the guys though... it feels pretty much like a different song by then.
- Man in the Dark, and Inferno (both 1953)
Saw these at the Noir City film festival with some people. I had no idea 3D Noir was a thing, but apparently they were advertising them for their 3D-ness in the 50's. The former is about a criminal who has amnesia after having part of his brain surgically removed (...what) and is forced to recall his memories by his former partners. It was really trying to push for the random reach-out-at-you-through-the-screen scares at every second, especially with the surgery and spider scenes... and it wound up being perhaps unintentionally funny at times because of random oddities in the script or stage direction (security guards that put their hands up when being robbed without a gun?).
This wasn't so much of an issue with the latter- about an adulterous couple who attempt to strand the woman's husband in a desert to die, and his attempt to survive. It generally more serious and focused, although with a few really randomly funny moments ("what, you mean... actually kill him?"). There was this one moment with a thrown lantern in your face that looked really weird; it was almost like a fireball. But anyway, they were both really entertaining.
We had a discussion about what exactly defines noir (since it's not limited to black and white films - Inferno was in color; there's also neo-noir like Chinatown and Brick). I guess I'd associate it with crime dramas/thrillers that feature morally ambiguous and cynical characters. There's also usually at least one or two major suspense scenes also, or the kind that would put me at the edge of my seat, as there were in these two films, but I wonder if that's just limited to my own experience.
Recently seen (not including stuff from theaters this year):
- West Side Story (1961).
Don't know why I never saw it before even though I kinda knew most of the songs already without realizing it. It's pretty good, although part of me likes Gypsy more...? as a Sondheim pre-composition era musical anyway. It might just be that I'm a little tired of the typical Romeo and Juliet storyline by now, although the songs were still good. "America" is still my favorite song, although I found out that apparently all modern day stage productions ever since that movie are forbidden from casting that song with male performers (although the original stage production had that song with only females to begin with). I have trouble picturing it being sung without the guys though... it feels pretty much like a different song by then.
- Man in the Dark, and Inferno (both 1953)
Saw these at the Noir City film festival with some people. I had no idea 3D Noir was a thing, but apparently they were advertising them for their 3D-ness in the 50's. The former is about a criminal who has amnesia after having part of his brain surgically removed (...what) and is forced to recall his memories by his former partners. It was really trying to push for the random reach-out-at-you-through-the-screen scares at every second, especially with the surgery and spider scenes... and it wound up being perhaps unintentionally funny at times because of random oddities in the script or stage direction (security guards that put their hands up when being robbed without a gun?).
This wasn't so much of an issue with the latter- about an adulterous couple who attempt to strand the woman's husband in a desert to die, and his attempt to survive. It generally more serious and focused, although with a few really randomly funny moments ("what, you mean... actually kill him?"). There was this one moment with a thrown lantern in your face that looked really weird; it was almost like a fireball. But anyway, they were both really entertaining.
We had a discussion about what exactly defines noir (since it's not limited to black and white films - Inferno was in color; there's also neo-noir like Chinatown and Brick). I guess I'd associate it with crime dramas/thrillers that feature morally ambiguous and cynical characters. There's also usually at least one or two major suspense scenes also, or the kind that would put me at the edge of my seat, as there were in these two films, but I wonder if that's just limited to my own experience.
- Goodfellas (1990)
Had a really similar feel to The Departed, another crime film which was also directed by Scorcese. Perhaps a little too similar for my liking... and I still like Taxi Driver more (and for a film about Italian gangsters, Godfather more). But I've barely seen enough Scorcese to really make an accurate comparison of it. Don't really have much else to say.
- Dial M For Murder (1954)
Guy hires another guy to murder his cheating wife, and shenanigans happen. Seen enough Hitchcock to know what to expect by now. I don't think it's one of his better films, but it still had one of those make-me-jump-out-of-my-seat-cause-I-can't-take-it-anymore moments. Great example of how to make a film that almost entirely takes place in just 1 room, which is impressive. (although one of his other films, Rope, actually does only use 1 room... and 12 shots)
- Clue (1985)
This was actually a rewatch, but no matter because I love this movie enough to rewatch it again anytime. It's punny almost to the level of Airplane!, but in a murder mystery setting with all the classic Clue characters from the board game and Mr. Boddy, although they don't quite match the descriptions of the actual characters (ex. Mrs. White isn't the maid here - there's another character who plays the maid, Yvette). Wadsworth the butler is that character who I would put into every story if I could just because of how much chaos he causes. Or he fulfills some archetype that I'm not sure actually exists or not. I also love the fact that it has 3 endings (apparently if you saw it in theaters you'd get a different ending depending on which theater you were at), although the last ending is clearly the best one.
- Gypsy (1993)
A TV-movie adaptation of the stage musical, Gypsy, that happened to be on Netflix. It's based off the autobiography of the striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, but essentially focuses on her megalomaniac show business mother, Rose. This is probably a sign that I don't watch that many TV movies, but I actually think this is one of the best TV movies I've ever seen - although it helps that the actual musical itself is pretty good. I keep coming back to "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Rose's Turn" for relistens (the latter of which Glee did a cover of... but eh); they're catchy enough to get stuck in my head often.
- Tokyo Story (1953)
This movie took a lot more patience to watch than I'm used to (also more than 2 hours), as it's mostly following daily events in the life of a Japanese elderly couple visiting their grown-up children in the city, but it was worth it. Apparently it's considered one of the most accurate film portrayals of Japanese culture and family relationships, along with some of the issues that pervaded those even though it was made so long ago. The ending was... for lack of a better word, heartbreaking. I wanted to cry.
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