As you will see I watched A LOT of movies in October. The month began with my third trip to Pordenone in Italy for the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. The festival was again jam-packed with amazing film, mostly rarities from film archives and new restorations. I then watched several 2018 films (in theaters and on Netflix). Lastly, the month ended with the news that FilmStruck will be shutting down on November 29th (no worries, I still have a job!), so I have been binge-watching silent films and Japanese cinema. All of this resulted in a lot of cinema consumed. I discovered some new favorite directors and some truly awe-inspiring cinema. As always, you can see everything I watched plus some favorites after the cut.

1. Sperfuira! (The False Oath)
2. La Grande Bretèche
3. The Sealed Room
4. Always Keep To The White Line
5. The Covered Wagon
6. Satana (1912)
7. Parsifal (1912)
8. Das Geheimnis Der Marquise (The Marquise’ Secret)
9. Our Pet
10. Captain Salvation
11. Plus De Chauves (No More Bald Men)
12. Un Rayon De Soleil
13. Her Code of Honor
14. Schall Und Rauch (Sound and Smoke)
15. The Lincoln Cycle: My Mother
16. The Lincoln Cycle: My Father
17. Not’ Fanfare Concourt (Our Band’s Going To The Court)
18. L’Auberge Rouge (1923)
19. Diplomatic Henry
20. Sowing The Wind
21. Der Kampff Ums Matterhorn (The Fight For The Matterhorn)
22. Das Mädchen Für Alles (The Girl For Everything)
23. Das Alte Gesetz (The Ancient Law)
24. La Plus Belle Conquête De La Femme C’est La Citroën
25. The Mating Call
26. The Lincoln Cycle: A Call To Arms
27. [Reklama Piecyków Do Piecznia]
28. Le Cheval Emballé
29. Dunungen (In Quest of Happiness)
30. The Way To A Child’s Heart
31. Smouldering Fires
32. That Other Girl
33. Schultz’s Lottery Ticket
34. The Child Thou Gavest Me
35. Making A Convert
36. What Could She Do!
37. The Last of the Hargroves
38. The Portrait In The Attic
39. Neobychainye Prikliucheniya Mistera Vesta V Strange Bolshevikov (The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West In The Land of the Bolsheviks)
40. Le Secret De La Cuisinière
41. Den Gyldne Drøm
42. Paris At Midnight (1926)
43. The Lincoln Cycle: My First Jury
44. The Lincoln Cycle: Tender Memories
45. The Rock Garden
46. Captain Blood (1924)
47. Suspicious Wives
48. Judaspengar (The Price of Betrayal)
49. Ballettprimadonnan
50. [Reklamfilm Barnängen – Reportage Från Sommarens Stockholmsutställning]
51. L’Homme Du Large
52. Melodie (1929)
53. Les Rameaux. Hosannah! (De Faure)
54. Assunta Spina (1915)
55. The Lincoln Cycle: A President’s Answer
56. The Lincoln Cycle: Native State
57. Le Cheminée Fume
58. Prästänkan (The Parson’s Widow)
59. Madame De Langeais
60. Liebe
61. I Promessi Sposi (1922)
62. The Lincoln Cycle: Under The Stars
63. When The Tables Turned
64. Husbands And Lovers
65. Eugénie Grandet
66. La Cousine Bette
67. (L’Invasione Dell Truppe Tedesche Nel Beglio)
68. L’Energica Avanzata Contro I Ribelli Di El Baruni
69. The Enemy (1927)
70. La Memoria Dell’altro
71. L’Atlantide (1921)
72. Der Hund Von Baskerville (1929)
73. Ett Farligt Frieri (A Dangerous Wooing)
74. Changing Hues
75. The Home Maker
76. Memory Lane (1926)
77. Filendouce Est Insaisissable
78. Troll-Elgen (The Ghost Elk)
79. The Slavey Student
80. What Do You Do On Friday Night?
81. Forbidden Paradise
82. [Reklamfilm Barnågen – Chimpansen Rakas]
83. A Simple Mistake (1910)
84. Der Goldene Abgrund. Schiffbrüchige Des Lebens (The Golden Abyss. Castaways of Life)
85. La Donna Che Inventò La Diva
86. Robert Vignola, Da Trivigno A Hollywood
87. Laveuses
88. Admiral Cigarette
89. Lasse Månsson Fra Skaane (Struggling Hearts)
90. Mrs. Lirriper’s Lodgers
91. The Ploughshare
92. Something Good – Negro Kiss
93. In Old Kentucky (1927)
94. Mes Voisins Font Danser
95. The Little Boys Next Door
96. Les Bottines Du Colonel
97. When Mary Grew Up
98. Gontran Et La Voisine Inconnue
99. La Vengeance Du Sergent De Ville
100. Park Your Car (1920)
101. The Last of the Mohicans (1920)
102. Impromptu (2017)
103. Le Joueur D’Échecs (The Chess Player)
104. Ocean’s 8
105. Tea With The Dames
106. Colette (2018)
107. The Land of Steady Habits
108. Private Life
109. The Kindergarten Teacher
110. Dude
111. Like Father
112. Lightning Sketches
113. Cartoons on Tour
114. Col. Heeza Liar, Detective
115. Bobby Bumps Starts for School
116. The Circus (1920)
117. The Fable of the Jolly Rounders
118. Fireman Save My Child
119. The Bomb Idea
120. Felix Comes Back
121. Springtime (1923)
122. Scents and Nonsense
123. Dinky Doodle in Lost and Found
124. Hot-Toe Mollie
125. Toby the Milkman
126. The Farmerette
127. The Haunted Hotel (1907)
128. La course aux potirons (The Pumpkin Race)
129. The Ouija Board
130. Koko Sees Spooks
131. Dinky Doodle in Just Spooks
132. Alice’s Mysterious Mystery
133. Slick Sleuths
134. Pete’s Haunted House
135. Sure-Locked Homes
136. The Fresh Lobster
137. The Witch’s Cat (1929)
138. The Haunted Ship (1930)
139. Skulls and Sculls
140. Wot a Night
141. Bold King Cole
142. Ich möchte kein Mann sein (I Don’t Want To Be A Man)
143. Die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess)
144. Die Puppe (The Doll)
145. Anna Boleyn
146. Sumurun (One Arabian Night)
147. Gan (Wild Geese)
148. Neko to Shôzô to futari no onna (Shozo, a Cat and Two Women)
149. Tutto a posto e niente in ordine (All Screwed Up)
150. Ferdinando e Carolina
151. Dietro gli occhiali bianchi (Behind The White Glasses)
152. The Night Porter
153. La donna nella Resistenza (Women of the Resistance)
154. My Beautiful Laundrette
155. Subarashiki nichiyôbi (One Wonderful Sunday)
156. A Dog’s Life (1918)
157. Karumen kokyô ni kaeru (Carmen Comes Home)
158. Karumen junjô su (Carmen Falls In Love)
159. Tooi kumo (The Tattered Wings/Distant Clouds)
160. Nogiku no gotoki kimi nariki (She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum)
161. Haru no yume (Spring Dreams)
162. Shoulder Arms
163. Sunnyside (1919)
164. The Idle Class
165. Pay Day
166. A Day’s Pleasure
167. A Woman of Paris
168. The Circus
169. Kimi to wakarete (Apart from You)
170. Minato no nihonmusume (Japanese Girls at the Harbor)
171. Kurutta ippêji (A Page of Madness)
172. Arigatô-san (Mr. Thank You)
173. Anma to onna (The Masseurs and a Woman)
174. Kanzashi (Ornamental Hairpin)
175. Naniwa erejî (Osaka Elegy)
176. Gion no shimai (Sisters of the Gion)
177. Yoru no onnatachi (Women of the Night)

