Random Thoughts

This is the most Summer of 1968 movie ever, and it’s from 1967. It’s all about student rebellion and protest and sex and stuff.

Oh! These guys are high school students… I thought this was supposed to be about university graduates or something. I guess those uniforms would be a stronger signal about their age if… they’re something that signal that they’re in high school…

I’m still kinda guessing.

I thought the first like half an hour of this movie was really interesting and arresting, but… it’s kinda lost all tension now? It’s just… I don’t even know what this movie is doing now? I mean, that could be good, but I don’t have any confidence that it knows what it’s doing.

Wow. The extended rape fantasy scene is pretty… er… unique? I guess it reminds me of something from Cronenberg a few years later. Is it possible that he’d seen this movie?

I kinda lost faith in this movie, but then it returned with a vengeance. The scenes around that pool are absolutely magical. I’m not sure I understand why the guys feel compelled to tell that woman about their shameful fantasies about her — that’s nothing to do with her, after all — but it … makes sense on an associative level, perhaps?

Hoi, hoi.

OK, the final scene is… a lot.

But still:

Sing a Song of Sex. Nagisa Ôshima. 1967.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.

It was so impressed by Ôshima’s previous movie… but I don’t know about this one. It just seems calculated and by the numbers? The shots still look interesting, but without the spectacular colours of the previous movie, it’s just less striking.

I don’t think they’re going for realism here at much… but some of the transitions between stylised acting and more naturalistic acting is pretty jarring.

The editing is very stylish, though. Very fluid.

The plot is… I don’t even. It’s about some women that love a rapist and serial killer. Because of course they do. Even though he doesn’t really have any apparent character.

Violence at Noon. Nagisa Ôshima. 1966.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.

I absolutely adore the cinematography on this. The angles, the framing, the colours.

This is the most rational crime ever.

Oh my god. This movie just doesn’t go where you expect it to. It’s either amazingly brilliant or just… odd? I’m not quite sure.

I lost the thread here for a second, and now I have no idea what’s going on.

I think I must have missed the segue to the flashback?

It’s safe to say that I didn’t quite understand the plot here? But I was still riveted. So:

Pleasures of the Flesh. Nagisa Ôshima. 1965.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.

It’s one of those funny cigarettes, see?

Anyway, next on the schedule was Victim, but it turns out that I watched it a couple months ago.

It was OK.

So I’m onto the final Basil Dearden movie instead.

They’re getting hooked on the reefer!

Patrick McGoohan drums up a storm very convicingly, I must say.

Oh! I thought this movie was really odd, but I didn’t make the connection:

This movie, based on William Shakespeare’s Othello, is neatly positioned as a vehicle to showcase some of the best jazz musicians of the period, including Dave Brubeck and Charles Mingus.

Herp derp, I eat paste.

Then again, I don’t really remember the plot of Othello.

There’s bits of this movie that’s fantastic. But overall I’m just not feeling it.

I’m probably totally wrong, and this movie is pure genius. And I mean that.

But this is what I’m feeling right now:

All Night Long. Basil Dearden. 1962.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.