The 1964 Mini-List
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swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
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swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
Some scattered thoughts...
The "Other French New Wave" set has a lot of great finds, and several of them pertain to this year. I'd particularly recommend Le Chat dans le sac, a lovely but rambunctious coming-of-age tale and 23 Skidoo, a haunting, poetic short exploring the aftermath of some kind of apocalyptic incident.
Fathomless
Most of Jim Davis' films do essentially the same thing, so if you vote for one, by the transitive property you must vote for them all. Which is something I can live with.
Good Times, Wonderful Times
For those that prefer their social commentary in sandwich form, this film devotes one delectable layer to those having wonderful times and another to those merely having good times (i.e. war victims, mostly). This is a bonus film on Milestone's release of Rogosin's On the Bowery.
Guns at Batasi
An excellent, suspenseful dad film by the underappreciated John Guillermin. This was also Mia Farrow's first film role, unlike anything else in her filmography that I've seen, but she fits.
Paris When It Sizzles
This was even more delightful than I remembered. Also funny that in Quine's two films this year, one jokes about how Tony Curtis looks like Jack Lemmon while the other jokes about how Tony Curtis looks like Tony Curtis.
The Up Series
So I watched this whole thing over the course of a week (including 63 Up which was new to me) and boy, I just don't know what to do with it. It probably has about as much meaning and importance as you ascribe to life itself, which admittedly comes and goes in waves for me lately. Which is not to say that it has no meaning, but more that it's just a bunch of random things that happen. Some undoubtedly powerful moments, with some others grasping at straws, perhaps to compel meaning in those many cases when it isn't particularly felt. Most of the subjects come to resent the series, and Apted has to ask a few too many times "Is what we're doing important?" It's interesting when some of the subjects call him out for pigeonholing them, but Apted doesn't do much following these encounters to alter course. It's particularly grating how he keeps referring to Neil's recitation of the trite aphorism "Life is what happens when you're making other plans" but then also repeatedly exploits his situation with lines like Then again, it can also be funny how some of the participants take advantage of the platform afforded them by the series, only bothering to participate when they want to shine a light on something they happened to be passionate about the year that entry was shot. If 63 Up turns out to be the last entry though, it would be a terribly anticlimactic way to go out, with several participants either not having much new to report or dropping out altogether. (I'm also not sure I want to know how all these people handled COVID or Brexit, though we do get a little taste here of what's to come with that.) I don't even know that there's any one entry to single out as a highlight of the series (other than the entries shot on film clearly looking superior to the ones shot on video). It probably varies by age for each participant.
The "Other French New Wave" set has a lot of great finds, and several of them pertain to this year. I'd particularly recommend Le Chat dans le sac, a lovely but rambunctious coming-of-age tale and 23 Skidoo, a haunting, poetic short exploring the aftermath of some kind of apocalyptic incident.
Fathomless
Most of Jim Davis' films do essentially the same thing, so if you vote for one, by the transitive property you must vote for them all. Which is something I can live with.
Good Times, Wonderful Times
For those that prefer their social commentary in sandwich form, this film devotes one delectable layer to those having wonderful times and another to those merely having good times (i.e. war victims, mostly). This is a bonus film on Milestone's release of Rogosin's On the Bowery.
Guns at Batasi
An excellent, suspenseful dad film by the underappreciated John Guillermin. This was also Mia Farrow's first film role, unlike anything else in her filmography that I've seen, but she fits.
Paris When It Sizzles
This was even more delightful than I remembered. Also funny that in Quine's two films this year, one jokes about how Tony Curtis looks like Jack Lemmon while the other jokes about how Tony Curtis looks like Tony Curtis.
The Up Series
So I watched this whole thing over the course of a week (including 63 Up which was new to me) and boy, I just don't know what to do with it. It probably has about as much meaning and importance as you ascribe to life itself, which admittedly comes and goes in waves for me lately. Which is not to say that it has no meaning, but more that it's just a bunch of random things that happen. Some undoubtedly powerful moments, with some others grasping at straws, perhaps to compel meaning in those many cases when it isn't particularly felt. Most of the subjects come to resent the series, and Apted has to ask a few too many times "Is what we're doing important?" It's interesting when some of the subjects call him out for pigeonholing them, but Apted doesn't do much following these encounters to alter course. It's particularly grating how he keeps referring to Neil's recitation of the trite aphorism "Life is what happens when you're making other plans" but then also repeatedly exploits his situation with lines like
SpoilerShow
Is Neil still homeless? Tune in tomorrow night to find out!
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therewillbeblus
- Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
I watched the Up series at the start of COVID and while it was an interesting experiment, I was less enamored with it than I had hoped to be. Neil and John were the only two people I was really interested in- Neil for perhaps more obvious mental health and personal reasons, and John because he evolved to evade his stereotype as a conceited elitist, and even worked hard to challenge that perception by Apted et al. that seemed to be a consequence of narrative manipulation within documentary.
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dustybooks
- Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:52 am
- Location: Wilmington, NC
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
First-time viewings for me (confession: I edited down my LB reviews for some of this post):
Kwaidan (Kobayashi): Aesthetically seductive enough that it would have been enjoyable to me even if I didn't find the stories beguiling, but once I keyed into their glacial, almost ponderous grooves, three of the four got me. The weakest of the lot is the opener which is set up gloriously (with a premise not dissimilar to Harakiri) but falls apart when its initially terrifying climax dissipates thanks to an effect/twist that calls to mind the X-Files episode about the mystical cat that attacks Scully. Luckily nothing else here is nearly that undignified, and the two middle stories are outstanding, particularly The Woman of the Snow, about an enigmatic attack in the woods and its long shadow over its survivor. The film's centerpiece Hoichi the Earless is even more startling, even as its story of a musician being called upon by spirits feels almost comfortingly traditional. The stories are never outright horrifying, more pleasantly unnerving and spooky, and they sit afterward as twisted dreams. And I think it's safe to say it's one of the most beautiful color films of its time, fully harnessing the benefits of its expressionistic, wildly inventive sets and backgrounds.
