LAST AND FIRST MEN (2020)

“Great are the stars. And Humankind are of no account to them.

But Humankind is a fair spirit.

Whom a star conceived.

And a star kills.”

—Johann Johannsson’s LAST AND FIRST MEN

 

I do not know why I was much moved by this movie.

I found myself at the end of it replaying that last Tilda Swinton uttered line.

I do not know why I was much moved.

Except this sole posthumous directorial creation, by the late, great composer Johann Johannsson (his SICARIO is one of my favorite scores) strikes me hard. Hard for his loss on top of my own myriad losses. The loss of a vibrant voice in music and now film, poorer we are all made.

The film is good. Adapted by Johannson from the source novel by Olaf Stapledon, there is in the film something that brings to mind the late, great Saul Bass’ sole directorial effort… PHASE IV.

Something about shapes, and structures, and group mind, and communication, and the fleeting nature of the concreteness of man ringing a chord between the two movies. But ultimately those themes are just that, thematic similarities, and this film, LAST AND FIRST MEN, feels wholly its own animal, its own brilliance.

I was moved by this film.

And the reasons for my being moved are as much about the film as they are about me, and about chords struck between the micro, and the macro. The fiction of the movie and the truth of my life.

My life personal. Which like most lives, is never far from being in shambles. And my life as part of a larger society, a larger zeitgeist, which itself is even closer to being in shambles.

it is 2024 at this writing and this world as it always is, is beset by the machinations of the venal, and the power-hungry and the mad and the ignorant.

We grope toward giving rights to inhuman symbols, corporations, machines, manufactured men… and all the while work tirelessly to strip away the rights of mankind. We look to grant rights to inhuman symbols of corporations and machines, when we can not even give respect and rights, to each other. To those born under the same sun, and beset by the same winds.

As I write this, in myriad places in the world, people are being…destroyed. Liberties usurped, lives… snuffed out.

And our lives are too… too fleeting for that.

Too fleeting to waste even one of them, in such pettiness.

Look up…. there are wonders

Look in… there are wonders

Look out… there are wonders

 

We can be better than this.

2024… we can be better than this. We can be better than those who play us fool. And have us squander ourselves for their amusement.

A mob is easily ruled.

Be better than that,

Be not a race of master less men seeking a master… be what you truly are

Be the stuff of stars

and see and act

toward nobler goals than money and hate and death.

I was much moved by this film.

It spoke of a larger world view. A humanistic world view.

And we need that more than ever, to save us from the fools.

 

Look up.

 

Movie of the day…. LAST AND FIRST MEN.

Catch it via your free Library or other Streaming service. Or pick up the Blu-ray. It is a keeper.

Most Disappointing Movie of 2024?? The acclaimed WHEN EVIL LURKS???

 

 

So yes WHEN EVIL LURKS is a 2023 Horror Movie that made MANY Best of the year lists. Directed by Demian Rugna who got on my radar I think in 2021 or  2022 when his 2017 film TERRIFIED finally made it on to SHUDDER. Not the crappy Torture Porn clown films called TERRIFIER, I’m talking about Rugna’s beautifully made, sensationally performed, and actully scary masterpiece TERRIFIED.

I really have very little interest in movies about humans being horrible to each other, there is enough of that in our nightly news. Of my fiction, I want it to be even in the genre of Horror, especially in the genre of Horror… I want it to (and I guess this comes from my UNIVERSAL MONSTER, HAMMER HORROR TV marathon roots) be tinged with the fantastic.

And TERRIFIED Does that but more, it is a genuinely masterful film. It joins a small handful of films such as IT FOLLOWS and THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE, REC, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (like REC don’t let the diminishing returns of the sequels blind you to just how game changing and impactful the first film was), THE DESCENT, HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, MANDY, BONE TOMAHAWK, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, PONTY POOL, GINGER SNAPS 3 (Best of the series), WOLFMAN as true cinematic marvels and gifts of this still young century. And all of them share this common theme of mortal man and their brushes with the other, with the Fantastic.

So I LOVE Demian Runga’s TERRIFIED (ATERRADOS). As soon as it came to Bluray I purchased it. And was always on the lookout for anything new by this filmmaker. Last year WHEN EVIL LURKS  was all the talk on the streaming channels, and the talk was all glowing, I almost bought the film sight unseen.

