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I think this is the first time I've seen the words "rushed" and "Werckmeister Harmonies" in the same sentence.
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Sep 8, 2017 16:04
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Häxan An unusual psuedo-documentary take on witchcraft, this film strikes a careful balance. It shows the medieval witch trials for the atrocity they were, from the brutal torture methods to the hypocrisy of the priests; on the other hand it's not about to spare us the lurid images of satanic masses and strange devils straight from medieval artwork. Somehow this works; it's wickedly entertaining while still criticizing not only past attitudes towards the sick and old, but contemporary ones- obviously "hysteria" is now a discredited concept, but even here director Benjamin Christensen seems a little skeptical of how women with mental problems are handled. The one drawback is the lecture format does sometimes mean portions of the film are given over to still images and kinda lengthy paragraphs. Still, entertaining throughout. 363/1461
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Oct 30, 2017 07:08
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Tokyo Story There's a lot to unpack here. The film's very low key and deliberately paced, and there were times I wasn't quite sure where it was going. It is on one level just a story about a very old couple making a visit to their family in the city. There's definitely a distinct level of social commentary here; nobody has time to be with them because everyone has to work and everyone's worried about spending too much money and oh yeah one of their relatives is a daughter-in-law whose husband was killed in the war. Japan was in a weird place at this point, this would be JUST after the US Occupation ended so there's a lot of unexamined trauma floating around. But I feel like Ozu is also aiming for more, for lack of a better word, universal problems of aging and generational discord- just the difficulty of being a family but also people living their own lives. There's a certain heaviness to everything, but also some moments of genuine gentle beauty. Chishu Ryu's performance as the grandfather is superb, and Setsuko Hara as the widowed Noriko also stands out. I honestly feel I have to say that maybe the end drags a little, but it's hard to say in a movie that purposefully moves slowly. This one was pretty heavy, I feel I have to let it sit for a while. 364/1461
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Nov 18, 2017 05:37
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Maxwell Lord posted:Tokyo Story When I watched this I realized halfway through it was my moms birthday and lots of the family poo poo hit really close to home for me. Such a good movie
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Nov 18, 2017 07:21
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Night and the City A blind buy from the Criterion sale. I've seen some film noir but what strikes me here is just how fatalistic this one is. The film never even tries to make you think that our hustler protagonist isn't doomed- there probably aren't two scenes in a row where things look up for him. The suspense seems to be just how far he will get, how long he can keep it together before the rest of the city closes in on him. (The irony is that this is a film involving wrestling, which always tries to build up uncertainty as to its outcome.) Widmark's performance is great, just top intensity the whole time, and Francis L. Sullivan is also quite good as the classic British big man, very banal in his evil. Nice, unique atmosphere for the genre and quite an engaging yarn. 365/1461
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Dec 1, 2017 06:47
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The new list is out. Updated on Icheckmovies https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/they+shoot+pictures+dont+theyquestion/ Also made a letterboxd list: https://letterboxd.com/peacefulanarchy/list/tspdt-they-shoot-pictures-dont-they-1000/ Peaceful Anarchy fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Jan 19, 2018 |
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Jan 19, 2018 18:38
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Peaceful Anarchy posted:The new list is out. It looks like 2018 may be the year I complete the top 100 as I only have three remaining: -A Man Escaped -Journey to Italy -Satan's Tango
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Jan 20, 2018 22:11
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A Man Escaped and Journey to Italy are both fantastic. You’re in for a treat with those two. I never saw Satantango though.
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Jan 21, 2018 06:24
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Raxivace posted:I never saw Satantango though. It's a wonderful film.
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Jan 21, 2018 19:48
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Okay got a few of these to work through, I'll do one post at a time though. Blow-Up Well, I see why this one's divisive. It's a meandering look at mod 60s London which occasionally stops to have a plot vaguely resembling a suspense thriller, and the protagonist is often distinctly unlikeable in a number of ways. But I kinda get what Antonioni was going for- the idea of a time and a place where fixed ideas of reality are slipping away, institutions are gone, so nobody can even say for sure whether there was a person murdered, and if so there's nothing that can be done about it. It's almost conservative in its anxiety over postmodernism, but in a way that's understandable. It's an interesting watch at the very least. 366/1461
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Mar 5, 2018 07:53
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