The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions (Decade Project Vol. 4)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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therewillbeblus
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#76 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Dec 09, 2019 4:03 pm

That's a great description of how Hepburn works to give Sabrina its heart, though I don't like it quite as much as you. I'd probably grant that second Wilder spot to Irma la Douce but I also have a fondness for Sunset Boulevard and Ace in the Hole that ignite a mean-spirited cynicism in me propelling them close to that spot, like a neon sign for something I'm not completely sold on but can't look away nonetheless. It's safe to say that after his masterpiece I'm not rushing to defend much of his output, while I still enjoy a good amount of his films more than some (that auteur project will be a weird one).

Daddy Long Legs might pull an On the Town this decade and make it into the top half of my list, though I'll be giving it at least one more watch to see where it stands at that point, and Saint Joan will be just on the cusp. I'm with you on 1960, though that year has two of my all-time favorite movies, and that doesn't even include Breathless, The Apartment, Psycho, Zazie dans le Metro or L'avventura, all of which would place on an all-time top 50 or 100 and will surely make the upper-tiers of next decade's list!

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#77 Post by domino harvey » Mon Dec 09, 2019 4:21 pm

Irma la Douce would be my number three! I haven't begun organizing possibilities yet, but there will be a lot more than four musicals in contention for me this decade. Here are twenty five top shelf 50s Musicals worth seeking out and considering for the list:

Artists and Models
Athena
the Band Wagon
Calamity Jane
Daddy Long Legs
the Girl Can’t Help It
the Girl Next Door
Guys and Dolls
Hollywood or Bust!
I Love Melvin
It’s Always Fair Weather
Jupiter’s Darling
Kismet
Kiss Me, Kate
Lil Abner
Lili
Lucky Me
Merry Andrew
My Blue Heaven
My Sister Eileen
Oklahoma!
Riding High (I can't remember if Crosby sings enough in this to call it a musical, but he probably does)
Singin’ in the Rain
Small Town Girl
Two Tickets to Broadway

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swo17
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#78 Post by swo17 » Mon Dec 09, 2019 4:24 pm

[cough]Give a Girl a Break![/cough]

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#79 Post by domino harvey » Mon Dec 09, 2019 4:25 pm

Yes, that one too! I'm sure there's lots more I forgot in my cursory run down

EDIT: Like Hit the Deck, for sure, and Orfeu Negro if you consider it a musical

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#80 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Dec 09, 2019 4:54 pm

I haven't seen maybe half of those, but what would you say if you had to whittle it down even further to ten best musicals? I've got enough time to get to all of them, but want to prioritize titles.

The Band Wagon, My Sister Eileen, Lili, and Daddy Long Legs are the four I was referring to (in rough order), but those are all going to make the top half of my list so there's room for more. Singin' in the Rain and Calamity Jane are the two on your list I could see most potential in, but I have to revisit a few. Swo, I believe you've praised Give a Girl a Break before, so I'll finally prioritize seeking that one out. Seeing it absent from my library's catalog in a quick search, I'm having deju vu and I've definitely tried to access it in the past!

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#81 Post by swo17 » Mon Dec 09, 2019 5:04 pm

It's out on a Warner Archive DVD-R, and in case it needs any more selling, it was Donen's musical follow-up to Singin' in the Rain and it stars Bob Fosse and Debbie Reynolds!

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senseabove
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#82 Post by senseabove » Mon Dec 09, 2019 5:25 pm

Lili, Give a Girl a Break, I Love Melvin, It's Always Fair Weather, On the Town, and a few other 50s musicals, are on the Criterion Channel until the end of the month as well: https://www.criterionchannel.com/mgm-mu ... golden-age

I was eyeing them this weekend, but I'll have to bump Lili and Give a Girl... up the list.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#83 Post by domino harvey » Mon Dec 09, 2019 5:30 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Mon Dec 09, 2019 4:54 pm
I haven't seen maybe half of those, but what would you say if you had to whittle it down even further to ten best musicals? I've got enough time to get to all of them, but want to prioritize titles.
Here’s the only way I can do that:

Five obvious choices I’ll definitely be voting for:
the Band Wagon
Calamity Jane
Lili
My Sister Eileen
Singin’ in the Rain

Five under-seen musicals worth seeking out:
Athena
the Girl Next Door
Jupiter’s Darling
Merry Andrew
My Blue Heaven

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#84 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Dec 09, 2019 6:03 pm

Thanks, I haven't seen any of those bottom five!

