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I like Sunset Boulevard a lot but I definitely agree that there's a certain point in the middle chunk where you're just kind of waiting around for the inevitable cataclysm. Also, I caught Derek Jarman's The Garden on the channel last night and it kind of blew me away. I can't imagine it would work for everyone, but the use of videotape and green/blue screen paired with a really, really good soundtrack and collage-esque score (particularly the frequent clash between extreme artifice and hushed, natural field recordings) felt incredibly dreamlike/memorylike in a way I haven't seen in many other films. It looks and feels as vivid and unstable as memories and dreams do, where sudden details jump out, but there's also so much haziness and smeariness that it becomes impressionistic. Jarman's health was apparently in steep decline while he was making this due to AIDS, and it has that kind of eerie, melancholic sense of trying to collect all your impressions of life before you die, which is something I think about a lot. It's one of those movies that reminds me of the total perspective vortex from Hitchhiker's Guide, where the scope of life presented is so cosmic that you get vertigo. It probably comes off as a lot of pretentious arthouse nonsense to most viewers but for some reason it really impacted me and I'd give it a really strong recommendation for anyone curious.
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Sep 11, 2021 19:28
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Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is fantastic! Wonderfully tightly plotted, with multiple points where the plot is driven by people throwing stuff off the roof. A bevy of 80s babes and Antonio Banderas playing a nerd. All the fashion is fantastic, I was completely enthralled by the coffee maker earrings. Run, don't walk to Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown!
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Sep 13, 2021 20:38
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Gripweed posted:Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is fantastic! Wonderfully tightly plotted, with multiple points where the plot is driven by people throwing stuff off the roof. A bevy of 80s babes and Antonio Banderas playing a nerd. All the fashion is fantastic, I was completely enthralled by the coffee maker earrings. Safe to say you'd enjoy most Almodovars, although most of them dabble in taboos that can make audiences uncomfortable. Women is pretty much his most accessible film.
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Sep 13, 2021 20:44
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Franchescanado posted:Safe to say you'd enjoy most Almodovars, although most of them dabble in taboos that can make audiences uncomfortable. Women is pretty much his most accessible film. What, like he did a furry movie?
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Sep 13, 2021 21:01
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Gripweed posted:What, like he did a furry movie? Nope. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is a "rom-com" that explores Stockholme Syndrome. Matador has a male character attempt a rape on a woman he admires. Bad Education is about two adults revisiting memories of physical and sexual abuse in their Catholic upbringing at the hands of priests. Talk To Her has a very complicated rape situation. High Heels has scenes where consent is dubious at best. Most of his films deal with sexuality, gender and identity as well, which are all over the place. Almodovar is gay, and he was heavily involved in Spain's counterculture through the 70's to now, and he happily incorporates drag, gender fluidity and trans characters in his films, but they all haven't aged well. Some films, like All About My Mother, has positive portrayals of trans characters; some are much more polarizing, like The Skin I Live In, which has both trans people who hate the film and also trans fans that like it. Some of them have real animal deaths (Bull fighting is pretty big in the culture), some have disturbing violence, some have drug use that people might find abhorrent. Personally I'm a fan of most of his films, but I can totally understand people who watch them and dislike them.
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Sep 13, 2021 21:28
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I would love an Almodovar furry movie.
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Sep 13, 2021 21:47
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Franchescanado posted:Almodovar is gay, and he was heavily involved in Spain's counterculture through the 70's to now, and he happily incorporates drag, gender fluidity and trans characters in his films, but they all haven't aged well.
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Sep 15, 2021 08:38
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TychoCelchuuu posted:I've only watched 17 of them so far, chronologically from the beginning plus The Skin I Live In, but I wouldn't say that any of them haven't aged well. I don't think there's anything in any of them that someone might be unhappier about today than many people would've been unhappy about the day those movies were released. He has a lot of stuff that can rub you the wrong way, and for me the rape stuff in a few films doesn't work, but I don't think that's at all to do with changing norms. There were plenty of people upset about any given topic that he touches on in his films back when those films came out. I don’t think anybody would really disagree that it is more frowned upon/scrutinized to flippantly use the sexual assault of a character as a dramatic tool or plot point in 2021 than it was in the 1970s-90s.
