Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Random Musings of the Month - August 2011

Random Notes of the Month

Browser stats for August: Looks like IE is finally dying off.
Not much news to report on the blog front.  You wouldn't know it, but I've actually been absent for quite a bit this month, taking great advantage of Blogger's post scheduling feature so I can hang out in the sunshine.

I did however add a new navigational menu at the top of the blog a few weeks back, but it's still a work in progress, just need to find some time to tweak it a bit.  I've also got a few ideas for future post marathons that are kicking around in my head now that my spotlight on Hungary is starting to wind down, but I haven't decided exactly what direction to go just yet.

Below are a couple shots of my home theatre setup that I promised to take for Custard.  They are a little bit dark, but you get the idea.  The screen is homemade, measures 85" (216 cm) diagonally and is mounted on a false wall that covers up a bay window.  The HD projector is an Epson 6500UB and everything is controlled by a small PC running XBMC aka The best media player in existence.



Tuesday, August 30, 2011

My 20th Century (1989)

My 20th Century • Az én XX. századom (1989)
My 20th Century • Az én XX. századom (1989)

Genre: Comedy • Drama
Director: Ildikó Enyedi
Starring: Dorota Segda, Oleg Yankovskiy, Paulus Manker, Peter Andorai, Gabor Mate
Duration: 102 min.
Rating: 7.5

Summary:
At the dawn of the 20th Century, long separated identical twins Dora and Lili ride the Orient Express unaware of each other: one a feminist anarchist, the other a hedonistic courtesan, both living under the powder-keg Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.  In 1900, technology was accelerating, could women's rights and national self-determination keep pace?

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Lovers (1958)

The Lovers • Les amants (1958)
The Lovers • Les amants (1958)

Genre: Drama • Romance
Director: Louis Malle
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Marc Bory, Judith Magre, Jose Luis de Vilallonga, Alain Cuny
Duration: 88 min.
Rating: 7.9  

Summary:
Bored with her husband, bored with her polo-playing lover, will the middle-aged heroine go away with the young man who gave her a lift that day when her car broke down on the way back to her country estate from a weekend with her lover in Paris?

Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Missing Gun (2002)

The Missing Gun • Xun qiang (2002)
The Missing Gun • Xun qiang •  寻枪 (2002)

Genre: Mystery Drama
Director: Lu Chuan
Starring: Jiang Wen, Huang Fan, Liang Shi, Ning Jing, Wu Yujuan
Duration: 87 min.
Rating: 6.6  

Summary:
Small-town policeman Ma Shan wakes up one morning to discover that his gun is missing. During his search, things take a sinister turn when his first love turns up dead and the bullet appears to be from his gun.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Hanussen (1988)

Hanussen (1988)
Hanussen (1988)


Genre: Drama • Biography
Director: István Szabó
Starring: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Erland Josephson, Ildikó Bánsági, Adrianna Biedrzynska
Duration: 140 min.
Rating: 7.3  

Summary:
Hanussen centers on an Austrian soldier who becomes clairvoyant after he is shot in the head during World War I.  He is able to read minds and predict the future.  Before long, he has foreseen Hitler and the Nazis' rise to power, and he soon finds himself in danger.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

Elevator to the Gallows • Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958)
Elevator to the Gallows • Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958)

Genre: Crime Drama
Director: Louis Malle
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin
Duration: 88 min.
Rating: 8.1  

Summary:
A self-assured business man conspires to murder his employer, and the husband of his lover, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

The Brood (1979)

The Brood (1979)
The Brood (1979)

Genre: Horror • Sci-Fi
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Oliver Reed, Art Hindle, Samantha Eggar, Henry Beckman, Cindy Hinds
Duration: 92 min.
Rating: 7.8  

Summary:
A man's wife is under the care of an eccentric and unconventional psychologist who uses innovative and theatrical techniques to breach the psychological blocks in his patients.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Rabid (1977)

Rabid (1977)
Rabid (1977)

Genre: Horror
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Joe Silver, Howard Ryshpan, Patricia Gage
Duration: 91 min.
Rating: 7.3  

Summary:
A young woman develops a taste for human blood after undergoing experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into rabid, blood-thirsty zombies who proceed to infect others, which turns into a city-wide epidemic.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Shivers (1975)

