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Chewy Bitems posted:
This film deserves to be seen. Enjoy! Only Angels Have Wings I realized about 1/3rd of the way through this Howard Hawks film that it wasn't going to be your standard cliche rom-com of that era - this was a film far ahead of it's time. Sure, there was a love story in Cary Grant's Geoff Carter & Jean Arthur's Bonnie Lee, but also another past flame in Rita Hayworth's Judy MacPherson (her first major role), a small airline company's camaraderie disrupted by former company pilot Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess), and the many beautiful aviation sequences that give this a true sense of an auteur at work (Hawks based parts of the story around his own witnessed encounters). Grant was fantastic here as the macho head pilot of Barranca Airways, with a modern comparison being Jon Hamm's Don Draper from Mad Men. There really isn't much to the story at all, but more a true-to-life depiction of time spent at this airway. It may not be a film I'd like to revisit anytime soon, but I had fun while I was there. ....also watched this from Luis Bunuel The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie Three couples continually try and have dinner together - only for something to continually cause plans to go awry. But as the film progresses, and we get dream sequence after dream sequence after dream sequence, it begins to feel like our perception of what's going on is in as much disarray as these characters themselves! It is a statement of the privileged and their expectations of always getting what they want. Everything about the film itself is nearly flawless - the casting of so many beautiful people made the film irresistible on that alone. But the film is also wonderfully shot with stunning and diverse setpieces throughout. Above all else, it is very charming and absolutely hilarious - worth a watch especially for fans of Bunuel. LIST American Hustle (2015.10.19) - I'll replace Fincher's 'Dragon Tattoo with another lengthy modern film I'll never watch... unless I'm forced to here. Anatomy of a Murder (2015.09.03) - another lengthy film that I've been meaning to see, but won't watch unless this thread makes me. Children of Paradise (2015.10.12) - here's yet another 3hr film I'll continue to put off until I get forced to watch it. The Fountain (2015.07.12) - I've noticed this come up way too many times, plus a good friend telling me to watch it for years now. Gilda **NEW** (2015.11.27) - I'll replace an early Rita Hayworth film with her most iconic. Leaving Las Vegas (2015.10.18) - I claim to be a big Nic Cage supporter, yet his Oscar-winner remains a blindspot. How shameful, right? Mister Roberts (2015.10.24) - James Cagney, Henry Fonda, William Powell, and Jack Lemmon ..... Why I haven't watched this yet is beyond me. Only God Forgives **NEW** (2015.11.27) - heavily panned but still a film I've always wanted to see after loving Drive so much. That Obscure Object of Desire **OLDEST** (2015.04.07) - this seems way too interesting and way too important to have not seen by now. Umberto D. (2015.11.17) - recently picked it up in a Criterion flash sale. Been wanting to see it for years now. I've got my box of tissues ready to go! De-shamed Pt2: True Romance (4/5), The Right Stuff (3/5), Syndromes And A Century (4/5), Still Life (3/5), My Cousin Vinny (2.5/5), Doctor Zhivago (3.5/5), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (4.5/5), Peeping Tom (4/5), Shadow of a Doubt (4.5/5), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (4.5/5), Only Angels Have Wings (4/5), [Total:111]
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Nov 28, 2015 05:03
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Friendo, of the films on your list that I've seen, I think Umberto D. is quite easily the best of them. I was given Abel Gance's silent 5 an a half hour magnum opus Napoléon. Although Gance went on to have a long career that stretched well into the 1960s, he never made another film that received the vast acclaim and recognition as his celebratory epic of one of the most powerful and brilliant military minds to ever live. Steeped in French patriotism, Gance threw everything he could into the mix, employing every possible editing trick imaginable. Almost like more modern films that have become popular for their orgiastic approach to visuals and editing like Hausu or Scott Pilgrim, Napoleon is a sweeping, beautiful exercise in filmmaking. It's criminally underseen for a number of reasons - It's silent, it's incredibly long, it's rarely screened due to a proper presentation requiring a three-projector setup, and it has no legal DVD or Blu Ray release due to rights issues relating to the score. But it must be seen. This is maybe in the Top 3 of all of silent cinema. I highly encourage you all to track this down and add it to your lists because even in a truncated single-frame version it's magnificent, vividly paced, and engrossing. I know the idea of a 5 and a half hour silent historical drama sounds like a slog on paper, but I assure you this is essential cinema that holds up. Gance begins the film with Napoleon as a child and there is a snowball fight that is more wild and epic than any battle in the Lord of the Rings movies. The flurry of images paired with the beautiful score and classical soundtrack make this such a breeze to watch, even if it needs to be broken up into multiple viewings to fit it all in. But please, please, all of you. Add this to your lists. I doubt you'll regret it. My List: The Avenging Conscience (1914) - Griffith's last film before The Birth of a Nation. (Added 2/15/2015) Yi Yi (2000) - This consistently ranks high on lists but nobody ever seems to talk about it and I have no idea what it's about. (Added 2/24/2015) The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) - I love Fritz Lang and I'm a big fan of his first Dr. Mabuse movie, the four-hour silent. This is apparently the second film of a trilogy and quite different from the first film. (Added 9/27/2015) The War Room (1993) - Pennebaker does Clinton. Picked this up from a thrift shop awhile back. Should be good as we barrel headfirst into election season. (Added 9/27/2015) Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972) - Helluva title. I'm actually not a big fan of Dario Argento so I'd like to see a non-Argento Giallo for once. (Added 9/27/2015) Flooding with Love for the Kid (2010) - A guy adapted First Blood (yes, as in Rambo) and filmed it in his 220 square foot New York apartment on a budget of $96 with a cast consisting of himself in every role. It's apparently really good. (Added 9/27/2015) Faces (1968) - Making my way through the Criterion Cassavetes box set. (Added 10/24/2015) The Life of Juanita Castro (1965) - An Andy Warhol deep cut. Several actresses sit cramped in a room all facing the same direction enacting a drama about the Castros and Che Guevera during the Cuban revolution. I really dig Warhol's minimalist factory films. (Added 11/1/2015) The Hour of the Furnaces (1968) - A sprawling 260 minute documentary that is thankfully broken up into three parts. However, while little plot description exists beyond "a unique film exploration of a nation's soul" it's supposedly one of the tentpoles of radical activist 60s filmmaking. (Added 11/5/2015) The Blood of a Poet (1932) - I rarely see Jean Cocteau show up in this thread. I love his stuff, one of the best fantasy filmmakers of all time, but I've never seen this first sound feature of his. (Added 11/28/15) Watched: Fort Apache; Damnation; Ran; Ordet; Purple Rain; Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages; Napoléon (TOTAL: 7)
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Nov 28, 2015 22:57
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TrixRabbi, I've only seen one of your list but wasn't particularly enamored with it, whereas Yi Yi is one of the things I most want to see. Go with that and who knows, if you love it, maybe make me watch it some day...  ------------------ Spirited Away: Lovely lovely lovely. Just a really absurd level of charming. Surreal and childlike (in a good way); reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland in that respect. Art style's very pretty, although the animation feels a bit... choppy at times? Not as smooth and continuous as Princess Kaguya. There's a scene where No Face jumps several stories into the water, and it looked like he was just skipping down 5 feet at a time. Weird. But whatever, nitpicking, because where else am I gonna find flaws  The start reminded me of Inside Out, as both consider what it's like for a child to have to move home, leave behind what they know, start over, and all against their fledgling judgement. But the similarities stop there, really: that's a story of sentiment and psychology, this of adventure and sociology. Rather than an exploration of pining for what's lost, we get what it's like to grow up in a world without your parents -- that one constant after such a big life event -- where you're thrust into a society which expects work and commitment, a sacrifice of childhood. Excess was the dominant theme throughout for me: Chihiro's parents' gluttony sparks her odyssey; No Face exploits the greed of everyone bar Chihiro to achieve its aims; the desecration of the river god via entirely man-made means; you could even compare Yubaba's palatial bathhouse to Zeniba's modest home -- is it any wonder they can't get on? and through it all, it's sacrifice, modesty and love that helps Chihiro back to her old life. It's not just a good film, it's a film about goodness. That warmness and sincerity in telling a story with that message is something I really, really appreciate in film these days, too. Finally: god bless that ending. It's way too easy and too common to write off stories as just a child's imagination. Let that imagination BE reality. Definitely looking forward to more Ghibli. Helluva film. 8.5/10. A Fistful of Dollars - Completely unversed in westerns. Closest I've come is No Country for Old Men or, uh, Back to the Future 3  (And for the record, I love Yojimbo -- my favourite Kurosawa, in fact)The Godfather Part II - Since I saw Part I this week haven't yet had time to go further than that Vertigo - Woefully underversed in Hitchcock Tokyo Story - Seen a few Kurosawas and plenty of recent Japanese cinema, but no other pre-90s director Ordet - Very, very intrigued by what little I've heard La strada - 8½ was pretty spectacular, but my only Fellini Raging Bull - Scorsese's yet another big blind spot Cries and Whispers - Been a while since I watched Bergman. Seen the big three The General - LOVED the two Keatons I've seen so far Nanook of the North - I love documentaries, and this is the highest one on Sight and Sound's list of the greatest ever that I've not seen (except for Shoah, which is too long to book in here, need to find a ton of time to dedicate to something like that) De-shamed: Spirited Away (8.5/10) | [Total:1] Allyn fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Nov 29, 2015 |
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Nov 29, 2015 03:24
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TrixRabbi posted:...due to a proper presentation requiring a three-projector setup, and it has no legal DVD or Blu Ray release due to rights issues relating to the score. On those DVDs/VHS/laser discs I'm wondering if any maintain the full 4:1 ratio. It'd be a little unorthodox but still watchable on a 16:9 TV IMO. Allyn posted:Vertigo - Woefully underversed in Hitchcock Next one for you. Crimes and Misdemeanors - This one covers the ever-present relationship nightmares that come with infidelity and the subsequent and natural guilt that follows. It shows a realistic portrayal of the way things can unravel and then pan out. Woody Allen plays to his strength as usual by playing the pitiful and hapless victim. I continue to find most of his films to be highly quotable. The rest of the cast is very strong and as a bonus Jerry Orbach and Martin Landau actually look like brothers. There are a lot of interesting characters that could've had more screen time. From the intellectual who jumps out of a window to the family we meet in a flashback. Comedy = Tragedy + Time Procrastination (199 completed): #195 Catastrophe AKA Shoah - Make me finish this ten hour behemoth. 8/29/15 #199 Pumpkinhead - I may never look at pumpkins the same way again. 10/9/15 #202 Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1 - This one keeps jumping on and off the IMDb 250. 11/5/15 #203 To Be or Not to Be - An Ernst Lubitsch film. 11/9/15 James Bond versus Godzilla: Invasion of Astro-Monster - Godzilla film number six. 11/5/15 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture (19/37 completed): 2002 Swept Away - Madonna gets stuck on an island. 5/25/15 1996 Striptease - Stripshow Volume II. 8/25/15 1994 Color of Night - I haven't heard much about this. 9/6/15 1993 Indecent Proposal - A rich man offers your wife $1,000,000 American dollars for a one night tryst. What do you do? 10/9/15 new 1992 Shining Through - Something about WWII. 11/30/15
