10.29 movies and music

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972) - theatrical, rewatch

At first I felt a lot more detached than I did the first time I saw it, and I was afraid it wasn't connecting with me as strongly.  But by the time it got to the birthday scene, yeah I was all there.  Still a spectacular ending, and I'd forgotten that Petra was smiling throughout it.  The first time I was really focused on the dialogue and blocking, this time I was really invested in the focal depth for some reason.  There are some awesome deep focus shots and some that make unparalleled use of narrow depth of field.  I even was getting into those floor shots where only the very foreground is noticeably out of focus.  Also last time I thought Hanna Schygulla stole the show but Margit Carstensen was hogging the spotlight this round.

Quik Is the Name (DJ Quik, 1991)

Beautiful cover, unfortunately the album's not nearly as introspective or, I dunno, otherworldly as it might suggest.  Impressive production, layered and full of variety.  Nothing noteworthy lyrically except that a few of the songs have a very visceral sense of place.  Phil Solomon presented some of his movies around here recently and one thing that he talked about with regard to his video game shorts was how he had trouble placing himself in most modern Hollywood movies, whereas in something like The Searchers he felt that he was actually there and knew where there was.  Very articulate guy and I've thought a lot about a lot of stuff he said, and especially this idea of placement in regard to films and to a lesser extent music.  This isn't like Illmatic or good kid, mAAd city in that regard, but I still felt decidedly present a couple of times, which was cool.

Choice cuts: Tha Bombudd, Quik Is the Name, Loked Out Hood

Three Strangers (Jean Negulesco, 1946)

Actually watched this over two nights.  Good start (everyone knows Greenstreet and Lorre are a match made in heaven, and Geraldine Fitzgerald adds nicely to the mix), then I lost some interest when it followed their individual stories (Fitzgerald and Greenstreet's particularly I didn't care about, Lorre's had some nice moments, especially the scenes where he and a partner in crime are holed up under a bridge), then it redeemed itself with a fantastic ending.  There's a reaction to finding a cadaver that made me pause the movie I was laughing so hard.  And Lorre is a star in this.  I don't think I've seen him play the romantic lead before, but he pulls it off so well.  Also I'd forgotten that John Huston wrote this, which amused me since he copied the ending for Treasure of the Sierra Madre two years later.