The Age of the Movies @theageofthemovies - Tumblr Blog

CALTIKI - IL MOSTRO IMMORTALE (Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava, 1959)

The action begins in the Mexican jungle when an expedition led by biologist Fielding (John Merivale) after successfully discovering the statue of Caltiki, the goddess of death, encounters a monstrous single-celled organism that injures Fielding's assistant, Max. Later, back in Mexico City, radioactivity from a passing comet causes a fragment of the creature to grow out of proportion, wreaking havoc....

Written by Filippo Sanjust (with the uncredited contribution from Freda himself), this "cult movie" harks back to Hammer (like "The Quatermass Bomb Ship") and Lovecraft to stand as one of the very few Italian horror S7F movies.. Some of the ideas are noteworthy: the rediscovered footage anticipates the found-footage genre, and the underground cave sequence is disturbing (and it's a shame the second half is rushed and the ending is childish). Mario Bava (credited as "John Foam") uses cheap but brilliant tricks to create the monster from tripe and, by testimonies from the set, the creative filmmaker (who also handled the photography) directed much of the film after Freda left.

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#robertomulinacci #mario bava #riccardo freda #S/F horror

THEDA BARA

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#robertomulinacci #theda bara

GRETA GARBO

here in "A Woman of Affairs" (Clarence Brown, 1928)

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#robertomulinacci #greta garbo #silent

Some stills of American independent black comedy

APE (Joel Potrykus, 2012)

Best New Director and Best First Feature Special Mention at the Locarno Film Festival (2012).

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#robertomulinacci #independent cinema #black comedy

JEAN BROOKS

in Val Lewton's production of psyc-h-orror

"THE SEVENTH VICTIM" (Mark Robson, 1943).

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#robertomulinacci #val lewton #psychorror

LOUISE BROOKS

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#robertomulinacci #louise brooks

BIR ZAMANLAR ANA-DOLO'DA - (aka "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia"; Nuri Bilge-Ceylan, 2015)

Night falls: three cars drive through the interior roads of Anatolia, carrying the self-confessed murderer Kenan to reveal the place where he buried his victim. With him are Commissioner Naci, tired, disheartened, and prone to sudden outbursts of anger; Prosecutor Musret, who wants to make everything simple and rational (even certain tragic personal memories); and coroner Cemal, who seems to have already experienced the hardships of life. After hours spent searching fruitlessly (the accused seems unable to find the exact location), the group stops in a small village. It is then that the prisoner decides to reveal the burial site, clearing his brother of complicity (although the autopsy on the body will reveal unexpected atrocities).

The film is a moving and impotent portrait of a poor, rural Turkey, where modernization is still far away and every character seems to harbor a secret or anguish. Ceylan leads the viewer on a journey through a challenging and mysterious world, one in which one must literally "get lost" to find any clues, just as the three cars seem to do in the film's long and exhausting first half. In the second half, things become clearer, but the problems increase, starting with the picture of a country dreaming of erasing its past and certain dramatic ancestral realities that still limit and repress an entire people's legitimate desire to evolve. A truly beautiful, intense, and moving film, populated by vivid and vibrant characters, it powerfully confirms the emerging quality of certain national cinemas that were previously little-known (I'm thinking not only of Turkey, but also of Iran, Iraq, Romania, Bulgaria, and others) in the face of a clear stagnation of "strong ideas" capable of translating into important films in the production of some nations considered until a few years ago the most important in the world cinema scene (e.g. the once great American cinema, today I sadly consider the weakest in terms of creativity and content).

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#robertomulinacci #turkish cinema

STEVE MCQUEEN

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#robertomulinacci #steve mcqueen

TURA SATANA

in "Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill !!" (Russ Meyer, 1965)

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#robertomulinacci #tura satana #russ meyer #sexploitation

BACALAUREAT - (Cristian Mungiu, 2016)

The story told in this extraordinary film is one that might be hastily dismissed as banal or, worse, insignificant. However, upon closer inspection, one can easily see that "Bacalaureat" is a film that questions us (and itself) about a number of far from trivial issues that modern man must confront and resolve (somehow) in his existential journey (hierarchy and boundaries in the parent/child and husband/wife relationships; generational conflict; conflict between private and public authority; the impossibility, under certain conditions, of maintaining one's integrity).