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Dec 1, 2015 06:46
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I was given Daisies and I have to be honest and say that I don't know enough about what was going on in Czechoslovakia at the time it was made to gain any particularly deep insight from it. However, I did have a lot of fun watching it, both in attempting to puzzle out the political meaning (all the trains put me in mind of the Nazi regime) and in the pure (very, very pure) experience of total shock and general overwhelmtion that Chytilová's totally chaotic and anarchic style produces. It reminds me a lot of Zazie dans le Metro, which also has a certain political tilt to its anarchy, starting out as "fun" but steamrolling the audience with energy and violence. Zazie is a far more exhausting and menacing watch, however. Daisies leans more in the direction of films like La Grande Bouffe, in which four aristocrats, tired with life, eat themselves to death with varying degrees of success. The two girls in Daisies, Marie I and II, decide to live opulently, spoiling themselves as much as the rest of society. They string along a series of hapless sugar daddies, they drink themselves stupid, they deny the courtship of a young man and, while he pines for them over the phone, cut various phallic objects in half and savor the state of being desired and missed. Through all this, Chytilová's camera cuts and pastes and shifts and does all sorts of things cameras don't usually do, which is maddeningly inventive, deeply satisfying to watch, and heightens the surreal, disjointed, and abstract nature of the narrative. Scenes are often joined by abrupt match cuts, or interrupted by fluttering montages of text and collage. One sequence has them setting fire to a forest of blue crepe paper in their room while some kind of eastern European chorus sings in a heavenly way, and the combination of music, action, and cinematography adds up to the kind of rare film transcendence that all cinema aspires to. In the final sequence, they climb into a forbidding dumbwaiter and ride up to the top floor, where they find and lay waste to a fancy banquet hall. The excess is nauseating - they lay out food for fifty people and, on-camera, work their way down the table, gobbling and scarfing and smacking through ducks and aspics and steak tartares before attacking the dessert table. After climbing up on the chandelier, they fall into an unidentified body of water and proclaim how tired and sorry they are to be spoiled. They sneak back into the banquet hall, wrapped in newspapers and string like cuts of meat, and tidy up as best they can, reassembling plates and sweeping food from the floor into dirty heaps on platters. They lie on the table, and say they are happy. Suddenly, the chandelier falls on them and the end credits roll over footage of air bombings. The chandelier is a penis, or a bomb. The women are wrapped like meat, or like cocks, or like packages. They court a man who collects butterflies and pins them into boxes. They cover every wall of their chaotic room with the names and love letters of the men they encircle. They climb into a milk bath, they eat from a tree of knowledge. What to make of any of this? It's inherently political, surely - one reading suggests that they act as the communist leaders did, or as men do and women can't. A thousand symbols are thrown at the viewer, and sometimes the easiest course of action is to let go and enjoy the experience. A pleasurable experience, to be sure. 8/10 shame dome 1) Weekend - traffic jam 2) The River - Inspired Satyajit Ray? Something about India? i have no idea 3) Blind Chance - I need to fill up on my Kieslowski 4) Stray Dog - arf 5) Victim - Another Great Ebert 6) Valerie and her Week of Wonders - magical realism 7) A Brief History of Time - billions and billions 8) The Marriage of Maria Braun - more fassbinder 9) Frances Ha - recent rave 10) Night And Fog - uh oh Jules et Jim 6/10, Saving Private Ryan 9.5/10, Fitzcarraldo 9/10, The 39 Steps 7/10, Notorious 7/10, Run Lola Run 8/10, Downfall 7.5/10, The Searchers 7.5/10, Tokyo Story 7/10, Gone With The Wind 10/10, Touch Of Evil 9.5/10, Ikiru 7.5/10, The Apartment 7/10, Bicycle Thieves 7/10, Moon 7/10, The Color Purple 7.5/10. The French Connection 9.5/10, The Leopard 8/10, Yojimbo 8.5/10, Sanjuro 8/10, Das Boot 8.5/10, The Conformist 8/10, Breathless 9/10, Where The Wild Things Are 7.5/10, Vertigo 9/10, Raging Bull 10/10, Ordet 7/10, City Of God 9/10, The Wages Of Fear 9/10, Aguirre, The Wrath Of God 9/10, The Mirror 9.5/10, Through A Glass Darkly 10/10, On The Waterfront 6/10, The Straight Story 9/10, Lawrence Of Arabia 8.5/10, Dial M For Murder, 8/10 Winter Light 10/10, The Silence 9/10, Badlands 8/10, The Wrong Man 7/10, In The Mood For Love 9.5/10, Secret Honor 10/10, Gosford Park 10/10, Viridiana 7.5/10, The Exterminating Angel 9/10, Seven Samurai 10/10, Rashomon 9/10, The Godfather: Part II 10/10, La Dolce Vita 10/10, The Princess Bride 9/10, Bringing Up Baby 7/10, City Lights 9/10, Baraka 7/10, Au revior les enfants 8/10, Bonnie And Clyde 6.5, Hiroshima mon amour 8/10, Lost In Translation 10/10, The Piano 8/10, La Strada 7/10, Safety Last! 10/10 Vivre sa vie 9/10, Band Of Outsiders 8/10, Diary Of A Country Priest 7/10, Mommie Dearest 8/10, Once Upon A Time In The West 10/10, L'Atalante 7/10, All About My Mother 7/10, Shoot The Piano Player 8/10, Faces 10/10, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc 10/10, The Wild Bunch 6/10, Harold And Maude see my review, Pink Flamingos 8/10, Heat 10/10, Raising Arizona 7/10, L'Avventura 2/10, Atlantic City 9/10, The Magic Flute 9/10, Cleo From 5 To 7 9/10, Down By Law 10/10, Hoop Dreams 10/10, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her ¿8/10?, La jetée 9/10, Night Of The Living Dead 9/10, Cool Hand Luke 6/10, Pather Panchali 10/10, The Terminator 6/10, The Trial 10/10, Exit Through The Gift Shop 10/10, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 7/10, The Phantom Carriage 10/10, Au Hasard Balthazar 3/10, The African Queen 10/10, My Night At Maud's 10/10, The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse 10/10, La Haine 10/10, The Pianist 7/10, Four Lions A-, Scream A+, Ali: Fear Eats The Soul B-, The Naked City 7/10, Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10 (total: 103) Zogo gets To Be Or Not To Be
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Dec 5, 2015 07:56
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Magic Hate Ball, I have not seen any of your films so I will blindly give you Stray Dog because dogs rule. I was given Malcolm X. When I added it to my Shameful list, I didn't realize it was over 3 hours long. Seeing that length was daunting, but thankfully the film was kind enough to have good editing and engaging scenes to keep it from feeling its length. It never dwells too long in any scene, and it fills the screentime with important parts of Malcolm's life, from his early criminal career to his assassination. The scenes are shot with plenty of flair, with great uses of color and camera movement, so it's a visual treat that never feels showy for the sake of showing off. Of course, the lynchpin in the whole film is Malcolm X himself, and Denzel Washington nails it. From the big charismatic speeches to the little moments like dunking his head in the toilet to wash off his hair stuff, Denzel plays everything perfectly, giving it the right about of comedy and tragedy when he needs to. The film starts comic and light, but as Malcolm grows as a person and discovers more about his own philosophy, the film itself matures and becomes more serious, but never stuffy. It's not a film designed to treat Malcolm as a saint. Instead, the film seeks to re-introduce Malcolm X into the national consciousness and race discussions, and at that, it succeeded. My list (sorted by time on my list, with longest at the top): 1) Prisoners - Heard a lot of good about this recent release, but don't really anything about it. 2) El Topo - Let's keep this Western train a-rollin with a Jodorowsky flick. That still counts, right? 3) Antichrist - Never seen a Lars von Trier, might as well start here. Chaos reigns. 4) The Sound of Music - Another musical from the man who directed West Side Story, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and The Haunting?  5) The Descent - often regarded as one of the best horror movies of the past 10 years. NEW 6) Zardoz - John Boorman's next film after the masterpiece Deliverance. How in the world. Unshamed: Royal Tenenbaums, 8 1/2, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Pan's Labyrinth, Schindler's List, The Holy Mountain, Boogie Nights, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Exorcist, Days of Heaven, Inland Empire, The Hidden Fortress, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Naked Lunch, The Seventh Seal, Manhunter, Lolita, The Last Temptation of Christ, Sunset Boulevard, Once Upon a Time in the West, Suspiria, North by Northwest, Alien3, Badlands, Stagecoach, The Manchurian Candidate, L.A. Confidential, My Darling Clementine, Bringing Out the Dead, Starman, The Rules of the Game, Frankenstein, Malcolm X
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Dec 6, 2015 22:17
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X-Ray Pecs posted:NEW 6) Zardoz - John Boorman's next film after the masterpiece Deliverance. How in the world. One of my favorites. To Be or Not to Be - Hogan's Heroes meets Argo in Warsaw. I guess I found a laugh here and there. Comedies set during wartime can be dubious (The Great Dictator) but this one works as most things are kept on a personal level (Jack Benny playing the jealous husband etc.) His role of playing multiple German officers/spies was clever. PS seeing Robert Stack as a younger person was kind of interesting as I grew up watching him on that Unsolved Mysteries TV show. Also watched: Striptease - Another film suffering from a major identity crisis. For the subject matter (divorce, child custody, job loss) the scenes we're given display a serious lack of cohesion. It's basically a chess game of blackmail among a few people going after a politician for showing his face at a strip club. There was a serious plot and story but it's mostly sunk as we're given dozens of hokey jokes and goofy characters for Erin Grant (Demi Moore) to deal with. The way these throwaway joke scenes are wedged in between so-called serious scenes is really incompetent so the story eventually becomes a giant farce with no tension or payoff. The strength is in its political cynicism. Congressman David Dilbeck (Burt Reynolds) taps into Bill Clinton perfectly by being a sleazy drunk. Procrastination (200 completed): #195 Catastrophe AKA Shoah - Make me finish this ten hour behemoth. 8/29/15 #199 Pumpkinhead - I may never look at pumpkins the same way again. 10/9/15 #202 Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1 - This one keeps jumping on and off the IMDb 250. 11/5/15 new #204 Manila in the Claws of Light - Heard this was good. 12/8/15 James Bond versus Godzilla: Invasion of Astro-Monster - Godzilla film number six. 11/5/15 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture (20/37 completed): new 2014 Saving Christmas - Recently released on DVD. 12/8/15 2002 Swept Away - Madonna gets stuck on an island. 5/25/15 1994 Color of Night - I haven't heard much about this. 9/6/15 1993 Indecent Proposal - A rich man offers your wife $1,000,000 American dollars for a one night tryst. What do you do? 10/9/15 1992 Shining Through - Something about WWII. 11/30/15
