Horror: Let the Right One In, Let Me In, and Classics

Today just a quick list of Horror recommendations, with Halloween being right around the corner, starting with Let the Right One In and its remake, Let Me In.  I'm a big fan of the original, and while I haven't seen the remake I know many fans of it as well.  I hope to compare the two in the near future, and both of them are streaming on Netflix Watch Instantly.

The others are well tested classics, most of which I have not seen in a long time, but hope to revisit during Halloween season.  I have not seen Dario Argento's giallo classic Deep Red, which looks like something I need to finally catch up with.

Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, Sweden, 2008, 114 minutes)
Netflix: Twelve-year-old Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), the constant target of bullies, spends his time plotting revenge and collecting news items about the grisly murders plaguing his town. But things change when he meets a new girl named Eli (Lina Leandersson), a misfit vampire who steals his heart. As a serial killer continues to prey on teen boys in their small Swedish village, Eli helps Oskar find the courage to stand up to his tormenters.  Netflix link.

Let Me In (Matt Reeves, USA, 2010, 116 minutes)
Netflix: When 12-year-old Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) befriends his mysterious next-door neighbor, Abby (Chloe Moretz), the two outcasts form a tight-knit bond that gives Owen the courage to stand up to school bullies. But he slowly begins to suspect his new friend has a secret. Matt Reeves directs this uncommon coming-of-age thriller based on the award-winning Swedish film Let the Right One In. Richard Jenkins co-stars.  Netflix link.

The Exorcist (William Friedkin, USA, 1973, 122 minutes)
Netflix: When movie actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) begins to suspect that an evil spirit is possessing her young daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), she calls in two priests (Max von Sydow and Jason Miller) to try and exorcise the demon against frightening and formidable odds. Writer William Peter Blatty scored an Academy Award for his big-screen adaptation of his own novel; the film also won an Oscar for Best Sound.  Netflix link.

Deep Red (Dario Argento, Italy, 1975, 104 minutes)
Netflix: In Dario Argento's horror classic jazz pianist Marcus Daly (David Hemmings) witnesses the murder of his neighbor, a psychic who had read the mind of her killer. Marcus soon teams up with a resourceful reporter (Daria Nicolodi), and the two set out to find the killer. After the professor (Glauco Mauri) Marcus called on for help turns up dead, Marcus realizes that he'll be the next to die if he can't track down the killer.  Netflix link.

An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, USA, 1981, 97 minutes)
Netflix: John Landis writes and directs this bloody yet black humor-injected thriller that tells the story of American backpacker David (David Naughton), who, after surviving a vicious werewolf attack that left his friend, Jack (Griffin Dunne), dead, becomes a murderous werewolf himself. Prowling the streets of London, David learns that his living-dead victims will wander in limbo until he is dead. This film garnered an Oscar for Best Makeup.  Netflix link.

Expiring Soon: 8 1/2, Duck Soup, The Bicycle Thief

One of the most frustrating things about the world of online streaming is that you never know when contracts between Netflix and their content providers are going to expire, until it's too late and a film in your queue is gone.  As I've mentioned in the past, a helpful resource for new release and expiration dates for Netflix is InstantWatcher, although they'll be the first to admit that the API info that feeds their system is not always accurate.  Sometimes the information just doesn't seem to make sense, like the listing for Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (which I recently wrote about) which states that it will be streaming from September 1 to November 1, 2011--a two month contract?  We already only have 11 days left?  It was just added?  (Let's hope this is an error, but watch it just in case.)

In any case there is a long list of titles expiring on November 1 or sooner, and you might want to check InstantWatcher to see if there are any that you want to see before their gone.  I think you'll find that quite a lot of them will not be missed.  But below I've listed a few worth looking at if you haven't already (some have been discussed in earlier posts).

We begin with Fellini's 8 1/2, which many of you know is my favorite film of all time.  It seems unlikely that this will return to Netflix, but at some point it should be part of the Criterion Collection package at Hulu.

8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, Italy, 1963, 138 minutes)
Netflix: Dog-tired movie director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) retreats to thoughts of yesteryear when his producers, his wife (Anouk Aimee) and his mistress (Sandra Milo) all pressure him to start making another movie. Director Federico Fellini's semiautobiographical rumination on the joys and rigors of filmmaking -- as well as lovers past and present -- won two Oscars: Best Foreign Language Film and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.  Netflix link.  Expires November 1.





If you have 68 minutes to spare, and you have never seen Duck Soup, by all means do so before October 30.

Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, USA, 1933, 68 minutes)
Netflix: Thanks to the patronage of well-heeled widow Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont), Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) becomes dictator of the tiny country of Freedonia. But when the ambassador of the bordering nation of Sylvania declares his love for Mrs. Teasdale, Firefly declares war. The Marx Brothers are at their sidesplitting best in this raucous political satire, in which Chico, Harpo and Zeppo co-star as spies and counterspies.  Netflix link.  Expiring October 30.






