The Passion of Anna / En Passion (1969)

 Tagline: Man is the king of beasts

Uncanny but I watched this because of Kristoffer Borgli's The Drama that features the poster for this specific film. Was curious to see any influences and realised I haven't actully seen this Bergman famous piece from 1969. It's actually better titled originally, as A Passion / En passion.

His first 'real' film in color, brilliantly shot by Sven Nykvist (did I say Brilliantly? ;), masterfully restored in 2016 by the Sweedish Film Institute and thus issued on the Criterion collection, the copy I saw. Third part of "the island trilogy" (Fårö island that is), following Hour of the Wolf and Shamem and shots in the same sets, in only 45 days.

Tough, dark, cruel, bitter to the core, includes these postmodern interviews of actors -Von Sydow, Andersson, Ullmann and Josephson, all four brilliant, all four Bergman ensemble troopers to the core-, that cut into the narrative, no music score, an aloof narrator voiceover (Bergman himself), and I see even an influence on Tarkovski's The Sacrifice. 

As character Elis Vergérus (erland Jospehson) observes: ’I don’t imagine that I reach into the soul with this photography. I can only register an interplay of forces, large and small. You look at this picture and imagine things. All is nonsense All play, all poetry. You can’t read another person being with any claim of certainty. Not even pain gives a reaction.’

it can be exactly what the Auteur direktor says.

"This time he was Andreas Winkelman."

Bergman's own notes on the film and more on Bergman's site here. 

9 out of 10 / 4 1/2 out of 5 !!!

Pale Flower (1964)

Pale Flower /Kawaita hana is a one-of-a-kind Noir pschedelic by Masahiro Shinoda, New Wave of Japonese cinema director. Closer to Le Samourai by Melville, or something by Antonioni, than the Japonese cinema of the era. Also keener to Kitano's earlier films. Spellbinding black and white tale of obsession, gambling and yakuza, nihillistic, downbeat existentialism. Ryô Ikebe is great as gangster Muraki, a quintesential film noir icon and Mariko Kaga as unaproachable Saeki a real pale flower indeed. The car race at night seems more appropiate in a French or Italian new vague film. Here is just hypnotic. 

Atmospeheric score by Toru Takemitsu. 

Also, this is one of Top Ten films of Michael Mann, "for the opening scenes alone". 

4 1/2 out of 5 / 9 out of 10 !!!

The Bride (2026)

Movie or at least Curio of next year ?

The Bride, Maggie Gyllenhaal's second film after The Lost Daughter (2021) is a revisonist retelling of Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale), with Jessie Buckley (Fargo sez, IV) as The Bride, Christian Bale as Frankenstein's Monster, and Jake Gyllenhaal, Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening.

The Bride is a mix of Poor Things and Joker (Folie a deux), with elements of Public Enemies (Bale again..), Bonnie and Clyde and other goodies of the 30's era. 

Just fyi, there was another The Bride, starring Sting, Clancy Brown as the Monster aka Viktor and Jennifer Beals as "Eve", directed by Franc Roddam, in 1985.

The Surfer (2024)

 “Don’t live here, don’t surf here”.

Another Nic Cage for Acting president, method of madness award ;)

Australian-Irish The Surfer was Cages first official Cannes fest selection in 34 years (after 1990's Wild at Heart!).

Mandy was in Quinzaine. Also Dog Eat Dog. 

A cross of Wake in Fright with The Wicker Man (one of Cage's most insane films is the remake of the cult British film of 1973), it's a psychedelic drama, unfolding in the Australian surfing territory.

Great score by Francois Tetaz, all reminiscent of Ennio Morricone's sound. 

Written by Thomas Martin, who took a cue from the short story that based 1968's Burt Lancaster's The Swimmer. 

Directed by Lorcan Finnegan who debuted with an interesting curio back in 2019, Vivarium. 

