Recommended Viewing: This Gun For Hire (1942) Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar

Here's your tonight's this blogger approved movie, not too insightful or meaningful but a notable noir film from the golden canon of same.

Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire (Pierre Richard & Debut De Soire...

Nice dress.

David Kleinfeld, Carlito's Way

This is not going to be a character study of a movie villain, and one of the greatest movie villains at that, but is just to say that I have been warming to Kleinfeld's style in Carlito's Way as portrayed by the idiot - and only an occasional above par - actor Sean Penn.

So Sean Penn is obviously an idiot and much overrated, and most of his roles and movies are total and irredeemable flops... however his Kleinfeld was great in De Palma's Carlito's Way.

And he had great style... or whoever was in charge of dressing the characters did.

Such panache... or whatever it is

Film Review: The Long Goodbye, 1973

Everybody's doing film reviews, so here is mine.

The Long Goodbye, 1973, a Robert Altman film, and you can read up some on it in that wikipedia article.

What I would say though is maybe it is not a bad film and can stand on its own and some scenes in it are now classic such as the opening with Marlowe trying to feed his cat (the cat never to be seen again) but it does butcher Chandler's novel so and the PI Marlowe is unrecognizable in Elliot Gould's rendition from the one in the novel.

 

Later on, with the cat going out on Marlowe, never to be seen again in the movie, there is also a very loud dog making some very realistic barking noises.

Another unexpected gem is an early appearance by Arnie aka Arnold Schwarzenegger who actually gets to bare his torso and drop his pants in front of a camera.

 

And here is the fun part.

 

There is also a curious group of girls who are into yoga and meditation and doing calisthenics and practicing dance routines in the nude on a balcony in full view of Marlowe's apartment.

Elliot Gould's Marlow is very unkempt and disheveled, chain-smoking all the time whilst walking around talking to himself and apparently does everything, including sleeping and God knows what else, in one and the same brown suit and the same reddish tie.

Maybe worth seeing once but hardly worth owning or deserving of any repeat viewings, in my opinion.

More on cinema and visual arts on this blog:

My Film List

My Recent Movies List (Seen at Cinemas)

Movie Time: Hard Boiled (English Subtitles)

Today's pick is this Hong Kong "heroic bloodshed" canon film by John Woo.

Per linked wikipedia article, even if this writer knew all about it long before wikipedia, but still:

Heroic bloodshed is a genre invented and popularized by Hong Kong action cinema revolving around stylized action sequences and dramatic themes such as brotherhood, duty, honor, redemption and violence that has become a popular genre used by different directors worldwide.  

The term heroic bloodshed was coined by editor Rick Baker in the magazine Eastern Heroes in the late 1980s, specifically referring to the styles of directors John Woo and Ringo Lam. 

Heroic bloodshed is thus defined as "a Hong Kong action film that features a lot of gun play and gangsters rather than kung fu. Lots of blood. Lots of action." 

Heroic bloodshed films often feature gun fu action sequences.

And so does this one... infinite ammo mode, you know

Two favorite Jarmusch movies

Here are this blogger's two favorite Jarmusch movies

While I have seen most of his films, starting with the early black-and-white ones - and they are great too in their way and up to a point - for me, these two stand out.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

 Could be described as one of the best Samurai movies.

And Only Lover Left Alive which I think has to be the best vampire movie ever.

 

 

My Film List

As a compendium to My Recent Movies List (of movies seen at cinemas), here is a list of films that I have seen on all media:

So here goes, alphabetically arranged, only those that I do remember or have had time to enter to date:

(to list them all will be a long project and quite a proposition as have seen literally thousands of films however for the purposes of this list I am going to omit clearly rubbish movies) 

ETA: for the above reason (see the brackets), I have now decided to list only non-bad movies, those that I would recommend seeing to others or those that I at least was not sorry to have wasted time seeing myself.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Kubrick)

The 400 Blows / Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959, Truffaut) 

Annette (2021 Carax film) 

Bitter Moon (1991, Polanski)

A Bout de Souffle / Breathless (1959, Godard, Belmondo, Jean Seberg)

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974, Sam Peckinpah)

Amadeus (1984)

Are You Lonesome Tonight / Re dai wang shi 2021 

Back to the Future (1984)

Bad Education / La mala educación (2004, Almodovar)

The Big Lebowski (1998, Cohens)

Blade Runner (1984, Ridley Scott)

Black Box / Boîte noire (2021)

Bound (1996, Wachowskis)

Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)

Chungking Express (1994, Wong Kar-wai)

A Colt Is My Passport (1966)

The Crimson Rivers / Les Rivières pourpres (2000, Kassovitz)

Deception / Tromperie (2021, Arnaud Desplichin)

Drive My Car (2021)

Drug War / Du Zhan (2012, Johnnie To)

Eraserhead (1977, David Lynch)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998, Gilliam)

A Glitch In the Matrix (2021, rubbish documentary)

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999, Jarmusch)

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965, Russ Meyer movie)

Frantic (1988, Polanski, Harrison Ford)

 

The French Dispatch (2021)

La Grande Bouffe (1973)

Hard Boiled (1992, John Woo)

Holy Motors (2012, Leon Carax)

House of Gucci (2021, Ridley Scott)

Inherent Vice (2014, Paul Thomas Anderson) 

In the Mood for Love (2000, Wong Kar-wai) 

 

The Killing (1956, Kubrick)

The Long Goodbye (1973, Robert Altman)

The Matrix (1999, Wachowskis) 

Matrix Resurrections (2021, rubbish, time wasted)

Memoria (2021)

La Haine (1995, Kassovitz)

Licorice Pizza (2021, Anderson)

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Nightmare Alley (2021, Guillermo del Toro)

