Random Thoughts

Reds. Warren Beatty. 1981.

Most films I have on my shelf of unseen films I can pretty much figure out why I’ve bought. This one, I have no idea. Did somebody recommend it to me?

This is such a 70s film, and not in a bad way. If I had to make a guess at who the director is, I would have said “Robert Altman”, but instead it’s one of Warren Beatty’s very few directorial efforts.

“There was just as much fucking going on then as now. Only now, it has a more perverted quality.”

There’s so much interesting stuff in here (like about the Industrial Workers of the World (I’ve got all their hoodies)) and being a commie in the teens and so on. But every time they focus on the personal relationships it degenerates to Standard Drama Hysterics.

Just deathly.

An unfortunately, after a very promising start, that’s what large parts of this film is about. It’s like Beatty had an idea to make a film about communist agitator slash journalist John Reed, but then thought that he had to make the bulk of the film about his not very interesting love life to make it palatable to a general audience.

Still, I love the good bits in this film.

The odd choice of not saying who the old people who knew Reed and Louise Bryant are (they’re like a choir that comments on the proceedings, sort of) is an odd choice. But it works. Some of them are good people and some of them are assholes, but it takes a while to know who’s who.

It was nominated for all the Oscars and won a few.

This blog post is part of the Century series.

Stardust Memories. Woody Allen. 1980.

My plan was to watch Céleste by Percy Adlon for 1980. I’ve been looking for a collection of his films forever, because the few films of his I’ve seen I think range from great to wonderful (Zuckerbaby, Rosalie Goes Shopping, Salmonberries, Bagdad Cafe), and I wanted to watch the rest of his films.

So I got this box set from amazon.de, because it said it had English subtitles.

And, indeed, the box set says “Untertitel: Deutsch, Deutsch für Hörgeschädigte, English” (and I know enough German to know that that means “subtitles: German, German for hard of hearing, English”.

BUT IT”S A LIE!

Only like a couple of the films have English subtitles!

BAD GERMANS!

(I love that the “Sprachen” says “Deutsch, Englisch, Bayerisch” because Bavarian is definitely not German, I guess.)

So instead of Percy Adlon, it’s another Woody Allen film.

I remember loving Stardust Memories from when I saw it when I was like 14. And it’s the one where somebody tells Allen “I love your earlier funnier movies”. And I totally understand why I loved this film, because it’s Allen’s “I’m rich and famous now and that’s weird” film, and looks like it’s giving us a peek behind the curtain.

And it looks pretty good now, too, but I now realise that it’s just Allen doing his take on Fellini. And as the Bergman semi-failure of Interiors, his Fellini isn’t a as good as the real Fellini is.

And among the weird things here is a woman accusing Allen of flirting with her 13 year old cousin. *sigh*

Still, I have to agree with my 14 year old self: This is hugely enjoyable to watch.

This blog post is part of the Century series.

Die Patriotin. Alexander Kluge. 1979.

In a weird way, what this film reminds me most of is The Last of England by Derek Jarman. They are stylistically very far apart, but there’s something in the punk approach to talking about larger issues that seems to connect them.

Jarman’s film is mesmerising; this isn’t up there at all, but it’s still kinda fascinating. And funny in places. But after the first fifteen minutes or so, it gets bogged down in longer scenes that mostly aren’t very interesting.

This is the sequel to Deutschland im Herbst, which three years ago but has no recollection of.

The highest-rated imdb review says:

Anything profound and informative that the film attempts to convey is lost due to the simple reason that it is so mind numbingly boring that you will be thinking about your dinner before you start questioning the subject of German history. The boredom is then accompanied by confusion.

Tee hee.

If you are actually on board when the film presents a still shot of a woman inside a cow, then I salute you….but most of us normal folk will be lost. You leave the film scratching your head, wondering where the last two hours of your life have gone.

But… but… that’s the Pasiphaë/Minotaur thing, right?

ImDb Is sTuPiD.

Anyway.

I think there are brilliant, riveting sequences here, but there are also bits that are just… there… So I’m intrigued by the film-maker, but the dice just refused to roll higher.

This blog post is part of the Century series.

Interiors. Woody Allen. 1978.

Oh, right, this is Woody Allen’s first Bergman rip-off. I mean, his first drama film.

I honestly thought this was going to be better. And the cinematography is totes amazeballs: The subdued colour scheme and the unshowy angles. It’s so calm and understated.

But I feel that basically all the actors except Geraldine Page fail. She’s flawless as her character, while all the other actors flail around doing American 70s Realist Acting, which is just a step above American 80s TV Acting. While they’re good actors, it just doesn’t work in this Bermanish setting. They just work a smidgen too hard on their emoting, especially when talking.

Perhaps I’m being too negative here. It does get better after the first third or so is over. Or perhaps I’m just getting used to that style of acting again.

“It’s been such a long time since I made love to a woman I didn’t feel inferior to. Or am I being tactless?”

This blog post is part of the Century series.