¶ which enchanted worlds were you wafted away to by which wiccan magicks? - September 2023

[matthewscott8]

5 new favourites this month, 4 of them from ICMFF programming duties. Image from As Without So Within.

とつくにの少女 / Totsukuni no shôjo / The Girl from the Other Side (2022 - Yutaro Kubo)
As Without So Within (2016 - Manuela de Laborde)
Slucajna raskos prozirnog vodenog rebusa / Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus (2020 - Dalibor Baric)
Dal pianeta degli umani / From the Planet of the Humans (2021 - Giovanni Cioni)
Saloum (2021 - Jean-Luc Herbulot)

So... those were the enchanted worlds I visited, how about yourselves?

[Traveller]

Didn't see much last month. My favorite movie was Farewell to the Summer Light (1968).

[matthewscott8]

Didn't see much last month. My favorite movie was Farewell to the Summer Light (1968).

very appropriate!

[pitchorneirda]

Favourites (>= 8/10)
Anatomie d'une chute (2023, Justine Triet)
The Whisperers (1967, Bryan Forbes)


Very Good Movies (7 and 7.5)
Whistle Down the Wind (1961, Bryan Forbes)
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008, Mike Leigh)
Family Life (1971, Ken Loach)
45 Years (2015, Andrew Haigh)
Kapag wala nang mga alon (2022, Lav Diaz)
Phantom Islands (2018, Rouzbeh Rashidi)
Tod und Teufel (1974, Stephen Dwoskin)
Song of the Sea (2014, Tomm Moore)
Radio On (1979, Christopher Petit)

Honourable mentions:
Past Lives (Song); Career Girls (Leigh); El rufián (Tinayre); Isle of Dogs (Anderson)

[Good_Will_Harding]

Pretty typical month, not much that especially stood out, but with still plenty of good stuff abound. Will combine my best first viewings and re-watches, probably just for this month, though.

1. Thieves Like Us (1974)
2. Léon Morin, prêtre (1961)
3. The French Connection (1971) RE-WATCH
4. Rumble Fish (1983) RE-WATCH
5. Afire (2023)
6. Dumb Money (2023)
7. The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar (and three other Wes Anderson shorts) (2023)
8. One, Two, Three (1961)
9. A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
10. Stop Making Sense (1984)

[Torgo]

So... those were the enchanted worlds I visited, how about yourselves?

Thanks for stepping in for ¶ himself!


I was convinced of having had a mid month in filmviewing .. when it was one of the best of the year?! Huh.

Close to (8/10)
Theater Camp (2023) yayy
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)
Vengeance (2022)
The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971)
Talk to Me (2022)
The Train (1964)

These are really nice 7/10s I like to point out:
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022)
Deadstream (2022)
The Invitation (2015)
Cutter's Way (1981)
I Confess (1953)
Il ladro di bambini (1992)

I've rarely seen more worthless garbage than Her & Him, special shoutout.


The long-awaited title of BIRD OF THE MONTH goes to the gray partridge. They always seem like they're just minding their own business, peaceful small feather blobs.

[Silga]

A nothing special kind of month. But Notes on a Scandal is an exceptional drama.

Ennio (Giuseppe Tornatore, 2021) 9
Notes on a Scandal (Richard Eyre, 2006) 9

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (Will Sharpe, 2021) 7
Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman (Adrian Shergold, 2005) 7

[outdoorcats]

5 new favourites this month, 4 of them from ICMFF programming duties. Image from As Without So Within.

とつくにの少女 / Totsukuni no shôjo / The Girl from the Other Side (2022 - Yutaro Kubo)
As Without So Within (2016 - Manuela de Laborde)
Slucajna raskos prozirnog vodenog rebusa / Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus (2020 - Dalibor Baric)
Dal pianeta degli umani / From the Planet of the Humans (2021 - Giovanni Cioni)
Saloum (2021 - Jean-Luc Herbulot)

So... those were the enchanted worlds I visited, how about yourselves?

I only watched two films in September, but I'm very excited someone else watched and loved Saloum. That was one I expected to be more popular, but was not. A stylish Tarantino-inspired crime-thriller-turned-something-else from Senegal? With great production values, direction, writing, acting, and genuinely great set-pieces? Sometimes I just don't understand why some films take off and some don't.



