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I saw The Shootist (1976), John Wayne's last film. I hadn't seen it before as I had assumed that it would be rather depressing being a western about a man with terminal cancer spending his last few days. I was wrong. Although the end is inevitable the film was surprisingly enjoyable and was a very good film. Quite a lot of cameos from actors, the most famous being James Stewart. The most significant roles other than Wayne's was for Lauren Bacall and Ron Howard in probably his best film acting role.

 

One of the cameos was from Rick Lenz. A photo of him from The Shootist:

Other have commented that he almost looked like a young James Stewart.

El Loro

I saw Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947). This was an experimental film directed by Hans Richter based on paintings from several people from the surreal art movement such as Man Ray, Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp.

 

It's a segmental film linked together by Joe as the man who creates the dreams for his clients. One of the segments has music written by John Cage. Another has music written by Paul Bowles who also wrote the book The Sheltering Sky which was filmed by Bernado Bertolucci.

 

Experimental films are generally so obscure that the average film viewer would be bored stiff but this film is surprisingly watchable. One segment in particular The Girl with the prefabricated heart is the standout and has a humerous touch to it. Another segment involves animated models made from pipe cleaners and I would not be surprised if it was the inspiration for Tim Burton for Nightmare before Christmas and Corpse Bride.

 

The film can be seen on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...&feature=related

 

El Loro

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