Welcome to The Penny-Pinching Cinephile, a weekly spotlight of the best free flicks on the web. ‘Cuz sometimes you gotta eat.
1.) Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Sam Peckinpah’s films aren’t known for their rosy plots or redemptive characters, but this might just be his grimiest, grittiest exploration of human desperation. Alfredo Garcia is a masterpiece of dirty, violent humanity. A world-weary Warren Oates plays Bennie, a down ‘n out piano player who goes for the title character after a powerful Mexican mob boss puts a price on his head. But in typical loser fashion, Bennie is being played by both his American employers and the Mexicans. Running counter to this manhunt storyline is a bizarrely affecting love story that sheds new light on the avarice of the characters. Though a critical and commercial failure when it was released, the film has gained cult status and is now routinely ranked among Peckinpah’s best.
2.) Drunken Master
A wayward teenager (Jackie Chan) gets in all sorts of trouble, beating up people all over town in this kung fu classic. Chan’s kung fu master father enlists Jackie’s boozy uncle to train his undisciplined, smart aleck of a son in order to tame his wild ways. But when his father is targeted by a mad assassin, will Jackie have learned his lesson in time to save him? Even better than the funky ’70s vibe and horrendous dubbing (Jackie sounds like a surfer punk) are the film’s numerous fight scenes. My favorite features Jackie getting his ass handed to him by his matronly aunt and the sequences featuring “drunken fist,” the fighting style popularized by the film. Drunken Master is a great, early example of Chan’s comedic abilities and just an all-around fun ’70s kung fu flick.
3.) Guy Maddin short films on YouTube
Experimental artist Guy Maddin has an enormous output of shorts and features available to view. Some of his best work is in the shorts category, a neglected art form for which the silent era-minded director has a particular penchant. Shot in black and white and edited in his singular staccato style, Maddin’s short films evoke a lost world of silent cinema, ethereal images and the dizzying experimentation of film at its earliest inception. With most selections at or under the five minute mark–and paced even faster–this group of ten Maddin shorts serves as a brief but rich primer for the director’s feature-length work. Of special note are The Heart of the World, an homage to Eisensteinian montage, and the Isabella Rossellini-starring Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair, which plays like a music video for Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc.
Watch: Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity (1995), The Heart of the World (2000), Fancy, Fancy Being Rich (2002), A Trip to the Orphanage (2004), Sissy Boy Slap Party (2004), My Dad Is 100 Years Old (2005), Odin’s Shield Maiden (2006), Spanky: To the Pier and Back (2008), It’s My Mother’s Birthday Today (2008), Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair (2009)
4.) Le Cercle Rouge
Jean-Pierre Melville’s cool as ice crime saga stars a mustachioed Alain Delon as a smooth criminal just released from prison who enlists a murderer and a sharp-shooter to plan a jewelry heist. The men are all being tracked by a fastidious police detective in a careening web of crime bound to end badly. The titular red circle stands for a sort of violent circle of life as the cops ‘n robbers play cat ‘n mouse, ’round and ’round in their deadly game. The circle has more immediate connotations in the realm of the sniper: the red dot that marks the target, that creates another blood red circle in the victim’s body. Le Cercle Rouge is a landmark crime film, one whose style has been often imitated, never duplicated.
Robert Bresson’s re-telling of the last days of Joan of Arc is all based on transcripts of the real trial and execution. Released by the Criterion Collection as part of their “Rarities” selections, Bresson’s film is indeed less well-know than Carl Th. Dreyer’s iconic The Passion of Joan of Arc. Featuring non-professional actors and extreme minimalist sets and costumes, the film is a serious and sobering interpretation of one of the most notorious trials in history. By using the real transcripts, you get an unfiltered idea of Joan’s character, personality and fiercely steadfast faith in the face of unrelenting persecution.
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