More Movies

After the Thin Man

Must watch this with a cocktail in hand. Speaking of which, I made a cocktail last night for the first time that I recommend: campari, bourbon, and vermouth (for me, light on the vermouth; for Francisco, heavy). Next up: demanovka, bourbon, and vermouth.

Coffee in Berlin

Light on the coffee, heavy on the vodka and cigarettes and public transportation. We wander with an aimless guy for a day, as things happen to him. The filming is beautiful (and black and white).

Far from the Madding Crowd

Wow. This has decent reviews, and it was not unenjoyable. But it was as much of a bodice-ripper as I have ever watched. Francisco thought that the filming was good, if a little instagram-y (is that a designation? or just one that F and I use?). I thought that the film editing was terrible, oversaturating everything.

Strangers on a Train

So much suspense! And so many great shots. And so much creepiness.

La Sapienza

I think it's a French film that's half in Italian. This one was interesting--gorgeous architecture in slow-moving shots; stiff, almost robotic, play-like acting. A very talky, sort of philosophical movie that chooses mysticism over rationality.

From Ebert's review:

Rather than apologizing for or “deconstructing” Western tradition, “La Sapienza” celebrates the West’s spiritual sources to the point that it might be called an apotheosis of European culture. Surprisingly or not, it comes from an American expatriate.
Like Henry James, T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound before him, native New Yorker Eugène Green moved abroad as a young man and became, it would seem, more European than the Europeans.

(Let's just say--high critic's numbers on Rotten Tomatoes and low audience ones.)