Movie Diary 6/23/2011

Aelita, Queen of Mars (Yakov Protazanov, 1924). Soviet sci-fi involving a rather charged Earthly melodrama and an outer-space journey that culminates in a proposal for the Martian Soviet Socialist Republic. The crazy designs on Mars are the big draw, but casual views of Moscow in winter are also awesome.

A Useful Life (Federico Veiroj, 2010). A completely charming, elliptical black-and-white number from Uruguay, about the efforts involved in keeping a Montevideo cinematheque in business, but also about getting a haircut and asking someone out on a first date in middle age. (full review 7/1)

At What a Feeling!, the traipse through my original 1980s reviews continues. Let us catch up with Clint Eastwood’s Heartbreak Ridge, Paul Newman’s Harry and Son, and Tony Richardson’s The Hotel New Hampshire.