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A slimmed down
version of this for the month with less awards than before. They may return
however for the end of the year since when everything it correlated together,
so look out for that.
Best Film of the
Month
1. Johnny Guitar
(Nicholas Ray, 1954/USA) – 10/10 [Rewatch]
2. Belladonna of
Sadness aka. Kanashimi no Beradona (Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973/Japan) – 10/10
3. The Holy Mountain
(Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973/Mexico-USA) – 10/10 [Rewatch]
4. Inferno (Dario
Argento, 1980/Italy) – 10/10 [Rewatch]
5. The Color of
Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov, 1968/Soviet Union) – 10/10
6. Le Monde Vivant
(Eugène Green, 2003/Belgium-France) – 10/10
7. O Lucky Man!
(Lindsay Anderson, 1973/UK-USA) – 10/10
8. Waltz with Bashir
(Ari Folman,
2008/Australia-Belgium-Finland-France-Germany-Israel-Switzerland-USA) – 10/10
[Rewatch]
9. eXistenZ (David
Cronenberg, 1999/Canada-UK) – 9/10
10. Pistol Opera
(Seijun Suzuki, 2001/Japan) – 9/10 [Rewatch]
Honourable Mentions -
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977/USA) – 9/10 [Rewatch]; The Assassination
of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007/Canada-UK-USA) –
9/10 [Rewatch]; Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980/USA) – 9/10 [Rewatch]
It seems strange to
write more about the worst films but little about the best, but the films here
should all speak for themselves. Re-evaluated gems, a film (Belladonna of
Sadness) from my Holy Grail list that is sadly not available in the West at
all except online, two immense surprises which have opened up the potential of
the filmmakers' filmographies (the late Lindsay Anderson and
current filmmaker Eugene Green)
and were from the MUBI
Directors Cup I am
participating in, and a metric ton of rewatches. And of course there's Pistol Opera's re-analysis, a
happy ending that makes second viewings drastically needed for certain films.
Biggest Surprise of
the Month
1. Le Monde Vivant
(Eugène Green, 2003/Belgium-France) – 10/10
2. eXistenZ (David
Cronenberg, 1999/Canada-UK) – 9/10
3. They Called Us
‘Les Filles du Roy’ (Anne Claire Poirier, 1974/Canada) – 8/10
4. Hades Project
Zeorymer (Toshihiro Hirano, 1988/Japan) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
5. Dumbland (David
Lynch, 2002/USA) – 8/10
6. Fast & Furious
6 (Justin Lin, 2013/USA) – 7/10
7. Daughters of
Darkness (Harry Kümel, 1971/Belgium-France-West Germany) – 7/10
8. All Ladies Do It
aka. Così fan tutte (Tinto Brass, 1992/Italy) – 7/10
9. The Key aka.
La chiave (Tinto Brass, 1983/Italy) – 8/10
A list of unexpected
results. Who knew I would be in actual tears
of joy at the end of Le Monde
Vivant because of how sweet and imaginative it was. Who knew a Cronenberg film could be
so criminally ignored and as relevant now as his other earlier films were, or
that even making a crudely put-together web series, David Lynch is still
startling? Who knew I would find something as obscure as the feminist
documentary They Called Us ‘Les Filles du Roy’ and wish it was available on
disc, and that re-seeing an anime I had panned, Hades Project Zeorymer, would
show the virtues of Japanese dubs over the English ones again and that even
such a rushed narrative can be jaw dropping in the ideas its cramming in the
smallest of details? Who knew Fast
& The Furious 6, getting into the phenomenon now, is the closest
thing now to a current day film serial and that my first Tinto Brass films, with their posterior
obsessions and rampant sex, were so fun or interesting? Daughters of Darkness could be a cheat since it's well
regarded, but you can't agree with that statement unless you view it once.
Discovery of the
Month
1. Belladonna of
Sadness aka. Kanashimi no Beradona (Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973/Japan) – 10/10
2. Le Monde Vivant
(Eugène Green, 2003/Belgium-France) – 10/10
3. O Lucky Man!
(Lindsay Anderson, 1973/UK-USA) – 10/10
4. Nuits rouges
(Georges Franju, 1974/France-Italy) – 8/10
5. They Called Us
‘Les Filles du Roy’ (Anne Claire Poirier, 1974/Canada) – 8/10
6. Succubus (Jesus
Franco, 1968/West Germany) – 8/10
The push to watch
more Jess Franco films
has proved to be far more rewarding than the perceived notions of his erratic
filmography could suggest. I regret only doing this after his untimely death,
but while there's so many films to go through, and many unavailable to buy,
it's great to do this now nonetheless. Same applies to Georges Franju although
not a great deal of his work is known let alone available if you view his
filmography, making his case an interesting cinematic expedition if you can
actually find the films.