Some more rewatches:

Él

Revisiting this for the first time in what feels like a decade, especially in the midst of a 50s melodrama binge, certainly shone a light on the conventions Buñuel meddles with here, though I’m not entirely convinced that he’s attacking the fantastical filmic narrative methods as much as actual human behavior. He’s always struck me as more of a social and psychological satirist and provocateur based in the reality of his observations, rather than one aimed at depictions in the medium. However, domino’s analysis made me question, and expand, this fixed view; since there are more clearly obvious nods to these melodrama narratives, and the example he gives about the lovers asking for and then discarding advice is surely the highlight of the film, especially the husband’s quick solipsistic interpretation of said advice from what appears to be humility and acceptance spontaneously to the left turn of murder. Still, this felt more like a work geared to peel back the coating of relationships to reveal fear and selfishness at the heart of humanity, but also more significantly the self-fulfilling prophecy that drives people away in relationships to support those fears rather than facing them. The bourgeois blockades to self-reflection only reinforce this cycle of dissatisfaction prohibiting any harmony through a lack of awareness that could beget willingness. I quite like this observation and the way Buñuel addresses it. In my experience this self-fulfilling prophecy from the suppression of core beliefs is a primary barrier to harmony in romantic relationships, so regardless of the genre-poking this worked for me in fresh ways now compared to the solely absurdist details that likely drove its way to my heart originally.

This idea of Buñuel toying with cinematic narratives spawned a search for this extra layer in other films of his. Something like Viridiana, that is definitely focused on a (naive?) human idea and idealistic mindset still follows the narratives of faith pictures and spiritual transformation ones, like Rossellini’s 50s works, before turning it inside out. The best example, at least for the 50s, is probably Ensayo de un crimen, which inverts the narrative of serial killer pictures to rob the killer of catharsis and thus us, as if to make a commentary on their own status as protagonists to the viewer, and force us to laugh at this figure that is a mirror for ourselves, as well as conjure a level of emasculation of this antihero that gives us a push to want to see him succeed (as Psycho's car-in-swamp would do a few years later). This is possibly his most self-reflexive work in the sense of involving the audience and playing with narrative conventions in automatic vicarious empathy with the protagonists of films. I haven't seen that one in ages either so perhaps my memory is failing me, but the idea of a sociopath intent on murder failing to actually deliver really cracked me up when I was in my early to mid-20s and maybe it still will!

Image

Some Came Running

I’ve always been a bit obsessed with this film and another revisit only cemented these feelings. This film exudes much of what I love about Peyton Place focused in closer to magnify a few key players in the action and held steady for its runtime. The infusion of Sinatra into the system that is the town probably causes the heftiest melodramatic disruption of any melodrama, a giant rock caught in their smooth wheel of comfortable exchanges and social norms. Watching the clashing of characters as they continuously react desperately or courageously, blocking and confusing themselves over their principles, desires, or abilities to function with the altered structure, is a vibrant experience. The vulnerability here is unmatched in this era, and the fact that this sensitivity allows itself to look like tough personas briefly before stripping it all down is further testament to its greatness. This film hits close to home despite my family life looking next to nothing like Sinatra’s. Still, there’s an eerie depressing isolation in superficial ideologies like family and community, especially when one feels distanced from them, that is romantic in its sadness, and motivating in its push for authentic identity as a sort of rebellious anarchy in embracing one’s convictions against the system one feels rejected by or whose values don't match one's own, all of which affects me deeply. Wes Anderson has made a career out of this idea, and while I haven’t read Bogdanovich’s book, I believe he also argued that this film is far more important than most people realize, including me as I’m probably only scraping the surface of what makes this film great.