We immediately meet Romeo, a capable and well-regarded doctor who lives and works in a remote Romanian town. He has an eighteen-year-old daughter, Eliza, whom he loves more than his own life. To ensure her a better future, he has seized the opportunity to study abroad, in the United Kingdom. To achieve this, however, it is absolutely essential that Eliza graduate with flying colors by passing some crucial exams. These ambitions are shattered one day when Eliza is the target of an unexpected and mysterious attack. When the frightened young woman considers giving up on the exam, the outcome of which could change her life, Romeo is forced to break various moral codes and even the law to keep his dream for Eliza alive, at any cost.

Undoubtedly, the greatest strength of The Bachelor, the one that elevates all the other filmic elements to a level of excellence, is the screenplay, which manages to make the internal conflicts of the two protagonists palpable and contributes crucially both to advancing the film's plot and to prompting the viewer to ask a number of important questions about the essence of morality, the film's true central theme. All the actors are brilliant at bringing their characters to life, while Mungiu's invisible yet omnipresent handheld camera creates, from the risky father-daughter relationship, the obsessive but fruitless investigation to find the culprit of the attack, and the inevitable approach of exam day, a true psychological thriller staged in a style reminiscent of neorealism (aided by the director's decision to forgo any music or musical accompaniment that isn't absolutely diegetic).

One of the best movies of the 2000s.

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#robertomulinacci #cinema rumeno

LIV ULLMANN

in "Ansikte mot ansikte" (aka "Face to Face"; Ingmar Bergman, 1976).

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#robertomulinacci #liv ullmann #ingmar bergman

GLORIA SWANSON

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#robertomulinacci #gloria swanson

DER AMERIKANISCHE FREUND - (Wim Wenders, 1977)

Hamburg frame maker Jonathan (Bruno Ganz) is ill; believing having only a few weeks left to live, he is persuaded by the gangster Minot (Gérard Blain) to kill two rival gangsters. He doesn't know that his name has been suggested to Minot by Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper), a lonely and depressed con man looking for friendship... (Ripley will be the one to help Jonathan with the second murder, and will share the consequences with him). Wenders adapts (with some significant changes) "Ripley's Game," Patricia Highsmith's third Ripley novel, portraying the famous literary character as a neurotic and adrift man (whom Hopper overplays) who bears no resemblance to Highsmith's cynical dandy and aesthete. In his film, Wenders is primarily interested in the moral theme of a man coming to terms with his own death and that of others, crushed by his encounter "with myth and chance," even though, ultimately, he seems to adapt to the "perversely humorous" spirit of the book, where crime is the key to the liberation of two differently repressed men.

Shot in Germany, Paris, and New York, the film is also (and above all) a reflection on the relationship between different cultures, where the "American friend" who fascinates the shy protagonist is also a symbol of the cinema that the director loves, on whom that influence is very evident (although in the action sequences, shot with meticulous respect for real time, the most obvious influence seems to be that of Jean-Pierre Melville).

The film (Wenders's first to reach a wider audience) features several cameos by fellow directors: Ray is the painter who plays dead, Schmid is the first victim, Fuller is the boss with the cigar, and Eustache is the man in the bar who treats Jonathan. Robby Müller's cinematography and Jürgen Knieper's music are masterful.

In conclusion, I would say it's an at times fascinating film with a notable aesthetic and cultural impact, even if I don't consider it one of the German director's masterpieces.

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#robertomulinacci #wim wenders

LUPE VELEZ, 1931.

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#robertomulinacci #lupe velez

Errol Flynn and Brigitte Bardot in Cannes.

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#robertomulinacci #errol flynn #brigitte bardot

DOM DURAKOV (aka "House of Fools"; Andrej Konchalovskij, 2002)

Russia, 1996. The residents of a mental asylum located right on the border with Chechnya know nothing of the ongoing conflict, but as the fighting escalates, the feared medical staff abandons them. The "madmen" attempt a sort of self-management, but the facility is soon occupied by a group of Chechen soldiers; young patient Zhanna, despite believing herself to be the girlfriend of Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams, falls madly in love with one of the soldiers and insists on marrying him at all costs.

The film, based on a true story, has its own unique rhythm, eschewing dead time and lengthy explanations, and is technically (set design, photography, set design, and editing) very well constructed. However, upon closer inspection, certain flaws (or naivetés) become apparent (such as the juxtaposition of war and madness, an overused ploy to raise the viewer's usual questions about who the real madmen are). I didn't appreciate the choice to shoot with a handheld camera, or certain neo-Fellinian juxtapositions (see Nino Rota's music). I did, however, very liked the beautiful performance by Yulia Vysotskaya (the director's wife) as the candid protagonist: a challenging and far from banal role.

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