version

Well-known member
I dunno whether I'd recommend it as it was an incredibly stressful experience, but The Lost Weekend. I'd actually stuck it on to get away from stressing over the news, Covid etc and it ended up being perhaps the worst thing I could have chosen as I was treated to 90 mins or so of Ray Milland losing it and almost drinking himself to death. Brilliant though.

thelostweekend_613x463.jpg
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Oh yeah that's a good one... never seen Under the Volcano but I'm thinking it would make a good double header... or with A Day at the Beach perhaps.
 

the ig

Well-known member
My fave Billy Wilder with The Appartment. Flawed (weak female lead, somewhat perfunctory redemptive ending), but cuts to the quick..my god. The shots of empty, glaring, parched, geometric New York, the pavements with only the legs, and you know it’s that city that produces the sickness, the need for the private liquid oasis of alcohol. Boulversant like the more formally perfect Sunset Boulevard will never be.

Or watch it with ‘Days of Wine and Roses’ for a great Hollywood alcoholism twofer. Blake Edwards’ one great thing, bit stagey and preachy but still hugely powerful. Lee Remick esp‘y note-perfect, and devastating in 2nd half. Or well it’s the script which links it to the stage, it ain’t a confined ‘one room’ film.
 
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version

Well-known member
... somewhat perfunctory redemptive ending),

Or watch it with ‘Days of Wine and Roses’ for a great Hollywood alcoholism twofer. Blake Edwards’ one great thing, bit stagey and preachy but still hugely powerful. Lee Remick esp‘y note-perfect, and devastating in 2nd half. Or well it’s the script which links it to the stage, it ain’t a confined ‘one room’ film.
I thought so too. I expected to hear a gunshot when Helen turned away thinking she'd saved him, but they pulled their punches.

And yeah, I'd already seen Days of Wine and Roses. I think mentioning that to my dad was what prompted him to send me a copy of Lost Weekend.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
It's 80 Aussie horror, even if it's not a weird film, it's weird you watched it. I say this in a spirit of admiration, by the way.

I've been working through the Arrow Years of Lead box set. So far I've watched Vittorio Salerno's Savage Three and Mario Imperoli's Like Rabid Dogs, both brutal, bleak, lean and propulsive 70s crime flicks with common roots in A Clockwork Orange but without all the bollocks.
 

nochexxx

harco pronting
It's 80 Aussie horror, even if it's not a weird film, it's weird you watched it. I say this in a spirit of admiration, by the way.

I've been working through the Arrow Years of Lead box set. So far I've watched Vittorio Salerno's Savage Three and Mario Imperoli's Like Rabid Dogs, both brutal, bleak, lean and propulsive 70s crime flicks with common roots in A Clockwork Orange but without all the bollocks.
tremendous gems to be found within the Ozploitation rubble. Everything between Turkey Shoot and Wake in Fright. Next of Kin certainly ranks with the best of them.

Out of the five films included on Years of Lead, which would you recommend I start with? I really enjoyed those Fernando Di Leo crime collection Raro sets. "That man deserves our honour!"
 

craner

Beast of Burden
tremendous gems to be found within the Ozploitation rubble. Everything between Turkey Shoot and Wake in Fright. Next of Kin certainly ranks with the best of them.

Out of the five films included on Years of Lead, which would you recommend I start with? I really enjoyed those Fernando Di Leo crime collection Raro sets. "That man deserves our honour!"

Not sure yet, I haven’t finished the set, but I’ll let you know.
 

luka

Well-known member
i enjoyed watching this last night partly because it felt like being on holiday in Bulgaria

Western is a 2017 internationally co-produced drama film written, produced, and directed by Valeska Grisebach. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.[1][2] The film has been well received by critics. The film stars Meinhard Neumann in his first acting role as a German construction worker in Bulgaria who finds himself in the middle of a culture clash with the locals.
 

luka

Well-known member
Bulgaria (/bʌlˈɡɛəriə, bʊl-/ ( About this sound listen); Bulgarian: България, romanized: Bǎlgarija), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,[a] is a country in Southeast Europe. It lies on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. Bulgaria covers a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), and is the sixteenth-largest country in Europe. Sofia is the nation's capital and largest city; other major cities are Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas.

One of the earliest societies in the lands of modern-day Bulgaria was the Neolithic Karanovo culture, which dates back to 6,500 BC. In the 6th to 3rd century BC the region was a battleground for ancient Thracians, Persians, Celts and Macedonians; stability came when the Roman Empire conquered the region in AD 45. After the Roman state splintered, tribal invasions in the region resumed. Around the 6th century, these territories were settled by the early Slavs. Bulgars, a semi-nomadic people, invaded the Balkans in the late 7th century and founded the First Bulgarian Empire in AD 681. It dominated most of the Balkans and significantly influenced Slavic cultures by developing the Cyrillic script. The First Bulgarian Empire lasted until the early 11th century, when Byzantine emperor Basil II conquered and dismantled it. A successful Bulgarian revolt in 1185 established a Second Bulgarian Empire, which reached its apex under Ivan Asen II (1218–1241). After numerous exhausting wars and feudal strife, the empire disintegrated in 1396 and fell under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries.

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 resulted in the formation of the third and current Bulgarian state. Many ethnic Bulgarians were left outside the new nation's borders, which stoked irredentist sentiments that led to several conflicts with its neighbours and alliances with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 Bulgaria came under the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc and became a one-party socialist state. The ruling Communist Party gave up its monopoly on power after the revolutions of 1989 and allowed multiparty elections. Bulgaria then transitioned into a democracy and a market-based economy. Since adopting a democratic constitution in 1991, Bulgaria has been a unitary parliamentary republic composed of 28 provinces, with a high degree of political, administrative, and economic centralisation.

Bulgaria is a developing country, with an upper-middle-income economy,
 

luka

Well-known member
i enjoyed watching this last night partly because it felt like being on holiday in Bulgaria

Western is a 2017 internationally co-produced drama film written, produced, and directed by Valeska Grisebach. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.[1][2] The film has been well received by critics. The film stars Meinhard Neumann in his first acting role as a German construction worker in Bulgaria who finds himself in the middle of a culture clash with the locals.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
Any Nicolas Broomfield fans on here? I've seen most of his films and was going to do a thread on him and whether he's a great of British Documentaries.
 
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