You Can Count on Criterion

Y'all know it drives my OCD nutty to post a photo with that much text scrawled over it but how can I deny a photo of vintage shirtless furball Mark Ruffalo? One that I don't believe I'd ever seen before at that??? (And you know I tried to find a copy without the text. Alas.) Anyway it's the perfect way to introduce us to the new batch of Criterion Collection movies that were announced yesterday, to be dropped come July -- I'm doing a lot of catching up today so I assume this won't be new news to most of you. But I'm hardly going to let news of the masterpiece You Can Count on Me entering the Criterion Collection in 4K pass us by, dammit. And that's just one title of their July slate...

... which also includes (all of them in 4K!) Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge, Fritz Lang's The Big Heat, Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, and (most excitingly for me) Francois Truffaut's two-decade-long quadrilogy of Antoine Doinel movies. The latter, which all star actor Jean-Pierre Léaud, began in 1959 with The 400 Blows and stretched to 1979's Love on the Run -- I've only ever seen the first movie and have been WAITING for this collection to right that wrong. Criterion always saves us!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Scarlet Street (1945)

Kitty: How long does it take you to paint a picture?

Christopher: Sometimes a day, sometimes a year.

You can't tell. It has to grow.

Kitty: I never knew paint could grow.

Christopher: Feeling grows. You know, that's the

important thing, feeling. You take me. No one ever

taught me how to draw, so I just put a line

around what I feel when I look at things.

Kitty: Yeah I see.

Christopher: It's like falling in love I guess.

You know... first you see someone, then it keeps

growing, until you can't think of anyone else.

Kitty: That's interesting.

Christopher: The way I think of things, that all art is.

Every painting, if it's any good, is a love affair.

The legendary director Fritz Lang was born 132 years ago today. For some random reason I've spent the past week or so filling in some gaps I had in his later filmography including this film, its weird little companion piece The Woman in the Window from a year earlier, his Hitchcock-esque WWII thriller Ministry of Fear (also from '44), and then 1953's The Big Heat. That's quite the incredible line-up though, right? (Sidenote: you can track everything I watch on Letterboxd.) They were all wonderful but Scarlet Street was definitely my favorite of the bunch, mainly because of what a wonderful surprise I found Edward G. Robinson's performance to be -- he's sweet and subdued here in a way I'd never seen from him before.

It was also amusing to see the ways that Lang used and re-used the same sets and the same character actors over and over and over again across these movies -- these are just four of the eleven (!!!) movies he made across this decade and I suppose it was thrifty for the studio but it also gives the films their own shorthand; one Lang manipulates to his advantage often. Anyway I've always paid more attention to his early German films but the man had some career.

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1945

With Sundance now behind us we can reignite some projects set to simmer, like our "Siri Says" series -- here I ask the lady who lives inside of my telephone to give me a number between 1 and 100, and then with whatever number she chooses I pick my favorite films from the movie corresponding to that year. I've done a lot of these posts by now and the remaining numbers at this point are getting slimmer and slimmer -- this translates to I usually have to ask Siri for a number about a dozen times before she gives me one I can work with. But today twas meant to be I guess, because she struck gold on first pick -- she gave me "45" right off the bat, and so today we'll talk our favorite out of The Movies of 1945.

I'd say my batting average for 1945 is decent -- scanning the list of movies out that year I'd probably seen about a quarter of them, although there are several big titles I've yet to see (Noir is a real weak-spot for me). Two of my favorite films of all-time were released this year, but beyond that I had a hard time picking getting my list up to 5 that I fully adore; a list of 4 would've been more honest, but I like the 5th one well enough it's not an absolute cheat. Meanwhile there's one you'd think I'd like better than I do (that'd be Hitchcock's Spellbound, which I've always had mixed feelings about) and there is one movie that I'm sure y'all love (that'd be Blithe Spirit) that I positively cannot stand. (Rex Harrison gives me hives.) All that said onto the list...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1945

Brief Encounter

(dir. David Lean)

-- released on November 19th 1945 --

Mildred Pierce

(dir. Michael Curtiz)