Woman in the Dunes (Teshigahara): Forgetting its mythological implications and its remarkably effective toying with the dimensions of a primal sexual relationship for just a moment, this is such a purely classic and brilliant piece of storytelling, even divorced from any metaphor or subtext. Its supremely effective evocation of what confinement actually feels like, and its astonishing visual exploitation of its improbable setting meld beautifully with its sense for the tactile, its mountains of sand one of the most palpable textures I've ever witnessed in cinema. And at the end of it all, after all the mutual loneliness and fear, there are the cracks in the dunes but there really are the cracks in the resolve of Niki, a perfectly fallible creature in the beginning and at the end, a portrait of the wonderful, cursed adaptability of humankind. This is one hell of a movie and I've never seen anything like it.
The Naked Kiss (Fuller): Liked this more than Shock Corridor but still less than Fuller’s earlier films. I think it’s down to the performances and production values — they’re not bad but they seem too frivolous not to crumble under the actual weight of the material, which is as surprising and ahead of its time as ever. Constance Towers is good but doesn’t quite work as a reformed temptress, at least past the bombshell opening scene, which promises a kind of Kiss Me Deadly-like outrageousness that the movie doesn't otherwise deliver; the rest of her role seems almost Deborah Kerr-ish, or maybe I’m just saying that because this film expertly invokes the Creepy Kids Singing trope just like The Innocents. Anyway, it’s fascinating, I just feel like the seams are very evident.
The Americanization of Emily (Hiller): The title character, who really isn't in the film as much as you'd expect, gives a good talking to then falls in love with crass American Naval officer James Garner, a pencil pusher who generally avoids combat. Garner and James Coburn occupy the bulk of the screen time figuring in a lot of black comic business revolving around the use of the pending Normandy invasion for a pro-Navy publicity stunt that results in low-key confusion, hijinks, etc. There’s good dialogue by Paddy Chayefsky and I laughed heartily at one joke involving a camera and a ceiling, but I didn't feel that the farcical stuff fit very well with Emily’s own sobering plight and the final social point about the celebration of death as heroism.
Marriage Italian Style (De Sica): Nearly as crass as the earlier Pietro Germi film that shares 2/3 its name and vastly more monotonous, this “comedy” revolves around Marcello Mastroianni's decades-spanning maltreatment of a prostitute he meets during the war. Sophia Loren is good as the object of his... desire isn't the word, I'm not sure what is... but frankly it isn’t much more difficult or challenging a role than Mastroianni’s very familiar contribution and falls back mostly on stereotypes; the film worships her, but it also worships her misery.
One Potato, Two Potato (Peerce): If you divorce this fine, regionally-made drama (shot in Ohio) from the social purpose it explicitly claims in its closing text crawl, it stands on its own as a remarkably downbeat drama that plays up every human outgrowth of its scenario: two office workers of different races fall in love in 1964. The cast of skilled character actors overplays none of the film's many heavy scenarios, approaching everything in the script with restraint even though, nearly without exception, every scene features the worst possible outgrowth of the premise playing out: friends being weird, stress accumulating, exes getting involved, a custody fight, etc. The finale is viscerally upsetting, and the entire film really makes Hollywood's/Stanley Kramer's take on this subject a few years later look particularly whitewashed.
The Chalk Garden (Neame): Much of the enjoyment in this low-key battle-of-the-wits drama derives from Deborah Kerr and Hayley Mills interacting as prickly, enigmatic governess and wildly angry pre-adolescent respectively; both are credible, and the atmosphere of the film is both austere and wise, addressing childhood loneliness and the pathological attention-seeking that (in this case) results with atypical compassion. It stops short of really delving into the dark riskiness it flirts with, such that the third-act revelation feels weirdly undersold, and it won't make my list but it's well-directed and generally admirable.
Red Desert (Antonioni): There's no way I can defend how much this movie, and apparently Antonioni in general, rankles me without sounding like Cinephile1's most loathed and ignorant countrymen. So I'll just keep things pleasant and say that I absolutely loved the storytelling sequence about the lone girl on the beach.
Revisits:
Seven Days in May (Frankenheimer): Still feel about the same as before about this; there's a whole spate of dramas of American political intrigue from this period starting (?) with Advise and Consent, running through The Best Man, The Manchurian Candidate, Fail Safe and even -- since it does involve the President and the joint chiefs -- Dr. Strangelove. I'm curious about the specific reasons for this. Was it something to do with Kennedy's presidency specifically, or this period in the Cold War (the Cuban Missile Crisis would have happened while several of them were already being shot or at least written)? I've read a lot about the '70s Cinema of Paranoia but not really about this phenomenon. At any rate, putting this side by side with Manchurian it barely even feels like the same filmmaker -- the urgency just isn't there, and as great a writer as Rod Serling was, the monologues really having that typewriter-clacking effect of some of his later teleplays. There's something to be said for how subtle this narrative is, though, and how eerily it evokes the current Jan. 6th hearings since it does concern a coup attempt even if it comes from another direction entirely.
Marnie (Hitchcock): This film was a big risk for Hitchcock since it concerns itself primarily with changes inside a person, after a run of films in which "big" things are constantly happening; I think it conquers the idea of trauma and repressed memory far more effectively than Spellbound, even if commonalities between the two show these were long-standing specific concerns for the director (no matter how much David O. Selznick and his time in therapy influenced the earlier film). It's of course a beautiful production and a great example of Hitchcock using the camera as an extension of his lead character's psyche; I know there's a lot of debate over whether the matte paintings and rear projection are intended to look as awkward as they do but the content of the story certainly does leave that open to interpretation even if by accident. For me this time the telltale scene is early on: Marnie's first interaction with her mother who's lavishing a neighborhood girl with the kind of attention she never deemed her actual daughter worthy of receiving. It's a devastating moment, recalled adroitly when -- even as the film ends -- her mother still can't stand to be touched by her. I don't think this is one of Hitchcock's best films but it's one of the most fascinating and ripe for discussion and analysis.
Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick): There are those who don't find this film funny, and I respect that because that's life, but it's completely the opposite for me: I've seen it more than any of the above films by far and I still find humor in more lines (or, specifically, line readings) than I can count. And somehow its cynicism, which really spoke to my teenage self, still works in a way that the anti-authority undertones of Paths of Glory don't entirely, even though I also love that film... but when a movie owns its cartoonishness like Strangelove, it seems like less of a strain than when that same over-the-top villainy slips into an otherwise serious film.