The Ninth Gate (2000, Polanski) 

The Neon Demon (2016, Refn)

No Time to Die (2021, Bond rubbish, time wasted)

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013, Jim Jarmusch)

Parallel Mothers (2021, Almodovar)

Persona (1966, Bergman)

 

Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)

Sexy Beast (2000) 

Shutter Island (2006)

Sirens (1994, Duigan) - Sirens (1994, film)

Snowpiercer (2013)

Solaris (1972, Tarkovsky)  

Stealing Beauty (1996, Bertolucci)

Stolen Kisses / Baisers volés (1968, Truffaut)

Talk to Her / Hable con ella (2002, Almodovar)

Titane (2021)

Tokyo Drifter (1966)

Trainspotting (1996, Boyle)

T2 Trainspotting (2017, Boyle) 

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, Lynch)

Volver (2006, Almodovar)

Youth 2015

Владивосток 2021

Купе № 6 2021

Обходные пути / Detours (2021)

Солярис (1972, Тарковский)

Чемпион мира 2021

House of Gucci Paolo Gucci Oufits by Cesare Attolini

 Fun fact... Jared Leto's Paolo Gucci suits were by none other than Cesare Attolini.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cesare Attolini (@cesareattolininapoli)

And they seem to be very happy about, too.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cesare Attolini (@cesareattolininapoli)

Me, I like the outfits.

 

Would definitely wear them.

The Wilhelm Scream Compilation

Lol - Wilhelm Scream

MEMORIA - Official Trailer

Saw this last night. Interesting.



Enjoyed it. 

Spoiler

Charles Bronson 100

Today November 3, 2021 the actor Charles Bronson would have turned 100.

Over the years I have watched quite a few movies with him and have always enjoyed them for what they are, including his later-years commercial crime cinema, Cannon Golan-Globus productions.

Here are some Bronson titles from my collections, starting with VHS which I still watch occasionally.

Death Wish 3 was the last Death Wish Michael Winner movie who directed the first three installments Death Wish to Death Wish 3.

Some people, they have been knocking Michael Winner films and himself too apparently (posthumously) but I rather like some of his earlier stuff like The Mechanic (1972) and Death Wish flicks.... for what they are.

I have many more but the rest are on DVDs.

Here are some Cannon Group J. Lee Thompson movies starring Bronson.

Kinjite is controversial and hilarious in turns, may have become a minor cult classic.

Murphy's Law a solid alcoholic cop flick (as opposed to flic).

10 2 Midnight is the weakest of the three.

And the original Death Wish in a Russian edition.

I think I have more Bronson movies somewhere.

However, one of my absolute Bronson favorites is where he teams with Alain Delon in Farewell, Friend.

When a Genius opens up!

You don't say!

I think I am going to learn this monologue by rote aka by heart aka memorize it. Make a party shtick out of it.

The Matrix Resurrected

New Matrix!

Hopefully it will be much better than the last two and a return to the form and canon of the first one.

 

 

 

 

HoroLex: Новая Матрица. Скоро в кино - The Matrix Resurrect...

Jean-Paul Belmondo Rest In Peace

The great French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo died yesterday. 

As I have stated on this blog and elsewhere, I have enjoyed his movies for a long time.

And it just so happens that I watched Breathless for the first time a couple of weeks ago which was playing at my local cinema.

Obviously it's a great movie by the famed director Godard and one that was Belmondo's breakthrough and marked the proper beginning of his acting career.

It's one of the earliest, and maybe the best, movie in the French New Wave cinema.

I guess it's about how to live the last few days of your life with total abandon focusing what you do best, i.e. crime, on the part of the male protagonist, and a dose of love.

However, I am also a great and unashamed fan of Belmondo's commercial cop (or should I say flic) and thief (voyou ) movies.

And this is my personal favorite L'Alpagueur (aka The Hunter Will Get You).

 With a very effective Bruno Kremer and featuring a great score too.

And here is another one of a series of his commercial crime movies from the late 70s-early 80s, noted for Belmondo using a burst-fire mode Beretta 93R to a great effect.
 

Henry Silva is in it too.

 

RIP the great actor.

Docu Time:Super Size Me

Here is something to watch.

A documentary about McDonalds in America that is good enough to semi-watch on the background like while doing a bit work on your desktop computer.

The point is valid and well documented, however the documentary seems to be itself "supersized" for the message it tries, and succeeds, to put across.

However, at this point and due to a change in circumstances, am considering to eat more fast food, not less.

Seen: CHUNGKING EXPRESS 4K | Official Trailer (English)

Watched this today at the movies, the earliest (and cheapest) showing at about 10:00 (told everybody I am off to work).

Time was not wasted as there were some great visuals there. 

Watched it on a visual perception and awareness level only i.e. without trying to get the point as there is probably no point.

"The point is that there is no point".

Having said that, there are still two coherent stories there, even if they are not meant to make too much sense on an ordinary everyday life kind of level... but still watched it only for what was unfolding on the screen before the eyes and local (South Korean) color. 

Still, a great film, obviously.

À bout de souffle (1960) - C'est vraiment dégueulasse

Watched this last night at the movies...



Obviously it's a great movie.

It's one of the earliest, and maybe the best, movie in the French New Wave cinema.

How to live the last few days of your life with total abandon to what you do best, i.e. crime, on the part of the male protagonist, and a dose of love.

My VHS Collection

 Here is a selection of movie titles on VHS from my collection that I unearthed at one of my pads.

I do have what to watch them on - a vhs recorder player and a multisystem one too - Pal/Secam/NTSC - plays anything.

Some highlights (?)

67 titles pictured. 

I think I have another 50 at various places.

And this the unit I can watch those VHS tapes on.