I think the most interesting parts of the film are when Sinatra goes on trips away from our main setting with the ‘degenerate’ crew of misfits he hangs with. Only in this break from the central system do we really see Sinatra and his peers for their strengths and kindness completely apart from the world that casts them out, and one could argue that it’s the only genuine camaraderie in the whole film. This inverted lens bends towards a new space in cinema seemingly uncharted, taking the piece that disrupts the system and humanizing them, completely absent from such an environment. We come to love and respect Sinatra, MacLaine, and Martin even more, as if that was possible, by granting them total freedom from their relationship to this dark matter that is their gravitational pull, and in that new land we find ideas for thousands of films born at once. The shot of Martin’s girlfriend crying against the wall after the gambling game is maybe the most minutely emotional shot in the entire film because it allots space to the invisible to show that they feel too, perhaps more deeply than those who put down the degenerates and fit into the system more easily to keep it at homeostasis. Minnelli seems to be advocating that perhaps we should shake that system harder, find a place for these human beings cast out, and break the static rhythm towards flexibility and comfort with change, allowing for morphing status and movement between subsystems. But he also makes us look at what happens when we try.

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TMDaines
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#85 Post by TMDaines » Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:41 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Mon Dec 02, 2019 1:39 am
Based on a board search, at least, La casa del ángel is the best film virtually none of you have seen. Nilsson's portrait of Catholic guilt is superb, the direction and cinematography stunningly beautiful, and it features my new favorite scene of someone watching a movie: Our young protagonist is sent by an overprotective family member to see a Gish sister movie since they're safely wholesome, only to be shown a Valentino movie. We then see the young girl's sexual awakening in real time unfold as she absorbs the on-screen antics. A tremendous moment. Everything with Elsa Daniel is so good that you can be excused for zoning out during all the stupid political b-story stuff. The last five minutes of this film are, uh, a Von Trier-level choice. Take that as you will. The only circulating copy of this film is rough, but watch it anyways and marvel that there's somehow no money to restore a would-be masterpiece like this (and it looks about one generation away from crumbling to dust like a relic in an Indiana Jones adventure) but labels keep ponying up for Z-grade monster rape garbage and new scans of movies already out on Blu-ray eight times over
So I tracked down the better TV rip of La casa del ángel (1957) and have uploaded it to our favourite backchannel. It came with the subtitles ready, but their quality soured my initial viewing so I have spent a good four or five hours retiming and reediting them, correcting poor English and any obvious errors (Argentine Spanish is uncanny for an Italian speaker), although I can't challenge the translation too much as I don't actually speak Spanish. I've asked for some help elsewhere in subtitling a couple of missing lines and checking the opening scenes, which feel off to me.

I now plan to rewatch the film one evening myself and enjoy! Maybe I'll check out Nilsson's other more gothic films too.

If anyone wants a copy of this unreleased film and subtitles, and doesn't have access elsewhere, just shout and I can host it for a few weeks.

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swo17
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#86 Post by swo17 » Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:54 pm

Wow, nice effort! If you give me time codes of the spots you're questioning, I can check your Spanish

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senseabove
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#87 Post by senseabove » Tue Dec 10, 2019 8:29 pm

I have a suspicion which one it is, but I'd never dream of asking in public whether anyone would consider PMing me to help me out where I've been let down by the few IRL folks I know who've all been fresh out of golden tickets...

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TMDaines
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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#88 Post by TMDaines » Wed Dec 11, 2019 1:36 pm

swo17 wrote:
Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:54 pm
Wow, nice effort! If you give me time codes of the spots you're questioning, I can check your Spanish
Thanks. Someone elsewhere has already volunteered to, so hopefully they will get on with it pronto.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#89 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:14 pm

It’s Always Fair Weather: Unfortunately a revisit lessened this film’s charms for me. The numbers have a few creative twists such as the percussion beats of trash can tops and even a subtle rhythm of punching bags in the gym permeates through non-musical action, and is a nice touch. However, the quality of the numbers is inconsistent overall, though I did love pretty much everything in the middle section (“Baby You Can Knock Me Out” is a delight and the three-way split screen “Up in Smoke” was oddly moving), with choreography and witty lyrics on point. It’s the bookends and story that suffer here, and Gene Kelly’s sparring partners aren’t anything to write home about, except Cyd Charisse who steals the aforementioned highlight scene. The biggest disappointment was the misfire of humor I found this revisit, especially since I had recalled a few gags as being terrific, but even those left me cold this time around. Not a bad musical by any means (that middle chunk is terrific) but oddly uneven and different than memory had served. One huge strength though is the cinematography. The camera glides along with the actors in some of the more complex choreographed moments but also during non-musical scenes as we peer around corners and follow simple action. It really is something to behold, and key to the success of a musical like this that makes use of a wider range of space during big numbers.