But I waited. Here in 2024 I found the film on Amazon Prime to rent at a good price (only $3.99, I typically never rent films anymore. I figure that rental fee could go toward purchase of the actual Dvd, Bluray or UHD) and I watched the film.

 

And the film starts well, is well shot, and the premise, the conceit of the movie, of this particular brush with the fantastic,is very rich. I can see world of film around this concept, it is that provocative of a concept. Where the film goes wrong for me is in the execution. For such a smart concept, the protagonist is progressively stupider and stupider, until it actual becomes annoying. He is told repeatedly don’t do this or people will die, and repeatedly he does exactly what he is told not to… and people die. Over and over again. And whereas in TERRIFIED the Horror snuck up on you, and live up to its name. Here every scene, with a couple exceptions you see coming. It’s all very telegraphed, so you are closing in on the end, stuck watching a character, you have lost all empathy for, he should be the one dying not those around him.

By the ending I felt let down by the movie. By the writing, by ultimately the story and inept story beats (Why are you splitting up, why leave mom alone with you know what?). And I really wanted to like this film. From writing to direction to editing the team behind TERRIFIED is the same as WHEN EVIL LURKS, but unfortunately the former is one of my favorite films of the last few years, and the latter is so far my biggest disappointment of 2024.

Grade: C-/D+.

Currently watching : THE STRANGER (1946) Movie of the Day!

I have recently purchased the Kino Lorber LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Release of this film, and if ever a movie deserved to be preserved it is this one. That said this release needs some remastering, has noticeable frame drops, and syncing issues, and occasional small picture degradation in places, but nothing that effects the enjoyability of this film, and this is an extremely enjoyable Orson Welles film.

I am on record as calling Orson Welles my favorite director of the sound era, and I have a lot of favorite Directors from David Lean to Carl Franklin to Gordon Parks to Raoul Walsh to Diop Mambety to Johnnie To to John Woo to the Russo Brothers to Alfred Hitchcock to Fritz Lang to Masaki Kobayashi to Haille Gerima , but if I had the unenviable task of only saving one Director’s body of work, for me it word be Orson Welles.

His work is foundational to what cinema is for me, not only the sublime look of his work (which is a huge part of it, those Wellsian perspectives, deep focus, and shadows), but the themes of existential angst, unfocused dread regarding the state of the world or the human condition, that is at the heart of his films. There is a romantic, dark poetry that suffuses his work, and how he crafts his work, that for me is deeply resonant, and is the Alpha from which much of sound based cinema must launch from, to craft their Omegas.

 

Even what is a generally under mentioned, and I think overlooked film, THE STRANGER. Released August of 1946, when this started production World War II had just ended several months ago, in summer of 1945. People were still counting their dead, the damaged living trying to integrate from war back into peace. The process of dealing with war criminals and hunting down war criminals, was not just topical, it was being formulated and ironed out as this movie was in production.

It was the first film to use concentration camp footage. This is just seen as a thriller today, but upon release this was a very sensitive , and explosive topic, especially considering there were elements in the United States that were denying Germany’s concentration camps and extermination programs. The same elements in the United States that were against the US entering the war.

So for Welles to make a film, still in the tumult of a time of war, that warned of the unfinished business of war, was and to some extent remains… ground breaking.

And Welles was critical of this movie, but outside of Citizen Kane he was critical of all his films due to various levels of Studio Interference. Much like the writer Alan Moore, the negative connotations he had with the producers of the work, would  sour his outlook on the work. Welles, was akin to a butcher too close to the slaughtering of the lambs, to enjoy the final meal.

Also while I love Welles as both Director and Actor, he liked to be the star in his films, and liked to work with actors that he was familiar with and could, if not overshadow, to some extent dictate to,  and the casting of Edward G. Robinson that was forced on him by the studios, flew in the face of this.

But in this small case the Studios were… right (I balk to say that because they were typically wrong in their choices to neuter Welles), Edward G. Robinson is brilliant in this role, and a worthy equal to hold his own, in scenes with Welles. THE STRANGER begins with Edward G. Robinson and ends with Edward G. Robinson, making this arguably more his film… than Welles may have been comfortable with.

Going along with that, I cannot see this film being improved, by having Welles’ choice… Agnes Moorehead as the Detective, with all due respect to Ms. Moorehead. It would have been a vastly different film, but arguably per the audio commentary by Bret Wood, that is what Welles was striving for.

