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Zogo, when I don't know from much on a list I go with the list veteran. Go with Golden Thread. **** I've tried again and again with Wes and I think I just need to accept the fact that he isn't my kinda guy. I get it. The dude is a meticulous auteur with a razor-sharp vision and an ability to execute on that vision. But beyond that, it's just so hard for me to access his films. I don't mind a director having style, but I guess I want it to be a bit more understated. I think knowing, right away, that a film is clearly a Wes Anderson film is, for me, a mark against it. But yeah, more specifically, some things about Grand Budapest: The set design was stellar, as was Fiennes, and overall, I didn't hate the story. I think I really just need to move on and accept that I ain't that into Wes. My new ten: 1. *NEW*The Florida Project*NEW* - Go ahead, break my heart. 2. You Were Never Really Here - Kevin was a loving knock out that has stuck with me. Very interested in this. 3. Rififi - Heard this was an inspiration for a lot of the films I love. 4. In the Mood for Love - Heard nothing but great things. 5. Mother Bong joon ho's that is. I've seen everything else of his (apart from barking dogs, and that's just never gonna happen) , and have enjoyed everything. 6. Moonlight Missed it in theaters, but I hear it's worth watching. 7. Murder on the Orient Express (1974) - I like me some Agatha Christie. I don't know much about this apart from the obvious. 8. Anatomy of a Murder Another classic that I've missed. 9. Train to Busan - Heard it's good, it's on Netflix, easy pick. 10.Her - I like Spike, and Joaquin is always good. 138 Total De-Shamed! Yojimbo 7.5/10, Aliens 6.5/10, Brazil 8/10, Cool Hand Luke 9.5/10, 28 Days Later 6/10, Predator 8.5/10, Blade Runner 7.5/10,Crimes and Misdemeanors 9/10, Vertigo 7/10, Being There 7.5/10, Psycho 10/10, Apocalypse Now 7.5/10, Citizen Kane 8.5/10, Dr. Strangelove 7/10, Close Encounters of the Third Kind 8.5/10, The Bicycle Thief 7/10, Raging Bull 8/10, Ikiru 10/10, Terminator 2: Judgement Day 7/10, The Night of the Hunter 8.5/10 How to Train Your Dragon 6.5/10, There Will Be Blood 8/10, Manhattan 7/10, Rashomon 8.5/10, Unforgiven 8.5/10 The Third Man 9.5/10, Requiem For A Dream 4/10, Charade 5.5/10, Sunset Blvd. 8/10 , Badlands 6.5/10, Dead Man 8.5/10, On The Waterfront 9/10, Mad Max 6/10, Singin' In The Rain 9.5/10, Sleeper 7.5/10, Enter The Dragon 6.5/10, The Hustler 8/10 , The Town 9/10, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 5.5/10, Boogie Nights 7.5/10, Hanna 8.5/10, The Conversation 7.5/10, Serpico 8/10, Hoop Dreams 9/10, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind 8/10, Blood Simple 7.5/10, Roman Holiday 8.5/10, Miller's Crossing 8/10, M 7.5/10, Moonrise Kingdom 6.5/10, Rope 7/10, Tiny Furniture 1/10, On The Town 5.5/10, Gosford Park 5.5/10, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, 8.5/10, City Lights 8.5/10, The Exorcist 6.5/10, California Split 7/10, Aguirre, The Wrath Of God 8/10, Following 8/10, The General 10/10, Barton Fink 8.5/10, Tombstone 8/10, The Hudsucker Proxy 9/10, Love Actually 6.5, La Dolce Vita 7/10, Chop Shop 9.5/10, Duck Soup 6/10, When Harry Met Sally 8/10, Tokyo Story 7/10, Kelly's Heroes 8/10, The Thing 8.5/10, Lost In Translation 9.5/10, Anchorman 6.5/10, Mulholland Dr. 8.5/10, Rebecca9/10, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans 7/10, Steamboat Bill Jr. 9/10, Double Indemnity 9/10, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum 6.5/10, The Man Who Wasn't There 8.10, Synecdoche, NY 10/10 , Leaving Las Vegas 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 8.5/10, Magnificent Seven 8/10, Dear Zachary -/10, The Fly 9/10, Time Bandits 6/10, Before Sunrise 6.5, The Buddy Holly Story 7/10, Pleasantville 7/10, The Rules of the Game 6/10, Senna 7.5/10, Kiki's Delivery Service 8/10, Gojira 9/10, The Blues Brothers 5/10, Notorious 7/10, Little Shop of Horrors 9/10 , The Last Starfighter 7/10, Rebel Without A Cause 8.5/10, Sherlock Jr. 7.5/10, Intolerable Cruelty, 9/10, The Ladykillers 9/10, Spring Breakers 7.5/10, Touch of Evil 8/10, The Purple Rose of Cairo, 9/10, My Cousin Vinny 7/10, Galaxy Quest 8/10, First Blood, 9/10, Arsenic and Old Lace, 7/10, Mad Max 2, 9/10, The Raid: Redemption, 8/10, Kramer vs. Kramer 9.5/10, Nightcrawler 10/10, Frank 9/10, Strangers On A Train 8/10 , Wild Strawberries 7.5/10, They Came Together 5.5/10, The Squid and the Whale, 10/10, Poolhall Junkies 1/10, Citizenfour 10/10, The 400 Blows 9.5/10, Event Horizon 2/10, Ashes and Diamonds, 8/10 Defending Your Life 9/10, The Informant! 8.5/10 The Lady and the Tramp 8.5/10, Memories of Murder 8.5/10, Ordinary People 8.5/10, Blue Ruin 7/10, F For Fake 9/10, The Best Years of Our Lives 6.5/10, Saturday Night Fever 7/10, We Need to Talk About Kevin, 10/10, Beasts of the Southern Wild, 10/10, 2011: A Space Odyssey ???/10, The Master, 9/10 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 7/10 Certified Copy, 8/10, Ace in the Hole, 9/10, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy 6.5/10, The Grand Budapest Hotel 7/10
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Feb 20, 2020 05:57
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Zogo posted:At the predictable time we get the requisite conflict between the two leads but at least it was dealt with quickly. It's a fairy tale fantasy through and through and it's very Hollywoodized at times. From the prostitutes on drugs who don't look bedraggled at all to the ending...I just had to chuckle at the ending. You should see the original script where she's hooked on drugs the whole time and the man leaves her, throwing money into the gutter as his limo drives away.
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Feb 20, 2020 20:54
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Chili:Chili posted:9. Train to Busan - Heard it's good, it's on Netflix, easy pick. Tokyo Story An elderly couple visit their adult children who can't be bothered dealing with them. The characters are all well developed and feel real. The children aren't cruel; they want their parents to have a good time but it's out of a sense of duty and they'd rather spend money to send them to a resort than spend time in their company.The parents aren't so saintly they are unrelatable either, for example the father has a history of heavy drinking. The cinematography is interesting, very minimalist and clear and the camera seldom if ever moves. The themes of familial obligation, resentment, and the distance between generations are universal and timeless. Also saw: Joker The social commentary was dumb and shallow and the whole thing felt very derivative of Scorsese, especially Taxi Driver and King of Comedy. The imaginary girlfriend subplot was real bad. And yet I was surprised to find I enjoyed this quite a lot, almost entirely because of Joaquin Phoenix's performance, which elevated the whole thing. It was a new take on the character of the Joker and it worked really well. The you get what you deserve climax was great. My List: 1) (highest ranked imdb) 1917 2) (comedy) Any Luarel and Hardy feature film Not seen one before 3) (animation) Waltz with Bashir it's highly regarded 4) (Academy Award winner) Dances with Wolves 5) (foreign language) The Hidden Fortress Kurosawa's never let me down before 6) (Western or Musical) Once Upon a Time in the West I love the Dollars trilogy, why haven't I seen this? 7) (Horror) Der Golem (1920) Iconic silent era monster 8) (sci fi/fantasy) Alphaville sounds intriguing 9) (epic) Dr Zhivago Just very famous 10) (wildcard) Quardophenia mods vs rockers Watched (86): Taxi Driver; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Iron Giant; Platoon; American History X; City Lights; My Neighbour Totoro; Rashomon; Duck Soup; Friday 13th (1980); Birdman; Frankenstein (1931); Time Bandits; Carrie (1976); King Kong (1933); Das Boot; The Blair Witch Project (1999); The Sting; Annie Hall; The Bridge on the River Kwai; The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; Godzilla (1954); Bicycle Thieves; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974); The English Patient; Scanners; Forbidden Planet; Deliverance; The Creature from the Black Lagoon; Life is Beautiful; Minority Report; Rosemary's Baby; On the Waterfront; Solaris (1972); Driving Miss Daisy; Eraserhead; M (1931); This is Spinal Tap; Death Race 2000; The Producers (1967); Martin; Easy Rider; Office Space; Ghost in the Shell (1995); The Kid; Freaks (1932); The Abyss; Ben Hur (1959); Poltergeist (1982); Escape from New York; Once Upon a Time in America; Phantasm; Dracula (1958); Videodrome; Slumdog Millionaire; The Blob (1958); The Blob (1988); My Fair Lady; Avengers: Infinity War; Cinema Paradiso; 8 1/2; The Lord of the Rings (1978); Logan's Run; Willow; Misery; Bringing up Baby; Aguirre, The Wrath of God; The Man Who Fell to Earth; Candyman; The Dark Crystal; Tron; Andhadhun; Avengers: Endgame; The Lives of Others; Critters; Harakiri (1962); Blood and Black Lace; Grave of the Fireflies; The Seven Year Itch; Wings; Modern Times; The Searchers; Coraline; Cabaret; Tokyo Story; Joker
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Feb 25, 2020 12:37
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bitterandtwisted posted:9) (epic) Dr Zhivago Just very famous "The personal life is dead in Russia." The Golden Thread - The characters (mainly orphans) have familiar fights over cultural traditions and whether to make the practical choices in life or go for the bolder impractical ones (mainly relating to career). As in real life some have good fortune and some have bad fortune and everyone goes through the ups and downs. The story starts out in 1948 India and casteism runs through the whole film like a plague or a pox. One wealthy owner proclaims "Caste is everything!" This is one of the main inflection points as two young lovers are trapped within different social classes. Multiple amazing Shakespearian surprises take place that I won't detail but we get tragedy over and over again with a capital T. History repeats itself to say the least. I was reminded of The Sweet Hereafter (1997) at multiple points. Bold and fearless filmmaking that had to make this controversial at its release. James Bond versus Godzilla (37/64 completed): Hesitation (21 completed): #20 The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires - Sounds like an interesting mixture. 12/30/19 #23 Clueless - I continually forget to watch this one. 2/5/20 #24 Head-On - Heard this was a good one. 2/5/20 #25 The Sentinel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlNDQKwsg 2/18/20 #26 The Wild Angels - Peter Fonda on a motorcycle before Easy Rider. 2/18/20 new #27 Journey to Italy AKA Voyage in Italy - A film with two titles. I can finally know which title fits better. Also, the highest ranked TSPDT film I haven't seen. 2/27/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (90/100 completed): #75 Lady of the Day AKA Belle de Jour - Luis Bunuel once again. 12/7/19 #80 The Young and the Damned - There are still many Luis Bunuel films I mean to see. 7/28/19 #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19