But the most interesting thing in it is Julian Mc Mahon, recently passed away at 56 :( He's the main attraction in the film, as Scally, the macho guru of the beach, dressed all in Red.

Sight and Sound review here. 

8 out of 10 / 4 out of 5 

Blüesferatü revine la Castelul Bran – 28 iunie 2025, ora 21:30

Cine-concertul live Blüesferatü revine la Castelul Bran – 28 iunie 2025, ora 21:30

 

Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922), capodopera regizorului expresionist F.W. Murnau, este considerat unul dintre cele mai importante filme mute din istoria cinematografiei. Muzica originală a filmului s-a pierdut, iar de-a lungul timpului s-au realizat numeroase partituri alternative, făcând din Nosferatu un favorit al cine-concertelor din întreaga lume.

 

Dar niciodată nu s-a cântat blues pe el. Până acum.

 

Blüesferatü – eine Symphonie des Blues aduce în România o versiune live în care imaginea iconică a lui Nosferatu este acompaniată de o coloană sonoră originală, compusă și interpretată live de șase muzicieni brașoveni, într-o cheie blues psihedelic, intensă și cinematică.

După premiera mondială din 2023 și reprezentațiile din 2024 în cadrul Transilvania Blues Festival Brașov, Buzău International Arts Festival și TIFF Timișoara, proiectul revine în 2025, pe 28 iunie 2025, ora 21:30, într-o nouă punere în scenă, în grădina Castelului Bran.

 

Muzica originală este compusă și interpretată live de muzicieni brașoveni: Ionuț Constantin „Yokko” – compozitor, dirijor; Robert Watzatka „Watzzy” – compozitor, chitară; Ilyes Botond „Boti” – chitară; Mihai Nedea – clape; Ciprian Pârvu – bas; Claudiu Rusu „Kani” – tobe. Muzicienii vor cânta live în fața ecranului pe toată durata filmului - 95 de minute!

 

Un eveniment rar, aflat la granița dintre muzică, film și performance, sub clar de lună, în inima Transilvaniei.

 

Un proiect produs de Alin Ludu Dumbravă și Vlad Popescu pentru Asociația Transilvania Arts & Events.

 

 Bilete: iabilet.ro

110 RON în presale | 130 RON la intrare

 Eveniment Facebook: Blüesferatü – Live at Bran Castle

 

Un proiect produs de Alin Ludu Dumbravă și Vlad Popescu pentru Asociația Transilvania Arts & Events finanțat de Consiliul Județean Brașov, cu sprijinul Castelului Bran, recomandat de Rock FM și Zile și Nopți.

Sponsori: BCR, Butan Gas

Parteneri culinari: Stoker Wines

The Phoenician Scheme (2025)

 The Phoenician Scheme (2025) is Wes Anderson's 12th feature (out of 12, 2 films are animations), presented at the 78th Cannes film festival in the Official Competition. 

The New Yorker review here

It's supposed to be a film dedicated by the writer-director to his daughter, a more emotional relationship of characters and less parodic as in his other films.

A lot of in-house references and cyphres, even more and obscure than before. From the name of the character, Zsa Zsa (Gabor), Korda (the famous filmmaking brothers), to Casablanca, Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin, Max Ophuls shots, Igor Stravinski & Mussorsky-Ravel, Pierre-August Renoir's painting (that was owned by Greta Garbo). Black Narcissus nurse included ;) The score is again by the great Alexandre Desplat, on his seventh collaboration with WA, in a synchopatic sound and beat very similar to the music from The Grand Hotel Budapest (the best Wes Anderson film for my money).  What is new is the cinematographer, Bruno Dellbonnel's first film with WA. Top set & production design (done again at Babelsberg studios, where the Grand Budapest Hotel was shot) by Adam Stockhausen and cool costumes by the legendary Milena Canonero.