Welles was deeply shaken by his exposure in 1945 to the newsreel footage of the liberation of German Concentration camps, footage that would not be disseminated in many American circles, American circles that still sought to downplay this talk of German atrocities as fake news.

This film, true to the wunderkind that Welles always was, was Welles turning outrage to action. While the mass of men did nothing or ignored the news, Welles turned around and in months from seeing that footage had gotten a film into production that touched upon the world of atrocities, that small-town America USA was being kept from, was oblivious to. But his film, based on the story beats that did not make it into the film, was going to be something more harsh and brutal, and far reaching than the film we got.

Possibly Welles, left to his devices and with Agnes Moorhead in the role of the Detective, would have given us something more akin to COME SEE or SHINDLER’S LIST. We will never know. And arguably it is the film he did not make, that is all Welles could see when he looked at THE STRANGER. However the film he did make was successful, did reach audiences, and was impactful. For the time it was made I think the film was as impactful as could have been made, and anything more impactful would not have made it to audiences… not in a 1946, trying to put the horrors of a just won war… behind them.

So it wasn’t his complete vision, but the film that is there I would argue, compromises and all, is like most of Welles’ films… transcendent and says something about who we were, who we are, and who we strive to be. I have watched THE STRANGER easily over a half dozen times now, and every-time it strikes me deeply, in the shots, and the speeches, and the language and the performances, and the direction, it strikes me as… the work of a master visionary and humanist. It strikes me as moving and worthy.

And Loretta Young rounds out the major players in this film, delivering one of the standout lines in a film replete with them, but also a standout line in cinema. When you hear it you’ll know it. It is for me her finest and most memorable role and performance by far.

Movies like CITIZEN KANE and MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS may get the accolades (and deservedly so) but for sheer cinema and rewatchability, for me THIRD MAN (credited to Carol Reed, the uncredited direction is by Orson Welles), LADY OF SHANGHAI and THE STRANGER go at the top of any list.

An overlooked classic. Love this film, and it does deserve a quality restoration. Highly Recommended!

 

Buy your copy here!

 

Movie of the Day : THE MAN FROM LARAMIE (1955) -The Last Mann and Stewart Film

“Hate’s unbecoming in a man like you… in some men it shows.” Charlie to Lockhart

THE MAN FROM LARAMIE- Marks the end of a five year partnership between Anthony Mann and star Jimmy Stewart, and it ends like it began, with a near biblical tale of frontier vengeance, only this time in rich technicolor as opposed to striking noirish black and white.

Stewart giving  a deeply felt performance, more nuanced and conflicted than the vengeance of the younger Stewart of their first collaboration, WINCHESTER 73.

In this film Stewart’s performance of vengeance is that of an older man, not the hot certain vengeance of youth,  but touched with fear and doubt, and makes it a different, and evocative and attractive performance. The film only slightly marred by a cartoony performance, by an actor seemingly miscast as the hothead son.

But that aside a fitting ending to their collaboration, and by any measure an essential western.

You can view it for free on streaming. And when suitably availed of its greatness, you can click the images to purchase your copy today. Masters of Cinema in 2016 released a Blu-ray 60 years in the making (almost sold out), improving on the 2014 Twilight Time release (which showed the film finally in its full widescreen glory) by adding a bevy of special features including an insightful audio commentary. I despair of a world where people are silly enough not to own these films in physical media 🙂 . If you are not one of these silly people, get yours by clicking the image below.

 

 

 

Movie of the Day : SOMETHING WILD (1961) Criterion Blu-ray — not on Streaming!

Click The Image Above to Purchase your copy today. Any purchases through the above link earn this Blog much appreciated pennies.

 

Something Wild (1961 — not the two decade later Melanie Griffith comedy vehicle)- Is a Criterion film I have heard virtually no one mention or talk about, Which is odd given it stars Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker (one of my favorite actors) , and sporting some of the legendary Saul Bass’ best and most effective title credits.

Indeed the title sequence alone sells me on the film, and I’m worried once its over the film will not live up to the succinct but powerful storytelling in that credit sequence, as it tells wordlessly the fast paced, regimented, almost automaton like, lacking real connection, breakneck race on a rat wheel… that industrialized life has been broken down to.

It infers, the title sequence, of the individual being lost in the unending grinding of the wheels of industry and progress and the masses.

So I’m worried the film will falter from the title sequence.

Thankfully it doesn’t.