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Dec 8, 2015 22:29
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At first Stray Dog only kept my attention. It starts a little slow, with the world's greenest detective (Toshiro Mifune) having his gun stolen and throwing himself bodily into repenting. He prowls the streets, turning increasingly desperate, and being shown up at every instance by his anxious, eager nature, taking the process with a clumsy, deathly sincerity. These are a dangerous kind of sequence for a filmmaker. There's an inherent magnetism to people with skill, against which a rookie character can seem bland or even annoying, but Kurosawa gives Mifune enough people to play off of that the movie never quite slips away. It is, though, kind of a relief when the plot kicks in after forty minutes. Mifune is introduced to a veteran detective (Takashi Shimura) after his stolen gun is used in a crime, and Shimura begins to show him the ropes. The film's themes start to bloom here as well, questions of privilege, culpability, post-war depression, and the amount of control you have over your own life. I actually feel tentative about disclosing parts of the film's second half, because it plays out in such an engaging fashion. Let it at least be said that Kurosawa finds a unique, interesting texture to every element in the film, and that he has an uncanny way of making the thrillingly unexpected seem inevitable. 8/10 shame dome 1) Weekend - traffic jam 2) The River - Inspired Satyajit Ray? Something about India? i have no idea 3) Blind Chance - I need to fill up on my Kieslowski 4) Man Bites Dog - movie watches man 5) Victim - Another Great Ebert 6) Valerie and her Week of Wonders - magical realism 7) A Brief History of Time - billions and billions 8) The Marriage of Maria Braun - more fassbinder 9) Frances Ha - recent rave 10) Night And Fog - uh oh Jules et Jim 6/10, Saving Private Ryan 9.5/10, Fitzcarraldo 9/10, The 39 Steps 7/10, Notorious 7/10, Run Lola Run 8/10, Downfall 7.5/10, The Searchers 7.5/10, Tokyo Story 7/10, Gone With The Wind 10/10, Touch Of Evil 9.5/10, Ikiru 7.5/10, The Apartment 7/10, Bicycle Thieves 7/10, Moon 7/10, The Color Purple 7.5/10. The French Connection 9.5/10, The Leopard 8/10, Yojimbo 8.5/10, Sanjuro 8/10, Das Boot 8.5/10, The Conformist 8/10, Breathless 9/10, Where The Wild Things Are 7.5/10, Vertigo 9/10, Raging Bull 10/10, Ordet 7/10, City Of God 9/10, The Wages Of Fear 9/10, Aguirre, The Wrath Of God 9/10, The Mirror 9.5/10, Through A Glass Darkly 10/10, On The Waterfront 6/10, The Straight Story 9/10, Lawrence Of Arabia 8.5/10, Dial M For Murder, 8/10 Winter Light 10/10, The Silence 9/10, Badlands 8/10, The Wrong Man 7/10, In The Mood For Love 9.5/10, Secret Honor 10/10, Gosford Park 10/10, Viridiana 7.5/10, The Exterminating Angel 9/10, Seven Samurai 10/10, Rashomon 9/10, The Godfather: Part II 10/10, La Dolce Vita 10/10, The Princess Bride 9/10, Bringing Up Baby 7/10, City Lights 9/10, Baraka 7/10, Au revior les enfants 8/10, Bonnie And Clyde 6.5, Hiroshima mon amour 8/10, Lost In Translation 10/10, The Piano 8/10, La Strada 7/10, Safety Last! 10/10 Vivre sa vie 9/10, Band Of Outsiders 8/10, Diary Of A Country Priest 7/10, Mommie Dearest 8/10, Once Upon A Time In The West 10/10, L'Atalante 7/10, All About My Mother 7/10, Shoot The Piano Player 8/10, Faces 10/10, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc 10/10, The Wild Bunch 6/10, Harold And Maude see my review, Pink Flamingos 8/10, Heat 10/10, Raising Arizona 7/10, L'Avventura 2/10, Atlantic City 9/10, The Magic Flute 9/10, Cleo From 5 To 7 9/10, Down By Law 10/10, Hoop Dreams 10/10, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her ¿8/10?, La jetée 9/10, Night Of The Living Dead 9/10, Cool Hand Luke 6/10, Pather Panchali 10/10, The Terminator 6/10, The Trial 10/10, Exit Through The Gift Shop 10/10, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 7/10, The Phantom Carriage 10/10, Au Hasard Balthazar 3/10, The African Queen 10/10, My Night At Maud's 10/10, The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse 10/10, La Haine 10/10, The Pianist 7/10, Four Lions A-, Scream A+, Ali: Fear Eats The Soul B-, The Naked City 7/10, Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10 (total: 104) Zogo gets the only movie on their list that I've ever heard of, which is Shoah
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Dec 10, 2015 22:41
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Magic Hate Ball posted:5) Victim - Another Great Ebert I can't say Oliver! left me wanting to come back for some more.  It's fine, but nothing jumped out at me other than Moody and Reed's performances. I'll admit I've always found it hard to get into musicals unless it's a musical/comedy ala Singin' in the Rain. I realize this is Dickens approach to the poor climbing out of their hole by circumstance and not good ole bootstrapping, but I feel like the film doesn't hit on that super hard (not to say it doesn't). They did get Sikes being a brutal rear end in a top hat down pretty good though. The musical numbers were as whimsy as I would expect out of a British musical of a Dickens novel. Some did seem to take a long time to get through though.New List: 1. Hotel Rwanda - 1 Oct 2015 - We can't have all our movies be upbeat. 2. Papillon - 15 Oct 2015 - Hoffman and McQueen, what's not to like. 3. The Magnificent Seven - 3 Nov 2015 - We're getting a remake here soon, so might as well watch the original (well not really original). 4. La Dolce Vita - 19 Oct 2015 - I've been looking through some lists of great movies and directors, and I realize I've never seen a Fellini film. I switched 8 1/2 to this due to suggestion. 5. Das Boot - 3 Oct 2015 - Highest rated imdb movie I've yet to see. I assume it's something to do with war and isolation. 6. Citizenfour - 7 Oct 2015 - Chili just watched it, and I've heard great things about it. I also work at Fort Meade so expect a bit of bias going into it. 7. Strangers on a Train - 20 Aug 2015 - Been a while since I've done a Hitchcock movie. Best Picture Bonanza (59/88) 8. Out of Africa - 10 Dec 2015 - I'm just so tired of all this traffic, I just can't wait until I can get Out of Africa 9. Shakespeare in Love - 29 Oct 2015 - The most recent best picture I haven't seen. 10. All About Eve - 28 Oct 2015 - I assume it's mostly about Eve and partly about other characters. Watched Count 134: Last 5 - The Apartment, A Beautiful Mind, The Searchers, The Last Emperor, Oliver!
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Dec 10, 2015 22:51
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An uncharitable description of Victim would be "taciturn", or maybe "dour", but I think there's a certain charm to this type of bloodless British filmmaking. The cinematography is far from artless, with plenty of nice shadows, even if the camera insists on holding everyone in chilly medium close-ups, and the script is entertainingly prickly, even if it mistakes the withholding of information for suspense. In a few parts of the film I really had no idea what was going on or who certain people were meant to be. Everyone is constantly talking over each other's shoulders, as if this were a le Carré film, which is supposed to be taken as clever but is actually just kind of annoying, as is the constant obfuscation of plot (in one sequence we don't get to hear what's about to happen because a loud tea trolley rolls in front of the camera). Still, it's not an unimportant or uninvolving film. Considering the time and the people involved, it's actually a kind of touching movie. Dirk Bogarde, who plays the eponymous barrister-turned-victim, was himself gay and faced rumors in the press about it. He looks gay, too, or at least his character in the film does, with carefully coiffed hair like a little wave breaking on a beach and slightly-too-elegant clothes that are tailored just a little too well. At some point, he goes and meets with his gay cohorts in their gay studio, which is made out with Chinese screens and Greek art. But the film isn't mean to its gay characters in this way, it merely serves to underline them as different - victimized. And it's kind of brave, too, in its support for detractors of the laws that criminalized homosexuality. Even the police chief wishes it were otherwise, against the opinion of his seedier underling, who makes the (ever-popular) slippery slope argument. And though it takes its time, once Victim gets all of its pieces in place, it's pretty entertaining. This is thanks in part to its on-location photography (joining Stray Dog and Naked City, though in a more controlled manner) and the gradual revelation of character. I just wish those characters were revealed at the beginning, instead of the film namby-pambying around with motivation. 6/10 shame dome 1) Weekend - traffic jam 2) The River - Inspired Satyajit Ray? Something about India? i have no idea 3) Blind Chance - I need to fill up on my Kieslowski 4) Man Bites Dog - movie watches man 5) The Brood - crobenerg 6) Valerie and her Week of Wonders - magical realism 7) A Brief History of Time - billions and billions 8) The Marriage of Maria Braun - more fassbinder 9) Frances Ha - recent rave 10) Night And Fog - uh oh Jules et Jim 6/10, Saving Private Ryan 9.5/10, Fitzcarraldo 9/10, The 39 Steps 7/10, Notorious 7/10, Run Lola Run 8/10, Downfall 7.5/10, The Searchers 7.5/10, Tokyo Story 7/10, Gone With The Wind 10/10, Touch Of Evil 9.5/10, Ikiru 7.5/10, The Apartment 7/10, Bicycle Thieves 7/10, Moon 7/10, The Color Purple 7.5/10. The French Connection 9.5/10, The Leopard 8/10, Yojimbo 8.5/10, Sanjuro 8/10, Das Boot 8.5/10, The Conformist 8/10, Breathless 9/10, Where The Wild Things Are 7.5/10, Vertigo 9/10, Raging Bull 10/10, Ordet 7/10, City Of God 9/10, The Wages Of Fear 9/10, Aguirre, The Wrath Of God 9/10, The Mirror 9.5/10, Through A Glass Darkly 10/10, On The Waterfront 6/10, The Straight Story 9/10, Lawrence Of Arabia 8.5/10, Dial M For Murder, 8/10 Winter Light 10/10, The Silence 9/10, Badlands 8/10, The Wrong Man 7/10, In The Mood For Love 9.5/10, Secret Honor 10/10, Gosford Park 10/10, Viridiana 7.5/10, The Exterminating Angel 9/10, Seven Samurai 10/10, Rashomon 9/10, The Godfather: Part II 10/10, La Dolce Vita 10/10, The Princess Bride 9/10, Bringing Up Baby 7/10, City Lights 9/10, Baraka 7/10, Au revior les enfants 8/10, Bonnie And Clyde 6.5, Hiroshima mon amour 8/10, Lost In Translation 10/10, The Piano 8/10, La Strada 7/10, Safety Last! 10/10 Vivre sa vie 9/10, Band Of Outsiders 8/10, Diary Of A Country Priest 7/10, Mommie Dearest 8/10, Once Upon A Time In The West 10/10, L'Atalante 7/10, All About My Mother 7/10, Shoot The Piano Player 8/10, Faces 10/10, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc 10/10, The Wild Bunch 6/10, Harold And Maude see my review, Pink Flamingos 8/10, Heat 10/10, Raising Arizona 7/10, L'Avventura 2/10, Atlantic City 9/10, The Magic Flute 9/10, Cleo From 5 To 7 9/10, Down By Law 10/10, Hoop Dreams 10/10, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her ¿8/10?, La jetée 9/10, Night Of The Living Dead 9/10, Cool Hand Luke 6/10, Pather Panchali 10/10, The Terminator 6/10, The Trial 10/10, Exit Through The Gift Shop 10/10, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 7/10, The Phantom Carriage 10/10, Au Hasard Balthazar 3/10, The African Queen 10/10, My Night At Maud's 10/10, The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse 10/10, La Haine 10/10, The Pianist 7/10, Four Lions A-, Scream A+, Ali: Fear Eats The Soul B-, The Naked City 7/10, Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10, Victim 6/10 (total: 105) marioinblack gets All About Eve, and A Little Bit About Everyone Else Magic Hate Ball fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Dec 11, 2015 |
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Dec 11, 2015 03:45
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I've never seen E.T., The Sandlot, or Field of Dreams, Grease, Memento, Sixth Sense
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Dec 11, 2015 22:11
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Pron on VHS posted:I've never seen E.T., The Sandlot, or Field of Dreams, Grease, Memento, Sixth Sense Cool! Write it up in a slightly nicer format and pick a movie for the person above you, and then whoever posts next will tell you where to start.