-- released on October 20th 1945 --

Leave Her To Heaven

(dir. John M Stahl)

-- released on December 25th 1945 --

Christmas in Connecticut

(dir. Peter Godfrey)

-- released on August 11th 1945 --

My Name is Julia Ross 

(dir. Joseph H. Lewis)

-- released on November 27th 1945 --

-----------------------------------

Runners-up: Dead of Night (various directors), The Body Snatcher (dir. Robert Wise), The Picture of Dorian Gray (dir. Albert Lewin), Spellbound (dir. Hitchcock), Isle of the Dead (dir. Mark Robson), Rome Open City (dir. Roberto Rossellini), Along Came Jones (dir. Stuart Heisler)

Never seen: The Lost Weekend (dir. Billy Wilder), The Bells of St Mary's (dir. Leo McCarey), Anchors Aweigh (dir. George Sidney), National Velvet (dir. Clarence Brown), The Clock (dir. Vincente Minnelli), Detour (dir. Edgar G. Ulmer), Children of Paradise (dir. Marcel Carné), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (dir. Elia Kazan), Scarlet Street (dir. Fritz Lang), House of Dracula (dir. Erle C. Kenton) 

-----------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 1945?

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1931

If it seems like I'm always saying this then that's because I am -- heck I haven't done one of these posts in awhile! I woke up this morning with the flavor in my mouth for one though, so let's give her a twirl -- my "Siri Says" series has me asking the little lady who lives inside of my electronic telephone to give me a number between 1 and 100, and when she gives me one I haven't gotten before (this process takes forever now that we're well passed the halfway point in this series) I take that number, like say "31," and I turn it into The Movies of 1931 and then I go through the list of those movies and I pick my favorites. No really let's go with 1931, because "31" was indeed the number Siri gave me today, after about a dozen tries. 

I actually love this time period in Hollywood -- this was one of the most important years in Horror for one, and for another, the sleazier the Pre-Code Movies the better, I says! -- but going through that list I am ashamed to report I've seen far far far less than I'd like to have from this exact year. But that's why I actually do these lists in the first place -- because I have the best goddamned readers on the internet and y'all always come through with reams of suggestions when I am coming up short. I didn't actually come up short -- I had seen enough to make a list today! But there were so many titles that sounded great -- so many terrific actresses being Wanton Women this year! -- that I haven't seen. So I'll show me mine and you show me yours, is my point!

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1931

M

(dir. Fritz Lang)

-- released on May 11, 1931 --

City Lights

(dir. Charlie Chaplin)

-- released on March 7, 1931 --

Waterloo Bridge

(dir. James Whale)

-- released on September 4, 1931 --

Night Nurse

(dir. William A. Wellman) 

-- released on August 8, 1931 --

Frankenstein

(dir. James Whale)

-- released on November 21, 1931 --

-------------------------------------------

Runners-up: The Man Who Came Back (dir. Raoul Walsh), Dracula (dir. Tod Browning), Mädchen in Uniform (dir. Leontine Sagan), City Streets (dir. Rouben Mamoulian), Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde (dir. Rouben Mamoulian)

Never seen: Body and Soul (dir. Alfred Santell), Cimarron (dir. Wesley Ruggles), Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (dir. Fritz Lang), Bad Girl (dir. Frank Borzage), Possessed (dir. Clarence Brown)...

... I Take This Woman (dir. Marion Gering), My Sin (dir. George Abbott), Mata Hari (dir. George Fitzmaurice), The Miracle Woman (dir. Frank Capra), Dracula (dir. George Melford)

-------------------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 1931?

Christmas Tombs & Hanukkah Tigers

.

If you're looking for a last minute gift idea for the holidays for a real movie buff (i.e. yourself probably) I highly and profoundly recommend snagging a copy of the new blu-ray double-feature set of Fritz Lang's so-called "Indian Epic" which consists of two 1957 flicks that were released back to back, The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb. They're really just one long movie divided by a cliffhanger, and they're really and truly insane. I did a Twitter thread whilst watching them in high amusement this past weekend...

.

