Off topic: Kanopy, free (ZERO tickets) movies to see before we die

Well, this is a long shot, but maybe somebody catches it... so, those of you who have access to Kanopy know that they've recently switched to a ticket system--here in Canada (and I'm only assuming it's the same or similar in the US) we now get 16 tickets per month, and movies/features usually start at two tickets.

But they also offer some indeterminate number of movies (and even series, as long as it's the first season) for ZERO tickets. Now the problem is that, as far as I can see, there is no way to search specifically for zero-ticket titles, you just stumble upon them.

That's why I'm making this thread, for all the fantastic titles I've stumbled upon that won't bite into your ticket stash. I'll mention only stuff that is hard or expensive or otherwise impossible to come across. Also, I've no idea how long one can expect them to stay "zero ticket", so the sooner checked out, the better.

Hyenas, 1992, directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty. I saw this director's Touki Bouki, but this may be even better. It's Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Der Besuch der alten Dame transposed to Senegal and the best version of the play I've seen (or imagined). Briefly, an old woman who as a pregnant 17 year old was chased out of her hometown in disgrace because her lover bribed false witnesses to claim they too had slept with her, returns after decades to the impoverished town as a rich woman to exact revenge. The entire town will inherit her fortune if one of them kills her old lover. Ethical crises bring out all the latent cynicism, egotism, and wretchedness.

Les Misérables, 2019, description: "Inspired by the riots of 2005 in the Paris suburbs, the film revolves around three members of an anti-crime brigade who are overrun while trying to make an arrest." I started watching just for a taste and couldn't stop.

100% Arabica, 1997, pre-"the war on terror", and the presence of two singers, Khaled and Cheb Mami, makes this a much lighter look at the Arab/Muslim demographic in France. But the tension between the agenda of the salafist hardliners and others is already in place. Great soundtrack.

Threads, 1984, a "docudrama" about nuclear war situated in Sheffield and thereabouts. Superb in every way while at the same time pure horror.

Il Generale Della Rovere, 1959, Roberto Rossellini directs De Sica in a tough (is it even possible?) transition from a fascist-serving scoundrel to a decent man.

The Lavender Hill Mob, 1951, well-known classic with Alec Guinness

Please post your choices if you've found any.

Hi Lola! I've just discovered Kanopy and wondered if you are going to talk about the films you've watched on it here on this thread. I love it. The ticket system does not bother me because I watch each movie over three nights (about half an hour each night). I'd love to know what you (and others) are watching on Kanopy. Perhaps we could manage to watch some of the same films the same week? Let me know your thoughts.

>2 SqueakyChu:

Hi, SqueakyChu, wow, so glad someone caught this. By all means, this could be the Kanopy viewing thread--it doesn't look like we're encroaching on anyone's turf nor is this group so active that it can't accommodate various side interests!

So, I presume we're dealing with similar setups in the US and Canada? I don't have television and access Kanopy through my library, so my choices are limited in the ticketed selections. Obvs not a problem with the zero-ticket movies but those, as noted, one has to stumble across (presumably they don't want clients flocking to them, if they were browse-able).

I'd love a viewing buddy! What's on your watchlist? Maybe we can pick something to watch over the next week and discuss Sat/Sun?

Incidentally, more zero-ticket titles I found:

Bagdad Cafe, 1987 (I saw this when it came out and remember being moved but not many details)

Carnival of souls, 1962 --available free elsewhere too, but such a good one (if one likes horror) that I had to mention it

Room at the top, 1959 --kitchen sink drama with Laurence Harvey and, go figure, Simone Signoret

Things to come, 1936 --oldie SF based on Wells, very good but pessimistic (then again, it's a wacky musical compared to Threads)

>3 LolaWalser: I think Kanopy reviews need to be on LibraryThing...if only because they are really a library thing! Don't you agree? :D

I think the setups between the US and Canada are basically the same. I get twenty tickets a month, I believe. I watch Kanopy on my desktop. I joined Kanopy through my local public library in Montgomery County, Maryland, just using my library card number. All of the movies I stream free of charge and without ads. I guess your setup is the same. I've been using it for only about two months, but I've already added over 180 movies to my wishlist (kind of like I do with books, LOL!)

The movie I'm watching now is "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" (don't know how many tickets) which is about a defiant young city kid who finds himself on the run with his cantankerous foster uncle (Sam Neil) in the wild New Zealand bush.

Other movies I want to watch (in no particuar order) within the next two weeks are:
1. Los Lobos (2 tickets) - Together with their mother Lucia, the brothers Max and Leo have just crossed the border from Mexico into the United States in search of a better life.
2. Distant (2 tickets) - Mahmut is a relatively successful commercial photographer who has been struggling to come to terms with the growing gap between his artistic ideals and his professional obligations.
3. The Little Traitor (2 tickets) - A coming of age tale of the unlikely bond between a kindly British soldier and a spirited Jewish boy set against the backdrop of the birth of the State of Israel.

Did you just want to watch free movies, or will you also be able to watch ticketed movies?

>5 SqueakyChu:

Ahh, the 75ers--fastest moving group on LT! I'm afraid I couldn't commit to hosting a thread in such a busy group, but I would join in the conversation as suitable, should you find more interest there. in the meantime, or generally whenever, please feel free to post here as well, and post the link to the 75 Kanopy thread when it gets made. (There's obviously no problem with anyone posting here, but I'm guessing people used to that group might prefer to post there.)