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Dec 12, 2015 04:19
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Pron on VHS posted:I've never seen E.T., The Sandlot, or Field of Dreams, Grease, Memento, Sixth Sense Honestly those are all memorable, just start watching whichever is quickest to find on netflix or in your dvd stack or however you'd watch em. MagicHateBall, thanks for that Daisies writeup, I saw it during an 8mm (or 16mm?) tour at some tiny theater in Seattle a few years ago and it was so insane I loved it but couldn't make much sense of it, like you. Nice to see I'm not alone at least.
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Dec 12, 2015 05:58
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effectual posted:MagicHateBall, thanks for that Daisies writeup, I saw it during an 8mm (or 16mm?) tour at some tiny theater in Seattle a few years ago and it was so insane I loved it but couldn't make much sense of it, like you. Nice to see I'm not alone at least. I wrote a piece on it about a year ago where I dove into the inherent political nature of its structure. quote:When Vera Chytilová completed her anarchic masterpiece DAISIES in 1966 it was banned from exhibition by the Czechoslovakian board of censors. They accused it of “depicting the wanton,” and therefore served as a danger to the country’s communist society. Chytilová was forbidden from making another film until 1975.
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Dec 12, 2015 07:34
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effectual posted:Honestly those are all memorable, just start watching whichever is quickest to find on netflix or in your dvd stack or however you'd watch em. You should come play with us!
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Dec 12, 2015 15:38
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Magic Hate Ball, watch Man Bites Dog. I liked Yi Yi but didn't quite fall in love with it. First of all, the old Fox Lorber DVD is loving terrible. Blurry, blocky picture - I've gritted through worse but with such beautiful photography it put a damper on things. Unfortunately, that's all the library had. My favorite character was the little boy, Yang-Yang. He provides an interesting thesis towards the beginning of the film - can we only ever see half of the truth? His little kid logic reasons that because we can only see what is in front of us, and not behind us, we logically can only ever know half of the truth at any given time. Edward Yang (funny character naming there) seems to provide some answers to this - one is that film and cinema give us the possibility to learn the truth. One character talks about how movies allow us to live "three times" longer by revealing to us the experiences of things like murder that most of us will never experience first hand. Yang-Yang himself, in his desire to teach people begins taking photos of the backs of people's heads, so that they can further experience the "truth." This all happens while Yang-Yang is unaware of the turmoil and agony the adults are living through. He clearly feels it, but he doesn't know or understand it. The failing relationships, the death, the longing for youth that mark these troubled lives. I'd certainly be willing to give Yi Yi another go, with the Criterion DVD of course. And I'm certainly interested to dig more into Yang's earlier works. My List: The Avenging Conscience (1914) - Griffith's last film before The Birth of a Nation. (Added 2/15/2015) The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) - I love Fritz Lang and I'm a big fan of his first Dr. Mabuse movie, the four-hour silent. This is apparently the second film of a trilogy and quite different from the first film. (Added 9/27/2015) The War Room (1993) - Pennebaker does Clinton. Picked this up from a thrift shop awhile back. Should be good as we barrel headfirst into election season. (Added 9/27/2015) Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972) - Helluva title. I'm actually not a big fan of Dario Argento so I'd like to see a non-Argento Giallo for once. (Added 9/27/2015) Flooding with Love for the Kid (2010) - A guy adapted First Blood (yes, as in Rambo) and filmed it in his 220 square foot New York apartment on a budget of $96 with a cast consisting of himself in every role. It's apparently really good. (Added 9/27/2015) Faces (1968) - Making my way through the Criterion Cassavetes box set. (Added 10/24/2015) The Life of Juanita Castro (1965) - An Andy Warhol deep cut. Several actresses sit cramped in a room all facing the same direction enacting a drama about the Castros and Che Guevera during the Cuban revolution. I really dig Warhol's minimalist factory films. (Added 11/1/2015) The Hour of the Furnaces (1968) - A sprawling 260 minute documentary that is thankfully broken up into three parts. However, while little plot description exists beyond "a unique film exploration of a nation's soul" it's supposedly one of the tentpoles of radical activist 60s filmmaking. (Added 11/5/2015) The Blood of a Poet (1932) - I rarely see Jean Cocteau show up in this thread. I love his stuff, one of the best fantasy filmmakers of all time, but I've never seen this first sound feature of his. (Added 11/28/15) The Most Dangerous Game (1932) - It's man. (Added 12/12/2015) Watched: Fort Apache; Damnation; Ran; Ordet; Purple Rain; Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages; Napoléon; Yi Yi (TOTAL: 8)
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Dec 12, 2015 20:33
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TrixRabbi, go with Faces. Cassavetes is pretty tight. ------------------ Caught Vertigo yesterday, and I've been stewing on it since. It's certainly a visual treat, a work of immense craftmanship -- what else would you expect from Hitchcock? The mise-en-scène is wonderful throughout, the landscapes stunning, and I've never seen the Golden Gate look so imposing. There are wonderful touches throughout -- spirals as a motif throughout, whether in the intro, or spiralling through the city through those descents and turns which are so emblematic of San Francisco, or the heightened paranoia in the incredible nightmare scene, the most wonderful evocation of grief as filtered through our own personal pains and traumas... But I never truly fell in love with it. Perhaps that it's just that it was a first watch. Perhaps it's that old cliché of Hitchcock being a better technician than dramatist (or lacking in heart, or however you want to phrase it). There are moments which do capture that special sensation of empathy in the way cinema does best -- when Judy is trapped in this lie, trying desperately to make this man love her for her, yet torn apart by the knowledge that he really loves the illusion of another woman, in particular -- but there weren't quite enough of them for me... I felt much the same way with Psycho (the only other film of his I'd seen), but I'd chalked that up to being a dumbass 16-year old when I saw it for a school assignment. Just a little too cold. But there's still plenty in there to make it a really good film. 7/10. A Fistful of Dollars - Completely unversed in westerns. Closest I've come is No Country for Old Men or, uh, Back to the Future 3 (And for the record, I love Yojimbo -- my favourite Kurosawa, in fact)The Godfather Part II - Since I saw Part I this week haven't yet had time to go further than that Tokyo Story - Seen a few Kurosawas and plenty of recent Japanese cinema, but no other pre-90s director Ordet - Very, very intrigued by what little I've heard La strada - 8½ was pretty spectacular, but my only Fellini Raging Bull - Scorsese's yet another big blind spot Cries and Whispers - Been a while since I watched Bergman. Seen the big three The General - LOVED the two Keatons I've seen so far Nanook of the North - I love documentaries, and this is the highest one on Sight and Sound's list of the greatest ever that I've not seen (except for Shoah, which is too long to book in here, need to find a ton of time to dedicate to something like that) Shawshank Redemption - Ah, the good ol' IMDB #1 De-shamed: Spirited Away (8.5/10), Vertigo (7/10) | [Total: 2]
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Dec 13, 2015 20:30
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U should watch Rear Window
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Dec 13, 2015 20:33
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Allyn posted:Shawshank Redemption - Ah, the good ol' IMDB #1 I've seen quite a few films on your list and found a lot of them wanting and/or dry. This one, however, isn't. I finally watched Take Shelter and I loved it. I'm a big fan of Michael Shannon so I had a good feeling going into it. The whole movie was so masterful, from Shannon's acting to the direction to the sound. All of it coalesced into this amazing look into mental illness and it's impending doom. There was such a subtle feeling of dread and anxiety that kept building and building to the point of being unbearable. At the end when he opens the storm shelter and there's nothing but blue skies, you feel this sense of confusion and terribleness that's so perfect. You almost want there to be a storm outside so Shannon isn't crazy. And then in the end - the storm comes and it's bigger than anything he's dreamed of before. I loved the ambiguousness of the ending - is it another dream? Is it a metaphor? Reality? And maybe the answer to all those questions is yes. loving loved it. 1. M - The description of this sounds really intriguing. I've missed out on so many pre-1970 movies that I don't really know what to expect. My prejudice (which I fully know could not possibly be correct in any way) is that movies prior to the 70s for the most part just aren't worth the time. Either I feel I wont be able to relate or due to rose colored glasses in regards to the past, they wont be able to be honest and treat meaningful subject matter with the gravitas it deserves. Stupid, I know. 2. Birdman - One I missed and really wanted to see. I haven't really seen Michael Keaton in much that I like him as an actor but I hear he's great in this. 3. I Love You, Phillip Morris - I saw this all the time for streaming and never clicked play. It's supposed to be good, right? I keep hearing it is on various podcasts. The short synopsis seems interesting. 4. Synedoche, New York - Not really sure what this one is about but it won awards so it can't be bad, right? What I know about this movie is it's about a play? Maybe I'm wrong about that. 5. The Tree of Life - I tried really hard to watch this a couple times but I never got more than a half hour in. It was really boring. But so many goons talk about how good it is and how it made them cry so up on the list it goes. **eta - It occurs to me I'm getting this confused with The Fountain so now I don't even know WTF to expect** 6. Ghost Dog - From my original list. "Seemed like a ridiculous premise when it came out, but apparently it's supposed to be good." 7. A Beautiful Mind - One of those Oscar winners I've always meant to watch but never got around to. 8. The Fall - I saw this forever on Netflix streaming but had no idea what it was about. Had I known it was staring Lee Pace, I would have watched it a million times over by now. 9. Ordinary People - I actually started watching this a couple times but never got drawn in. I felt my getting distracted with other things was a reflection on the movie. I'd like to finish it and find out if I was wrong. 10. All About Eve - I think this is a movie about a woman with MPD? Dear Prudence fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Dec 14, 2015 |
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Dec 14, 2015 07:28
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Dear Prudence, watch M. Everyone needs more Peter Lorre.Jurgan posted:Good thing [Nashville's] not a musical, then! La Dolce Vita - It's long and I didn't love La Strada. L'Age d'Or - I've skipped all the French Bunuels. Wild Strawberries - I loved The Seventh Seal but never followed up on it. Wings of Desire - This movie shares blame for that Goo Goo Dolls song. The Killing - I haven't seen much Kubrick. The Passion of Joan of Arc - I need to see more silent films that aren't from Germany. Chinatown - Haven't seen any Polanksi but Knife In The Water. Aguirre, the Wrath of God - I need to see a scripted Herzog film. Diabolique - People allege it is better than Diabolik. Stagecoach - I haven't seen any classic Westerns. Psycho A, Raging Bull C, Brazil D, Nosferatu B, Leaving Las Vegas C, Rashomon C, Onibaba C, The Tree of Life A, Casablanca B, Castle In The Sky C, Goodfellas B, Nashville B
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Dec 15, 2015 04:25
