Movie Updates

I just finished watching Altman's Three Women.  I had a very vague idea of the plot, but it was still quite an odd movie.  It didn't really grab me for long stretches.  I often found myself tuning out Duvall's inane nattering, which surely was intentional on Altman's part.  It wasn't clear what was driving some of the reversals, particularly Pinky getting very assertive, then reverting back into a childlike passivity.  I'm not that likely to watch it again, but maybe I would listen to Altman's commentary.  Hard to tell.  I would have preferred it at 90 minutes rather than 2+ hours.  Nashville was longer but it held my attention much better.

I was reading up a bit on Three Women, and a few critics mentioned that it appeared to be inspired by Bergman's Persona.*  I actually have a copy of this, so I probably should try to watch it one of these days.  I think I made it 2/3 of the Bergman's major trilogy (Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light and The Silence).  I probably will watch the full trilogy and then get to Persona, though when that will happen is anyone's guess.

I finally watched the first film in S. Ray's Calcutta Trilogy (The Adversary).  I will try to make a bit of a push to watch the other two: Seemabaddha (Company Limited) and The Middleman.

I still have to get through A Woman Under the Influence and Opening Night, but I will see if I can get around to them in the next couple of weeks.  As I mentioned, I don't really think I am on Cassavetes's wavelength, so getting through his films is a bit of a chore.

I am definitely much more on Almodovar's wavelength.  I have three or so DVDs piled near the TV, and I will try to watch them all before fall is over.  Now on the 25th, Queer Cinema Club is showing The Skin I Live In.  This is not particularly high on my list of Almodovar films to watch, but I would have gone had I been in town.  However, I will be in Vancouver at a conference, so will have to miss it.

If I do finally get through all these movies, I need to go back to the Kurosawa box I bought many, many years ago and have barely put a dent in getting through it.  Sigh.

The TIFF festival is in town, though I generally boycott the festival itself (and won't be renewing my TIFF membership next year).  I kind of ignore TIFF for the next month and will wait until Oct. to check it out again.

I don't think there is anything I really need to see at the Paradise.  I seem to keep missing films that might be of interest, but I am probably at the outer limits of keeping track of cultural events.  I do see that in a couple of weeks they are screening Godard's 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her.  Maybe I'll try to make that, particularly if I don't make it out to Stratford on the 14th.  (I would make the trip but there are no seats at all on the bus, so I need to check back periodically to see if someone cancels.  Blah.)

It's only another week or so before the Beetlejuice sequel opens.  I'll probably go.  It's probably fine as long as my expectations are not too high.  I had debated going to see Coppola's Megalopolis, but the more I read about it, the more it sounds like a total mess and not worth my time.

The only other thing worth mentioning is that I finally, finally got the Netflix issue resolved.  Bell was simply unable to solve the issue without sending me a 4K TV box (and of course then upgrading my already far too high bill).  It was possible to use something called Bell Streamer, which is basically just a Roku-like box.  They gave thousands of these away for free in Quebec.  I'm not sure if the promotion ever reached Ontario, or I simply ignored it.  I got incredibly frustrated when they wanted to charge me $80 for one and wouldn't bundle it with my already outrageous monthly bill.  So I went and picked up a new Roku box for $39, and it works just fine.  I don't want to really go down the Netflix rabbit hole, as I can't even keep up with movies that I would like to see, but I do think I'll watch the new series Kaos.  Who knows after that.  The only thing(s) I really want to try to watch is the new season of Futurama, but that comes out on Hulu** (apparently the last episode airs Sept. 30, so there is a tiny chance I will get a free trial of Hulu in Oct. or Nov., though that won't help for future seasons).  I would imagine this is one of the relatively few shows on a streaming service that will also be sold as a DVD set.  If not, I guess I'll have to dust off my VPN and torrent software.  (I kid, I kid...)  The other show is the Scott Pilgrim cartoon, which came out last year.  As it happens, this is a Netflix production, so I should be able to watch it now (I mean if lack of free time in general wasn't an issue...).

* And a few referenced Altman's Quintet as an example of a not particularly successful film.  This film has pretty much vanished, and I'm not sure how interested I really am in seeing it.  Nonetheless, I wanted to know if I could watch it if the mood struck me.  As it turns out, it ended up stuck inside a Paul Newman box set.  And one that I happen to own!  (Though clearly not one that I explored in detail...)  And not just Quintet, but another Altman film, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, is also included.  Pretty weird.

** It's actually Disney+ in Canada, as we don't get Hulu up here.  So I think getting the DVDs are the better course of action, but if I do try the Disney + free trial route, I should pick a month I have some spare time to watch The Mandalorian as well...