I hear you on not wanting strict schedules, I agree. I've already run out of January tickets, so could only do zero ticket movies over the next three days. Yes, both Kanopy and Hoopla cost the library a lot (here they had actually decreased the number of monthly borrows on Hoopla to four, for cost-cutting reasons, but when the pandemic began they brought it back to eight and so far kept it at eight).

On my end, the movies tend to "cost" from 2 to 4 tickets per title, and the series 4-5 tickets per title. I do add stuff to the watchlist because I can't remember everything that interests me, and I wish they hadn't done away with "history".

I like Japanese cinema too, classic at least, and have a number of them on DVD too. I just gave a quick look at Kanopy's offer and came across this as a zero-ticket movie: Creepy: Kurîpî: Itsuwari no rinjin, 2016. Have you seen it? It's horror and, oh my, viewer beware... nevertheless, although I don't think I even understood it in the end, there's something magnetic about it.

>6 LolaWalser: Oops! I just went back and edited out most of what I said before! LOL

>6 LolaWalser: I took out most of what I said because I thought I was being too presumptuous in (1) either moving another thread like this one to the 75ers group, or (2) "forcing" you to host a movie talk thread.

Kanopy history would be fabulous, but I don't really need it. For years, I've kept a list of foreign films I've seen on a spread sheet on my pc. I started doing that to remember movies I saw at film festivals I attended. I put down facts about each movie and my comments. Now I can't attend film festivasl because I no longer drive long distances or at night. Kanopy films are a godsend to me. I now list my Kanopy films on my PC. You can even do that here on LT's wiki!

I won't make another Kanopy thread for now.

"Kurîpî: Itsuwari no rinjin" is not listed on my Kanopy at this time! I know that not all films are available in all places at the same time. I tend to not watch horror films because I don't want to get scared. I think I'd watch it if I had it just because of your remarks, though! :D

I also am avoiding war movies or overtly political movies. Too much of that stuff in real life. Ugh!

I am going back to the 75ers group now to invite them to come here. :)

>7 SqueakyChu:

No problem... I added "Los Lobos" to watch, but I won't be able to get it until February. "Distant" doesn't return anything looking like the movie you mention, but a bunch of other stuff with the keyword. "Little traitor" I can add to the queue, altho--I sub to the J-flix online and will look for it there (not sure but i think most stuff is free after a one-time fee? At least is for me.)

>9 LolaWalser:

Let's watch Los Lobos then! I'll get to it within the next week or two. Who ever sees it first should start to post something about it. I guess we should either avoid spoilers or hide them as we post.

>10 SqueakyChu:

Deal!

J-flix doesn't have "Little traitor" so I added that too.

Have you seen the DEFA sub-collection on Kanopy? (suggestions removed, maybe later more suitable ones)

EDIT: Ack, sorry, I just saw your edit about no war movies!--well, just forget the above

On topic, even--zero tickets silent and early film, as far as I can find:

Jamaica Inn, 1939

Battleship Potemkin, 1925

The Navigator, 1923 (Buster Keaton)

Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1927 (haven't seen this, soooooo... caveat emptor)

There must be more but done searching for now.

>11 LolaWalser: I'm really freaked out about war now because of the situation in the middle east as over half my family are Israeli. I might view some war movies, but I'm going to tread lightly on them. I'm skipping murder movies as well. I'm not in the mood to be frightened as I've been trying to decrease anxiety in my life. :)

I'd love to watch "Uncle Tom's Cabin"! I just added it to my watch list (for two tickets!). I just read the book recently for the first time in my life. "The Navigator" looks pretty cool as well. I added that to my watch list (for two tickets). Those movies are not free in Maryland, but that's okay with me. :)

I'm up to 191 videos on my Kanopy watch list. I think that's a good number for now! :D

I found this silent film on Kanopy, even though it required two tickets (but still very much worth it): Shiraz from 1928, based upon the creation of the Taj Mahal and shot entirely in India.

>13 SqueakyChu:

Awww, I'm sorry the ticket system isn't uniform in North America, bummer. Don't see the point in the differences, myself. Well, maybe some Canadians and USians will still find occasional useful info, separately...

I hear you on lessening anxiety. I'm sort of beyond help at this point, and I do indulge in escapism a lot.

The Navigator is a hoot! (If you're receptive to silent movies.) Was my first Buster Keaton, and although people will say some other are better, it still makes me laugh.

>14 ocgreg34:

Hi, ocgreg34! Yep, I have Shiraz in my watchlist, sounds fascinating. Two tickets for us too.

>15 LolaWalser: I honestly don’t know if I ever watched a silent movie, but the trailer was funny. I’ll give it a try.

Thanks so much for this. I had never heard of Kanopy, and although I don't have access through my Maine library accounts, I do through an out of state account. I'm adding to my TBW list now!

>16 SqueakyChu:

I hope you like it. I don't think you'll be bored, not with Keaton, at least. And who knows, you may find silents in general quite relaxing. There are some that to me play like lucid dreams.

>17 labfs39:

Oh, that's great, Lisa! As far as I understand Kanopy is a commercial, for-fee streaming service like many other, except they (and Hoopla as well) also have this deal with North American libraries where library card holders can get some limited amount of borrows free.

Please comment on your watchlist and watched stuff if you feel like it!

>16 SqueakyChu: Buster Keaton's "The General" is one of my all-time favorite films. I also recommend "Wings" if you can find it (the first film to win the Oscar for Best Picture and has a very young Gary Cooper in it).

>18 LolaWalser: There is no fee for my Kanopy account here in Maryland. All the films in Maryland (or at least in my county) on Kanopy are free as we library patrons do not pay for the 20 tickets we get each month. The only thing to watch for most people is how many tickets we use per month.

