Tag Archives: Seven Samurai

No Weimar Reason

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As the year changes and we face new challenges that try our beliefs and norms I can’t help but look back in history. I do this a lot. Maybe it’s because I am a relic or maybe it is because I read a lot of nonfiction. it could even be all the history classes I had.

Anyway, as I pondered this more, I realized how much time I’ve been spending reading about and soaking up the popular culture of the early 20th century Germany. I am referring to the crushing economic hardship of the time but more of the ambitious artistic and cultural stuff coming out then.

I had no real idea how much I had deep dived into Weimar Republic films and art until my friend mentioned this to me at the Hi-Pointe Theatre. For those who don’t know the era refers to the period from 1919 to 1933 when German was bustling with artistic expression. The Bauhaus, Expressionism, and booming film and theater scenes marked the era. Much like 1920s America, Germany at that time was roaring. However, it all came crashing down with the Great Depression and the rise of the Nazis.

This adventure started for me with The Man Who Laughs. I was browsing the library catalog of movies and remembered that The Joker from Batman was loosely based on Conrad Veidt’s appearance in the film.

Released in 1928, the film is filled with alienation and urban uneasiness. Just like 1920’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the film featured surreal sets and relied jeavily on atmosphere to set the tone. Veidt is the doomed Gwynplaine who has a permanent grin carved into his face at a young age by a Comprachico surgeon. Needless to say his life sucks. I had not seen it before so I checked it out.

The Man Who Laughs is a lot of things. It is a film about overcoming isolation, class and overcoming societal ridicule. Veidt is stunning the film. Released in 1928, It was based on the 1869 novel of the same by Victor Hugo.

Like other films of this time coming out of Weimar Germany, The Man Who Laughs has left a mark over century later. The movie’s legacy is its striking visual style, impact on horror films and comic book genres.

About a week later the Hi-Pointe featured a new print of Metropolis with a live score from the Silent Night. It was fantastic. The band’s score was not only atmospheric and sweepingly orchestral but alos klangly and metallic.

While this 1927 film remains incomplete, scholars have been able to piece a large chunk together with narrative cards. The missing footage was barely noticeable and was not a detractor in enjoying it.

Fritz Lang’s film remains a feast. His work at UFA helped usher in a golden age of cinemas for the German studio. Metropolis takes place in a futuristic dystopian city where the working class lives in grim conditions beneath the city, while the elite enjoy a lavish life above. It explores themes of class division, industrialization, and the relationship between workers and machines. Fritz Lang’s masterpiece also focuses on the rise of technology and its potential use for good and evil.

The St. Louis International Film Festival screened Nosferatu With Radiohead: A Silents Synced Film which matched up the German Expressionist film with Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac as the movie’s score.

It was pretty jarring to see these two things put together. it didn’t make much sense, but hey, why the Hell not? There were times when the songs worked and a few times when the linking up didn’t work. But there were also times when it did, and those times were magnificent. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience. Although, I prefer the version I saw ages ago it with the Alloy Orchestra.

The idea came from a theater owner in Austin, Texas who has since mashed up other silent films with modern alternative albums.

Moving on into the real world…

I saw The Brutalist. It’s a very good film that could have been about 20 minutes shorter. The first half definitely dominates as the latter part of the movie drags a bit. The cinematography is outstanding. This film was basically architecture porn.

A Complete Unknown was pretty fantastic. I know everyone is a buzz about Chalamet as Dylan, but for me, Edward Norton turn as Pete Seeger made the film.

The entire ensemble was great. There’s not a loose bolt in the batch. Every performance is really good. This is also one of those rare times when the people playing musicians in the film actually perform the songs in a realistic manner.

What I mean is this – the actors play musicians as well as they act – this means you aren’t left feeling that the acting was good but the music sucked.

I thought the movie was also nicely paced as well. It begins in 1961 with Dylan coming to New York. This is a nice jumping off point since it helps frame the film in the audience’s mind without getting bogged down with useless montages or biographical prefaces.

I saw the 4k restoration of The Seven Samurai. It was fantastic. In case you missed it – it is coming to the Alamo Brewhouse on January 10th, 12th and 15th.

The movie still holds up. The sound is also fantastic. They really did a great job on this.

Next up on my 4K restoration lineup is Le Samourai. I got the Criterion blu-ray of this (yes I sill like physical media-so shoot me). This is a fantastic film and the restored print is gorgeous.

