Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for thirty years. When he learns he has terminal cancer and has only months to live, he decides to try to find meaning in his life.
For most of July, I spent the month watching a bunch of movies starring or featuring Olivia de Havilland, as she was TCM’s Star of the Month in honor of her centennial. If I have time within the first couple of weeks, I’ll try to dedicate a post to some thoughts on the de Havilland…
In a South American village, four desperate men are hired to drive two trucks full of nitroglycerin to a remote oil field. As they journey through rough terrain on a suicide mission, each bump in the road tests their courage and their nerves.
June was a pretty busy month for me, but I managed to squeeze in a good number of movies anyway. On the personal front, two of my friends married each other last weekend, so I got to spend a couple of days back in my Southern California hometown. I’ve known the bride since preschool and…
During the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi (Marcello Pagliero) is on the run from the Nazis and seeks refuge at a friend’s place. There he meets his fiancé Pina (Anna Magnani), a war-worn widowed mother. As she’s also part of the resistance, she helps him contact Catholic priest Don Pietro…
May was another movie-filled month, as I watched the equivalent of a new-to-me movie a day, plus several re-watches. I suspect the coming months will see smaller numbers as I start an internship next week, so we’ll see if I’ll have the energy to watch as many movies as I usually do. Plus I’ve been…
Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) is a washed-up Broadway producer who seduces elderly women to finance his shows. When Max’s new accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) remarks that more money could be made with a flop, the two then scheme to put together the worst show possible, a musical called “Springtime for Hitler”.
In April I ended up watching more musicals than usual and even started the month off with one that was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture. This was also due in part to Judy Garland being TCM’s Star of the Month, though most of what I saw that I hadn’t seen previously were movies that showcased the…
Lulu (Louise Brooks) is a hedonistic but naive young woman whose alluring qualities capture the attention of the men around her. But her irresistible charms soon lead to tragedy, as her uninhibited nature brings ruin to herself and those who love her.
As I said in last month’s wrap-up post, I slowed my movie-watching a little for March, though not by too much. I finally saw some new releases this month as I took three trips to the theater, including one that’s bound to be one of my favorite films of 2016 by the end of the year. The…