Pauline Kael Film Club

In memory of Teri Garr.

“After Hours” is a brilliant film, one of the year’s best. It is also a most curious film... The result is a film that is so original, so particular, that we are uncertain from moment to moment exactly how to respond to it." --Roger Ebert

From Wikipedia:

After Hours is a 1985 American black comedy film directed by Martin Scorsese.

The film won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature. Scorsese won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director for the film.

Streaming on Apple TV and various for $3.99.

Note: Watch the movie BEFORE the meeting and attend to participate in the discussion.

From Wikipedia:

"Proshai, Livushka" is the 28th episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the second of the show's third season. It was written by David Chase and directed by Tim Van Patten, and originally aired on March 4, 2001.

Streaming on Max.

Note: Please do NOT binge the show. Watch one episode per week (ideally Sunday evening) and attend the following Monday's virtual water cooler meeting to discuss.

"In “The Godfather” we see organized crime as an obscene symbolic extension of free enterprise and government policy, an extension of the worst in America—its feudal ruthlessness. Organized crime is not a rejection of Americanism, it’s what we fear Americanism to be. It’s our nightmare of the American system." --Pauline Kael

From Wikipedia:

The Godfather is a 1972 American epic gangster film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel.

The Godfather is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, as well as a landmark of the gangster genre. It was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1990, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and is ranked the second-greatest film in American cinema (behind Citizen Kane) by the American Film Institute.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Pluto TV.

Note: Watch the movie BEFORE the meeting and attend to participate in the discussion.

"The daring of Part II is that it enlarges the scope and deepens the meaning of the first film; The Godfather was the greatest gangster picture ever made, and had metaphorical overtones that took it far beyond the gangster genre. In Part II, the wider themes are no longer merely implied. The second film shows the consequences of the actions in the first; it’s all one movie, in two great big pieces, and it comes together in your head while you watch. Coppola might almost have a pact with the audience; we’re already so engrossed in the Corleones that now he can go on to give us a more interior view of the characters at the same time that he shows their spreading social influence. The completed work is an epic about the seeds of destruction that the immigrants brought to the new land, with Sicilians, Wasps, and Jews separate socially but joined together in crime and political bribery. This is a bicentennial picture that doesn’t insult the intelligence. It’s an epic vision of the corruption of America." --Pauline Kael

From Wikipedia:

The Godfather Part II is a 1974 American epic crime film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola .... It is both a sequel and a prequel to the 1972 film The Godfather...

It is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time, as well as a rare example of a sequel that rivals its predecessor. In 1997, the American Film Institute ranked it as the 32nd-greatest film in American film history and it retained this position 10 years later. It was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1993, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Note: Watch the movie BEFORE the meeting and attend to participate in the discussion.