Saturday, January 1, 2022
Friday, December 31, 2021
First Lines: Philip Pullman - Northern Lights
Three miles up the river Thames from the centre of Oxford, some distance from where the great colleges of Jordan, Gabriel, Balliol, and two dozen others contended for mastery in the boat races, out where the city was only a collection of towers and spires in the distance over the misty levels of Port Meadow, there stood the priory of Godstow, where the gentle nuns went about their holy business; and on the opposite bank from the priory there was an inn called the Trout.
Thursday, December 30, 2021
Daguerreotypes (1975)
Portraits of the people that occupy the small shops of the Rue Daguerre, Paris, where the filmmaker lived.
Agnes Varda presents a loving view at the shop-owners of her street with much care for their everyday lives, their biographies and a keen eye for detail.
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Monday, December 27, 2021
Abismos de pasión (1954)
A partial retelling of Wuthering Heights in 19th century Mexico.
Wonderfully photographed and directed, this adaptation of the classic novel goes straight to the overheated passions and never lets loose; generally, a mainstream production with occasional Buñuel touches sprinkled in.
Maltin**1/2: "Strikingly directed but talky, overbaked, ultimately unsuccessful version..."
Sunday, December 26, 2021
Phenomena (1985)
A young girl, with an amazing ability to communicate with insects, is transferred to an exclusive Swiss boarding school, where her unusual capability might help solve a string of murders.
A Dario Argento
joint: wildly stylish, incoherent plot with a dreamlike atmosphere and
lots of imaginative shock moments, and once again another incongruous
soundtrack.
Halliwell (no star): "Daft and gruesome horror that lacks style and sense; it has a plethora of murderers, it is never fully explained who did what to whom, its intentions is to disgust rather than shock, and its heavy-metal soundtrack is a frequent distraction."
Maltin***: "Typically stylish, bizarre Argento horror opus whose premise...serves as a framework for some cleverly weird goings-on...Don't say you weren't warned!"
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