Should you put your towel on your head while showering?

Anyway, this looks great! I really haven’t seen that many movies by Vincente Minnelli — that I can remember. I mean, I probably saw a bunch as a child, but I haven’t seen more than a couple since starting to get back into watching movies about a decade ago…

So I’m hoping this movie’s gonna be awesome so that I can start watching all of his films. Or something.

It’s a fun concept — it’s about a woman running an answering service?

You can tell that Minnelli isn’t American by the way he has women… *gasp*… talking… TO EACH OTHER!!!

Heh heh.

Oh, Dean Martin’s in this? I haven’t really seen many movies with him either…

It’s the cops!

It’s the crooks!

It’s the gay neighbour!

Anyway, I love Judy Holliday here — I’m not familiar with her much, but she plays this slightly over the top, somewhat out of control character with such aplomb — it’s breathtaking. And very funny.

This was apparently her last movie — she died just a few years later.

Where 7th Ave meets Broadway.

The lighting in this movie is so… I mean, it’s extremely artificial, but in a wonderful way. Look at the shadow in the middle of that guy’s face…

Oh, Method actors…

Those cops!

I feel like Minnelli might be making fun of musicals…

It’s a pretty odd movie — it’s so unfocused. I mean, the point of the movie is the romance between Holliday and Dean, but it’s not really focused on that and doesn’t really adhere to the story beats you’re expecting. It’s so… knowing… and seems to delight more in just watching Holliday being silly on the screen instead of moving the plot forward. Which explains the 125 minute running time.

But it really is delightful.

Bells Are Ringing. Vincente Minnelli. 1960. ⚅

I don’t know quite what made me buy this bluray, but that’s not unusual. It’s on Criterion, so perhaps I just clicked “buy” at random…

Anyway, this is a very 70s American indyish movie (but apparently released by Warner Brothers)? I think I can see some Chantal Akerman influences here, but it really seems very American so far…

I mean, all these dramatic camera angles? (That I’m not sure works.)

And the over-the-top drama… So perhaps there’s no Akerman influence at all, really.

But I’m enjoying the movie so far.

Nice colour.

The cabbie tells it like it is.

The focus on this movie is just odd — the protagonist is usually slightly blurry… is that supposed to be symbolic?

Hey! She’s suddenly in focus! After she got a new hairdo.

Now it’s soft again, so perhaps it wasn’t symbolic.

You tell ’em!

Well, she looks very familiar.

Yum!

Yup, still random shots out of focus…

The story here is pretty normal — young, struggling artist in New York bla bla — but it’s really done in a convincing way. It feels very young and vibrant? I really liked it.

Girlfriends. Claudia Weill. 1978. ⚄

Noo! I hate the Decameron! But perhaps this’ll be a savage takedown!

Hm… still not sure…

Hey, it’s her!

I think it’s most of Baena’s troupe — so I guess he just got all his friends together and they went to Italy and made a little movie?

It’s pretty funny, and I have no idea where any of this is going. Which I like.

So… was this made by riffing on a few of the stories from the Decameron? It seems pretty improvised — that is, it has jokes, and they’re amusing, but they’re the kind any reasonably amusing group of people could come up with on the spot.

I’m so smart SMRT:

The screenplay is based on the first and second tales of the third day in The Decameron, a collection of novellas by Giovanni Boccaccio; however, the dialogue was improvised.

And it’s one of those films that the critics liked, but audiences loathed, I guess.

Yeah, I dunno. Perhaps you have to be Catholic to feel the sacrilisciousness of it all? It’s not that there aren’t fun bits, but… I’m also just kinda bored? I mean, it’s a goofy unpretentious little movie, but it could have had more zip. More and better jokes.

I almost feel guilty that I didn’t like this movie more, because it seems like everybody had a good time, and it’s got a lot of cute ideas. But nope — I was mostly bored. Sorry! I think it’d totally be a better movie if you were stoned.

The Little Hours. Jeff Baena. 2017. ⚂