Shivers (1975)
Shivers (1975)

Genre: Horror / Sci Fi
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Barbara Steele, Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry, Alan Migicivsky
Duration: 87 min.
Rating: 7.2  

Summary:
The residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are being infected by a strain of parasites that turn them into mindless, sex-crazed fiends out to infect others by the slightest sexual contact.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Kidnapped (2010)

Kidnapped • Secuestrados (2010)
Kidnapped • Secuestrados (2010)

Genre: Horror • Thriller
Director: Miguel Ángel Vivas
Starring: Manuela Vellés, Dritan Biba, Ana Wagener, Fernando Cayo
Duration: 85 min.
Rating: 6.5

Summary:
Jaime, Marta and their daughter Isabel, a well-off family, move to a luxurious new house. The parents are going through a rough patch but have decided to give their relationship one last chance. On the first evening in their new home, a group of three hooded men burst into the house. Their objective: To get as much money as possible out of them in one night...

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Damnation (1988)

Damnation • Kárhozat (1988)
Damnation • Kárhozat (1988)


Genre: Drama
Director:  Béla Tarr
Starring: Miklós B. Székely, Vali Kerekes, Hedi Temessy, Gyorgy Cserhalmi
Duration: 116 min.
Rating: 8.0  

Summary:
Karrer plods his way through life in quiet desperation. His environment is drab and rainy and muddy. Eaten up with solitude, his hopelessness would be incurable but for the existence of the Titanik Bar and its beautiful, haunting singer. But the lady is married and Karrer is determined to keep her husband away...

Saturday, August 20, 2011

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)


Genre: Action
Director: Renny Harlin
Starring: Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Craig Bierko, David Morse, Brian Cox
Duration: 120 min.
Rating: 5.6  

Summary:
Samantha Caine, suburban homemaker, is the ideal mom to her 8 year old daughter Caitlin. She lives in Honesdale, PA, has a job teaching school and makes the best Rice Krispie treats in town. But when she receives a bump on her head, she begins to remember small parts of her previous life as a lethal, top-secret agent...

Friday, August 19, 2011

Insignificance (1985)

Insignificance (1985)
Insignificance (1985)

Genre: Drama / Comedy
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Starring: Michael Emil, Theresa Russell, Tony Curtis, Gary Busey, Will Sampson
Duration: 110 min.
Rating: 7.3  

Summary:
Four 1950s icons meet in the same hotel room and two of them discover more in common between them than they ever anticipated.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Colonel Redl (1985)

Colonel Redl • Oberst Redl (1985)
Colonel Redl • Oberst Redl (1985)


Genre: Historical Drama • Biography
Director: István Szabó
Starring: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Hans Christian Blech, Gudrun Landgrebe, Jan Niklas
Duration: 144 min.
Rating: 8.0  

Summary:
The rise and fall of Alfred Redl, an ambitious young officer who proceeds up the ladder to become head of the Austro-Hungarian Secret Police, only to become ensnared in a web of political deception.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

68th Venice Film Festival (2011) Preview

The 68th la Biennale di Venezia 2011 Venice Film Festival begins two weeks from now (and runs from August 31 - September 10) with an impressive lineup of 23 world premiere films in competition for the coveted Golden Lion, many of which I am greatly anticipating to see.  So far 22 of them have been announced, with an additional surprise film expected to be named sometime during the festival.

These include David Cronenberg's Freudian thriller A Dangerous Method; Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson's adaptation of John le Carré's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Fish Tank director Andrea Arnold's version of Wuthering Heights and Steve McQueen's eagerly awaited followup to 2008's Hunger, titled Shame.

The International Jury will be presided over by American director Darren Aronofsky, and alongside him are Finnish visual artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Talking Heads front-man and composer David Byrne, American director Todd Haynes, Italian director Mario Martone, Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher, and French director André Téchiné.

Read on for the full lineup, synopsis and trailers.
 

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Meek's Cutoff (2010)

Meek's Cutoff (2010)
Meek's Cutoff (2010)

Genre: Drama
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Starring: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano
Duration: 104 min.
Rating: 7.5  

Summary:
The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon train of three families has hired mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a shortcut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage.

