Well, that’s a way to introduce a character.

Heh heh.

These shots from American movies are absurdly romantic.

This movie is fantastic! I have no idea where anything is going, but the look of the movie… the way it moves… the humour…

Hey! It’s whatsisface!

Like so many of these 70s movies I’m watching because Hazel Flagg said so, the names involved are so familiar, but then I look them up and realise that I’ve seen almost nothing they’ve made.

Arthur Penn? Is he the father of Sean? Kinda looks similar… But I’ve seem probably just one of his movies — Bonnie and Clyde.

He apparently didn’t manage to get a lot of movies made — like one every three years between 1958 and 1987.

Hey! It’s that guy!

Some of these choices are downright weird — like filming her in these scenes without a bunch of reflectors to light up her face…

This was really enjoyable… the plot was kinda er vague? But in a good way.

Night Moves. Arthur Penn. 1975. ⚄

Oh, why did I buy this anyway? I don’t really like Edward Yang’s movies? … Oh! I think I bought this by mistake… I was thinking about some other director with a similarly structured name… err… Oh! Wayne Wang!? Yeah, I kinda liked a couple of his movies, but…

I don’t think that’s who I was thinking about, either.

Anyway, now I’m watching this, I guess.

This movie has a really frenetic pacing, and that that feels fresh? But the performances are like “ehh?” They’re not over the top in a fun way, but just unconvincing. I guess it’s meant to be a satire, but it’s just hard to tell — it just feels inept.

But I like the general look of the movie…

I really like the way this movie is lit. So pretty.

But it’s just… almost every scene is So Much Drama. And not in a fun way, either, but in a I Don’t Know What I’m Doing way.

This movie is so annoying. Even it it’s meant to be a satire, it’s not funny at all, and it doesn’t work as a drama either.

At no point in this movie did I have any interest whatsoever in what was happening on the screen. I can’t remember when I’ve been this disinterested in a movie before. It just seemed like random lines of dialogue strung together by actors who were over acting all the time.

So I’m totally open to the possibility that it’s just me — that I didn’t understand at all what this movie was about.

But I think it’s more likely that this movie just sucked.

I was going to give this movie a ⚂ because I really enjoyed the cinematography and the set designs, but then the last third of the movie happened, and:

A Confucian Confusion. Edward Yang. 1994. ⚁

Much social realist.

This is very different from Clarke’s previous films… but it’s a new writer: Anthony Read, who’s written a lot of popular television, like Sapphire & Steel.

Janine Drzewicki’s performance in the lead role is something else… it’s fascinating. Riveting.

This is one of those movies where you appreciate that they didn’t actually use teenaged actors to play teenagers — that would have been abusive.

Then years pass! I didn’t really expect that!? But good.

That is the happiest baby I’ve ever seen.

Oh deer.

But oh whut oh right

That was an abrupt and unexpected ending, but also really appropriate?

Anyway, you could say that Janine Drzewicki carried this movie… but the cinematography is really interesting, and all these details in the sets… it’s just a really compelling little movie.

The vagueness is a bit … strange? But interesting.

Diane. Alan Clarke. 1975. ⚄