Za-Zsa Korda (genius name !) Benicio Del Toro chews scenery, actually he machetes it, in a part half inspired by Howard Hughes, part Groucho Marx. Matthieu Amalric (Marseille Bob !!! -Bob le flambeur ?) plays Peter Lorre and Jeffrey Wright (Marty- "man") is the epitomy f cool !

IMO Benedict Cumberbatch (uncle Nubar) looks like from Feulliade's Fantomas or any silnet films villains, with a fake beard and diabolic eyes (Jack Lemmon in Blake Edwards' The Great Race too?). Also Michael Cera's Bjorn accent is far far out. The Monty Python affiliation is automatic.

If you know Wes Anderson's favorite films and directors, you know there is not much Americanism in him. He might be the most European Art-house American director. Also he is starting to live completely in his own MU (movie universe), like latter Fellini, Roy Andersson, etc. Is that a good thing, or a Phoenician scheme ;) ?

All in all, 7 out of 10 /3 1/2 out of 5 (could've been 10 mins. shorter) and the Black and white Bunuelian mocking Bergman (or Pasollini ?) sequences (except the Bill Murray cameo as God). Too much of mannerism, tends to deja-vu/veja-du ?. 

Dead Letter (2024)

Dead Letter in ingles means a lost letter, without good address on it, etc, that gets returned to the sender or gets back to the post office (see here). 

Dead Letter is also a small, one-of-a-kind curio film, thriller and horror but also experimental, in story form and execution, but mostly on score and sound design. First act is the best, as you don't really understand what is happening. Then you're set back in act 2. Also it's presented in grainy resolution, as it's a documented thing. 

Distyributed by SHRUDDER, this indie gem opened at  South by Southwest Film Festival last March, toured all the genre festivals for the past year. Written and directed by Joe DeBoer & Kyle McConaghy (BAB), starring cult actor John Flack, Dead Mail is a story about a synthesizer sound, a keyboard maudit, a kidnapping gone wrong, all happening in the mid 80's small American town. 

The score uses synth sounds and recordings of famous classical pieces, Henry Purcell, JS Bach, with the sound of Moog, Isao Tomita, JMJ, Vangelis, Keith Emerson and other maitres emerits du clavier modern ;)

3 1/2 out of 5, 7 out of 10 !

Mimì - Il principe delle tenebre (2023)

Mimì - Il principe delle tenebre / Mimi-Prince of Darkness is the debut feature film of Brando De Sica (Italian film Royalty, son of Christian-De Sica and nephew of il grande Vittorio), which was shown in the competition of Dracula film Fest last October in Brasov, Romania. It also won in Sitges. The premiere was in the Locarno film fest in the summer of 2023. Other awards followed.

It's a very spcial film, in the vein of  George A. Romeo's Martin, Nick Cage's Vampire Kiss,  a bit of Les Morsures de l'aube, a bit of  Låt den rätte komma in, etc. The genre he proposes is self-titled Napoletano Gomhorror neomelodico. A very specific Napoletan (including lots of pizza) film, very stylish with nods to the vampire genre, Nosferatu F. W. Murnau film, Hammer pics, giallos.

It's a combo of comedy, drama, doomed teenage love story and  coming-of-age horror. The protagonist Mimi is a misfit with a  handicaped foot, a (Tim) Burtonesque character,  coming straight from Tod Browning's Freaks box (here a Pizza box ;) mixed with Italian realism and mostly surrealism. And pizza ;) 

Great sound design by the director himself. And score (by Pasquale Catalano) and soundtrack (songs from Fabrizio de Andre to Four Tops, Halloween House, etc) . Reminded me a bit of the feel of the new horror wave by Tilman Singer, Cuckoo, from last year fodder.

It streams now on MAX worldwide. Also in Romania. 

4 out of 5, 8 out of 10 !!!

The Substance (2024)

Coraline Fargeat's second feature The Substance (after her thriller Revenge in 2017), won best screenplay in last year's Cannes Film Festival. Should've won best actress for Demi Moore but they gave that for ensemble to Emilia Perez. No comments. But now Demi has won the Golden Globe, will be nominated for an Oscar and I hope she wins, she deserves that totally and More than that.