Yeah, there are a “limited” amount of movies available, but I already have over 190 of them to date in my “to watch” list! LOL!

>19 ocgreg34: I’ll check to see if I can find “Wings”. Thanks for the recommendation!

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

I just watched the film Hunt for the Wilderpeople on Kanopy. This was the first film I've ever seen that was filmed in New Zealand and had New Zealand actors. The cinematography of the bush country was amazing. There was a dramatic car chase scene near the end of the movie that had me holding on to my desk for dear life! I guess this was supposed to be a comedy, but so many comedies are dramatic and emotional for me as was this movie. The then (2016) child actor Julian Dennison (playing Ricky Baker) was great as was Sam Neill (playing Uncle), as both tried to hide from authorities as long as they could in the New Zealand bush.

>9 LolaWalser: I decided not to make another Kanopy thread on the 75ers group, but I might cross-post the same message here and on their "What Are We Watching?" thread. That's easy enough to do. :)

>20 SqueakyChu: "Wings" is not currently on my Kanopy directory.

>18 LolaWalser: "As far as I understand Kanopy is a commercial, for-fee streaming service like many other, except they (and Hoopla as well) also have this deal with North American libraries where library card holders can get some limited amount of borrows free." Kanopy is only available through public and university libraries; I'm fairly sure no one (other than the institutions that subscribe to it) pay fees to watch.

>19 ocgreg34:

Love Wings!

>20 SqueakyChu:

There is no fee for my Kanopy account here in Maryland.

Yes, it's the same here--the fees are paid by the library. I wasn't clear on whether these were library-only services, but:

>22 laytonwoman3rd:

Good to know. Hi, Linda!

Haven't watched anything yet but I noticed that more great Buster Keaton is "zero" ticket--his shorts and The Battling Butler. Ah, must specify--zero tickets at least in Canada.

Another possibly interesting zero-ticket choice is a version of Mr. Topaze with Peter Sellers (1961, and apparently directed by Sellers). I didn't know this existed although I read the play, have seen a French film version with Louis Jouvet, as well as an early American one with John Barrymore. A meek, humble chemistry teacher turns raging capitalist executive--see why! :)

Although, as it seems somewhat obscure, maybe this isn't such a hot recommendation... nice cast, though; besides Sellers there are Leo McKern, Herbert Lom, Michael Gough, John Le Mesurier, Billie Whitelaw, Nadia Gray...

>23 LolaWalser: Hi, Sanya! I'm glad you started this thread, and that Madeline brought it to my attention. I've been on our public library's board of directors for a number of years now, and Kanopy is pretty popular with our patrons.

>24 laytonwoman3rd: Linda, I had never heard of Kanopy before. I visit both my public library and their website. The way I accidentally discovered it was by going to the website to see which movie DVDs I could borrow from my library (now that I discovered that my desktop will actually play DVDs again!). For some reason, it looked as if I could only stream movies on Kanopy, which I had never heard of before, so I thought I'd try. When I went back to my library in person, I was suprised to find shelves and shelves of movie DVDs to borrow. At this point, though, it just seems that streaming the movies on Kanopy is easier.

>1 LolaWalser: Found this thread through Book Discussions, Your Books. No idea how, but I'm pleased to see what people are watching in Kanopy. It operates in Australia the same way as in the US and Canada: free through the library, n tickets per film. Since the pandemic I've belonged to multiple libraries, so should I run out of tickets at one library I could switch to another. My main library gives us 20 tickets per month (used to be 10 films per month).

I've recently watched Barbary Coast because it stars Miriam Hopkins. I look out for her films ever since seeing her in The Story of Temple Drake, which is unfortunately not on Kanopy. Barbary Coast also stars Edward G Robinson. 2 tickets.

I also watched Dragonwyck with Vincent Price because I'd just read the book. 2 tickets. Will check out Jamaica Inn as well. Done!

>12 LolaWalser: Jamaica Inn costs 2 tickets here. It's already February, and this month I have 30 tickets, so 10 must have carried over from January.

From what I remember of the book Jamaica Inn, the film bears a slight resemblance. It's highly entertaining because it's dominated by Charles Laughton. Jamaica Inn 1939

I just finished watching Los Lobos (2019), a bleak film in Spanish with subtitles about a single mother who brings her two young boys from Mexico to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to try to better their life. The young boys dream of one day going to Disneyland, while the mother struggles simply to earn enough money to feed herself and her children and to pay for the hovel of an apartment in which they live. It's the story of so many struggling families and for this reason was difficult to watch. The boys were adorable, especially the younger one. I just wanted to reach into the film to give each of them a hug. A very sad movie with few bright spots.

I watched Perfect Understanding, which I expected to be much better than it was because it starred Gloria Swanson and Laurence Olivier, and Michael Powell was one of the writers. It was released in 1933, so I hoped for a lively pre-code movie, but it was made in Ealing Studios, not Hollywood. It was ponderous and obvious, and Gloria Swanson looked too well-used to be believable as a naive young newly-wed.

>24 laytonwoman3rd:

It's great, from my angle, because it lets one browse through new stuff I wouldn't otherwise know or be able to request. I realise it may seem ridiculous when there is so much available more or less "free", but it's all about the type of content. Just the DEFA collection is mind-blowing!

>25 SqueakyChu:

Yes, I too borrow from the library a lot, but I noticed that, here at least, not everything that's available on Kanopy/Hoopla is available on disc, and vice versa.

