Bad, but very strange... seems built from elements that have disappeared from our understanding of 20s/30s pop culture. If you dig deep into this stratum of movies, they're like a window into an alien universe.
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Oath on the Burning Sands 1940
Imperial Japanese propaganda, throwing its support behind anti-Communist actions in China. They thought they were building *the new Asia*. Pretty rote, very similar to at least one other pure-propaganda J movie of the period that I've seen.
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Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 1970
If this were by a female director, it'd be a compelling menstrual-hut-power fantasy ode to Goddess Reproductive Magic, but that's not a movie that any man could make, so...
Disturbing crypto-pedo fantasy that reads like Charles Dodgson and Roman Polanski brainstorming on heavy doses of MDMA.
It's got vampires + a very girly magic-realism drawn from fairy-tales and dream-work. A bit kitsch, innit? In a good way, though, like a lo-fi Nazareno Cruz.
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Vicky Cristina Barcelona 2008
Glib and carelessly-imagined ode to privilege. I tried to ignore my distaste for the superficial artsiness of the characters, but after the scene where the blonde girl decided it would be kicks to go to a slummy-looking neighborhood and photograph sex-workers I just couldn't. Esp. when the SW were all "Hello, American Lady Woman! We love you! Come taste the wines and cheeses of my village!"
An art-adjacent lifestyle is one thing, an arts career is another.