Also: last month I rewatched The Pink Panther before I realized it counted for '64 -- also a film whose humor isn't likely to find much favor with people who didn't grow up with it like I did, but what I really enjoy about this one (besides the balletic bedroom sequence, which significantly does nothing to move the plot forward) is the atmosphere, music, etc., just pure jet-set '60s nonsense, I can't not love a movie that takes me there.
Kwaidan (Kobayashi): Aesthetically seductive enough that it would have been enjoyable to me even if I didn't find the stories beguiling, but once I keyed into their glacial, almost ponderous grooves, three of the four got me. The weakest of the lot is the opener which is set up gloriously (with a premise not dissimilar to Harakiri) but falls apart when its initially terrifying climax dissipates thanks to an effect/twist that calls to mind the X-Files episode about the mystical cat that attacks Scully. Luckily nothing else here is nearly that undignified, and the two middle stories are outstanding, particularly The Woman of the Snow, about an enigmatic attack in the woods and its long shadow over its survivor. The film's centerpiece Hoichi the Earless is even more startling, even as its story of a musician being called upon by spirits feels almost comfortingly traditional. The stories are never outright horrifying, more pleasantly unnerving and spooky, and they sit afterward as twisted dreams. And I think it's safe to say it's one of the most beautiful color films of its time, fully harnessing the benefits of its expressionistic, wildly inventive sets and backgrounds.
Woman in the Dunes (Teshigahara): Forgetting its mythological implications and its remarkably effective toying with the dimensions of a primal sexual relationship for just a moment, this is such a purely classic and brilliant piece of storytelling, even divorced from any metaphor or subtext. Its supremely effective evocation of what confinement actually feels like, and its astonishing visual exploitation of its improbable setting meld beautifully with its sense for the tactile, its mountains of sand one of the most palpable textures I've ever witnessed in cinema. And at the end of it all, after all the mutual loneliness and fear, there are the cracks in the dunes but there really are the cracks in the resolve of Niki, a perfectly fallible creature in the beginning and at the end, a portrait of the wonderful, cursed adaptability of humankind. This is one hell of a movie and I've never seen anything like it.
The Naked Kiss (Fuller): Liked this more than Shock Corridor but still less than Fuller’s earlier films. I think it’s down to the performances and production values — they’re not bad but they seem too frivolous not to crumble under the actual weight of the material, which is as surprising and ahead of its time as ever. Constance Towers is good but doesn’t quite work as a reformed temptress, at least past the bombshell opening scene, which promises a kind of Kiss Me Deadly-like outrageousness that the movie doesn't otherwise deliver; the rest of her role seems almost Deborah Kerr-ish, or maybe I’m just saying that because this film expertly invokes the Creepy Kids Singing trope just like The Innocents. Anyway, it’s fascinating, I just feel like the seams are very evident.
The Americanization of Emily (Hiller): The title character, who really isn't in the film as much as you'd expect, gives a good talking to then falls in love with crass American Naval officer James Garner, a pencil pusher who generally avoids combat. Garner and James Coburn occupy the bulk of the screen time figuring in a lot of black comic business revolving around the use of the pending Normandy invasion for a pro-Navy publicity stunt that results in low-key confusion, hijinks, etc. There’s good dialogue by Paddy Chayefsky and I laughed heartily at one joke involving a camera and a ceiling, but I didn't feel that the farcical stuff fit very well with Emily’s own sobering plight and the final social point about the celebration of death as heroism.
Marriage Italian Style (De Sica): Nearly as crass as the earlier Pietro Germi film that shares 2/3 its name and vastly more monotonous, this “comedy” revolves around Marcello Mastroianni's decades-spanning maltreatment of a prostitute he meets during the war. Sophia Loren is good as the object of his... desire isn't the word, I'm not sure what is... but frankly it isn’t much more difficult or challenging a role than Mastroianni’s very familiar contribution and falls back mostly on stereotypes; the film worships her, but it also worships her misery.
One Potato, Two Potato (Peerce): If you divorce this fine, regionally-made drama (shot in Ohio) from the social purpose it explicitly claims in its closing text crawl, it stands on its own as a remarkably downbeat drama that plays up every human outgrowth of its scenario: two office workers of different races fall in love in 1964. The cast of skilled character actors overplays none of the film's many heavy scenarios, approaching everything in the script with restraint even though, nearly without exception, every scene features the worst possible outgrowth of the premise playing out: friends being weird, stress accumulating, exes getting involved, a custody fight, etc. The finale is viscerally upsetting, and the entire film really makes Hollywood's/Stanley Kramer's take on this subject a few years later look particularly whitewashed.
The Chalk Garden (Neame): Much of the enjoyment in this low-key battle-of-the-wits drama derives from Deborah Kerr and Hayley Mills interacting as prickly, enigmatic governess and wildly angry pre-adolescent respectively; both are credible, and the atmosphere of the film is both austere and wise, addressing childhood loneliness and the pathological attention-seeking that (in this case) results with atypical compassion. It stops short of really delving into the dark riskiness it flirts with, such that the third-act revelation feels weirdly undersold, and it won't make my list but it's well-directed and generally admirable.
Red Desert (Antonioni): There's no way I can defend how much this movie, and apparently Antonioni in general, rankles me without sounding like Cinephile1's most loathed and ignorant countrymen. So I'll just keep things pleasant and say that I absolutely loved the storytelling sequence about the lone girl on the beach.
Revisits:
Seven Days in May (Frankenheimer): Still feel about the same as before about this; there's a whole spate of dramas of American political intrigue from this period starting (?) with Advise and Consent, running through The Best Man, The Manchurian Candidate, Fail Safe and even -- since it does involve the President and the joint chiefs -- Dr. Strangelove. I'm curious about the specific reasons for this. Was it something to do with Kennedy's presidency specifically, or this period in the Cold War (the Cuban Missile Crisis would have happened while several of them were already being shot or at least written)? I've read a lot about the '70s Cinema of Paranoia but not really about this phenomenon. At any rate, putting this side by side with Manchurian it barely even feels like the same filmmaker -- the urgency just isn't there, and as great a writer as Rod Serling was, the monologues really having that typewriter-clacking effect of some of his later teleplays. There's something to be said for how subtle this narrative is, though, and how eerily it evokes the current Jan. 6th hearings since it does concern a coup attempt even if it comes from another direction entirely.