>26 pamelad:

Hi, Pamela! Twenty tickets, AND they are transferable?! I'm beginning to think Canadians are Kanopy's red-haired children... :)

I like Miriam Hopkins too, and would walk many miles to watch Laughton in anything... I think there may be some panegyrics to that effect in the group already!

>27 SqueakyChu:

I hope I get to that this weekend.

Here are three more films coming up within the next couple of weeks on my To Watch list:

1. A Man of Integrity (2017) - Reza, having distanced himself from the urban quagmire, leads a simple life along with his wife and young son, in a remote village in Northern Iran. He spends his days working on his goldfish farm. Nearby, a private company with close links to the government, has taken control of nearly every aspect of regional life.
2. Nobody's Fool (1994) - Paul Newman earned an Oscar® nomination plus Best Actor honors from the National Society of Film Critics and New York Film Critics Circle for his portrayal of Sully, a likeable working stiff who’s made a lifetime of bad decisions. But he unexpectedly has a chance to make right on some of them when his estranged son – and grandson – drop into his life
3. The Great Sadness of Zohara (1993) - Shot on location in Israel and North Africa, THE GREAT SADNESS OF ZOHARA traces the solitary, mystical journey of a Jewish girl (Tinka Menkes), who leaves Jerusalem for Arab lands.

:)

More ZERO ticket stuff (as appearing in Canada, but maybe elsewhere too?)

Perfect Friday, 1970, a splendid caper/bank heist movie with Stanley Baker, David Warner and Ursula Andress. From the site's description:

"Mr. Hall has made an intelligent and quietly funny film about three eccentrics, who are as attractively written as they are played." - The New York Times

Vittorio De Sica's Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Ieri, Oggi, Domani, 1963 and Marriage Italian Style: Matrimonio all'italiana, 1964, both featuring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni at the peak of their careers. The gender politics are very dated, even for Italy!

I found two zero ticket films in the DEFA collection (haven't seen either yet...)

The Fiancée: Die Verlobte, 1980

Germany, 1934: Hella Lindau and her fiancé Hermann Reimers are members of an anti-Nazi resistance group. When they are betrayed, Hella takes the blame and is sentenced to ten years in prison for high treason. Though Hermann is not allowed to marry her, his letters and visits keep her hope alive; after she spends years in solitary confinement, he also manages to get permission for her to live and work with other prisoners.

Nine-and-a-half years into her sentence, the Gestapo wants to interrogate Hella again; when she is brought in for questioning, she sees that Hermann has been arrested… Two volumes of a planned autobiographical trilogy by Eva Lippold, German author and resistance fighter, inspired this internationally-acclaimed film.

and

Held for Questioning: Der Aufenthalt, 1982

Based on Hermann Kant's autobiographical novel, the acclaimed film HELD FOR QUESTIONING raises existential questions about crime and punishment, as well as obedience and responsibility.

In the fall of 1945, a few months after the end of WWII, 19-year-old German POW Mark Niebuhr (Sylvester Groth, "Inglourious Basterds") arrives with other prisoners at a train station near Warsaw. When a Polish woman accuses him of being the Nazi officer who killed her daughter, Mark is thrown into a Kafkaesque nightmare of accusations and persecution--first in solitary confinement, then among hostile Polish prisoners, and finally with German Nazis who assume he is a spy planted by the Poles.

>31 LolaWalser: Hi Sanya! Kanopy started in Australia, so I wonder whether the ticket generosity is historical. It's hard to take things away from people.

I've just watched Pygmalion with Lesley Howard and Wendy Hiller (1938). It sticks to George Bernard Shaw's play much more closely than does My Fair Lady, is funnier, more biting, and is not a romance. No sane woman would want to marry the Henry Higgins portrayed by Lesley Howard. Just to make that completely clear, here is Shaw's essay on "What Happened Afterwards."

I just finished watching Distant (Uzak) (2002), 2 tickets. What a depressing movie, but what a finely acted film. The story is of Mahmut, a middle-age, successful photographer in Turkey, whose wife divorced him and is now married to another man. Mahmut lives alone, but a cousin of his comes from a rural town to stay with Mahmut while the cousin desperately looks for work. Mahmut is depressed and still processing the fact that his wife is no longer with him so that it becomes harder and harder for him to bear living with his cousin.

>32 pamelad:

Ha, so true! Shaw was constantly fighting back the push to make his plays more "romantic". I remember reading how he refused to make changes to The Devil's Disciple to that effect, only to watch the production sneak in the gesture of the main character surreptitiously planting a kiss on the lady's long braided hair, behind her back (while his lines were denying any such feeling). Audience goes "aaaaaaaaah"; Shaw blows his top.

>33 SqueakyChu:

That sounds interesting. I'm still behind everything I'd like to get to.

Just saw The Little Traitor (2007) which takes place in Jerusalem in British mandate Palestine in 1947 and is the story of an 11-year-old boy, Proffy Liebowitz, who made friends with Sargent Dunlop, a British soldier. The end of the movie left me in tears (of joy). This story was from a book, Panther in the Basement by the noted and late Israeli author, Amos Oz. I read this book many years ago, but I didn't remember the story. Now that I've seen the film, I just asked my local library to find me a copy of the book so I can read it again.

I've been following this thread with interest but haven't been able to contribute because I don't have any access to Kanopy.