This 1967 French crime thriller, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, stars Alain Delon (who passed away this year) as a solitary hitman in Paris who is hired to kill a man. But, but things go sideways after the crime is committed.

I love how sleek and minimalist the movie is. I also love its themes of isolation play into a modern riff on the Samurai code. This is must see French noir.

The latest season of The Great British Bake Off (aka The Great British Baking Show) has ended. Although there is no way I could actually make any of this stuff I do enjoy the show. It’s kind of relaxing. This season had a really solid core of bakers that were likable. There was a doofus American guy who quit but that’s another story.

I started watching Fallout with no knowledge of the video game. But it was fine becuase the show has it’s own legs.

It’s not for the squeamish, but the style of it and retro ’50s kitsch it incorporates into the narrative is pretty impressive. It is every bit worth the hype.

Since people have been bugging me. Here’s my top 20 records of this year! I put them in alphabetical order.

1. Arab Strap– I’m Totally Fine With It Don’t Give a Fuck Anymore (Rock Action)

2. The Cure-Songs Of A Lost World (Fiction/Capitol)

3. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds-Wild God (PIAS)

4. Erotic Secrets of Pompeii-Mondo Meleficum (Deaf Ending Collective)

5. Fontaines D.C.-Romance (XL Recordings)

6. Beth Gibbons-Lives Outgrown (Domino)

7. Kim Gordon-The Collective (Matador)

8. Hamish Hawk-A Firmer Hand (So Recordings)

9. Humdrum-Every Weather (Slumberland)

10. IDLES-Tangk (Partisan)

11. The Jesus And Mary Chain-Glasgow Eyes (Fuzzclub)

12. Khruangbin-A La Sala (Dead Oceans)

13. Pet Shop Boys-Nonetheless (Parlophone)

14. Jessica Pratt-Here In The Pitch (Mexican Summer)

15. The Reds, Pinks And Purples-Unwishing Well (Slumberland)

16. Ride-Interplay (Wichitaa)

17. SPRINTS-Letter To Self (City Slang)

18. The The-Ensoulment (EARmusic)

19. Yard Act-Where’s My Utopia? (Island)

20. Yea-Ming And The Rumours-I Can’t Have it All (Dandy Boy)

That new Cure album is fantastic!

Just a reminder that you can hear all these records and more on Juxtaposition on KDHX, The Free Design on The Face Radio and Antics on Louder Than War Radio.

Some Great Concerts I Saw This Year

Khruangbin (The Factory)

Black Pumas (Music at the Intersection)

Chaka Khan (Music at the Intersection)

Esperanza Spaulding (Music at the Intersection)

ABC (The Factory)

Iris Dement (City Winery)

Alvvays (The Pageant)

Squirrel Nut Zippers (City Winery)

Washed Out (Delmar Hall)

Franz Ferdinand (The Pageant)

Slowdive (The Pageant)

Buena Vista Social Orchestra (The Pageant)

Ladytron (Variety Playhouse Atlanta)

Jesus And Mary Chain (The Stifel)

The Cure (London – streaming)

Thievery Corporation (The Pageant)

The Talking Heads 77 reissue is pretty fantastic. The extra tracks are wonderful and the sound is amazing. There is also a full concert of included that sounds excellent.

I also really like the liner notes they included. The demos are also a nice inclusion as well.

The Federal Art Project exhibition at the St. Louis Art Museum is pretty great. It is there there through April.

I wish they would put the Modigliani back on display. It’s been touring for other exhibitions but it should be home by now.

One of my goals for this year was to read more each day. it has been terrific, especially late at night when I want to unwind. I am moving away from nonfiction since the world has gone bonkers and I cannot really handle more books on war, politics and totalitariani

Appliance News

There is not much going on in this department. However, there have been intermittent
issues with the pilot light on the stove. I’ve had to relight it several times over the last week or so.

I also have an air fryer. I look forward to doing some fun things with it in the coming weeks.

Home Improvement News

I got a nifty bankers lamp so now I can read in bed! There is also a new lamp in the living room since the old one was literally falling apart. I also threw out some crappy chairs that were literally on their last legs.

Every Damn Place I Like is Closing

The Fortune Teller, Frank And Helen’s, The London Tea Room, Pi Pizza and a lot of other great places closed this year. This is a reminder to support local businesses.