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Feb 27, 2020 07:03
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Zogo, watch Head-On. Apply it directly to your forehead. The Seventh Seal: I had been working my way through the Criterion Bergman box set in order, but I skipped ahead to watch this in honor of Max von Sydow's passing. It is, of course, an amazing film, and something of a departure from the other Bergman movies I've seen. While many of his early films deal with romance, relationships, and longing for youth, The Seventh Seal is more existential and spiritual. A crusader who wants to hear the voice of God and who wants to achieve something meaningful before his time inevitably comes. Von Sydow carries the movie but the supporting ensemble is great as well. The cynical, misogynistic squire, the troupe of actors, the cuckolded blacksmith, and of course Death himself all make this movie great. I'll probably watch this again soon. Also watched: The Man Who Wasn't There: This is my least favorite Coen Bros. film to date, though I haven't seen Intolerable Cruelty or The Ladykillers, which have worse reputations. Billy Bob Thornton puts in a good performance and it was nice to see James Gandolfini and a very young Scarlett Johansson in supporting roles, but I had a hard time getting into this. The tone is pretty dour and nihilistic, without the dry comedy of many other Coen films or the brutality of No Country for Old Men, which makes for a not particularly enjoyable or interesting experience. The List: 1. Tokyo Story: I don't really know anything about this but it's on a ton of lists. 2. Andrei Rublev: More Tarkovsky. 3. Throne of Blood: Kurosawa doing MacBeth sounds dope 4. McCabe and Mrs. Miller: Just making this my Western slot. 5. Lolita: This one seems essential but I can never work up the nerve 6. The Life Aquatic: 7. North Dallas Forty: I've been told that this is the best football movie ever made. I like football and movies. 8. Akira: I typically avoid anime like the plague but people seem to like this a lot. NEW 9. 8 1/2: I've scrolled past this on Criterion Channel so many times. NEW 10. The General: Never seen any Buster Keaton. Watched (65): Goodfellas, Rear Window, Rashomon, The Searchers, Lawrence of Arabia, American Psycho, The Usual Suspects, L.A. Confidential, Unforgiven, Once Upon a Time in America, Blue Velvet, Schindler's List, Vertigo, First Blood, The Sting, Annie Hall, Twelve Monkeys, The Deer Hunter, Rain Man, Chinatown, Glengarry Glen Ross, Patton, Brazil, Casino, Scanners, Black Swan, Superman, Spartacus, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Seven Samurai, Double Indemnity, The Thing, Aguirre The Wrath of God, Badlands, Planet of the Apes, Shane, Léon: The Professional, Trainspotting, The Conversation, Miller's Crossing, A Fish Called Wanda, City of God, Psycho, Singin' in the Rain, Witness for the Prosecution, Se7en, The Wild Bunch, Oklahoma!, Cool Hand Luke, Paths of Glory, The Night of the Hunter, Blood Simple, Eyes Wide Shut, Memories of Murder, Sunset Boulevard, City Lights, The Artist, The Hudsucker Proxy, Stalker, Barry Lyndon, Stagecoach, Solaris, Reds, The King’s Speech, The Seventh Seal, The Man Who Wasn't There
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Mar 16, 2020 04:11
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Alfred, check out Throne of Blood Dr Zhivago A love story in a time of Revolution It's an old school Roadshow movie epic with an overture and intermission Great performance from Omar Sharif. It did feel a little over-long and the whole revolution felt like background noise at times. None of the main characters have much of an opinion on the revolution beyond the personal problems they face, with the exception of Antipov who also has the strongest arc up to the point where I thought he was going to become the main antagonist. But then he doesn't. And then he dies offscreen. It's a fine, well crafted movie but it didn't hugely grab me. Also saw Once Upon a Time in the West Henry Fonda is a very bad man It's slower paced than the Dollars films and the tone is sombre. I especially liked the early standoff where there's no score just ambient noises It turns out I had seen at least some of this when I was a kid, because I remembered the scene where Charles Bronson is playing harmonica in the bar. It's not much of a tune he's playing, but it's haunting and fits with the great score by Ennio Morricone. Then, holy poo poo the ending where the origin of that tune is revealed. That completely floored me. Really enjoyed this one a lot. My List: 1) (highest ranked imdb) 1917 2) (comedy) Any Luarel and Hardy feature film Not seen one before 3) (animation) Waltz with Bashir it's highly regarded 4) (Academy Award winner) Dances with Wolves 5) (foreign language) The Hidden Fortress Kurosawa's never let me down before 6) (Western or Musical) An American in Paris One of the biggest golden age musicals 7) (Horror) Der Golem (1920) Iconic silent era monster 8) (sci fi/fantasy) Alphaville sounds intriguing 9) (epic) The Last Emperor 10) (wildcard) Quardophenia mods vs rockers Watched (88): Taxi Driver; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Iron Giant; Platoon; American History X; City Lights; My Neighbour Totoro; Rashomon; Duck Soup; Friday 13th (1980); Birdman; Frankenstein (1931); Time Bandits; Carrie (1976); King Kong (1933); Das Boot; The Blair Witch Project (1999); The Sting; Annie Hall; The Bridge on the River Kwai; The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; Godzilla (1954); Bicycle Thieves; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974); The English Patient; Scanners; Forbidden Planet; Deliverance; The Creature from the Black Lagoon; Life is Beautiful; Minority Report; Rosemary's Baby; On the Waterfront; Solaris (1972); Driving Miss Daisy; Eraserhead; M (1931); This is Spinal Tap; Death Race 2000; The Producers (1967); Martin; Easy Rider; Office Space; Ghost in the Shell (1995); The Kid; Freaks (1932); The Abyss; Ben Hur (1959); Poltergeist (1982); Escape from New York; Once Upon a Time in America; Phantasm; Dracula (1958); Videodrome; Slumdog Millionaire; The Blob (1958); The Blob (1988); My Fair Lady; Avengers: Infinity War; Cinema Paradiso; 8 1/2; The Lord of the Rings (1978); Logan's Run; Willow; Misery; Bringing up Baby; Aguirre, The Wrath of God; The Man Who Fell to Earth; Candyman; The Dark Crystal; Tron; Andhadhun; Avengers: Endgame; The Lives of Others; Critters; Harakiri (1962); Blood and Black Lace; Grave of the Fireflies; The Seven Year Itch; Wings; Modern Times; The Searchers; Coraline; Cabaret; Tokyo Story; Joker; Dr Zhivago; Once Upon a Time in the West
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Mar 19, 2020 12:37
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bitterandtwisted, watch The Hidden Fortress Throne of Blood was pretty good.Toshiro Mifune is always great. The spirit that appears to Washizu and Miki was p creepy. Kurosawa knows how to make spirits creepy. It's a fairly straightforward Macbeth adaptation so not a whole lot to say on that front, but it's very well done all around. The List: 1. Tokyo Story: I don't really know anything about this but it's on a ton of lists. 2. Andrei Rublev: More Tarkovsky. 3. Sanjuro: More Kurosawa 4. McCabe and Mrs. Miller: Just making this my Western slot. 5. Lolita: This one seems essential but I can never work up the nerve 6. The Life Aquatic: 7. North Dallas Forty: I've been told that this is the best football movie ever made. I like football and movies. 8. Akira: I typically avoid anime like the plague but people seem to like this a lot. 9. 8 1/2: I've scrolled past this on Criterion Channel so many times. 10. The General: Never seen any Buster Keaton. Watched (66): Goodfellas, Rear Window, Rashomon, The Searchers, Lawrence of Arabia, American Psycho, The Usual Suspects, L.A. Confidential, Unforgiven, Once Upon a Time in America, Blue Velvet, Schindler's List, Vertigo, First Blood, The Sting, Annie Hall, Twelve Monkeys, The Deer Hunter, Rain Man, Chinatown, Glengarry Glen Ross, Patton, Brazil, Casino, Scanners, Black Swan, Superman, Spartacus, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Seven Samurai, Double Indemnity, The Thing, Aguirre The Wrath of God, Badlands, Planet of the Apes, Shane, Léon: The Professional, Trainspotting, The Conversation, Miller's Crossing, A Fish Called Wanda, City of God, Psycho, Singin' in the Rain, Witness for the Prosecution, Se7en, The Wild Bunch, Oklahoma!, Cool Hand Luke, Paths of Glory, The Night of the Hunter, Blood Simple, Eyes Wide Shut, Memories of Murder, Sunset Boulevard, City Lights, The Artist, The Hudsucker Proxy, Stalker, Barry Lyndon, Stagecoach, Solaris, Reds, The King’s Speech, The Seventh Seal, The Man Who Wasn't There, Throne of Blood
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Mar 20, 2020 21:55
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Alfred P. Pseudonym you should watch Tokyo Story it is simply one of the most touching films I have ever seen. Here is my list: 1)Fata Morgana (1971) It is one of more experimental works of Herzog. 2)One False Move (1992) I've never seen a film by Carl Franklin but I quite like the fact that it's a neo-noir. 3)The Color of Pomegranates (1969) Was never in a right mood for this. 4)The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) It is a bit long. 5)Wings of Desire (1987) I don't know why. 6)The Kid with a Bike (2011) Seemed dull. 7)Sans Soleil (1983) I just heard about this one. 8)The Square (2017) :/ 9)The Joke (1969) Someone has to force me to watch it. 10)Elephant (2003) Again was never in a right mood for it.