Monday, August 15, 2011

High and Low (1963)

High and Low • Tengoku to jigoku (1963)
High and Low • Tengoku to jigoku • 天国と地獄 (1963)

Genre: Crime Drama
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kenjiro Ishiyama, Tatsuya Mihashi, Kyôko Kagawa
Duration: 142 min.
Rating: 8.5  

Summary:
At a crucial moment in his career, Kingo Gondo a wealthy executive, becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapping and extortion scheme.  Now he must decide between the loss of his fortune and the loss of another man's child.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Diary for my Children (1984)

Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)
Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)


Genre: Drama
Director: Márta Mészáros
Starring:  Zsuzsa Czinkóczi, Anna Polony, Jan Nowicki
Duration: 106 min.
Rating: 7.3  

Summary:
Juli, a young woman returns home to Budapest from the Soviet Union where her parents were exiled and had died.  Scarred by the wounds of the past, she is repulsed to see the very same spectre of Stalinist oppression now rife in her homeland.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Mountain Patrol (2004)

Mountain Patrol • Kekexili (2004)
Mountain Patrol • Kekexili • 可可西里 (2004)

Genre: Drama Western
Director: Lu Chuan
Starring: Tobgyal (Duo Bujie), Zhang Lei, Qi Liang, Zhao Xueying
Duration: 90 min.
Rating: 8.3  

Summary:
The Tibetan Mountain Patrol, a self-sponsored volunteer regimen established to eliminate illegal poaching of endangered Tibetan Antelopes intimately engages with a half-Tibetan journalist from Beijing in a desolate depiction of human nature in the outskirts of Kekexili.

Friday, August 12, 2011

El Norte (1983)

El Norte (1983)
El Norte (1983)

Genre: Drama
Director: Gregory Nava
Starring:  Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez, David Villalpando
Duration: 139 min.
Rating: 6.4  

Summary:
After the Guatemalan army destroys their village of San Pedro, two teenage Quiche Mayan Indian siblings journey north (hence El Norte) through Mexico and on to the United States, with the dream of starting a new life. 

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Time Stands Still (1982)

Time Stands Still • Megáll az idö (1982)
Time Stands Still • Megáll az idö (1982)


Genre: Drama
Director: Péter Gothár
Starring: Anikó Iván, István Znamenák, Péter Gálfy, Henrik Pauer, Sándor Söth
Duration: 103 min.
Rating: 7.4  

Summary:
Recounts the emotional ups and downs of the period between 1956 and 1958 as reflected in the lives of the main characters:  secondary school students, their parents, and teachers whose fates are invaded by the tempestuous events of the failed revolution of 1956.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Red White & Blue (2010)

Red White & Blue (2010)
Red White & Blue (2010)

Genre: Drama • Thriller
Director: Simon Rumley
Starring: Amanda Fuller, Marc Senter, Noah Taylor
Duration: 103 min.
Rating: 7.9  

Summary:
The lives of three young people intertwine in a fateful, tragic way and head down a rocky and violent road to heart-rending oblivion.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

House (1977)

House • Hausu (1977)
House • Hausu • ハウス (1977)

Genre: Comedy Fantasy Horror
Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
Starring: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Ohba, Ai Matsubara, Mieko Sato, Eriko Tanaka
Duration: 88 min.
Rating: 8.2  

Summary:
A schoolgirl travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Mephisto (1981)

Mephisto (1981)
Mephisto (1981)


Genre: Drama
Director: István Szabó
Starring: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Krystyna Janda, Karin Boyd, Rolf Hoppe
Duration: 144 min.
Rating: 7.7  

Summary:
Hendrik Hofgen is the star of a state-funded theater department who tires of his job. Like his friends, he pays lip service to socialist ideals fashionable for artists of his time, that is, until the Nazis' rise to power.  He then sees an opportunity to achieve his objective of fame: he will perform propaganda plays and thereby use the Nazis as a vehicle to spread his name across the country.  Only too late does he realize his mistake...