Marnie (Hitchcock): This film was a big risk for Hitchcock since it concerns itself primarily with changes inside a person, after a run of films in which "big" things are constantly happening; I think it conquers the idea of trauma and repressed memory far more effectively than Spellbound, even if commonalities between the two show these were long-standing specific concerns for the director (no matter how much David O. Selznick and his time in therapy influenced the earlier film). It's of course a beautiful production and a great example of Hitchcock using the camera as an extension of his lead character's psyche; I know there's a lot of debate over whether the matte paintings and rear projection are intended to look as awkward as they do but the content of the story certainly does leave that open to interpretation even if by accident. For me this time the telltale scene is early on: Marnie's first interaction with her mother who's lavishing a neighborhood girl with the kind of attention she never deemed her actual daughter worthy of receiving. It's a devastating moment, recalled adroitly when -- even as the film ends -- her mother still can't stand to be touched by her. I don't think this is one of Hitchcock's best films but it's one of the most fascinating and ripe for discussion and analysis.
Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick): There are those who don't find this film funny, and I respect that because that's life, but it's completely the opposite for me: I've seen it more than any of the above films by far and I still find humor in more lines (or, specifically, line readings) than I can count. And somehow its cynicism, which really spoke to my teenage self, still works in a way that the anti-authority undertones of Paths of Glory don't entirely, even though I also love that film... but when a movie owns its cartoonishness like Strangelove, it seems like less of a strain than when that same over-the-top villainy slips into an otherwise serious film.
Also: last month I rewatched The Pink Panther before I realized it counted for '64 -- also a film whose humor isn't likely to find much favor with people who didn't grow up with it like I did, but what I really enjoy about this one (besides the balletic bedroom sequence, which significantly does nothing to move the plot forward) is the atmosphere, music, etc., just pure jet-set '60s nonsense, I can't not love a movie that takes me there.
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ryannichols7
- Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:26 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
busy month between moving and upgrading to 4K (and wanting to watch all those movies again!) but I'm pushing through it. like my dear friend dustybooks I will edit down some of my Letterboxd reviews
Diamonds of the Night: a revisit, which I mentioned in my last post I watched for the first time during the 60s project. I actually ended up watching it two more times this goaround - for my money this is right up there with The Cremator as the best of all Czechoslovak films I've seen thus far (along with another coming later..), and MichaelB if you read this thread I'm sorry I haven't gotten to your commentary yet. I just love films where its moreso about the image and feeling rather than any sort of plot. the atmosphere is obviously so tense and uneasy but there's something oddly calming about all of it, bug crawling scenes aside. I just love all the memory looks at Prague and this certainly feels like one of many films directly influenced by Last Year at Marienbad and even Ivan's Childhood (my #1s for 61 and 62!), the latter of which would make for a great double feature here. there are so many stories of the loss of innocence during the Holocaust, but this one may tell the tale most effectively in my eyes, without needing much of the way of dialogue or dramatics at all. it just feels so brilliantly catered to my taste and and is a phenomenal way to spend 68 minutes.
La Peau Deuce: I already do not enjoy Jules and Jim but somehow Truffaut (who I usually love!) made a film I despise even moreso. sorry to any fans but I find this one pretty pitiful and outrageous, with an ending so completely unearned for a film already so maddening. all the airport stuff was good though, I always look for that sort of thing in movies (plenty of it this decade!) and it didn't disappoint in that regard. shame everything else did, but Truffaut would go back to making movies I like soon enough.
The Naked Kiss: agree word for word with dustybooks, we watched this in tandem. again like I said for Shock Corridor, these two films represent exactly what I thought Samuel Fuller was until I saw Pickup on South Street and Forty Guns - extremely schlocky b-movie type deals. he's a better director than this, but its a fun enough time this goaround.
Assassination: as mentioned before Pale Flower is my favorite film of this year (I do plan to contribute to the film club thread about it) and #2 of the decade overall but I'd never seen the other film Shinoda made this very year. it's fine as a period piece but gets wildly convoluted in parts to where its tough to keep up and would need some more historical context I guess. feels like a for-hire job to me but retains Shinoda's strong sense of visuals.
A Fistful of Dollars: when I was younger I didn't like the Dollars trilogy films and I hadn't revisited them in awhile, thinking I would be more a fan this time. alas, I was correct at the very least about this first one, which I find to be very empty and overly plotty. I prefer Westerns moreso when there's a much simpler story (Stagecoach has 9 lead characters but still ends up simple), and maybe even a more laid back tone - but I know its unfair to compare this to any American western. I love Clint Eastwood in this role still, but as good as the score is, its awfully repetitive isn't it? I'm hoping the other two movies hold up better.
Intentions of Murder: sorry twbb and others who love this one, I really wanted to and certainly liked it more than The Insect Woman but it felt a bit retread-y of that one and dragged on far too long and was a little too miserable for me. a shame, because after how bold and audacious Pigs and Battleships felt, these last two felt like I was being dragged through the mud for the whole runtime. Imamura remains incredibly deft in his direction though, I'm almost always in awe of how he does what he does.
Gate of Flesh: I didn't realize this would make for a good double feature with the Imamura film, nor did I realize Suzuki ever got this political with his commentary. this totally still has his usual style and flair and is a ton of fun, but the commentary on Japanese society and its attitude towards sex work is far more engaging to me than Imamura or Nagisa Oshima's studies of the same issues. I always joke that Suzuki's films are among the emptiest that I enjoy, but there's plenty of substance here and I loved it a lot more than I thought I would. it's bold, exciting, and still has you thinking at the end of it. along with Pigs and Battleships its the defining study so far of the Japanese-American relationship after the war, and is one of the more progressive films I've seen lately that I enjoyed because it didn't feel overly preachy - I feel like it would go over well with modern viewers, and had me wondering if Seijun Suzuki would be a fan of...Spring Breakers??
