October 8, 2013

The Last Ten Movies I Saw

By michaelgloversmith

1. Gravity (Cuaron)
2. Play Time (Tati)
3. Death Becomes Her (Zemeckis)
4. Alexander Nevsky (Eisenstein)
5. Dumplings (Chan)
6. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Fassbinder)
7. Minnie and Moskowitz (Cassavetes)
8. Mutual Appreciation (Bujalski)
9. Grand Illusion (Renoir)
10. Blue is the Warmest Color (Kechiche)

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About michaelgloversmith

Filmmaker, author and Film Studies instructor. View all posts by michaelgloversmith
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 8th, 2013 at 2:44 pm and posted in The Last Ten Movies I Saw. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

8 responses to “The Last Ten Movies I Saw”

  • michaelgloversmith
    October 8th, 2013 at 6:42 pm

    Let me guess, John. Are you a fan of numbers 2, 4, 6, 7 and 9?

    Reply
  • Mitchell
    October 8th, 2013 at 7:29 pm

    Years ago I was fortunate to be part of the soundtrack of Alexander Nevsky at a concert given by the University of Chicago Orchestra. I and the rest of the chorus were behind the screen but in view of the conductor and we got to sing that glorious Prokofiev score. It was so thrilling to watch her coordinate the musicians with the film as it was running. The audience went nuts at the end…..which I guess was Eisenstein’s intention!

    Na Rusi boshoi, na Rusi radnoi ne bivat vragu!
    Never will there be an enemy on the great Russia motherland!

    Greatest propaganda film EVER.

    Reply
    • michaelgloversmith
      October 8th, 2013 at 8:52 pm

      That sounds like an incredible screening of Nevsky. Wish I could’ve been there. I agree that it’s the greatest propaganda movie ever. That score is so damn stirring!

      Unfortunately, I have now shown it three times in class and it has never gone over well. For reasons that I don’t understand Potemkin actually goes over better.

      Reply
      • Mitchell
        October 8th, 2013 at 9:03 pm

        Probably because it is shorter and more of a piece. It is over the top throughout the whole film. Nevsky teeters between scenes of naturalism (that opening scene of the fishermen) and highly stylized comedy (the two rivals for the love of the fair maiden) and horror (that scary German priest throwing babies into the fire! The kids probably don’t know how to shift along with it. As we have discussed before, stylization is something that just doesn’t go over well with today’s hipsters. I would love to see what they would make out of my beloved, wacky Ivan The Terrible! Yikes.

        By the way, have you been watching The Story of Film on TCM. Terrific, especially since they have programmed a lot of the films mentioned in the series along with the series itself. Films like Cairo Station, 1930s Chinese film The Goddess, etc. Quite an opportunity!.

        I still plan on sitting in on one of your classes at Harold Washington soon!

      • michaelgloversmith
        October 8th, 2013 at 9:11 pm

        I actually bought The Story of Film earlier this year on DVD and have shown parts of it in all of my classes since. It’s making my life as a teacher much easier!

  • John Charet
    October 8th, 2013 at 7:55 pm

    You are very close. I love numbers 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 and 9. My Favorite Sergei Eisenstein films are Battleship Potempkin and Strike. Potempkin gets * * * * (Out of * * * *) and Strike gets * * * 1/2 (Out of * * * *). Now that you mention it, I have to revisit Alexander Nevsky. I am no fan of number 3 and I have not seen numbers 5 and 10 yet. Anyway, on my site cinematiccoffee.com I have just posted two new entries entitled “My Favorite Anthony Mann Films” (Final Revision) and “My Favorite Leo McCarey Films” (Final Revision). Here are the links below

    http://cinematiccoffee.com/2013/10/08/my-favorite-anthony-mann-films-final-revision/

    http://cinematiccoffee.com/2013/10/08/my-favorite-leo-mccarey-films-final-revision/

    Reply
  • joe johnson
    October 9th, 2013 at 12:15 pm

    jean renoir is the most overrated filmmaker ever.

    Reply

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