I was struck though, by the fact that the four films in >4 LolaWalser: have all recently been shown, or are coming up, on UK TV channel Talking Pictures TV. I was more than surprised to see that they have recently been featured on CBS News - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs8-F_4A5oc

I just finished watching A Man of Integrity (2017) (2 tickets) which was filmed in Iran and smuggled out to be shown elsewhere in film festivals. It was in Farsi with English subtitles. The story is about a married goldfish farmer with a young son whose farm is being threatened by a mysterious Corporation which is trying to force the farmer off his farm so it can take over the land. In order to save his farm, the farmer is told time and again to use bribery to get what he wants, but he only wants to do what is right. The only problem I had with this film was that there were multiple male characters, all of whom I could not keep straight and remember who was who. The message of the film I found chilling.

>36 housefulofpaper:

Please don't let the lack of Kanopy stop you from commenting, after all this is a FYI thread and comments on film definitely belong.

Well, that looks like something more than a coincidence, maybe the same batches of films are made available over multiple platforms...

>37 SqueakyChu:

Shooting films in Iran seems to be a real tough proposition. I recall watching Panahi's Taxi, where he actually drove a taxi around and filmed people furtively, having been forbidden to make films. Speaking of goldfish--what is it with Iranians and goldfish?--there was an old woman with a bowl of goldfish in it too.

Still not finding enough time to take in a movie.

>38 LolaWalser: Well, the interesting thing about A Man of Integrity was that it was filmed mostly in northern Iran to stay away from the authorities and then was smuggled out of Iran to be shown in film festivals in other countries. The filmmaker, Mohammad Rasoulof, has been arrested several times in Iran for the content of his films and has had his passport taken away from him so he cannot leave Iran. I think he is brave to continue to make films within Iran and smuggle them out. There are two more of his films available to see on Kanopy (The is No Evil - 2020, 2 tickets, and Iron Island - 2005, 2 tickets). I'd like to see them, but not back to back with the one I just saw. This film was emotionallly draining, to say the least.

One aspect of this film that I noted was a scene that he filmed (I believe) in Tehran. You mostly see men on the street, and all of the women on the street are covered in black chadors. A chador is the cloth that is wrapped around the head (except for the face) and upper body of mostly Muslim women. I try to imagine what it must be like to always have to wear such a garment to go out of doors.

Here in the U.S., I guess goldfish are not a "thing" any more. I had a goldfish named Trixie when I was a kid. Yesterday my older son bought his son a ball python as a pet!

Panahi's film "Taxi" is available on Kanopy for 2 tickets. I'd love to view that film soon! Thanks for the recommendation. If you haven't guessed yet, my favorite genre in film is world cinema. :D I guess that goes for books as well as my favorite book genre is international fiction. There is so much to learn about the people populating our world beside the stereotypes that are conveyed on social media.

Not enough time to view movies? Perhaps try what I do: watch one small part of the film you choose each day. I view each movie I choose over three days so it's mostly about half hour to view each part. Usually access per the tickets I paid is 72 hours. If need be, you can stretch that by just paying for another set of tickets.

I'm still mourning the fact that after the switch from credits to tickets on Kanopy the Great Courses lectures are no longer free to watch...

It's not free on Kanopy (though it is on BBC's iplayer if you're in the UK), but for a nice author related watch the Tove Jansson biopic is on there (just called Tove). It was a nice little movie, though quite limited in scope.

The movie I just finished watching was The Other Story by well known Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher. It's the story of two families in Israel with different problems whose lives intersect. The first family has two divorced parents who are trying to break up their daughter's engagement to a highly religious Jewish man; the second family has two parents who are in a custody fight over their only son. The grandfather in the first family is the psychotherapist to the second family. The plot is complicated, but so cleverly done that it grabbed my attention and never let go.

I loved that Israeli actor Sasson Gabai played the grandfather in this movie as I've seen him in other movies, and he's a dead ringer for my husband's brother-in-law! Plus he's a great actor. The actor was originally Iraqi; my husband's brother-in-law was orginally Iranian.

>39 SqueakyChu:

Oh, that's cool that Taxi is on Kanopy. I think you'll like it. Speaking of women, in this film it's actually notable that in the streets (of Teheran) quite a few are wearing coverings very loosely, with hair showing.

When we lived in Syria there was a public beach we often went to and in one corner there'd be groups of women in black chadors (and usually face veils) who'd enter the sea fully dressed and just sit in the shallows the whole time. Can't imagine getting sand and salt into (or out) all those yards of thick cloth was pleasant.

>40 mabith:

That's too bad. I think they are free with BingePasses, if you have that, but I'm not sure we get them every month. No, wait--that's Hoopla, not Kanopy. Yes, for a short while, with the credit system, one credit got one a single movie or an entire series regardless of episode number. With tickets, there's differential "pricing" now.

>42 LolaWalser: It's so neat to know you lived in Syria. I wonder if you were there when I lived in Israel (1972-1973)? Can you speak Arabic? I lived for a while in the northern part of Israel (Kiryat Shemona) near the Golan Heights (that was once part of Syria). There we made friends with a few people who were Druze and who still had relatives in Syria. In fact, my roomate ended up marrying a guy who was Druze (long story).

>43 SqueakyChu:

At that time we were on Cyprus. We were in Syria 1975-1981, first in Damascus then Latakia. I retained little of my childhood Arabic, but recently I started reviving it.

We actually visited the Golan once, in company of friends who used to take megaphones and talk to family on the Israel side.

>44 LolaWalser: There is a movie which I once saw called The Syrian Bride on Kanopy. You'd probably enjoy it. I'd love to watch it again around the time you watch it as I forgot all the details of it. It would probably bring back some good memories for both of us. The Middle East is so complicated, but I'm thinking that you probably loved living in the Middle East as much as I did. I worked as a volunteer registered nurse in Israel. What were you doing in Cyprus and Syria?

