3 Films to Watch
A short run-down of a few films I want to bring to lockdown light.
I love film. Recently, as per lockdown, I’ve been able to watch a few. Here are 3 I want to recommend. I hope they do something for you!
#1:
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
dir. Ching Siu-tung
(aka Tony Ching)
A Chinese Ghost Story is definitely the lightest pick on the list. I was originally recommended it as part of a course on the history Ancient & Medieval China… safe to say, I wasn’t expecting the fun little B-Movie as I got.
A tax collector is down on his luck, thanks to townsfolk, guardsmen, and an unfortunate torrent of rain. The only place he can stay the night is an old, abandoned Daoist temple. An hour later, he’s fighting the god of the Underworld with a flying, rapping, monk-swordsman, and the ghost of a dead woman under his arm.
It happens to be one of Hong Kong’s most popular films (something of a cult classic), a top 100 in China’s motion picture history, and a loose adaptation of a Qing dynasty short story. There is a 2011 remake I cannot speak to.
Something strange was afoot. The Monk threw upon the cauldron: ‘Head soup!’
As long as you don’t mind subtitles, this absurd and short horror-comedy will lift your spirits!
A Chinese Ghost Story is available free on Amazon Prime for subscribers in the UK at the time of this writing.
#2:
The Lighthouse (2019)
dir. Robert Eggers
I am not adding much to the conversation by recommending the Lighthouse, but I’m going to do it anyway. Snubbed by the Oscars, the Lighthouse is everything a cosmic, supernatural, psychological, Lovecraftian, mythic horror film aspires to be. New England. 1890s. Delicious black-and-white, boxed-in cinematography; terrific Melvillesque script; mythic visual metaphors and artistic allusions. It’s extremely quotable. It’s great.
(Dafoe:) Doldrums. Eviler than the Devil. Boredom makes men to villains, and the water goes quick, lad. Vanished. The only medicine is drink. Keeps them sailors happy, keeps them agreeable, keeps them calm, keeps them…
(Pattinson:) Stupid
I first watched The Lighthouse upon release — pre-Covid, that is — and was instantly enamoured. A quick Google search can tell you why. That is, if you love Greek myth, creative symbolism, filmic metaphor, and prepared for an ambiguous, amusing, existential tale, then you’ll appreciate this.
My rewatch was much more recent. What stuck out this time around was the meticulous descent into the truly maddening, engrossing aspects of this picture. It’s long, slow, tiring at times — much like the duties of Robert Pattinson’s Ephraim Winslow — but ultimately sets up for a great meditation on gas lighting, guilt, subjectivity, and human will.
Gregory Ellwood of The Playlist wrote over the 2nd trailer:
“Robert Pattinson vs. Willem Dafoe. It’s that simple and that excellent”
and he is right in every sense. Even if the story does not snare you, the sheer quality of the acting, and deliverance of a complicated script, will at least leave you in appreciation.
How long have we been on this rock? Five weeks? Two days? Where are we?
…there’s something familiar in that one.
The Lighthouse has to be purchased or rented on UK streaming services as of the time of this writing.
#3:
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
dir. Sergio Leone
People love The Godfather. I love The Godfather. Once Upon a Time is a complicated film, but to me, at least, The Godfather trilogy falls short of it.
Leone’s last, and regrettably the only film of his I have seen, this gargantuan deserves a lot more than I’m prepared to say in this short recommendation. Instead, I will point towards this great exploration in the canon of the American Gangster, and, with a warning of some spoilers, suggest you consider the points made there:
I think Once Upon a Time is important for a few reasons, boiled down to three chief points: firstly, what this film did for cinema at large, especially in the shadow of the comparably well-remembered Godfather films; secondly, the monumental scope and complex realisation of who these people actually were; thirdly, the score. Morricone’s work is ethereal and beautiful to the point that it at times weighs down on the rest of the film. That is, despite some incredible cinematography, raw performances, and delicate yet extremely uncomfortable characterisation.
It was gutted at release, which is a story in-and-of itself, touched upon by the late critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. In many ways, the versions available are still incomplete, it is said, and one can see why. Easily, a trilogy this film could be, and to many viewers, should be.
That’s because this film is difficult to recommend.
Superficially, the only versions worth watching are tremendously long — my viewing was 3 hours and 49 minutes long. For contrast, the Irishman, a film I’ve heard considered too bloated (an opinion I disagree with), is 3 hours and 30 minutes. And the version of Once Upon a Time that most fans would recommend is the full 250 minutes — 4 hours and 10 minutes.
Much more importantly, I think, and a source of analysis that has led to accusations of misogyny, is the films handling of sex, and in cruel particulars, rape. There are at least 2 brutal counts of it, if not more, depending on how you interpret events. Understandably for many, this is too far, and worth bearing in mind if you are on the fence about this film.
However, both of those caveats are not indulgence or vanity, at least not the way I read it. This is a film about the entire life of a group of gangsters; it is no power fantasy, no glorification of the vile acts committed — Leone is aware of these tropes, the vehicle of the gangster for audience transplant and insertion, and proves (arguably, once and for all in the genre) just how disgusting that point of view is regarding this subject matter. This is not escapism, despite the sublime presentation. It’s tragic, and at times meandering, and at times very strange, but honestly, it is one of the favourite films I have ever yet seen.
And, should you choose not to watch Once Upon a Time, I at least implore you to spend 5 minutes watching this great compilation of the cinematography and soundtrack (as is preserved so well by the wonderful work of this channel). Perhaps — purely aesthetically — it may sway your mind.
Once Upon a Time in America is available free on Amazon Prime for subscribers in the UK at the time of this writing.
Thank you for spending time reading this little work. I hope you enjoyed it enough to stick around for more!
A couple of questions for the comments:
Where does the American Gangster stand in film today? Is it outdated? Did Leone “kill” it as an archetype?
and:
Where do you stand on subtitled work? Two of the films here are not in contemporary English vernacular — one a foreign film, the other following a period script — does that make it difficult for you to watch? Why?
