TCM is running a series of films directed by Akira Kurosawa tomorrow starting with Drunken Angel. The star, Toshiro Mifune, would have been 100 years old this year. I recommend all of them but my favorites are:
Yojimbo and its sequel Sanjuro
Category: Film
Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman
The Cameraman was Keaton’s first film for MGM and his last great feature. After that, MGM ruined his career by placing him in bad films. He had much less control than when he made features independently.
This tweet shows film locations:
The Criterion Collection will issue it on Blu-ray in June 2020.
Jo Shishido
Japanese actor Jo Shishido died on January 20, 2020. He had cheek surgery to emphasize his cheekbones. He is known for starring roles in Branded to Kill (available in the Criterion Collection) and other action films directed by Seijun Suzuki in the 1960s.
‘Parasite’ is bringing well-deserved attention to Korean films
I haven’t seen Parasite yet but I have seen and admire most of Bong Joon-Ho’s other films. Its success is bringing attention to other Korean films. I have seen others and will post comments on them later. Well Go USA is a company that releases a lot of Korean films in the US.
Update – Parasite is great and deserved the Academy Award. It’s on Blu-ray and DVD from Criterion. Universal has A 4k/Blu-ray set.
Films that were not release in the US are frequently available on eBay. I use film festival lists and sites like Eastern Kicks and Modern Korean Cinema to learn about the films.
Korean Film series in Baltimore last year
Korean film list from the Houston Chronicle
Night of the Living Dead – 10/1/68
Cheddar Goblin
Cheddar Goblin is a terrific gross fake commercial in the excellent revenge film Mandy which stars Nicholas Cage. His character sees the commercial on TV. More on the back story is here.
Now you can buy Cheddar Goblin merchandise. He’s even on Twitter.
Buster Keaton films on TCM on 8/19/19
TCM will be showing a big selection of both his silent and sound films:
Silent films: Battling Butler, The Cameraman, The General, Sherlock, Jr., Seven Chances, Steamboat, Bill, Jr., The Navigator
They’re all great. The General is considered the best. I am partial to Steamboat Bill, Jr. which has the amazing stunt of the house front falling down around him (see below). The Cameraman was his first film for MGM and is as good as his earlier films which were made without studio restrictions. I have seen rumors that it will be released by Criterion.
The rest are sound films. I haven’t seen the ones from the 1930s that were made for MGM but they are not nearly as well thought of as his silent features.
TCM is also showing the excellent recent documentary, The Great Buster.
His pre-MGM films have been released on Blu-ray and DVD by Kino Lorber. Cohen has begun issuing Blu-rays with new transfers. The MGM films from the 1930s have been released on DVD by Warner Brothers.
The Great McGinty on TCM 8/13/19 at 8 pm
Blobfest 2019
I went to Blobfest for the fourth time on July 13, 2019. I saw a double bill of The Blob and Forbidden Planet. The audience is like the people who attended The Rocky Horror Picture Show events. They really know the movie and clap along with the rhythm of the theme song. For the first time that I have seen, the audience laughed at the end when the blob is taken to the Arctic because it is frozen. We know that it is thawing because of global warming.
I also posted YouTube videos I found about this year’s Blobfest.
It’s great to see the movie in the theater that is in the movie – see this clip from The Blob. There is now a plaque near the windows of the projection booth.
Pretty Poison
“Pretty Poison” (1968) is well worth seeing. I think you will get more out of it if you are familiar with the careers of the stars Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. Their prior films (especially Perkins in “Psycho”) give the audience expectations about which of the two characters is really crazy. It’s a real shock when you realize the true answer.
This article is about “Pretty Poison” and “Gun Crazy”, movies with similar relationships between the main characters.
Sad! 