Friday, March 31, 2023

Viewings: March 2023

Geoff Murphy's The Quiet Earth (1985) and Narciso Ibáñez Serrador's The House that Screamed (1969) were my favourite discoveries this month. Two vastly different films; two unforgettable endings.

March proved to be a noteworthy month for blogs I read on the regular: The Martorialist shared his Desert Island DVDs; Ashton wrote fresh film reviews again; and British Horror Films returned to the fold after its winter hiatus


Film:

 The Haunted Castle (F. W. Murnau, 1921)*

Kansas City Confidential (Phil Karlson, 1952)*

The World, the Flesh and the Devil (Ranald McDougall, 1959)*

Orgy of the Dead (Stephen C. Apostolof, 1965)*

Funeral in Berlin (Guy Hamilton, 1966)

The House that Screamed (Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, 1969)*

Soldier Blue (Ralph Nelson, 1970)*

Bloody Moon (Jesús Franco, 1981)

The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 1985)*

Killer Party (William Fruet, 1986)

Infernal Rapist (Damián Acosta Esparza & José Medina, 1988)*

Croupier (Mike Hodges, 1998)

Sin City (Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino, 2005)

Triangle (Christopher Smith, 2009)

Avengement (Jesse V. Johnson, 2019)*

Cocaine Bear (Elizabeth Banks, 2023)*

Consecration (Christopher Smith, 2023)*

The Whale (Darren Aronofsky, 2023)*


Television:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Alan J.W. Bell, 1981) 

Teenage Diaries: In Bed with Chris Needham (Tony Steyger, 1992)*

The Doors - Morrison Hotel (John Albarian & Jeff Jampol, 2022)*

Mastermind Episodes 24 - 27 (Bill Wright, 2022 / 2023)*

 

*First time viewings. 


Dada Debaser Notes:

  • On the subject of unforgettable film endings: Soldier Blue, WTF?
  • Props to Chris Needham for staying true to the game long after the BBC doc.
  • Avengenment's The Horse & Jockey might not have made my fave movie pubs selection, but to its credit, it is the location for the best pub fight I've seen in ages.
  • Never even realised until now that was Peter Davison as the Dish of the Day in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
  • It's a shame about Ray Liotta, but Cocaine Bear is an early contender for worst film of 2023.
  • Had no intention to see The Whale, but that bridge troll's hilarious rant in The Guardian made me want to watch it. Rage bait done right!
  • Hilarious seeing Gaspar Noé recently in the Severin Cellar and acting like he was appearing on an episode of Supermarket Sweep. Can't front, I would've done the same:

"Go wild in the aisles!"

7 comments:

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Honoured to have inspired you to watch The Quiet Earth. That final combination of image and music is one of the most beautiful endings ever.

That Chris Needham song cranks way harder than Manslaughter ever did.

I watched some Mastermind this month now Only Connect has finished. It still slightly irks me how long some of the questions are, but G.O.A.T TV quiz theme foreverever.

Spartan said...

Inspirational or not, The Quiet Earth is so much better than The World, the Flesh and the Devil.

Always cracks me knowing the Mastermind theme was also heavily featured in an inept film like Delirium (1979).

I caught about a minute or so of an episode of Only Connect before immediately putting a film on. You were dead right about some of the contestants on it.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Truly some of the most annoying spods in Britain - which is part of the show's appeal IMHO. What I watched this month:

The World, The Flesh and The Devil
The Comedy Of Terrors
Billion Dollar Brain
Dance Craze (cinema)
Out Of Bounds

Rudies Come Back (documentary)
Ghosts (Children In Need special)
Wild Isles
Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild
Only Connect

Spartan said...

You watched the other official Harry Palmer sequel that was on TV this month.

Didn't realise the Israeli female agent in Funeral in Berlin was the same woman from the art gallery attack in Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage until this month.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Nah I've still not seen that.

Wasn't until after I'd watched Billion Dollar Brain that I realised Ken Russell directed it. It's definitely an Ipcress File sequel which could have only been directed by Russell 😄

Spartan said...

Ken Russell might have been the only director who could get Hugh Grant and Peter Capaldi to play it dead pan for the worm eating scene in Lair of the White Worm.

Spartan said...

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