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Mar 21, 2020 00:24
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Welcome to the thread KhanSolo, I've not seen a single one on your list, sorry! google's random number generator gives you quote:3)The Color of Pomegranates (1969) Was never in a right mood for this. The Hidden Fortress Heroic road trip adventure about getting a princess safely back to her homeland. The story is engaging, with little twists and lucky escapes. Mifune is a commanding presence as General Makabe. The two farmers are at times very annoying characters, but they end up having a rather touching resolution to their arc. The bickering farmers do bear a similarity to 3P0/R2, but otherwise the influence on Star Wars is much less apparent than I'd expected. No giant lasers at all. Very solid movie. My List: 1) (highest ranked imdb) 1917 2) (comedy) Any Luarel and Hardy feature film Not seen one before 3) (animation) Waltz with Bashir it's highly regarded 4) (Academy Award winner) Dances with Wolves 5) (foreign language) Sholay One of the biggest ever Indian movies 6) (Western or Musical) An American in Paris One of the biggest golden age musicals 7) (Horror) Der Golem (1920) Iconic silent era monster 8) (sci fi/fantasy) Alphaville sounds intriguing 9) (epic) The Last Emperor 10) (wildcard) Quardophenia mods vs rockers Watched (89): Taxi Driver; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Iron Giant; Platoon; American History X; City Lights; My Neighbour Totoro; Rashomon; Duck Soup; Friday 13th (1980); Birdman; Frankenstein (1931); Time Bandits; Carrie (1976); King Kong (1933); Das Boot; The Blair Witch Project (1999); The Sting; Annie Hall; The Bridge on the River Kwai; The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; Godzilla (1954); Bicycle Thieves; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974); The English Patient; Scanners; Forbidden Planet; Deliverance; The Creature from the Black Lagoon; Life is Beautiful; Minority Report; Rosemary's Baby; On the Waterfront; Solaris (1972); Driving Miss Daisy; Eraserhead; M (1931); This is Spinal Tap; Death Race 2000; The Producers (1967); Martin; Easy Rider; Office Space; Ghost in the Shell (1995); The Kid; Freaks (1932); The Abyss; Ben Hur (1959); Poltergeist (1982); Escape from New York; Once Upon a Time in America; Phantasm; Dracula (1958); Videodrome; Slumdog Millionaire; The Blob (1958); The Blob (1988); My Fair Lady; Avengers: Infinity War; Cinema Paradiso; 8 1/2; The Lord of the Rings (1978); Logan's Run; Willow; Misery; Bringing up Baby; Aguirre, The Wrath of God; The Man Who Fell to Earth; Candyman; The Dark Crystal; Tron; Andhadhun; Avengers: Endgame; The Lives of Others; Critters; Harakiri (1962); Blood and Black Lace; Grave of the Fireflies; The Seven Year Itch; Wings; Modern Times; The Searchers; Coraline; Cabaret; Tokyo Story; Joker; Dr Zhivago; Once Upon a Time in the West; The Hidden Fortress
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Mar 23, 2020 13:20
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R2 and Threepio definitely spend less time contemplating sexual assault. Or at least less time explicitly doing so
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Mar 24, 2020 19:14
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OK, I'm kind of stumbling back in here now that I have time to actually watch movies. Rearranged my list a little bit: shamezone 1) L'Eclisse - discontent movie 2) Close-Up - meta movie 3) Come And See - oh god 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) Andrei Rublev - religion movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Journey to Italy - TSPDT 1000 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Vagabond - Varda movie [full list] Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10, Victim 6/10, Man Bites Dog 9/10, Night and Fog 10/10, Weekend 8/10, Jubilee 10/10, Sans Soleil 10/10, Candidate 8/10, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 10/10, The Freshman 5/10, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers 10/10, Branded to Kill 8/10, In Heaven There Is No Beer? 10/10, Blood Simple 10/10, The Marriage of Maria Braun 7/10, A Day In The Country 7/10, A Brief History of Time 10/10, Gates of Heaven 10/10, The Thin Blue Line 10/10, The Fog of War 10/10, My Beautiful Laundrette 10/10, Blind Chance 8/10, My Winnipeg 10/10, The River 7/10, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10 (total: 161) bitterandtwisted gets An American in Paris
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Mar 26, 2020 17:06
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Magic Hate Ball posted:2) Close-Up - meta movie "I'm tired of being me." Head-On - Two suicidals meet in a hospital and enter into a dysfunctional and crazy marriage that inexplicably retains a tinge of humor. It's a marriage of convenience as Sibel (Sibel Kekilli) is trying to escape a very conservative family. Cahit (Birol Unel) is the hopeless drunk. It's one of the more protracted love stories I've seen. As things turn platonic they melt into more conventional roles. I was reminded of Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter in Fight Club (1999). In short, they're playing with fire. No doubt some will think it's heavy-handed but I don't usually watch movies to see the sublime subtleties of life. It's so hardcore and unfiltered that it's like watching two movies for the price of one. It's able to pull off being both disturbing and funny simultaneously. It has great action and is visually stimulating. In a word, awesome. PS The film is broken up into segments with musical interludes seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKGkLsYynww James Bond versus Godzilla (37/64 completed): Hesitation (22 completed): #20 The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires - Sounds like an interesting mixture. 12/30/19 #23 Clueless - I continually forget to watch this one. 2/5/20 #25 The Sentinel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlNDQKwsg 2/18/20 #26 The Wild Angels - Peter Fonda on a motorcycle before Easy Rider. 2/18/20 #27 Journey to Italy AKA Voyage in Italy - A film with two titles. I can finally know which title fits better. Also, the highest ranked TSPDT film I haven't seen. 2/27/20 new #28 The Woman in Red - Reminded from many different sources to watch this one. 3/26/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (90/100 completed): #75 Lady of the Day AKA Belle de Jour - Luis Bunuel once again. 12/7/19 #80 The Young and the Damned - There are still many Luis Bunuel films I mean to see. 7/28/19 #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19
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Mar 27, 2020 05:46
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Close-Up Lying is fun. It's like pulling down the zipper on the stuffy tent of your own life and revealing anything you'd like on the other side - you're given the power of ultimate creation, and that means control. Theoretically. I was a liar in high school, telling people that my father wasn't my real father, and that I had a brother who lived in the UK, which produced a number of results. The first was that people thought I was interesting, or at least seemed to act interested. The second was that my days became more interesting, partially because I was constantly having to find ways to further my lie, endlessly shaping and re-shaping it, like pottery that would never be fired. And, finally, partially for the third result, which was the overwhelming guilt and paranoia. The act of instantaneous creation is thrilling, but they come with mind-numbing records-keeping and cross-checking and the acute knowledge that you've both heedlessly and needlessly introduced a cancer into your own life. So, that being said, Close-Up was a slightly painful experience for me. It's a blend of fact and fiction, or recreation and documentary. The documentary element is the courtroom footage, and the rest, I believe, is recreation, though I say that mostly because the courtroom footage is on visibly different film stock - other scenes may have also been documentary, but there are times when it's hard to tell. The courtroom footage is fairly standard and occasionally even a little dull, and the recreations are kind of austere in a Gus van Sant way, with a lot of crisp, head-on shots. What makes this really interesting is how Kiarostami juxtaposes the crafted, suspenseful recreations with the more organic courtroom scenes. In the courtroom, the characters (or people, as they are) vie to create their own reality, for both us and the judge. Our sympathy for Sabzian wavers now and then, but the overall process is to illustrate the means of and cause for salvation, even as we're aware of the film's manipulation of us, of the film's own lies. Sabzian lies because he wants to feel heard, but so does Kiarostami. Acting is a lie. But the film's eventual crux, when it comes to a tipping point over pardoning in the courtroom, suggests that we're never not acting. What is a real emotion, how do we present ourselves completely raw and without alterior motive? I'm not sure that we can, and neither can film. There's no such thing as objectivity, because to have something pointed out to us, whether it's by confession of intent or filmed and edited illustration, is to have something presented via another point of view, and a point of view can't come without a motive. If you don't have a motive, or some kind of internal thrust, it's because you're a corpse. Kiarostami's motive is for good - he presents the case to us in a way that makes us feel for Sabzian. He highlights his awkwardness, his way of pontificating via half-baked wisdom, but also demonstrates his position in life, the why of lying, and indicts the culture around him. Sabzian wants to imitate his idol because he makes films that express what he wishes he could express, and he wants, even if fraudulently, to be respected for holding those feelings. Sabzian then expresses these things by imitating his idol, being caught, and having a film made about them. Kiarostami expresses the things that Sabzian, and his idol, express by making a film about Sabzian. It's not metatextual to be cute, because it's both too messy and too tightly-crafted. In one of my favorite sequences in the film, Kiarostami illustrates the moment that Sabzian is caught, and it's a masterpiece of technical suspense. When I watch Chopped, I like to look up who the winner is, because it makes the show more interesting - I can follow along with how they are being presented, and what their decisions are that lead them there. This scene works in the same way - instead of holding the potential for entrapment over the audience, we're made to know about it, and therefore agonize over every little detail that indicates every inevitable step taken towards his arrest. I don't have anything more to say. 10/10 edit: Journey to Italy I was happy to be turned around on L'avventura a couple years ago. When I first saw it, I thought it was frustrating and boring, but the second time it was hypnotic but also surprisingly funny. Journey to Italy feels like a precursor, almost to the extent that L'avventura could be seen as a remake - the island, the ennui, etc - but also in that Journey is funny and moving. The humor and the emotion come from unexpected places, which is easily its best quality, the way it shows things that are both theatrical and astutely real, so as to seem uncanny and precise, and it moves fluidly between dry observation and passages of intense evocation, as if the film itself, like the characters, were discovering its own ability to love and feel connection. The first surprise is that the two main characters immediately identify the dissatisfaction in their marriage, which was kind of a relief to me (movies about couples struggling to hold it together in foreign environments are exhausting), and though they trade bitter quips, Rossellini leans heavily in favour of Bergman's character, enlisting our sympathy by pitting her and us against her husband's refusal to allow her to be, have, or believe anything without his approval. Most of the humor comes particularly from his uptight English ways, particularly one funny sequence where he wants more wine, so he wakes up the housekeeper from her mid-day nap and, attempting to cross the language barrier inadvertently makes a rude gesture into the decanter. She yells at him in Italian and he says, rigidly, "How dare you speak to me that way!". Elsewhere there are small moments of observational and visual humor, my favorite being the volcano that looms above the patio of the villa they've inherited and are attempting to sell. A little while back, they're told, it erupted, and it's been quiet since, but recently it's been heating up again. Immediately after this is a scene of them lounging on the patio, half-asleep, in separate chairs, mumbling angrily at one another, and Rossellini frames the volcano directly above them:  Later, Bergman goes by herself to a museum to look at statues from antiquity. The sequence itself is the first passage of spellbinding emotion - we're made to feel her epiphany at the weight of history, of the frightening rush of time and events that have preceded us and will carry on long after we're gone and makes our trivialities seem almost painfully petty. She is by herself, discovering the depths of life, and it's a moving moment, and at the end of it they come to a large statue of an extremely buff naked man:  The tour guide says his spiel about it and turns to move to the next statue, but she lingers for a moment and says, in awe, "Oh...it's wonderful!" What makes the film a masterpiece, at least to me, is the way all these elements blend so seamlessly together. There's the bitter, startling feuding between them, there's the sly condemnation of their upper class aloofness, there's the observational humor, and there's the profound, eerie meditation on faith and feeling and our cosmic connection to time and space. It moves so beautifully between all these pieces, and uses them to build empathy. In their own ways, the two characters come to realize the scale of the world, and Rossellini keeps us with them through every step of their epiphany. The title is "Journey to Italy", but it really should be "in". They don't go anywhere until they're there, and then they go about as far as two people can. 10/10 shamezone 1) L'Eclisse - discontent movie 2) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - movie movie 3) Come And See - oh god 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) Andrei Rublev - religion movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Shoplifters - recent good movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Vagabond - Varda movie [full list] Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10, Victim 6/10, Man Bites Dog 9/10, Night and Fog 10/10, Weekend 8/10, Jubilee 10/10, Sans Soleil 10/10, Candidate 8/10, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 10/10, The Freshman 5/10, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers 10/10, Branded to Kill 8/10, In Heaven There Is No Beer? 10/10, Blood Simple 10/10, The Marriage of Maria Braun 7/10, A Day In The Country 7/10, A Brief History of Time 10/10, Gates of Heaven 10/10, The Thin Blue Line 10/10, The Fog of War 10/10, My Beautiful Laundrette 10/10, Blind Chance 8/10, My Winnipeg 10/10, The River 7/10, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10 (total: 162) Zogo gets Clueless Magic Hate Ball fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Mar 30, 2020 |
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Mar 28, 2020 04:38
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Those are two good and long reviews. No, I haven't received Clueless yet.
