onethousandmovies

[onethousandmovies]

413. Election, 1999. USA.

D. Alexander Payne

Alexander Payne and his camp seem to have a knack for casting. Sideways, Citizen Ruth, About Schmidt: all of his best films are marked by smart actors giving inimitable portrayals of gut-punchingly fucked-up people. I can't imagine anyone else other than Reese Witherspoon as the psychotically ambitious Tracy Flick. Just great casting all around.

[onethousandmovies]

412. Sansho the Bailiff, 1954. Japan.

D. Kenji Mizoguchi

Japanese film in the 50's had the market absolutely cornered on brutal and balletic tragedy. The darkest of Shakespeare has nothing on Mizoguchi. Sansho will break you into a million beautiful glittering pieces and then sweep you under it's huge, heavy rug of sadness.

[onethousandmovies]

411. La Ronde, 1950. France.

D. Max Ophuls

French charm on steroids.

That's a good thing.

[onethousandmovies]

410. Midnight, 1933. USA. 

D. Mitchell Leisen

John Barrymore should have done ALL the comedy in the 30's, he's so wild. This film is clever and charming and everything a slapstick tangle of love-riddled confusion should be. Marvelous.

[onethousandmovies]

409. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, 1966. Italy.

D. Sergio Leone

Shootin' hats offa heads. It's clearly his favorite trick. Cheeky gunslinger.

[onethousandmovies]

408. Zero for Conduct, 1933. France. 

D. Jean Vigo

I like when it's a loud hullabaloo and then it goes suddenly quiet. I like when it's a flurry of movement and then abrupt slow-motion. I like the whimsy, I like the absurdity, I like the bite hiding underneath.

All in all, it was a delight, and I liked it.

[onethousandmovies]

407. Nostalghia, 1983. Italy.

D. Andrei Tarkovsky

This is my third Tarkovsky, and if I can sense any trend it is this: it is like being suspended in an alternate universe. Suspended, and spellbound. It's a marvelous feeling.

[onethousandmovies]

406. Last Tango in Paris, 1972. France.

D. Bernardo Bertolucci

Everyone kept telling me how great Brando was in this, but I don't know... He was way off it, for me. Sometimes it seemed like he was just saying random shit. I thought Maria Schneider was great, though. I really didn't want to watch this, it didn't appeal to me for some reason, and I only finally got around to it because I had a Jean-Pierre Leaud itch to scratch (I like your face, sir). But I ended up appreciating a lot about it. So I'm ticking it off the list, but with a reminder to MAYBE watch it again because Netflix obviously had to show the toned-down version. THEY CUT THE BUTTER, I KNOW THAT MUCH. But it also seems wildly wrong to rewatch it to make sure I don't miss the rape scene. 

I mean, gross.

[onethousandmovies]

405. Alice in the Cities, 1974. West Germany.

D. Wim Wenders

Lovely photography (that grain!), a dream-like pace, and dialogue that occasionally slips into the existential in a completely unpretentious way make this a really enjoyable, almost charming film to watch. And sometimes when people say "charming" they really mean "it was fun and it didn't make me think too hard" but that is not the case here. This feels light as air, but it is filled to the brim with meaning and substance. I loved it.

[onethousandmovies]

404. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, 1966. France.

D. Jean-Luc Godard

Okay, but why are we whispering?

[onethousandmovies]

403. Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, 1895. France.

D. The Lumiere Brothers

Exactly what the title says. Nothing more. Still, it's always neat to watch actual Victorian ladies and dandies bustle about.

[onethousandmovies]

402. Alice, 1988. Czechoslovakia. 

D. Jan Svankmajer

Basically the most enjoyably silly and fundamentally creepy thing I've seen, maybe ever.

[onethousandmovies]

how old are you?

[onethousandmovies]

Big fan of your page. Keep it up. :)

Hey. You are cute.

[onethousandmovies]

Keep up the good work. I'm a big fan. Your blog pretty much inspired me to make my own blog.

I do not know how to respond to a compliment of this magnitude other than through the art of mating dance.

[onethousandmovies]

THE BEST TUMBLR JE ADORE.

shucks :)

[onethousandmovies]

Apologies for my Absence.

It's that time of year again, when TSPDT throws a big giant kink in my project by shaking everything up on me. Time to get it sorted out again!

With the February 2014 update, we

LOST:

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls 

Broadway Danny Rose 

The Childhood of Maxim Gorky 

Forbidden Planet 

The 47 Ronin 

Gandhi 

The Intruder 

Les Maitres Fous 

One, Two, Three 

Plein Soleil  

The Red and The White 

The Shanghai Gesture 

3 Women

Variety 

GAINED:

Titanic

Arrivee d'un Train a L' Ciotat

Alice

Crash *(returning to list, previously blogged)

The Last of the Mohicans

Gregory's Girl *(returning to list, previously blogged)

The Verdict *(returning to list, previously blogged)

Haxan

The Man in the White Suit *(returning to list, previously blogged)

Female Trouble *(returning to list, previously blogged)

Winchester '73 *(returning to list, previously blogged)

So there we have it.  If I am not mistaken, (and I very likely am), this puts us to push through 2014 from #401. Still 40% completion. Nice and tidy. We will get started again very soon - It's spring break and I am screening like crazy!