Cinematic Distractions...

Unconscious(Inconscientes - 2004):
"What's written with the twat is unbeatable."
This was my second time renting this brilliant romantic comedy set in 1913 Barcelona, Spain. I hadn't seen it for quite some time, and remembered it mostly as the movie with "the funny line about Jung". The line really isn't that funny; it's just an odd thing to say under the circumstances.
Dr. Mira(Juanjo Puigcorbé) heads the psychiatric department of a hospital in Barcelona. He is on the verge of retirement due to health reasons. His two daughters, each of whom married a psychiatric doctor practicing at the same hospital, hope their respective spouse will be given the job.
There is much ado over an upcoming psychiatric symposium at which various luminaries of the field will lecture. The star of the symposium is Dr. Sigmund Freud, whose writings about sexual taboos inspire much of the plot. It's sexy, but it's playful sexy.
If you don't like romantic comedies[I don't.] but like mysteries[I do.], you will probably still enjoy this. The clues needed to solve the mystery are contained in a psychiatric thesis, which contains the case studies of four "hysterical women". The quote I put at the beginning is from the character Pastora(Christina Solano). Pastora is the subject of the case study dubbed "The Fastest Way to Get Rid of a Wife", which refers to how some men back in the day would have inconvenient wives declared insane and institutionalized. The line quoted is in reference to Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. The mystery solvers are Alma(Leonor Watling), and her brother-in-law Salvador(Luis Tosar). Their remarkable chemistry is the driving force of the movie.
It's funny. It's sexy. It's playful. It's smart.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly(Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo - 1966):
When I was a kid, my grandfather, who had seen this movie several times, told me, "When you watch it, you won't know who is who until the end." I realize now that he was joking. It comes right out and tells you who is good, who is bad, and who is ugly in graphic red cursive script appearing on the screen in the introductory scene for each character.
The Good - Clint Eastwood
The Bad - Lee Van Cleef
The Ugly - Eli Wallach
The Ugly has the most charisma. The Bad has the most style. The Good has the most subtlety.
I expected three people vying for the same pot of gold, but I did not expect the Civil War as a backdrop. In a way, it's two movies in one.
It's a straight up Western of outlaws and gold lust one moment, then they ride over a hill and find themselves waist-deep in Union and Confederate soldiers fighting for control of a bridge. The war is used as both an obstacle, and a tool in getting the three closer to their objective.
The score by Ennio Morricone is excellent, and on point. I was familiar with the score long before seeing the movie. Many years ago, Metallica covered The Ecstasy of Gold portion of the score. They were the reason I learned about Ennio Morricone, and began listening to music from movies I hadn't seen.
The action I had pictured going along with The Ecstasy of Gold was riding off into the sunset with the prize won, not Eli Wallach running through a cemetery, becoming increasingly frantic and sweaty as he goes. That's not to say I was disappointed. This movie does anything but disappoint.
It's worth it to watch the extras on the DVD version. A lot of digging, building, and rebuilding went into the sets.

The Ninth Gate(1999):
We carted this one out for its annual viewing. I have a thing for atypical devil movies, and this one is so very slick. That it centers around books is even better. My spouse introduced me to it. It was one of the first movies we watched together after not seeing each other for nine years.
I especially like the scenes involving the Ceniza Brothers(twins played by one actor - José López Rodero), and their shop. Balkan(Frank Langella) shouting, "MUMBO JUMBO!" as he crashes the big devil party is another good one. Baroness Kessler(Barbara Jefford) provides the best discourse about the devil himself.
Directed, produced, and co-written by Roman Polanski. I can separate the art from the artist. Though if someone asked me about him, I'd tell them he was a child raping shitweasel first, and a movie director second.

Yes, Minister:
On this last disc of the series: leaks, whistleblowers, and subsidies. Bernard(Derek Fowlds) has one of his best bits in the episode The Bed of Nails, "timeo Danaos et dona ferentes".

All That Heaven Allows(1955):
Bright and popping in Technicolor, tones of Norman Rockwell, vintage holiday greeting cards, and Look magazine burnish every shot. A widow tries to find love again. Jane Wyman was 38 when she starred in this movie. Her character's exact age isn't stated. I would guess she is closer to forty-eight by the way she is played.
Her friends seem to be more her late husband's friends. Most of them are older than she is, which leads me to believe her spouse was as well. The head of this social circle of cocktail party throwers, and country club goers is played by Agnes Moorehead, who was fifty-five[and still smoking hot] when this was filmed.
Rock Hudson plays the "much younger" love interest of Jane Wyman's character. In reality, he was only eight years her junior.
A dishy landscaper(and aspiring tree farmer) offers to show an attractive widow his "silver-tipped spruce". She jumps at the chance, but then has a panic over what her almost adult children, and the social circle will think. Things get worse when the biggest gossip in town catches on, and nasty rumors fly.
Will she go with the dishy landscaper, and get some sweet, sweet, silver-tipped spruce?
-or-
Will she cave to the selfish whims of her petulant children, and the peer pressure of her cocktail-swilling, literal pearl-clutching friends?
As is said in many reviews, this movie has much to say about socio-economic class and conformity. It has much more to say about the place of women in society, and the expectations and restrictions placed on their behavior, particularly their sexual behavior. Though it's a reflection of its time, some of those expectations and restrictions still apply.
Note: All That Heaven Allows falls in the category of "incidental Christmas movies".

3 From Hell(2019):
I was certain this was the worst movie I had seen all year, but that was before I had watched Beatriz At Dinner. It's a White Zombie movie; As in, it's mighty Zombie, and it's mighty white. As far as I'm concerned, they all died at the end of The Devil's Rejects, and this is fan fiction.
It has a creepy coolness in the way it seems to pay tribute to Sid Haig before he actually died. They all knew he wasn't long for this world.

Beatriz At Dinner(2017):
There is no comedy in this movie, yet that is how it is billed in every description that I read. The performances are good, but the story sucks. Tries to be right versus left, rich versus poor, see how the other half lives, but it didn't work for me. The subtext of mental instability was too dark, and distracting.
There is a goat. There isn't a goat. There is a goat, but the goat is dead. There is someone on the other end of the phone. There is no one on the other end of the phone. There used to be someone on the other end of the phone, but now they're dead. Unless, they never existed.
It would be better if this movie had never existed.