What was the last movie you saw?

[Guttersnipe]

Rewatched two of my favorites.

All of Me (1984): Half a lawyer’s (Steve Martin) body is a new host for a woman’s (Lily Tomlinson) soul. Absolutely hilarious and often touching.

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985): In the mid 1900s, a character (Jeff Daniels) in a movie comes off the screen to romance a woman (Mia Farrow). The real actor behind this character tries to send him back. My favorite movie by Woody Allen.

Also…
City of Joy (1992): An American doctor (Patrick Swayze) arrives in a poor Indian neighborhood and becomes a hero to the people who live there while learning to love the community there. Based on a French novel, and not the first adaptation. I don’t know why it got such bad ratings.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

Just finished watching The Belles of St Trinians. A lovely humorous movie, filled with plenty of slapstick. Alistair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, Sid James, and George Cole. 9/10

 

[Jeffbert]

THE LOST SQUADRON (1932) Thee WWI flyers and their mechanic take jobs working for film director Arthur von Furst (Erich von Stroheim), who is known for his disregard for the lives of actors.

The aviators Captain Gibson (Richard Dix) Lieutenant Curwood (Robert Armstrong; GUY who discovered or exploited KING KONG), & one known only as Red (Joel McCrea) are competing for the love of Follette Marsh (Mary Astor), who had married the director while they were still in the service.

Sgt. Fritz (Hugh Herbert has few of his usual amusing laughs, etc.).

The director, as already noted, cares more about getting the action on film, than he does about those doing the action, and even sabotages an airplane hoping to both eliminate the man whom his wife loves, and get a crash on film.

Early in the film, after the heroes welcome, the ticker-tape parade, etc., all four find employment difficult to find, even with their former employers who had promised their jobs would be waiting for them after the war. Grim.


Of note is the director's emblem, which bears a certain resemblance the the SWASTIKA.

 

[hitmouse]

Also…
City of Joy (1992): An American doctor (Patrick Swayze) arrives in a poor Indian neighborhood and becomes a hero to the people who live there while learning to love the community there. Based on a French novel, and not the first adaptation. I don’t know why it got such bad ratings.

The original novel, by Dominic Lapierre I think, is pretty rubbish.

 

[JunkMonkey]

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985): In the mid 1900s, a character (Jeff Daniels) in a movie comes off the screen to romance a woman (Mia Farrow). The real actor behind this character tries to send him back. My favorite movie by Woody Allen.

I really wish someone could explain to me the attraction of Woody Allen films. I keep trying and... trying and... nothing. I can see they're supposed to be (or trying to be) funny, or funny and insightful, or insightful and funny (Oh look, a joke. Oh look, poignancy.) - but they just leave me cold. Stone cold. I've tried. Honestly I've tried. I watched A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy immediately after reading an interview with the man in which he came over as a likeable funny interesting human being. I was feeling very well disposed to the bloke... the film was one of the most tedious bits of cinema I had seen in weeks. Even surrounded by an audience of fans I've been left unengaged. (I'm a great believer in the idea that watching a film with an audience is a far more rewarding experience than watching them on your own. Especially with a comedy. Laughter is contagious. Sometimes you need permission to laugh and having someone else start gives you licence.)
They were laughing a lot and I was just sat there, surrounded by a guffawing crowd utterly bemused. I had no idea why these people would all suddenly laugh at something. Apart from the fact that whatever had just happened on screen had all the hallmarks and structures of a joke but without actually being at all funny. Zelig was about the best and he was hardly in it. Even his earlier funnier films I find really hard work.

 

[Dave Vicks]

I am thinking about getting the movies WILD AT HEART And EDUCATING RITA.
Anyone like these movies?

 

[KGeo777]

I found some amusement in a scene from Take the Money and Run where he tries to rob a school mate but Woody Allen has never had any funding problems. Many directors have to struggle to get funding but not him. Not even after the scandal.
Never showed up at the Oscars-never had to promote his films. He could play the clarinet all day.
And he always got the most famous or current actors and it is impossible that they all just loved Woody Allen films.
Never had a single NO from an actor ever? No scheduling conflict? Apparently not.

And it cannot be popularity because allegedly Annie Hall cost the same amount to make as Smokey and the Bandit and the profit difference was $34 million for AH and $300 million for the latter.