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Ultimo Dragon Quest, I've been trying to get more into Westerns myself, so I'm giving you Stagecoach and I hope you enjoy it like I did! I was given Zardoz. Its cultural legacy is a borderline-nonsensical cult film that's only worth watching for the sheer "what the gently caress" factor. I'm not going to lie, the batshit style of the film is partially why I enjoyed this one so much, but it offers so much more. Zardoz, without spoiling much, is a film about life, death, religion, the nature of storytelling, transhumanism, income inequality, and some touching on human sexuality. I can see why it confuses people, because the visual style and editing are often bizarre, psychedelic, and kaleidoscopic, and there's very little clue of how the narrative plays out until almost an hour into the film. Even after it reveals most of the story, you're still expected to tie all the disparate elements together into a whole, but I found that most of the film fit together pretty well on a thematic level. It's a film that should really not be spoiled, and part of why I liked it was figuring it all out by myself, so I won't go any further here, but if you're willing to put in the effort to watch a wacked-out sci-fi film, give Zardoz a shot. My list (sorted by time on my list, with longest at the top): 1) Prisoners - Heard a lot of good about this recent release, but don't really anything about it. 2) El Topo - Let's keep this Western train a-rollin with a Jodorowsky flick. That still counts, right? 3) Antichrist - Never seen a Lars von Trier, might as well start here. Chaos reigns. 4) The Sound of Music - Another musical from the man who directed West Side Story, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and The Haunting? 5) The Descent - often regarded as one of the best horror movies of the past 10 years. NEW 6) Thief - Mann's first full-length, and maybe his best? I already liked Manhunter Unshamed: Royal Tenenbaums, 8 1/2, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Pan's Labyrinth, Schindler's List, The Holy Mountain, Boogie Nights, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Exorcist, Days of Heaven, Inland Empire, The Hidden Fortress, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Naked Lunch, The Seventh Seal, Manhunter, Lolita, The Last Temptation of Christ, Sunset Boulevard, Once Upon a Time in the West, Suspiria, North by Northwest, Alien3, Badlands, Stagecoach, The Manchurian Candidate, L.A. Confidential, My Darling Clementine, Bringing Out the Dead, Starman, The Rules of the Game, Frankenstein, Malcolm X, Zardoz
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Dec 17, 2015 03:17
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X-Ray Pecs posted:
Yeah have fun with that one. I need to watch more movies so I'm going to start doing this whole shebang I think. Here's my list of prominent movies I want to see mixed with movies that are part of film canon: 1. Days of Being Wild: I've already seen Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, In the Mood For Love, AND 2046, so maybe I should watch the one that started it all off. 2. Tangerine: Very highly acclaimed and something I am very interested in 3. House (1977): I remember a long time ago when CineD was going crazy over the movie and the trailer is incredible 4. Vertigo: I've actually seen this before but it was bad quality and so long ago that I remember only like one shot from one scene so I'd basically be going in to it fresh. And now choices from the Roger Ebert: The Great Movies list 5. The Godfather: Never seen it, obvious why it's on the list 6. Days of Heaven: I remember my roommates from university being very fond of Terrence Malick (this was a bit before Tree of Life was coming out) and this is one of his big acclaimed pieces 7. Psycho (1960, but also the other ones): It has the most recognizable scene in cinema and it's a Hitchcock movie 8. The Conversation: I have heard nothing but strong praise about this movie 9. Paris, Texas: Well why not, people say good things
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Dec 18, 2015 02:35
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Piratepilates, get started with Days of Heaven. I'm gonna watch Faces again down the line, but I really couldn't get into the groove of it until the very end. The dialogue seemed disconnected, constantly interrupted by strange outbursts of laughter or rage, which is both a plus and a minus as I had trouble following the events whereas in other Cassavetes films I find myself more into the characters and their stories. Here I felt left behind. You can't be in a passive Saturday afternoon mindset for a film like this. And yet there's a clear dramatic genius behind the writing and the character work. Like other Cassavetes films I've seen like A Woman Under the Influence and Minnie and Moskowitz his characters are purely driven by our most instinctive and destructive emotions - anger, jealousy, lust. An inability to connect to others and an inability to satisfy oneself. Cassavetes' characters are never rational, they never take a moment to reflect until the devastation has been wrought and the dust has settled, leaving them broken. Frequently to the point that it's frustrating as a viewer to see these characters so lost in their emotions. A very bitter, yet very human storyteller. My List: The Avenging Conscience (1914) - Griffith's last film before The Birth of a Nation. (Added 2/15/2015) The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) - I love Fritz Lang and I'm a big fan of his first Dr. Mabuse movie, the four-hour silent. This is apparently the second film of a trilogy and quite different from the first film. (Added 9/27/2015) The War Room (1993) - Pennebaker does Clinton. Picked this up from a thrift shop awhile back. Should be good as we barrel headfirst into election season. (Added 9/27/2015) Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972) - Helluva title. I'm actually not a big fan of Dario Argento so I'd like to see a non-Argento Giallo for once. (Added 9/27/2015) Flooding with Love for the Kid (2010) - A guy adapted First Blood (yes, as in Rambo) and filmed it in his 220 square foot New York apartment on a budget of $96 with a cast consisting of himself in every role. It's apparently really good. (Added 9/27/2015) The Life of Juanita Castro (1965) - An Andy Warhol deep cut. Several actresses sit cramped in a room all facing the same direction enacting a drama about the Castros and Che Guevera during the Cuban revolution. I really dig Warhol's minimalist factory films. (Added 11/1/2015) The Hour of the Furnaces (1968) - A sprawling 260 minute documentary that is thankfully broken up into three parts. However, while little plot description exists beyond "a unique film exploration of a nation's soul" it's supposedly one of the tentpoles of radical activist 60s filmmaking. (Added 11/5/2015) The Blood of a Poet (1932) - I rarely see Jean Cocteau show up in this thread. I love his stuff, one of the best fantasy filmmakers of all time, but I've never seen this first sound feature of his. (Added 11/28/15) The Most Dangerous Game (1932) - It's man. (Added 12/12/2015) Soylent Green (1973) - It's people. (Added 12/19/2015) Watched: Fort Apache; Damnation; Ran; Ordet; Purple Rain; Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages; Napoléon; Yi Yi; Faces (TOTAL: 9)
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Dec 20, 2015 00:22
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TrixRabbi posted:
I haven't watched a single film from your list, but this one jumped out at me. Enjoy! Umberto D Carlo Battisti is brilliant as the poor old man Umberto Domenico Ferrari who's down on his luck, with only his dog Flike and the pregnant servant girl Maria for support. His pension is all he has, and with that dwindling away, he's behind on rent with threats from the landlady Antonia to evict him soon. It's a true heartbreaker, and tough to watch this slow emotional car-crash happen before your eyes. LIST American Hustle (2015.10.19) - I'll replace Fincher's 'Dragon Tattoo with another lengthy modern film I'll never watch... unless I'm forced to here. Anatomy of a Murder (2015.09.03) - another lengthy film that I've been meaning to see, but won't watch unless this thread makes me. Children of Paradise (2015.10.12) - here's yet another 3hr film I'll continue to put off until I get forced to watch it. The Fountain (2015.07.12) - I've noticed this come up way too many times, plus a good friend telling me to watch it for years now. Gilda (2015.11.27) - I'll replace an early Rita Hayworth film with her most iconic. Leaving Las Vegas (2015.10.18) - I claim to be a big Nic Cage supporter, yet his Oscar-winner remains a blindspot. How shameful, right? Missing **NEW** (2015.12.20) - adding another Jack Lemmon film to the list. Because I can. Mister Roberts (2015.10.24) - James Cagney, Henry Fonda, William Powell, and Jack Lemmon ..... Why I haven't watched this yet is beyond me. Only God Forgives (2015.11.27) - heavily panned but still a film I've always wanted to see after loving Drive so much. That Obscure Object of Desire **OLDEST** (2015.04.07) - this seems way too interesting and way too important to have not seen by now. De-shamed Pt2: True Romance (4/5), The Right Stuff (3/5), Syndromes And A Century (4/5), Still Life (3/5), My Cousin Vinny (2.5/5), Doctor Zhivago (3.5/5), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (4.5/5), Peeping Tom (4/5), Shadow of a Doubt (4.5/5), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (4.5/5), Only Angels Have Wings (4/5), Umberto D (4/5), [Total:112]
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Dec 20, 2015 21:46
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friendo55 posted:
I get a perverse pleasure from making you watch a film you wouldn't otherwise watch. Days of Heaven (8/10) This movie must have been an immense pain in the rear end to shoot. Reads like a series of paintings accompanied by an occasional caption. Absolutely beautifully shot and put together. I'm kind of at a loss to discuss it because all that comes to mind is it being gorgeous, atmospheric, vivid, and a whole bunch of other single adjectives to reiterate the main selling point of it. I'm not sure what to make of the progression of the story -- the plot just kind of flows through the 'paintings' in the movie and expects you to hang on to the journey. The ending I'm a bit unsure about, but at the same time none of it truly feels out of place, and it does reflect the characters and their lives quite well. Anyway it is a truly unique movie and I can definitely see why it has received such acclaim. 1. Days of Being Wild: I've already seen Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, In the Mood For Love, AND 2046, so maybe I should watch the one that started it all off. 2. Tangerine: Very highly acclaimed and something I am very interested in 3. House (1977): I remember a long time ago when CineD was going crazy over the movie and the trailer is incredible 4. Vertigo: I've actually seen this before but it was bad quality and so long ago that I remember only like one shot from one scene so I'd basically be going in to it fresh. And now choices from the Roger Ebert: The Great Movies list 5. The Godfather: Never seen it, obvious why it's on the list 7. Psycho (1960, but also the other ones): It has the most recognizable scene in cinema and it's a Hitchcock movie 8. The Conversation: I have heard nothing but strong praise about this movie 9. Paris, Texas: Well why not, people say good things 10. The Manchurian Candidate (1962): I remember when the remake came out, I was still pretty young and didn't see it either, but it's on the Ebert list and has Frank Sinatra in it Shame no more: Days of Heaven (8/10) [Total:1]
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Dec 22, 2015 05:18