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Sep 15, 2021 08:43
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The way his films use those things was transgressive even for the time. I think if you're the sort of person who has a problem with them now you're probably the sort of person who would've had a problem with them back when they came out, even if you wouldn't have had a problem with other rapey stuff at that time. For contrast, look to e.g. Blade Runner, where Deckard basically sexually assaults Rachel. That was not transgressive at the time but for a lot of people today it would be objectionable. So, that part of Blade Runner hasn't aged as well. This is just my personal judgment, though. People are welcome to disagree.
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Sep 16, 2021 06:09
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There's also cultural differences. Almodovar and Banderas did an interview talking about Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! for it's anniversary, and how Spanish audiences recognized it as melodramatic, and were more accepting of it's violent themes, from soap operas and pulp fiction and other entertainment, but American audiences were much more aghast at the violence. I think it's also important to mention that Almodovar is pretty empathetic to his characters, and like David Lynch, Cronenberg, John Waters, just because they show or explore dark subjects in their stories doesn't mean Almodovar is condoning it. But that gets lost with certain filmmakers, and I don't know why Almodovar is one of them, since his films exist in a hysterical reality.
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Sep 16, 2021 13:48
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A theater near me is showing Soviet films this month. The Cranes are Flying (1959) tonight and The Ascent (1977) over the weekend. Is one significantly better than the other? Is Cranes good?
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Sep 17, 2021 00:26
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Kart Barfunkel posted:A theater near me is showing Soviet films this month. The Cranes are Flying (1959) tonight and The Ascent (1977) over the weekend. Is one significantly better than the other? Is Cranes good? Cranes is supposedly great. I picked up the disc a while ago and haven't watched it yet because I am stupid
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Sep 17, 2021 02:15
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Anyone check out any of these? https://www.criterionchannel.com/directed-by-luis-garcia-berlanga-2
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Sep 17, 2021 07:45
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Roth posted:Anyone check out any of these? I don't have Criterion Channel, but I've seen Welcome Mister Marshall, The Executioner, The Rocket from Calabuch, and Placido and they're all very good, Kart Barfunkel posted:A theater near me is showing Soviet films this month. The Cranes are Flying (1959) tonight and The Ascent (1977) over the weekend. Is one significantly better than the other? Is Cranes good? Both excellent, but Cranes is tops for me.
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Sep 17, 2021 15:26
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I watched the Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It was disappointing. I was pretty excited for this one, a cute little musical about a lady who sells umbrellas, I'm down. But it turns out it's not a musical as they are commonly understood. Instead of people talking normally only for songs to happen at times of heightened emotion, the music is constant. There is always background music and the characters sing their lines to it Nobody ever takes center stage to really belt one out, they all just sing like they're talking. And the music is for the most part unobtrusive and pretty samey. As a result, the entire movie feels, like, leveled out. In a normal musical the music heightens emotions, but in this one the music flattens all emotions out The costumes and hair are great and the sets are quite nice, so maybe if you go in expecting it to just be a vibes movie it works. Well, vibe movie, just the one. Pretty French people in brightly painted rooms, that's the vibe. But man, it didn't work for me.
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Sep 22, 2021 03:15
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Gripweed posted:I watched the Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It was disappointing. I love Demy, but Umbrellas has never worked for me either. Try The Young Girls of Rochefort instead.
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Sep 22, 2021 15:21
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Umbrellas is awesome tbh. Has anyone seen Demy's Rose of Versailles adaptation? I was thinking of watching that in a few days because idea of Demy doing live action anime is very funny to me for some reason.
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Sep 23, 2021 07:22
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Deep Discount has 45% off (and a few other titles being an additional 15%off if you buy from that range). Grabbed Teorema, Seconds, Gimme Shelter, The Virgin Suicides and the Signifyin Works of Marlon Riggs.
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Sep 23, 2021 08:40
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Raxivace posted:Umbrellas is awesome tbh. Yeah I’m surprised to see so many people bounce off of umbrellas, I love it. The mix of such a bittersweet plot with the lyric structure is really cool
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Sep 24, 2021 00:48
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Yeah, Umbrellas is great
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Sep 24, 2021 03:12
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I didn't care for Umbrellas.
