Cinematic Distractions...

[dulcedemon]

Stray Dog(Nora Inu - 1949):
In this hot and sweaty movie directed by Akira Kurosawa, Toshirô Mifune plays a rookie homicide detective whose gun gets stolen during a crowded bus ride. The summer swelter is almost a character. Everyone is dripping sweat, clutching fans, and eating ice pops.
Seasoned character actor and frequent player in Kurosawa's films, Takashi Shimura, has a big role here as Chief Detective Sato. He mentors the rookie who has been assigned to assist him on a seemingly unrelated case. As the investigation unfolds, it's determined that the gun that was used is the same type as the one that was stolen.
This is a long, slow, methodical, police procedural. It might not be everyone's idea of a good time, but I loved it. Mifune is terrific, but Takashi Shimura is really brilliant here.
There is an excellent scene in which he casually interrogates a woman who deals in black market guns. The acting is superb as is the way the scene is shot. Unfortunately, I was unable to discern the actress's name from the extensive cast list. She and the detective are having what appears to be a friendly conversation while eating ice pops. A few minutes into it, he gives her permission to smoke. She smokes that cigarette like a drowning woman coming up for air. He made her have a nicotine fit to get information out of her. It's a lot of subtle but brilliant moments like that.
Mifune does most of the legwork, tailing suspects and tracking down leads. He goes after the pickpocket who stole his gun, a woman by the name of Ogin(Noriko Sengoku). He follows her for an entire day before she finally gives him the information he wants. She tells him to walk around in a certain neighborhood while "looking desperate", and the illicit gun dealers will approach him. He dresses up in his somewhat tattered army uniform because nothing looks more desperate than defeat.
There are many minor characters who have great scenes. There is the suspect's cabaret performer girlfriend, her shrewdly manipulative mother, a small time crime boss called Honda, the grieving husband of a murder victim, and the cabaret's stage director. That last one, the stage director, I found particularly entertaining for two reasons. As the detectives approach him for questioning, he picks up a tabletop electric fan, then sits down with it on his lap so that it's blowing in his face the entire time he is talking. When asked why a certain performer didn't show up for work, he first simply tells them that she is sick, but soon adds the detail that she has her period, then offers his opinion on how difficult women are to deal with during that time of the month. He provides a little moment of odd comedy in an otherwise serious story.
Botany note:
The climax of the film takes place in a field of flowers. Even in black and white, the camera picks up a lot of detail. They are likely sunchokes AKA: Jerusalem artichokes(Helianthus tuberosus) or a close relative thereof.
Musical note:
There is song that features prominently in a pivotal scene. That song is La Paloma (Sebastián Iradier).

Pigs and Battleships(Buta to gunkan - 1961):
In the port city of Yokosuka, clueless Kinta(Hiroyuki Nagato) is a yakuza flunky of the lowest order. His sweetheart, Haruko(Jitsuko Yoshimura), wants him to quit the gang and run away with her to Kawasaki, where her uncle can get them factory jobs.
You can get a sense of how things are going to go for this young man from the flag on his hat. The group that he runs with answers to the big boss, but Kinta answers to the group boss, and when that boss isn't around, he takes orders from that boss's assistant. Think of it like regional manager, store manager, assistant store manager. Kinta is just an entry level employee. He is not even a keyholder.
The store in this case is a brothel. More accurately, it's a sandwich shop up front with a brothel in the back. Big boss has a whole chain of such businesses. They rake in tons of cash, which they launder through a pig farm.
When Kinta isn't shaking down small business owners in the neighborhood, he tends the pigs. Haruko works in the sandwich shop, just in the front, not in the back. Both of them are being pressured into doing more.
Kinta is being pressured by the gang. Haruko is being pressured by her mother and older sister. The promise of easy money is a lure for both. The gang itself is being pressured by the big boss, who in turn is being pressured by competition from a rival boss backed by the Chinese. There is a lot of infighting and opportunism.
Last but not least are the Americans. It's American sailors that keep the bars, gambling halls, and brothels humming with activity and flush with cash. It's a double humiliation, losing the war then having to cater to the victors in order to survive.
Hiroyuki Nagato turns in a unique performance. He is constantly making faces. I assume this is for comedic effect. It's that, or his character is mentally ill. He appears to be channeling young Jerry Lewis. It's amusing and annoying at the same time.
Jitsuko Yoshimura makes a stunning debut here. I first saw her in Onibaba(1964), which I also highly recommend.
DVD:
The disc I rented contained the extra feature Imamura: The Free Thinker(1995). It's an interview with Shôhei Imamura but in a non-traditional sense. It's a short series of staged casual conversations.
It begins with Imamura along with his friend and actor, Kazuo Kitamura, eating and drinking at a café. Among the topics they discuss: the disillusionment and influx of American culture that followed the war, Imamura's older brother who died fighting in the war, French films, and incest. Later on, Imamura relates the details of his experience as a consultant(for lack of a better way to put it) on the set of an amateur porn movie to a hair stylist. Other topics covered include: Akira Kurosawa, student protests, and prostitutes.
Specifically, that last topic begins with Imamura explaining his fondness for prostitutes as a subject in his movies. It ends with him visiting "Gomaibaka for the children", which is the site of a Meiji Era mass grave for prostitutes in Shinjuku. While there, he mentions a movie that didn't get made, Shinjuku Fantasy, which was based on a legend of a young man who fell in love with a prostitute. It didn't get made because Nikkatsu Studio went bankrupt.

