Films I Watched This Week — Oct 7–13, 2024
35 Shots of Rum (2008)
Lionel is a widower who has raised his daughter alone for many years. They have always shared a special bond and live a secure and somewhat isolated from others in an apartment building in Paris. Josephine is now grown and has become a young woman, but she remains deeply devoted to her father. But Lionel knows she must learn to be independent and eventually live her own life. For the film, director Claire Denis got inspiration from Yasujirō Ozu's film Late Spring, as well as a relationship between her own mother and grandfather.
Don't Bother to Knock (1952)
Watching Don't Bother to Knock (1952), in which Marilyn Monroe plays a mysterious woman who begins an affair with one of the guests in the hotel where she is a live-in babysitter. But when the child she cares for interrupts her lovemaking, she reveals herself to be a dangerous mad woman. I take back anything I ever said about Marilyn Monroe not being able to act because in this psychosexual noir thriller, she certainly is proving me wrong. Also starring a young and very beautiful Anne Bancroft (The Graduate), Don't Bother to Knock is another underrated discovery, a film which showcases Marilyn Monroe in a rare portrayal of a truly dark and disturbed character.
Since You Went Away (1944)
Since You Went Away (1944) is a sentimental portrait of the World War II homefront with its trials, fears, heartbreaks, and its tribute to American family values. The film is rather bloated and overlong but the wonderful acting by all three leading ladies makes the film all the worth seeing.
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