A chance for us to talk about some lesser known movies that we're watching, though feel free to share your favorite box-office hits!
I've been on a Japanese movies kick ever since I started my language class this year. Now that Kuwait's on lockdown (curfew, no flights in or out, no school, no work) since early March and until mid-April, I've been dedicating more time to catch up on my movies list.
I bought Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition trilogy last year on bluray and I feel like I finally have the mental space to start it. Though now that I have ample time, I decided to watch some of his other movies just to prepare myself for his directorial and storytelling style before I delve into a 9-hour trilogy. I started with Harakiri (1962) which I thought was brilliant and subverts the expected samurai genre in exciting ways. I saw two out of the four stories in Kwaidan (1965) but can't say they worked for me. Maybe the remaining stories would hit better than what I saw. I'm about to watch The Inheritance (1962) now. All the movies I mentioned (and plenty more from him) are available on the excellent Criterion Channel streaming service.
I'm also catching up on my Terrence Malick films. I'm more of a Tree of Life-Malick than the plot-driven Malick of Badlands, but I thought A Hidden Life (2019) mixes his two styles in absolutely effective and affecting ways. It's perhaps more brooding, and even more slow and contemplative than most of his other films, but I found the subject matter worthy of that kind of direction. Instead of being a three-beat story, the slow pace forced me to think about the actions of the character instead of simply following a tightly paced plot. Malick's continuous exploration of humanity and themes of innocence continues to astound me.
And the score just wrecks me. This man knows his music.
https://youtu.be/3mR7Y7SqiyU