Cinematic Distractions...

Yojimbo(1961)
Sanjuro(1962):
I'm going to assume that most people who read this(if anyone reads this) are familiar with the story of Yojimbo.
The short of it for anyone not familiar with it:
A stranger arrives in a town terrorized by two warring factions. Both are local business owners whose petty disputes have turned bloody, so much so that the local coffin maker can barely keep up. The stranger sizes up the situation and decides the town would be better off without them. He proceeds to play both sides by posing as an ally to each. He goads them into escalating their conflict, while taking them for as much coin as they can pay.
In Sanjuro, he chooses to get in the middle of another conflict but for more altruistic reasons. He genuinely wants to help one side succeed over the other. Unfortunately, the group he tries to help is young, and hopelessly naive. From the very beginning, he has to save them and himself from their bungling. They put their trust the wrong people, and end up marked for death as a result.
In both movies, when he is asked his name, he looks outside, and the first thing he sees becomes his name. In Yojimbo, he is Sanjuro Kuwabatake, which translates as: 30-year-old Mulberry field.
In Sanjuro, he gives his name as Sanjuro Tsubaki, which means: 30-year-old Camellia. He follows each of those pronouncements with the admission that he is really almost 40.
This was my fourth time watching Yojimbo but only my second for Sanjuro. This was my first time watching Yojimbo after viewing A Fistful of Dollars. I think I'd like to watch the former with the Ennio Morricone score for the latter.
An unfortunate personal situation that ended disastrously in November 2019 almost ruined these movies for me. I thought someone was coming to my rescue like 30-year-old Camellia, but in the end, they looked more like 30-year-old Mulberry field to me, because I got played like Seibei. I'd like to think their intentions were good. I doubt I'll ever know the truth. Yadda yadda yadda...one month later, someone gifted me both of these movies in a 2-disc set from The Criterion Collection. They sat untouched for a whole year before I finally opened and watched them.
Yojimbo is the better movie.
Sanjuro is the better man.

Noi the Albino(Nói Albinói - 2003):
This would be at the top of the list were it not for some unfortunate artsy visual style choices made during the creation of this film. It is literally hard on the eyes. The director explains what was done and why in the extras, and although his reasoning is understandable, even respectable, the end result is physically painful/difficult to watch. The story is outstanding though. I found it compelling enough to stay with it until the end.
I would describe Noi(Tómas Lemarquis) as a hacker teen who gets into trouble for lack of anything better to do in the small Icelandic fishing village in which he lives. He doesn't fit in with his peers. He is a smart kid but a poor student. He has a difficult relationship with his father. His closest ally and confidant is the proprietor of the local book/video, which is one of the places he likes to spend time while skipping class.
There are a few other places Noi likes to go. One is the local gas station/convenience store, where he has an interesting way of paying for his drinks. It's also where he meets his love interest. The other place is a cubbyhole beneath his grandmother's house.
The cubbyhole is Noi's safe place. It's also a safe place for the audience, because those scenes are the only time our eyes are given a break from the bizarre color washes. The true warm colors of the cubbyhole scenes in contrast with the rest of the movie are excellent in conveying the director's intention of depicting the world as experienced by an alien. The world outside the cubbyhole is too harshly bright, its true colors are faded and obscured, and everything vibrates with a sickening hum like it's under fluorescent lights. Noi really captures that feeling of being a total outsider.
My favorite scene is when Noi gets examined by the school psychiatrist. It takes him less than a minute to casually solve a Rubik's Cube on the psychiatrist's desk, while being asked several ridiculous and lewd questions. Another great scene is when he whips out his lockpicks on a date.

Yellow Submarine(1968):
The first time I saw this movie about The Beatles and their quest to save Pepperland from the music-hating Blue Meanies, I was two or three. It's more a story my father told me than an actual recollection. I vaguely recall him holding me with him on his bean bag chair, and pointing at the television screen filled with colors, shapes, and sounds, which did make much sense to me, but I enjoyed them all the same.
It was on tv occasionally during my early childhood, but never during kid friendly hours. The time when households would have the luxury of VCRs was still a few years away. I was about six years old when I saw it again. The closing credits rolled at one o'clock in the morning. I hadn't stayed up that late since my first two years of life.
I was told that when I was born I "had my nights and days mixed up". My mother was always trying to put me on a schedule that would prepare me for school, and the world that works from 9-5.
Her success was limited at best. I never really took to it. I was the most tired kid in kindergarten and throughout most of my schooling. One night of staying up late was all it took to undo months of rigid adherence to a schedule that never felt natural.
It seemed strange to me then that a cartoon movie would be shown at such absurd, "adult" hours. What kind of adults watch cartoons? Why so late at night? I get it now. I turned out to be one of those late night cartoon watching adults.
I don't remember how old I was when Yellow Submarine could no longer be found on television. If it was on video, our local rental places didn't have it. I wouldn't see it again until I was in my twenties, when I rented it from Netfl*x. I'd be much older than that when I finally bought a copy on DVD. It came too late to watch it with my dad before he passed away. I watched it earlier this month, and wept.
A more distinct memory involving my dad and The Beatles:
When I was a toddler, he would hold me up in front of one of his Beatles posters, and try to teach me their names. In photos from their mop-topped and dressed alike years, I couldn't tell them apart. I would always get them wrong. I could only tell them apart in phots from their later years, when George grew some facial hair, and John began wearing glasses.