Is It Really Almost 2025?

As 2024 comes to a close I am still keeping my resolution to not deal with assclowns and stupid people. I am carrying a whole lot of angst about a lot of things into the new year but I have built a community of friends who I will focus on and I’ll do my best to make the world a better place.

I want to read more and get caught up on the hundreds of streaming tv shows that are out there. I also want to be optimistic but it’s hard when terrible people do terrible things each day.

I also need to get back out into the world and travel more. I have not t been to Chicago In ages.

There are loads of movies I need to see as well.

I am hoping that 2025 isn’t as dreadful as my foreboding intuition tells me it will be. I hope I am wrong.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Slummer

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So I think I have reached the part of the pandemic where I am basically slumming it. I don’t want to go out and I wear pajamas as often a possible if I have nowhere to be. This is mainly because I am working part-time and basically looking for a gig in the spare time. Thankfully, there are a lot of ways to pass time. There are books to read, movies to catch up on, a dazzling amount of new music to investigate and tons of great streaming TV. Then there are also word puzzles and online boardgames. If that is not enough and I still picking up freelance stuff here and there. In general, there isn’t all that much to go out for, unless it is work, the radio show or errands.

My slumming also includes doing remote work. I like that because I don’t have to catch other people’s germs or deal with annoying people in public. To be clear, when I say “slumming it,” I am not meaning to imply being lazy or nonproductive, I simply mean being a homebody. I know it is not really “slumming it” when you just want to read a good book and be left in peace. However, I think I am just fatigued with making much of an effort to do a lot of stuff with people around during a pandemic.

It’s not like I am giving up completely. I just know the limits of what is sane in an insane world. It is all about finding a comfort levels in a city of unmasked idiots. For me, it is best to avoid the misguided and stupid.

For example, I still enjoy walking and getting fresh air, but, I think it is kind of pointless to walk into a store and go shopping when you don’t have a specific need to be there. I also am a “get in and get out” person. No loitering or hanging around. Direct and t the point. Again, the worst part of all of this is that you can’t control other people’s tomfoolery.

While the Super Bowl is a big deal for millions of people, I find it all kind of annoying after a bit. For starters, everyone has to call it “the big game” or something like that because of copyrights. That is dumb. The commercials are usually fun, but this year seemed so different thanks to the ever-present pandemic. Although I like watching football and appreciate a good game, it has been my experience that the Super Bowl is always kind of a let down. Like New Years Eve. With that mindset, having lots of fans at Super Bowl XL was a dumb idea. The game was terrible. I hate Tom Brady.

Another dumb idea was watching Crocodile Dundee. I had never seen it and thought it would be a fun romp of escapism. Man was I wrong. It doesn’t hold up well as a fish out of water story and some of the jokes are terribly inappropriate. I didn’t see it when it came out because it did not seem funny. Turns out I was right. Plus, Paul Hogan just isn’t a great actor. He sets up the gags well but his timing is sometimes off.

Another relic of the late 1980s is Bright Lights, Big City. It is a 1988 film based on the book by Jay McInerney. I saw it when it came out and I remember that New Order recorded True Faith for the soundtrack. It stars Michael J. Fox, cast against character in an attempt to get him different roles, and an interest ensemble that includes Kiefer Sutherland stars as Tad, his smarmy friend and enabler. Phoebe Cates and Swoosie Kurtz are also in it, along with a cameo from Jason Robards.

Fox plays  Jamie Conway, a small-town kid who moves with his wife to New York City. Working at a magazine while his better half gets a modeling job, things begin to spiral out of control, leading for late night drinking binges, complete with lots of cocaine and poor decisions. The result of this is tragic as Jamie slides deeper into addiction, eventually blowing his job and crippling his life.

Fox isn’t terrible in a movie that somewhat accurately depicts the debauchery clubs and capitalist greed of ’80s New York. His slide into the abyss is believable and it is good to see him in a role that differs from the boy next door parts he had been taking prior to this. Like Less Than Zero, the film is a part of the decade’s films that were based on books that were dark and rebelled against the conventional. While it was compelling to read, it didn’t always transfer to film.

With the pandemic happening I am also trying to revisit films I love or have not seen in awhile. One of those is The Seven Samurai. I enjoy Kurosawa’s films but see them so infrequently that when I watch them again it is pretty terrific.