1880s: 0
1890s: 3
1900s: 11
1910s: 56
1920s: 63
1930s: 15
1940s: 6
1950s: 7
1960s: 3
1970s: 2
1980s: 3
1990s: 1
2000s: 0
2010s: 11

L’Atlantide, 1921 (dir. Jacques Feyder)

This was the world premiere of a beautiful new restoration of this film by Lobster Films and it did not disappoint. This lush three-hour adventure film is an adaptation of the 1919 novel of the same name by Pierre Benoit. I’d seen the 1933 version by G.W. Pabst earlier this year and I think both films are very good (and each keep aspects of the source material that the other discards), but for me this epic is the version. The tinting on this new restoration was to die for and the locations – it was shot in Algeria! – are to die for. I hope this new restoration is released on home video or streaming some day, however based on a conversation I had with Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films this seem doubtful. I’ll forever be glad I was lucky enough to see it with my own eyes.

Le Joueur d’échecs (The Chess Player), 1927 (dir. Raymond Bernard)

I had no idea what this movie was about going in and in no scenario would I ever have guessed that a movie about Polish revolutionaries would include death by an army of automatons. This is available from Milestone Films and I highly recommend seeking it out.

Private Life, 2018 (dir. Tamara Jenkins)

Netflix has released a ton of films directed by women this year and I was able to catch up with several of them this last month. This latest film from Tamara Jenkins, her first in over a decade, is a warm and bittersweet and unabashedly humane look at the struggle of a long married couple as they attempt to conceive. Some of Paul Giamatti’s best work, and a fearless performance from Kathryn Hahn.

Neko to Shôzô to futari no onna (Shozo, A Cat and Two Women), 1956 (dir. Shirô Toyoda)

I actually found this movie on FilmStruck when we first launched and when I discovered it was an adaptation of a Jun’ichirô Tanizaki novel (a favorite author of mine), I immediately added it to my queue. I think it’s running time is what kept me from watching it in a timely manner and boy was I dumb. This is THE cat person movie. It’s 2+ running time flies by and it’s filled with utterly delightful moments. A true hard to find gem.

Karumen junjô su (Carmen Falls In Love), 1952 (dir. Keisuke Kinoshita)

I have absolutely fallen in love with the films of Keisuke Kinoshita. I wish I had discovered them earlier! This one is a sequel to Carmen Comes Home (the first color film made in Japan), which is a much more well-known/regarded film, but I actually liked this film better. Both films co-star Hideko Takamine and Toshiko Kobayashi as showgirls whose modern lifestyles get them into many, many shenanigans. Both films reminded me quite a bit of the kind of buddy comedies Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell used to make in Hollywood in the 1930s. Highly recommended.

Arigatō-san (Mr. Thank You), 1936 (dir. Hiroshi Shimizu)

This has got to be one of the sweetest films I’ve ever seen. It takes place over one bus journey from rural city of Izu to the faraway city of Tokyo, with Ken Uehara playing the titular Mr. Thank You – a nickname given to the bus driver as he utters the phrase often during his route. Along the way he helps locals – delivery messages, picking up new records, etc. – as well as helps his passengers. It’s a lovely film about the importance of community and connections, and the resilience of every day people.

Yoru no onnatachi (Women of the Night), 1948 (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi)

I watched four of Mizoguchi’s “fallen women” films – movies about women who descend into prostitution for various reasons (a topic that several of the Japanese filmmakers I’ve watched in the last few days tackled), with this film being the rawest of the four. It’s rough and it’s real and it will break your freaking heart.

So that was October. November is of course Noirvember, which this year will mostly consist of foreign noir that I want to watch before FilmStruck closes. There are also several new releases coming out in the next few weeks that I can’t wait to see. Something tells me it’s going to be another jam-packed month of soul-stirring cinema!