The opening sequence is as effective, and giving the time period, as groundbreaking and striking and shocking a bit of film-making as you can think of.

So to wrap up the non-spoiler section, I highly recommend seeing this film. Carroll Baker gives a raw, game changing performance, in a convoluted, messy, masterfully directed tale.

Special Features are limited but are excellent.

A rich, vibrant, informative, moving 2016 interview with Director Jack Garfein conducted by film critic Kimberly Morgan.

“I programmed it in 2010 on Turner Classic Movies, and never have I received so much email from viewers. And then we showed it in Telluride, and I spoke to you at Telluride and the  audiences there were really taken aback, really, in fact, shocked by the film in many ways.” Kim Morgan

‘So was I, you remember?” Jack Garfein

“Yes, I do remember.” Kim Morgan

“I was sitting next to you, and almost had a breakdown. Because, I suddenly… I looked at that film… I made that film, but any kind of real creation is a subconscious process. The artist himself doesn’t quite understand. I didn’t realize that this film… is me. This character of the girl… is me.

When I arrived here in Manhattan I feel the same pain, the complete isolation, in the sense I tried to connect but it was very difficult to connect. I had to keep everything in myself and go on. When I was liberated in Bergen-Belsen I weighed 48 lbs, I couldn’t walk. I was 14 years old.”

A riveting, must watch interview, about a Director I was unfamiliar with, and unfortunately he would not do another film after SOMEWHERE WILD failed to make an impact at the theater.

The loss is cinema’s.

And then a wonderful, deeply entertaining and humorous 2016 audio interview with star, the effervescent and lovely Carroll Baker. I am now on the lookout for all her films.

 

And lastly a video interview with Historian Foster Hirsch who breaks down the history of the Actor’;s Studio and Roots of Method Acting.

Watch the Blu-ray then come back and read the rest of this review.

You’re back… good.

Minor spoilers follow.

It’s a film about assault, about a rape. And you have to understand the time period this film was made against, for the protagonist behavior to be… properly framed. In an age where rape was something that happened to other people, not good girls from a good upbringing, was not talked about in polite company, much less admitted to or shared or confronted or reported, SOMETHING WILD tackles the assault in a frank, and in your face way, that no film before and very few since, have really captured.

Again, wordlessly, like the title sequence, in Baker’s performance, we see someone having been robbed of their own sense of their body… as their own; portrayed in the way she lays down and is afraid to even touch herself.

It is a striking bit of direction and an even more striking performance, of a woman in a world where there was no concept of ptsd, or believed avenue for redress for such a violation, that this was something to be hidden and buried, and you see the effects of this unrelenting trauma, like a fissure running through her, breaking everything apart.

The subway scene, again a master class in direction, and performance, as it imbues in the viewer a sense of that press of human bodies, the rising panic, the nausea. It is really powerful film-making. And then at about the hour mark or so, it deviates from where I thought the film was going (I do not read descriptions when blind buying a movie, just so I can walk into surprises like this film had for me), and becomes something different.

Something unexpected,

Something strange.

And something that just keeps getting stranger. It’s a deeply morally problematic film, especially viewed from a modern lens, I can see this film being… taken to task for its choices. They are not admirable or sensible choices, and arguably that is the point. Trauma breeds trauma, and damaged people make imperfect choices.

It’s a deeply troubling film, but I have to say, while I watched the latter half of the film slack jawed and disbelieving, not agreeing with any of the choices made, I found it a captivating, daring, incredibly strange, movingly performed and strikingly filmed movie about broken people caught in regimented, grinding wheels from within and from without.

I can understand, particularly if you are a victim of trauma, not jibing with this film. It does not give us the resolution we want, all of the people in this film have feet of clay, but maybe that is why I do, appreciate it. It shows us people in the way we seldom see them, or ourselves, as victims of our unfaced traumas.

It is a horror film of a sort. But it is the horror of real life.

A deeply interesting film, that I am very glad I have viewed.

Movie of the Day : SLAYGROUND (1983)

“You come highly recommended.”

“I know I do.”

“Do you know what is required?”

“Vengeance, I believe.”

With those lines, balefully delivered, you know everything you need to know about why you should run out and watch or buy the 1983 film SLAYGROUND, right now.

I picked up this film on a bit of a whim, during the recent Kino Lorber sale. Kino Lorber introducing me to this almost 40 year old film, that I had never heard of. The price was right, and the cover and blurb… caught my eye.