Note on Jan. 23d: Nominated for 5 Oscars, Coraline Fargeat for Directing and original screenplay, Demi Moore for best actress, make up and hair stilling and Best Picture ! My predictions,  Demi and maybe best screenplay !

Also Margaret Qualley is great in it (and stunning). You've seen her in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Lanthimos' Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness and Drive-Away Dolls. Her future is Bright !

Dennis Quaid plays cartoonlike a caricature of a manager, Ray Liotta was supposed to play this part but he died before the film production. I think Quaid is better, 'cos he played a lot of straight characters, while Liotta was lampooning himself in a lot of his films.

Fargeat's film I found more digerable than Julia Ducournau's exploits, Grave /Raw and Titane, which are overdone and overbearing. Keep in mind, if a male director would've done this film in 2024, no festival would've touch it and he would've been "luggered" (or lapidated).  Anyway, I don't think a man could've done the same kind of approach and message, it's a woman's film about women's condition in the showbiz industry, and not only, about aging and about the compromises you make in order to be noticed. It's a very superficial world and it fades out quickly, but the subject is treated with acidity, irony and black humor. And great body horror gore practical effects. The whole thing could've been summarized in the opening and closing of the film, with the story star on the Hollywood Boulevard (a great short imo). 

The music is by British artist Raffertie (Benjamin but it's more like a sound design, pounding and very effective. Can't be listened separately tho. 

See it in a cinema, for the sound design,  set design, bright costumes (that yellow coat, that pink bodysuit), the cinematography (by Benjamin Kracun)  and the visceral effect. 

Also warning, not for the faint at/of heart, and sensible stomachs !!!

There are many posters for the film, all good, from the B&W to this kaleidoscope puzzle. 

References galore: from Lynch's LA (shot in Cannes and Antibes no less), to David Cronenberg (The Fly is quoted tooth and nail ;), Brian De Palma (Carrie's blood shower),  Kubrick's The Shining, The Elephant Man, Frankenheimer's Seconds, All about Eve, Sunset Blvd., even Zemeckis' Death Becomes Her. 

As Demi Moore described the film: " a blend of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Death Becomes Her (1992), and a Jane Fonda workout video."

A great and extended making of from Mubi (the worldwide distributor of the film buying it Cannes cos the original backer, Working Title, a division of Universal backed away ):

Update-24 feb. Demi Moore wins SAG award, The "Actor", which is the best barometer for the acting Oscars !

Luz (2018)

Luz is teuton's Tilman Singer's debut, which I wanted to see after Cuckoo,  also on my Top (horror) films of 2024.

It is weird and uneven, and short (70 mins.)

But nevertheless fascinating.

with a score of Simon Wascow, reminiscent of the best early Tangerine Dream scores, a brilliant sound design and a dream logic of its own.

Lots of awards and festivals in the Fantastic arena.

Nosferatu (2024)

 No to the new  nosferatu

now, this comes to close to home as we had the Bluesferatu project already in the third year now !

so I was expecting more, not more length (an overlong bloated 2h12), the original Nosferatu is 95 min, out of which intertitles  and Eggers' is more Dracula than S-feratu. Says on the end credits, the film is based both on Henrik Galeen's 1922 script and on Bram Stoker's novel (1897). 

Note on Jan. 23d, Nosferatu is nominated for 4 Oscars, Costume design, make up and hair stilling, cinematography and production design. 

"years later" and generous budgets spent, here we go...Germany 1838. 

Lilly Rose Depp is nympho Ellen (a somnambul), Nicholas Hoult is the victimised Thomas Hutter, Bill Skarsgård (or should I say his shadow?) is Count Orlok, Willem Dafoe is the mad professor alchemist, Simon Mc Burney is Knock (this tale's Renfield), Ralph Iverson is the other doctor, Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, are useless new characters, also from Stoker's Dracula and Coppola's film (plus two wasted girls that should've bite in the end).