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Apr 2, 2020 05:26
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Magic Hate Ball posted:6) Andrei Rublev - religion movie "In much wisdom there is much grief. And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." Clueless - Alicia Silverstone plays a girl who's filled with bubbleheaded ideations while also dead set on being a matchmaker to improve her grades. I remember her being a huge star in the 1990s but I think younger people might not think her a household name at this point. Characters spend most of the time mired in relationship confusion, working through teenage rites of passage, navigating cliques and showing off their pagers and cellphones like status symbols. I found the narration to be overbearing at times and the film is filled with lots of affected acting. I was reminded of films like Valley Girl (1983), Reality Bites (1994) and Kicking and Screaming (1995). Many younger actors got their break on this film. PS "It's the bomb!" I hadn't heard that phrase in a long time.  Brittany Murphy.Pretty good track that played during the film credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWl-HSnwLWs Also watched: The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires - It was an interesting mixture indeed. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is in China doing lectures but he's derided by students who deny the existence of vampires. The golden vampires are kind of like the Nazgul from The Lord of the Rings trilogy except they don't have an interest in any rings. Their main fixation is on chasing after screaming women and ripping their clothes off. They also command an army of undead footsoldiers that arise from the ground at times just like the zombies from many, many films. Zombie (1979) comes to mind. There are familiar tropes such as the link with bats but these vampires are in China so they reside in pagodas and fear Buddha statues rather than crucifers. Anyway, Van Helsing and his son recruit a family that does believe in the vampires. They're well-versed in bows, axes, swords, maces, spears etc. and kill three vampires without too much trouble but the final three vampires prove to be more formidable and exact a heavy toll. The Wild Angels - In some respects it's like a forerunner of Easy Rider (1969) although not as philosophical. It even starts similarly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6M1fozMZ0E&t=91s but these guys are Hells Angels with iron crosses and swastikas. The cast spends most of the runtime scaring people, getting into fights with police and wrecking a church while raging at a preacher. Anyway, one member (Bruce Dern) is shot by the police and taken to a hospital. The group gets the bad idea to break him out and that's when the story line turns even darker. It's interesting in that the dichotomies in this film are different from year 2020. I think many would identify with a group of people going around destroying churches, fighting the police and just, in general, being against THE MAN. But then suddenly being revolted by their racism and Nazi paraphernalia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnGzl-OEyGE James Bond versus Godzilla (37/64 completed): Hesitation (25 completed): #25 The Sentinel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlNDQKwsg 2/18/20 #27 Journey to Italy AKA Voyage in Italy - A film with two titles. I can finally know which title fits better. Also, the highest ranked TSPDT film I haven't seen. 2/27/20 #28 The Woman in Red - Reminded from many different sources to watch this one. 3/26/20 new #29 Defending Your Life - It's been on some lists and sounds interesting. 4/7/20 new #30 Johnny Mnemonic - A precursor to The Matrix. 4/7/20 new #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (90/100 completed): #75 Lady of the Day AKA Belle de Jour - Luis Bunuel once again. 12/7/19 #80 The Young and the Damned - There are still many Luis Bunuel films I mean to see. 7/28/19 #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19
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Apr 7, 2020 23:34
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Zogo posted:new #30 Johnny Mnemonic - A precursor to The Matrix. 4/7/20 Tokyo Story  I knew very little about Tokyo Story, aside from it's phenomenal reputation as one of the masterpieces of classical cinema. After watching it last night, I can do little but agree. This is an exceptional movie. It is tremendously sad, and I often found myself quite angry, and that is a testament to the story Yasujiro Ozu has told here, which is incredibly simple: two grandparents visit their children in the big city, and are disappointed. On this simple skeleton, Ozu has hung his ruminations on the role of modernization and ambition in destroying the modern family, on generational disconnect, on the limitations of a stoic life. I was profoundly moved by this movie, though I'm not sure I would say I enjoyed it. As I said, I was mostly sad and angry watching the direspect and disregard of the children toward their parents. Even when Noriko or Kyoko, two women with truly kind hearts, were on screen, I was angry at the others for taking advantage of their kindness. The movie is very still and slow moving, which is part of its charm, but also means it is... slow. I found myself thinking often of Ikiru, a film with some similar themes, though in a much more entertaining package and with a much more hopeful ending. I think I prefer Ikiru. It's been a minute since I've been here (over a year!), so I've watched a few other things... This is just in the last couple weeks. Also Watched: Seventh Seal: Definitely dated, but still powerful ruminations on the meaning of life. More revealing of Bergman's beliefs than of any truth in the universe, in my estimation. Knives Out: Rian Johnson is really, really good at making movies. Enemy: This movie is messed up. An interesting mindbender with some thematic depth. Watching more Villeneuve--which leads to Prisoners: This movie is also messed up. Much less trippy than Enemy, some elevated genre fare from Villeneuve. He's also really good at making movies. THE WATCH LIST Days of Heaven (1978): Seeing as Tree of Life is one of my favorite films, and I've seen none of his other movies, I should probably get started. This seems a good a place as any. A Brighter Summer Day (1991): Got this for Christmas, heard great things about it. It is also 4 hours long. Bloodsport (1988): My list is too serious. Needs more punching. Le Samouraï (1967): The origin of cool. Or so I hear. The Red Circle and Army of Shadows are also on my list, so I guess I need to move on some Melville. Zodiac (2007): One of my buddies swears by this as one of the best movies of the last 20 years. Do The Right Thing (1989): I guess it's time for me to... Do the right thing? And watch this movie? A Serious Man (2009): I'm a Coen brothers fan, and Chili tells me I need to watch it so we can discuss it. So here it is. Perfect Blue (1997): Loved, loved, loved Paprika, and I need to expand my animation repertoire, especially outside of the realm of Ghibli. Boogie Nights (1997): I've seen 3 of PTA's films, and with Phantom Thread coming out, seems like the right time to include this here. The 400 Blows (1959): I've never seen any Truffaut. I hear this brought up a lot, and it's another one that doesn't excite me on its face, so it lies with one of you to push me forward. The Watched List: Paths of Glory; The Apartment; Solaris; A Touch of Zen; Apocalypse Now; The Iron Giant; Psycho; Cape Fear; Kill Bill: Vol. 1; My Neighbor Totoro; The Outlaw Josey Wales; Before Sunset; The Graduate; A Few Good Men; Out of Sight; The Birds; Ikiru; Umbrellas of Cherbourg; Schindler's List; Tokyo Story (20 total) [/quote] BeefSupreme fucked around with this message at 19:52 on May 18, 2020 |
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Apr 11, 2020 04:42
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BeefSupreme posted:Zodiac (2007): One of my buddies swears by this as one of the best movies of the last 20 years. "Somebody else is here." Johnny Mnemonic - Keanu Reeves plays a character who must transport 320 GB of data that's trapped in his head across the planet. Most of the film revolves around the villains and shaky alliances trying to break into his head to extract the data in a variety of ways. This is set in 2021 and feels prescient what with protestors wearing N95 masks and people making video calls. But then there's an inundation of CRT TVs and VCRs. Trying to predict the future is impossible. Its CGI reminded me of Hackers (1995) which makes sense since this one was released slightly earlier in the year. It was kind of interesting at times but I think most would prefer Strange Days (1995) over this one. James Bond versus Godzilla (37/64 completed): Hesitation (26 completed): #25 The Sentinel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlNDQKwsg 2/18/20 #27 Journey to Italy AKA Voyage in Italy - A film with two titles. I can finally know which title fits better. Also, the highest ranked TSPDT film I haven't seen. 2/27/20 #28 The Woman in Red - Reminded from many different sources to watch this one. 3/26/20 #29 Defending Your Life - It's been on some lists and sounds interesting. 4/7/20 #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 new #32 The Keep - An early Michael Mann film I've been meaning to watch. 4/19/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (90/100 completed): #75 Lady of the Day AKA Belle de Jour - Luis Bunuel once again. 12/7/19 #80 The Young and the Damned - There are still many Luis Bunuel films I mean to see. 7/28/19 #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19
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Apr 20, 2020 05:43
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L'Eclisse Time has no meaning in quarantine, which is my way of apologizing for waiting a length of weeks that I can't really pinpoint to write this review. As such, my memories of it are kind of hazy. It's not my favorite of the three, and though in some ways it's the boldest, it also feels like the one that's closest to being a parody of these kinds of films. It's also unfortunate in coming after L'Avventura, which is so unique, monumental, and concrete. Even Vitti is overshadowed by her previous role. On the other hand, there are a number of terrific sequences, and Antonioni seems to have a good time delving into his expressionistic side, capturing vivid sensory elements of the Roman summer - trees rustling, high clouds, inky velvety nights. A couple sequences stand out to me. One is the opening, in which Vitti and her boyfriend circle their eclectic-modern house after a long, horrible, drawn-out break up that has lasted all night long. There was one particularly genius moment that made me sit bolt upright - Vitti's boyfriend, defeated, slumps in a chair, staring out into space. The camera moves foreward, hovering behind Vitti's head, looking over her hair and showing us what she sees. She moves in front of him, looking down at him, and he seems to be staring right into her eyes, but as she moves past, his eyes don't follow her, and she moves back out of his line of vision. It's exactly the kind of suggestive, downbeat visual gag that Antonioni is best at. Another great sequence comes after an enormous stock-market crash. Vitti witnesses one businessman lose a tremendous, absurd amount of money. Presumably curious to see what kind of effect this kind of loss has on a person, she follows him through the streets, pursuing him in hopes of an answer. Finally, at a cafe, she sees him scribbling on a piece of paper. After he leaves, she moves in, and discovers that the businessman was doodling simplistic flower blossoms. Millions of dollars lost in a single day, and it means nothing to him. It's a powerful little critique, clear-cut but unexpected. Finally, she goes with a friend to the apartment of a neighbor. The neighbor's house is done up with prints and pieces from Africa, and she talks about the farm she and her husband own in Kenya. Vitti dresses up in blackface and dances a charicature of an African, with neck rings, jumping around with a spear, and it's all fun and games until, at some point, the neighbor seems to feel something different, and she asks them to stop, staring at them with sudden anger. What is she feeling? Antonioni doesn't tell us outright, but leaves us with all the pieces to come to a conclusion that could seem abrupt, but instead is loaded with meaning. 7/10 Andrei Rublev Oh, my god. 11/10 Vagabond For some reason I thought I'd seen more Varda films, but this is only my second feature-length (the other being Cleo, in this thread, plus two shorts). Cleo made such a gigantic impact on me when I first saw it that it totally altered how I approach and appreciate films, and Vagabond is in a similar, if much more dour vein. In some ways it feels like a precursor to Mike Leigh's Naked, which is similarly essayistic and creates a tense ambivalence between a vicious world and a person bitterly rejecting it, but Varda is almost aggressive in how often she refuses to allow either side to dominate. The villain, ultimately, is systemic - repeatedly, Mona, the vagabond of the title (primarily) has her refusal to display a purpose challenged by people desperate to use purpose to carve out their understanding of life. Mona, like all of us, did not ask to be put here, and it's not really fair that we should expect someone to do something just because they're alive. On the other hand, Vagabond harshly illustrates the difficulty of not being, and it also gives hints to a deeper dissatisfaction that drives her away from people. Varda never lets us fully into her head, but it's hard not to get the sense that, at times, Mona wants disappointment, because disappointment is concrete. If someone, or something, disappoints you, it's proof that it was wrong for you, and that puts you, to some degree, in the right. On the other hand, we're forced to ponder what kind of life would suit her, and how the current system is hostile to whatever that would be. If you don't produce, you don't deserve to exist - she might be killed by chance, but in a way it almost feels like larger social forces have simply come together to smudge her out of existence. A brief aside: once, when I was a kid, the family of one of my friends took in a homeless person. They let him live in their backyard, and in my memory, they seemed to be proud of themselves for doing so. Whether they were or not, or if the narrative just works nicer in my head like that, is impossible for me to tell. My friend and I weren't older than ten or eleven, so who knows? Later, the homeless man burned down his tent, causing irreparable damage to my friend's prized telescope, which he had received the previous Christmas. This quickly became a joke at school and in the social circles around it, among the parents and teachers, that they had taken in a homeless guy and he'd burned up their backyard. That's what kindness gets you, was what we all thought. Kindness gets a number of people in the same way in Vagabond, but is it a joke? Varda frustrates the audience by depicting Mona in such a wavering light, but we feel painful empathy as well. It's painful that we're given life, and then expected to give back. Perhaps Mona wanted to die, but that's painful, too. What's a "good" death? How will you die? Heart attack, vomiting and choking in your bed at night? In a nursing home, incontinent and forgotten, unable to reach the button that summons the nurses? You want to go out like you came in, unknowing, and I suppose that's a fate reserved mostly for those who can afford to live a life long enough. Mona, I suppose, at least goes early. In that sense, she chose. It's not a happy film, but it's a complex, intense, and unforgiving approach to a set of questions that is difficult to approach when not in the context of a film's guided meditation. 9/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - movie movie 3) Come And See - oh god 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) The Last Picture Show - american movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Shoplifters - recent good movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Mr Smith Goes To Washington - iconic movie [full list] Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10, Victim 6/10, Man Bites Dog 9/10, Night and Fog 10/10, Weekend 8/10, Jubilee 10/10, Sans Soleil 10/10, Candidate 8/10, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 10/10, The Freshman 5/10, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers 10/10, Branded to Kill 8/10, In Heaven There Is No Beer? 10/10, Blood Simple 10/10, The Marriage of Maria Braun 7/10, A Day In The Country 7/10, A Brief History of Time 10/10, Gates of Heaven 10/10, The Thin Blue Line 10/10, The Fog of War 10/10, My Beautiful Laundrette 10/10, Blind Chance 8/10, My Winnipeg 10/10, The River 7/10, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10 (total: 165) Zogo gets Journey to Italy
