Daily Archives: December 31, 2018

2018 in Review – Top Ten New-to-Me Films (Fiction)

Posted on December 31, 2018 | 4 comments

Real Life was full of many things in 2018.  Fortunately, many of them were good movies  My viewing for the year began about halfway through 1963 and ended by finishing off 1965.  I logged 455 films on Letterboxd.  I took a lengthy break to watch Pre-Code films and another one focused on documentaries.  Some of the best new films I saw this year were documentaries and I am creating a separate list for those.

I saw too many great films to count.  Since I’ve been seeking out classic movies for a long time, many of the best were re-watches.  Still there were many gems that were new to me. Fiction films that I rated 9/10 and did not make the top ten are: Nothing But a Man (1964); Whoopie! (1929); Le Bonheur (1965); I Knew Her Well (1965); The Other Side of Hope (2017); The Collector (1965); and The Moment of Truth (1965).

Here’s 10  favorite films I saw for the first time in 2018.   They are not ranked but in chronological order.

Red Dust (1932) – Directed by Sam Wood

An Actor’s Revenge (1963) – Directed by Kon Ichikawa

The Servant (1963) – Directed by Joseph Losey

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) – Directed  by Jacques Demy

The Naked Prey (1965) – Directed by Cornel Wilde

YoYo (1965) – Directed by Pierre Etaix

Repulsion (1965) – Directed by Roman Polanski

Darling (1965) – Directed by John Schlesinger

The Shop on Main Street (1965) – Directed by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos

A Short Film About Love (1988) – Directed  by Krzysztof Kieslowski

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A Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to one and all!

 

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Posted in Top Ten Lists

The Shop on Main Street (1965)

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The Shop on Main Street (Obchod na korze)
Directed by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos
Written by Ladislav Grosman, Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos
1965/Czechoslovakia
Filmove studio Barrandov
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

[box] Antonin Brtko: I’m your Aryan and you’re my Jewess . . . understand?[/box]

I didn’t expect so much whimsy in the sad story of the fates of an elderly Jewish shop owner and her hapless Aryan handler.  The whole thing works amazingly well.

Tono Brtko (Josef Kroner) is a humble uneducated carpenter.  Czechoslovakia has been occupied.  He has a greedy wife who is the sister of a member of what looks to be the equivalent of the Slovak Fascist Party SS.  Tono is apolitical but hates his brother-in-law.

Laws have been made that Jews can no longer own businesses.  All Jewish businesses are assigned an “Aryan Controller”.  Through his family connections Josef is given the sewing notions shop owned by an adorable, very hard-of-hearing old lady named Rozalia (Ida Kaminska).  The idea is evidently that when the Jews are deported the controller will take over completely.  Plus, Josef’s wife firmly believes that all Jews have a secret stash of gold buried on the premises.

Problem is the old lady is a charity case.  She thinks that Josef has come to assist her and is very kind to him.  Josef can do nothing to save either of them.

Czechs can’t seem to help telling even the most tragic tale with an off-kilter world view and wit that can only be described as charming.  According to me, this movie is practically perfect.  It is my final film for 1965 and will go immediately on to my Top Ten Favorite New-to-Me Films of 2018 list, coming soon.

The Shop on Main Street won the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Picture.  Ida Kaminska was nominated for Best Actress.

 

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1965

Filmworker (2017)

Posted on December 31, 2018 | Leave a comment

Filmworker
Directed by Tony Zierra
2017/US
True Studio Media
First viewing/Netflix Instant

 

[box] If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed. — Stanley Kubrick[/box]

Fascinating documentary about an actor who gave up fame and fortune to become Stanley Kubrick’s unsung right-hand man.

Leon Vitali was having a promising career on British TV when Stanley Kubrick hired him to act in Barry Lyndon (1975).  Vitali became so fascinated with the technical process that he asked if he could sit in the cutting room, gratis, when Kubrick made his next film.  So began a 40-year relationship with an irascible, amazingly gifted fellow filmworker.  Vitali went on to do just about every job required on the set and more in service of his master’s vision.  His relationship with the director extended after Kubrick’s death to a central role in the preservation of his films.

I love documentaries about niche jobs in the film industry and you can’t get more niche, yet more all-encompassing, than Leon Vitali’s.  He’s a very sweet man, with a continued unsullied idolatry of Kubrick, and a good talker.  There’s also a number of interviews with actors and others that worked with Vitali on Kubrick’s films.  Recommended.  If you are a Kubrick fan, possibly essential.

Scene from Barry Lyndon. Vitali is seated on the grass front and center.

 

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Posted in Film History Documentaries