Ghost Ship

Gorgeous cinematography only slightly marred by the poor video transfer.
Can't someone release a nice, REMASTERED boxed set to honor Val Lewton?
Or is this as good as a B-movie can hope to look?



There's a wealth of geometric combinations to be arranged on the set of a ship.
Some of this reminds me of The Long Voyage Home a few years earlier:

Ghost Ship (1943)

directed by Mark Robson

cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca

produced by Val Lewton

art direction by Albert D'Agostino

and Walter E Keller

zentropa

Europa (1991)
aka Zentropa
directed by Lars von Trier
cinematography by Henning Bendtsen
and Edward Klosinsky
and Jean-Paul Meurisse

I'm listing the title Zentropa because that's how I saw it in the theatre when it was released. [I also saw Europa, Europa, released around the same time, since they were linked in numerous articles due to the similarity in names.] My first von Trier film and it made a lasting impression on me. The rear and front projection look just as gorgeous and overwhelming as they did when I sat in the theatre, watching with no inkling of what was to come.

single shot - regeneration

Regeneration (1915)
directed by Raoul Walsh

2009 SFSFF

Aelita, Queen of Mars photo courtesy of San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Due to my keyboard troubles I'm late with this announcement, but here it is:

The 2009 San Francisco Silent Film Festival line-up has been announced for July 10-12.

The Gaucho (1927)

Bardelys the Magnificent (1927)

Wild Rose (1932)

Underworld (1927)

The Wind (1928)

Aelita, Queen of Mars (1924)

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shorts program

Erotikon (1929)

So’s Your Old Man (1926)

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)

Lady of the Pavements (1929)

The only one I've seen already is Aelita, Queen of Mars. I was so sure I'd seen The Wind but now that I think about it, I've just seen clips. So far, Eroticon and The Fall of the House of Usher look to be the stand-outs but there have been upsets in my predictions in previous years.


So what I want to know is what films in this line-up do you recommend?

One thing I know is I'll go to see virtually anything when Stephen Horne is playing the score.

single shot - van gogh

Lust For Life (1956)
directed by Vincente Minnelli

further disintegration

More beauty within loss.
With a running jump, our hero grabs onto an overhanging bar and spins himself upwards onto the next floor.
How sad that the one piece of stunt work in Street Angel is nearly lost to deterioration.
How lucky we are to experience it with the glow of disintegration that gives the feat an other-worldly quality:

single shot - street angel

Although the most photogenic aspect of the movie has to be this actress  playing Garbo-as-a-vampire, my favorite part is this sweet little song that has stuck in my head for days now.

In the clip you get a brief glance of her brooding as well as the lead heroine's Depeche Mode-like boyfriend and of singer Zhou Xuan herself in all her charm.

I love that the words appear as subtitles. I can only imagine how wonderful it must have been to see this in the theatre - would the audience sing along? I really hope they would sing with the film.

It should play on a double bill someday with Electric Shadows, which has a lovely scene in which the characters try to get into a sold out showing of Street Angel.

Malu tianshi (1937)
aka Street Angel
directed by Mu-Jih Yuan

prisoner 13

I'm completely blown away by the quality of light in the photo above.
It is one of the most gorgeous scenes ever captured onto film.









el Prisionero 13 (1933)
aka Prisoner 13
directed by Fernando de Fuentes
cinematography by Ross Fisher








No relief offered by the end of the film:

now i'm rich

Ahora Soy Rico (1952)

directed by Rogelio A Gonzalez

cinematography by Agustin Martinez Solares

set design by Jorge Fernandez

Another Mexican gem, brimming with film noir moodiness. The art direction is fabulous. The composition in nearly every frame is a work of art. Sadly the print was very poor, else I'd share a lot more images of the art moderne apartments which contain many key scenes.

What really impressed me was Pedro Infante. Within a meandering plot that includes gangsters and marital disharmony, there is a deeply moving scene in which Infante is struggling with his male inferiority complex. He literally howls in pain. The scream shatters the momentum of the story, taking a moment to rawly expose the underlying unrest in all of film noir. Very powerful and very moving.

suggestions

Big Brown Eyes (1936)
directed by Raoul Walsh
cinematography by George Clemens



Two wonderfully surreal images, especially when divorced from the
rest of the film.

I haven't found any movie visually earth-shattering lately.
Perhaps those Mexican spectacles have raised the bar to unattainable heights?
Did Five knock out all other competition?

Does anyone out there have any suggestions, requests?
I'd love to hear about more movies to track down.

single shot - pearls of the deep

Perlicky na dne (1966)

aka Pearls of the Deep

(which segment I didn't record - if you know, leave a comment)

singles shot - daisies

Daisies (1966)