Movies in 2026 161

 

The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel, 1962)

And speaking of rabbit holes, I continue to delve into the Luis Bunuel filmography. Last last I gave a second viewing to Bunuel's 1962 film The Exterminating Angel, which I first watched a few years ago. I remember not particularly liking it, which is strange because I really liked it this time. See my comment in the previous post about the advantages of watching several films by the same director in a bunch, so that you can get a clearer sense of focus and approach. This film features that typically sharp Bunuel scalpel that he takes to the upper classes and the church. It stars Silvia Pinal, who had also worked with Bunuel in Viridiana and Simon of the Desert, although The Exterminating Angel is more of a collective effort. A group of upper class snobs get together for a party, and then discover that they can't leave. All of their societal mores break down as they try to survive, and they are revealed as the hypocrites they are. The phenomenon is repeated at a church at the end, to put an exclamation on the metaphor. Highly recommended.

Movies in 2026 160

 

The Human Beast (Jean Renoir, 1938)

The Jean Renoir deeper dive is starting to heat up, as I had recently re-watched La Grande Illusion and The Rules of the Game. Yesterday I gave The Human Beast a second viewing (the first was a couple years ago). I remember liking it, but I definitely liked it a lot more this time. It helps that I'm bunching directors together, which allows me to get a greater sense of their approach, as compared to random one-offs. The film is a brutal psychological study, but also a definite forerunner for film noir. Jean Gabin (who is typically Jean Gabin - that is, awesome) plays the tortured railroad engineer Jacques Lantier, while Simone Simon (who, in the US anyway, is too often simply reminded of her role in the original Cat People) plays Severine Roubaud, who drives a couple men to their doom. Julien Carette (who had also appeared in La Grande Illusion and The Rules of the Game) plays Lantier friend, while Jean Renoir sneaks in as Cabuche, who is falsely accused of a murder. Expect to see more Renoir movies popping up soon. This is also inspiring me to delve into a writer who I have criminally ignored so far in my life: Emile Zola. The Human Beast - along with Germinal and Nana - are part of his twenty novel Les Gougon-Macquart series, which I've also started to download on my Kindle. My excellent friend Sanford has all of them and offered to loan them to me, but the upcoming move makes that an impossibility, so it looks like my new Kindle is going to get a workout. Once I get through my latest Proust re-read, I'm going to tackle Thomas Mann's Buddenbrook, and then it will be on to Zola. The Human Beast is highly recommended, obviously.

Movies in 2026 159

 

Inspector De Luca (Anthony Frazzi, 2008)

Last night we once again visited the world of Italian television detective shows, this time the Inspector De Luca series. We watched the second film in the series, Carte Blanche. It's based on a series of novels by Carlo Lucarelli.  Alessandro Preziosi plays the taciturn Inspector Achille De Luca, who is solving crimes in 1940s Bologna, while trying to navigate between the Fascists and the Partisans. The Inspector had inadvertently saved the life of Mussolini, which makes his suspect in the eyes of the Partisans although he's clearly not a Fascist. It was pretty good, although it's definitely one of those series where you get the sense that it would be much better in the novels (which, of course, makes it representative of almost every movie ever made). Janet can already pick up many of the Italian words, whereas I am typically hopeless. It's worth taking a look.

Movies in 2026 158

 

The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)

And now it looks like I'll be heading down a Jean Renoir rabbit hole. It's not as if I haven't seen a number of Jean Renoir films, but there's so much more to explore and experience. Last night I re-watched his 1939 classic The Rules of the Game. It often tops the list of greatest Jean Renoir films, and I do think I like it even more every time I see it (which is saying a lot). That said, I have trouble imagining that I'd ever pick it over Grand Illusion. The Rules of the Game is a devastating satire of the idiocy and shallowness of the French upper classes, which are focusing on all the wrong things as World War II looms and their world is collapsing around them. Renoir himself plays a key role as Octave, and it was a treat to see him act in his own movie. Nora Gregor (as Christine, Marquise de la Chesnaye) and Marcel Dalio (as her husband Robert - I was just singing his praises the other day when I  was writing about Grand Illusion) are the shallow, disaffected nobles who drive the story forward, although Paulette Dubost (as the maid Lisette) steals the show. I also recognized Julien Carette, who played Marceau, from Grand Illusion. Essential viewing.

Movies in 2026 157

 

The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)

Clearly, it was an eclectic film day in the cabin yesterday. Janet was out of town, and I had knocked off some work in the morning, so I gave myself away to a long movie marathon. I wanted to get the taste out of my mouth of Frankenheimer's dreadful 52 Pick-Up, so I finished the evening with a re-watch of Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1935 film The 39 Steps. I think that The 39 Steps is my favorite Hitchcock film, which is not to say that it's my choice for best Hitchcock film, but it's definitely the one that I will happily take every chance to watch. Robert Donat (as Richard Hannay) and Madeline Carroll (as Pamela, initiating the long Hitchcockian tradition of the icy blonde) give wonderful performances, including a fair bit of slapstick. Highly recommended.

Movies in 2026 156

 

52 Pick-Up (John Frankenheimer, 1986)

The Criterion Channel features an extraordinary amount of films that I love (obviously), but sometimes I can't imagine why they featured a certain movie. Sometimes, it's just part of an odd collection, and thus I find it sort of charming - at other times I'm mystified. Last night I watched John Frankenheimer's 52 Pick-Up, which definitely fell into the category of: What were you thinking, Criterion? Beyond nice performances from John Glover and Clarence Williams III as villains, this was just a dog. I'm assuming the category must have been: Wow, John Frankenheimer Was Truly Dreadful In The Second Half Of His Career. It's hard to believe that this was the same guy who directed Birdman of Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate, and Seven Days in May. Avoid at all costs.

Movies in 2026 155

 

The Thing From Another World (Christian Nyby, 1951)

And this is about as far removed from Blue Is the Warmest Color as you can imagine (and such is the cinematic life of the cabin): Christian Nyby's 1951 classic film The Thing From Another World.  I don't know how many times I've watched this film, but it never grows old. It's part of the current Criterion Channel featured collection on 1980s remakes, where they tie the original to the 80s version - as I mentioned previously, the later remakes are all pretty dreadful, with the notable exception of John Carpenter's reworking of this film (which I will doubtless watch again before it disappears). Over the years, people given Nyby little credit for directing this film, and instead proposing that was really Howard Hawks (who produced it) who did the directorial heavy lifting. On some level I think I believed that, mainly because I've just heard people say it so often (including Michael Weldon in his Psychotronic Guide to Film), but Nyby always kicked back against that notion - and, rightly so, found it insulting. Nyby had worked with Howard Hawks for years, serving as an editor on some of Hawks's classic films, and he proposed that of course his film would have felt like a Hawks's film because of the influence of his mentor. It's a good argument, and I think people haven't given Nyby enough credit for this effort. Anyway, highly recommended.

This always makes me crazy happy.