A Day at the Races(1937):
Warning: Contains a scene with black face.
It's easy enough to avoid. All the best bits are available to watch online. This has one of the best ever Chico-Groucho scenes. Groucho simply wants to bet on a horse, when he encounters Chico posing as a Tutti Frutti ice cream vendor with a pushcart full of racing programs and hot air.
In another scene, Groucho and Esther Muir turn a simple "Thank you." into great comedy. Margaret Dumont joins them for some excellent three-way comedy on the dance floor.
I'd say this has one of the more peculiar Marx Brothers' movie plots, but they are all pretty peculiar. A billboard shown at the start of the film sums it up nicely: "Racetrack, Casino, Hotel, and Sanitarium". Of those facilities, the sanitarium isn't doing so well. Threatened with closure due to financial troubles, the proprietor Judy Standish(Maureen O'Sullivan) seeks to recruit world famous psychiatric physician, Dr. Hugo Hackenbush. She gets veterinarian, Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush(Groucho Marx). Her boyfriend makes things worse when he blows what little money they have on a nag of race horse.

Monsieur Vincent(1947):
Poofy sleeves, Black Death, and soup...just part of the story of Saint Vincent de Paul, and the founding of the Daughters of Charity AKA: The Grey Sisters.
I queued this pre-pandemic. It was a little weird to watch under the circumstances. There really isn't much in the way of plague scenes though. The most notable thing in reference to it is the way people raise the backs of their hands in front of their faces, when worried that they are near someone who has been exposed. The don't wear masks or scarves or anything like that.
Another curiosity is the way they throw rocks out their windows at passersby. This seems to be done for two reasons. One is to discourage outsiders from hanging around the neighborhood. The other is to make sure the afflicted stay in their homes. In the event being pelted with rocks isn't enough, they board the house shut, leaving not just the afflicted but their entire family(infected or not) to die.
It's this grim scene which Vincent de Paul enters. He takes an offer to serve as the parish priest in a particularly impoverished area of France. Other than a few noble families, most of the populace is in rags after being devastated by years of war and sickness. Prior to this gig he was a beloved spiritual advisor, chaplain, and tutor to the noble Countess de Gondi.
When he arrives at his new church, he finds the building in disrepair and occupied by squatters and livestock. They become the first people he helps, and also recruits to help others. Before long, he is pulling a soup cart through town, serving free meals to the starving masses daily. Soon, he has more than he can afford to feed. They also need housing, and medical care.
The Countess de Gondi wants him to quit mucking about with the poor, and come back to her. He uses this to his advantage, persuading her to back his endeavors financially to the benefit of her soul. He seems to be very popular with both noble and peasant ladies alike. The former supply money. The latter supply labor, ultimately becoming the Daughters of Charity.
As saint movies go, this one is saintly but not too over the top. Now I know why so many soup kitchens are named after this guy.

Scandal in Sorrento(1955):
There are two ways to interpret this:
1)Meaningless matinee fodder, a playful but unmoving romp between a sultry young woman and a man twice her age. The only real excitement in this fit of frivolity is watching Sophia Loren's breasts come dangerously close to bouncing out of her dress during a dance number.
2)A sultry but hardworking young woman is forced to flaunt herself at her much older landlord in a desperate bid to avoid eviction. The most gripping moment is when Sophia Loren's breasts come dangerously close to bouncing out of her dress during a dance number.

Un Coeur en Hiver(A Heart in Winter - 1992):
I hated this.
It's pitched as a love triangle story, but there is no real love here. All tension and no sex makes a dull movie. Two men, business partners who cater to violin virtuosos, dally with the same woman, who is also their client.
Maxime is married but has other lovers. His latest is a beautiful and much younger violinist. That violinist is Camille. She gets involved with Maxime through her agent/minder when they bring her violin to him for repair and fine tuning.
The other half of the business partnership is master restorer of instruments, Stéphane. He has a quiet reserved manner, and an obsessive dedication to providing top quality workmanship.
It's plain that Maxime and Stéphane are more than just business partners. They are privvy to the details of each other's private lives. Stéphane knows about every one of Maxime's extramarital affairs.
There is a peculiar reverence in his voice whenever he speaks about Maxime. He uses a similar tone when speaking about Maxime's wife after Maxime tells him that he plans to divorce her for hot young Camille.
His tone is odd, a little creepy, and vaguely implies some sort of history between himself and the soon-to-be-ex Mrs. Maxime. The rest of the story neither confirms nor denies this. It's one of several vague implications that are ultimately never explained.
Stéphane has a close woman friend, Héléne, with whom he frequently goes out. He even third-wheels along on her dates. It's odd, a little creepy, and vaguely implies some sort of romantic history between them.
Notice a pattern?
Stéphane doesn't exactly hit on Camille. His behavior is odd, a little creepy, and he only vaguely implies his interest. Camille thinks he is just shy and polite. She falls for him only to discover he really is odd, creepy, and colder than fucking winter. Worse still, he humiliates her in public, and shreds her self-worth by telling her that he only showed interest in her to see if he could seduce her away from Maxime.
He is such a cold-hearted, obnoxious, manipulative prick that his gal pal gets up and gives him a well deserved slap across the face on behalf of Camille(who ran off to have a nervous breakdown), and women everywhere. He is not ashamed. He is not sorry. Like Stéphane, I'm not sorry either. I purposefully spoiled movie, but unlike Stéphane, my intentions were good. I hope I have saved at least one person out there an hour and forty-five minutes.
We can read all sorts of things into his miserable character. Maybe he is gay. Maybe he is asexual. Maybe he had his heart broken long ago and never recovered. The story neither confirms nor denies any of those notions. We can only speculate to no satisfying conclusion.

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This was supposed to be my last list of 2020, but I'm a tad late for that. I had hoped to have it done for Christmas. I'm late for everything except Orthodox Christmas. Here are five Christmas movies that I recommend(includes Christmas and "Christmas" movies):

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale(2010)
Carol(2015)
Fortress(1985)
Scandal(1950)
Batman Returns(1992)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!