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Peter Strickland recommended Only You (1994) in Movies (curated)

 
Only You (1994)
Only You (1994)
1994 | Comedy, Romance

"I saw this at Helsinki’s Love and Anarchy Film Festival, only missed the beginning of the film, and had to leave early to present my own film at another cinema. This was just a great debut. Really stripped down and honest without the frills and trappings that often come with first film insecurity. I was completely immersed in the couple’s predicament and to my shameful ignorance, there was so much I didn’t know about IVF prior to seeing the film. I’d only seen Josh O’Connor in “God’s Own Country,” but he was just as believable and brilliant in “Only You,” and Laia Costa completely pulled me into the depths of her frustrations. It was also great to see not only a European character in a British film, but also a European played by a European rather than a Brit putting on an accent, which is still often the case. I wonder how that will pan out after Brexit. I had to leave the cinema when the protagonists had a row towards its final minutes and still don’t know or want to know how it ended until I watch it again."

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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Wicker Man (1973) in Movies

Feb 18, 2018 (Updated Feb 18, 2018)  
The Wicker Man (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
1973 | Horror, Mystery
British folk-horror film is part of the mini-boom in 'British civil servant travels by seaplane to sun-obsessed Christopher Lee's remote island in search of missing girl, discovers Britt Ekland waiting for him' movies that happened in 1973-4. Devout Christian copper (Woodward) visits Summerisle (off the Scottish coast) after receiving a tip-off about a vanishing schoolgirl, is appalled by what he sees as the immorality of the islanders. The lord of the place (Lee) assures him that there's nothing to be worried about, they just have different ethical standards (they're all Pagans), but Woodward is not convinced. Is something nasty lined up for May Day?

Books have been written about the tortuous distribution endured by The Wicker Man and its producers; rumours persist that the original much longer version is buried under a motorway somewhere in England. But all the available cuts are excellent, if not superb: the film is not particularly scary per se, more a queasy examination of how society, morality and religion intersect with one another; manages to make moral relativism seem more disturbing than devil-worship, somehow. Has one of the greatest non-endings in cinema history. Great performances, banging tunes, thoughtful and playful script; a film for all seasons, but goes especially well with a barbecue.
  
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Andy K (10821 KP) Feb 18, 2018

Love this one!

Green for Danger (1947)
Green for Danger (1947)
1947 | Classics, Drama, Mystery
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Years ago, during those quaint days of DVD-by-mail rental, I made a dork pact with one of my friends that for several weeks straight we’d only watch films in the Criterion Collection. Additionally, they had to be films we didn’t know much about. The experience was a total revelation. There were so many amazing films that I discovered during those weeks that made me really rethink a lot of what I thought I knew about the history of cinema. Films like Ballad of a Soldier, Death of a Cyclist, René Clair comedies like À nous la liberté or Le million, American indie landmarks like Symbiopschycotaxiplasm and the stunning Ermanno Olmi pair from the early 60s Il posto and I fidanzati. But the one from this period that I always recommend to friends is Green for Danger, a delightful British murder mystery that I had never heard of."

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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Eagle Has Landed (1976) in Movies

May 22, 2018 (Updated May 22, 2018)  
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
1976 | Action, International, Mystery
Pretty reasonable, slightly silly all-star war movie; the Germans attempt to bring the Allies to the negotiating table by kidnapping Churchill. Sent on this improbable mission is Michael Caine's decent paratrooper officer and his men, and ridiculously Irish IRA man Donald Sutherland. Spoiler alert: Germany still loses the war.

Good performances, mostly, and some well-staged action in the closing sections of the film; what's curious about it is the way that the Germans are mostly presented sympathetically, at least as much as the British and American characters. It's a war movie without bad guys, but without much sense of moral or emotional investment either - as a result it's enjoyable as a piece of action cinema, but rather shallow. (It doesn't feel like the moral ambiguity is a deliberate creative choice: Caine thought the director was more interested in going fishing than in overseeing the final edit.) Fun in a disposable sort of way; you could be forgiven for expecting more, given the talent involved.