Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

[luka]

i tried to watch some like it hot. its stupid. really annoying and unfunny. hats the one i dress up as women and drawn a jazz band?

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

Yup

I keep meaning to see more marilyn films but might watch the Netflix movie on her life instead

 

[luka]

it reminded me of police academy. americans arent funny. should never try to be funny.

 

[IdleRich]

I watched the Maltese Falcon with Bogart and Lorre the other day - a bit cheesier than the Big Sleep and Casablanca, and with a less smouldering female lead, but still definitely unreservedly recommendable

Lorre as a camp stereotypical furner is uninspiring but Sydney Greenstreet is epicly weird

These films are just great and I think they will always stand up and a lot of people will enjoy them. The Big Sleep is definitely darker and grittier, it has a real atmosphere of menaces even if it's acknowledged that it literally doesn't make sense. I suppose the mental health angle is just a dark topic.

But you know what, I've never seen the original of The Maltese Falcon, it's been totally superseded by the Bogey one of course, but I understand that because it was made before the Hayes Code came in (strange to say that, you often hear it had more freedom cos it was after the HC was removed) it's actually a bit tougher and harder. Has anyone seen it? @DLaurent maybe?

 

[Clinamenic]

key largo was going to be my next one. i remember treasure of sierra madre was pretty boring. im fairly confident all marilyn monroe films will be terrible.

Yeah Monroe isn't someone I'v ever been particularly impressed by, beyond her sheer sex appeal.

I love Some Like it Hot, though, one of my favorite comedies.

For classic Hollywood comedies I'd recommend My Man Godfrey, Ball of Fire, and His Girl Friday.

 

[DLaurent]

These films are just great and I think they will always stand up and a lot of people will enjoy them. The Big Sleep is definitely darker and grittier, it has a real atmosphere of menaces even if it's acknowledged that it literally doesn't make sense. I suppose the mental health angle is just a dark topic.

But you know what, I've never seen the original of The Maltese Falcon, it's been totally superseded by the Bogey one of course, but I understand that because it was made before the Hayes Code came in (strange to say that, you often hear it had more freedom cos it was after the HC was removed) it's actually a bit tougher and harder. Has anyone seen it? @DLaurent maybe?

I haven't seen it and to be honest, even though it pains me to admit it, not seen the Bogart The Maltese Falcon for a while either... I watch 99% of films on YouTube or Archive.org and if it's not free on there I don't bother.

 

[haji]

I haven't seen it and to be honest, even though it pains me to admit it, not seen the Bogart The Maltese Falcon for a while either... I watch 99% of films on YouTube or Archive.org and if it's not free on there I don't bother.

i searched up the bogart version and found this skethchy site https://ww1.m4uhd.tv/search/maltese-falcon.html whcich seems to has both and was ok quality at least on the one i watched

 

[WashYourHands]

Night shift sorted, ta

 

[DLaurent]

Yeah that's me, my night shift! I watch them every night, these old noir films! Thanks.

 

[Clinamenic]

Yeah that's me, my night shift! I watch them every night, these old noir films! Thanks.

Have you seen any of the Perry Mason reboot miniseries? Some of the best recent noir, in my opinion.

 

[DLaurent]

Have you seen any of the Perry Mason reboot miniseries? Some of the best recent noir, in my opinion.

No. Never heard of Perry Mason so something to check out.

 

[haji]

& also

Ironside (1967 TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[william_kent]

& also

Ironside (1967 TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

decades before its time! differentially abled dude solves crimes! mobility is no obstacle to criminal investigation! deduction, not motion!

 

[version]

The original Perry Mason's pretty good. I remember one episode with an escaped undercover Nazi scientist. Also, Raymond Burr, the actor who played Mason, allegedly fabricated huge chunks of his biography and claimed to have had wives and children there's no evidence of ever having existed.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

The original Perry Mason's pretty good. I remember one episode with an escaped undercover Nazi scientist. Also, Raymond Burr, the actor who played Mason, allegedly fabricated huge chunks of his biography and claimed to have had wives and children there's no evidence of ever having existed.

This seems to be an especially American thing: no matter how successful they are they always seem compelled to puff up various things about their past to meet some sort of imagined standard. Even the Presidents do it. Is it cos, given high social mobility, failure to have achieved is automatically connected to personal deficiencies rather than contextual obstacles.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

how to have sex. one of the best british films of recent times. better than after sun. better than joanna hogs recent biographical bore fests about being at film school (how did these get funded?). better than old powell and pressberger. also one of the best performances by any actress so far this decade. somehow steers clear of arthouse cliche (no dead space or longeurs) or trying to milk any kind of gratuitous sad vibes, which i was very thankful for. i saw it at shithole cineworld in a screen which lacked bass response which made it a bit weird but it didnt ruin it for me.

Actually one thing it does do which is pretty common these days is portray girls lives as being one of unhappiness, or at least sexual experiences, as being like that. I guess it often IS, and to its credit, it doesnt overplay it, but its fairly on trend in that sense

 

[shakahislop]

Actually one thing it does do which is pretty common these days is portray girls lives as being one of unhappiness, or at least sexual experiences, as being like that. I guess it often IS, and to its credit, it doesnt overplay it, but its fairly on trend in that sense

haven't seen the film but this is a bubbling trend in a lot of things at the moment I think. a kind of critique of how sex is working these days. a sort of millennial backlash against their own experiences. really interesting cultural current I think.

 

[Corpsey]

I watched this last night on BFI player, first proper film i've watched for a long time.


I'm vaguely aware of Antonioni but never seen anything by him, the reviews suggested this was much more accessible than his later films and indeed it is. But it's really fucking good, too.

Tightly plotted, brilliantly directed, peppered with moments of authentic existential despair (with a bleak bleak ending), starring one of the most beautiful actresses I've ever seen wearing (and I'm not the sort to notice this) some INCREDIBLE dresses.

Not sure how @craner will feel about this one. It's Italian for sure but it has a sort of intellectual, frenchified feel to it that might make his fulsome aristocratic lip curl

 

[version]

He likes that one. He told me to watch that instead when I was going on about The Passenger.

Antonioni

Anybody in London catch any of the season at the NFT? I saw three, L'Avventura, L'Eclisse and Red Desert (with Richard Harris) and was whelmed in a big way. That bleak, antiseptic, neurotic aesthetic: totally Ballard innit? All those factories, airstrips, radar stations, mysterious islands...

www.dissensus.com

 

[Corpsey]

I think i'll watch (or try to watch) L'avenntura tonight

Winter really is the season for working my way through the arthouse canon