A Summer Place: Daves draws a pretty perverse melodrama here, with messy relationship details and sexual fear run rampant. So many fractured family systems without hope, and a story in which the safety of these family systems, especially the security or parental support, are smashed in ways that echo Rebel Without a Cause. Unfortunately that’s about the only comparison I can make between the two, as the attention to youth feels hazy in the depth of their portraits. Beyond the wild risks this film takes in pushing boundaries of what can be said, done, or implied by a 50s melodrama, I can’t say this movie excited me in other ways. The story and performances all have promise but the sum of the parts didn’t deliver on the fire in each idea, and this winds up turning from a multigenerational dissection of family history systemic function to a quasi-Romeo and Juliet. Arthur Kennedy plays a pretty great alcoholic though, and who doesn’t want to see him give another excellent performance during this decade?

Susana: I hadn’t thought about this one in years until RV reminded me of its existence, and I’m shaking my head at how could I have forgotten this incredible film! Talk about variables disrupting functional systems, this one outdoes them all. Again I’m not sure if Bunuel is interested in taking on that interest of melodrama or just life, but the idea of asking for God’s help, being granted freedom, and subsequently triggering the id of everyone she encounters feels like a commentary on the shallowness of human nature, the weakness of the moral lining to our impulses, and the notion of God as devilish trickster, as it is about the security of systemic flow. There’s something perhaps not full on Hobbesian but certainly anti-Locke about Bunuel’s attack on social and political philosophy in reducing it to psychology that reveals an uncomfortable moral relativity, all the more cutting because of the ease at which it can be, and is, flexible. This is a very funny film too, weaponizing sexuality against the audience as well as the characters and milieu on screen, which allows us to invest with enthusiasm for multiple reasons: it’s a sexy film about anarchistic social disruption through sexuality, a fusion that only lightens our response to such venomous insinuations! Very amusing is the way the matriarch and other female characters smell Susana’s deceit from the start while the males are fooled, a more extreme demonstration of the dynamic in All About Eve even if not as well-done or complex. So far this is probably the highest ranking Bunuel for me this decade, although I’ll admit I have a lot to revisit and explore before making that a definitive claim.

The Tarnished Angels: This is up there with Written on the Wind as the best of Sirk’s melodramas. From a purely filmic perspective, the black and white photography and lighting are striking, and if I may be so blasphemous the technical aspects outdo his color works for me. The story and script are also pitch-perfect, refraining from the amount of pulp that weighs down the bulk of his other works, while also issuing a thick stream of dramatic and romantic momentum that are maintained for its duration. This success is helped greatly by the solid central performances, each resisting the opportunity to amplify their intensity beyond what the material requires, creating subtle realistic actions and verbalizations, down to attitude and tone, that embody human beings we can relate to partially because they can’t seem to fully relate to one another, and not in the typical overdramatized melodrama teasing. Faulkner’s source is another likely key support in the strength of the material, at least in content, but writer George Zuckerman deserves the majority of the credit for his structural vision and excellent dialogue, drawing characters to multi-dimensional complex figures without depriving them of interest by keeping each a bit of a curious mystery, to us as well as to each other, imbuing an authenticity not always followed in Sirk’s lesser films. Of course I just read that Zuckerman only wrote this and Written on the Wind for Sirk, and I’m wondering how much of that film’s genius is sourced from him too! So much for auteur theory, but Sirk seems like a strong asset for collaboration and when his films fly, they really soar.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#90 Post by Rayon Vert » Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:28 pm

I feel validated that you liked Susana so much - and wrote about it so well -, twbb. I think I ranked it second on my Bunuel project list.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#91 Post by barryconvex » Thu Dec 12, 2019 2:43 am