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piratepilates posted:7. Psycho (1960, but also the other ones): It has the most recognizable scene in cinema and it's a Hitchcock movie #2 for you. Catastrophe - "So you want to die. But that's senseless. Your death won't give us back our lives. That's no way. You must get out of here alive, you must bear witness to our suffering and to the injustice done to us." So many topics are touched on as we're shown dozens of interviews (some formal and some casual) across many languages given by some Holocaust participants. Many interviewees definitely feel lucky to be alive as they were the extreme exception to make it out of certain concentration camps. The thing runs ten hours but you could watch a thousand hours and still not know the whole story. So a review will barely scratch the surface. One of the highlights is a German engineer going over schematics and methods in a clinical way demonstrating how you go about with wholesale extermination of people: carbon dioxide poisoning via car engine exhaust, starvation, disease, immolation, Zyklon B (cyanide in pesticide form) or just a rudimentary gun to the head. This guy goes into great detail because he's unaware he's being surveilled by some kind of recon van as the interview takes place forty years after the fact. Besides the wholesale extermination I think it's sometimes overlooked as to just how many thousands of people died due to outright, abject neglect in a variety of ways from disease, malnutrition and terrible conditions. Logistically it's crazy trying to herd people like cattle and then treat them like neglected farm animals. All kinds of things are going to go wrong. One of the disturbing aspects is the outsourcing of the worst jobs that Germans didn't even want. Ukrainians were brought in as mercenaries to do some of the dirtiest work. Even to this day the big militaries will hire out people like this. One of common points of contention I've read is to whether or not something like this can happen again. IMO it's a pretty simple yes. It won't be identical but these kind of disasters are continuously happening throughout recorded history. Roman Polanski once argued with his father that "this would never happen again." His father demurred and said "wait fifty years and you'll see." As just one example look at what's happened in Congo over the last twenty years. I haven't seen any films on that one. Also, it's not hard to confuse horrific Holocaust photos with horrific American Civil War photos (and others):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Andersonvillesurvivor.jpgWWII is fading and becoming a more abstract concept for younger people today. I read an article about college students falling asleep during a screening of Judgment at Nuremberg. Again, I've barely scratched the surface of this film. PS Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is a pretty good book that overlaps with the film at points. Procrastination (201 completed): #199 Pumpkinhead - I may never look at pumpkins the same way again. 10/9/15 #202 Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1 - This one keeps jumping on and off the IMDb 250. 11/5/15 #204 Manila in the Claws of Light - Heard this was good. 12/8/15 James Bond versus Godzilla: new The Spy Who Loved Me - I've heard this was shot well. I must be really sick of Bond. 12/22/15 Invasion of Astro-Monster - Godzilla film number six. 11/5/15 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture (20/37 completed): 2014 Saving Christmas - Recently released on DVD. 12/8/15 2002 Swept Away - Madonna gets stuck on an island. 5/25/15 1994 Color of Night - I haven't heard much about this. 9/6/15 1993 Indecent Proposal - A rich man offers your wife $1,000,000 American dollars for a one night tryst. What do you do? 10/9/15 1992 Shining Through - Something about WWII. 11/30/15
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Dec 22, 2015 07:17
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Zogo, after that gruelling film - go with Saving Christmas, since it's probably best viewed at this time of year, if at all... (I'm sorry. Happy Christmas) _____________________________ friendo55 gave me The Graduate. An enjoyable film filled full of iconic scenes that everyone has seen a dozen times recreated and parodied over the years (I imagine you could recreate nearly the entire film from various parts of Simpsons episodes alone). The story of a young man returning home after college and unsure about what to do with his life now that school is done and his adult life is ahead of him, he then finds a purpose when a friend of his parents' makes it clear she's interested in him. Even if you've never seen the film (like I hadn't) you already know the plot anyway and this obviously takes away from the film when you know so much of it. Of all the films I've watched on this list that I'd never sought out before because of how much I'd already known about them - I think this is the film most damaged by that familiarity. But even knowing what's going to happen, much of the film is still highly enjoyable, with fun dialogue, superb direction that is constantly interesting and exciting, brilliant music from Simon & Garfunkle, and fantastic acting (particularly from Anne Bancroft as the parents' friend, Mrs Robinson) but my main problem is the main character of Ben, played by Dustin Hoffman, and he is great but Ben is a jerk and while I didn't get the feeling that the film was overly sympathetic to him, it's still a bit offputting watching a film where the main character is so annoying and self absorbed. When Ben falls in love with Mrs Robinson's daughter Elaine, that makes sense sure given his character but her opinions are never really fleshed out, she clearly comes to like him but she just seems to go along with it in a state of confusion at first which I found fairly uncomfortable. The film ends however perfectly. A fun, crazy scene in the church (again spoiled by a million things) followed by a moment of happiness and then a return to cold uncertainty which, honestly, saves the film from being wrapped up in it's self absorbed lead character's desires and fantasies. Certainly a good flim, brilliantly made, but a little iffy in respect of some characters. Here's to you, List of Shame... Jesus know's I'll never watch them otherwise: 1 - Achilles and the Tortoise - final film of Kitano's 'surrealist autobiographical trilogy'... [Catching up with Kitano 2/4] (over a year on this list) 2 - The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 - Not heard much about this, but a subject I find extremely interesting. [Documentary Slot] 3 - Silence - Long intrigued by this film, now I need to catch it before the Scorsese version comes out next year... 4 - In America - It was talked about a lot on its release but not heard much about this since, word was it was good. [Irish Film Slot] 5 - The Great Yokai War - Takeshi Miike does a kids film, one I've long intended to catch. 6 - Rope - Think the only Hitchcock film I've seen is Pyscho, which was my film unshamed film, long overdue for more. 7 - Scarface - Never felt the urge to watch Al Pacino in Cuban blackface. Rappers like it & the OST was a radio station in GTA3. 8 - Gone Girl - Recent film that been talked of very highly and Fincher is always interesting anyway. 9 - Starman - Another notable John Carpenter film, yet to see one of his early films I didn't really like. 10- The Killing - new - Early Kubrick, seems to be his first great film which he followed up with Paths of Glory, which was great. Shame No More: [71] [top ten] Psycho | The Third Man | The Long Goodbye | Harakiri | The Silence of the Lambs | Pi | Jaws | Panic Room | Black Swan | Star Trek II | The Brothers Bloom | Hugo | Badlands | Shame | LA Confidential | The Right Stuff | The Evil Dead | Hanna | The Master | The Untouchables | Glengarry Glen Ross | The Seventh Seal | The Apartment | The Player | Ronin | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Glory to the Filmmaker! | Frank | Dreams | Paths of Glory | Assault on Precinct 13 | Haywire | Escape From New York | 13 Assassins | A Prophet | Stand By Me | Blackfish | Pumping Iron | The Thin Blue Line | It's A Wonderful Life | What Richard Did | The Bicycle Thieves | Youth of the Beast | Once Upon A Time In The West | The Raid: Redemption | The Babadook | Calvary | The Host | Samurai Rebellion | Poltergeist | Days of Heaven | The Room | Nightcrawler | Cars 2 | Enter the Dragon | Stalker | Casablanca | M | The Maltese Falcon | The Secret World of Arrietty | Bad Lieutenant | Blazing Saddles | Mad Max: Fury Road | From Up On Poppy Hill | In The Heat Of The Night | Noah | The Wind Rises | The Exorcist | An American Werewolf in London | The Fog | The Graduate
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Dec 23, 2015 02:31
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Chewy Bitems posted:
I enjoyed it, hope you do too. Psycho (1960) (8/10) So that's where Busta Rhymes got that sample from. Expertly crafted, it's unnerving watching Psycho for the first time 55 years after it was released, knowing all the details and seeing the iconic scenes coming together. Although I was aware of what was going to happen I was still heavily affected by it, feeling an immense sense of dread when Crane is in the shower, and with the mother in the fruit cellar. Perkins plays Bates perfectly, Leigh does a great Crane, and every other character remains fun to watch. The only issue with the movie is that it's had so much time to penetrate the public consciousness that the twists of the movie have had time to go flat. The movie is still great and the twists remain powerful but I feel a bit robbed of the chance of experiencing it all fresh. Either way it's apparent why it's such an acclaimed movie. 1. Days of Being Wild: I've already seen Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, In the Mood For Love, AND 2046, so maybe I should watch the one that started it all off. 2. Tangerine: Very highly acclaimed and something I am very interested in 3. House (1977): I remember a long time ago when CineD was going crazy over the movie and the trailer is incredible 4. Vertigo: I've actually seen this before but it was bad quality and so long ago that I remember only like one shot from one scene so I'd basically be going in to it fresh. And now choices from the Roger Ebert: The Great Movies list 5. The Godfather: Never seen it, obvious why it's on the list 8. The Conversation: I have heard nothing but strong praise about this movie 9. Paris, Texas: Well why not, people say good things 10. The Manchurian Candidate (1962): I remember when the remake came out, I was still pretty young and didn't see it either, but it's on the Ebert list and has Frank Sinatra in it 11. The Man Who Laughs (1928): Ebert list, and has funny face Joker face on the poster. Also have a lack of films on my list pre-1950. Shame no more: Days of Heaven (1978, 8/10), Psycho (1960, 8/10) [Total:2]
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Dec 23, 2015 05:55
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piratepilates posted:5. The Godfather: Never seen it, obvious why it's on the list Shameful! Saving Christmas - Compared to Shoah this was a breeze. The brunt of the film deals with the war of words going on among some religious people: those who lament a "WAR ON CHRISTMAS" and those who are indifferent to holiday festivities or are actually questioning some traditions. It's an honest/realistic/contemporary look at what's going on in some circles these days. I think it has bad reviews because people generally don't like Kirk Cameron and his preachy, soapbox methodology. He does have a few brief moments of insight but many times his arguments are a little sophomoric and specious. Most of the film does take place in a car that Kirk jumps into to preach to one of the bad guys who doesn't love everything about Christmas. Humorously, this Scrooge-like character does a complete 180° change and it seems like he's been lobotomized by the ending. Overall, in the end, I don't think it put forth a terrible message. Don't be Scrooge or the Grinch etc. Some of the reasoning is shortsighted as cultures are always changing and I think Kirk is getting stuck on year 2014 Christmas traditions. Random topical video I was reminded of after watching this film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA7g9SngRag Procrastination (201 completed): #199 Pumpkinhead - I may never look at pumpkins the same way again. 10/9/15 #202 Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1 - This one keeps jumping on and off the IMDb 250. 11/5/15 #204 Manila in the Claws of Light - Heard this was good. 12/8/15 new #205 Go For it! India AKA Chak De! India - The quest to complete the IMDb 250 never ends. I haven't seen too many field hockey films. 12/23/15 James Bond versus Godzilla: The Spy Who Loved Me - I've heard this was shot well. I must be really sick of Bond. 12/22/15 Invasion of Astro-Monster - Godzilla film number six. 11/5/15 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture (21/37 completed): 2002 Swept Away - Madonna gets stuck on an island. 5/25/15 1994 Color of Night - I haven't heard much about this. 9/6/15 1993 Indecent Proposal - A rich man offers your wife $1,000,000 American dollars for a one night tryst. What do you do? 10/9/15 1992 Shining Through - Something about WWII. 11/30/15
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Dec 24, 2015 06:31
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"Saving Christmas: Less depressing than Shoah!" There's a tagline for you.