Anyway, those two films were Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (a very fun 6/10, but I've forgotten most of the film already) and a theatrical rewatch of The Night of the Hunter (bumped from a 9 to a 10; it really does incredible, super weird, super haunting things with music, it's full of jaw-dropping shots, and Harry Powell remains one of the most iconic movie villains).



Did not realize until this past viewing that Harry Powell is the clear inspiration for the character Nathan Fillion plays in the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Though in hindsight it is a bit obvious.

[matthewscott8]

I only watched two films in September, but I'm very excited someone else watched and loved Saloum. That was one I expected to be more popular, but was not. A stylish Tarantino-inspired crime-thriller-turned-something-else from Senegal? With great production values, direction, writing, acting, and genuinely great set-pieces?

I did think there was a critical difference compared to Tarantino

Spoiler

the movie starts and ends with an exhortation AGAINST revenge. Revenge puts Chaka's friends in danger, "what you are not telling us will kill us", and ends up killing both the main character Chaka and his friend Minuit. On the contrary Tarantino is resolutely PRO REVENGE, his movies literally celebrate the catharsis of uber violent revenge, Basterds being the coagulation of that thesis. There are other elements of the type of emotional intelligence that are far beyond the grasp of Tarantino, althoug betrayed his friends comfort and hug Chaka when they learn he was an abused child. The scene where Chaka becomes a child whilst shooting at "Colonel Remington" and where Remington places the pistol against his own forehead are very emotionally smart too

I completely agree with the characterisation of stylish, it had style to spare.

[kongs_speech]

5 STAR FEATURES

Actors (2021, Betsey Brown)
Breathless (1983, Jim McBride)
Gone with the Wind (1939, Victor Fleming)
Great Expectations (1946, David Lean)
It Felt Like a Kiss (2009, Adam Curtis)
JFK (1991, Oliver Stone)
Jigoku (1960, Nobuo Nakagawa)
The Turin Horse (2011, Bela Tarr)

5 STAR SHORTS

Meatwaffle (2009, Leah Shore)
Old Man (2012, Leah Shore)

4.5 STAR FEATURES

The Crying Game (1992, Neil Jordan)
Hello Dankness (2022, Soda Jerk)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004, Hayao Miyazaki)
Mr. Arkadin (1955, Orson Welles)
Rotting in the Sun (2023, Sebastian Silva)
Terror Nullius (2018, Soda Jerk)
The Tomb of Ligeia (1964, Roger Corman)
Zardoz (1974, John Boorman)

4.5 STAR SHORTS

How to Carry Water (2023, Sasha Wortzel)
Launch (2021, Leah Shore)
Sparkill Ave! (1993, Robert Breer)
Stasis (2023, Maya Watanabe)
Sunflower Siege Engine (2023, Sky Hopinka)
Time Flies (1997, Robert Breer)

5 STAR REWATCHES

Stop Making Sense (1983, Jonathan Demme)
Synecdoche, New York (2008, Charlie Kaufman)

[St. Gloede]

September was a great improvement from August, where I only caught 2 new great first-time viewings, courtesy of a really disappointing Japan challenge.

While there was only 1 new (soft) favourite, it was a return to normalcy+ with 14/54 first-time viewings turning out great.

8.5

Kapitan Volkonogov bezhal / Captain Volkonogov Escaped (2021, Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov)

8s

Wet Sand (2021, Elene Naveriani)
Past Lives (2023, Celine Song)
Paloma (2022, Marcelo Gomes)
Soul of a Beast (2021, Lorenz Merz)
Tocaia no Asfalto (1962, Roberto Pires)
Le bleu du caftan / The Blue Caftan (2022, Maryam Touzani)
Solange Leben in mir ist / As Long As There's Life in Me (1965, Günter Reisch)
Ashkal (2022, Youssef Chebbi)
Asteroid City (2023, Wes Anderson)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023, Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson)
The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021, Michael Rianda, Jeff Rowe)
Apa ca un bivol negru / Water Like a Black Buffalo (1970, Various)
Deep Sea (2023, Tian Xiao Peng)
Aurora's Sunrise (2022, Inna Sahakyan)

On top of the 54 first-time viewings I also rewatched:

Peeping Tom (1960, Michael Powell) 9 - - > 9.5
Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock) 9 - - > 8.5
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) 7 - - > 6
Live and Let Die (1973) 7 - - > 5
GoldenEye (1995) 6.5 - - > 7.5
Casino Royale (2006) 7.5 - - > 8
Skyfall (2012) 7.5 - - > 8

[outdoorcats]

I only watched two films in September, but I'm very excited someone else watched and loved Saloum. That was one I expected to be more popular, but was not. A stylish Tarantino-inspired crime-thriller-turned-something-else from Senegal? With great production values, direction, writing, acting, and genuinely great set-pieces?