All Romania settings , the gypsy's, the monastery, The Hundedoara Castle (looks like the one from Van Helsing, why shoot exteriors there?), the language, I couldn't care less. Shot in Czech Rep. , the interior castle is exactly the one from the original Nosferatu), on a lavish budget (50 mill. $) , with beautiful costumes, shadows, exquisite snow and desaturated colors.

The cinematography, by attired Eggers collaborator on all his films, Jarin Blaschke, is the major plus of the film. 

I didn't like the Nosferatu look at all, a Hungarian Husssar, a Moustache (yes, Vlad the Impaler had it..), the whole decrepit, pandemic look, reminded me of Pampon  (Victor Rebengiuc) in the Caragiale adpatation, De ce trag clopotele, Mitica?/Carnival scenes (1981).  And the whole schock extreme close-ups, cuts, sound effects, double tracks, way overdone. And let's not even start arguing about that prosthetic penis, It got me in a real whirlwind argument about if vampires can have sex the regular way...imo NO !

Eggers says he's inspired by Zualwski's Devil, Bergman's Cries and Whispers, Paradjanov and other rusky obsurish cults, but I see more a rehash of Herzog's Nosferatu and Coppola's Dracula. And Rose a far cry from her imatotaion of Adjani in Posession. 

Also, I did not like the music (by Robin Carolan, his second film for Eggers after The Northman), reminiscent of Wojchiek Kilar's Dracula, but without that panache. 

XXX

and an interview on videoclub konbini with Roger Eggers here, about his influences and favorite films. 

you can see & read the Nosferatu script here.

No

a

and 

Kinds of Kindness (2024)

“Some of them want to abuse you / Some of them want to be abused” 

(Eurythmics-Sweet Dreams -Are Made of These-1983), the song that starts the film and was used on the promotion (trailer, etc, very misleading or?)

                                                  (Brand New B*tch)

The new film by Yorgos Lanthimos (after the Awards darling Poor Things), the leader of the Greek "Weird Wave", Kinds of Kindness, premiered in Cannes this year in the Official Competition.

It's his longest film 2date, at 2h44 mins. A tryptich played by the same actors in different parts (Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Mamodou Athie ), except the mysterious R.M.F. (Yorgos Stefanakos). It's bleak, it's surreal and it's almost sadistic -especially on the characters, but on the viewers too. Black comedy in the vein of Roy Andersson, with nods to Bunuel and Kubrick (esp. Eyes Wide Shut, from where Jerskin Fendrix takes his music cues-a discordant piano, a tragedic chorus). On the end credits he has a vocal song, "King Lear", ('cause he had three daughters???;), where he reminded me of Nick Cage and Leonard Cohen. 

Closer to Lanhimos' debut, Kynodontas (Dogtooth)-"the dogs treat us good", Alps, and to the mood and atmosphere of  Killing of a Sacred Deer. The director says he was inspired by Albert Camus' Caligula and the relations of power-Trust, Love & Death. 

Jesse Plemons (Fargo, Killers of the Flower Moon) won Best Actor in Cannes. 

Shot again (after The Favourite and Poor Things, another Three;) by Irishman Robbie Ryan in color and black & white in anamorphic widescreen (2.29:1).

Also, wtf is Ronnie James Dio song Rainbow in the Dark doing in here?

Crime and Passion / Ace Up My Sleeve (1976)

Ace Up My Sleeve (1975) aka Crime and Passion, a more commercial but dumber and more banal title, released in the US as an AIP release. Rated R no less ;)

Omar Sharif, Karen Black, Joseph Buttoms,  Bernhard Wicki in an Euro-Trash picture that kind of nobody saw or cares about...