Boy am I glad I purchased this film.

From the opening scene, with that wonderful soundtrack, it grabs and does not let go. Peter Coyote has never been better, and it is masterfully directed by a director, that like the film, I was unfamiliar with, Terry Bedford.

This would be his first and only film. What a debut and what a denouement. The 1980s was very much the age of the iconic boogeymen, from halloween’s michael  myers to nightmare on elm streets freddy kreuger, to friday the 13th’s jason, to the end of the cycle with 1992’s candyman. slayground is a far more mature, complex and both sophisticated and convoluted, laconic film which explains why it flew under the radar and the tastes of the ‘get to the point, show me’ 80s.

however this film very much creates an iconic boogeyman for the ages, an implacable shadowman, played by philip sayer, once heard, once glimpsed… is every bit as terrifying and arguably more disturbing, than the more supernatural tinged monsters of the 80s.

there are good movies that are pushed over into great, by that exact perfect voice casting. james earl jones in star wars, his voice is pivotal in establishing the character of darth vader as iconic, and establishing that character is essential in establishing the film as iconic. the same with his voice in CONAN THE BARBARIAN. Other examples of great voices that helped carry/elevate movies are liam neesen in dark man, stephen mchattie in ponty pool, aDRIENNE BARBEAU IN THE FOG, And virtually anything orson welles has starred in.

to that list you can add philip sayer‘s voice acting in slayground. he creates an iconic villain, largely with his voice, and kudos to the filmmakers for their top notch direction and decision, to create their villain largely by suggestion.

and Praises to boutique Bluray Label KINO LORBER for rescuing this film from obscurity. I would have preferred more special features, but I am happy just to have this wonderful slice of period Americana available on Bluray.

 

The interview by Peter Coyote (done when he was 77, and we should all look as good as Mr. Coyote does at 77) is as essential as the film. It is a film class in one informative and engaging interview. A great special feature.

“Well I mean Terry’s {the Director] a really genial guy, you know I liked these guys… he was easy to get along with, … he made it fun, but there is such … the English have such class consciousness that the actor is one step above a peon, unless he is banking the film. And I certainly wasn’t banking the film. I was a Jew with an animal name, that they hired from somewhere…probably because I was cheap. So, you know, I was frustrated oftentimes being asked to do things that made no sense whatsoever… they just defied logic. And, you know, at a certain point it’s like you can fight everyday and get fired, or throw it in. I didn’t care, I tried my best, I gave it my 2 cents.”

Get your copy by clicking the image below:

 

 

 

Essential Films for Black History (or any) Month : Today’s Entry… EL BENNY!

 

Based on the life of Benny Moré, the film concentrates on a period in the early 1950s when Moré leaves the orchestra of Duany and starts his own ‘Banda Gigante’. In flashback we learn of his success in Mexico. Moré is caught in the events connected to Batista’s coup in Cuba. Also, he tours Venezuela, where he suffers the machinations of a vengeful businessman.

• Director
  • Jorge Luis Sánchez
• Writers
  • Abrahán Rodríguez
  • Jorge Luis Sánchez
• Stars
  • Rakel Adriana
  • Ulyk Anello

  • Renny Arozarena

  I had the great pleasure to see this film at a film festival, nearly 15 years ago, and the memory of this film, the texture of this film, has not left me in all that time.

  The fact this film is completely unavailable on physical media (no in-production feature rich  DVDs exist, No Blu-rays exist, no UHD discs exist) is a crime against cinema and art, that greatly needs to be rectified.

  CRITERION I am looking at you. VINEGAR SYNDROME I am looking at you. INDICATOR I am looking at you. This is a film that should be available not just for Black History month, but for every month.

Movie Diary : 2022 Day 1- 01012022- UNDERWORLD AWAKENING 3D and PINA 3D from Criterion!

 

 

 

So my first movie viewing of 2022 is one that came into my 3D collection in the last couple of weeks of 2021, and I am just now getting a chance to give it a spin on my 3D projection system.

I am speaking of UNDERWORLD:AWAKENING. The 3D Blu-ray reviews on it were mixed, so I thought I would find out for myself. Generally the 3D is very similar to the quality of the movie, okay but nothing great.

I am a fan of a good creature feature, and even CGI laden werewolf transformation scenes are always fun to watch. You kinda know what you are getting with this UNDERWORLD franchise and this one delivers what you would expect.