A Summer Place Delmer Daves 1959

What a shrill, miserable woman Constance Ford plays. What caused this woman to become so profoundly terrified of sex one can only imagine. Her Victorian era attitudes toward courtship and class distinctions are probably inherited from her mother and they go a long way towards concealing that either she suffered some kind of sexual assault at some point in her life, or she's a repressed homosexual forced to live a life (as so many did in the 50s) as a traditional American housewife. She's the black hole at the center of the movie and try as they might, no one caught in her orbit can escape its gravitational pull. Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee (as the milquetoast and passionless young couple who are driving the rest of the adults in the movie crazy) never had a chance against this firebrand of a woman and I was so disinterested in them that I began rooting for Ford's character to finally crush their relationship once and for all. She might be evil but at least she's not dull. In contrast to Donahue, who barely has a pulse in scenes where he's supposed to be enraged and Dee who gives no indication she's the kind of girl a young man would go to all this trouble over. She's cute but has no sex appeal whatsoever. More of a kid sister type than object of desire. Their relationship is also never properly established-they seem to fall madly and irrevocably in love after spending a night stranded on a local beach after their boat crashes on the rocks. A serious romance could very easily take root in real life and even more easily in a movie under these circumstances but since Daves doesn't allow us to spend any time getting to know them on the night they're marooned it's difficult to accept these two have developed this unbreakable bond the movie wants us to believe they share.

It's not all bad though, Kennedy is indeed a convincing screen drunk and I enjoyed spending time in that Frank Lloyd Wright house. The relationship tangle is appropriately complicated though
SpoilerShow
perhaps somewhat perversely Daves chooses to ignore the issue of marriage between step-siblings.
Not terrible but I don't think I'll ever watch it again.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#92 Post by senseabove » Thu Dec 12, 2019 4:14 am

Lili, Charles Walters, 1953

Well! Mel Ferrer is a lead balloon, and the dance sequences are a bit underdeveloped, but pretty much every other aspect of this is utterly charming. An American in Paris is the only other movie I've seen Caron in, and perhaps it's just that she's a little buried by the sheer superstar power surrounding her in front of and behind the camera there, but she was a profound surprise here, and the first fantasy sequence was a brilliant touch to confirm that she's perfectly aware of what she's doing. She and Walters play so deftly with innocence, suspension of disbelief, catharsis, and self-expression... It's a kids movie for adults, with all the broad strokes and wide eyes such a treatment warrants and all the surprising, unassuming clarity it can offer—that abrupt, bluntly sinister turn in the opening, for example, doing for us what Lili does at the emotional turning point, after Carrottop and Renardo almost succeed in sweet-talking her. Almost certainly one of those movies I'll eventually order the DVD for, in despair of it ever getting a BD release before I want to see it again. Thank y'all for highlighting this one! Looking forward to digging up what others have written about it...

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#93 Post by knives » Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:41 am

Well, that was a recommendation that fell on its face as soon as it walked through the door.

I think the Donen's recent turn as a critical favorite has more to do with the politicalization of film criticism then its actual merits. It takes a genre that is not chic because it deals in femininity and lightness of tone and gives a darker though still light presentation of a topical subject. The praise seems more for what it is about than if it's especially good being about.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#94 Post by domino harvey » Thu Dec 12, 2019 1:48 pm

I recommended Delmer Daves but I don't like A Summer Place (and I hate 310 to Yuma!)-- maybe he's so under-considered because these are his best known films these days!

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#95 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Dec 12, 2019 2:23 pm

I think Mangold’s version is the best remake (as defined in that context, not the best movie that happens to be a remake) because of how bad the original is.

