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Jan 14, 2006 1:12:43 PM Archived Entry: "2006 movie list"

Last year was a watershed, with 56 movies seen despite a summertime slowdown. I've got a pass for the Naruse festival at the Northwest Film Forum - maybe it will tip me over to 60 for this year!

January
1. Mrs. Henderson Presents - 3 (not deep but well-acted and fun)
2. Cecil B. Demille's Carmen (1915) - 2 1/2
3. Breakfast on Pluto (2004) - 2 1/2 (pleasant to watch but kind of disjointed)
4. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Onna ga kaidan wo agaru toki, 1960) - 3 1/2 - an emotionally complex and very absorbing story, also pretty to watch.
5. Cecil B. Demille's The Cheat (1915) - 2 1/2
6. Nightly Dreams (Yogoto no yume, 1933) and the short Flunky, Work Hard! (Koshiben gambare, 1931)
7. Wife! Be Like a Rose (Tsuma yo bara no yo ni, 1935) - 3 (This had a very complex story and showed a face of Japanese society I had never seen before)
8. Animated Genius: The Films of Koji Yamamura (animated shorts)
9. Flowing (Nagareru, 1956)
February
10. Repast (a.k.a. "A Married Life," 1951) - 3 (thoughtful look at the life of a woman in post-war Japan - the poverty, the horrible need for women's lib! - lots of nice detail)
11. Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) - 3 1/2 (a comedy classic)
(need to renumber) Mother (Japan, 1952) - 3 1/2
12. Sound of the Mountain (a.k.a. "The Echo," 1954 ) - 3
13. Girl From Chicago (1932) - 1 1/2 (a race film directed by Oscar Micheaux with painfully bad acting and dialogue and many continuity issues).
14. Floating Clouds (a.k.a. "A Floating Cloud," 1955) - 3 1/2 (the best Naruse film of the whole series!)
March
15. Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts (BADGERED, THE MOON AND THE SON: AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION, The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, 9, ONE MAN BAND). I loved Jasper Morello.
16. Tristam Shandy, A Cock and Bull Story (3 1/2)
17. The Libertine (2)
April
18. Matchpoint (2 1/2)
19. Innocence (4) (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France, 2004, based on an 1888 story by German writer Frank Wedekind)
20. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (2)
21. Calcutta (2 1/2) (Louis Malle, France, 1969)
22. V for Vendetta (3)
May
23. Classes Tous Risques (3) (Claude Sautet, French/Italian, 1960)
June
24. Over the Hedge (2 1/2)
25. Black Orpheus (4) (Marcel Camus, 1959)
26. The Unknown (2 1/2) (1927)
27. Program of experimental shorts with Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd accompanying, "Melodic Meshes" (included: "Meshes of the Afternoon," the WPA movie "Hands," "Orande" - 1935, "Seeing her bright shadow," Daniel Luna's "Nature's Handiwork," Webber's "Fall of the House of Usher," and "Spook Sport")
28. Samurai Rebellion (3) (Masaki Kobayashi, 1967)
29. Three Outlaw Samurai (2 1/2) (Hideo Gosha, Japan, 1964)
30. Kill! (2 1/2) (Kihachi Okamoto, Japan, 1968)
July
31. Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl (1 1/2 - got bored and wanted to leave)
August
32. Thank You for Smoking (3)
33. Don Juan (3) - 1926
34. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby - 2006 (2 1/2)
September
35. The Wild, Wild Rose (1960?, Hong Kong) - 3 1/2 (great film noir)
36. Air Hostess (1958?, Hong Kong) - 3 (hysterically over the top movie on being a stewardess in the 50s in Hong Kong)
37. This Movie Is Not Yet Rated - 2006 (3 - great documentary about how films are rated in America, with clips that were cut from famous movies so you could know what you had missed out on thanks to the censors, er, "raters' " decisions)
38. Three Times - 3 (2005 - lovely new movie by Hou Hsiao Hsien. Got me stuck on the song "Rain and Tears" for days)
October
39. The Queen - 3 (Well acted but the characters were a bit cardboardy. Also really bad script points that made me go "harrumph, that's so unbelievable.")
40. Princess - 3 (very interesting take on revenge, the porn industry, and the effects of sexual abuse on children)
41. Nosferatu - 2 (if this is the "great" 1922 version, there must have been a lot cut out of it. I found it long and boring, but I was very tired when I watched it and the soundtrack wasn't very well thought out.)
November
42. Pale Flower - 3 1/2 (extra points for the cultural freakiness)
43. Funeral Parade of Roses -1969 (Japan -Toshio Matsumoto) 1 1/2 (needed editing)
44. Sword of Doom - 4 (1966 - Kihachi Okamoto - Japan)
45. African Queen - 3 1/2
47. Yakuza Graveyard - 2 1/2 (1976 - Kenji Fukasaku - Japan)


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