Duck Soup

And this week's Friday Night movie has been... Duck Soup!

Original image located here. Accessed 28th April 2023

Anyone heard of this? This is a famous movie from the 1930s headed by the renowned comedy troupe the Marx Brothers.
I've said many times that it is a gamble visiting movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood (1910s-1960s) as they tend to date poorly. And the genre that suffers the ravages of time the most is the comedic movies. Still I do know of the Marx Brothers and I do recall, once upon a time, seeing and thoroughly enjoying Bringing up Baby (another comedy of the same era). So could this surprise me?

Needless to say I hadn't seen any of the Marx Brothers prior to this. I mean I knew who they were and of their distinct comedic personalities, I knew this particular movie was a rare excursion in political satire and I knew it angered Mussolini but I had never seen the Marx Brothers actually in action.
Actually, forget what I said about 1930s comedy aging: This is still pretty funny. Lots of sight gags, one-liners (courtesy of Groucho), physical comedy and a sense of bringing chaos to order. Even now the personalities the brothers have shine through and still work decades later. Interestingly enough, I grew up watching Looney Tunes and it's fascinating to see how that brand of humour can be traced back to these guys. In fact, a lot of these gags have indeed been replicated many times before but here they are still laugh out loud funny.
Remarkable how time has not ravaged this movie at all

Dersu Uzala

And this week's Friday Night movie has been... Dersu Uzala!

Original image located here. Accessed 21st April 2023

I have previously spoken about my efforts to explore the oeuvre of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. So we come to this: One of his lesser-known works.
This came about because Kurosawa wanted to do an adaptation of the novel by Russian author Vladimir Arsenyev. And he got a chance to do so when he was given Russian backing - so, with a Russian cast and crew, along with the opportunity to shoot in the wilderness of Siberia, Kurosawa came up with this movie.

When one thinks of Kurosawa, his samurai epics come to mind as well as his ability for orchestrating action scenes. But that is selling him short: He had a strength for his humanist approach to filmmaking and his subjects. And that is well and truly at play here. The titular character is a Mongolian man, well at home in the wild, and how he assists, and eventually bonds, with the captain of a Russian surveying expedition. It does make for a fascinating character study, with we the audience learning a lot about Uzala both as a character and his survival skills. Which makes the ultimate conclusion hit like a truck.
Another one of Kurosawa's strengths is his ability to conjure up beautiful shots. And here we have plenty of shots of the Siberian wilderness - it's all looking magnificent, especially considering that much of it isn't really accessible to human presence.
So yeah, an excellent movie with Kurosawa doing what he does best. Thoughtful and compelling tied with moments of beauty.

Boyhood

And this week's Friday Night movie has been... Boyhood!

Original image located here. Accessed 14th April 2023

I think we all know this one through how it was made:  movie that was shot over the course of twelve years, for one month a year, using the same cast thereby crafting a story that is showing a life playing out in real time. As the title suggests, the protagonist starts the movie as a six year old child and ends the movie as an adult. It's an impressive achievement and an effective selling point.

And to boil it down this movie is nothing short of a triumph.
As the years roll by and the more movies I watch, it can be a challenge for particular movies to stand out but this one does so. It is indeed remarkable to see a life playing out like it does and it does so with sincerity, addressing the concerns of a person through various stages of their youth. So props to the makers of this movie for addressing the subject with an honesty one would be pressed to find anywhere else.
Yep, definitely a gem here

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

And this week's Friday Night movie has been... The Adventures of Baron Munchausen!

Original image located here. Accessed 7th April 2023

I said I will be watching more movies from the mind of Terry Gilliam so here we are. Thing is, I have a bit of a history with this one: When I was younger, I heard it was one of the biggest box office flops of all time. Then one day, when I was 11, it was on TV so I watched the start of it. But for whatever reason I never got around to watching the rest of it. Well, today that changes: I will sit through this movie all the way to the end.

You know I have seen some weird movies in my time but this one manages to stand out from the rest purely because it revels in it's weirdness. And having seen Brazil earlier this year, it is interesting to compare the two movies as both take a playful approach to the distinction between fantasy and reality. The only difference is that this movie is a lot more humourous (and therefore owes the greater debt to Gilliam's background with Monty Python).
I certainly get what this was going for in that being a rebel against a society that preaches facts, favouring imagination over truth and living a life of wonder over reason. Subsequently, i can think of more than a few people who would hate this movie. XD
So yeah, this one is creative indeed, showing that, once again, the eighties were a fertile time for fantasy movies and Terry Gilliam is at the top of his game.