Army of Shadows(L'armée des ombres - 1969):
It begins on October 20th 1942 with a daring escape from a concentration camp, and follows the exploits of members of the French Resistance up until February 13th 1944. It's loosely based on director Jean-Pierre Melville's real life experiences in the French Resistance. The high point for me was Simone Signoret's breathtaking performance. My one complaint is that a number of scenes were too dark and murky to see what was happening. Great story, but the film could use remastering.

Don't Play Us Cheap(1973):
This musical was written, composed, directed, and produced by Melvin Van Peebles. Two demons, described in one instance as devil-bats and in another as imps, are tasked with ruining a Saturday night party in Harlem.
If they can't stop the booze from flowing, run out the food, or start a fight and break up the party before the end of the night, they'll be turned into human beings as punishment. The party is tight, the booze and food abundant, and a little something they didn't count on gets in their way. The cast features Esther Rolle, Mabel King, and Avon Long with outstanding vocal performances from Joshie Armstead, and George Ooppee McCurn.

Black Widow(2021):
Stuff gets smashed. Stuff explodes. Bad guys get punched and kicked. Bad guys punch and kick back. Bad guys get punched and kicked some more. It's all the things I've said about every superhero movie that's ever been on this list. It's all the same crash, bam, boom, but with a slight family vibe, a weird pheromone thing, and cuter, sexier outfits. As Marvel's individual superhero movies go, on a scale of one to Ant-Man, I give it a seven.

Siraa Fil-Mina(AKA: Struggle in the Pier, Obscure Waters, and Dark Waters - 1956):
Ragab(Omar Sharif) returns home to his village after working three years shoveling coal in the belly of a ship. Awaiting him in their shack near the docks, are his mother and his cousin, Hamedah(Fetan Hamamah).
His best friend, Mamdouh(Ahmed Ramzy), also welcomes him back, and shares news that he has just been made the head of his father's shipping company. Their reunion sours when Mamdouh indicates his romantic interest in Hamedah. Ragab had romantic plans of his own for his cousin.
That's the love triangle.
There is also a business triangle involving Mamdouh, his father, and his father's top employee of many years. That employee becomes disgruntled when Mamdouh's father retires and hands to company over to his inexperienced son. Bent on revenge, he attempts to sabotage a lucrative shipping contract. With the help of a loyal henchman, he stirs trouble in any way he can. Tempers flare, and calamity ensues.
This is a pretty good movie, but I have one major problem with it: It rewards misogyny.
I don't expect a movie made in Egypt in the 1950s to be a paragon of feminism. I'm not that ignorant. What surprised me was how it frames Ragab as the better man. He has the worst temper and slaps his cousin around over every little thing (like wearing jewelry that he didn't give her, or showing interest in a guy not her cousin who treats her like a princess and would never beat her). He is mean and violent, and spends several scenes in an out of control rage fit. There was nothing about him that I found laudable.
This my third go at Egyptian cinema of the 1950s. The first was Struggle on the Nile(Seraa fil Nil - 1959), which starred Omar Sharif and Hind Rostom. The second was Cairo Station(Bab el hadid - 1958), which featured Rostom without Sharif. The first one was the best.