...And the Fifth Horseman is Fear: an all out masterpiece and another one I watched twice, I'll try and keep this short and post my thoughts in its dedicated thread (our Second Run forum could always use more activity - they link to us on their own site!) but this joins The Cremator and Diamonds of the Night in my top tier for the Czechoslovak New Wave. so much is done here with mood, tone, and memory and everything is kept at an incredibly hypnotic rhythm. this is a prime example of showing other directors you do not need to shock your audience or wallop them over the head with your themes and gut punch endings (I really do not like The Shop on Main Street, which this film pre-dates and does way better with the same air I think), instead relying so much more on the fear and terror that come with repetition and the implications of what is to come. it's not entirely horrific though as this is also the Czech film I've seen so far that reminds me most of Franz Kafka, with the absurdism and anxieties rivaling much of his best work, often being funny, whether intended or not. Miroslav Macháček (who I knew from František Vláčil's films) gives the performance of a lifetime here as Dr. Braun - I cannot praise this film enough, you absolutely must see it.
Yearning: sad to say I'm not fully sold by this one, as I feel Naruse goes a little too far down the dramatist/soap opera rabbit hole towards the end here, with again a gut punch ending that feels unjust. but Hideko Takamine is awesome in the lead role (as usual) and I remain enamored by its depiction of small town Japan and its growth against supermarkets and the like. I wish there was more of that here, and wish there was more of the mundane (I love the mahjong scenes and country inn) but Naruse uses all of it as a red herring to tell this love story I just can't really get on board with nearly as much. its wrong to compare him to his Japanese contemporaries (I hate being reductionist like that) but let me just say I wish it was all as subtle as the brilliant and much discussed sequence on the train, which feels like a precursor to the iconic scene in Spirited Away, ironically the best scene and both films. and both have cheaply thrown in, convoluted love stories that get shoehorned in at the last minute, hmm...
I have some slim pickings left but Pasolini, The TAMI Show (I wanna crank this loud but haven't had the chance yet), and revisits of Dr. Strangelove and the beguiling Woman in the Dunes seem to be the priorities. I'd like to finally see Black God White Devil but Kino hasn't restored or released it quick enough for this project! I'll hunt it down. I also watched My Way Home thinking it was 64 for some reason, we all do it
Diamonds of the Night: a revisit, which I mentioned in my last post I watched for the first time during the 60s project. I actually ended up watching it two more times this goaround - for my money this is right up there with The Cremator as the best of all Czechoslovak films I've seen thus far (along with another coming later..), and MichaelB if you read this thread I'm sorry I haven't gotten to your commentary yet. I just love films where its moreso about the image and feeling rather than any sort of plot. the atmosphere is obviously so tense and uneasy but there's something oddly calming about all of it, bug crawling scenes aside. I just love all the memory looks at Prague and this certainly feels like one of many films directly influenced by Last Year at Marienbad and even Ivan's Childhood (my #1s for 61 and 62!), the latter of which would make for a great double feature here. there are so many stories of the loss of innocence during the Holocaust, but this one may tell the tale most effectively in my eyes, without needing much of the way of dialogue or dramatics at all. it just feels so brilliantly catered to my taste and and is a phenomenal way to spend 68 minutes.
La Peau Deuce: I already do not enjoy Jules and Jim but somehow Truffaut (who I usually love!) made a film I despise even moreso. sorry to any fans but I find this one pretty pitiful and outrageous, with an ending so completely unearned for a film already so maddening. all the airport stuff was good though, I always look for that sort of thing in movies (plenty of it this decade!) and it didn't disappoint in that regard. shame everything else did, but Truffaut would go back to making movies I like soon enough.
The Naked Kiss: agree word for word with dustybooks, we watched this in tandem. again like I said for Shock Corridor, these two films represent exactly what I thought Samuel Fuller was until I saw Pickup on South Street and Forty Guns - extremely schlocky b-movie type deals. he's a better director than this, but its a fun enough time this goaround.
Assassination: as mentioned before Pale Flower is my favorite film of this year (I do plan to contribute to the film club thread about it) and #2 of the decade overall but I'd never seen the other film Shinoda made this very year. it's fine as a period piece but gets wildly convoluted in parts to where its tough to keep up and would need some more historical context I guess. feels like a for-hire job to me but retains Shinoda's strong sense of visuals.
A Fistful of Dollars: when I was younger I didn't like the Dollars trilogy films and I hadn't revisited them in awhile, thinking I would be more a fan this time. alas, I was correct at the very least about this first one, which I find to be very empty and overly plotty. I prefer Westerns moreso when there's a much simpler story (Stagecoach has 9 lead characters but still ends up simple), and maybe even a more laid back tone - but I know its unfair to compare this to any American western. I love Clint Eastwood in this role still, but as good as the score is, its awfully repetitive isn't it? I'm hoping the other two movies hold up better.
Intentions of Murder: sorry twbb and others who love this one, I really wanted to and certainly liked it more than The Insect Woman but it felt a bit retread-y of that one and dragged on far too long and was a little too miserable for me. a shame, because after how bold and audacious Pigs and Battleships felt, these last two felt like I was being dragged through the mud for the whole runtime. Imamura remains incredibly deft in his direction though, I'm almost always in awe of how he does what he does.
Gate of Flesh: I didn't realize this would make for a good double feature with the Imamura film, nor did I realize Suzuki ever got this political with his commentary. this totally still has his usual style and flair and is a ton of fun, but the commentary on Japanese society and its attitude towards sex work is far more engaging to me than Imamura or Nagisa Oshima's studies of the same issues. I always joke that Suzuki's films are among the emptiest that I enjoy, but there's plenty of substance here and I loved it a lot more than I thought I would. it's bold, exciting, and still has you thinking at the end of it. along with Pigs and Battleships its the defining study so far of the Japanese-American relationship after the war, and is one of the more progressive films I've seen lately that I enjoyed because it didn't feel overly preachy - I feel like it would go over well with modern viewers, and had me wondering if Seijun Suzuki would be a fan of...Spring Breakers??