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Two in the Wave (2010)

Two in the Wave / Deux de la Vague (2010)
Two in the Wave / Deux de la Vague (2010)

Genre: Documentary
Director: Emmanuel Laurent
Starring: Isild Le Besco
Duration: 91 min.
Rating: 6.0  

Summary:
Jean-Luc Godard was born in 1930; Francois Truffaut two years later.  Love of movies brings them together.  When Truffaut's "The 400 Blows", triumphs in Cannes in 1959, he helps his older friend shift to directing, offering him a screenplay, A bout de souffle or "Breathless".  Through the 1960s the two loyally support each other. History and politics separate them in 1968, when Godard plunges into radical politics but Truffaut continues his career as before.  Between the two of them, actor Jean-Pierre Leaud is torn like a child between two squabbling parents.  Their friendship and their break-up embody the story of French cinema.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Black Moon (1975)

Black Moon (1975)
Black Moon (1975)

Genre: Fantasy
Director: Louis Malle
Starring: Cathryn Harrison, Thérèse Giehse, Alexandra Stewart, Joe Dallesandro
Duration: 100 min.
Rating: 8.9  

Summary:
After skirting the horrors of a mysterious war being waged in the countryside, beautiful young Lily takes refuge in a remote farmhouse, where she becomes embroiled in the surreal domestic life of an extremely unconventional family.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Student Services (2010)

Student Services / Mes chères études (2010)
Student Services / Mes chères études (2010)

Genre: Drama
Director: Emmanuelle Bercot
Starring: Déborah François, Mathieu Demy, Alain Cauchi, Benjamin Siksou, Anna Sigalevitch
Duration: 108 min.
Rating: 6.5 

Summary:
Laura, 19, a first-year university student, desperately wants to do well in school. Despite a part-time job, she is unable to make ends meet and becomes so short of funds that one desperate evening, having run out of options, she goes so far as to answer an ad on the Internet. 'Joe, 57, seeks female student for tender moments. One hundred euros an hour.' Just this once, she promises herself. Three days later, Laura is in a hotel room with Joe. And the spiral begins.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

The Little Valentino (1979)

The Little Valentino / A kis Valentinó (1979)
The Little Valentino / A kis Valentinó (1979)


Genre: Drama
Director:  András Jeles
Starring: János Opoczki, István Iványi, József Farkas, Dénes Ladányi
Duration: 102 min.
Rating: 7.0  

Summary:
Follow a day in the life of Laszlo, a 20-year-old driver's assistant who spends his day riding cabs, flirting with ladies, and gambling on pinball games - using the money he's just stolen.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Zazie dans le Métro (1960)

Zazie dans le Métro (1960)
Zazie dans le Métro (1960)

Genre: Comedy
Director: Louis Malle
Starring: Catherine Demongeot, Philippe Noiret, Hubert Deschamps, Carla Marlier
Duration: 89 min.
Rating: 7.1  

Summary:
Zazie, a brash and precocious ten-year-old comes to Paris for a whirlwind weekend with her rakish uncle Gabriel.  However the reckless and uncontrollable Zazie escapes her uncle's custody and sets out to explore Paris on her own.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

City of Life and Death (2009)

City of Life and Death / Nanjing! Nanjing! (2009)
City of Life and Death / Nanjing! Nanjing! / 南京! 南京! (2009)

Best New Film
Genre: War Drama
Director: Lu Chuan
Starring: Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Hideo Nakaizumi, Wei Fan
Duration: 133 min.
Rating: 8.3 

Summary:
In December 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army laid siege to and captured the Chinese capital of Nanjing.  The ensuing bloodshed now known as the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking, was a period of several weeks when tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were brutally killed.  This is the re-creation of those events.

Monday, August 1, 2011

The Fifth Seal (1976)

The Fifth Seal / Az ötödik pecsét (1976)
The Fifth Seal / Az ötödik pecsét (1976)


Genre: Drama
Director: Zoltán Fábri
Starring: Lajos Öze, László Márkus, Ferenc Bencze, Sándor Horváth, István Dégi, Zoltán Latinovits
Duration: 111 min.
Rating: 7.5  

Summary:
In the twilight of World War II, four friends laugh and drink together without treading on anyone's toes. One of them, however, makes an offhand remark which proves insulting to a military functionary. They are arrested, and in the process, the friends struggle to stay in touch with their own inbred ideals and sense of individualism, with varying degrees of success.