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Dec 24, 2015 07:59
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Zogo, watch Invasion of the Astro-Monster, which if it's the one I'm thinking of is one of my favorite original Godzilla films. The Blood of Poet is very much a surrealist film following in the footsteps of Bunuel and Dali's collaborations Un Chien Andalou and L'Age D'or. Like those films Cocteau makes the bourgeois the target of his camera. A rich man shoots himself in the head while a balcony of his peers cheers. A powdered-wig wearing painter struggles to make a drawing, eventually set off when the mouth of his painting comes to life, and soon spreads to his hand. However, Blood of a Poet has less of a dada approach as the images seem to connect with each other through a series of motifs. The line between art and man is constantly blurring as statues and paintings come to life and people turn into statues and paintings. Sculptures of human form are a constant presence. I'm not sure how much to make of it and I don't have a whole lot to say other than that I enjoyed it and I like having these kinds of films wash over me in their dreamlike nature. My List: The Avenging Conscience (1914) - Griffith's last film before The Birth of a Nation. (Added 2/15/2015) The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) - I love Fritz Lang and I'm a big fan of his first Dr. Mabuse movie, the four-hour silent. This is apparently the second film of a trilogy and quite different from the first film. (Added 9/27/2015) The War Room (1993) - Pennebaker does Clinton. Picked this up from a thrift shop awhile back. Should be good as we barrel headfirst into election season. (Added 9/27/2015) Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972) - Helluva title. I'm actually not a big fan of Dario Argento so I'd like to see a non-Argento Giallo for once. (Added 9/27/2015) Flooding with Love for the Kid (2010) - A guy adapted First Blood (yes, as in Rambo) and filmed it in his 220 square foot New York apartment on a budget of $96 with a cast consisting of himself in every role. It's apparently really good. (Added 9/27/2015) The Life of Juanita Castro (1965) - An Andy Warhol deep cut. Several actresses sit cramped in a room all facing the same direction enacting a drama about the Castros and Che Guevera during the Cuban revolution. I really dig Warhol's minimalist factory films. (Added 11/1/2015) The Hour of the Furnaces (1968) - A sprawling 260 minute documentary that is thankfully broken up into three parts. However, while little plot description exists beyond "a unique film exploration of a nation's soul" it's supposedly one of the tentpoles of radical activist 60s filmmaking. (Added 11/5/2015) The Most Dangerous Game (1932) - It's man. (Added 12/12/2015) Soylent Green (1973) - It's people. (Added 12/19/2015) Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) - I've never seen the prequels. With Star Wars mania in the air they've been coming up in conversation a lot more lately so hopefully I can finally join the hate parade. (Added 12/25/15) Watched: Fort Apache; Damnation; Ran; Ordet; Purple Rain; Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages; Napoléon; Yi Yi; Faces; The Blood of a Poet (TOTAL: 10)
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Dec 26, 2015 01:14
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The War Room is the only movie on your list I've watched but don't think I picked it by default because of that: It's great; I hope you enjoy it as much as I did Rabbi. Here's my list: The Conformist (1970) - All I know about this is that it's got really good cinematography and it stars Jean-Louis Trintignant in another of his Italian speaking roles as a Fascist secret agent. Vertigo (1958) - Classic Hitchcock I've managed not to watch somehow. Tabu (2012) - I don't know much about this one, the New Yorker's film critic recommended it and it looked interesting. Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) - Kitsch looking sci fi from the 60s, interesting looking. Pickpocket (1959) - It's about an unrepentant pickpocket and how his habit ruins his life... I think? Heat (1995) - I like heist movies, this is, from what I've heard, a really good one. El Topo (1970) - A western made by Alejandro Jodorowsky. It looks insane. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) - Recommended a hundred thousand times; never seen. Youth of the Beast (1964) - I'm a big fan of Seijun Suzuki, Tokyo Drifter is one of my favorite movie. Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets (1971) - Japanese experimental movie, from what I've seen I honestly can't describe what it's about but wikipedia says it's a "metaphor for Japan's descent into materialism". Decever fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Dec 26, 2015 |
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Dec 26, 2015 04:15
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Decever - welcome to the thread! Go with Youth of the Beast - A film this thread deshamed me of previously, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. _____________________________ piratepilates gave me Stanley Kubrick's The Killing. Which was brilliant. The story of the planning and execution of a robbery at a race track, the film starts quickly and gets quicker. It tears along with a great pace with a great deal of dialogue and a narrator that dispenses details that allow the film to have a slightly non-linear chronology. Despite how highly regarded Kubrick is and indeed how much I've liked his films, I was reluctant to visit his early films, ignorantly thinking that despite how great his late work was, somehow his first films weren't worth it. The Killing, (like Paths of Glory previously in this thread) proves me to be an eejit again, this is an excellent film, it is perhaps thought of as being light in regards to subject matter when considered against Kubrick's later films but it is a great film that does exactly what it sets out to do. I did have 2 very minor issues with the film - I found the chess playing associate that is employed to create a distraction to be almost indecipherable, which was a real shame as what I could understand was pretty interesting (hopefully that's just me) and the presence of a caged parrot during one of the final scenes is bizarre - it's squawking and speaking distracting and removing the seriousness of the scene, presumably intentionally so but it seemed an odd distraction. They don't damage the film but were points I found unfortunately distracting. A great fun film and one I'd definitely recommend to anyone that like Kubrick's work and also to anyone who likes a good crime film. _____________________________ I also unshamed myself of The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 - I felt that in an attempt to fix my list to be more actually shameful entries that a very obscure documentary didn't fit with the point of the thread so I'll free up my documentary slot for more worthwhile (and shameful) films. The film itself is an alright film - the footage of Swedish filmmakers in 60s/70s America who focused on the Black Power movement/Black Panther Party. It is almost entirely this footage with voiceovers from various talking heads over the top with a few news clips and captioned footage for larger context. The most interesting parts are an interview with Angela Davis in her prison cell, some brief but footage and interviews with Stokely Carmichael, and the voiceover contributions from Talib Kweli who provides interesting thoughts and shares experiences over the achival footage at various points. It's an alright documentary with some nice original music but sadly doesn't offer any insight into the subject matter. My List of Shame: 1 - Achilles and the Tortoise - final film of Kitano's 'surrealist autobiographical trilogy'... [Catching up with Kitano 2/4] (over a year on this list) 2 - Silence - Long intrigued by this film, now I need to catch it before the Scorsese version comes out next year... 3 - In America - It was talked about a lot on its release but not heard much about this since, word was it was good. [Irish Film Slot] 4 - The Great Yokai War - Takeshi Miike does a kids film, one I've long intended to catch. 5 - Rope - Think the only Hitchcock film I've seen is Pyscho, which was my film unshamed film, long overdue for more. 6 - Scarface - Never felt the urge to watch Al Pacino in Cuban blackface. Rappers like it & the OST was a radio station in GTA3. 7 - Gone Girl - Recent film that been talked of very highly and Fincher is always interesting anyway. 8 - Starman - Another notable John Carpenter film, yet to see one of his early films I didn't really like. 9 - Citizenfour - new - An interesting subject and Chili spoke highly of it earlier in the thread. [Documentary Slot] 10- La Dolce Vita - new - A classic I don't know much about, shamefully I've never seen a Fellini film. Shame No More: [73] [top ten] Psycho | The Third Man | The Long Goodbye | Harakiri | The Silence of the Lambs | Pi | Jaws | Panic Room | Black Swan | Star Trek II | The Brothers Bloom | Hugo | Badlands | Shame | LA Confidential | The Right Stuff | The Evil Dead | Hanna | The Master | The Untouchables | Glengarry Glen Ross | The Seventh Seal | The Apartment | The Player | Ronin | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Glory to the Filmmaker! | Frank | Dreams | Paths of Glory | Assault on Precinct 13 | Haywire | Escape From New York | 13 Assassins | A Prophet | Stand By Me | Blackfish | Pumping Iron | The Thin Blue Line | It's A Wonderful Life | What Richard Did | The Bicycle Thieves | Youth of the Beast | Once Upon A Time In The West | The Raid: Redemption | The Babadook | Calvary | The Host | Samurai Rebellion | Poltergeist | Days of Heaven | The Room | Nightcrawler | Cars 2 | Enter the Dragon | Stalker | Casablanca | M | The Maltese Falcon | The Secret World of Arrietty | Bad Lieutenant | Blazing Saddles | Mad Max: Fury Road | From Up On Poppy Hill | In The Heat Of The Night | Noah | The Wind Rises | The Exorcist | An American Werewolf in London | The Fog | The Graduate | The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 | The Killing
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Dec 29, 2015 01:17
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Chewy Bitems posted:10- La Dolce Vita - new - A classic I don't know much about, shamefully I've never seen a Fellini film. It may be All About Eve, but it really is all about the Bette Davis performance. Her presence takes over the screen any time she's in view, and she does a fantastic job as the snide and big headed Margo Channing. It works out that Anne Baxter has to be more subtle since no one is really going to match presence with Davis. I came into this blind, and I thought the subtleties of the plot motives were well done in the first half. Looking back, Thelma Ritter's maid character comes across as a little overly mean to Eve in the beginning, but it's actually her character knowing something is up. Man Eve and DeWitt are some of the biggest cold hearted assholes I can think of in this era of film. It's a strong recommend. I will admit it does feel weird recommending a movie that >90% of this thread has seen. I feel I had preconceived notions about certain things in Hollywood from this era (see earlier when I miss the point on The Searchers), but what I've learned is between things like this and The Apartment, there's certainly some films that hit harder than I was anticipating. New List: 1. Hotel Rwanda - 1 Oct 2015 - We can't have all our movies be upbeat. 2. Papillon - 15 Oct 2015 - Hoffman and McQueen, what's not to like. 3. The Magnificent Seven - 3 Nov 2015 - We're getting a remake here soon, so might as well watch the original (well not really original). 4. La Dolce Vita - 19 Oct 2015 - I've been looking through some lists of great movies and directors, and I realize I've never seen a Fellini film. I switched 8 1/2 to this due to suggestion. 5. Das Boot - 3 Oct 2015 - Highest rated imdb movie I've yet to see. I assume it's something to do with war and isolation. 6. Citizenfour - 7 Oct 2015 - Chili just watched it, and I've heard great things about it. I also work at Fort Meade so expect a bit of bias going into it. 7. Strangers on a Train - 20 Aug 2015 - Been a while since I've done a Hitchcock movie. Best Picture Bonanza (60/88) 8. Out of Africa - 10 Dec 2015 - I'm just so tired of all this traffic, I just can't wait until I can get Out of Africa 9. Shakespeare in Love - 29 Oct 2015 - The most recent best picture I haven't seen. 10. West Side Story - 29 Dec 2015 - Musical gang fighting. Watched Count 135: Last 5 - A Beautiful Mind, The Searchers, The Last Emperor, Oliver!, All About Eve
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Dec 29, 2015 19:45