Regarding the 3D, a couple of things really work against stereo imaging, even for natively shot 3D. Dark or underlit/dreary/ low contrast scenes, particularly night scenes, being one of the nemesis of good stereoscopy and poor shot compositions that flatten out the depth rather than accentuating it, being the 2nd one. A film like the first DOCTOR STRANGE… people tend to confuse great visual effects with 3D, when in actuality DOCTOR STRANGE has (for the most part) deplorable 3D, sporting both dreary, underlit scenes and poor/flat compositions.

This film, UNDERWORLD AWAKENING, is not flawed to that degree; it actually has good shot composition– designed to make use of 3D, but is hampered by the fact that 90% of the film takes place at night or in low light situations, effectively undermining the very separation you are trying to get in a stereoscopic movie.

Still there is enough 3D to be noticeable and given the choice I would much rather watch this film in even muted 3D, then without. So worth a look. Grade: C- for the movie and C- for the 3D.

Now onto PINA.

 

I knew very little about the film PINA, before watching it today. I knew it was the only 3D release that seminal Boutique Blu-ray company Criterion has released. I knew it was in some way to deal with dance.

Now having seen it, I completely do not understand how this film is virtually never mentioned, even by die-hard Criterion experts and fans. This is clearly one of Criterion’s best and most essential releases.

PINA, by the great director Wim Wenders, is at once a love letter to a calling — a vocation, while also being as moving an eulogy as one person has ever had. It is a dance troupe’s love letter to their guiding star, choreographer Pina Bausch, and as great and effective and affecting a use of 3D as I am likely to see all year.

What LIFE OF PI was able to do for a fiction film, PINA does for documentaries/performance art, making the 3D more than a gimmick, but an indispensable part of the storytelling process.

The doorway sequence close to the end is one of numerous excellent uses of stereo imaging, but may be my favorite of the whole film, as they break rules in that shot, moving the camera, as the actors move, as all the layered doorways seem to move, it is a brief moment, but it helps your idea of reality tremble for a moment, and what more is magic but that.

As a fan of theatre, great theater is hard to translate to great film. While a fan of ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI the film, it pales to the power and immediacy of the theatrical presentation I saw. The same with nearly every version of RICHARD THE III I have seen, they pale to the experience of having attended a walking theatrical play of RICHARD III , conducted at night, in the rain, following the actors in an out of decaying edifices, with roofs gone, and nothing to stop the heavens to bearing witness. Great theater is hard to match.

Very rarely does that happen the other way, where the film can capture or surpass the theatrical presentation.

A few come quickly to mind, Branagh’s HENRY THE VTH (1989), Anthony Harvey’s THE LION IN WINTER (1968) and this film, Wim Wender’s PINA (2011) while not an adaption of any one performance, but rather the overview of a troupe’s body of work, offers an immediacy in how the camera is used, and the stereo imaging is used, that allow the artists to communicate with you in a way that transcends, perhaps by a little — perhaps by a lot, anything that you can experience sitting in the best seats of the best traditional theater.

PINA becomes therefore great film, and even rarer a great and essential 3D film. Grade: A. a film that must be experienced in 3D, and a must own film.

p.s. THE CRITERION RELEASE OFFERS A MAKING OF, THAT IS ALSO IN 3D (SOMETHING I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE), as WELL AS A COMMENTARY. THIS FILM HAS A WEALTH OF CONTENT FOR NUMEROUS VIEWINGS and REVISITS. A RELEASE I LOOK FORWARD TO ENJOYING FOR YEARS.

 

“Dance. Dance! Or otherwise we are lost.”

–Pina Bausch

 

These reviews were conducted using 3D Blu-rays, a region free 3D compatible Blu-ray player, and a short throw, full HD, 3D compatible short throw projector (Essential for a flexible/portable system) offering at least 3000 lumens, and high contrast, and active DLP glasses (one of the most important parts of any system)..

 

 

 

If you would like to purchase your own pre-assembled system you can use this link as well as clicking the images in this post to acquire the items depicted.

If you found this post useful please like, subscribe, and patronize the attached links.

 

The Last Hurrah – Directors Series : The Essential Films of Alfonso Cuaron

 

I personally have yet to get into ROMA. I started it, but interest wavered and I never got close to finishing it. But undeniably it is a beautiful looking film and deserving of the permanence of physical media, and one i want to go back to when in the mood for it, and give it another watch. And there is no better way to revisit this film than with Criterion’s impressive release. Click the image to find out more.

