The Late Show (1977) Robert Benton

The Late Show (1977) (2x)
Written and directed by Robert Benton
Produced by Robert Altman, Scott Bushnell
Cinematography by Charles Rosher Jr.
Warner DVD – library (1:33)

The Late Show is a film I first saw when I was 15 years old, far too young to adequately appreciate it. I hadn’t gained enough life experience, hadn’t seen enough film noir, and felt as if its stars Art Carney and Lily Tomlin were trapped in a movie where they didn’t belong. To this 15-year-old mind, Carney belonged on reruns of The Honeymooners; Tomlin belonged on TV variety shows performing skits as Edith Ann and Ernestine the telephone operator. Yet here they were on the big screen in a… what? A comedy? A crime picture? To make things even weirder, I saw The Late Show in one of the strangest places you can see a movie: the theater of a cruise ship on the way to the Virgin Islands. At the time, I thought little about the movie. Now 40 years later, I embrace it as a rare gem.

Movies Watched in March 2017 Part IV

The movies are piling up in March, probably my most productive movie-watching month ever. You can link to the other parts of this crazy month below, then check out my 10 latest movies.

Part I

Part II 

Part III 

And now, on with Part IV:

Stoker (2013) Park Chan-wook

Stoker (2013)
Directed by Park Chan-wook
Produced by Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Costigan
Written by Wentworth Miller
Cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung
DVD – library (1:39)

Another recommendation from the guys at Pure Cinema Podcast, Stoker is the first English-language film from South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, whose previous films include the Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance) and who later made Snowpiercer (2013) and The Handmaiden (2016). If you know Chan-wook’s earlier work, Stoker will seem quite toned-down, but for this particular story, a quieter, more serene atmosphere serves to heighten the tension rather than reduce it.

The Proposition (2005) John Hillcoat

The Proposition (2005)
Directed by John Hillcoat
Produced by Chris Brown, Chiara Menage, Jackie O’Sullivan, Cat Villiers
Written by Nick Cave
Cinematography by Benoît Delhomme
DVD (1:44)

“He’s right, Samuel. A misanthrope is one who hates humanity.”

“Is that what we are? Misanthropes?”

“Good Lord, no. We’re a family.”

The Proposition is a brutal film about a brutal period of history in a brutal place and one man’s efforts to bring civilization to it. In the Australian outback in the 1880s, law enforcement Captain Morris Stanley (Ray Winstone) captures Charlie (Guy Pearce) and Mikey Burns (Richard Wilson), two of three brothers who are the nucleus of a notorious, ruthless gang who raped and murdered members of a local family, seemingly just for the hell of it. Although he’s captured two of the Burns brothers, it’s the gang’s leader Arthur Burns (Danny Huston) that Capt. Stanley really wants. Stanley decides to make a deal with Charlie: if he’ll kill his brother Arthur, Stanley promises to release both Charlie and Mikey.

Night of the Comet (1984) Thom Eberhardt

Night of the Comet (1984)
Written and directed by Thom Eberhardt
Produced by Andrew Lane, Wayne Crawford
Cinematography by Arthur Albert
Library DVD – interlibrary loan (1:35)

“The burden of civilization is on us, okay?”

Night of the Comet is a horror/science fiction/comedy/satire recommended by the guys at Pure Cinema Podcast last week. The plot is pretty simple: a comet has streaked past the Earth several days before Christmas, wiping out every person in the Los Angeles area except for a few survivors who stayed indoors protected by any structure made of steel. It’s not much of a set-up, but it’s enough to get us going.

That’s Entertainment! (1974) Jack Haley, Jr.

That’s Entertainment! (1974)
Written, produced and directed by Jack Haley, Jr.
Cinematography by Russell Metty
Warner Blu-ray (2:14)

For many years, I have hated musicals. My friends and co-workers have known this for years and were understandably shocked and confused when I chose Singin’ in the Rain for inclusion in our library’s Great Movies series last year. I also tell them that the main reason I hate musicals is that I played trumpet in far too many little theater pit orchestras (both out of obligation and necessity) when I was younger. The long hours of never-ending rehearsals can really wear you down, especially when you’re in your early to mid-20s and have the energy to do something besides waiting for one of the actors to find the right key or listen to the director arguing with the conductor over whether or not a certain verse can be cut from a song.

But that’s beginning to change. I still do not enjoy professional-level Broadway musicals performed onstage, but I’m discovering that movie musicals contain a sort of magic you just can’t find anywhere else. That’s why That’s Entertainment! (and no doubt its sequels) should be shown to people like me who think they hate musicals.

Movies Watched in March 2017 Part III

Miss Part I? How about Part II? Better catch up, I’m on a roll… Here are 10 more for your consideration:

The Horror! The Horror! My Reluctance to Embrace Horror and How Scream Factory and Pure Cinema Podcast May Change My Movie-Watching Life While Sucking My Bank Account Dry

(How’s that for a title, huh?)

I have a very unusual relationship with horror movies. I own very few of them and most of the ones I do own are from Hollywood’s “classic” era, including several of the Universal monster films and later more “psychological” horror films such as The Innocents (1961) and The Haunting (1963), films that suggest more than they show. Most of the horror in those films comes from implications and a sense of dread rather than actual physical danger and mayhem. These are the elements that – at least to me – offer the best justifications for rewatchability. Yet after listening to the latest Pure Cinema Podcast, I might be picking up more horror.

In their most recent show, Episode 6: Scream Factory, I came away with at least 16 titles I absolutely must check out:

Eyewitness (1981) Peter Yates

Eyewitness (1981)
Directed and produced by Peter Yates
Written by Steve Tesich
Cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti
Netflix streaming (1:43)

Another in the long line of movies I missed during the 80s, Eyewitness is the story of Daryll, a janitor (William Hurt) in a New York office building who discovers the dead body of one of the building’s wealthy corporate heads. TV news reporter Tony Sokolow (Sigourney Weaver) suspects Daryll knows something significant about the murder, but he really doesn’t; he’s just in love with her and wants her to keep pursuing him. Of course this puts Daryll on the radar of the actual killers.

Train Movies: Why Do We Love Them?

I had quite a revelation this weekend. It happened as I was watching The American Friend (1977), a Wim Wenders film that’s playing on FilmStruck. I enjoyed the movie but found myself becoming more engaged during a sequence that took place on a train. It’s not that the movie wasn’t compelling before and after this point (it was), but my interest level ratcheted up in a way it hadn’t quite done before. It reminded me of another train sequence from Ripley’s Game (2002), which – like The American Friend – is based on Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley’s Game novel.