Risselada Blog

Under discussion:

Film Name  Production Year

Arsenic and Old Lace  (1944)

It's a Wonderful Life  (1946)

This is the fourth feature length film I've seen by director Frank Capra.  I chose to watch this film based on previous good ratings I've given other films by this director and to better my favorite directors by algorithm listing.

Arsenic and Old Lace

I can't stop rating every Frank Capra movie I see a 10.  I don't know if this is some pattern that I have established myself that I cannot break myself from, or if it's a pattern that Capra established with his amazing career!

I felt hesitant about giving this movie another 10.  I kept second guessing myself.  Wouldn't a 9 really be more appropriate?  The movie doesn't have the same kind of morality that Capra's other movies I've seen had.  In fact there are even some reprehensible characters that it seems like we are supposed to feel sympathetic for!  But the movie was a lot of fun.  But was it really THAT much fun?  It seemed to be done really well, but was I just somehow associating Capra with his past films??  This movie can't be better than a 9.  But maybe I'm just saying that because it seems silly for me to be giving every movie this guy made a 10!  But I basically do the same thing with the movies of the Coen Brothers.  Have I fallen into a trap with them as well?  That's my own internal decision making process.

Essentially a filmed stage play.  Capra knows how to keep it exciting and take advantage of the capabilities of film without adding or doing anything unnecessary just to differentiate this as a film over a play.  For instance, the whole play pretty much takes place in one house.  And Capra never sets the action outside of it, or even in other rooms that normally wouldn't be seen in a play, unless it's really essential for making the movie better.

Regarding the elements of time and space it's a much less epic film than the other Capra movies I've seen.  But regarding character and plot elements, there is no shortage of depth or quantity.  A lot of fun, with some real silly acting from Cary Grant.

This should be a Halloween staple in the same way It's A Wonderful Life has become a Christmas staple.  If you get the time, slip this one between your Halloween horror movie marathons this year.

Frank Capra:
Total feature length films seen: 4
Previous average film score: 10
New average film score: 10

Rating: 10/10

Under discussion:

Tini Zabutykh Predkiv  (1964)

Winter Light  (1962)

Fargo  (1996)

Voskhozhdeniye  (1976)

This is the first film I've seen by director Larisa Shepitko

Voskhozhdeniye (The Ascent)

Discovering films like this is one of the greatest joys in life.  Films that are so transcendent that they are able to fully reflect the completeness of the human condition in whatever aspect of life they are depicting.

I'm also a sucker for stark winter landscapes.  There's something about the starkness, bleakness, and danger of it all that seems to open everything up, take it to the edge, and lay it bare.  Like Fargo, or Winter Light, or the final installment of the Human Condition (good name) series.  Just having that landscape is by no means a given for a great movie though (was just recently disappointed by Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors), if anything it gets me in a certain mood that now must be fulfilled.

The main themes have to do with how important are certain causes.  What causes are worth dying for.  When is a cause more important than the self or other people.  When is it the other way around.  Emotional and sometimes impossible decisions to make.  The emotions here are so powerful.  The acting fantastic.  The faces so real.

What a disappointment to learn after watching this movie that the director was killed in a car crash just shortly before beginning her next work after this.  Thank goodness she made a few others before this that I will surely be checking out.

Rating: 10/10

Under discussion:

Drunken Master  (1978)

The Matrix  (1999)

This is the first film I've seen by director Yuen Woo-ping

Jui kuen (Drunken Master)

The film that really boosted Jackie Chan's career into super stardom level, at least on his native continent.  There's nothing too profound here (not that there is in any of his movies I've seen) but it's a lot of fun and there is LOTS of fighting.  Lots of impressive and interesting fighting too.  The plot holds just enough to keep instigating the many fight scenes.

If you have only seen Jackie Chan's somewhat more recent, bigger budget and mostly modern urban setting films, check this one out and see what you think.  I find it a bit more pure for some reason.  And I personally find the "drunken" style to be one of the most entertaining to watch in kung fu films.

Also it would be a chance to see one of the first efforts by director Yuen Woo-ping who many people may recognize as the name of the fellow shipped over to Hollywood to do the fight choreography for The Matrix.  Although in Drunken Master you won't see any special effects like that for the most part, or even any of what they call "wire work" I believe.  This is pretty much all the strength and skill of the actors, and the long takes show it's real.  You really can feel a lot of the physical pain Jackie went through in making this!

Rating: 9/10