 

This for my money edges out CHILDREN OF MEN to be Cuaron’s most successful and re-watchable film. I had the great pleasure to see this in the theater when it came out and was blown away.

I recently acquired the 3D Blu-ray to use on my home projection system, and the film is a must own in 3D format. The 3D in my home projection system,  I enjoy even more than my 3D experience in the theater. I think the 3D (in this case) works a bit better in my active system over the passive system in the theater.

There are, unfortunately, not many great modern 3D movies, great in terms of the film, and great in terms of the 3D production and mastering on physical media. THE LIFE OF PI, THE FORCE AWAKENS, and GRAVITY top the list.

Click the image to get your copy of GRAVITY today, and be aware these are starting to dry up. Buy them while they are available and affordable.

 

It is a toss up, depending on the day, if I think GRAVITY or CHILDREN OF MEN is Cuaron’s best film. They are very different films. GRAVITY is an insular, real time, largely two person told in a phone booth drama, where the phone booth is the interior of a space suit and the stakes are an intimate screed against the fearsome, boundless horror of space. CHILDREN OF MEN is a rich tapestry of varied actors, places, and times, brilliantly told, and where the stakes are nothing more than the destiny of the entire human race.

What is constant is both films, are masterpieces and deserving of owning in physical media . Get yours by clicking the image above.

 

Alfonso Cuaron is a director who unfortunately only makes films sporadically, and currently IMDB has no upcoming films listed for him Which is a shame. He is a director with a vision, that I always am hopeful to see more from.

Three Essential 3D Blu-ray Movies to Purchase, while they are still available! September 2020 Edition!

 

Ang Lee in THE LIFE OF PI, uses 3D as masterfully, as you will likely see it used. Like cinematography, or the score, 3D here is not a gimmick, but is ingrained in the way the story is told. Absolutely essential to see this film in 3D. In a properly setup home system (or commercial system) the experience of watching this in 3D  feels like— a moment of grace.

 

For Anybody who has issues with films post converted in 3D, direct them to FORCE AWAKENS. This Post Converted film looks vastly better than some films shot with 3D cameras (such as RESIDENT EVIL:AFTERLIFE and TRANSFORMERS:THE LAST KNIGHT). It is clear it was photographed and shot, with 3D in mind. Because it uses that depth, masterfully. The film looks like  you can step into it, and more, in moments like it can push out toward you.

One moment, a little more than 36 minutes into the film, comes a stunning and awe inducing moment of 3D projection, as one of the Star Destroyers appears quite effectively, and repeatably, to extend out of your TV.  And more than that one scene, 3D here is used as immersive and involving storytelling. A winning 3D film. I wish the 3D in THE LAST JEDI (my favorite of this new era of Lucas Films, and right up there with  THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK as my favorite of any of the Star Wars films) was as well done.

 

 

I saw GUN FURY first in 2D. It was ok in 2D, but after watching it once, I had it in my to sell pile. I had seen it, let someone else enjoy it. However I then watched it in 3D, this 70 year old film, and I was blown away. I mentioned before, the 3D in THE FORCE AWAKENS being better than some natively shot 3D films. This is not one of those films.

The 3D in this film, magnificently restored by the 3D Film Archive, is a revelation. That 3D from 7 decades ago could look this good, this immersive, this grand, is a revelation. And kudos to the filmmaker, the great Raoul Walsh, one of the great Director’s of the golden age of Hollywood (I’m very partial to many of his films, including THE ROARING TWENTIES, THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON and HIGH SIERRA).

Here, the reportedly dashing former stuntman, turned actor, turned (due to an accident on a shoot) one-eyed Director, delivers his only 3D film; and for a man who could only surmise the effect of his shots in 3D, he delivers a movie that is gripping in its use of stereoscopy; replete with breathtaking endless vistas of an untamed America that seems to go on forever.

This is the power of 3D, to make a film more involving; just like great sound design,  or a great score, 3D is a tool, to make a film work better. 

In  the hands of a great filmmaker, 3D is more than a gimmick. 3D elevates GUN FURY from a film I thought was good but disposable, to a film that nearly every scene captivated me, and it will now —  not leave my collection. That is the power of well applied 3D.

 

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Be well out there!