Cinematic Distractions...

First, a pair of stragglers from 2018:

The Birth of Saké(2015):
I realized this oversight, when I began thinking of the best movies I had seen in 2018. This documentary was the first title that came to my mind.
What struck me the most was the powerful camaraderie of these men. For half the year, they do nothing but work at the production of saké for Tedorigawa Brewery. They must live at the brewery during that time. They are as entrenched in each other's lives as they are in their work. Saké making requires a phenomenal amount of dedication, attentiveness, and care. It is an art in which they take pride.
It shows the production process in detail, but it's so much more than that. Heartwarming and educational do not come together often enough, not like they do here.

Marquis de Sade: Justine(Jess Franco - 1969):
Jack...Jack...Jack...Oh my! Jack Palance is not the star of this movie, but he delivers the most memorable performance in it. The titular role was cast by nepotism; Romina Power, daughter of Tyrone Power, plays Justine. The director wanted to cast Rosemary Dexter in the lead. She plays a smaller but more spirited role.
Romina Power is awkward in that she is green in her acting, but I didn't mind it at all. She is playing a very young woman, who has just left a convent for the first time since early childhood. Green is exactly how she should be. Gullible as the day is long...
Director Franco helps her out with some strong supporting actors, in particular, Mercedes McCambridge, Howard Vernon, and Jack Palance. Also, Maria Rohm, who those familiar with Jess Franco movies know as "that actress he puts in everything". Klaus Kinski plays the Marquis de Sade, but he is barely in the movie.
Good extras, if you get the DVD, an interview with Franco, and also some members of the production...Franco's interviews are always good. It doesn't matter if you like his movies or not. He lived in Spain while it was under Franco the dictator. He always has interesting things to say about censorship, and fascism.
Speaking of censorship...
This movie should have been on one of my lists back around the time Tumblr got uptight about female presenting nipples. A lot of female presenting nipples get presented in this movie. I decided that Tumblr was not good enough for chatter about Jess Franco, or any of his female presenting nipples laden works.
I held it back with the intention of including it in my first movie list on Dreamwidth. I forgot that I had meant to do that.

Senso(1954):
Farley Granger stars in a role created with Marlon Brando in mind. DVD version: There are two conflicting stories included in a "Making of..." vignette that explain why Brando ultimately did not appear. One is simply that the production company thought Granger was a bigger star. The other involves McCarthyism.
Alida Valli is a formidable co-star in her role as La contessa Livia Serpieri. I'm most familiar with her from The Third Man(1949), and The Paradine Case(1947). Going with Granger over Brando was the right choice, regardless of why that choice was made.
It steps off in grand fashion, opening with an opera scene at the lavish Teatro La Fenice. The action in the audience is no less dramatic; Italians protesting the Austrian occupation take advantage of intermission to drop fliers, and flowers in the colors of the Italian flag from the mezzanine. They rain down onto a crowd of Austrian soldiers. Words and shoves are exchanged, a challenge to a duel gets issued, and before the night is over, the countess's cousin is arrested.
In seeking to get her cousin(Massimo Girotti) off the hook, the countess gets herself introduced to the Austrian officer(Farley Granger) he insulted, and attempts to mitigate the situation. She is older than he. She is also married, though it seems, not happily. He is young, yet much gossiped about by the local ladies both Austrian and Italian, young and old. If at any time there is a question of who is seducing whom, look to Granger's eyes. No matter what is being said, or what is being done, look to his eyes.
This is where I think Brando would have been a poor choice in the end. His heel turns are too easy to see coming. Granger has the advantage of a choir boyish face. If you have never seen him in Rope(1948), do yourself the favor.

Shanghai Express(1932):
This might be the most feminist movie of 1932. It has traditional romantic pangs at the heart of its story, but it also has action and adventure. In a twist most unlikely for the time, it has a heroine in lieu of a hero.
In fact, it has two heroines. Most stunning of all, one of them is Asian. This is in a movie where one of the male stars is a Swedish guy in yellow-face. I'm referring to Warner Oland, who is most famous for playing Charlie Chan. He does not play Chan here, but he does play an Asian. Also starring are Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong, and Clive Brook. Wonderfully pre-code, it makes no secret of the ladies' profession, though it plays coy with specific terminology. Without spoiling it too much, one woman saves a man, while the other saves the day.
Several of the most famous stills of Dietrich were taken from this movie.

Right Now, Wrong Then(Ji-geum-eun-mat-go-geu-ddae-neun-teul-li-da - 2015):
It's easy to tell this story was written by a man. The story is almost entirely male-female conversational interaction. The female part of the dialogue is often unrealistic. There are times when it sounds more like what a man would want to hear a woman say.
It's slow, but in a good way. It's not one long movie, but the same short movie twice --differently, but not drastically so. From what I understand, that presentational concept is a hallmark of director Sang-soo Hong.
Thanks to this movie, I learned what a Yoger Presso is. The drinking scenes were very well performed. If the actors were sober, I could not tell.

Antares(2004):
Various synopses are fond of terms such as "intersecting", and "parallel" to describe the lives of the characters. That is true, but for the most part, it applies in only the vaguest of ways. Also, there are descriptions that frame it as profiles of women in crisis. This is inaccurate in that everyone in this movie is in some sort of crisis. It sets up the expectation of crisis resolution. Don't fall for it. This is not an inspiration piece, nor is it a feminist tale.
We have a nurse, her husband, and their teenage daughter. The nurse also has a lover, a colleague she knows from work. There is an underemployed immigrant who is anticipating the birth of his first child with his girlfriend who works as a grocery cashier, and there is his other girlfriend. His other girlfriend is a single mom with an abusive and obsessive ex-husband who has trouble taking "No" for an answer from anyone.
Some intersections are intimate. Some are glancing. They are more the product of geographic proximity(they all live in or near the same apartment complex) than destiny.
One thing really disturbed me: Stunt penis. I'm no penis expert, but I'm fairly certain they used a stunt penis. The actor in question is clearly uncircumcised in his first nude shot, but in the next shot, it appears he is not. Maybe foreskins roll back farther than I think they do. Not having test driven that model, I wouldn't know.