I did think there was a critical difference compared to Tarantino

Spoiler

the movie starts and ends with an exhortation AGAINST revenge. Revenge puts Chaka's friends in danger, "what you are not telling us will kill us", and ends up killing both the main character Chaka and his friend Minuit. On the contrary Tarantino is resolutely PRO REVENGE, his movies literally celebrate the catharsis of uber violent revenge, Basterds being the coagulation of that thesis. There are other elements of the type of emotional intelligence that are far beyond the grasp of Tarantino, althoug betrayed his friends comfort and hug Chaka when they learn he was an abused child. The scene where Chaka becomes a child whilst shooting at "Colonel Remington" and where Remington places the pistol against his own forehead are very emotionally smart too

I completely agree with the characterisation of stylish, it had style to spare.

Agree completely, I picked up on that as well. And I wonder if that was the element that put people off When I read reviews it seems a lot of people say "I really liked it but didn't like the ending." I think people didn't like the ending because the concept of

Spoiler

having an anti-revenge theme, even against such a heinous person

is just so far outside what people have been conditioned to, they can't understand it. Of course

Spoiler

in many African countries the concept of forgiving (or at least NOT pursuing revenge against) your worst enemy is all that tenuously holds society together and stops the endless cycle of violence from starting again; this is pretty much the same theme of Dry Season, just way more action-packed.

For those of you wondering what's going on under all these spoiler tags, go watch Saloum. It's great.

[matthewscott8]

I only watched two films in September, but I'm very excited someone else watched and loved Saloum. That was one I expected to be more popular, but was not. A stylish Tarantino-inspired crime-thriller-turned-something-else from Senegal? With great production values, direction, writing, acting, and genuinely great set-pieces?

I did think there was a critical difference compared to Tarantino

Spoiler

the movie starts and ends with an exhortation AGAINST revenge. Revenge puts Chaka's friends in danger, "what you are not telling us will kill us", and ends up killing both the main character Chaka and his friend Minuit. On the contrary Tarantino is resolutely PRO REVENGE, his movies literally celebrate the catharsis of uber violent revenge, Basterds being the coagulation of that thesis. There are other elements of the type of emotional intelligence that are far beyond the grasp of Tarantino, althoug betrayed his friends comfort and hug Chaka when they learn he was an abused child. The scene where Chaka becomes a child whilst shooting at "Colonel Remington" and where Remington places the pistol against his own forehead are very emotionally smart too

I completely agree with the characterisation of stylish, it had style to spare.

Agree completely, I picked up on that as well. And I wonder if that was the element that put people off When I read reviews it seems a lot of people say "I really liked it but didn't like the ending." I think people didn't like the ending because the concept of

Spoiler

having an anti-revenge theme, even against such a heinous person

is just so far outside what people have been conditioned to, they can't understand it. Of course

Spoiler

in many African countries the concept of forgiving (or at least NOT pursuing revenge against) your worst enemy is all that tenuously holds society together and stops the endless cycle of violence from starting again; this is pretty much the same theme of Dry Season, just way more action-packed.

For those of you wondering what's going on under all these spoiler tags, go watch Saloum. It's great.

I couldn't agree more, with all the points!

[RogerTheMovieManiac88]

Hi there, Matt! Hope you are keeping well.

My favourite FTVs of September 2023 (arranged chronologically & with standouts in red):