Biggest Change of
Opinion
1. Johnny Guitar
(Nicholas Ray, 1954/USA) – 10/10 [Rewatch]
2. Inferno (Dario
Argento, 1980/Italy) – 10/10 [Rewatch]
3. Radio On
(Christopher Petit, 1979/UK-West Germany) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
4. Pistol Opera
(Seijun Suzuki, 2001/Japan) – 9/10 [Rewatch]
5. Last Year at
Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961/France-Italy) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
6. Malice@Doll
(Keitarou Motonaga, 2000/Japan) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
7. Partie du Campagne
aka. A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir, 1936/France) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
8. Hades Project
Zeorymer (Toshihiro Hirano, 1988/Japan) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
9. Altered States
(Ken Russell, 1980/USA) – 9/10 [Rewatch]
Many works I'm only
appreciating now, whether it has been only a few months since the first
viewing, or years. The exception is Malice
@ Doll, such an obscure, unloved anime, but one that is turning into my
personal obscurity I obsess over.
Most Divisive Film of
the Month
1. Africa addio
(Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, 1966/Italy) – 7/10
2. Looney Tunes: Back
in Action (Joe Dante, 2003/Germany-USA]) – 6/10
3. Casablanca
(Michael Curtiz, 1942/USA) – 6/10 [Rewatch]
4. Chopper (Andrew
Dominik, 2000/Australia) – 6/10 [Rewatch]
Casablanca has plenty of great aspects to
it, but I feel I have seen greater films from before the 1950s even though I
haven't seen as many as I wish. Looney
Tunes: Back in Action has
plenty to love but suffers from having to have its story line. Chopper loses a great deal on this
viewing, director Andrew
Dominik improving greatly
with The Assassination of
Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Africa
Addio, the full Italian version, is such a controversial and unsettling
work that you are forced to question it. I am glad
I've seen it, but you need to be prepared for what you are going into even
beyond the animal deaths.
The Most Underrated
Work
1. Inferno (Dario
Argento, 1980/Italy) – 10/10 [Rewatch]
2. Belladonna of
Sadness aka. Kanashimi no Beradona (Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973/Japan) – 10/10
3. eXistenZ (David
Cronenberg, 1999/Canada-UK) – 9/10
4. Altered States
(Ken Russell, 1980/USA) – 9/10 [Rewatch]
5. Malice@Doll
(Keitarou Motonaga, 2000/Japan) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
6. Dumbland (David
Lynch, 2002/USA) – 8/10
7. Nuits rouges
(Georges Franju, 1974/France-Italy) – 8/10
8. Succubus (Jesus
Franco, 1968/West Germany) – 8/10
9. The Key aka. La
chiave (Tinto Brass, 1983/Italy) – 8/10
10. Torn Curtain
(Alfred Hitchcock, 1966/USA) – 6/10
Biggest
Disappointment of the Month
1. Le Pont du Nord
(Jacques Rivette, 1981/France) – 4/10
2. Bathory: Countess
of Blood (Juraj Jakubisko, 2008/Hungary-Slovakia-UK) – 3/10
3. Ninja (Isaac
Florentine, 2009/USA) – 4/10
4. Dredd (Pete
Travis, 2012/India-South Africa-UK-USA) – 5/10
5. Dyketactics
(Barbara Hammer, 1974/USA) – 5/10
6. Trainspotting
(Danny Boyle, 1996/UK) – 6/10 [Rewatch]
7. Chopper (Andrew
Dominik, 2000/Australia) – 6/10 [Rewatch]
Chopper and Trainspotting no longer
grab me anymore; the drop is sadder for Trainspotting,
once a masterpiece, but now encapsulating the least interesting parts of
British cinema. Barbara Hammer has
left me somewhat cold from the few works I've seen from her now, not living up
to the hope of someone whose title choice for Nitrate
Kisses (1992) is not only one of the best ever but evokes a vast
experimental and dense body of work that changes you with dreamlike images
rather than merely documenting them like Dyketactics does. Ninja raises questions
about which direction the Vulgar Cinema movement is going if its letting bland
film making like this pass instead of celebrating the true surprises like Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning
(2012), and Dredd does
not deserve the praise it does at all for its mediocre images of grey rooms and
repetitive gunfire. Le Pont du
Nord could grow for me, but it feels like the failed version of Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) and
was a disheartening viewing experience from a director who I know, while only
seeing four of his films including this one, can do better in incredible ways.
