SCREENING LOG - 7/11-7/17/2005

Back to 2005 Index

Hairspray (1988, John Waters)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095270
yes (#6 for 1988 between BULL DURHAM and THE THIN BLUE LINE)

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949, Robert Hamer) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041546
YES (#8 for 1949 between ON THE TOWN and CROWS AND SPARROWS)
It's so deliciously misanthropic. And very British in its bitingly cynical exterior/repressed romantic interior a la Graham Greene. I didn't expect to like it that much because my last encounter with it was for the "Opening Minute" exercise a couple years ago and the first couple minutes of it are pretty pedestrian. But overally it has a wonderful air of melancholy to it, and its screenplay does an amazing job of ratcheting up the tension ever so gradually while neatly avoiding suspension of disbelief problems (wouldn't anyone be more than a little suspicious to see eight people from the same royal lineage snuffed out in a short span of time?). Dennis Price is wonderful as the murderous lead -- I think his performance really manages the tension between the audience's sympathy and condemnation of his character. It's more complex and nuanced than Alec Guinness' celebrated showboating. And I could hardly recognize Joan Greenwood between KIND HEARTS and MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT -- she's a seriously underrated talent from that period of British cinema.

Deliverance (1972, John Boorman) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473
yes

The Man in the White Suit (1951, Alexander Mackendrick)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044876
yes

The Ladykillers (1955, Alexander Mackendrick) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048281
yes

A High Wind in Jamaica (1965, Alexander Mackendrick)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059269
YES (#7 for 1965 between SIMON OF THE DESERT and ALPHAVILLE)

Lady Musashino (1951, Kenji Mizoguchi)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045814
yes

Back to 2005 Index