beavis wrote: ↑January 1st, 2021, 11:29 am
1. Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952, #642) - 8
yesterday:
2. Prästänkan (1920, #593) - 6.5
3. The Patsy (1928, #286) - 7.5
4. Døden er et kjærtegn (1949, #937) - 7.5
today:
5. Kamouraska (1973, #612) - 7.5
6. Les ordres (1974, #171) - 8
7. Hard Core Logo (1996, #967) - 7.5
Yesterday the Patsy came very close to an 8 for me. Some truly funny intertitles and a captivating leading performance by Marion Davies (who I had not seen in a movie before, but did recently see portrayed by Amanda Seyfried in Mank). Only the type of story, situations and characters are keeping this one slightly back for me, so even if it is tempting to overrate this for its unique selling points, I still think this is "just" a very solid 7.5 And a fun discovery!
Prastankan was not up there with other Dreyer works for me, and there seems to be a kind of morality play going on (closing the thing off with the symbol of the cross) that just doesn't fly for me. The noir film was well done for the genre, which is not my favorite... I had a hard time believing the characters, but in the end the story did engage me enough to think about it some more, so I rounded it generously off upwards to a 7.5
Today was for Canada and the movie I had least expectations about ran off with a solid 8. Les Ordres really succeeds in putting you in the mindset of someone who is put into jail without any justification... I wanted to compare it to something Peter Watkins could have done, the style is different and not as intense at Watkins could make it, but there are some similarities.
Kamouraska is a close second with a double whammy of putting the stunning Geneviève Bujold in some stunning cinematography and lighting. The first half hour had me thinking masterpiece, but after that a long extended flashback takes place for most of the rest of the movie (and i watched the longest version, so this is a more than 2 hour segment), that in the end just drags too much. also the bravura editing and lighting felt taken a notch down... I just wasn't as engaged anymore.
Hard Core Logo is a véry well made mockumentary... subtly funny and painfully true at times. I can see why this one is up there on the best of Canada list... but this kind of thing just doesn't engages me much these days. I have seen these type of characters and situations too much I guess, they are not the most captivating to look at and be on the road with.