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Marioinblack, watch Strangers on a Train. I really love election season. It's like fantasy football except the winner gets to decide who lives and who dies. But for real, The War Room was 100% my poo poo. I loved seeing the inner workings of a campaign, all the running around backstage and deliberate phone calls. Seeing speeches being workshopped. The way Stephanopoulos mocked everything Bush said. With another Clinton campaign in the works it was great to see the original in action. My List: The Avenging Conscience (1914) - Griffith's last film before The Birth of a Nation. (Added 2/15/2015) The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) - I love Fritz Lang and I'm a big fan of his first Dr. Mabuse movie, the four-hour silent. This is apparently the second film of a trilogy and quite different from the first film. (Added 9/27/2015) Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972) - Helluva title. I'm actually not a big fan of Dario Argento so I'd like to see a non-Argento Giallo for once. (Added 9/27/2015) Flooding with Love for the Kid (2010) - A guy adapted First Blood (yes, as in Rambo) and filmed it in his 220 square foot New York apartment on a budget of $96 with a cast consisting of himself in every role. It's apparently really good. (Added 9/27/2015) The Life of Juanita Castro (1965) - An Andy Warhol deep cut. Several actresses sit cramped in a room all facing the same direction enacting a drama about the Castros and Che Guevera during the Cuban revolution. I really dig Warhol's minimalist factory films. (Added 11/1/2015) The Hour of the Furnaces (1968) - A sprawling 260 minute documentary that is thankfully broken up into three parts. However, while little plot description exists beyond "a unique film exploration of a nation's soul" it's supposedly one of the tentpoles of radical activist 60s filmmaking. (Added 11/5/2015) The Most Dangerous Game (1932) - It's man. (Added 12/12/2015) Soylent Green (1973) - It's people. (Added 12/19/2015) Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) - I've never seen the prequels. With Star Wars mania in the air they've been coming up in conversation a lot more lately so hopefully I can finally join the hate parade. (Added 12/25/15) Sanjuro (1962) - Another classic Kurosawa I've never seen. I should probably rewatch Yojimbo while I'm at it to refresh my memory. (Added 12/29/2015) Watched: Fort Apache; Damnation; Ran; Ordet; Purple Rain; Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages; Napoléon; Yi Yi; Faces; The Blood of a Poet; The War Room (TOTAL: 11)
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Dec 30, 2015 04:05
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TrixRabbi, watch Sanjuro it's a great chanbara film. I was given Youth of the Beast, a 1964 yakuza film directed by Seijun Suzuki and starring Joe "the Ace" Shishido as a mysterious rogue who manipulates two rival gangs into fighting eachother. This is a great movie it's clear watching that this is a Seijun Suzuki movie from the visuals alone. Although the movie is not as crazy as Tokyo Drifter or Branded to Kill. The story is engaging and features some nice and unexpected twists. But in the end as great as I found this movie I feel like it's neither Seijun Suzuki's nor Joe Shishido's best film. That honor falls, in my opinion, to Tokyo Drifter and A Colt is my Passport respectively. Still Youth of the Beast was, as any Seijun Suzuki (and/orJoe Shishido) movie, a lot of fun.  The Conformist (1970) - All I know about this is that it's got really good cinematography and it stars Jean-Louis Trintignant in another of his Italian speaking roles as a Fascist secret agent. Vertigo (1958) - Classic Hitchcock I've managed not to watch somehow. Tabu (2012) - I don't know much about this one, the New Yorker's film critic recommended it and it looked interesting. Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) - Kitsch looking sci fi from the 60s, interesting looking. Pickpocket (1959) - It's about an unrepentant pickpocket and how his habit ruins his life... I think? Heat (1995) - I like heist movies, this is, from what I've heard, a really good one. El Topo (1970) - A western made by Alejandro Jodorowsky. It looks insane. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) - Recommended a hundred thousand times; never seen. Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets (1971) - Japanese experimental movie, from what I've seen I honestly can't describe what it's about but wikipedia says it's a "metaphor for Japan's descent into materialism". Le Silence de la Mer (1947) - Melville's first feature length movie, I love later Melville films Le Samourai is among my favorites. (Added 12/30/2015) Watched: Youth of the Beast
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Dec 30, 2015 20:29
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Decever posted:
It was a tough choice between these three masterpieces, but I'm gonna choose The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - you can finally shut all these people up telling you to watch it. Anatomy of a Murder An expertly shot location-film, set in the same place these events took place, <i>Anatomy of a Murder</i> is a 160-minute jazzy courtroom drama that is constantly engaging and practically flies by thanks to a intricately told narrative and fantastic performances top to bottom. George C Scott is great as always as the highly regarded Claude Dancer, and Lee Remick was fantastic as the beautiful victim Laura Manion (I remember her from 'Days of Wine and Roses' alongside Jack Lemmon). LIST American Hustle (2015.10.19) - I'll replace Fincher's 'Dragon Tattoo with another lengthy modern film I'll never watch... unless I'm forced to here. American Movie **NEW** (2016.01.01) - I'll add a documentary to start the new year off, and it's one I've been meaning to see for years. Children of Paradise (2015.10.12) - here's yet another 3hr film I'll continue to put off until I get forced to watch it. The Fountain (2015.07.12) - I've noticed this come up way too many times, plus a good friend telling me to watch it for years now. Gilda (2015.11.27) - I'll replace an early Rita Hayworth film with her most iconic. Leaving Las Vegas (2015.10.18) - I claim to be a big Nic Cage supporter, yet his Oscar-winner remains a blindspot. How shameful, right? Missing (2015.12.20) - adding another Jack Lemmon film to the list. Because I can. Mister Roberts (2015.10.24) - James Cagney, Henry Fonda, William Powell, and Jack Lemmon ..... Why I haven't watched this yet is beyond me. Only God Forgives (2015.11.27) - heavily panned but still a film I've always wanted to see after loving Drive so much. That Obscure Object of Desire **OLDEST** (2015.04.07) - this seems way too interesting and way too important to have not seen by now. De-shamed Pt2: True Romance (4/5), The Right Stuff (3/5), Syndromes And A Century (4/5), Still Life (3/5), My Cousin Vinny (2.5/5), Doctor Zhivago (3.5/5), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (4.5/5), Peeping Tom (4/5), Shadow of a Doubt (4.5/5), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (4.5/5), Only Angels Have Wings (4/5), Umberto D (4/5), Anatomy of a Murder (4.5/5), [Total:113]
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Jan 2, 2016 03:51
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friendo55, I'm giving you Only God Forgives which I really enjoyed, and I hope you do too! I was given Lars Von Trier's Antichrist. In what is a thread first for me, I disliked this movie. At its heart, it's a drama about a marriage in trouble, but the film never builds the characters into being interesting. It tries by putting you into the head of the female character, but these sequences are heavily stylized and over long, and I was just wishing they would end eventually. When more exciting things happened later in the film, I couldn't care about them because the first half of the movie was slow and dull. The camera does some weird things, where it affects a more restrictive variety of the active cinematography of JJ Abrams or Michael Bay, except a number of very slow segments. There are some effective disturbing scenes, Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg put in good performances, and there is some good thematic material to dig into, but overall the film was too slow and uninteresting overall for me to care about. My list (sorted by time on my list, with longest at the top): 1) Prisoners - Heard a lot of good about this recent release, but don't really anything about it. 2) El Topo - Let's keep this Western train a-rollin with a Jodorowsky flick. That still counts, right? 3) The Sound of Music - Another musical from the man who directed West Side Story, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and The Haunting? 4) The Descent - often regarded as one of the best horror movies of the past 10 years. 5) Thief - Mann's first full-length, and maybe his best? I already liked Manhunter NEW 6) Paris, Texas - No clue what this one's about, I've just heard the name a bunch. And Harry Dean Stanton. Unshamed: Royal Tenenbaums, 8 1/2, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Pan's Labyrinth, Schindler's List, The Holy Mountain, Boogie Nights, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Exorcist, Days of Heaven, Inland Empire, The Hidden Fortress, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Naked Lunch, The Seventh Seal, Manhunter, Lolita, The Last Temptation of Christ, Sunset Boulevard, Once Upon a Time in the West, Suspiria, North by Northwest, Alien3, Badlands, Stagecoach, The Manchurian Candidate, L.A. Confidential, My Darling Clementine, Bringing Out the Dead, Starman, The Rules of the Game, Frankenstein, Malcolm X, Zardoz, Antichrist
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Jan 2, 2016 04:44
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X-Ray Pecs posted:
A nice 180-degree turn from Antichrist and a fun way to start 2016. Enjoy! Only God Forgives A perfectly suitable midnight movie, which is about when I started watching. It's absolutely gorgeous, shot on-location in Bangkok, Thailand, but it's minimalistic approach to storytelling did nothing to keep me invested. The empty canvas that is Ryan Gosling's Julian, who runs a boxing club while dealing drugs after being exiled from the US, makes his nameless character in their previous collaboration Drive seem complex. There's plenty of gruesome violence, backstabbing, and revenge motives, but the whole thing feels like an empty genre exercise. Even the framing felt mechanical in the same way I don't like Wes Anderson films. LIST American Hustle (2015.10.19) - I'll replace Fincher's 'Dragon Tattoo with another lengthy modern film I'll never watch... unless I'm forced to here. American Movie (2016.01.01) - I'll add a documentary to start the new year off, and it's one I've been meaning to see for years. Children of Paradise (2015.10.12) - here's yet another 3hr film I'll continue to put off until I get forced to watch it. Cloud Atlas **NEW** (2016.01.01) - I'll add another newer, longer film that I won't watch unless I post it here. The Fountain (2015.07.12) - I've noticed this come up way too many times, plus a good friend telling me to watch it for years now. Gilda (2015.11.27) - I'll replace an early Rita Hayworth film with her most iconic. Leaving Las Vegas (2015.10.18) - I claim to be a big Nic Cage supporter, yet his Oscar-winner remains a blindspot. How shameful, right? Missing (2015.12.20) - adding another Jack Lemmon film to the list. Because I can. Mister Roberts (2015.10.24) - James Cagney, Henry Fonda, William Powell, and Jack Lemmon ..... Why I haven't watched this yet is beyond me. That Obscure Object of Desire **OLDEST** (2015.04.07) - this seems way too interesting and way too important to have not seen by now. De-shamed Pt2: True Romance (4/5), The Right Stuff (3/5), Syndromes And A Century (4/5), Still Life (3/5), My Cousin Vinny (2.5/5), Doctor Zhivago (3.5/5), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (4.5/5), Peeping Tom (4/5), Shadow of a Doubt (4.5/5), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (4.5/5), Only Angels Have Wings (4/5), Umberto D (4/5), Anatomy of a Murder (4.5/5), Only God Forgives (1.5/5), [Total:114]
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Jan 2, 2016 10:03
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friendo55 posted:Missing (2015.12.20) - adding another Jack Lemmon film to the list. Because I can. Strangers on a Train is another example of Hitchcock knowing how to create tension and throw subtle nuances in to keep the tension up and catch the audience off guard. The negative with most of his work I've seen is society has referenced and parodied his work which is obviously no fault of his. I think the reason you see this is because he was the forerunner of having major set pieces in his films, and it's a bit harder to parody nuanced structure as it is a memorable short sequence. Specific to this film, the biggest dissent I have is that nothing is particularly memorable other than the plot elements. None of the performances really stood out (although Robert Walker does do pretty well at being a creepy lunatic). Everyone else was kind of plain and I didn't feel too much emotion for the characters themselves, all my emotion came out of the twists and turns of the plot. It's still a recommend because it's Hitchcock and he knows how to keep me entertained through those plot elements. That finale on the carousel is equally ridiculous, fun, and suspenseful. New List: 1. Hotel Rwanda - 1 Oct 2015 - We can't have all our movies be upbeat. 2. Papillon - 15 Oct 2015 - Hoffman and McQueen, what's not to like. 3. The Magnificent Seven - 3 Nov 2015 - We're getting a remake here soon, so might as well watch the original (well not really original). 4. La Dolce Vita - 19 Oct 2015 - I've been looking through some lists of great movies and directors, and I realize I've never seen a Fellini film. I switched 8 1/2 to this due to suggestion. 5. Das Boot - 3 Oct 2015 - Highest rated imdb movie I've yet to see. I assume it's something to do with war and isolation. 6. Citizenfour - 7 Oct 2015 - Chili just watched it, and I've heard great things about it. I also work at Fort Meade so expect a bit of bias going into it. 7. Requiem for a Dream - 2 Jan 2016 - Drugs are bad. Best Picture Bonanza (60/88) 8. Out of Africa - 10 Dec 2015 - I'm just so tired of all this traffic, I just can't wait until I can get Out of Africa 9. Shakespeare in Love - 29 Oct 2015 - The most recent best picture I haven't seen. 10. West Side Story - 29 Dec 2015 - Musical gang fighting. Watched Count 136: Last 5 - The Searchers, The Last Emperor, Oliver!, All About Eve, Strangers on a Train marioinblack fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Jan 2, 2016 |
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Jan 2, 2016 20:27
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