Last Ten Films We've Seen (as of Sept. 22nd): Some Pretty Violent Films

Greetings to our blog readers in Ireland, Jordan and Japan.

With two gangster films ("Killing List" and "The Drop") plus one horror film (the "Carrie" remake/reboot) in addition to a Turkish film dealing with domestic violence ("The Confession"), there are some quite violent films on the list.

But, there are light films as well, and since Ben Stiller's film "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," a remake of the 1947 Danny Kaye classic, is about daydreaming, we thought we'd post a photo of a Turkish babe in a hot black bikini, I suppose in Yemen, this entry will be censored.....oh well!

Boris Spassky, the great Russian chess player (top image) is being used in conjunction with "The Master," one of the great films in the acting career of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, and conversely the yellow crayon is for "I Am Curious Yellow," a steamy left-wing experimental Swedish film from 1967 which includes footage of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here are the last ten films we've seen (as of Sept. 22nd):

1. The Master. 2012. Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

2. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. 2013. Dir: Ben Stiller

3. The Lego Movie. 2014. Dirs: Phil Lord; Christopher Miller

4. The Drop. 2014. Dir: Michael R. Roskam (last film of James Gandolfini)

5. Killing List. 2011. Dir: Ben Wheatley

6. The Confession. Turkey. 2002. Dir: Zeki Demirkubuz

7. I Am Curious Yellow. Sweden. 1967. Dir: Vilgot Sjoman

8. The Great Beauty. Italy. 2013. Dir: Paolo Sorrentino

9. Nathalie. France. 2003. Dir: Anne Fontaire

10. Carrie. 2013. Dir: Kimberly Peirce.

Off the Beat and Path Quotes (4 of 6): Chris Marker

Today, we quote the late French experimental art film director Chris Marker, who was recently featured on TCM; his most famous film, the short "La Jetee" was remade as the feature "12 Monkeys" by Terry Gilliam, which starred Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis. Marker was often known for making films with left-wing themes.

Here is Marker's quote:

"Nothing sorts out memories from ordinary moments. It is only later that they claim remembrance, when they show their scars."

Quote of the Day- Lars von Trier

Today, we begin our series of quotes from famous Scandanavians with a quip from the provoacative, innovative and highly controversial Danish film director Lars von Trier, who has directed plenty of subersive films, usually with over political themes, including "Dogville" with Nicole Kidman and more recently "Anti-Christ."

The later film about a married couple with a fairly messed up, kinky relationship (to put it mildly) starred Willem Dafoe and the great Anglo-French actress/singer Charlotte Gainsbourg.

We are highly jealous of her long-time romantic partner actor/director Yvan Attal, whom she apparenly has never officially married. The couple had their second child on July 16, just five days before Gainsbourg turned 40.

Here is the quote from von Trier, which seems ironic, since one would never accuse him of modesty:

"I grew up in a culturally radical home, where strong emotions were forbidden."

SIDEBAR: As the six people who regularly read this blog know, we have a series that deals with countries that were once republics of the Soviet Union. Tomorrow, we are hoping to profile yet another one of these countries, perhaps Tajikistan, unless we've covered them before.

But, we learned today from the public radio show "The World" (we were alas not able to listen to the broadcast) that the Chu River Valley, which borders Kazakhstan and Krgyzstan, two former Soviet republics with mostly Muslim population that we have featured so far in the series, happens to ironically be a vast haven for marijuana growth!

Happy Birthday Mom, from Clint Eastwood

I wanted to wish my mom a Happy Birthday, and since we had a similar post with Dolly Parton on our other blog "The Daily Vampire," I thought I'd post a similar 'greeting' from another pinball icon Clint Eastwood.

Pinball machines with the famous Eastwood cinematic detective Dirty Harry (which originated with the 1971 film of the same name) were quite the rage some 25 years ago.

I saw one such machine at a restaurant in the hamlet of New Castle, Va., many years ago. They apparently go for between $2,000-2,300 on the Internet.

The film itself was the subject of considerable controversy. The late film critic Pauline Kael accused it of being a right-wing fascist exploitation piece which Eastwood has denied, citing that the film's director Don Siegel was liberal.

Interestingly enough, we learned from reading a Peter Biskind piece in his book "Gods and Monsters" that Kael also criticized the classic 1953 left-wing film "Salt of the Earth" about labor rights abuses for being mere Marxist propaganda.

Happy Birthday, mom, and thanks for getting me a Slinky for Christmas back in 1976 (when I was six years old). Alas, it is nowhere to be found today!