Thinking about redecorating in 2020, open to suggestions pic.twitter.com/JnpFuIXFn9

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 15, 2019

.

... which only begins to hint at the camp -- and serious filmmaking as well! -- pleasures therein. This is Fritz Lang, after all -- dude knows how to make a movie. The influences these had on the Indiana Jones series are obvious -- it sometimes feels like the artifice and technicolor of a Douglas Sirk melodrama wedded with a Saturday Afternoon Serial, with everybody slathered in brown make-up and screaming in German. There's Bava lighting in caves and sexy dances under outrageously bosomed goddess statues, snake puppets and a zombie leper colony and quicksand. I mean it is obviously a product of its time, but WHAT a product. One of a kind. Well two of a kind. And don't sleep on lead actor Paul Hubschmid either...

10 Off My Head: Actor Hunter Killer

. 

Thrillingly for me at least David Fincher's serial killer series Mindhunter starring Jonathan Groff (showering, seen above) is back on Netflix this Friday for its second season. But that's not the only time the subject of "serial killers" has dropped itself into my lap this week -- on Monday I posted about the 1995 thriller Copycat with Sigourney Weaver, which is screening here in NYC this weekend. And on this upcoming Tuesday Arrow is releasing a stellar special edition blu-ray of Cruising, William Friedkin's controversial 1980 gay murder fantasia that stars Al Pacino. Basically, serial killing is having a real moment! (Sorry you blew your load a little bit early, Zac Efron.) 

Anyway all of this made it seem like a good moment to count down our favorite Serial Killer Movies. But then I started making a list and you know what? Depending on your definition of "Serial Killer Movies" -- do you count Slasher Films? -- I seem to like a hell of a lot of Serial Killer Movies. Too many to narrow down to just five, or even ten. My list runs into the dozens. So I decided to be a little more specific and narrow it down to performances as Serial Killers in Serial Killer Films. I still had to up the number to 10, but this is more manageable!

10 of my Favorite Serial Killer Performances

Anthony Perkins in Psycho

Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs

Charlize Theron in Monster

Christian Bale in American Psycho

Jeremy Renner in Dahmer

Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom

John Jarratt in Wolf Creek

Peter Lorre in M

Karlheinz Böhm in Peeping Tom

Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers

-----------------------------------------

I could name twenty more, but I'll let y'all

name some of your faves in the comments!

.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Scarlet Street (1945)

Kitty: You wouldn't know love if it hit you in the face.
Millie: If that's where it hits you, you ought to know!

The great Fritz Lang was born on this day in 1890.

.

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1936

.

It's time to hop in the Way Back Machine, kiddos, and set the flux capacitor to where ever our little telephones tell us to go - today for our "Siri Says" series Siri has gone and said the number 36, and so we're taking a look at The Movies of 1936. Specifically our favorites of that year. Let's set the scene - it's smack-dab in the middle of the Great Depression - the famous photograph "Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange was taken in March. FDR is president, and the legendary Berlin Olympics - where Jesse Owens won gold - took place over the summer. But what of the movies? What of...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1936

Modern Times

(dir. Charlie Chaplin)

-- released on February 25th 1936 --

Theodora Goes Wild

(dir. Richard Boleslawski)

-- released on November 12th 1936 --

My Man Godfrey

(dir. Gregory la Cava)

-- released on September 6th 1936 --

Mr. Deeds Goes To Town

(dir. Frank Capra)

-- released on April 12th 1936 --

Dodsworth

(dir. William Wyler)

-- released on September 23rd 1936 --

---------------------------------------

Runners-up: Libeled Lady (dir. Jack Conway), Sabotage (dir. Alfred Hitchcock), Love on the Run (dir. WS Van Dyke), Desire (dir. Frank Borzage), Dracula's Daughter (dir. Lambert Hillyer),  After the Thin Man (dir. Van Dyke), Reefer Madness (dir. Gasnier)

Never seen: The Great Ziegfeld (dir. Robert Z. Leonard), Anything Goes (dir. Lewis Milestone), Fury (dir. Fritz Lang), The Devil Doll (dir. Tod Browning)

---------------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 1936?

.