His films are going to sink into oblivion.
He's the ultimate proof that Hollywood is not run by profit because there is no way his films are making profits. Purple Rose of Cairo lost money.

Shadows and Fog--WTF was that about? It totally bombed but Allen was right back again with funding for his next film.

 

[hitmouse]

I really wish someone could explain to me the attraction of Woody Allen films. I keep trying and... trying and... nothing. I can see they're supposed to be (or trying to be) funny, or funny and insightful, or insightful and funny (Oh look, a joke. Oh look, poignancy.) - but they just leave me cold. Stone cold. I've tried. Honestly I've tried. I watched A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy immediately after reading an interview with the man in which he came over as a likeable funny interesting human being. I was feeling very well disposed to the bloke... the film was one of the most tedious bits of cinema I had seen in weeks. Even surrounded by an audience of fans I've been left unengaged. (I'm a great believer in the idea that watching a film with an audience is a far more rewarding experience than watching them on your own. Especially with a comedy. Laughter is contagious. Sometimes you need permission to laugh and having someone else start gives you licence.)
They were laughing a lot and I was just sat there, surrounded by a guffawing crowd utterly bemused. I had no idea why these people would all suddenly laugh at something. Apart from the fact that whatever had just happened on screen had all the hallmarks and structures of a joke but without actually being at all funny. Zelig was about the best and he was hardly in it. Even his earlier funnier films I find really hard work.

Allen is very variable. Some of his early 70s stuff is great. Annie Hall is wonderful. Manhatten is interesting. Sleeper is very good as is Love and Death. Later films are much more variable and some are forgettable. I enjoyed Hannah and Her Sisters.
The thing is that Allen always plays the same character: a neurotic Jewish New Yorker. Mostly very good but has some limitations, and I can see why he leaves some people cold. Apart from the films, his standup monologue is very good, and his collected writing is worth reading.

 

[KGeo777]

THE SCORPIO LETTERS 1967 - Supposedly a tv-movie according to IMDB but it has a theatrical release trailer in widescreen. I have seen it before and completely forgot it. That's understandable because it is totally forgettable.
It has a bad script, pedestrian direction, dull score, cheap studio backlot look, and an uninspired cast led by Alex Cord who was, for some inexplicable reason pushed into starring roles and simply not up to the challenge. Shirley Eaton fairs no better in a terrible part. One of the worst Hollywood spy movie cash-ins.
If Hollywood is churning out insipid productions now--well, here's one from the 60s which shows they could make an awful pointless movie then too. Return to sender.

 

[J-Sun]

Daughters of Darkness (1971)

If Stanley Kubrick had made a lesbian vampire movie, it would have looked a lot like this Belgian art film, I believe. Every shot is gorgeous to look at, with striking use of light and color.

A newlywed couple is stuck at a fancy seaside hotel. (The groom is played by John Karlen, best known to me as the servant of vampire Barnabas Collins in the soap opera Dark Shadows, adding a touch of irony.) He's very reluctant to have his new bride meet his mother, for a reason we'll find out about an hour into the film, adding an interesting and unexpected twist to his character. he also displays an unhealthy interest in a series of murders of young women not too far away, their bodies drained of blood.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory (claiming to be the descendent of the infamous woman of the same name) arrives with her secretary (better described as lover/slave.) They seem to have stepped right out of the late 1920's/early 1930's. (In fact, it's said that their appearances are deliberately based on Marlene Dietrich and Louise Brooks.) The manager of the hotel remembers the Countess from forty years ago, and she hasn't changed a bit . . .

I won't say anything else about the plot, except to note that you won't see fangs or bats or any of the usual vampire stuff. Delphine Seyrig is absolutely fascinating as the Countess (not to mention her stunning outfits.) Highly recommended.

@Victoria Silverwolf THANK YOU! I just watched this and was bowled over. It's what Jess Franco and Jean Rollin and all those other trash eurotica directors thought they were doing - but got right. It is wonderful. As you said every shot is gorgeous and some of the editing is stunning. The music is great and you are so right, Delphine Seyrig is absolutely fascinating as the Countess. Her girlfriend isn't bad either. Thank you so much.