...And the Fifth Horseman is Fear: an all out masterpiece and another one I watched twice, I'll try and keep this short and post my thoughts in its dedicated thread (our Second Run forum could always use more activity - they link to us on their own site!) but this joins The Cremator and Diamonds of the Night in my top tier for the Czechoslovak New Wave. so much is done here with mood, tone, and memory and everything is kept at an incredibly hypnotic rhythm. this is a prime example of showing other directors you do not need to shock your audience or wallop them over the head with your themes and gut punch endings (I really do not like The Shop on Main Street, which this film pre-dates and does way better with the same air I think), instead relying so much more on the fear and terror that come with repetition and the implications of what is to come. it's not entirely horrific though as this is also the Czech film I've seen so far that reminds me most of Franz Kafka, with the absurdism and anxieties rivaling much of his best work, often being funny, whether intended or not. Miroslav Macháček (who I knew from František Vláčil's films) gives the performance of a lifetime here as Dr. Braun - I cannot praise this film enough, you absolutely must see it.
Yearning: sad to say I'm not fully sold by this one, as I feel Naruse goes a little too far down the dramatist/soap opera rabbit hole towards the end here, with again a gut punch ending that feels unjust. but Hideko Takamine is awesome in the lead role (as usual) and I remain enamored by its depiction of small town Japan and its growth against supermarkets and the like. I wish there was more of that here, and wish there was more of the mundane (I love the mahjong scenes and country inn) but Naruse uses all of it as a red herring to tell this love story I just can't really get on board with nearly as much. its wrong to compare him to his Japanese contemporaries (I hate being reductionist like that) but let me just say I wish it was all as subtle as the brilliant and much discussed sequence on the train, which feels like a precursor to the iconic scene in Spirited Away, ironically the best scene and both films. and both have cheaply thrown in, convoluted love stories that get shoehorned in at the last minute, hmm...
I have some slim pickings left but Pasolini, The TAMI Show (I wanna crank this loud but haven't had the chance yet), and revisits of Dr. Strangelove and the beguiling Woman in the Dunes seem to be the priorities. I'd like to finally see Black God White Devil but Kino hasn't restored or released it quick enough for this project! I'll hunt it down. I also watched My Way Home thinking it was 64 for some reason, we all do it
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ChunkyLover
- Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2020 8:22 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
Shouldn't "Major Dundee" be removed from this list since it's 1965 film?
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therewillbeblus
- Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
Le Chat dans le sac (aka The Cat in the Bag) is a cool discovery from Canadian International Pictures' The Other French New Wave vol. 1 set. It's tougher to pin down what works so well about it compared to, say, a Godard film that leans much deeper into its ideas, but I think the shallowness and repetition serve the film's interests. There are moments that posture toward paths hinting at intricate wisdoms, and then dissipate as we move onto the next thing sans the degree of substance we expect and, more importantly, that the characters expect from their interactions. The same goes for one of the main principal's observations late in the film that is ambiguously a memory for a short while, the camera chaotically shaking him from an attempt to find catharsis in the observance and instead providing us an abstract voiceover on broad topics like chance and meaning when he inevitably- and quickly- disengages, caught up in the cognitive rabbit hole of 'self'.
The characters' half-realized, fleeting observations on gender roles and responsibility in political action reflect their immaturity and inability to grasp onto the tangibility they seek to achieve self-actualization. They oscillate between obsessing over 'Why' they live inert lives and finding serenity from these moments of pause to appreciate the present, before returning back to the Sisyphean spirals of the mind that take them out of time. They question the nature of their reality, wonder why they do the things they do, waste time and feel bad and good about it, talk about being strangers -not only to others but to themselves. The conversations don't encourage insight so much as disrupt and complicate one's attempts to comprehend and accept the way they're living, imbuing a self-consciousness reinforced by social interaction rather than solely isolated self-construction. The type of engagement with another person that often liberates us from our own prisons only exacerbate philosophical dysphoria here, and it's a brilliant reapplication of the 'hurt people hurt people' rationale onto the experience that those who feel impotent and frustrated with their impotence will project this onto their intimates to evade the perceived loneliness of this condition.
I guess it was just as hard to be a couple during the counterculture boom as it is now, both times of unhinged and overwhelming change, collectivism and individuality clashing like tidal waves on rocks. The denouement's reversion into self-focused enlightenment is also incredibly ambiguous and self-critical. The man's rationale that his decisions in the relationship were "all about finding myself" can be read as a helpful reframe or a defense mechanism to remain closed-off from others, and complacent in avoiding the work around vulnerability and true growth that such an ironic explanation empowers. Ultimately he's left knowing as little as he did going in, as are we, and as we all were guilty of in youth and when contending with formidable systems and bottomless questions of self-exploration. I think the film is implicitly stressing that disillusionment is not unique, and even if it acknowledges that our experiences matter, they can't matter so much that distract us from the opportunity to achieve sobering displacement from our egocentricity, as that's where we'll find the answers to these problems weighing us down.
The characters' half-realized, fleeting observations on gender roles and responsibility in political action reflect their immaturity and inability to grasp onto the tangibility they seek to achieve self-actualization. They oscillate between obsessing over 'Why' they live inert lives and finding serenity from these moments of pause to appreciate the present, before returning back to the Sisyphean spirals of the mind that take them out of time. They question the nature of their reality, wonder why they do the things they do, waste time and feel bad and good about it, talk about being strangers -not only to others but to themselves. The conversations don't encourage insight so much as disrupt and complicate one's attempts to comprehend and accept the way they're living, imbuing a self-consciousness reinforced by social interaction rather than solely isolated self-construction. The type of engagement with another person that often liberates us from our own prisons only exacerbate philosophical dysphoria here, and it's a brilliant reapplication of the 'hurt people hurt people' rationale onto the experience that those who feel impotent and frustrated with their impotence will project this onto their intimates to evade the perceived loneliness of this condition.