It made me curios because of the cast in checking Ivan Passer's filmography, which I rechecked due to Cutter's Way And then I found it on you tube in its entirety, widescreen and with German titles (they called the film Frankenstein's Spukschloss -Horror Castle of Frankenstein !!!). I guess it'll stay there, and here's the link. It's a real curio. Shot in Austria, in the winter on the ski slopes it features some great ski sequences, some car chases and crashes, weird and kinky sex & sweets/pastry eating (Karen Black tops it ;), Sharif's character Andre Ferren is a sex nut...

Anyway (s;), you gotta see this as I won't spoil stuff as the plot goes bonkers and further in the snows, act 3 is chaos itself, especially the ending -even a Shining resemblance.

Co-written by 5 people (not at the same time;), including Passer & William Richert (Winter Kills) the film says it's based on James Hadley Chase's novel Ace Up My Sleeve, but it seems it bares no resemblance at all. Some interesting details about the changes here !

Music by Vangelis of all people...does not fit the film at all...great score tho...it has all the Vangelis DNA. The music can be heard here

The reviews are delightful: 

"Crime and Passion" is not only one of the silliest films ever made but one of the most inexplicable"

Robert Ebert in 1976

min 57.50 "-naughty naughty massage, sir? "

Omar Sharif in Top Secret mode !!!

She'll be wearing silk pajamas when she comes...

MaXXXine (2024)

MaXXXine ends the X trilogy, continued with prequel Pearl (2022). Of course he just made it up as he went along...

It might be Ti West's most ambitious yet, more Meta and auto-referential. Plus the whole Hollywood puns and the 80's cheesy sleazy world of addiction and decadence. It's also the most self-ironical, self-conscious film of the three, more like a parody than the others, cynical, tongue-in-cheek, movie universe based, locked & loaded.

This is an article mentioning 7 films related to MaXXXine. Psycho (again!, after Pearl) and De Palma's Body Double (complete with a Frankie Goes to Hollywood sequence !)

Adding to that Sunset Blvd., What Happened to Baby Jane, Profondo Rosso,  Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, even Chinatown... the elevator from 8 Millions Ways to Die, a showdown at the Hollywood sign...  

And that damn Alligator has a cameo, this time on the small video screen, not from Tobe Hopper but from the Sergio Martino's the Great Alligator (1979) ;)

an interview with Ti West (here's my notes on his western, In a Valley of Violence, and the cult film The Sacrament), on the Konbini video store series, about his models, references, favorite flicks here or below: 

His BFI top films list is a classical (and classy;) one.

RIP Doug Ingle

Doug Ingle, the founder and last surviving member of the proto-metal psychedelic group Iron Butterfly has died at 78. 

I saw them in Bucharest at the HRC in 2012 but without Ingle, with Ron Bushy on drums, who died three years ago at 79. 

Here's the review from then

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2012/02/iron-butterfly-live-in-gada-da-vida.html

and here are the clips. 

Will pay my respects on Iron Butterfly on Radio Rockland # 13 on Thrursday May 30th on HitFM.

In-A-Gada-Da-Vida-all butterflies now.

RIP Roger Corman

 The (B) King is gone, but not forgotten !!!

I met him in Grossmann in 2008 ! Oh, what a Lovely Day !:) and the Night of too...

see here in the funny papers ;)

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2009/09/roger-corman-o-sa-ia-oscarul-omagial.html

Roger Corman just made it to 98 on April 5th, he was gone on May 9th....

autobiography: which I had and read-How I made a hundred movies in Hollywood and never lost a dime (1990)

great doc on him: Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011), which I saw then in Cannes 

                                                                        Cormanesque

Late Night with the Devil (2023)

Late Night with the Devil is an absolute cult classic !!!

and one of the best horror films (with an idea, an attitude & a twist) in years !

I heard about from Paul Schrader's post. And he's right.

Stephen King calls it “absolutely brilliant.”. This time I agree, most of the times, me and The King we don't ;)

Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii/Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023)

Psychotronic* film of the Year (on my Top Films of 2023): Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii/Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World by Radu Jude. 

