Film and TV Viewing Log - May 2015
Once Upon a Time in America
May has been a good month of film watching, especially on the big screen, in Dubai, Sharjah and London.
Standouts:
- Watching Once Upon a Time in America: Extended Director's Cut in London at the Brixton Ritzy. Wrote about it here.
- Watching The Tribe at ICA in London. This film from Ukraine has been getting great reviews from last year, so I was glad I managed to see it in London. Not a single spoken word was uttered, the whole film was in sign language acted deaf non-actors. A harsh and brutal film set in a school for the deaf.
- Mad Max: Fury Road was such a thrill. I watched it twice.
- Really enjoyed watching It Follows by David Robert Mitchell in the cinema (wrote about it here) and I also managed to see his first film, The Myth of the American Sleepover. Not a horror like It Follows, but still focuses on teens - a very toned down and warm film about teenagers. Looking forward to see what he works on next.
- Two film screenings in Sharjah during the Sharjah Biennial Meetings, there were lots of long and drawn out talks, but the two film screenings were my highlights. The impromtu screenng of Out on the Street by Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk which premiered at the Berlinale earlier this year and Eliso aka Caucasian Love by Nikoloz Shengelaia a film from the Soviet Union made in 1928.
- The National Gallery by Frederick Wiseman, a fly on the wall three hour documentary about the National Gallery in London. Very dense and insightful.
- Deep Red by Dario Argento from 1975. Despite the hammy acting, it had some scenes that freaked. me. out. Once to add in my list of favourite horror films.
- Seeing Stanley Kubrick's first feature film Fear and Desire. Some dramatic close up shots in this and signs of his greatness that would appear in his later films.
- May also known as Eurovision month and to those that don't know me, I LOVE Eurovision, so I watched everything I could related to it, including the competition of course. It's an annual tradition.
Films
★★★★
Eliso aka Caucasian Love (Nikoloz Shengelaia, 1928)
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
The Myth of the American Sleepover (David Robert Mitchell, 2010)
Once Upon a Time in America: Extended Director's Cut (Sergio Leone, 1984, 2012)
The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014, Ukraine)
Out on the Street (Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk, 2015)
Mad Max:Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2015)
★★★★
Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)
Zorba the Greek ( Michael Cacoyannis, 1964)
Nocturno 29 (Perre Portabella, 1968)
Mon Oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra, 1971)
Deep Red (Dario Argento, 1975)
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (David Gelb, 2011)
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (Chuck Workman, 2014)
The National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
Dior and I (Frédéric Tcheng, 2015)
★★★
Fear and Desire (Stanley Kubrick, 1953)
The Man with the Golden Arm (Otti Preminger, 1955)
Diary of a Pregnant Woman (Agnès Varda, 1958)
Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski, 1962)
The Girl on a Motorcycle (Jack Cardiff, 1968)
Oh, Moon / A Ay (Reha Erdem, 1989, Turkey)
Me Without You (Sandra Goldbacher, 2001)
Code 46 (Michael Winterbotton, 2003)
C.R.A.Z.Y. (Jean-Marc Vallee, 2005)
Where the Truth Lies (Atom Egoyan, 2005)
Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso, 2008)
Involuntary (Ruben Östlund,2008)
Dingomaro (Iran, Kamran Heidari, 2013)
Industrial Soundtrack For the Urban Decay (Amélie Ravalec & Travis Collins, 2015)
★★
Broken Specs (Ted Fendt, 2012)
Travel Plans (Ted Fendt, 2013)
★
Tomorrowland (Brad Bird, 2015)
TV
Top of the Pops: The Story of 1978 (BBC)
Eurovision at 60 (BBC)
Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Eurovision's Greatest Hits concert (BBC)
Links to previous film and TV viewing log:
January 2015
February 2015
March 2015
April 2015