>45 SqueakyChu:

The maritime civil engineering company my dad worked for had projects there. I was just a kid. I did love both Cyprus and then Syria and was very sad to leave. Although, there were indications already that my life would have become much less fun as I started growing up. My mother was quite unhappy, for example, because in comparison to Cyprus and Croatia (neither a feminist paradise, be it said), she was forced to live a very restricted life. I'll never stop being bitter about it.

>46 LolaWalser: Wow! My experience in Israel was truly lovely (except for one job I hated and quit after a short period of time). I was 25-26 years old at the time, made lifelong friends (Israeli, American, Argentinian, Canadian, and British), got to know my close Israeli family extremely well, and traveled all over the country to see as much as I could. The only reason I returned to the US after my year was up was that my widowed father was alone in the US as I was his only child. Otherwise, I probably would have stayed in Israel permanently and still be living in Jerusalem (my last address before I left).

By the way, my mom was from what is now Croatia (then Yugoslavia, and formerly the Austro-Hungarian Empire) She was born in the United States, but she grew up in Osijek and didn't come back to the United States until WWII forced her out of Europe.

>38 LolaWalser:

maybe the same batches of films are made available over multiple platforms...
That would make sense. Talking Pictures have the rights to a lot of old and largely forgotten British films (that they've also issued on DVD under the Renown Pictures name); and some of their prints of older or obsure films are a bit ropey (soft image, US title on a British film, etc.), and I discovered that some of the films they've shown are in the public domain. But bigger or newer films tend to be good quality, and I notice that they often have a current studio's ident at the start.

I just completed watching Nobody's Fool (1994), a story whose screen play was written by Robert Benton and was based on a novel by Richard Russo who is an author whose novels my husband likes to read. I told my husband about the movie, and my husband told me about the book. I chose to watch this movie because I've always admired Paul Newman, although I haven't seen many of his movies. He was terrific as Sully, a 60-year-old man living in Bath, a small town in upstate New York. The story is about how Sully reacts to his living situation after suffering a construction work injury and having his estranged son Peter return to his home town unemployed. Jessica Tandy, whose acting I've also admired in the past, plays the role of the elderly landlady in the house where Sully lives. Jessica Tandy died after the movie was filmed, but before it was released. This is a movie that will make you both want to laugh and want to cry. It seemed a very realistic portrayal of life in small town America.

>47 SqueakyChu:

Osijek--I've never been, but I always hear good things about it. Slavonians are the nicest people, in my experience. You should visit if you get a chance.

>48 housefulofpaper:

I got the Alastair Sim Scrooge from Renown recently, couldn't be happier. It includes an earlier 1930s version (still haven't watched) and the restoration was done with the Bfi's cooperation.

>49 SqueakyChu:

Sounds very good.

Still nothing chez moi. Got sucked into bingeing a season of Hoarders, specifically on a thumbnail showing mountains of books. I cast a wary eye--how far am I gone?--not THAT far... yet. This couple had filled 26 rooms--26 rooms!--with hundreds of thousands of books.

>50 LolaWalser: I actually did visit Yugoslavia (back in 1974 when it was still under Tito!). I was with a friend, and we were traveling across Europe. We spent the most time in Dubrovnik. I didn't get to travel north to my mom's home town, though, as it was too far north from our travel route. We traveled into Yugoslavia by train, spent a night in Skopje, traveled along the Adriatic coast (hitching rides!), and included a visit to the Postonja caverns. I know almost no Serbo-Croatian, but I did well communicating in German. Our trip was lots of fun.

Speaking of hoarding books, my younger son just brought me two huge boxes of antique/vintage books that he wants me to sell for him. I could not tell him no as I wanted to look through the boxes. They came from a house that was being liquidated. I might keep a couple of them.

I saw that picture of "Hoarders" on Kanopy. I'm trying not to let myself tune into films that last more than two hours at most. The only series I ever "binged" on was one season of "The Handmaid's Tale" when I was on vacation in Pennsylvania a few years ago. We watched the entire season's episodes in a few days. It was great fun because I had read the book for the first time not too long before I saw the filmed series.

Just saw the movie Golda (2024) starring Helen Mirren as the former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. For me this was a painful movie to watch and heartbreaking in so many ways. Helen Mirren was amazing in her portrayal of Golda as was the makeup and hairstyling of Golda in this movie. Suzi Battersby is a 2024 U.S. Academy Awards Nominee for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling.

>52 SqueakyChu: - I saw an old movie about Golda, where Ingrid Bergman played her. I have heard about this new one but haven't seen it yet

Just a head's up about a new feature--sorting by tickets! However, it's not straightforward. As far as I can figure out, you must first do a search on some term, in the search box--here I tried "comedy"--and then you should see this on the left side:

>54 LolaWalser: If you follow Kanopy on Facebook, you get some great posts for movies you might otherwise miss. That's how I found out about the new Golda movie being on Kanopy. I was surprised that Kanopy was even playing first run movies. The other two they are currently showing are: "Past Lives" and "Four Daughters".

>55 SqueakyChu:

I don't have Facebook. It's okay, though--no dearth of choice!

Incidentally, I did end up watching Mr. Topaze and would definitely recommend it to the fans of, first, Sellers himself, but also to anyone interested in the British film of that era. (In addition to Michael Gough, Herbert Lom, Leo McKern, Billie Whitelaw, Nadia Gray, Joan Sims, John Le Mesurier... it also has John Neville and Martita Hunt--quite a spread of talent.) I missed before that it was also directed by Sellers, but suffered such bad reviews that he, apparently, tried to destroy available copies. However, it really isn't bad! I expect that the audiences didn't like the transformation of a sweet, honest, desperately poor teacher into a cynical crook... this version seems more bleak than the other, too, because he's left all alone.