The Doll's Revenge (1907, Cecil M. Hepworth) - 8.5/10
L'Inferno / Dante's Inferno (1911, Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, Giuseppe de Liguoro) - 10/10
Little Nemo / Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics (1911, Winsor McCay, J. Stuart Blackton) - 8.5 or 9/10
La dentellière / The Lacemaker (1913, Léonce Perret) - 8/10
The Wrath of the Gods (1914, Reginald Barker) - 8.5/10
Il fuoco (la favilla - la vampa - la cenere) / The Fire (1916, Giovanni Pastrone) - 7 or 7.5/10
Homunculus (1916, Otto Rippert) - 10/10
The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917, Maurice Tourneur) - 8/10
Back Stage (1919, Roscoe Arbuckle) - 7.5/10
Romeo und Julia im Schnee / Romeo and Juliet in the Snow (1920, Ernst Lubitsch) - 8/10
Camille (1921, Ray C. Smallwood) - 9/10
Pour don Carlos / For Don Carlos (1921, Musidora, Jacques Lasseyne) - 8.5 or 9/10
Crainquebille / Old Bill of Paris (1922, Jacques Feyder) - 9/10
Os Faroleiros / ‎The Lighthouse Keepers (1922, Maurice Mariaud) - 8/10
The Toll of the Sea (1922, Chester M. Franklin) - 8/10
Erdgeist / Earth Spirit (1923, Leopold Jessner) - 9.5/10
Koskenlaskijan morsian / The Forester's Bride (1923, Erkki Karu) - 7.5 or 8/10
Zaza (1923, Allan Dwan) - 10/10
A Woman of the World (1925, Malcolm St. Clair) - 8.5 or 9/10
Ella Cinders (1926, Alfred E. Green) - 8/10
Exit Smiling (1926, Sam Taylor) - 8.5/10
Kid Boots (1926, Frank Tuttle) - 8/10
Torrent (1926, Monta Bell) - 7.5/10
Fiddlesticks (1927, Harry Edwards) - 9/10
Sorok pervyy / The Forty-First (1927, Yakov Protazanov) - 8.5 or 9/10
Xi xiang ji / Romance of the Western Chamber (1927, Minwei Li, Hou Yao) - 8 or 8.5/10
Zare (1927, Amo Bek-Nazaryan) - 9/10
Ramona (1928, Edwin Carewe) - 9/10
Schmutziges Geld / Song (1928, Richard Eichberg) - 8/10
Ungarische Rhapsodie / Hungarian Rhapsody (1928, Hanns Schwarz) - 8/10
Jenseits der Straße - Eine Tragödie des Alltags / Harbour Drift (1929, Leo Mittler) - 9 or 9.5/10
Manolescu - Der König der Hochstapler / Manolescu, the Prince of Adventures (1929, Viktor Tourjansky) - 8 or 8.5/10
Rabmadár / Prisoner Number Seven (1929, Lajos Lázár, Paul Sugar) - 7 or 7.5/10
El sexto sentido / The Sixth Sense (1929, Eusebio Fernández Ardavín, Nemesio M. Sobrevila) - 8.5/10
Vesnoi / In Spring (1929, Mikhail Kaufman) - 9.5 or 10/10
Lätif / Latif (1930, Mikayil Mikayilov) - 7.5 or 8/10
Takový je zivot / Such is Life (1930, Carl Junghans) - 9/10

Silent September all the way!

[burneyfan]

Favourites (>= 8/10)

The Whisperers (1967, Bryan Forbes)

The Whisperers is a personal favorite of mine -- I'm so happy it has found another fan!

[burneyfan]

Two of my randomizer slots are currently devoted to big movies of the 2020s and the 21st century, so I finally got to catch up on some big films from the last 5 years that probably everyone but me has already seen.

Favorited:

Manbiki kazoku a.k.a. Shoplifters -- Koreeda, 2018
Doraibu mai kâ a.k.a. Drive My Car -- Hamaguchi, 2021
Generation Kill -- 2008
Soldaten og Jenny -- Jacobsen, 1947
Bullet Train -- Leitch, 2022
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet -- Fothergill, Scholey & Hughes, 2020
The Banshees of Inisherin -- McDonagh, 2022
Everything Everywhere All at Once -- Scheinert & Kwan, 2022

[pitchorneirda]

Favourites (>= 8/10)

The Whisperers (1967, Bryan Forbes)

The Whisperers is a personal favorite of mine -- I'm so happy it has found another fan!

I just realized I forgot to add it to my 500<400 list

[Torgo]

Favourites (>= 8/10)

The Whisperers (1967, Bryan Forbes)

The Whisperers is a personal favorite of mine -- I'm so happy it has found another fan!

I just realized I forgot to add it to my 500<400 list

Well you made me acquire and watchlist it last week by your emphasizing, if that counts for something.
(Although it should be said that my watchlist is unreasonably long and my use of it completely erratic. But it's there.)