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May 12, 2020 02:59
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First time in the thread! My List of Shame Ran Not sure how I missed it. I've seen the obvious Kurosawa (Seven Samurai and Yojimbo) but not this one Moonlight By all accounts amazing and I love Mahershala Ali Boyhood I watched the Before trilogy last year and they were really really good Persona It was either this or Seventh Seal as my first Bergman Tokyo Story This pops up on every list of greatest movies I see and I want to watch more foreign films that aren't "genre" In the Mood For Love The Linoleum Knife dudes bring thing up all the time Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080. Bruxelles It sounds super interesting and unique There Will Be Blood You know those movies that you've heard are really good but just can't get excited about for some reason? M I remember a friend recommending this years ago and have intended to watch it since Nashville Another "pops up on a lot of lists" film, plus I've been developing an interest in country music And for Magic Hate Ball I pick The Cabinet of Dr Caligari because it whips rear end
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May 12, 2020 07:12
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Welcome Bullbar  For your first, hope you enjoy There will be Blood An American in Paris There's a lot I appreciate about this movie. The production values, the dance choreography, "I got my girl" is a classic tune. The end dance number was a great spectacle. Unfortunately I found it a chore to sit through. I've tried my best with the 1950s American musical, and it's just not my thing, I find them twee and boring. I also saw Der Golem for the April horror challenge thread, so I'll c/p what I wrote there here There were three Golem movies made between 1915 and 1920 and this is the only one that survived. It's actually a prequel to the 1915 film and tells of how the Golem was created. It's sad how many films of the era were lost, possibly forever. The second one was apparently a comedy spoof of the first. The creature has a distinctive look. I love the off-kilter style of German Expressionism films. It was interesting to watch a German film made in the inter-war period that was so sympathetic to the Jews. Wikipdedia says the director went on to do Nazi propaganda while secretly funding resistance groups, but there's no citation for that so who knows. My List: 1) (highest ranked imdb) 1917 2) (comedy) Any Luarel and Hardy feature film Not seen one before 3) (animation) Waltz with Bashir it's highly regarded 4) (Academy Award winner) Dances with Wolves 5) (foreign language) Sholay One of the biggest ever Indian movies 6) (Western or Musical) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 7) (Horror) I Spit on your Grave (1978) Infamous 8) (sci fi/fantasy) Alphaville sounds intriguing 9) (epic) The Last Emperor 10) (wildcard) Quardophenia mods vs rockers Watched (91): Taxi Driver; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Iron Giant; Platoon; American History X; City Lights; My Neighbour Totoro; Rashomon; Duck Soup; Friday 13th (1980); Birdman; Frankenstein (1931); Time Bandits; Carrie (1976); King Kong (1933); Das Boot; The Blair Witch Project (1999); The Sting; Annie Hall; The Bridge on the River Kwai; The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; Godzilla (1954); Bicycle Thieves; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974); The English Patient; Scanners; Forbidden Planet; Deliverance; The Creature from the Black Lagoon; Life is Beautiful; Minority Report; Rosemary's Baby; On the Waterfront; Solaris (1972); Driving Miss Daisy; Eraserhead; M (1931); This is Spinal Tap; Death Race 2000; The Producers (1967); Martin; Easy Rider; Office Space; Ghost in the Shell (1995); The Kid; Freaks (1932); The Abyss; Ben Hur (1959); Poltergeist (1982); Escape from New York; Once Upon a Time in America; Phantasm; Dracula (1958); Videodrome; Slumdog Millionaire; The Blob (1958); The Blob (1988); My Fair Lady; Avengers: Infinity War; Cinema Paradiso; 8 1/2; The Lord of the Rings (1978); Logan's Run; Willow; Misery; Bringing up Baby; Aguirre, The Wrath of God; The Man Who Fell to Earth; Candyman; The Dark Crystal; Tron; Andhadhun; Avengers: Endgame; The Lives of Others; Critters; Harakiri (1962); Blood and Black Lace; Grave of the Fireflies; The Seven Year Itch; Wings; Modern Times; The Searchers; Coraline; Cabaret; Tokyo Story; Joker; Dr Zhivago; Once Upon a Time in the West; The Hidden Fortress; An American in Paris; Der Golem
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May 12, 2020 15:19
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bitterandtwisted you should watch Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid which I haven't watched in years but remember super fondly I couldn't sleep after night shifts so I woke up at 4am and watched There Will Be Blood which was a heck of an experience. Brooding and ominous and pivoting around two super magnetic performances. It felt like watching a natural disaster unfold, in the best way possible. Definitely felt like I should've watched it before now. My List is now Ran Moonlight Boyhood Persona Tokyo Story In the Mood For Love Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles The Wages of Fear: I've seen Sorcerer (which I loved), but not the original M Nashville
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May 12, 2020 21:38
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Bullbar posted:In the Mood For Love "In the old days, if someone had a secret they didn't want to share...you know what they did?" Magic Hate Ball posted:Finally, at a cafe, she sees him scribbling on a piece of paper. After he leaves, she moves in, and discovers that the businessman was doodling simplistic flower blossoms. Millions of dollars lost in a single day, and it means nothing to him. It's a powerful little critique, clear-cut but unexpected. When I saw that I remember thinking that he'd lost his mind. Journey to Italy - Uncle Homer is dead and things will never be the same. A couple arrive in Italy to sell his villa and tie up loose ends. During a long car ride it's easy to observe that they're trapped in a dull marriage that's on the outs. It's an immersive Italian experience with plenty of sightseeing at unique locales. From the museums with giant sculptures to the catacombs with hundreds of skulls stacked up and surrounded by votive candles. What stood out in the bickering and brooding between the couple (Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders) was their restraint. Rather than having screaming matches they were more apt to mutter barbs under their breath. Not all fights are over-the-top e.g. like those found in Marriage Story (2019). It's more of that Italian dissatisfaction mired in postwar malaise but since this was released in 1954 it definitely feels ahead of its time. Also watched: Lady of the Day - Catherine Deneuve plays a curious woman who's nervously and hesitantly thrust into the world of prostitution. She has to contend with gruff, womanizing businessmen and deranged doctors who chase her around a brothel. Most of them are demanding clients that are working through their strange sexual taboos etc. This film feels like a continuation of Viridiana (1961) in that Bunuel was more free to explicitly explore some of the same sexual topics. The characters are rich and unique. Some films are filled with a bunch of stale characters but I would not have minded seeing any of the ones here venture off into other places and be given more screen time. It's chock-full of them. There are also a handful of scenes that blur the lines between dreams and reality. These moments reminded me of Weekend (1967). Even though I saw one twist coming it still had a few other surprises near the end. The Woman in Red - This one overlaps a lot with The Seven Year Itch (1955) although the motivations of Theodore Pierce (Gene Wilder) are more perplexing. It's for the 1980s generation so it's sexed-up and amped-up much more like many neo-noir films of the era. I was also reminded me of Blame It on Rio (1984) in that it also kind of subverts 9 to 5 (1980). Anyway, Theodore spends most of the runtime gawking at Charlotte (Kelly LeBrock) and trying to induce an affair. He's acting like a confused fool and displaying insane levels of desperation. He also spends a decent amount of time with his buddies who are all trapped in their own nightmarish tapestries i.e. their own cynical marriages and relationships. The ending debacle involving the familiar man on a ledge scenario was kind of funny but in the end it all felt like a big tease. James Bond versus Godzilla (37/64 completed): new GoldenEye - I've played the video game. Looks like I've finally made it to both Bond and Godzilla films released in the 1990s. 5/14/20 Hesitation (28 completed): #25 The Sentinel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlNDQKwsg 2/18/20 #29 Defending Your Life - It's been on some lists and sounds interesting. 4/7/20 #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #32 The Keep - An early Michael Mann film I've been meaning to watch. 4/19/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (92/100 completed): #80 The Young and the Damned - There are still many Luis Bunuel films I mean to see. 7/28/19 #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (86/100 completed): new Bigger Than Life - I haven't seen a Nicholas Ray film lately. 5/14/20 new Deep Red - I'm assuming there will be knives and blood and murder in this. 5/14/20 Zogo fucked around with this message at 06:33 on May 14, 2020 |
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May 14, 2020 06:19
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The Cabinet of Dr Caligari I was worried that I would enjoy this primarily for the design elements, which (along with the artistic movement that spawned them) have had massive direct influence on so many of my favorite artists, directors, and films that it's impossible to list them all, but that was far from the case. This is a joyful, inventive, and energetic fairy-tale film, and the aspect that feels most surprising to me isn't the expressionistic stylings, but how all the elements come together to produce a completely synthesized piece of art. The only element missing, at least for me, is probably the soundtrack - the version included with the copy on the Criterion Channel is cute, but doesn't rise to the overall intensity of the visuals and narrative. Some quick observations, so I don't spend longer writing this than I did watching it: Apparently the writers had the twist ending forced on them, and it was commented when it was released that the twist ending "belittles" the expressionistic nature, which is an interesting way of putting it. Expressionism, to my preference, should build as few bridges between itself and the viewer as possible. An expressionist work should exist entirely on its own terms, and it's up to you to enter its world and language. When its own internal logic is fully supported, the viewer gets to engage with it like an anthropologist, finding the clues to make it emotionally comprehensible - how is what is being presented have an impact on what it's communicating? Is what it's communicating accessible? Caligari's ending betrays this with a pat explanation of the inaccessibility and the wrongness, meaning that we're jolted out of everything the film was doing before this. It's like if Edvard Munch had explained that The Scream was just a mime as seen through stained glass. On the other hand, the twist ending fits with the campfire-horror narrative (car door hook hand). It's narratively artificial, which makes it more of a crowd-pleaser than if it had ending akin to Dreyer's later Vampyr, where the success of good over evil never leaves the suffocating confines of the film's style. In Vampyr, they escape into an unsettlingly beautiful glen that's as nervous in its happiness as it was in its dour nightmare state earlier, which means the audience never gets a chance to wake up from the dream. Here, though the sets don't change, the tone does. All is solved! Our understanding was never in danger, after all. I can easily see this becoming a Halloween staple. It's short, fun, and I look forward to trying it out with alternative soundtracks. 9/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) Escape from New York - carpenter movie 3) Come And See - oh god 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) The Last Picture Show - american movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Shoplifters - recent good movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Mr Smith Goes To Washington - iconic movie [full list] Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10, Victim 6/10, Man Bites Dog 9/10, Night and Fog 10/10, Weekend 8/10, Jubilee 10/10, Sans Soleil 10/10, Candidate 8/10, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 10/10, The Freshman 5/10, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers 10/10, Branded to Kill 8/10, In Heaven There Is No Beer? 10/10, Blood Simple 10/10, The Marriage of Maria Braun 7/10, A Day In The Country 7/10, A Brief History of Time 10/10, Gates of Heaven 10/10, The Thin Blue Line 10/10, The Fog of War 10/10, My Beautiful Laundrette 10/10, Blind Chance 8/10, My Winnipeg 10/10, The River 7/10, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9/10 (total: 166) Zogo gets (speaking of expressionism) Bigger than Life
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May 16, 2020 21:09
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It's been a good week for me to watch movies, and so I just finished In The Mood For Love. What an incredibly gorgeous film, every frame filled with repressed longing and beautiful imagery. Both leads are beautiful and magnetic and charming and sad. I really loved everything about it. Any other movie and I feel like people would have written endless texts about the meanings of the delicate little curlicues of plot and happenstance (and y'know, I'm sure people have) but something about the tone and elegance of this seems to defy that. I'll definitely be watching this again sometime. I'm always worried that my attention span, which has mostly been fed on a diet of superhero movies and other such pablum, won't hold up to something that's a bit 'slower' or less immediately grabby and I've been very pleased to find that's not the case. On a vaguely related note I watched My Dinner With Andre this week and adored it. In The Mood For Love: 10/10 So, my list now: Ran Moonlight Boyhood Persona Tokyo Story The Killing of a Sacred Deer: I've seen The Lobster and have intended to dig into more Yorgos Lanthimos. I'm also down to watch The Favourite or Dogtooth or Alps if those are better choices. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles The Wages of Fear M Nashville And Magic Hate Ball you can watch Shoplifters which I really want to see, and have a dvd of that's from the wrong region.