Something about your review and Mr. Monkey's affirmation made me give this a try awhile back. I don't know that I was quite as bowled over, but I did enjoy it and thank you for pointing it out. My favorite bit might have been the part where Vampire Lady is fondling Husband in the lobby while
Vampire Girlfriend is freaking out Wife upstairs. Husband: "What was that?" Vampire Lady (with exquisitely disinterested matter-of-factness): "Sounded like a scream."

 

[KGeo777]

Not of This Earth 1957 ---very inventive on the cheap sci-fi film greatly enhanced by Beverly Garland, who treats every role like its Lady MacBeth. I like the umbrella facehugger alien that shows up as well as Dick Miller's unexpected appearance as a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman.

DOUBLE FACE 1969 --rewatch-- Giallo with Klaus Kinski as an industrialist who learns his wife is having a lesbian affair. After she is killed in a car crash, a girl shows up and takes him to a hippie joint where he sees her in a porno film with a masked woman who may be his wife. The fact that it was made after the car crash sends him over the edge to find answers.

 

[Bramandin]

Rumble - an animated movie about a bunch of giant monsters that act like professional wrestlers. I missed part because the villain triggered me, but thematically it's a decent movie.

 

[Foxbat]

Shock (1946)
A reasonable thriller starring Vincent Price. It's about a psychiatrist involved in murder but also dealing with a patient who witnessed the killing. Things are complicated by the presence of the psychologist's manipulative mistress, who came across as a kind of Noir Lady MacBeth. One of those movies that, no matter what time of day you watch it, it feels as if you're watching it at three in the morning.

 

[Randy M.]

One of those movies that, no matter what time of day you watch it, it feels as if you're watching it at three in the morning.

There will come a day when I steal that line.

 

[Foxbat]

There will come a day when I steal that line.

Not an original line from me.
It was a line I heard somewhere else. I think it was being used to describe Plan 9 From Outer Space.

 

[JunkMonkey]

There will come a day when I steal that line.

A line, I believe, originally comes from The Haunted World of Edward D.Wood Jr. (1995) a documentary about Plan 9 From Outer Space.

 

[Randy M.]

Huh. I don't recall ever hearing it before, but I'm still going to steal it. (And it would really fit Plan 9...)

 

[Guttersnipe]

I really wish someone could explain to me the attraction of Woody Allen films. I keep trying and... trying and... nothing. I can see they're supposed to be (or trying to be) funny, or funny and insightful, or insightful and funny (Oh look, a joke. Oh look, poignancy.) - but they just leave me cold. Stone cold. I've tried. Honestly I've tried. I watched A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy immediately after reading an interview with the man in which he came over as a likeable funny interesting human being. I was feeling very well disposed to the bloke... the film was one of the most tedious bits of cinema I had seen in weeks. Even surrounded by an audience of fans I've been left unengaged. (I'm a great believer in the idea that watching a film with an audience is a far more rewarding experience than watching them on your own. Especially with a comedy. Laughter is contagious. Sometimes you need permission to laugh and having someone else start gives you licence.)
They were laughing a lot and I was just sat there, surrounded by a guffawing crowd utterly bemused. I had no idea why these people would all suddenly laugh at something. Apart from the fact that whatever had just happened on screen had all the hallmarks and structures of a joke but without actually being at all funny. Zelig was about the best and he was hardly in it. Even his earlier funnier films I find really hard work.

Come to think of it, I've only seen some of his fantasy films (others being Midnight in Paris and Zelig), more if you include the animated Antz. I've never seen or heard a lot of good jokes in his films, but that's not why I watch them. The humor might not make me guffaw, but it always seems warm-hearted, wholesome and touching to me for some reason.

 

[Provincial]

The Man who Knew Too Little, starring Bill Murray, Joanne Whalley, Alfred Molina and Peter Gallagher, with a brief (but brilliant) appearance by a very young Eddie Marsan. It’s a guilty pleasure because it’s embarrassingly silly and clunky, but it makes me laugh out loud again and again, especially the scene with the traffic cones. Roger Ebert gave it one star, which might be one more star than it deserves, but it’s guaranteed to cheer me up come what may. Which is why I’m watching it today.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Callan (1974)- movie version of the British TV show of the same name. Downbeat and low key. A sanctioned government assassin is bought out of retirement to kill an arms dealer - which he does. There aren't a lot of complications along the way and chunks have dated really badly but strangely compelling for all that. Spot the actor fans will have fun ticking off at least two actors in the speaking parts who appeared in Star Wars a couple of years later.