As far as good Daves westerns, I gave The Last Wagon another watch and it continues to be something very special, initiating that multi-character melodramatic perspective swamp onto a moralist query, and vice versa - the reversal of which makes the direction of inspection turn in on itself in a creative way, integrating new dynamic comprehensions on genre roles and relationships applied to classic themes of order and disorder, right and wrong, with that blunt introspective twist. Widmark is a perfect choice to play a character we are naturally ambivalent about, someone with so much innate charisma that we are drawn to but also ambiguous traits that prompt us to wait with reservation to be sold by, and he delivers.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#96 Post by barryconvex » Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:46 am

knives wrote:
Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:41 am
Well, that was a recommendation that fell on its face as soon as it walked through the door

I think the Donen's recent turn as a critical favorite has more to do with the politicalization of film criticism then its actual merits. It takes a genre that is not chic because it deals in femininity and lightness of tone and gives a darker though still light presentation of a topical subject. The praise seems more for what it is about than if it's especially good being about.
The stock I place I place in your opinion isn't affected by one movie I didn't like that cost me all of $6. Please keep the recommendations coming.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#97 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Dec 13, 2019 2:11 am

knives wrote:
Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:41 am
I think the Donen's recent turn as a critical favorite has more to do with the politicalization of film criticism then its actual merits. It takes a genre that is not chic because it deals in femininity and lightness of tone and gives a darker though still light presentation of a topical subject. The praise seems more for what it is about than if it's especially good being about.
I don’t think you’re wrong in part, but I also believe it is very good at detailing certain themes regarding relationship between viewer and cinema, as well as overall universal experience beyond politicization. There’s an endlessly analytical piece to it for sure, though what makes me love the film is the empathetic personal feelings for the material: how relatable it is to experience darkness and seek solace in art as a therapeutic distraction and form a relationship with those characters and that action. The idea of having so many fears and insecurities that they follow and shape you into your own dreams. The act of kindness and stability of sanity only possible hidden from contact with the outside world including the pure. And of course, our heroine who is so lovely that we can’t help but care about her, not even asking for her to achieve anything special, just to be okay- a rare humble request in the wake of the Big Dreams of so many other movies.

I know full grown adults who have stuffed animal collections and talk to their Pusheens as strategies when they’re upset and feel dysregulated. If that works for them on a level beyond political I don’t see how this film can’t and doesn’t too.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#98 Post by barryconvex » Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:54 am

A Bucket of Blood (Roger Corman 1959)

I had high hopes for this one-a send up of the art world, a skewering of beatnik culture, directed by Corman and starring Dick Miller-but I thought it was just so-so. It scores major points for its appropriately dim view of the godawful beatnik poet, the well observed portrait of the not quite ready for the Greenwich Village scene folk singer and various other junkies and hangers-on but any satirization of the art world doesn't really add up and I hated Miller's lead character. The semi retarded, social misfit who's functional enough to live alone and hold down a menial job (flashbacks of Cliff Robertson in Charly) is just not one I respond well to. Corman keeps the pace moving quickly and at 65 minutes the movie says what it wants to say without bludgeoning home its point of view. But it never felt acerbic enough to penetrate more than the surface layers of its intended targets and as a comedy/horror film only the comedic aspects (kinda) work.

The movie begins with the beatnik poet spouting off about "only the creative are truly alive." Miller whose burning desire in life is to "make the scene" at the coffeehouse he works in, takes this as his mantra and after accidentally stabbing his landlady's cat is struck by divine inspiration. With the poet's words ringing in his ears he turn the cat into a sculpture.** This leads to acclaim amongst those who had previously shunned him and the need to produce more sculptures which of course leads to bigger problems for Miller's character. The problem here is the cat piece that was produced for the movie is a genuinely excellent artwork. Any satire the movie was looking to generate by lampooning those who appreciate art not being able to tell good work from bad is just plain misguided.




**It would fit in well exhibited next to other movie related works like the painting from Goodfellas by Scorsese's mother and Harrison Ford's Ritz crackers box pop art masterpiece from Regarding Henry.

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#99 Post by domino harvey » Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:03 am

Wow, hugely disagree-- it'll be in my Top Ten for the Horror List, and somewhere in the mix lower down for the decade list. I think it's miles better than Amadeus at portraying the anxiety and anguish of the untalented, and the beat scene jokes land pretty well I think and don't come off as anti-intellectual (note: I hate the beats). I've never read Miller's character as uncharitably as you either-- jeez, the poor guy is so bad at art that you think he's "semi retarded"? Are you the owner of that cafe?

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Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#100 Post by knives » Fri Dec 13, 2019 6:41 am

Amadeus about the untalented?

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