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May 17, 2020 15:51
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Shoplifters Why do we watch sad movies? In Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog, she wonders over the instruction from her Buddhist instructor to try to learn how to feel sad without being sad, and in that film, as in many others, we are guided safely through melancholy. Watching a sad film doesn't make you sad, but it makes you feel sad, and you can hold that sadness at a distance, in your palm, and turn it over. A good film is like a form of guided meditation, taking you on an introspective journey, assisting you in the creation of a complete thought. The epiphany is not entirely yours, but once you've had it, you can't un-have it. The feelings you have are yours, even if they are generated in the safe zone of media - you have chosen to go here, and have trusted that your guide will get you out, and usually they do. I was concerned going into this film, because I don't typically enjoy films about poverty and/or impoverished children. That's not to say I don't enjoy or am sympathetic to either subject, but it's so easy to make a bad film about them. A bad film about impoverished children feels like being emotionally harassed by the Little Rascals: arbitrary and annoying. It's one of the first rules of street photography that don't take pictures of homeless people, because you're just exploiting them to get a cheap reaction from whoever you show your pictures to. It's also just that I've been poor, so unless a movie really has a point of view about it, it's hard for me to engage, because it's too easy to tell when a movie doesn't really know or care. My primary impression of Shoplifters is that it's so deeply felt. It has a very simple structure, in that each scene is typically just a few minutes long, and most of the scenes seemed to be similar in length, with a similar arc, which in a bad film could be plodding but here feels almost rhythmic. It's assisted by the terrific actors and their characters, all of whom feel so lived-in that after their introductory scenes it feels like we've known them for ages, which means that as the characters are mixed-and-matched from scene to scene, we get to learn a great deal about them, and get to be very close to them. There's also some very good, understated music, and cinematography that does a terrific job of capturing the feel of the locations and the seasons. In one scene, two characters are sitting at their table, eating cold noodles on a swelteringly hot day. There's a slight bloom to everything, as if the camera itself is fogging up, and then the room darkens as clouds roll overhead, turning greenish-blue, and that shift is so easy to feel, as a viewer, in a tactile way. When, finally, the sad part arrives, it's balanced against the deep well of love and experience that the film has established. All the moments of humor, the tenderness, the organic chemistry that's been built up are leveraged into one painful catastrophe. "It was worth it", one character says (or says something like that), and I agree. If the price, as a viewer, for the magic of the first ninety minutes is heartbreak, it's worth it. The ending isn't desolate, even if it is an aggressive indictment of social measures. I guess you could say that the only thing this film shoplifted was my heart. eyyyyy 10/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) Escape from New York - carpenter movie 3) Come And See - oh god 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) The Last Picture Show - american movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Grizzly Man - bear movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Mr Smith Goes To Washington - iconic movie [full list] Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10, Victim 6/10, Man Bites Dog 9/10, Night and Fog 10/10, Weekend 8/10, Jubilee 10/10, Sans Soleil 10/10, Candidate 8/10, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 10/10, The Freshman 5/10, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers 10/10, Branded to Kill 8/10, In Heaven There Is No Beer? 10/10, Blood Simple 10/10, The Marriage of Maria Braun 7/10, A Day In The Country 7/10, A Brief History of Time 10/10, Gates of Heaven 10/10, The Thin Blue Line 10/10, The Fog of War 10/10, My Beautiful Laundrette 10/10, Blind Chance 8/10, My Winnipeg 10/10, The River 7/10, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9/10, Shoplifters 10/10 (total: 167) Bullbar gets Nashville
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May 18, 2020 16:58
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Magic Hate Ball posted:2) Escape from New York - carpenter movie Zodiac  Thank you, Zogo, for making me watch this. I've had this on my list for a long time, but through some combination of middling interest in true crime and a near 3-hour runtime has kept me from it. Foolish. David Fincher is a goddamned master. (I also recently watched Gone Girl, and good Lord this dude can make movies.) Perhaps the most important thing about this movie is that, despite it being based on (and hewing quite close to the facts, apparently) real crimes and investigations, it does not sensationalize them for the screen. In fact, it mostly avoids turning the Zodiac's crimes into setpieces, and certainly avoids any attempt at a satisfying conclusion to the case. This film is much more interested in what these murders did to the people and the city of San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area. Our primary perspective is that of Robert Graysmith (real life author the true crime book about these crimes and from which comes the title of the film), though we also see through the eyes of Detectives Dave Toschi and Bill Armstrong, the lead investigators on the case, and Paul Avery, the San Francisco Chronicle reporter covering the case. Our perspective shifts over time, though, mirroring the real world shifts in the public interest in the case, and by the end we are left with Robert Graysmith--the only one left pursuing the case. This is a stunningly atmospheric movie, recreating, more than anything, the dread that Bay Area residents felt at the time of the Zodiac murders. (I grew up in the Bay Area in the 90's, but I had no real knowledge of the case until watching the film; my parents, however, certainly remember the case, as they were in high school and college at the time.) There are many chilling scenes in this movie, and Fincher lets tension dictate the details. We have seen Robert Graysmith put his kid on the bus before, and seen him drive his son to school because they were late. After the Zodiac sends a letter with a threat to attack a school bus (which is not revealed to the public), the next scene features Graysmith at the bus stop, waiting with his son; he then changes his mind and pulls his son off the bus and drives him to school. It's a simple scene, but having seen Graysmith taking his kid to school before, combined with our knowledge of the threat, make the scene incredibly tense. There is also the basement scene, which I won't spoil. It's intense as hell. The movie offers no satisfying conclusions, because there are none to be had in the real world. I won't spoil anything about the case (easily googled, if you like) or the ending of the movie. I will say, though, that the public's desire for closure is an important theme in the movie, and is reflected in the decisions of characters and the public, and even in the movies that were released at the time (Dirty Harry, in particular, which we see Dave Toschi attend at one point; the character of Dirty Harry was inspired by Toschi, and that movie offers a satisfying conclusion to the hunt for the movie's Scorpio killer, a fact Zodiac points out for us). The movie's final scene offers the only kind of closure available to us: a detective asks a witness about his certainty on a scale of one to ten, and he responds, "at least an 8". This movie, though, 10/10. Very freaking good. THE WATCH LIST Days of Heaven (1978): Seeing as Tree of Life is one of my favorite films, and I've seen none of his other movies, I should probably get started. This seems a good a place as any. A Brighter Summer Day (1991): Got this for Christmas, heard great things about it. It is also 4 hours long. Bloodsport (1988): My list is too serious. Needs more punching. Le Samouraï (1967): The origin of cool. Or so I hear. The Red Circle and Army of Shadows are also on my list, so I guess I need to move on some Melville. Memories of Murder (2003): From one true crime thriller to another, this one by Bong Joon-Ho, recent Oscar winner. Do The Right Thing (1989): I guess it's time for me to... Do the right thing? And watch this movie? A Serious Man (2009): I'm a Coen brothers fan, and Chili tells me I need to watch it so we can discuss it. So here it is. Perfect Blue (1997): Loved, loved, loved Paprika, and I need to expand my animation repertoire, especially outside of the realm of Ghibli. Boogie Nights (1997): I've seen 3 of PTA's films, and with Phantom Thread coming out, seems like the right time to include this here. The 400 Blows (1959): I've never seen any Truffaut. I hear this brought up a lot, and it's another one that doesn't excite me on its face, so it lies with one of you to push me forward. The Watched List: Paths of Glory; The Apartment; Solaris; A Touch of Zen; Apocalypse Now; The Iron Giant; Psycho; Cape Fear; Kill Bill: Vol. 1; My Neighbor Totoro; The Outlaw Josey Wales; Before Sunset; The Graduate; A Few Good Men; Out of Sight; The Birds; Ikiru; Umbrellas of Cherbourg; Schindler's List; Tokyo Story; Zodiac (21 total)
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May 18, 2020 20:31
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Escape from New York Snake! SNAAAAAAKE! This might be one of the best examples of an all-out fun film I've seen in a while, and I think it comes down to three elements: inventiveness, style, and pacing. For inventiveness, it's a silly, sometimes campy film, but it devotes itself with such energy to all elements of its own pulpy, sleazy sci-fi premise that the creative force becomes its own overriding joy. It's unafraid to be weird and occasionally brutal (the woman in the restaurant towards the beginning, who feels like she's being set up as the primary cohort, before being dragged screaming into a hole by cannibals was a wonderful surprise), and it's so consistent in being creative that I never felt like I was being let down. For style, there's the requisite Carpenter score, which I've been listening to since watching this, but it's also a great demonstration of his overall look. The abandoned New York is gorgeously and fully realized, and there are some terrific matte and model shots, including faux-nightvision/radar screens showing what the helicopters above see. They clearly just put glow tape on the edges of all the buildings on their New York model set and then turned on the black light, but it looks good. I think part of that is just that the creative energy behind this movie feels so good-natured and genuine. I've talked about this before (I think), but when a movie doesn't look real, but it feels real, that's movie magic. When we as an audience are allowed to interpret the visuals and join in the game of pretend, the film expands into our own imaginations. Finally, for pacing, it's outlandishly captivating and to-the-point. I can't think of a single moment that drags or feels out of place - it's funny when it needs to be funny, menacing when it needs to be menacing, and thrilling when it needs to be thrilling. It's packed with beats and it lands every single one of them. When the film began to wrap up towards the climax, I was shocked, because I was sure we were only halfway through, and that's not because the stakes were low or it felt like the middle of the movie, but because I couldn't believe ninety minutes had already passed. Kurt Russel was hotter in The Thing, but that's neither here nor there. saaake 10/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) Die Hard - building movie 3) Come And See - oh god 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) The Last Picture Show - american movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Grizzly Man - bear movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Mr Smith Goes To Washington - iconic movie [full list] Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10, Victim 6/10, Man Bites Dog 9/10, Night and Fog 10/10, Weekend 8/10, Jubilee 10/10, Sans Soleil 10/10, Candidate 8/10, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 10/10, The Freshman 5/10, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers 10/10, Branded to Kill 8/10, In Heaven There Is No Beer? 10/10, Blood Simple 10/10, The Marriage of Maria Braun 7/10, A Day In The Country 7/10, A Brief History of Time 10/10, Gates of Heaven 10/10, The Thin Blue Line 10/10, The Fog of War 10/10, My Beautiful Laundrette 10/10, Blind Chance 8/10, My Winnipeg 10/10, The River 7/10, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9/10, Shoplifters 10/10, Escape From New York 10/10 (total: 168) BeefSupreme gets A Brighter Summer Day
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May 21, 2020 23:41
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Magic Hate Ball posted:
I would never forgive myself if I let picking Die Hard escape me. Enjoy, it earns its reputation. Train to Busan gently caress OFF, with this movie. I’m a new father to a daughter, it’s a pandemic, and I cry fairly easy. This poo poo had me groaning. Nothing feels earned. The characters are nearly all caricatures, the worst example of this is the CEO guy who is just so stupidly needlessly evil that I found myself rooting for him because why the gently caress not. The film is just obscenely heavy-handed and no characters reach a satisfying arc of any kind, to my eye. There’s also the matter of the train(s). It’s drat near impossible to tell where the characters actually are in the first leg of the journey, that gets a little better when they get to the second train with the numbered cars but visually this just starts as a mess. When you make a zombie movie, you gotta go for broke and commit to a direction. Sean of the Dead and Zombieland work, and so do Romero and The Telltale Walking Dead stuff. This film wants it all and barely skates by on accomplishing anything. I found this a frustrating watch. I was nervous to watch this during a pandemic and I was pissed that I put it off till now because I figured it would eviscerate me. But it just annoyed me. Trope after trope after trope and nothing to grip me at all. 4/10 My new ten: 1. The Florida Project - Go ahead, break my heart. 2. You Were Never Really Here - Kevin was a loving knock out that has stuck with me. Very interested in this. 3. Rififi - Heard this was an inspiration for a lot of the films I love. 4. In the Mood for Love - Heard nothing but great things. 5. Mother Bong joon ho's that is. I've seen everything else of his (apart from barking dogs, and that's just never gonna happen) , and have enjoyed everything. 6. Moonlight Missed it in theaters, but I hear it's worth watching. 7. Murder on the Orient Express (1974) - I like me some Agatha Christie. I don't know much about this apart from the obvious. 8. Anatomy of a Murder Another classic that I've missed. 9. *NEW* The Nice Guys *NEW* My list is looking heavy. I've liked Shane Black just fine up until now. 10.Her - I like Spike, and Joaquin is always good. 138 Total De-Shamed! Yojimbo 7.5/10, Aliens 6.5/10, Brazil 8/10, Cool Hand Luke 9.5/10, 28 Days Later 6/10, Predator 8.5/10, Blade Runner 7.5/10,Crimes and Misdemeanors 9/10, Vertigo 7/10, Being There 7.5/10, Psycho 10/10, Apocalypse Now 7.5/10, Citizen Kane 8.5/10, Dr. Strangelove 7/10, Close Encounters of the Third Kind 8.5/10, The Bicycle Thief 7/10, Raging Bull 8/10, Ikiru 10/10, Terminator 2: Judgement Day 7/10, The Night of the Hunter 8.5/10 How to Train Your Dragon 6.5/10, There Will Be Blood 8/10, Manhattan 7/10, Rashomon 8.5/10, Unforgiven 8.5/10 The Third Man 9.5/10, Requiem For A Dream 4/10, Charade 5.5/10, Sunset Blvd. 8/10 , Badlands 6.5/10, Dead Man 8.5/10, On The Waterfront 9/10, Mad Max 6/10, Singin' In The Rain 9.5/10, Sleeper 7.5/10, Enter The Dragon 6.5/10, The Hustler 8/10 , The Town 9/10, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 5.5/10, Boogie Nights 7.5/10, Hanna 8.5/10, The Conversation 7.5/10, Serpico 8/10, Hoop Dreams 9/10, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind 8/10, Blood Simple 7.5/10, Roman Holiday 8.5/10, Miller's Crossing 8/10, M 7.5/10, Moonrise Kingdom 6.5/10, Rope 7/10, Tiny Furniture 1/10, On The Town 5.5/10, Gosford Park 5.5/10, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, 8.5/10, City Lights 8.5/10, The Exorcist 6.5/10, California Split 7/10, Aguirre, The Wrath Of God 8/10, Following 8/10, The General 10/10, Barton Fink 8.5/10, Tombstone 8/10, The Hudsucker Proxy 9/10, Love Actually 6.5, La Dolce Vita 7/10, Chop Shop 9.5/10, Duck Soup 6/10, When Harry Met Sally 8/10, Tokyo Story 7/10, Kelly's Heroes 8/10, The Thing 8.5/10, Lost In Translation 9.5/10, Anchorman 6.5/10, Mulholland Dr. 8.5/10, Rebecca9/10, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans 7/10, Steamboat Bill Jr. 9/10, Double Indemnity 9/10, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum 6.5/10, The Man Who Wasn't There 8.10, Synecdoche, NY 10/10 , Leaving Las Vegas 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 8.5/10, Magnificent Seven 8/10, Dear Zachary -/10, The Fly 9/10, Time Bandits 6/10, Before Sunrise 6.5, The Buddy Holly Story 7/10, Pleasantville 7/10, The Rules of the Game 6/10, Senna 7.5/10, Kiki's Delivery Service 8/10, Gojira 9/10, The Blues Brothers 5/10, Notorious 7/10, Little Shop of Horrors 9/10 , The Last Starfighter 7/10, Rebel Without A Cause 8.5/10, Sherlock Jr. 7.5/10, Intolerable Cruelty, 9/10, The Ladykillers 9/10, Spring Breakers 7.5/10, Touch of Evil 8/10, The Purple Rose of Cairo, 9/10, My Cousin Vinny 7/10, Galaxy Quest 8/10, First Blood, 9/10, Arsenic and Old Lace, 7/10, Mad Max 2, 9/10, The Raid: Redemption, 8/10, Kramer vs. Kramer 9.5/10, Nightcrawler 10/10, Frank 9/10, Strangers On A Train 8/10 , Wild Strawberries 7.5/10, They Came Together 5.5/10, The Squid and the Whale, 10/10, Poolhall Junkies 1/10, Citizenfour 10/10, The 400 Blows 9.5/10, Event Horizon 2/10, Ashes and Diamonds, 8/10 Defending Your Life 9/10, The Informant! 8.5/10 The Lady and the Tramp 8.5/10, Memories of Murder 8.5/10, Ordinary People 8.5/10, Blue Ruin 7/10, F For Fake 9/10, The Best Years of Our Lives 6.5/10, Saturday Night Fever 7/10, We Need to Talk About Kevin, 10/10, Beasts of the Southern Wild, 10/10, 2011: A Space Odyssey ???/10, The Master, 9/10 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 7/10 Certified Copy, 8/10, Ace in the Hole, 9/10, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy 6.5/10, The Grand Budapest Hotel 7/10, Train to Busan 4/10
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May 22, 2020 05:03
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Chili posted:10.Her - I like Spike, and Joaquin is always good. "The past is just a story we tell ourselves." Bigger Than Life - Ed Avery (James Mason) is a workaholic who's diagnosed with a rare condition that can only be treated by taking cortisone pills. The cortisone pills give him vitality and a bold confidence but they also turn him into a maniacal tyrant. The progression mirrors that of things like Jeff Goldblum's character in The Fly (1986) or what's witnessed in things like All That Jazz (1979) and I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982). Ed starts faking prescriptions, fascistically ranting to parents about their kids and withholding food from his son until he becomes a sports/math genius. Also, threatening divorce on a whim, raging at religion and going on designer clothing shopping sprees. It shows how religion coupled with mental illness can quickly make things very dangerous. It also shows where physical and mental pain diverge and how treating them both simultaneously can be tricky. What's interesting is that it takes the idyllic domestic life seen in TV series such as Leave It to Beaver (1957-1963) and Dennis the Menace (1959-1963) and turns it on its head. I'm surprised this was allowed to be released at the time. A manic and domestic nightmare worth seeing. PS here are two similar shots: Bigger Than Life:  American Beauty:  Also watched: GoldenEye - I have a very vivid memory of seeing two guys in a comic book store emphatically arguing about this film shortly after it was released. Probably because it was the first time I saw two adults arguing about a movie. It wasn't anything particularly esoteric...just basic "Sean Connery had more machismo and charisma!" followed by "I thought Pierce Brosnan did okay!" repartee. Anyway, this one features one of the great openings of the series and, of course, the tank chase that everyone talks about. The antagonists are motivated by the standard fare. Revenge and money etc. I suppose Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp (a sexual cannibal that squashes people with her legs) left a lasting impression. Another thing that stuck out was Gottfried John who plays an important Russian Colonel. I suppose it's because Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) left such an indelible mark on me but I had trouble delinking him from Reinhold Hoffmann. Perhaps it's because that film runs nearly sixteen hours and is great. I had the same issue with Clint Eastwood when I was younger because I'd only seen him in westerns. So the idea of Play Misty for Me (1971) was odd at first. PS I also like the continuity of Desmond Llewelyn still appearing as the same character for nearly thirty-five years. James Bond versus Godzilla (38/64 completed): new Tomorrow Never Dies - A true statement. 5/23/20 Hesitation (28 completed): #25 The Sentinel (1977) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlNDQKwsg 2/18/20 #29 Defending Your Life - It's been on some lists and sounds interesting. 4/7/20 #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #32 The Keep - An early Michael Mann film I've been meaning to watch. 4/19/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (92/100 completed): #80 The Young and the Damned - There are still many Luis Bunuel films I mean to see. 7/28/19 #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (87/100 completed): new Black Narcissus - One that's been on the back-burner for years and years. 5/23/20 Deep Red - I'm assuming there will be knives and blood and murder in this. 5/14/20 Zogo fucked around with this message at 05:59 on May 24, 2020 |
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May 24, 2020 05:54
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Die Hard I've been watching a lot of Columbo lately. The gimmick in Columbo is that, in the first act, if not the first reel or even scene, we find out who committed the murder, how they did it, and why. Then Columbo enters and the main storytelling drive is that we, the audience, get to find out how he connects the dots. In bad episodes, Columbo is arbitrarily velcroed to the villain under the guise of intuition, but in good episodes, our knowledge of the perpetrator's motive and identity lets us in on Columbo's thought process. We know that the bad guy is saying this or that because they're nervous or scared or overconfident, and when Columbo picks up on those, or other clues, it's exciting, because the two dots are marked so clearly - the dot of murder and murderer, and the dot of solution and entrapment. We know that Columbo will eventually connect the two dots, because it's Columbo, so the suspense comes not from "what's going to happen" but "how will it happen". Die Hard is basically the same. There's no real question that John McClaine will win, or that he will probably fix things up with his wife. But then the movie starts piling on the obstacles - the villain is shown to be unerringly genius and composed, while McClane is a dumb hothead. How will the tables be turned? How will McClane smarten up and adapt, and what skills will he turn out to have at his disposal? This is part of why I really don't care for the JJ Abrams "mystery box" nonsense - the mystery of "how" is almost always much more interesting than "what". How is he going to get out of this one? The cast is also stacked with great personalities. Everyone has their little moments, right down to the two FBI guys with the same last name, or the terrorist with the Fu Manchu mustache who does the one thing I always wish terrorists would do, which is raid the snack bar. Even the AM/PM clerk is memorable. I think my favorite payoff was with Thornburg, the coke-sniffing coworker - we know, from a previous scene with Tagaki, where his own big scene is likely to head. So, just like Columbo, we get all wound up with joy watching the interplay between the three characters, because we know something they don't, and we get to watch them figure it out. Everything Thornburg does is both funny and agonizing because it's loaded with meaning and the narrative thrust that we're privy to. Also, I forget if it was in an interview or in a movie (maybe The Player?), but at some point there was a joke that, shortly after this came out, every other script floating around Hollywood was "Die Hard in _____". Two examples come to mind, including Air Force One and Speed 2, though I'm particularly sad that Lincoln Child's joyfully stupid Utopia was never adapted for film. I imagine this script is often taught in screenwriting classes, or was at some point, because it's almost perfect. Do I have any criticisms? No! I don't. It's great. 10/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) First Blood - dad movie 3) Come And See - oh god 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) The Last Picture Show - american movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Grizzly Man - bear movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Mr Smith Goes To Washington - iconic movie [full list] Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10, Victim 6/10, Man Bites Dog 9/10, Night and Fog 10/10, Weekend 8/10, Jubilee 10/10, Sans Soleil 10/10, Candidate 8/10, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 10/10, The Freshman 5/10, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers 10/10, Branded to Kill 8/10, In Heaven There Is No Beer? 10/10, Blood Simple 10/10, The Marriage of Maria Braun 7/10, A Day In The Country 7/10, A Brief History of Time 10/10, Gates of Heaven 10/10, The Thin Blue Line 10/10, The Fog of War 10/10, My Beautiful Laundrette 10/10, Blind Chance 8/10, My Winnipeg 10/10, The River 7/10, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9/10, Shoplifters 10/10, Escape From New York 10/10, Die Hard 10/10 (total: 169) Zogo gets Black Narcissus, i.e. the windiest film I think I've ever seen
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May 24, 2020 17:59
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Magic Hate Ball posted:6) The Last Picture Show - american movie "I just come out here to get a little scenery. Too pretty a day to spend in town. You wouldn't believe how this country's changed." Magic Hate Ball posted:Zogo gets Black Narcissus, i.e. the windiest film I think I've ever seen The Wind (1928) is another windy one. Black Narcissus - A group of nuns are tasked with setting up a convent in the remote Himalayas. It turns out that opening a school and hospital in such an area is not that easy. They're combating primitive sentiments and dealing with medical problems beyond their abilities. The environment is harsh and it begins a mental war within the minds of the nuns. Self-denial and asceticism are par for the course but flashbacks reveal that it's not easy to completely discard the past. Sexual repression and neuroses run deep. It delves into religious issues that are not usually seen in film. The temptation of makeup and jewelry may seem quaint but that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to conflicts within religions and sects etc. There's a cornucopia of gray area issues that are seemingly intractable for many. For the pious if something isn't explicitly mentioned in a religious text it can be very troubling. Anyway, Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron) has a great reveal. Now that's what I call an effective transformation. When I saw the ringing of a bell (hanging 9,000 feet off a sheer cliff) I thought it looked dangerous. Much more could be said... James Bond versus Godzilla (38/64 completed): Tomorrow Never Dies - A true statement. 5/23/20 Hesitation (28 completed): #25 The Sentinel (1977) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlNDQKwsg 2/18/20 #29 Defending Your Life - It's been on some lists and sounds interesting. 4/7/20 #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #32 The Keep - An early Michael Mann film I've been meaning to watch. 4/19/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (92/100 completed): #80 The Young and the Damned - There are still many Luis Bunuel films I mean to see. 7/28/19 #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (88/100 completed): Deep Red - I'm assuming there will be knives and blood and murder in this. 5/14/20 new Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20