I guess it was just as hard to be a couple during the counterculture boom as it is now, both times of unhinged and overwhelming change, collectivism and individuality clashing like tidal waves on rocks. The denouement's reversion into self-focused enlightenment is also incredibly ambiguous and self-critical. The man's rationale that his decisions in the relationship were "all about finding myself" can be read as a helpful reframe or a defense mechanism to remain closed-off from others, and complacent in avoiding the work around vulnerability and true growth that such an ironic explanation empowers. Ultimately he's left knowing as little as he did going in, as are we, and as we all were guilty of in youth and when contending with formidable systems and bottomless questions of self-exploration. I think the film is implicitly stressing that disillusionment is not unique, and even if it acknowledges that our experiences matter, they can't matter so much that distract us from the opportunity to achieve sobering displacement from our egocentricity, as that's where we'll find the answers to these problems weighing us down.
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swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
Not sure how that ever wound up here since all the information I'm looking at now calls it 1965. I've only received one 1964 ballot so far and it didn't receive a vote there, so I should be able to move it to 1965 now without things getting too messy. Thanks for catching this!ChunkyLover wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 7:06 pmShouldn't "Major Dundee" be removed from this list since it's 1965 film?
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therewillbeblus
- Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
I really liked the short Percé on the Rocks, which plays a bit like Brigitte et Brigitte 's manic sightseeing episode only less pronounced and on a beach. The humor is incredibly broad, with kittenish playfulness, Godardian rapid edits, and wry juxtapositions between monotonous historical explanations coupled with imagery of a woman crying over it, creating multifaceted deadpan art in film grammar. It's wildly inconsistent and messy, but I don't think it's trying to do anything other than throw any impulsive idea at the wall to see what sticks, and there's something to admire there that might become grating and repetitive if it was longer than ten minutes. Worth checking out if you have The Other French New Wave vol. 1 set.
Also, I wish I had voted for The Rink for '62, which is just a delightful montage of people enjoying a day at an ice rink. It's one of those shorts that could've missed the mark, but the sublime is captured so well that it reached a cumulative spiritual height I didn't expect after the underwhelming rote hockey-playing of the first few minutes.
Also, I wish I had voted for The Rink for '62, which is just a delightful montage of people enjoying a day at an ice rink. It's one of those shorts that could've missed the mark, but the sublime is captured so well that it reached a cumulative spiritual height I didn't expect after the underwhelming rote hockey-playing of the first few minutes.
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alacal2
- not waving but frowning
- Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2008 1:18 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
If it's any consolation to dustybooks I'm with him on Red Desert et al. Me and Antonioni just don't get on I'm afraid . And to share any of the wrath he thinks may bear down on him I'll confess to finding Monica Vitti 'tiresome'.
On a completely separate note my most welcome discovery this year has been The Fifth Horseman is Fear - a stunning piece of cinematic choreography. This will comfortably find a place in my top ten in what is a highly competitive field (Antonioni not withstanding!)
On a completely separate note my most welcome discovery this year has been The Fifth Horseman is Fear - a stunning piece of cinematic choreography. This will comfortably find a place in my top ten in what is a highly competitive field (Antonioni not withstanding!)
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ryannichols7
- Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:26 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
so I admit I bugged him about Antonioni for years as he'd only seen Blow Up, which I'm not a fan of. I love La Notte, L'Eclisse, Red Desert, and especially The Passenger, though admittedly the first three have all dropped down my personal standings as I've been going through this project. not because I like them any less (I see more glaring flaws in L'Eclisse and Red Desert now though), but because I like other movies more.alacal2 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 7:34 amIf it's any consolation to dustybooks I'm with him on Red Desert et al. Me and Antonioni just don't get on I'm afraid . And to share any of the wrath he thinks may bear down on him I'll confess to finding Monica Vitti 'tiresome'.
On a completely separate note my most welcome discovery this year has been The Fifth Horseman is Fear - a stunning piece of cinematic choreography. This will comfortably find a place in my top ten in what is a highly competitive field (Antonioni not withstanding!)
I am really glad we agree on Fifth Horseman - I really try not to be too much of a Second Run shill but the discoveries I make from their catalog often amaze, and this one is one of the very best. it'll be right up near the top of my list for sure, I already find myself wanting to watch it again!
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Toland's Mitchell
- Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:42 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
I agree with ryannichols's Diamonds of the Night feedback. I appreciate how Němec told this Holocaust story without showing much concentration camp scenes (if any? maybe in a flashback?). Instead, he used atmosphere and ambiguity to depict its crushing effects on the minds of its main characters, two teenage boys who've escaped a train, left to wander the countryside pursued by the Nazis. Large chunks of this film were flashback sequences of their pre-war life in Prague, or dream sequences of their return home. One particular dream sequence that stuck with me showed one of them reaching his hometown, but German soldiers were still patrolling the street, and he was still wearing his concentration camp clothes. To me, this made the point that while the boys may have temporarily escaped, there was no escape for them in the long run because they had no home to return to, and their country had been occupied. While it's left unclear at the end whether they had been captured or if they were still roaming through the woods, their situation was hopeless either way. It's an unconventional structure for a Holocaust film, but it's impactful nonetheless.
As for Intentions of Murder, I was questioning if the film was going too far with the woman's misery and suffering, for the film began by depicting her oppressed role within her own household, only to then be attacked, raped, and blackmailed by a home intruder. Indeed, the film is dark and heavy for its 2.5 hr runtime, but ultimately I found the film successful as a story of self-growth and asserting one's position in the world, even if her desired gain at the end hardly compensates for all the wrongs done against her. Still, as rough as it gets, I wouldn't describe it as being dragged through the mud (if there's a 1964 film I recently watched that fits that description, it's Gertrud). Like Diamonds of the Night, I think this film will land on my list ranked somewhere in the 8-15 range.
Lastly, I thought Yearning was wonderful. I don't have much to add to Matt's write-up up-thread. In the words of Rayon Vert, it's a cinch for my top 10.
As for Intentions of Murder, I was questioning if the film was going too far with the woman's misery and suffering, for the film began by depicting her oppressed role within her own household, only to then be attacked, raped, and blackmailed by a home intruder. Indeed, the film is dark and heavy for its 2.5 hr runtime, but ultimately I found the film successful as a story of self-growth and asserting one's position in the world, even if her desired gain at the end hardly compensates for all the wrongs done against her. Still, as rough as it gets, I wouldn't describe it as being dragged through the mud (if there's a 1964 film I recently watched that fits that description, it's Gertrud). Like Diamonds of the Night, I think this film will land on my list ranked somewhere in the 8-15 range.
