This is pretty screwy. It’s got zip.

The name of the director, George Archainbaud, doesn’t really ring a bell, but:

He’s done about 110 films! Yowza. He started in 1917, and kept on working at a frenetic pace until his final year, 1953, when he directed six movies! OK, they were Gene Autry films, so they weren’t hard on the brain or anything, but still!

So I guess he was a reliable studio director, and this movie has that studio professional sheen. The same year he did this, he also did a Betty Grable film and a Ray Milland/Dorothy Lamour film.

This is really charming. It’s not really a screwball comedy like I first assumed, but it’s got a whole bunch of gags and zips along nicely. It’s also got these moody, romantic scenes… it’s a lot of fun.

Hm… are all cats in old films black cats? In comedies, there’s usually a scene or two with a cat (I know The Internet’s For Cats, but so were movies), and a surprising number of them are totally black. Or do they just film like it? I mean, I love all cats equally, but people seem to go for colours that are easier to Instagram these days which means fewer Voids.

Li’l Void.

*gasp* Shoes on the couch!

It’s a pretty small budget movie, I guess? It’s all set in one flat — perhaps based on a play? It really zips along, and has enough twists and amusing characters to carry the day. I really love the deadbeat friends that pop in all of the time.

Thanks for the Memory. George Archainbaud. 1938. ⚄

Is there a law against doing deinterlacing on old VHS stuff when doing bluray releases? Or is the point here to use the wrong interlacing as a video effect?

Oh my god. Not only is this almost three hours long, but it’s apparently the sort of documentary I hate the most: One person pops up saying one sentence, then there’s another person that pops up saying another sentence, and I HATE IT SO MUCH.

And they’re just playing tiny bits of songs, and then using them for backgrounds for when people are sound-byting.

They’re really consistent about having wrong/missing deinterlace on all the old footage.

I guess that’s trey artistique.

Or just stupid.

OK, it’s better now… it’s more of a narrative…

I started listening to Swans a year or so before Children of God… and I quite liked that album (and the World of Skin thing).

Hah! OK, I didn’t get this album. The snippets they’re playing sound totally awful.

Heh heh.

I got that album, though. It’s good.

Oh my god. We’re only 70 minutes in. Not even halfway through.

I think I may be ditching this soon…

OK, I think I’m gonna ditch this here.

It’s not a horrible documentary. They front-loaded it with a bunch of really boring talking heads stuff which made me almost ditch it within the first five minutes. But then it became pretty interesting after a while.

It’s not awful now either, but I’m just not that interested…

I’m subtracting at least one ⚀ for the interlacing.

Where Does A Body End?. Marco Porsia. 2019. ⚁

Oh! Katharine Hepburn! I mean, I must have seen her in a colour movie before, but it’s… shocking… for her to not be in black and white.

So, this is a David Lean movie? I’m not really a fan of his. I mean, I like his movies, but I don’t really make an effort to watch them, either. So I’m not sure why I got this bluray — it might just be the Hepburn connection.

Is this one of those movies that were financed by the Tourist Board of ? I’ve seen more than a handful of those movies from around this time: Like the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce trying to encourage people to fly down there, so they sent some money to a slightly out-of-work director and/or actor, and then you hope for a huge box office success. (All the movies I’ve seen in that class of films, like the Powell/Pressburger one, have sunk without much of a trace.)

Nice…

*gasp* LOOK AT THIS:

I WANT TO STAY IN THAT HOTEL WHERE DO I BOOK

Hepburn is amazing here. But I can’t imagine that this was a box office smash? It’s too real.

:

In one scene, the character of Jane Hudson falls into a canal as she steps backwards while photographing Di Rossi’s shop in Campo San Barnaba. Leading lady Katharine Hepburn, concerned about her health, was disinclined to do the stunt herself, but Lean felt it would be obvious if he replaced her with a stunt double. He filled the water with a disinfectant that caused it to foam, which added to Hepburn’s reluctance, then required her to film the scene approximately four times until he was satisfied with the results. To protect her skin, Hepburn was covered with Vaseline. Later that night, Hepburn’s eyes began to itch and water. She was eventually diagnosed with a rare form of conjunctivitis that plagued her for the remainder of her life.

Directors! They’re the worst!

This is a beautiful movie, and Hepburn is fantastic in this. The first half, which is basically just Hepburn, is totally perfect. When we eventually get to the romantic interest, it’s still fine… but not as fascinating.

Summertime. David Lean. 1955. ⚄