No. 15: Tosh Recommends...

Roy Andersson, Rosemary Tonks, Hollywood Film Noirchestra, and Sacha Guitry

The best film I have seen this year is "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence." Directed by Roy Andersson, a Swedish filmmaker of long-standing. Imagine a darker version of Wes Anderson, hysterically funny but coming from a (very) dark place. I'm angry that no one told me about this film, but I found it randomly on MUBI. Watch it, because it's excellent. See it here: A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence.

The Halt During The Chase is a detailed account of a relationship going under and the addition of one’s kinship with her mom. Rosemary Tonks is the Patricia Highsmith of the love affair novel. Dark overtures are exposed, and each page adds a certain amount of tension. I got this book at the Los Angeles Public Library as a loan, and it’s hard to find, even used.

Hollywood Film Noirchestra is a cinema without the images projected in front of you. Skip Heller has put together a great soundtrack of music. Some of the themes I recognize, such as Beat Girl, A Touch of Evil, and some melodies I’m not familiar with. Still, the album Dark Passages is livid with full images of dark streets, dangerous bars, questionable sexuality, and morals turning South instead of North. There are touches of John Zorn’s Naked City, but this is clearly a more Hollywood version. There is a romance here that is beautiful.

The Story of a Cheat, a film by Sacha Guitry, is a fantastic work. It’s a work of charm and wit but mixed with poison. It could be my current battle with Covid, but the film is of great importance to me. What is unique about the movie is that it is told in first person with Guitry’s narration. Very artificial, but for me, mirror-like observations on life as it is lived. If you subscribe to Criterion Channel, see it here: The Story of a Cheat.