IdleRich

IdleRich
I just realised that someone reading my post might think that there was an actor called Dick Nailage who had a lot of screen time... but it was worse than that, I didn't think it would go so far. Ouch. Reminded me at times of Angel Heart with the sultry voodoo sweat sex chicken stuff going on and the hallucinations too - but that's quite a facile surface level comparison really.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
White man out of his depth in a roiling voodoo fug; in a country where he doesn't speak the language or understand the culture. Confusedly struggling to do the right thing in a situation where his morality just doesn't apply. I reckon it would have been best if SPOILER it had ended when he was buried alive like in The Vanishing.
 

luka

Well-known member
the ch
White man out of his depth in a roiling voodoo fug; in a country where he doesn't speak the language or understand the culture. Confusedly struggling to do the right thing in a situation where his morality just doesn't apply. I reckon it would have been best if SPOILER it had ended when he was buried alive like in The Vanishing.
Youre probably right
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
That makes sense, there was one bit where she shouted something and it sounded really jarringly English. I think it's hard to keep faking an accent when you shout maybe?
I checked and Emmerdale Farm became Emmerdale in.... 1989, I know we're not all up on the latest UK soap gossip, but you probably had time to recognise that change.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Oh I meant to say... coincidence I guess, but the title seems like two DH Lawrence books put together. I've never read the Rainbow but I have read The Plumed Serpent and... it's incredibly racist.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
And one more thing, the guy who sells the powder, his name is Mozart I think, he looked so familiar to me but I couldn't place him. So checked on the actor and it's Ernie in Lodge 49 - I think it was the winning, endearing smile that both had that somehow set off the connection in my head. But, having only seen that guy in two things as far as I know it provided a very sad example of the way time ravages us... in the Serpent he was so tall and slim and handsome... by Lodge 49 which is admittedly about thirty years later, sure he's aged but he's got heavier and then somehow that makes him look short too.

serpent3-1297x700.jpg


LODGE_104_JLD_0117_0321_RT.0.jpg
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
On a bit of a Robert Siodmak binge at the moment. I watched The Killers a few weeks ago and it's one of my favourite Hemingway stories so enjoyed that, but a couple of nights ago rewatched Criss Cross and it reminds me I have it down as the ultimate noir. Dan Duryea always plays a convincing bad man. I had this film confused with the Blue Gardenia in my head, in particular the scene with the flute music and dancing in the bar. And last night I watched Cry of the City, again not the first time I watched it but good enough, not quite at the level of Criss Cross or The Killers but above the standard of average noir. Going to find another one of his films to watch tonight, he brings German Expressionism in full focus in his noirs.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
Victor Mature has such brilliant eyebrows, I've seen him in Kiss of Death and I Wake Up Screaming too I think.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
Yeah I've seen it. Tarkovsky's graduation film I think. Love the snappy dialogue. Siodmak's Killers starts off with that scene too.
 

catalog

Well-known member
Never seen criss cross, or heard of it even. Sounds good might watch it.

We watched this film called "portrait of a lady on fire" the other night, I would recommend that. Similar sort of mood and vibe to something like persona by bergman, or even breaking the waves, cos of the landscapes in it (it's all set by the sea). Very sparse and controlled acting, lots of silences and looks.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
In a film noir documentary on Youtube I watched, James Elroy lists it as one of his favourite noirs. I can see why it appeals to a writer as the story criss crosses temporally as well as the double crosses in the story.

Speaking of Tarkovsky. I've always had Stalker, Solaris and Mirror down as the best. I remember reading a comment online somewhere back when I was big into Tarkovsky, avoid the three S's. So avoid Stalker, Solaris and the Sacrifice. Leaving Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Mirror and Nostalghia. I like Rublev and Mirror and the other two are decent but I don't see what's to avoid about Stalker and Solaris. Though this might come from repeat exposure to them as I tried to watch Solaris with my sister and we got halfway through, just as they get into space, before she said she wanted to watch something else. I love certain scenes, the Space Baby, floating in front of the Bruegel, the Return of the Son ending, and the Bach music, but something tells me despite having a Solaris mouse mat, it's probably not the best Tarkovsky. Though every Tarkovsky I've seen I've preferred to later Russian films that seem to come from the same sort of long take angle.
 

catalog

Well-known member
I've not seen mirror or nostalgia. Arthur jafa says mirror is the best one so it's on my list. I find Tarkovsky good but soporific.

Rewatched stalker quite recently and it's good but I got lost in that middle section, the end of it I suppose, when he's going round the building in the zone. But the long stately beginning, the entry to the zone and the ending were all really good.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
Mirror I think is his most beautiful photography wise. The house burning scene in particular. Worth a watch but it's probably also his most freeform and poetic.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I've not seen mirror or nostalgia. Arthur jafa says mirror is the best one so it's on my list. I find Tarkovsky good but soporific.

Rewatched stalker quite recently and it's good but I got lost in that middle section, the end of it I suppose, when he's going round the building in the zone. But the long stately beginning, the entry to the zone and the ending were all really good.
Mirror is the best yeah.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
They picked Tokyo Story over Ugetsu in that list for 1953. Ugetsu was for a long time one of my favourite films. Been years since I've seen it or watched much Japanese films. Tokyo Story I saw in the cinema and was the youngest person in there. I like most Ozu's formally but they're quite dreary.
 
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