First-Time Watches - July Top 10
The Jokers (1967), directed by Michael Winner
Movies like this, with hip, above-it-all youths making a mockery of society, used to be omni-present in the 60s. This has Oliver Reed and Michael Crawford as well-off, incorrigible brothers who plot to steal the Crown Jewels just to prove they can. Secretly fairly conservative (as many of those swinging 60s films were), but breezy fun with London as a central character. This demonstrates the Michael Winner we could have had instead of the one who lost his mind and his ability to laugh some time around the box office success of Death Wish.
Voyage to the End of the World (1976), a film by Jean-Jacques and Phillipe Cousteau
A ubiquitous presence in the 60s and 70s thanks to his t.v. series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, occasionally Cousteau would get the budget for a feature length-big screen film that would enthrall adventure-hungry boys like me at the local bijou. This would be the last of its kind.
The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955)
Richard Fleischer's filmography is so remarkably diverse. As a big fan I have been attempting completism, a daunting task given the breadth and width of his career. I certainly never expected to be gob-smacked by this technicolor melodrama about the Stanford White killing in early 1900s Chicago, the basis of the novel and film Ragtime (Ray Milland is White, Joan Collins (!) is Evelyn Nesbit and Farley Granger, forever game to play a sexually ambiguous weirdo, is White's assassin, Harry Thaw). It is impossible to know if Fleischer had seen Max Ophuls' Lola Montes, released around this time, but the final shot echoes that masterpiece and deals with similar themes of scandalous figures becoming debased celebrities.
The Invite (2026)
Olivia Wilde's deftly handled third film, a riotous four-hander about denial. Joe and Angela (Seth Rogen and Wilde) are in a dissolving marriage. Angela invites their amorous upstairs neighbors (Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton) over as a way of opening up their horizons. They get more than they bargained for when it is revealed the neighbors are group sex enthusiasts, bent on inviting the stodgy Joe and Angela to play. Far more disheartening than titillating, but without any moralistic proselytizing. A bit of Woody, a bit of Rohmer, a bit of Cassavetes, but Wilde, shooting on 35mm and boldly confining the entirety of the movie to one apartment but making the space a character, makes this her own and marks herself as a major figure. See this in a theater while you still can. My audience was in stitches and then, when they went silent, it meant something.
Erupcja (2026)
Charlie XcX (a revelation here) and her boyfriend go to Warsaw, ostensibly for romantic purposes (he plans to propose). She encounters an old friend with whom she shares an almost mystical bond (whenever they get together, a volcano erupts somewhere in the world, triggering them to do irresponsible things together). Sure enough, Mt. Etna blows when they meet, and Charlie almost immediately becomes disinterested in her boyfriend. Would make a great double-pairing with The Invite as the feeling of a relationship being shattered is palpable and unnerving.
Hell Drivers (1957)
Frequent Big Heads contributor Cy Endfield once again displaying his dazzling ability to do anything. This one concerns the rivalries that form amongst a group of Long-Haul truckers in deeply working-class Britain. Stanley Baker, the perpetually wounded one, locks horns with an oily Patrick McGoohan to see who can deliver the most the fastest. Sounds like a bit of a dull premise for a movie, but Endfield directs it within an inch of his life.
A tonic that will cure us all.
Fata Morgana (1965)
Did you know there are over a dozen films by the name of Fata Morgana (roughly translated as "The Left Hand of Fate"), including one by Werner Herzog? This one, I found digging deep in the Cave of Forgotten Films, is from director Vicente Aranda, whom I knew from his striking giallo The Blood-Splattered Bride (1972). Highly stylized, drunk on Godard, Antonioni and Resnais. Inhabitants of a desolate Barcelona flee the city to escape an organized band of serial killers. Or something like that. Don't come for the plot, stay for the mid-century design, the couture and the jazzy score.
Her Private Hell (2026)
He came, he saw, he got eviscerated once again by critics, and he conquered. Listen, if NWR is not your thing, no amount of cajoling will change your mind. I will just say that while continually baffled by him I also find myself drawn into his insane vision, whatever in the world that happens to be.
Eno (2024)
The gimmick with this above-average rockumentary is that re-arranges itself – sequences, music – each time you view it, due to some juju software magic. I only tested it twice, but it definitely works. And, if like me, you are a Eno-head, you will find much more to like here beyond the gimmick. Not enough Roxy Music though, but then again, when is there?
