list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

Great, Jon. If you want some Kurosawa recommendations, don't hesitate.

Well, if you want more samurai stuff and more Toshiro Mifune at the same time, then this is what I would recommend:

Kakushi-toride no san-akunin  (less philosophical and more action oriented, but still great; the film which inspired the Star Wars concept)
then the "bodyguard" series,
Yojimbo and Tsubaki Sanjûrô (great entertaining movies, the main character played by Mifune is a bit similar to Clint Eastwood characters and the films are like some Japanese western spaghetti with samurai)

His neo-realist movies are excellent, I saw
Ikiru (a masterpiece about an old clerk at the city hall, the main character is played by Takashi Shimura, the old samurai from Seven Samurai) and Nora inu (a great neo-realist film about the city periphery, thieves and policemen, very similar to it's contemporaries such as Vittorio De Sicca's Ladri di biciclette; this is again with a very young Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura in the couple of lead roles).

I also recommend all his other films I've seen:

Rashômon (apparently a minor film, but really an amazing masterpiece with groundbreaking concept and storytelling, with the same couple of actors in the main roles as in Nora inu)
Akahige (great film with Toshiro Mifune, about doctors in the late 19th century).
Ran (masterpiece; adaptation of King Lear into a Japanese context; very similar to a theater play more than a movie)

Madame Sousatzka

Been years since I'd seen this charming flick about a demanding piano instructor (Shirley MacLaine) and her gifted young student of Indian descent.  Based on the novel, it sensitively portrays the pursuit of dreams both lost and realized, and a keen eye for the differences between cultures living and working together.  Recommended.

I'd only go and see Alice In Wonderland from those.

I caught Black Book(2006) on IFC. An interesting WW II movie. I recommend it.

Filmmaker Paul Verhoeven returned to the Netherlands after more than twenty years of success in Hollywood to direct this epic-scale war drama based on a true story. Rachel Steinn (Carice van Houten) is a beautiful Jewish woman living in German-occupied Holland during late 1944. Her family members - who have been falsely promised safe passage to Belgium (their names recorded in the 'black book' of the title) are instead robbed and slaughtered by the Germans on a premeditated basis; Rachel herself manages to escape by diving into the water and swimming away. She narrowly avoids capture, then joins the local resistance movement. With her hair dyed blonde, Rachel can easily pass for Aryan, and when the leader of the Dutch resistance movement learns his son has been captured by Axis forces, Rachel is asked to use her feminine charms to persuade a German commander to arrange for the boy's release. Rachel soon finds herself caught up in a dangerous double life as she becomes a sexual plaything for the Nazis while attempting to bring down their evil empire as a spy. Zwartboek was written by Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman, who collaborated on the 1977 international success Soldier of Orange. Zwartboek received its world premier at the 2006 Venice Film Festival.

Through a Glass Darkly

Easily my favourite Bergman film. The cinematography is just stunning. Probably in my top 5 films ever.

The Good Shepherd

Grim and gloomy tale of the CIA's early days just after WW II with Matt Damon as a high-level operative working with British intel in London and discovering the pitfalls of spywork.  Well intentioned and vaguely realistic if morose.  Robert DeNiro directs and has a supporting role.

  

 ^ valid criticisms of IotBS, I guess it happens so quickly no one in the movie has a chance to figure it all out (ironic though that the two main characters work for the Dept. of Health).. and no doubt the 'effects' are dated (in fact not much better than the 1956 original)--  and having grown-up in SF, the film captures the city perfectly which gave it an extra element of fear


 

Gran Torino

Somehow the magic of this one was lost on me, though Clint Eastwood continues to foster good material and personal depth in his lifelong cinematic journey, and the commentary on race relations picks things up where Do the Right Thing left them.  A sort of reverse inside-out Karate Kid with more gritty realism but none of the uplift, I do give Gran Torino much credit for taking risks in storytelling and casting, and features an excellent ensemble of young Asian-American actors.  But the balance of conflict with triumph achieved in Million Dollar Baby is missing in this one and the pace seems a bit off.  Still, a refreshing foray into yet another direction for the creatively progressive Eastwood, and film that retains its dignity.

You Don't Know Jack

Al Pacino is spot-on as Jack 'Dr. Death' Kevorkian in an honest portrayal of Kevorkian's battles against the law and public opinion as a Michigan physician helping the terminally ill to die in peace.