Still, an interesting rarity in Sellers' filmography.

I'm watching Piccadilly, a 1929 British silent with Anna May Wong.

The director is German and the cast are from all over the place.

>57 pamelad:

Piccadilly is wonderful! She made a somewhat similar film the same year in Germany, Pavement butterfly (Großstadtschmetterling), which is just as interesting. Her character is in it unambiguously good, but still has to suffer in the end. Even so, these European roles allowed her the independence and glamour she had to fight for tooth and nail in Hollywood. The more I learn about Wong, the more amazing she appears.

If you happen to become a fan, there is a great YT channel dedicated to her hosted by a Chinese-American woman who cleans up the videos herself.

I just finished watching Malacrianza (The Crow's Nest) which was a film made in El Salvador and filmed in the areas in which gangsters actually live. It was the story of Don Cleo, a gentle, but poor, man who was extorted to pay $500 or lose his life in 72 hours. I was most interested in seeing this film because I'm married to a former Salvadoran (now a U.S. citizen), but I also visited El Salvador many years ago (before the war and the rise of much gang violence). I've never seen a film before based in El Salvador. This film made me so sad. The writer said he based it on an idea he got from a real situation of extortion. I'd rather say no more about that so as not to give away any spoilers. This film was the first fiction film from El Salvador to be produced since 1969 and the first ever to have a worldwide release.

>59 SqueakyChu:

I added that to my watchlist, thanks. It has to wait until March, though, I just blew my last two tickets... and on a disappointment. Ah well.

>60 LolaWalser: March will be here soon! I now have over 200 films on my watchlist! It’s so much fun choosing films. I’m
glad to say that most of them are terrific.

>58 LolaWalser: I first saw Piccadilly about twenty years ago on the big screen at Melbourne Town Hall. It has a massive pipe organ, which had just been restored, so a famous organist (whose name I can't remember) played the accompaniment, which I remember as being more atmospheric than the music that accompanies the Kanopy release. The coloured filters were new to me: the sepia for indoors and the blue for outdoors. The only scenes that had stayed in my mind were the bar scene in Limehouse and Anna May Wong's dance, so it was good to watch the film again. Wong really stands out.

Thanks for that site. I'll watch Pavement Butterfly and am investigating how to download films from the Internet Archive onto the TV so I can watch Shanghai Express again.

>61 SqueakyChu: I'm up to 147, mostly oldies and foreign films. Every film leads you to others, so I can spend ages following the pathways that start with the suggestions at the bottom of the screen. After Piccadilly, Kanopy is suggesting lots of silent films.

Thinking of watching Shakespeare wallah next, a 1966 Merchant-Ivory.

>62 pamelad: I totally agree about those related films at the bottom that just lead us into a veritable labyrinth of films. So much fun to explore!

Interestingly, my Kanopy filter list doesn't often a zero tickets option, only a 1 ticket or less. Quite annoying!

Huh. Funny how they don't synchronise these things for all, I'd think that would be easier.

I found another great zero-ticket choice: Yo, la peor de todas, a 1990 movie by an Argentinian woman director about the life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 17th century nun, writer, mystic and lesbian. Assumpta Serna and Dominique Sanda! I hope to watch tonight, just in case the repertoire drops it in March.

>65 LolaWalser: That movie sounds so interesting but is not on my Kanopy! :( I'm watching a Chiliean movie now. More on that after I finish seeing it all.

On Kanopy, I watched a Chilean movie called The Club (El Club) (2015). It was a very intense and disturbing movie about a seaside residence in which four ex-priests and an ex-nun were housed after they were banished from serving the Catholic church for various unpardonable sins, many of which are revealed to us during the movie. Skip this film if you cannot bear to see animal crulety. I told myself that this was "just a movie". Parts of the plot eluded me so that did I look up a synopsis of it after seeing the film to clarify some details I earlier did not understand. It's a well done movie, but very troubling.

On Kanopy, I watched Past Lives (2023), a bittersweet story about friendship and a very close relationship of two Korean youth who met again after 24 years apart. It was moving in a beautiful, quiet way and left me thinking about choices we make in our relationships over the many years of our lives. It's a story that was rooted in the writer-director Celine Song's personal experience and is her directorial debut film.

On Kanopy, I watched the film Ida (2013) which was set in post-WWII Poland and was the story of a young woman, raised as an orphan in a convent and about to take her vows as a nun. However, the mother superior found out that the novice had a living relative, an aunt, and told the young woman to spend some time with her relative before taking her vows. Immediately after the novice met her aunt, we learn their family was Jewish. Most of the story involved how the two women tried to discover how their family disappeared. The movie was worth watching, but I was disappointed in the ending which seemed a bit quick for the depth of the story.

I've just watched Benediction (2021) on Kanopy, which is about the poet Siegfried Sassoon. It's very well done, though quite depressing. They work in his poetry really well throughout the film, which flits around in his life to some extent, though it focuses most on the years just following the end of the war and Sassoon's love for entertainer, Ivor Novello. If you have access to BBC iPlayer the movie is on there as well.

>70 mabith: I saw this last week and was very impressed by the performance of Jack Lowden. i knew a little about Sassoon, mostly through having read Regeneration by Pat Barker and I would have liked more on his relationship with Wilfred Owen.
Having said that I found the film moving and it made me think that being a survivor of war brings its own problems with it. World War One gave Sassoon his voice but afterwards it seems that he had little to say in poetry outside that experience.