With The Seven Samurai, I like watching Toshiro Mifume and Takashi Shimura. They are both incredible here in a film that features an amazing ensemble. Kurosawa worked his actors to death but the results were simply incredible.

It is epic in every way and the performances are incredible. While it remains one of the most influential films of all time, it is still unknown to a lot of people which is very sad.

What I also love about this one is that it is beautifully shot. Kurosawa was painstaking in his writing and editing and it shows. It also maintains its intensity throughout the entire film. Hailed as a massively influential film it still holds up really well.

I am so over this cold weather. While I do not mind it for a few days, a few weeks is a different thing altogether. Maybe it just seems longer because of the pandemic. I just know that I hate winter.

Slamdance 2021 is underway. Building on its reputation as a place for filmmakers to rebel in peace, the fest has a strong virtual component this year. Doing this allows the festival to do expand their inclusivity while offering a broad slate of films.

Running through February 25, 2021, Slamdance offers 25 features along with 107 shorts and episodics for the 27th edition of the festival. Programming also includes Unstoppable, a new showcase for creators with disabilities.

So far I have only seen a few short films but I intend to see a lot more stuff in the next week, including Isaac, a Soviet noir and No Trace,  a movie about a hard-living smuggler who guides a young woman and her child across the border to safety. They also have a track of animated short films that look interesting.

I finished Season One of The Flight Attendant. Going in I was not expecting much but it was actually pretty decent. Overall, it checked off all the boxes that a good thriller needs for television.

The basic premise surrounds a flight attendant named Cassie whose fling with a passenger in Bangkok sets of a spiraling chain of violence filed by poor choices. To make things worse, she literally has baggage. Added to this is her alcoholism which clouds her memory and often gets her into deep trouble.

I have never thought that Kaley Cuoco was a terrific actress and she may not be. But here, they the writers and directors play to her strengths in a way that she’s not as annoying as you may expect. They also surrounded her with an amazing ensemble cast, including Rosie Perez who is sublime as her bestie coworker.

Michelle Gomez chews up scenery and steals the entire thing. She alone is worth watching the series for. Ruthless but funny, Gomez’ take no prisoners attitude gives the show a great edge that really helps with the pacing.

Another weird thing about the show that I like is how it uses interior design. There isn’t a band house or apartment to be found. Everyone has big open spaces with modern design and lots of open space and natural light.

The last month has seen an uptick in new music. For starters there is The Third Chimpanzee, a new EP from Martin Gore of Depeche Mode. Filled with beeps and beats, its instrumental tracks shimmer with Detroit techno influences.

Diving beneath the textured layers of grooves is Howler a cinematic and dark track that accompanies another solid cut, the expansive Mandrill. Overall, the E.P. finds Gore returning to the long form electronic music he’s featured in recent collaborations with Vincent Clarke (as VCMG).

I have been enjoying Dry Cleaning a lot. They are from London via Bristol and have an album called New Long Leg dropping in April. I loved Scratchcard Lanyard, their single for last year.

Strong Feelings, their new single, picks off from where that track left off with some sludgy post-punk edginess. It snarls and sneers in all the right ways.

I am happy to have a new Mogwai record coming into the world. They just dropped “Ritchie Sacramento” ahead of their new album, As The Love Continues.

I love how sonically expansive their music is. Their tenth studio album sees them continuing their knack for crafting really textured songs that don’t meander or lose their heart. They are just a really good band.

I think doing any of the things people suggest you to do on HGTV requires some serious cash. Over the last few months I have found myself watching the channel more and more. I enjoy the design aspects of seeing a place get completely redone as something fresh.

Home renovation and rehabbing is a foreign world to me. Nonetheless, watching the pile of shows the network has is kind of a fun timesuck. It’s a nice way to get ideas for interior spaces, even if you have a budget. It also serves as a great distraction from the chaos on on the news.

Another fun thing is the sly ways that the Property Brothers handle irritating clients. However, in an industry that is all about money they also show a great deal of practicality and empathy, Plus the ‘competative brothers’ double act works pretty well.

Still, I can’t buy a house anytime soon so there is that….

Because of the weather it looks like I have some serious inside time in the next week. I am okay with that. I’ve been slumming it at home for almost a year now and there is a satisfaction to finishing projects, discovering new stuff and making all kinds of interesting meals. There is also booze!