Last Ten Film I've Seen Before the Last Ten Films I've Seen: Movies at the Beach

Greetings to our blog readers in Brazil, Slovakia and the Netherlands.

This entry is essentially the B-side of our entry in "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

In that entry, I mentioned the last ten films I saw. Well, before we got to those there were these ten which we viewed earlier in August, including three that I saw at a multiplex in Myrtle Beach, SC; two of which ("A Most Wanted Man" and "Macig in the Moonlight") were art films!

We also watched two films ("On the Waterfront" and "Oklahoma Crude") on TCM.

The images of the late Canadian magician Doug Henning (top), the map of Oklahoma and Lucy van Pelt letting Linus have it in a "Peanuts" panel are all related to the first three films on this list.

Here are the films:

1) Magic in the Moonlight. dir: Woody Allen. 2014. w/ Emma Stone

2) Oklahoma Crude. dir: Stanley Kramer. 1973. w/ Faye Dunaway

3) Lucy. dir: Luc Besson. 2014. w/ Scarlett Johansson

4. On the Waterfront. dir: Elia Kazan. 1954 w/Marlon Brando

5. A Most Wanted Man. dir: Anton Corbijn. 2014. w/ Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rachel McAdams.

6. Lincoln. dir: Steven Spielberg. 2012.

7. A Beginner's Guide to Endings. dir. Jonathan Sobol. 2010. w/ Harvey Keitel

8. Like Someone in Love. France/Japan. 2012. dir: Abbas Kiarostami (a famed Iranian directed)

9. The Iceman. dir: Ariel Vromen. 2012. w/Michael Shannon and Winona Ryder

10. The Grandmaster. Hong Kong. 2013. dir: Wong Kar Wai.

http://www.tcm.com

Next Ten Films We Hope to Stream from Netflix: Finding the 179 Minutes for Blue is the Warmest Color

It may be a while before we can get to all ten of these films, especially the French film "Blue is the Warmest Color," which was a sensation at the last Cannes Film Festival and is apparently one of the films which is being most streamed this week on Netflix. One problem is that the film does run for two hours and 59 minutes! It depicts a lesbian relationship between two teenagers and the film received an NC-17 rating here in the United States.

Other films on the list include the documentaries about death row ("Into the Abyss") and the revolution in Egypt ("The Square," which was nominated for an Oscar; the film was also started by a Kickstarter campaign).

Here is the list:

1) Blue is the Warmest Color (France. 2013. dir. Abdellatif Kechiche; top image)

2) Barbara (Germany. 2012, dir. Christian Petzold).

3) Upstream Color (2013. dir. Shane Caruth)

4) Pretty in Pink (1986. dir. Howard Deutch, love the soundtrack!)

5) Malena (Italy. 2000. dir. Giuseppe Tornatore)

6) Into the Abyss (doc. 2011. dir. Werner Herzog, middle image)

7) The Square (doc. 2013. dir. Jehane Noujaim)

8) Punch-Drunk Love (2002. dir. Paul Thomas Anderson; one of the best film roles of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman)

9) Alps (Greece. 2011. dir. Giorgos Lanthimos)

10) No One Knows About Persian Cats (Iran. 2009. dir. Bahman Ghobadi, bottom image)

http://www.netflix.com

https://www.kickstarter.com/

http://www.vadp.org/ (Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, based in Charlottesville)

http://tcadp.org/ (Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty)

http://apscaswell.org/ (Caswell County Animal Shelter in Yanceyville, NC, due south of Danville, Va)

http://baltimoreanimalshelter.org/ (Baltimore Animal Shelter)

http://www.wernerherzog.com/

The Best Films of 2012 (in my view)

Here are our list of our 20 favorite films that were released in our market place in the United States (we are a smaller city than New York or Los Angeles); let's jump in the pool:


1. "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia"

2. "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

3. "Jiro:Dreams of Sushi"

4. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

5. "Silver Linings Playbook"

6. "Zero Dark Thirty" (first image)

7. "Argo"

8. "A Separation" (Iran)

9. "Django Unchained"

10. "The Kid with a Bike" (France; second image)

11. "Pina"

12. "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

13. "The Dark Knight Rises"

14. "Damsels in Distress"

15. "Robot and Frank"

16. "Skyfall"

17. "Arbitrage"

18. "Moonrise Kingdom"

19. "The Master"

20. "Haywire"

Quote of the Day (South Korean Filmmaker Chan-wook Park)

We continue our 32 quotes from 32 people representing the 32 countries in The World Cup with a quip from South Korean film director Chan-wook Park (born 1963) whose most famous film "Oldboy" has been featured at midnight screenings around the world, including The Tower Theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is certainly hipper than a karaoke joint in nearby Provo (the town of Provo, Utah, reporetdly doesn't allow alcoholic beverages).

Today, the South Korean soccer team tied Nigeria 2-2 with goals from Lee Jung-Soo
(38th min.) and Park Chu-Young (49th min.) to reach the second round of The World Cup where they will face Uruguay on Saturday.

Here is the quote from one of our favorite Asian film directors:

"I have principles and rules. I deal very carefully with acts of violence and make sure that audiences understand how much suffering these acts cause."

SIDEBAR: Those of you residing in the Raleigh, NC-area can catch World Cup action at The Galaxy Cinema in Cary, which will show tomorrow afternoon's game between Australia and Serbia (2:30 p.m., kickoff) as well as other games throughout the week and the rest of the tournament. The Galaxy also 'kicks off' its Chinese Film Series on Thursday with "In the Mood for Love" (Hong Kong. 2000. dir-Wong Kar Wai)

And, a happy birthday to Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami who turns 70 today. He is best known for the film "Ten." No, that is not the one with Bo Derek!

Iranian Version of Salinger?!

I have to credit my good friend Bilge Ebiri for letting me know there is indeed an Iranian film version of J.D. Salinger's classic novel "Franny and Zooey".

The film "Pari," made in 1995, by director Dariush Mehrjui (we couldn't find an image of that film, so we are using the poster for "Gabbeh," which is one of my favorite Persian films) was adapted from the novel and it was screened internationally until it was set to be shown at an Iranian film festival at the Lincoln Center in New York in 1998.

It was then that the reclusive author's lawyers said showing the film was a copyright violation (one of the reasons the film was able to be made in Iran is because the country has no formal copyright laws).

Richard Pena, the programming director of the festival, told "The New York Times" in 1998 that Salinger's intervention caught him off-guard:

"It was assumed there was no prohibition on the film," Pena told reporter Jesse McKinley of the "NYT," "It's been around for a while."

Mehrjui said he was also stunned by what happened:

"This reaction is really quite bewildering." the director said. "I don't want to distribute the film commercially. It's a kind of cultural exchange. I just want to let the film be seen for critics and the people that follow my work."

Mehrjui is best known for his 1969 film "The Cow," which is considered to be a landmark film in Iran. His most recent film is "Santoori" (2007). Like "Pari," it is not available in the United States, but we presume that's for different reasons.