The Long Awaited
(Re)Viewing That Lived Up To Expectations
1. Belladonna of
Sadness aka. Kanashimi no Beradona (Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973/Japan) – 10/10
2. The Color of
Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov, 1968/Soviet Union) – 10/10
3. Johnny Guitar
(Nicholas Ray, 1954/USA) – 10/10 [Rewatch]
4. Inferno (Dario
Argento, 1980/Italy) – 10/10 [Rewatch]
5. Radio On
(Christopher Petit, 1979/UK-West Germany) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
6. Suspiria (Dario
Argento, 1977/Italy) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
7. Blood Simple (Joel
and Ethan Coen, 1984/USA) – 8/10
8. Partie du Campagne
aka. A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir, 1936/France) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
9. Last Year at
Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961/France-Italy) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
10. Baccano!
(Takahiro Omori, 2007/Japan) – 8/10 [Anime Series]
Honourable Mentions -
Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980/USA) – 9/10 [Rewatch]; Pistol Opera
(Seijun Suzuki, 2001/Japan) – 9/10 [Rewatch]
The Pleasure of the
Month I'll [Sadly] Have To Defend
1. Double Dragon
(James Yukich, 1994/USA) – 6/10 [Rewatch]
2. 8MM (Joel
Schumacher, 1999/Germany-USA) – 7/10
3. All Ladies Do It aka.
Così fan tutte (Tinto Brass, 1992/Italy) – 7/10
4. Spookies (Genie
Joseph, Thomas Doran and Brendan Faulkner, 1986/Netherlands-USA) – 6/10
Double Dragon is dumb, but I'm
fascinated by nineties films like this adapting pop culture franchises. Only Mortal Kombat (1995) was indefensible because it took
itself too seriously and was ultimately bland. I am willing to call 8mm an underrated film though; heavy
handed and lurid, but its attempts to be more morally complicated are
rewarding. All The Ladies Do It sadly has to be defended for all
the sex, and its incredibly dated music and look, but if more softcore (with
hardcore images) was this positive about sex the world would be a better place. Spookies, what happens when you
attempted to finish a uncompleted project by adding new footage years later, is
a compelling mess that brings farting zombies to horror cinema.
The Abstract Film of
the Month
1. The Holy Mountain
(Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973/Mexico-USA) – 10/10 [Rewatch]
2. Belladonna of
Sadness aka. Kanashimi no Beradona (Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973/Japan) – 10/10
3. Inferno (Dario
Argento, 1980/Italy) – 10/10 [Rewatch]
4. Pistol Opera
(Seijun Suzuki, 2001/Japan) – 9/10 [Rewatch]
5. Altered States
(Ken Russell, 1980/USA) – 9/10 [Rewatch]
6. Last Year at
Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961/France-Italy) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
7. Suspiria (Dario
Argento, 1977/Italy) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
8. Malice@Doll
(Keitarou Motonaga, 2000/Japan) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
9. Radio On
(Christopher Petit, 1979/UK-West Germany) – 8/10 [Rewatch]
10. Dumbland (David
Lynch, 2002/USA) – 8/10
Honourable Mentions -
Judex (Georges Franju, 1963/France-Italy) – 8/10
Worst Film of the
Month
1. Texas Chainsaw 3D
(John Luessenhop, 2013/USA) – 2/10
2. Bathory: Countess
of Blood (Juraj Jakubisko, 2008/Hungary-Slovakia-UK) – 3/10
3. Faces of Death
(John Alan Schwartz, 1978/USA) – 3/10
4. The Wicker Man
(Neil LaBute, 2006/Canada-Germany-USA) – 3/10 [Rewatch]
5. V/H/S (Various,
2012/USA)
V/H/S does have the segment Amateur Night which is worth looking out for, but
the rest is terrible. The
Wicker Man remake is only saved by Nicolas
Cage wearing the bear suit. Faces
of Death is ultimately a tired work of shock that shows how Africa addio, for all its moral
dubiousness, is still trying to say intelligent things, and Bathory is unrepentant,
bland historical cinema at its worse that I sat through in a numbed dazed. Texas Chainsaw, not viewed in
3D, is on top of the list though because there was no point to its existence at
all where the others could have been great films. Even The Wicker Man remake had
ironically "good" dialogue. At least The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The
Next Generation (1994) was so compellingly weird to view. Nothing can
be said for this new part of the franchise, and how its attempt to be a direct
sequel to the original film both unfairly dismisses Tobe Hooper's second film
in the series out of the canon, when its the best kind of sequel to have been
made, and is completely lifeless. Attempting to put us on the side of the
Leatherface family against evil country folk, it shows the vacuous nature of
remakes like this in that it was not a subversive attempt to undermine our
perceptions on evil, but a cheap attempt to grab young adults who are
anti-conformist in the manufactured, pop-grim sort of way made by the companies
they are supposed to be rebelling against. The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) gave
viewers eyebrow raising gender subversion, lunacy, Dennis Hopper and an interesting view of America at
the time emphasised by the repeated word of "Nam-Land", and
that was the production of Cannon
Pictures of all people.
75 Works Watched In
March
25 Rewatched Works
50 New Works Seen
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