Just saw this mid Jan. in a theater (Reduta, Brasov), with people, and so I had to change /add this item to the Top. It's at once Bravura filmmaking, Saboteur cinema, punkish anarchistic/nihilistic deconstruction of the language (Godard-like), subversive Meta meta cinema, a pamphlet and a satire, filled with insider jokes that my guess is don't translate, even though the film, premiering in Locarno Film Fest last summer and awarded there the Jury's Special Prize, is on the most highbrow lists, from Cahiers du Cinema, to Sight and Sound and a great Arthouse hit in the US (it will be distributed there in March by MUBI). It was Romania's entry for the Oscars, as surreal as it sounds, not that the film isn't good enough but because it's so experimental and off mainstream someone should be crazy to really think it'll be qualified for an Oscar nod.

Psychotronic* =from Un Chien Andalou to Doogtooth or Mandy, or Perrot Le Fou and Jodorowski, this is the cinema of a FreakOut mind and stream of it. Dada and beyond. A genre of Subversive cinema.

Plot (or should I say Com-plot;):

It's about a day in the life of a production assistant (Angela -a brilliant Ilinca Manolache, chosen as Top Actresses of the year by ICS-International Cinephile Society, see here- and my bet on the Gopo award for lead actress this year), as she drives around Bucharest doing various chores and prepping (preparing) a corporate work safety commercial. She also tick tocks obscenities (funny and absurd ones) under a male avatar and the name Bobiță, as a commentary of the crazy hellish life around her.

This apocaly-pic (in the cinema sense film), is imo Jude's Le Mepris, but as Godard had Fritz Lang, Radu Jude has Uwe Boll -ouch, and I know Uwe well, did a q and a with him at Grossmann years ago, was on the Bucharest set of Bloodrayne, met him as he was self-promoting his films in Marche in Cannes, hiked with him on the hills of Ljutomer and had schpritzer which he hated ;) Uwe is shown filming in a Bucharest studio a sort of Z like Men in Black -and he tick toks freely the F * off and F* all of you-and this for me is the major stunt of the film ;), also it might say something about the state of cinema and the world now, yep. Had a blast watching it, but it's not funny, more like a tragic journey into a hellish Bucharest. Plus auto-referential Jude on his PPM's, commercials background and cameos by him (Glovo man) and Marius Panduru, the DOP, as a hotel doorman, loved them both.  Excruciating longeur (willingly, but hardcore, Cristi Puiu's style)-144 min, bravura one-shot sequence of 40 mins, grainy B & W, as Jarmusch's first fares (but JJ had no money, man), a take on Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues famous cue cards through Vali Sterian's Exercitiu, into the green screen of 'woke" cancel culture of a politically correct message in a work safety corporate video. The film audio track is a world of its own, with the songs played (SPP included;), a copious manea from Tranylvania, the radio comments plus the phone conversations and the interjections from the real people in traffic. Cleo from 5 to 7 in a sordid world with overtime galore (from six am til afterdark, but with time for even a quickie and a shaorma ;)