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May 27, 2020 06:22
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Zogo, The Young and the Damned has been on your list since July so knock that out. Finally making a return to this thread after a year, particularly since quarantine has given me more time to watch whatever I want. I'm restructuring my list a little bit, keeping a few films that were on here earlier but for new entries I'm randomly drawing from my Letterboxd Watchlist, which is a mesh of classics, obscurities and downright trash. I want to try to chip into that some more since it's a hydra -- every film I watch from it I add three more.  Alexander Nevsky (1938) dir. Sergei Eisenstein A few years ago I saw an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art that featured Eisenstein as part of a cross-generational, cross-medium contrast of varying artists (Goya was one, the other a modern photographer whose name I forget). As you enter the exhibit, an entire section of the museum had been converted into a walk-in, immersive theater. Seven screens arranged next to each other, each maybe 15" feet tall, played each of Eisenstein's feature length films simultaneously. The frame rate was reduced to maybe a frame every 30 seconds or so, the idea was to allow you to appreciate the magnificence of Eisenstein's compositions, how each shot is dynamic and work of art all unto itself. You could also see Eisenstein's work move through the decades, from Strike and Potemkin up through Ivan the Terrible. I'm always reminded of it now when I watch Eisenstein, because his images really are among the most vivid and beautiful of all of cinema. Though I was a little worried that my total lack of knowledge about medieval Russia might hold me back from fully enjoying this film, it turns out to be far more relevant to the war that was brewing around, oh, 1938. Story wise, Alexander Nevsky feels blatantly propagandistic -- the Teutonic Knights, representative of the Germans, march into Pskov and begin massacring children. The Russians, led by Nevsky, must defeat them and reclaim the land. Even the helmets of the invading army are modeled after World War I Stalhelms and the German bishop boasts some fanciful variations of the Swastika on his outfit. Much of the movie is a prolonged battle sequence, a sword and armor spectacle that had me thinking a lot about The Lord of the Rings, though curiously set to upbeat and often silly music. In the end, Russia triumphs and invaders are warned that those who come into Russia with swords will die by the sword. Much of the photography focuses on empty space, often the sky takes up nearly the entire frame while the army appears small huddled together on the featureless tundra. The world here is almost barren, as if these battles are being fought in the purgatory of the past. The Stalinist parallels with Nevsky are clear, as is the film's political role in preparing the country for wartime. It's a gorgeous film, steeped in national pride and history, though direct and simple in its plot and characters. Like Eisenstein's silent work, most of the characters feel more like archetypes of individuals among the greater collective. Overall, great movie. My List: Ciao! Manhattan (1972) - Another Warhol star, featuring Edie Sedgwick shortly before she died and released posthumously. (Added 4/23/2017) Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (1978) - From the ever underrated master, Chantal Akerman. (Added 7/6/2017) The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) - A major silent era classic that's been a blindspot for me for too long. (Added 3/13/2018) Gaslight (1944) - I’ve read enough thinkpieces about the concept, I should probably see the original. (Added 6/9/2018) Carol (2015) - Harold, they're lesbians! (Added 6/16/2018) Death Spa (1988) - Been on my list for quite awhile and about time I watched this spa go haywire. (Added 5/29/2020) Horrors of Malformed Men (1969) - Enter the wild world of Teruo Ishii. (Added 5/29/2020) The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979) - A high-school teacher builds an atomic bomb to hold Tokyo hostage. Reportedly this is nuts. (Added 5/29/2020) Rainbow (1944) - Wartime Ukrainian production about the scourge of the Nazis. (Added 5/29/2020) The Valley of the Bees (1967) - Another Soviet bloc film on the Teutonic Knights. (Added 5/29/2020) TrixRabbi fucked around with this message at 15:23 on May 29, 2020 |
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May 29, 2020 15:17
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The Last Picture Show Why do we like the plains so much? Texas and Oklahoma, for example, or the other windy, flat states where people are born in cities that are only still there because people keep being born there. The plains have nothing in them, or next to nothing, and there's something about the idea of someone living a life on that scraped, barren landscape that's poetic in a very uniquely American way. It's like Winnie in Beckett's Happy Days, buried up to her waist, then neck, persisting only because it's easier than shooting herself, and in that persistence cultivating a specific brand of livelihood. Maybe it's hardy, or maybe it's just delusional - when it's just you and the landscape, it's harder to escape from yourself. The kids in The Last Picture Show escape the town, county, state, country, and, in one case, even the continent, but in the film, they're always here, in Anarene, intersecting in various ways, and Bogdanovich frames their escapades in a way that suggests that there's no cutting ties with Anarene. You can't stop being from somewhere, after all, and you can't stop having been. I thought a little bit of Paris, Texas while watching this, but also of True Stories, and Twin Peaks. Much like Twin Peaks, this is a very Peyton Place-style story, where we discover the tawdry ways that people are linked. There's also a lot of sex-having going on, and it's almost always linked to control, whether it's controlling someone else, or controlling your own self, or even just having no control whatsoever. In one scene that feels like a perversion of the visit to the earthy beach prostitute Seraghina in 8 1/2, the boys that make up much of the main cast take their mentally handicapped friend to the town hooker, who slaps him for nutting before he's even inside her. It's an unpleasant, surreal moment, but it gives you the same vicious thrill that drives people in towns like this to do things like that, which is important. When everything is nothing over and over again, you have to find ways to cope, and sometimes coping means lashing out, or ganging up, or engaging in mild forms of torture. From True Stories comes the sense of people living in a place that shouldn't be lived in. True Stories is more celebratory, even if that celebration is somewhat ambivalent, celebrating the ability to keep living, and what kind of culture is developed in a place like that. The Last Picture Show is less a celebration and more an elegy, with cruelty, boredom, and desperation taking the forefront, while empathy and hope creeps around the sides. There's also a political undercurrent that seems painfully prescient, given how utterly gutted the systems keeping places bigger than Anarene from shrivelling into absolute deathly poverty would be in the two decades following the film's release. The tagline was "Nothing much has changed", so it's also a little funny that the year this movie came out is now almost twice as distant from us as the events in it are from its original audience - a modern equivalent would be set in 1990, which I find to be kind of bone-rattling. Small towns, forgotten towns, towns on plains and in fields with more dust and wind than promise have only suffered more in the 40 (and, in the case of Anarene, 70) years since. Death is everywhere! Thanks, Reagan! I say all this having grown up in the suburbs of a hellish dead end in central California (see: American Graffiti), and I'm sure a lot of people will find this to be kind of a painful watch. There are so many places that have been left behind in the same way as Anarene, continuing basically by accident and really only existing to keep themselves going (UBI ASAP, also ACAB). It's like living in a corpse that's festering in the woods. But you have a life, and you exist, so you have to keep going. Towards the end of The Last Picture Show, the main character, now a year out of high school, stands by the side of the football field. One of the coaches is surprised it's only been a year since he and his friends have graduated, as it seems so much longer. The kids in the stands sing the school anthem, and, looking on, the main character sings along. He and his friends mocked it at the beginning of the movie, but now it comes back in earnest. This is a great example of a scene that could be awful in the wrong hands, but here it comes at the tail end of a long path of growth, change, and loss, and the enigmatic nostalgia feels earned. Here you are, and there you go. edit: I would love to see a feminist riff on this movie because the way it uses women feels so retrograde, it's kind of funny 9/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) First Blood - dad movie 3) Come And See - oh god 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) Saturday Night Fever - disco movie (ah ah) 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Grizzly Man - bear movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Mr Smith Goes To Washington - iconic movie [full list] Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10, Victim 6/10, Man Bites Dog 9/10, Night and Fog 10/10, Weekend 8/10, Jubilee 10/10, Sans Soleil 10/10, Candidate 8/10, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 10/10, The Freshman 5/10, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers 10/10, Branded to Kill 8/10, In Heaven There Is No Beer? 10/10, Blood Simple 10/10, The Marriage of Maria Braun 7/10, A Day In The Country 7/10, A Brief History of Time 10/10, Gates of Heaven 10/10, The Thin Blue Line 10/10, The Fog of War 10/10, My Beautiful Laundrette 10/10, Blind Chance 8/10, My Winnipeg 10/10, The River 7/10, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9/10, Shoplifters 10/10, Escape From New York 10/10, Die Hard 10/10, The Last Picture Show 9/10 (total: 170) TrixRabbi gets Gaslight (no, you don't! I never said that!) Magic Hate Ball fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Jun 1, 2020 |
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Jun 1, 2020 00:13
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Today is the tenth anniversary of the thread. Here are the top twenty who've watched the most here: code:
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Jun 2, 2020 00:37
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Zogo posted:Today is the tenth anniversary of the thread. That's probably right. I forget to update that sometimes. Thanks!
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Jun 2, 2020 01:43
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drat, top 3 and I’ve been out of it for a year. Also, I did watch Audition on my own from my previous list but forgot to note it; though it never was assigned to me. Not sure if that counts.
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Jun 2, 2020 07:18
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A decade of shame! This thread has done so much for me in terms of not only watching movies I probably wouldn't have gotten around to, but in approaching, digesting, and critiquing art in general. It's so bizarre looking at the first half of my list because that part of my life feels so alien now, and some of those I barely remember at all.
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Jun 2, 2020 15:20
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Magic Hate Ball posted:A decade of shame! This thread has done so much for me in terms of not only watching movies I probably wouldn't have gotten around to, but in approaching, digesting, and critiquing art in general. It's so bizarre looking at the first half of my list because that part of my life feels so alien now, and some of those I barely remember at all. My early reviews and takes are, as the kids say, cringe.
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Jun 2, 2020 17:15
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TrixRabbi posted:My early reviews and takes are, as the kids say, cringe. Oh god same, it's like Krapp's Last Tape.
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Jun 2, 2020 17:46
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I had never seen The Godfather when I started in this thread. Now I add obscure Ukrainian propaganda films with like 2 views on Letterboxd to my list. That's what I call growth. For fun, here is my original starting list from 2010: quote:1) Eraserhead - I've never seen a David Lynch film before. I've had this one on my hard drive for awhile now and I've always been curious about it.
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Jun 2, 2020 17:51
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