evanston_dad
Joined Jan 2005
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Brad Davis stars as the titular character in this baffling but also sort of mesmerizing last movie by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Surely somewhere there has to be a top ten list for the most homoerotic movies ever made, right? And surely "Querelle" has to be on that list? Every scene....no, every shot of this movie exists to make us horny about the male body. Most of the sailors in it are shirtless and all of them are oiled up to make their muscles glisten. Everyone in the movie talks about nothing but sex, unless they're talking about violence, in which case it's usually sexual violence. This is like a porn movie without the hard core part.
I'm not really sure I "get" "Querelle," but I'm also not the kind of person who feels like I necessarily have to "get" everything, or that there's even necessarily something to be gotten. "Querelle" feels like an examination of male machismo, and the fact that traditionally males haven't been allowed a large palette of emotions with which to express themselves if they want to be still viewed as men. Men are allowed to be sexual, and they're allowed to be violent, and so in this movie, when one man wants to show affection for another, he's usually both of these things at the same time.
"Querelle" is absolutely dazzling to look at. In fact, it's one of the most beautiful looking movies I've seen in quite a while.
With both Brad Davis and Franco Nero in the same film, there should be a warning for the viewer about ODing on too much testosterone.
Grade: A-
Surely somewhere there has to be a top ten list for the most homoerotic movies ever made, right? And surely "Querelle" has to be on that list? Every scene....no, every shot of this movie exists to make us horny about the male body. Most of the sailors in it are shirtless and all of them are oiled up to make their muscles glisten. Everyone in the movie talks about nothing but sex, unless they're talking about violence, in which case it's usually sexual violence. This is like a porn movie without the hard core part.
I'm not really sure I "get" "Querelle," but I'm also not the kind of person who feels like I necessarily have to "get" everything, or that there's even necessarily something to be gotten. "Querelle" feels like an examination of male machismo, and the fact that traditionally males haven't been allowed a large palette of emotions with which to express themselves if they want to be still viewed as men. Men are allowed to be sexual, and they're allowed to be violent, and so in this movie, when one man wants to show affection for another, he's usually both of these things at the same time.
"Querelle" is absolutely dazzling to look at. In fact, it's one of the most beautiful looking movies I've seen in quite a while.
With both Brad Davis and Franco Nero in the same film, there should be a warning for the viewer about ODing on too much testosterone.
Grade: A-
Every year there's at least one highly praised movie that I can't wait to see and want very much to find brilliant, and then.....sort of miss the boat on.
"Nickel Boys" is that movie for me this year. I read the Colson Whitehead novel and liked it quite a bit. I don't retain books that well and didn't remember much about the story, but it started clicking into place as I watched the movie. I give the film high marks for its bold vision. Though it's not the first movie to be shot in a first-person perspective, it does it beautifully. The cinematography is a wonder, and worth the price of admission alone. Of course it was completely ignored by the Academy when Oscar nominations were announced.
This is formally a film I very much admired, and I thought the performance of Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor was lovely, but I just didn't connect with the movie overall. It might be one of those movies where your own personal life experience very much impacts how you view it. I saw another movie reviewer point out how often the camera would point down toward the floor and how perfect that was because it's something black boys are taught to do at an early age. I didn't notice that and never would have made that connection, but I think it's little details like that that would make this movie resonate so much with some more than others.
As I write this "Nickel Boys" is in competition at this year's Oscars for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, though I don't think it has much of a chance in either category given the direction the wind is blowing.
Grade: A-
"Nickel Boys" is that movie for me this year. I read the Colson Whitehead novel and liked it quite a bit. I don't retain books that well and didn't remember much about the story, but it started clicking into place as I watched the movie. I give the film high marks for its bold vision. Though it's not the first movie to be shot in a first-person perspective, it does it beautifully. The cinematography is a wonder, and worth the price of admission alone. Of course it was completely ignored by the Academy when Oscar nominations were announced.
This is formally a film I very much admired, and I thought the performance of Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor was lovely, but I just didn't connect with the movie overall. It might be one of those movies where your own personal life experience very much impacts how you view it. I saw another movie reviewer point out how often the camera would point down toward the floor and how perfect that was because it's something black boys are taught to do at an early age. I didn't notice that and never would have made that connection, but I think it's little details like that that would make this movie resonate so much with some more than others.
As I write this "Nickel Boys" is in competition at this year's Oscars for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, though I don't think it has much of a chance in either category given the direction the wind is blowing.
Grade: A-
Watching "Man of La Mancha," an adaptation of the Broadway musical, reminded me how much I love the central idea of the original Cervantes novel. I didn't enjoy reading it that much, because it's just so old and antiquated in style, but I did love the premise, which is all about not settling for the world as it is and sticking to ideals like decency, valor, courage, and romance when it's practical and easy not to. The world right now is such a mean place, it's nice to think that there are knights out there trying to make it better.
As for this movie, it's an ugly looking, gangly thing. I've never seen this show staged, so it's hard to know how much the movie does or doesn't deliver on the promise of the source material. Even under the best of circumstances I think my reaction would be modest. It's a musical with really only one good song, though that one is a banger. Peter O'Toole is always delightful to watch, and he's well cast as this character, though he doesn't seem especially at home in a musical. Neither does Sophia Loren. James Coco, as Sancho Panza, is mostly relegated to broad comedy relief antics, and he's pretty annoying.
I liked the framing device of the film, because it makes the movie's point for it. It's set in a prison where a bunch of people are waiting sentence by the leaders of the Spanish Inquisition, but most of the movie is a fantasy being told to us by one of the prisoners. Thus, in our darkest moments, we turn to fiction when we want to think about how the world could be, not how it is.
While the film overall leaves a lot to be desired, I did find two scenes quite touching, one of them Don Quixote's death and the other the rousing finale when the entire ensemble sings...you guessed it...."The Impossible Dream."
Nominated for an Oscar in the clunky category of Best Adaptation and Original Song Score but lost in a no-brainer decision to "Cabaret."
Speaking of "Cabaret," that's a movie musical that knew how to adapt to the changing times and cinematic tastes of audiences in 1972, while "Man of La Mancha," while it looks kind of gritty like other films from the 1970s, was still trying to sell an old-fashioned musical style that was obsolete by then.
Grade: B.
As for this movie, it's an ugly looking, gangly thing. I've never seen this show staged, so it's hard to know how much the movie does or doesn't deliver on the promise of the source material. Even under the best of circumstances I think my reaction would be modest. It's a musical with really only one good song, though that one is a banger. Peter O'Toole is always delightful to watch, and he's well cast as this character, though he doesn't seem especially at home in a musical. Neither does Sophia Loren. James Coco, as Sancho Panza, is mostly relegated to broad comedy relief antics, and he's pretty annoying.
I liked the framing device of the film, because it makes the movie's point for it. It's set in a prison where a bunch of people are waiting sentence by the leaders of the Spanish Inquisition, but most of the movie is a fantasy being told to us by one of the prisoners. Thus, in our darkest moments, we turn to fiction when we want to think about how the world could be, not how it is.
While the film overall leaves a lot to be desired, I did find two scenes quite touching, one of them Don Quixote's death and the other the rousing finale when the entire ensemble sings...you guessed it...."The Impossible Dream."
Nominated for an Oscar in the clunky category of Best Adaptation and Original Song Score but lost in a no-brainer decision to "Cabaret."
Speaking of "Cabaret," that's a movie musical that knew how to adapt to the changing times and cinematic tastes of audiences in 1972, while "Man of La Mancha," while it looks kind of gritty like other films from the 1970s, was still trying to sell an old-fashioned musical style that was obsolete by then.
Grade: B.