Rob Christopher's Blog, page 85

3 things about Bill Forsyth’s LOCAL HERO

Local Hero [1983]

1. Pressing a few buttons, he transforms his office into a planetarium.
2. They’re enjoying the casserole until …
3. An enormous snifter filled with matchbooks.

3 things about Pawel Pawlikowski’s COLD WAR

Cold War [2018]

1. Gracefully floating down the river.
2. On an impulse, she starts dancing on top of the bar.
3. “Let’s go to the other side, The view’s better.”

3 things about Elem Klimov’s COME AND SEE

Come and See [1985]

1. A single backwards glance at the back of the barn.
2. Scrubbing out the cauldron with pine branches.
3. Sign on a corpse: I INSULTED A GERMAN OFFICER THIS MORNING.

3 things about Burt Reynolds’ SHARKY’S MACHINE

Sharky’s Machine [1981]

1. The rare 80s film where the focus is on white characters doing drugs.
2. “How does it feel?”
“It feels like you’re a lump of shit.”
3. “Love Theme from Sharky’s Machine“: Sarah Vaughan does Shirley Bassey.

3 things about Edward Dmytryk’s THE ‘HUMAN’ FACTOR

The ‘Human’ Factor [1975]

1. The rare film where “It picks up when Barry Sullivan shows up” is accurate.
2.  Hacking an Air India computer.
3. A terrified shopper takes a machine gun into her own hands. A little girl cowers next to her.

3 things about Robert Wise’s STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE

Star Trek: The Motion Picture [1979]

1. Weird helmets worn by the ensigns.
2. The way he says, “I want this.”
3. Throat-light.

3 other things.

3 things about Blake Edwards’ THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN

The Pink Panther Strikes Again [1976]

1. Treadmill in the dark.
2. Mashing his nose back into place.
3. “The Resistance is over.”

3 things about Ingmar Bergman’s HOUR OF THE WOLF

Hour of the Wolf [1968]

1. She insists on showing him her accounting.
2. The man walks along the floor, walks along the wall, walks along the ceiling.
3. His hand methodically gliding down her body.

3 things about Woody Allen’s ANOTHER WOMAN

Another Woman [1988]

1. In several scenes she keeps her overcoat on even though she’s indoors. As if she knows she won’t be settling in.
2. The way Gene Hackman munches on a tiny cracker topped with cream cheese.
3. “We didn’t just drift apart, Marion. I withdrew.”

My continued devotion to this film is … complicated. But Gena Rowlands is just magnificent. That world is mesmerizing. It’s almost like a transmission from an alien civilization. 3 other things.

3 things about Paul Verhoeven’s HOLLOW MAN

Hollow Man [2000]

1. She delicately cuts out eye-holes.
2. A brutal rape, the repercussions of which are never addressed.
3. Set on fire, electrocuted, brained with a crowbar, engulfed by an explosion—and still able to climb up an elevator shaft.

I mean, come on …