And De Sica's The Bicycle Thief is simply a masterpiece of world cinema, so influential even to this day that you need to see it to understand where half of the inspiration for the international film festival circuit and American independent cinema comes from.

The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, Italy, 1948, 89 minutes)
Netflix: Widely considered a landmark Italian film, Vittorio De Sica's tale of a man who relies on his bicycle to do his job during Rome's post-World War II depression earned a special Oscar for its devastating power. The same day Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) gets his vehicle back from the pawnshop, someone steals it, prompting him to search the city in vain with his young son, Bruno (Enzo Staiola). Increasingly, he confronts a looming desperation.  Netflix link.  Expires November 1.


Here's a short list of some other titles that jumped out at me on the expiration list (this is by no means exhaustive).

Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith, 1918)

The General (Buster Keaton, 1927)

October (Sergei Eisenstein, 1927)

Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Eisenstein, 1938)

The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942)

Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944)

Unfaithfully Yours (Preston Sturges, 1948)

Flesh (Paul Morrissey, 1969)

Putney Swope (Robert Downey, 1969)

Women in Revolt (Paul Morrissey, 1971)

Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)

Mutual Appreciation (Andrew Bujalski, 2005)

Westerns: Sergio Leone and Peter Fonda

One of my favorite films of all time started streaming on Netflix Watch Instantly this past weekend: Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West.  Possibly the most flamboyant and operatic of Leone's westerns, and even more contemplative than his "Dollars Trilogy," this film simply has great scene after great scene, with a fantastic cast led by Charles Bronson in one of the few films I like him in.  Henry Fonda, cast against type, plays one of the great screen villains of all time.  Whenever I come across this on cable television I usually stop what I'm doing and watch it from that point until the end.  If you haven't seen it, set aside some time, sit up close to the screen, turn the volume up, and enjoy.

If you're in the mood for other subsequent responses to the Western genre from the 1970s, you might also look at the Leone's Duck, You Sucker (sometimes re-titled as Fistful of Dynamite or Once Upon a Time...the Revolution to capitalize on the Leone earlier successes) and Henry's son Peter Fonda's post-Easy Rider directorial debut, The Hired Hand.

Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, USA/Italy, 1968, 165 minutes) 
Netflix: This Sergio Leone classic, a tribute to Hollywood Westerns, stars Henry Fonda as Frank, a deft gunslinger hired by the powerful owner of a railroad conglomerate to kill anyone who derails the project. But Frank contends with the wrong person when he murders Brett (Frank Wolff), a landowner, prompting Brett's wife (Claudia Cardinale) to hire two renegades (Charles Bronson and Jason Robards) to go after Frank. Netflix link. 

Duck, You Sucker (Sergio Leone, USA/Italy, 1971, 156 minutes)
Netflix: While on the lam in Mexico, Irish Republican Army demolition expert John Malloy (James Coburn) hooks up with Juan Miranda (Rod Steiger), a crass, stogie-chomping bandit with designs on the Mesa Verde Bank. Reluctant partners with differing agendas, they find themselves caught up in the turmoil of the Mexican revolution when their heist nets more than gold in director Sergio Leone's sprawling 1971 Western. Netflix link.

The Hired Hand (Peter Fonda, USA, 1971, 91 minutes)
Netflix: Harry Collings (Peter Fonda) has been traveling around with his fellow drifter and friend Arch Harris (Warren Oates). Disturbed by thoughts of the wife (Verna Bloom) and child he left behind so long ago, Harry decides to attempt a reunion with them by working on the family farm. All is well until Arch is taken prisoner by a past enemy; now, Harry must choose whether to uphold his responsibility to the family or save his longtime friend. Netflix link.

International: The Arbor, Le Quattro Volte, Poetry

Here's a triple-feature of recent international films that were successful on the international festival circuit over the past year.

The Arbor (Clio Barnard, UK, 2010, 94 minutes)
Netflix: In this experimental look at the life and work of British playwright Andrea Dunbar, director Clio Barnard asks her actors to lip-synch to an audio "screenplay" she created using interviews conducted with members of the Dunbar family. Netflix link.

Le Quattro Volte (Michelangelo Frammartino, Italy, 2010, 87 minutes)
Netflix: This visual poem brings to life Pythagoras's theory that the soul moves from human to animal to vegetable to mineral in its evolutionary journey. Wordlessly, the film follows an elderly Italian goat herder as he makes the remarkable transition. Director Michelangelo Frammartino captures the essence of everyday life in the Italian countryside as the man transforms into a baby goat, a giant tree and a lump of coal. Netflix link.

Poetry (Chang-dong Lee, South Korea, 2010, 139 minutes)
Netflix: A poetry-writing class inspires serenely self-possessed grandmother Mija (Jeong-hie Yun) to open her senses to her suburban surroundings, but in rushes an array of unsettling discoveries in this lyrical South Korean melodrama. Along with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease comes information that Mija's teenage grandson was party to a horrific incident, and it is left to Mija to compose order from the untidy emotional consequences.  Netflix link.