On Kanopy, I watched A Walk in the Woods (2015). I loved this book by Bill Bryson so much and thought I'd enjoy the movie. It's the story of Bill Bryson's experiences while hiking the Appalachian Trail with his friend Stephen Katz. The author was 44 years old when he actually did the hike. In the movie he was played by Robert Redford, and Katz was played by Nick Nolte-- both pretty much senior citizens at the time this film was made. The movie was wonderful. It was hilariously funny. I just loved it! The scene with the bears...it made me laugh uproariously! Be sure to both read Bryson's book AND see this movie. Both are terrific!

On Kanopy, I watched the movie The Whale (2022) starring Brendan Fraser. In it, he portrayed a man who left his wife and daughter for an affair with a young man who had been his student. After his lover died, Charlie over-ate to the extent of morbid obesity which confined him to his home. This film told the story of what happened to Charlie when, years later, his daughter re-emerged into his life. The story was very powerful, but deeply sad. For his moving performance as Charlie, Brendan Fraser won an Oscar.

>73 SqueakyChu:

That does sound sad. Not sure I could attempt right now.

I saw Putney Swope. Don't know what to think about it. Interesting as a piece of American cultural history but its vision of race didn't age well.

>74 LolaWalser: I think Whale was the best movie I’ve seen on Kanopy so far. The character Charlie was so real in a way that I felt as if I knew him. I once had a friend who was morbidly obese who suddenly died at age 59. She had a happy life fortunately. I can’t stop thinking about Charlie, though. I also can’t believe that someone made him look if he weighed about 600 pounds. He looked so real! The actor who played Charlie was not obese!!

On Kanopy I watched the movie The Crime of Padre Amaro (2002) about a young priest who fell in love with a teenage girl in his parish in a rural town in Mexico. It was so hard to watch the hypocrisy of the Catholic church in this film, but I loved watching the young and handsome Gael García Bernal in the starring role. :)

>76 SqueakyChu:

I read the book -- very funny. Usually I wouldn't be eager to watch film adaptations of classics, but the presence of Bernal makes me wonder... I've liked him in everything I've seen so far.

>76 SqueakyChu: I was trying to find that book through my public library or through an interlibrary loan, but I could not find it.

The book was funny? I can’t imagine that. The film was so serious.

I knew Bernal from having seen him in a movie about Che Guevara many years ago.

Let me know what you think of The Crime of Padre Amaro if you decide to watch it. I wonder if the book has the same ending. I’ll keep trying to find the book (for a reasonable price, though).

>76 SqueakyChu:, >77 LolaWalser:, >78 SqueakyChu: I also enjoyed The Crime of Father Amaro and found it satirical and witty, so am concerned that such a serious film is not true to the book. That said, you would have to be hard-hearted to find the book’s ending funny. Avoid the terrible Nan Flanagan translation and go for Margaret Jul Costa.

>79 pamelad: >77 LolaWalser: Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll keep looking for the book.

am concerned that such a serious film is not true to the book.

It seems that you were right on the money! The film is very different from the book apparently.

This is interesting! In the book you recommended, the story takes place in Portugal! In the movie, the setting was rural Mexico. In fact, I commented to my husband how much it reminded me of a city (Escuintla) in Mexico I once visited, although it had been filmed in a different state than the one I had visited.

Also interesting (and taken from Wikipedia’s article about the author): “The film was criticized in Portugal as insufficiently faithful to the novel. It was said that Mexico in 2002 has little or nothing to do with the 19th century context in the novel; in addition, Amaro's motivation is different. In the novel his education steers him into the priesthood, whereas in the film he chooses to follow this path himself and has some anticlerical views. Finally, Eça's Amélia is older (aged 23) than her film equivalent, although the actress who played the part (Ana Claudia Talancón) turned 22 in the year the film was released.”

Another way I think the book is different from the film (from what I read about the book) is that the film is allied with the upper eschelons of the church with the rich drug dealers (and money-laundering) in Mexico as opposed to the simply rich in Portugal. It would probably be interesting for you both to see the film just to focus on the contrasts between the book and the film.

>80 SqueakyChu:

Ahh, that does sound considerably different... as Pamela says, the book is satirical. Amaro himself is a hypocrite, although in a way he too is a victim as he was forced to become a priest (being a poor orphan and brought up by another priest). The ending, as you say, is sad for Amelia, but up till then their courting and affair had some comic elements.

It's beautifully written, Queiros was a master. I had the New Directions edition.

>79 pamelad: >81 LolaWalser: I’m so curious about the book now that I will definitely order it.

On Kanopy, I just watched Boulevard (2014), the last movie starring Robin Williams before his tragic death by suicide. I always loved this actor, both in his funny roles and in his serious roles. This was a movie about a married man finally coming to terms with his being gay. In his moments of anguish in the film, I could only think about the end of Williams' life in real so I probably was more deeply moved and saddened by his performance in this movie than I might have been otherwise.

On Kanopy, I watched the film Leave No Trace (2018), a story about a former military man suffering PTSD who lived deep in the woods with his teenage daughter. A mistake by the daughter led to the discovery of their living in the wild and social services removing them from their only home. This film was based on a book which had been based on a true story. The acting was beautiful, but the story was deeply sad. So much mental anguish must have been in the dad's mind at all times.

All 17 episodes of the cult series The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan are free (zero tickets) in Canada... and maybe elsewhere?

>85 LolaWalser:
Also currently been screened by a new "nostalgic TV" satellite & cable channel (Rewind TV) in the UK.