This came to my attention when I read about critics including it as one of the most important films of the 21st century so far. I also found the premise of a long documentary about post-industrial decline in China very interesting. Tracking down a watchable copy was a real chore however and that’s not surprising as not many people would likely want to watch a documentary film with a total running time that exceeds nine hours. My wife and I spread out the experience over many days, treating it essentially as if we were watching a television series.
Right on the heels of The Bridge on the River Kwai, we have another Western film set in Thailand, this one set in modern times and based on the apparently real story of a Briton who was sentenced to prison in the country. It appeared on some lists of best films of the year but apart from being well shot, it doesn’t seem all that special to me.
This is another of those films that are so famous as to be a household name. I remember that I did see it as a kid on television but was far too young to understand it. Watching it properly was long overdue and everything in it is new to me so I don’t remember anything at all except for the iconic marching tune. As with all such famous films, you tend to build up a mental picture of it even if you haven’t seen it due to cultural osmosis and I have to confess that I was shocked as this is nothing at all like what I thought it would be.
I probably got this pick from one of those lists of the best films ever made though I don’t remember which one. I do know that this is so little known outside of South Korea that it doesn’t even have its own Wikipedia page. It is however legally available for viewing on YouTube, being a project of the Korean Film Archive.
Like many other people, I read about the unusual twist in the life of this major Hollywood star in various articles. This documentary has a very high Rotten Tomatoes rating so I thought it might be a good way to round out the story. Unfortunately the case for LaMarr being an accomplished inventor and scientist seems weaker than activists may have wished for and though this documentary tries to burnish her credentials, she remains first and foremost a movie star.
I actually loved the first Wreck-It Ralph as a homage to old-school arcade games and wanted to this sequel at the cinema due to its cool marketing and great word-of-mouth. I ended up not going because the movie release schedule was a bit packed then as I recall. After just now watching it at home however I kind of regret that as it’s even better than I’d hoped and it would have been nice to give its makers that extra bit of support at the box office.
It’s been a while since we’ve watched a film by Luis Buñuel and here he is directing Catherine Deneuve who I of course adore from Jacques Demy’s musicals. As you might expect from Buñuel, this is a very different kind of film, charged as it is with sexual fantasies, sado-masochism and obvious references to Freudian psychology.
