Cinematic Distractions...

[dulcedemon]

Russian Doll(2019):
Wow! I have not been so enthralled and entertained in such a long time. Now, how do I explain it without spoiling it?
Groundhog Day meets Bardo Thodol.
I don't know how they are going to do another season, but I can't wait to watch it.

The Rules of the Game(La régle du jeu - 1939):
This movie helped me realize that I don't hate all French movies, and my best chance of finding one that I really like hinges on going far enough back in time.
A bunch of poshes and their servants gather in a country mansion for a weekend of hunting and partying. Classism, racism, antisemitism, some mild sexism...fun for the whole family.
The glaring moral hypocrisy the wealthy have toward their employees for engaging in the same conduct as themselves is the gist of the plot. Various romantic peccadillos drive the action.
One of the more absurd moments involves a conversation between the man who owns the mansion and his groundskeeper about rabbits. The man wants no rabbits on his property. The groundskeeper tells him that he must put up a perimeter fence. The man doesn't want a fence --No fence, and no rabbits. As a result, his staff is constantly shooting at rabbits, and even a neighbor's cat. It gets even more absurd, when they catch and threaten a poacher, who is on the property snaring rabbits. Those scenes, and the main hunting scene are not pleasant for those who love animals.
There are two quotes which I found interesting. One is a quote of a quote by Chamfort:
"Love as it exists in society is merely the mingling of two whims, and the contact of two skins."
The other:
"Only Muslims show a little logic in matters of male-female relations."
The Muslims get off relatively easy compared to the way Jews are talked about in this movie, but only because of "the harems". If that's not racist, then it's definitely sexist, because it's in a conversation between two men, lamenting that they cannot have multiple women without complications.
My favorite scene is the opening with the radio reporter at the airport. She is part of a large crowd awaiting the arrival of the first successful transatlantic flight by a French pilot. She gives her report while running across the airfield with her enormous, wired microphone, fighting through the crowd as she goes. From what I gather, the woman on the screen is an actress, but the voice belongs to a popular radio reporter at that time.
The Rules of the Game caused a bit of a stir at its first screening. Audience members booed, fights broke out, and one person tried to set the place on fire.

Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus(2019):
I'm glad they made this. I'd watch it again. Nothing beats the original run though.

The Silence(Sokout - 1998):
I think this is my first movie out of Tajikistan. The goal was to see one from every country, but I'd lost track of my progress toward that quite some time ago.
Pretty sights, especially the flower petals and cherries used as personal adornments. Pretty sounds, especially the scene where the girl dances while the boy tunes instruments. Pretty disappointing in terms of plot. The ending is neither happy nor satisfying. Two things kept me from enjoying this fully:
Why doesn't this kid have a cane?[He walks around with his hands held up like a robber has a gun at his back.]
If all the produce sellers, and bread sellers in the market are women, why can't this kid's mother get a job instead of expecting her son to be the sole earner?

Stage Fright(1950):
The predictability is a little high. It's one of those movies where you yell lines at the screen, and they come out of the characters' mouths a few seconds later. I say that as someone who loves Hitchcock films. I'm also the idiot who was yelling at the screen.
Noteworthy: Jane Wyman goes through an impressive transformation, when her aspiring actress character goes undercover as an unassuming wardrobe mistress/personal assistant. Marlene Dietrich smokes...a cigarette, while wearing a widow's veil. Not through the veil, she smokes the cigarette UNDER the veil. Alastair Sim plays kooky cool dad to Jane Wyman's character.