Burnt Offerings(1976):
I don't know if Stephen King had read Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco before he wrote The Shining, but I found it difficult not to draw comparisons. Burnt Offerings is a shabby, boring, summer rental of a similar tale of caretakers getting more than they bargained for with tragic consequences. The novels were written four years apart. The movies were made four years apart. Those coincidences are spookier than anything in this movie. I saw this a long time ago, and I didn't think much of it then. I rented it again only because I wanted to see Eileen Heckart in another role outside of the one she played in The Bad Seed(1956).
There is a great trio of old actors here: Bette Davis, Burgess Meredith, and Eileen Heckart. Their roles are small, and nowhere near enough to save this movie. Notorious character actor, Anthony James, has a bit part as a menacing chauffer in a few dreamy flashback sequences.
The story is boring, and dumb. Example: It's the height of summer, yet there is a long, fraught scene involving a malfunctioning space heater, a locked room, and a closed window. The house has a swimming pool which turns people into psychotic, abusive assholes, or failing that, drowns them. There is something about plants that die, but later come back to life that never gets explained. Also, the house repairs and renovates itself.
I don't dislike Karen Black, but I wouldn't say I like her. I tolerate her. Oliver Reed, on the other hand, I don't like at all. He plays a similar "e;bad dad" role to the one he played in Tommy(1975). His character here is one hell of a rotten father/husband, and I couldn't stand him.
It's not always overt, but it's clear that mom and son walk on eggshells around him --just like in The Shining. Seriously, skip this snooze fest, and watch The Shining instead.

Restless Souls(1998):
The DVD sleeve provided by movie rental service tagged this as being from 2002. It's a waste of time no matter when it was made.
Good points:
--Uses an exterior image of The Oakley Court Hotel from The Rocky Horror Picture Show to represent the location.
--Demon dude used to promote the movie actually appears in the movie for one whole minute.
--Satanic imagery that looks like the AOL stick figure person with a pentagram for a face and horns on its head.
Bad Points:
--Everything else.
A newlywed couple has car trouble during a storm and seeks help at the castle up the road. The place seems abandoned, but as they soon discover, it's filled with horny ghosts. When the bride vanishes, her husband calls in a team of paranormal investigators. The team is comprised of guy who touches objects and sees into their past and future, a perpetually horny lady in leather pants who picks up on horny ghost vibes, a prude with telekinetic powers, and another guy who has no special powers but acts as their manager. The head horny ghost is a Confederate General who thinks he can still win the war by finding a virgin bride to have a baby for Satan. The other horny ghosts are his victims from over the many years. Turns out, none of them were virgins. Whoops!
Lots of softcore fake grinding, all tits and no cock, demonic make-up and masks straight out of a Halloween store, it's no worse or better than the Witchcraft movie series.

Baise-Moi(2000):
Baise ce film!
Its only redeeming quality is a cast comprised entirely of porn actors.
The good news: The sex is real.
The bad news: There is nothing sexy about it.
Two women on the fringe of society meet at a train station. One is a prostitute. The other does porn only when she's broke(she's always broke). The former killed her girlfriend for nagging too much.
The latter and a junkie friend of hers are drinking in a park when they get abducted and viciously gang raped. After the rape, the latter kills her brother for trying to take care of her but in an overbearing asshole way.
So...
Two murderers, one of whom was violently raped, meet at a train station late at night. Having just missed the last train, they decide to steal a car. They set off for Paris, robbing and killing pretty much everyone in their path.
They lure men with the promise of sex. Sometimes they have sex with the men. Other times they just haul off and kill them. The murders are brutal, and often crotch-centric. Like I said, there is sex, but none of it is sexy.
This isn't a revenge story. In a proper revenge story, these ladies would have hunted down the men responsible for the gang rape. Instead, they kill a bunch of innocent people. There is nothing to like about them. There is nothing sympathetic about them.
I felt sorry for the men who got caught up in their deranged, misandrist, killing spree. Fuck these bitches! Fuck this movie! It's only an hour and seventeen minutes long, but it felt like forever. I'm sorry I rented it. It was marketed as French Thelma and Louise. It's no such thing. I put it in queue back in 2005. It then became unavailable for several years. Movie rental service wasted the money they spent replacing the DVD. It's shit.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Not a very Halloween movie list, but several of the movies above have characters that wear disguises, and Stray Dog has a pumpkin patch. Its sincerity is left to the determination of the viewer.
Here is a list of what I'll likely be watching from our personal collection over Halloween weekend:

An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe(1970)
Tales of Tomorrow(1951-1953)
Jigoku(1960)
Trick 'r Treat(2007)
House of 1,000 Corpses(2003)

Given my depressed mood, I might only watch the first two. I could do with something classic, more or less wholesome, and slightly humorous.