When bells ring out the summer free. (Patreon)
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Just realized that I forgot to reveal this week's poll winner, which some of you will have correctly worked out from the post's title. So far, Rolling Thunder has made it head-to-head on both of the (unusually, non-consecutive) occasions in which it's been an option, and it's twice been soundly defeated—last time by The Wizard of Oz, this time by Kazan's Baby Doll. I last saw the latter in 1995, apparently didn't love it then since it's not on my '56 list (though I first drafted that some four years later). It's rentable everywhere.
Apologies for the delay writing up last week's winner, which in case you've forgotten was Visconti's The Damned. I did not like the film at all, and articulating why that is doesn't seem as if it should be terribly difficult (Kael did a bang-up job), yet I've been having trouble all the same. Think I finally broke through, but now I'm behind compiling this week's New York City theatrical releases (an unpaid, self-assigned task that I could just abandon or ignore, but 25 years of inertia exerts considerable power). Anyway, coming soon, followed by solidarity with the folks at Cannes '22 who thought Desplechin made a real howler. (I respect its apologists, but nah.)