Lastly, I thought Yearning was wonderful. I don't have much to add to Matt's write-up up-thread. In the words of Rayon Vert, it's a cinch for my top 10.
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therewillbeblus
- Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
I had no idea how strong this year was for comedies until I began to assemble my list (my top ten, while subject to change, is currently 60/40 comedy, though this decade also features some pretty depressing works to strike a balance!)
If anyone wants a good laugh, I'd recommend Sex and the Single Girl, Bedtime Story, Paris When It Sizzles, Kiss Me, Stupid, Man's Favorite Sport?, and the Kubrick of course, if you've somehow not seen it yet. Pretty timely, if that's the case (tho I suppose it's timeless because it's always timely)
If anyone wants a good laugh, I'd recommend Sex and the Single Girl, Bedtime Story, Paris When It Sizzles, Kiss Me, Stupid, Man's Favorite Sport?, and the Kubrick of course, if you've somehow not seen it yet. Pretty timely, if that's the case (tho I suppose it's timeless because it's always timely)
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knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
On the other hand I’ve got only three comedies in my whole list. Pretty good year though as I couldn’t even fit the wonderful Hawks in.
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therewillbeblus
- Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
Probably as good a time as any to recommend two excellent six-word horrors that place easily this decade: At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul and The Masque of the Red Death, which I imagine feature prominently on your list as well. This is a weird year where it's hard to whittle down to 25 but it may be the weakest year as far as what made my top 50 for the decade. Lots of great movies that fall short of all-time status
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swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
As a reminder, there are just a few more days left to vote for this year
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alacal2
- not waving but frowning
- Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2008 1:18 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
A brief shout-out for Michael Winner's The System. Whilst it won't make my list this struck me as a much underrated and moving film about disillusion and worth a look.
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therewillbeblus
- Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
Agreed, I was surprised my how much I liked it a few years ago. My thoughts:
therewillbeblus wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 10:32 pmI thought this was a very beautiful and involving take on an unoriginal tale. Many films have bypassed the difficulty in actually dissecting toxic reserved masculinity by inserting a cure vis an extrinsic force of the ‘right’ woman to challenge one’s identity and reveal a sensitive, warm gooey center. This isn’t much different but there’s enough filler in style and offbeat glimpses of natural action divorced from the plot to make this film feel alive in ways many British new wave movies don’t to me. Smaller blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments like a woman pressing her face against the glass watching a man she loves speak to a crowd has nothing to do with our main story but feels as authentic and akin to the actions captured in the nouvelle vague. Roeg manipulating the camera probably explains a lot of why each frame feels like a fresh set of eyes are seeing the same routine. None of the main characters were particularly appealing, but props go to the smaller parts, specifically that same woman who pressed her face to the glass - Suzy - who gets an absolutely heartbreaking and genuine scene towards the end that really cuts to the bone of the vulnerable youthful angst the film is aiming for. This isn’t likely something I’ll be in a rush to watch again anytime soon, but I can’t deny that every shot carried a calculated creative energy making the film an enjoyable experience in the moment even if not particularly memorable with further distance from the viewing.
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alacal2
- not waving but frowning
- Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2008 1:18 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
I was much impressed with Winner's earlier film - West 11 - which manages to transcend its derivative setting helped in no great part by the haunted performance of Alfred Lynch. It would have been interesting to see what he would have made of Oliver Reed's role.
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MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
Winner was a genuinely interesting director throughout much of the Sixties - West 11 and his Oliver Reed quartet are all well worth seeing. I agree that The System is no masterpiece and its visual virtues are at least as likely to be thanks to Nicolas Roeg as anyone else, but when the Indicator disc came out a few years ago it was fun seeing all the surprised reactions. (“What, Michael Winner made this? That Michael Winner?”)
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swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
As a reminder, you have until end of the day tomorrow to vote for this year. If I've already received a list from you, I've sent you a PM to confirm
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swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
I'm just realizing I had Skolimowski's Identification Marks: None listed under its Polish title Rysopis on the ballot. As such, I almost overlooked it myself. If anyone wants to change their already submitted ballot because of this, please PM me today
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therewillbeblus
- Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
I've actually found this to be an issue with several titles across the single-year projects (I almost missed Manji because it was listed as Swastika). I don't want to ask to double up the work in writing titles in both their native language and English, but the inconsistency has definitely affected my lists during most if not all of the lists projects thus far, once the results come up. Not a big deal either way (I would ask about anything in my top ten that's not showing up), just worth noting
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swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
So here's the thing: There are already 193 titles on the list for 1964 (more than usual, so no wonder it's so hard to narrow this year down to 25). If I repeated films under their alternative titles and alphabetized everything, let's say that leaves us with a list of 300. That's that much larger of a list to search through when filling out your ballot, plus maybe 100 titles where I'd have to manually combine the results afterward (no thanks). I could of course present alternative titles on the same line without duplication, and "Swastika [Manji]" doesn't take up much space, but would you still miss it if it wasn't alphabetized under 'M'?
I do want to make this as user-friendly as possible though so I'm open to suggestions. For the time being, the best I can think of is the disclaimer "To avoid disappointment, I recommend closely reading through the whole list, in case I've assigned anything a different title or year than you were expecting."
I do want to make this as user-friendly as possible though so I'm open to suggestions. For the time being, the best I can think of is the disclaimer "To avoid disappointment, I recommend closely reading through the whole list, in case I've assigned anything a different title or year than you were expecting."
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therewillbeblus
- Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm
Re: The 1964 Mini-List
Yeah I don’t think there’s an easy or optimal resolution and I really appreciate all the work you’re doing. I just wanted to flag that this is a ‘thing’ I’ve encountered regularly beyond the Polish title you mentioned. Maybe I’ll just flag the titles I notice as having dual translations going forward, like you did with this one, but I also don’t want to populate the thread with a bunch of FYI asterisks if that’ll get annoying