Woman in the Dunes Uses Subtle Techniques To Chill You To The Bone

Some movies can make eloquent use of graphic on-screen violence to generate tension. John Carpenter's The Thing, for instance, is one of my all-time favorite horror movies because of how well it utilizes on-screen depictions of the titular monster destroying the people trapped at a polar outpost.  By contrast, there are also masterful examples of creating tension through keeping such elements off-screen, with Lynne Ramsey's work being an especially good example of this. Neither approach is inherently better, it just depends on what kind of story you're planning to tell. The latter method is utilized for Hiroshi Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes and in the hands of this gifted filmmaker, it really comes off splendidly.

The Characters in Onibaba Never Mask Their Conflict Between Each Other

At the start of Onibaba, a pair of samurai are wandering through tall grass when they're attacked by some kind of ferocious creatures. Are they being hunted down by a pack of raptors? Perhaps a deadly assassin? Turns out, it's two villagers, known only as Older Woman (Nobuko Otowa) and Younger Woman (Jitsuko Yoshimura), who are now attacking any samurai who wander into the field of tall grass they reside in so that they can sell their armor for money that they desperately need. At first, this process is done simply for survival, but an element of personal vengeance is incorporated into the proceedings once samurai Hachi (Kei Sato) returns home from an ongoing war to inform that Kicki, the Older Woman's song and the Younger Woman's husband. has perished in combat, another body lying on a battlefield somewhere.

Sing a Song of Passionate Romantic Turmoil With The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

There were a whole barrage of live-action musicals in the mid-20th century but none of them were quite like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.  A 1964 directorial effort hailing from French filmmaker Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, much like a typical opera and in the vein of certain beloved Broadway musicals such as Les Miserables or Hamilton, is wall-to-wall singing, everybody communicates through song, there isn't a note of speaking to be found here. Interestingly, unlike Les Miserables or Hamilton though, which have characters solely singing in traditionally organized musical numbers, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg makes no use of the usual parts of conventional cinematic musical numbers.

Come Sing Along With The Thoroughly Delightful Mary Poppins

I have been a Disney geek my entire life, to the point that my first word uttered on this planet was "Disney". I was doomed from the start to be a total nerd for all things Disney which is a key reason why I have such an encyclopedic knowledge of animated Disney fare and hold the man known as Walt Disney in such high esteem. Despite all of that though, I'd somehow never seen the movie Mary Poppins until just a few days ago. Perhaps the running time had put me off the movie as a lad, or perhaps because I wasn't as enamored with other classic live-action Disney movies as I was with classic animated Disney fare, but whatever the reason, Mary Poppins had evaded my eyeballs for over two decades of my life.

Bande à part (Band of Outsiders) Review (Classic Write-Up)

I try to pride myself as being a cinematic connoisseur, but alas, the works of famous French director Jean-Luc Godard have been a notable blind spot for me in the world of film. That changed two days ago when I viewed my first ever film from that particular filmmaker, Bande a part (Band of Outsiders). Needless to say, this 1964 feature not only whetted my appetite to check out other effort from Godard, but also proved as a superb experience in its own right separated from the rest of the filmography of the director.

Rudolph's Quality Endures To This Day

Welcome to 25 Days Of Christmas Pop Culture! From now until Christmas Eve, I'll be tackling one piece of Christmas pop culture! It could be a book, movie, TV special, song....so long as it's festive for this time of the year, it'll be checked out in this daily column!

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer had existed since 1939 as a book, and then became a Christmas Carol in 1949, but it wasn't until 1964 arrived that this holiday critter achieved true fame. Ya see, that was the year the Rankin-Bass Christmas special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer arrived. The special started a tradition of massively successful specials for Rankin-Bass, as well as cementing a monumental part of any holiday season.