CGI!!!

I wonder where this is going — it’s about three German friends after The Great War. It could either go pacifist or a warning against Hitler’s Germany, I guess? Or some other way!

OK, I was totally wrong about what this was going to be about. I think.

Borzage does a lot of fun little visual things… But the story is a bit confused, because one of the three friends are apparently mixed up with a Communist cell or something, but of course they can’t say that, so instead there are demonstrations where the head guy says non-specific things, and then they get beat up by other people who are carrying non-specific banners.

This is from 1938, though, so Germany-related politics were Verboten in Hollywood, I guess.

The performances are great, and the movie looks really nice (and this 2K restoration has been done very sensitively). But… the movie doesn’t quite work for me. The storylines are very moving and stuff, but it just feels a bit mannered.

Oh, they haven’t actually said the word “tuberculosis” either — or any other diagnosis, really. Was that another taboo? They couldn’t use the word “pregnant” in Hollywood for a while, but instead go through the “‘I have something to tell you darling!’ ‘You mean…?’ ‘Yes!!’ ‘Oh darling!'” thing instead. But tuberculosis!?

Three Comrades. Frank Borzage. 1938. ⚃

Huh — this looks so odd. It’s a 4K bluray from Criterion, and it looks very… I mean, there’s no scratches or anything, so it’s been restored a lot. But was it originally filmed on 16mm or something? Or even video? No, that’s not possible, but it just looks very… Not exactly lo fi, but there’s chromatic aberrations.

But not in a bad way. Just unexpected for a movie from the 80s.

Heh heh that’s a cute meet cute. Starts with him negging her.

X-Men!

Another meet cute!

Those are short chairs.

The Scarf To End All Scarves!

This is kinda my favourite genre: New York movies.

I wonder whether the director was inspired by Chantal Akerman — the way some of these shots are framed are very Akermanish. But on the other hand, when you’re filming in a Manhattan apartment, perhaps this is what happens naturally.

Computer: Enhance.

See? That’s just odd! It doesn’t look like a normal out-of-focus/too small detail — it looks like it’s been through an algorithm. Is Criterion upscaling things now instead of scanning film in 4K!?

Well, that’s a weird way of phrasing it — “4K restoration was created from” instead of “scanned from”. Is that the way it’s normally phrased? Could be!

Nice headboard.

I’m really enjoying this movie… but I find parts of it a bit confusing. I mean, the Peter Riegert character seems nice and goodlooking and all, so the Amy Irving character is supposed to choose him over that asshole of a writer — which I’m all aboard on, of course! But here’s my problem: The Peter Riegert character seems like such a blank canvas. He doesn’t really have much character beyond being nice?

NOOOO!!!!

Heh heh heh

OK, now they gave him character! I retract all my objections!

As opposed to most movies I’ve watched lately, I didn’t buy this because Hazel Flagg recommended it — I’d already bought it. But the reason I watched it today is this recommendation yesterday.

It’s really a very, very sweet movie. I like how they cast a smarmy not very good looking guy as the author (and had her neg her immediately), and cast someone much better looking as the nice guy. Very unusual.

It putters along in a very satisfactory way, without any annoying detours into drama or unnecessary backstory — a lesser director would have expanded this into a twenty minute longer movie.

And all those shots of 80s Manhattan is just catnip to me, so I can’t really give this a different rating than this:

Crossing Delancey. Joan Micklin Silver. 1988. ⚅

Hey! Don’t they have tailgating laws in L. A.?

That’s a way to start a movie. I don’t really know Friedkin’s movies that well (beyond the big hits like The Exorcist), but this felt very 1985s fresh, even at a 40 year remove. It starts with the title song playing for two and a half minutes interrupted — it’s an amazing tune, and Friedkin knew it.

Wheee! Those colours!

You couldn’t have found a more 1985 colour combination. Or fonts.

Yeah, OK, this is why I bought this bluray (in 4K even): John Mullaney’s “talk show” this year used To Live And Die In L. A. as the title track, and I just liked it so much that I bought the soundtrack CD for this movie, and I liked the CD so much that I bought the bluray, and now I’m watching it.

A cop with only three days to go before retirement! Uh-oh!

I loved this money laundering sequence. So nerdy.

Oh darn!

And also — this seems like a totally normal place for a cop to live, doesn’t it? (OK, secret service.)

Having heard the entire movie soundtrack a bunch of times before seeing the movie is weird. Like, every other scene there’s a new background track and my brain is going “oh, I know that thing” and then my brain is like “well, duh, brain”.

It’s such… I don’t want to say “odd movie”. If this was 1985, and I’d rented three movies from the video store, and one was a Golan-Globus movie, one was a Schwarzenegger movie, and one was this, I would have found that totally natural: Yet another vague straight-to-VHS action/drama movie, would have been my thought (as a teenager). (But I’m guessing this never got distribution at all outside of the US, and perhaps it never was on VHS?)

But watching this now, I’m really into this movie. It feels exotic, like a period piece. But I’m also finding Friedkin’s choices sometimes incomprehensible. It’s like “wat”.

Why is there a different font on the clock every time, though?

For a movie that plays with clichés as much as this one does, the plot is genuinely surprising. I really enjoyed watching this, but is it a good movie? Is it brilliant? Is it a work of genius? Is it a cynical spoof of undercover cop/heist movies? Is it a disaster? I can totally see the argument for all of these.

Hey! Lesli Linka Glatter directed some Twin Peaks episodes, didn’t she?

OK, now I’m gonna google this movie.

Yeah, that’s what I thought. So it’s got a pretty decent budget, and while it didn’t bomb, it didn’t really many much money either. And it did not get shown anywhere other than the US, apparently.

Heh heh. It’s true, though.

To Live And Die In L. A.. William Friedkin. 1985. ⚄