Movies I’ve recently seen: October 30

Here are five films that I’ve seen since July. I watched them simply because I wanted to watch them. Here are the films:

• Killers of the Flower Moon
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• Lynch/Oz
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

A Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

There’s very little about indigenous people In Martin Scorsese’s new movie. Besides, these are very wealthy  Osage “Indians” who hit oil and have a very comfortable life. But the white men in the community (including Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio) set out to do murder so that the money is in white hands. Lily Gladstone plays the very rich woman who marries DiCaprio’s character and falls for him.

I saw this film at the big auditorium at the Elmwood – a terrific place to see this movie. The film runs almost three hours and a half. Amazingly, I never needed a toilet break.

A Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

In the depths of the depression and the pre-Code era, director Rouben Mamoulian created the best Jekyll and Hyde movie I’ve yet to see. It displays brilliant photography, extremely slow dissolves, London fog, and makeup effects that seemed impossible with the technology of the time.  Fredric March stars as the doctor/brute; the wonderful Miriam Hopkins plays a prostitute.

A- Lynch/Oz (2022)

One of the first things you discover in this film about film is that The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life” are very similar. I never realized that. But this documentary is called Lynch/Oz, not Capra/Oz. If you watch many of David Lynch’s works, you’ll soon understand that Oz is one of Lynch’s major muses. Despite the Oz theme, this is not a film for children. Basically, the film is six filmmakers talking about Lynch and Oz.

B+ The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)

“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” Oscar Wilde turned the British upper class into a group of idiots. One young woman will only marry a man named Earnest. Two close male friends seem to scheme against each other. Brilliant dialog runs through the film, and everything gets very ridiculous. The film is based on Oscar Wilde’s hilarious 1895 stage play. The film looks very much like a theater piece – but instead it’s a stage filled with the glorious British actors of the day, such as Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans, and the wonderful Margaret Rutherford.

B- Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (1975)

If you don’t know about Jacques Brel, he was a French singer and songwriter. His songs were provocative, political, and sometimes religious (or anti-religious). The film shows Brel and several of his collaborators singing powerful songs – mostly in English. At first, the film is exceptional, but it’s just too much as the songs go by.