Is it the amazing Dersu Uzala? It’s a super atmospheric film, especially the scene where the pair build a hunt during a storm. It was Akira Kurosawa’s first film after a suicide attempt following Dodes’ka-den failing to recoup costs and leaving the legendary auteur unable to finance films in Japan. It’s also his first non-Japanese language film.
It did look distinctly Russian/ Siberian, but I’ll admit, I’ve not seen any of Kurosawa’s middle work. Anything between Yojinbo and Kagemusha.
Hai, tadashīdesu, Tovarisch! Won the Foreign Film Oscar in 1976.
The Roger Maris (61*):
The 1hr21min20sec:
“It will clear. Soil and Forest all sweating now.”
The Two Centuries:
“Dersu, give me your hand!”
The Beltway:
“Listen to this. Vova recorded Dersu” “Well, well.”
“I am flying in a blue sky, over the highest mountains, @MrTibbs”
The 61 makes me want to drop everything and watch the film again! Unfortunately, I won’t be able to post the new 20:20 until I get home from work, which is many hours away. :(
It is on my upper tier of Kurosawa films. Hard o say “favorite” And I think you’d like it, like I said earlier @Matt_W. Definitely @CraigM and @Jason_Levine. He really proved he could work at the highest level while outside of the Japanese film industry, in terms of crew, directing actors, etc.
Yeah, it’s definitely on my list now. Thanks!
Okay, apologies for the delay. Here’s a 20:20!
California Suite?
Similar palette, but it’s a different movie. I should add the 40:40!
Coming Home?
I was gonna guess that in the 20, but the hairstyle looked off. Hence I went with Suite
Nice job, abidingdude. It’s Hal Ashby’s Coming Home, which won the two big acting awards and original screenplay at the 1979 Oscars, but lost best picture and director to another Vietnam drama, Michael Cimino’s super bleak The Deer Hunter. I really love this movie. Jane Fonda and Jon Voight are incredible, as is Bruce Dern. The montage that closes the film across a Tim Buckley song never fails to give me chills.
Here’s the 60:60 (a drunken Dern)
80:80 (watching Voight on the news)
100:100
120:120 (Voight’s powerful speech to potential soldiers)
Over to you, buddy!
Yeah, Good job, @abidingdude. You fooled me Tibbs, that hairstyle is so staid for the film, because she is playing a caricature of a Marine Officer’s wife (with her husband who is a caricature).
You can tell what I think of the film. :)
Haha, the characters definitely lean towards, if not fall into, melodramatic tropes, and I don’t think anyone could call it subtle work. They’re three archetypes. I preferred the unusual rhythms and trauma of Cimino’s film, which I think stands up as one of the best films of the decade.
The original script’s ending was batshit crazy though. According to Nick Dawson’s Hal Ashby biography, it was going to close on Dern’s character firing a giant machine gun on the freeway, which would’ve been quite a tonal change. I was surprised to see that Coming Home was Ashby’s sole directing nomination.
Well, they are real people. Just real folk who went to war. Cimino was notoriously a visual director, and had issues at times dramatically directing actors. That film is a mystery in many ways. But Coming Home 's reputation was overblown because parts of Hollywood and the Academy felt they had to assuage their guilt regarding the Veterans after, you know, supporting movements that advocated spitting on them and calling them baby killers as means of protest (there are probably more effective and better ways to register opposition to a conflict)…
…hence Ashby’s nomination. He really deserved one for Being There, not Coming Home.
I’m totally nailing Jane Fonda (movies) lately. Will have new frames up in a few hours.
Apologies for the potentially spoilerific watermark. I couldn’t find a source without it. Your new 20:
Terms of Endearment?
Not ToE
The Hours?