The film inside the film (in color) is the infamous piece of propaganda, Angela merge mai departe/Angela keeps on going (1981, Lucian Bratu director, written by film critic Eva Sârbu!!!), a Feminist Fare 'cos Elena Ceaușescu (the wife and "balls & brains" of RSR's ex-Cîrmaci, not a coincidence this is posted on his Bday ;) wanted a film about a comrade female worker and she got one. And she is Angela and she is a Taxi driver, ha, Romanian Taxi Driver that is. You gotta understand that in Communist Romania taking a cab was not something anyone affords, only in matters of emergency would be used by the New Breed of People ('Omul nou"). Also I was unfortunate enough to see this in a theater when it came out or on an early 80's re-run. Bummer. Big bummer. Was almost nauseous, bored and offended -cinematically and esthetically, even as a kid!) to the extent of leaving the theater. The title became tho some sort of an urban joke (Angela that keeps going...). Jude takes the protagonist actress of 1981, Dorina Lazăr and brings her in his 2023 universe, but as a character from that film, not as the actress, as if she is a retired cab driver. It's cruel to the actors and misleading to those who think the footage is a documentary about the old Bucharest (incl. the Uranus quarter razed by Ceausescu to build his "House of the People"). Next to Angela/Dorina is her husband, Laszlo Miske, who was credited in the film from 1981, as Vasile Miske (though his character was Gyuri), his name made Romanian, as was the policy of the times. Heavily ironic, a Laszlo made a Vasile... But subversive to the max, Jude puts these characters as the parents of the work accident handicaped son who will star along with its family in the caution commercial for a family fare of 1000 euros. The filming of the commercial is the cream of the crop, a hysterical pastiche of any shot like this, also Jude's own commercials (with Șerban Pavlu as the director and a throwback at Jude s 1st feature, Cea mai fericită fată din lume/The Happiest Girl in the World-2009 where Pavlu was also the director-i's the same director, I guess ), with most of the comments being thrown in off camera, from cynical jokes to film buff comments (like the precious but useless -on purpose-info of how many takes did Charlie Chaplin took on City Lights for a line, even though the film was silent...or the Lumiere brothers Trains Exit being a documentary, Melies shooting a commercial in 1897, etc. Featuring also a clueless Nina Hoss ( German International star of Barbara, Phoenix and..Jack Ryan series) as Doris Goethe, the grand grand grand daughter of That Goethe. 

https://www.facebook.com/DoNotExpectTooMuchFromTheEndOfTheWorld

Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

Starting this year with a question ;):

Why is the poster of Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia on the wall in True Detective season 2, episode 8, Omega Station, in still photographer Leonard/Lenny's room? Are there supposed to be influences on Nic Pizziolatto's work from the (then) infamous one-of-a-kind Peckinpah master work? At least is noticed on the wikipedia page of the film. 

                                                                          "Do I get paid?" 

Weird occurences made me to get to finally rewatch and revisit what is considered to be Sam Peckinpah's most personal film (and I agree with 'em). Oh, how I was looking for this in the 90's and it finally broadcasted on a shittiest copy on Acasa TV (!!!!), and we copied it on vhs. Then some muddy DVD came out. Now it's all restored beautifully in 4K. And available!!! Also on Critterion Collection. You can even watch the whole film on youtube here.

"NOBODY LOSES ALL THE TIME"

Warren Oates as washed-up piano player Bennie plays basically Bloody Sam, sunglasses included.

Also it's a great film about "that " Mexico, with shades of Los Olvidados, The Treasure of Sierra Madre and Under the Volcano.

******

During a career that was blighted by studio interference, Peckinpah would later say that Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was the only which ended up exactly as he wanted: “I did it exactly the way I wanted to. Good or bad, like it or not, that was my film.” And it was. This is as close to ‘Pure Peckinpah’ as it gets – beautiful, violent, troubling, heartbreaking, astonishing.

(Arrow Video on their restored DVD)

Sympathy for the Devil (2023)

The great contender for The Nicolas Cage Award of 2023 is this thriller in which The Cage eats and chews scenery more than Gary Oldman in the 2003 Tony Scott BMW film Beat the Devil with James Brown. I mean Cage is great as Dracula in Renfield but that movie sucked :( bigtime also. 

The only bummer with Sympathy for the Devil (2023)is it features no Rolling Stones song. Not even a cover. Well, the director, Yuval Adler, said it would've cost more than is post production budget...It has a great song and a great moment in Fat City by Alan Vega, Alex Chilton and Ben Vaughn from their Cubist Blues Sessions that reminded me of the vibe and the score in Wild at Heart (1990) though.

Cage opposite restrained Joel Kinnaman

Definetly a real summer (& winter) treat ! 

TBC