International: Visconti's Senso on Netflix Watch Instantly 4/22/11

I don't know why, but this Friday (April 22) will be a particularly good day for new films on Netflix Watch Instantly.  Maybe it's just the sheer number of films being added, and the percentage of good films is the same as any new film day on Netflix (there certainly are plenty of non-interesting films being added, too).  But in any case over the next few days I will try to highlight some of the interesting films being added Friday.

First up is Luchino Visconti's Senso (1954), which some consider to be Visconti's break from neo-realism.  In an interesting essay on the Criterion Collection website, filmmaker Mark Rappaport distinguishes Visconti's earlier films from other neo-realists like De Sica and Rossellini in the first place, noting that Visconti was always more interested in visual style and mise-en-scene just as much as he was interested in contemporary realism.  Describing Senso, Rappaport writes, "It is as if we were in a Manet painting twenty-four frames a second. . .You don’t want to hang the images on the wall. You want to live in them. The figures move in architectural surroundings with the grace and elegance of Veronese figures come to life."  Like Douglas Sirk, whom I seem to be mentioning quite often on this blog lately, Visconti was also interested in the expressive possibilities of melodrama; Rapapport begins his essay with a quote from Visconti: "Melodrama has a bad reputation because it has been abandoned to schematic and conventional interpretation."  Both Sirk and Visconti, however, went beyond schematic and conventional examples of the melodramatic form, resulting in rich, textured experiences that maximize emotional affect.

Senso (Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1954, 123 minutes)
Netflix: Italian Countess Livia Serpieri (Alida Valli), whose family leads an underground resistance during the Austrian occupation of Italy, risks her marriage, family, friends and political standing when she gives in to her lust for Austrian Lt. Franz Mahler (Farley Granger). Set in the late 19th century, director Luchino Visconti's luxurious, emotionally charged film is an adaptation of Camillo Boito's novella Senso. Netflix link.
Begins streaming 4/22/11




In perhaps an odd move, I'm going to provide a link for something that I don't want you to stream: the English dubbed version of Visconti's The Leopard.  By all accounts, it is far inferior to the original Italian language version, but unfortunately it is the English language version that is currently streaming on Netflix Watch Instantly.  Still, perhaps after watching Senso you might want to seek out the Italian language DVD or Blu-ray of The Leopard.

The Leopard (English Version, Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1963, 161 minutes)
In this war drama set in 1860s Sicily, Prince Don Fabrizio Salina (Burt Lancaster) attempts to hold onto the glory he once knew, while his nephew, Tancredi Falconeri (Alain Delon), has joined opposition forces and is being heralded as a war hero. As Falconeri begins to fall for Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), the daughter of the town's new mayor, Don Calogero Sedara (Paolo Stoppa), Salina must learn to accept his changing political status. Netflix link.

Federico Fellini: Nights of Caberia, I Vitelloni, La Strada

This week Netflix Watch Instantly added Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria to their streaming films.  As many of you know (from my favorites tab) Fellini's 8 1/2 is one of my favorite films of all time (and it is also streaming), and I had been preparing an entry on all of the Fellini films currently streaming.  But for now I thought it would be interesting to send out a Quick Picks on his films from the 1950s, which have more in common with the legacy of Italian neo-realism than with the more flamboyant, surreal Fellini from the 1960s and beyond.  While it would be exaggerating to say that these films are neglected (two of them won consecutive Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film, after all), I think many people have a skewed view of Fellini's ouvre based upon the excesses of his later films.  And this list features two great performances by Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, who also won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for Nights of Cabiria.

I Vitelloni (Federico Fellini, Italy, 1953, 107 minutes)
Netflix: Federico Fellini directs this tale of a group of young men who are in no hurry to leave their small town. Funded by their families, Fausto (Franco Fabrizi), Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste), Alberto (Alberto Sordi), Riccardo (Riccardo Fellini) and Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi) enjoy days of frivolous fun, but not without apprehension. Are they missing out on all that life has to offer? Eventually, one of the men breaks out of his self-imposed routine. Netflix link.

La Strada (Federico Fellini, Italy, 1954, 108 minutes)
Neflix: Filmmaker Martin Scorsese introduces this restored special edition of Italian auteur Federico Fellini's powerful rumination on love and hate, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1956. The story follows the plight of gentle Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), who's sold by her mother to a bullying circus performer (Anthony Quinn), only to have a clown (Richard Basehart) win her heart and ignite a doomed love triangle. Netflix link.




Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, Italy, 1957, 117 minutes)
Netflix: Despite an endless string of heartbreaks and misfortune, Cabiria (Giulietta Masina), a wide-eyed prostitute working the streets of Rome, never seems to give up on finding true love. One of director Federico Fellini's best-known efforts, this supremely human tale -- by turns absurdly comic and jarringly tragic -- won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, and the visually arresting Masina earned Best Actress honors at the Cannes Film Festival. Netflix link.