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Sep 24, 2021 03:21
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I liked Umbrellas but it is very stylistically different from American musicals. Love me some good melancholy though.
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Sep 24, 2021 04:17
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I'm a big fan of the French new wave, 60s pop, and musicals in general, but I don't really enjoy Umbrellas or Rochefort, probably because it's basically like an opera that's entirely recitative which, just, oh my god, no thanks.
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Sep 24, 2021 04:56
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I haven't seen the films in this collection, so I don't know if the cover is representative of them. So I know I'm coming from a position of ignorance, but when I saw this cover my reaction was lol seriously?
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Sep 25, 2021 18:55
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he just died like yesterday, didn't he?
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Sep 26, 2021 00:25
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:he just died like yesterday, didn't he? That's likely why the question was asked. Dead guy/gal spike and all
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Sep 26, 2021 04:29
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Gripweed posted:I haven't seen the films in this collection, so I don't know if the cover is representative of them. So I know I'm coming from a position of ignorance, but when I saw this cover my reaction was lol seriously? Come on, Criterion can have one bad cover. It's not like their first 4K, Citizen Kane is going to have a terrible cover that's just the letter 'K'.
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Sep 26, 2021 06:13
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Island Nation posted:That's likely why the question was asked. Dead guy/gal spike and all I saw Criterion tweet about it. I didn't know that he had dies, I thought Criterion was announcing a new set.
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Sep 26, 2021 14:15
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I'm thinking of ordering Arrow's Rainer Werner Fassbinder collection sets, but I feel like I should watch a few instead of blind-buying it. I'm going to watch one or two on CriterionChannel. Here's my question: Should I watch one of the films featured in the first collection-- Love is Colder Than Death (1969). Katzelmacher (1969), Beware of a Holy Whore (1971) ,The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) , The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)-- or is there a different, more definitive introductory work by him available on Criterion Channel?
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Sep 27, 2021 18:52
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In my experience with Fassbinder, what makes his oeuvre so impressive is how different each of his films are. My advice would be to go with the ones whose premise appeals to you the most. I’ve not been disappointed in any of them.
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Sep 27, 2021 18:55
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Franchescanado posted:Here's my question: Should I watch one of the films featured in the first collection-- Love is Colder Than Death (1969). Katzelmacher (1969), Beware of a Holy Whore (1971) ,The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) , The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)-- or is there a different, more definitive introductory work by him available on Criterion Channel? Honestly, I think the only one I wouldn't recommend watching as a first RWF film is "Love is Colder Than Death". All the other ones should be good.
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Sep 28, 2021 03:05
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This Doris Wishman category on the channel looks interesting. What’s the best/most popular one to try?
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Oct 2, 2021 07:09
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Looking for a new Criterion Ask the Barnes and Noble employee if Valeri and Her Week of Wonders is creepy or a movie for European perverts she doesn't understand I pull out a diagram explaining what is creepy and what is a movie for European perverts she laughs and says "it's a good movie, sir" buy Valerie and Her Week of Wonders it's a movie for European perverts
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Oct 6, 2021 19:53
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Gripweed posted:Looking for a new Criterion sounds like you should marry that lady
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Oct 6, 2021 20:02
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just casually strolling through b&n with my European pervert diagram at the ready
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Oct 6, 2021 20:59
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Big Mean Jerk posted:just casually strolling through b&n with my European pervert diagram at the ready https://youtu.be/zyBjbqKPIj0?t=2014
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Oct 6, 2021 21:19
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Ritrovata up to their usual poo poo on Criterion's The Damned. At this point the company is just a joke, and it's a mystery why they're still allowed to do colour-grading. https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Damned-Blu-ray/293164/#Review The usual grey blacks and yellow-greenish white: 
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Oct 7, 2021 08:48
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That links to the 4K "Le Cercle Rouge" review, which sounds like they completely hosed it up too.
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Oct 7, 2021 15:46
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Yep, it's just as bad.
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Oct 7, 2021 17:47
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jesus I really hope the Mulholland 4K is fine
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Oct 7, 2021 17:50
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