Last (x) movies you saw

midnight run
charley varrick
the sting

― teaky frigger (darraghmac), Thursday, 26 January 2012 01:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

strip search ('04 lumet)
haywire ('12 soderbergh)
the hole ('98 tsai ming-liang)
eden lake ('08 watkins)
marriage material ('11 swanberg)
fahrenheit 451 ('66 truffaut)
the king's speech ('10 hooper)
inside daisy clover ('65 mulligan)

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 26 January 2012 13:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

Adjustment Bureau (George Nolfi, 2011)
The Boyfriend (Ken Russell, 1971)
Kill List (Ben Wheatley, 2011)
Incendies (Dennis Villeneuve, 2010)
Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008)
Holy Rollers (Kevin Asch, 2011)
Deep Red (Dario Argento, 1975)

― fun loving and xtremely tolrant (Billy Dods), Thursday, 26 January 2012 14:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

hey craigo, 'the year of the sex olympics' is written by nigel kneale, yes - is there a legit release?

most recent dvd i watched - carnal knowledge (never seen this before - think i'd built it up in my mind too much, cos i was a bit underwhelmed - the ending is esp dreadful - but would still like to see little murders, another film written by jules fieffer (some of whose comics i love, esp his great graphic nov Tantrum))

― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 26 January 2012 14:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

Ratatouille (Brad Bird/Jan Pinkava, 2010)
Moneyball (Bennett Miller, 2011)
Snowtown (Justin Kurzel, 2011)
Another Earth (Mike Cahill, 2011)
Potiche (Francois Ozon, 2010)
The Informers (Gregor Jordan, 2008)
Au Revoir Les Enfants (Louis Malle, 1987)
The Trip (Michael Winterbottom, 2010)

― Michael B Higgins (Michael B), Thursday, 26 January 2012 17:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

ratatouille ftw there

― teaky frigger (darraghmac), Thursday, 26 January 2012 19:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

Haywire (Steven Soderberg, 2012)
Melancholia (Lars Von Trier, 2011)
Dangerous Liasons (Stephen Frears, 1988)
Belle de Jour (Louis Brunel, 1967)
Attack the Block (Joe Cornish, 2011)
Une Femme est un Femme (Jean-Luc Goddard, 1961)
Jules et Jim (Francois Truffaut, 1961)
The Tree of Life (Terrance Malick, 2011)
The Outsiders (Francis Ford Coppolla, 1983
The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)
Le Cercle Rouge (Jean-Pierre Mellville, 1970)

― DavidM, Thursday, 26 January 2012 19:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

ugh. Soderbergh.

― DavidM, Thursday, 26 January 2012 20:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

Kind of guessing and working backwards here:

Gimme Shelter
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video
Wedding Crashers
The Descent
Carnage
Branded To Kill
Tokyo Drifter
Diabolique
Dark of The Sun
Rancho Deluxe
Rancho Notorious
Puncture

― Lady Writer, Male Seether (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 26 January 2012 20:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

hey craigo, 'the year of the sex olympics' is written by nigel kneale, yes - is there a legit release?

Not a legit release sadly, yr bog-standard DVDr jobbie. The BFI put it out a while back didn't it? Think it's stupid money for a proper copy.

― Yeah Yeah Bohney (Craigo Boingo), Friday, 27 January 2012 00:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

Essential Killing
Submarine
Hobo with a Shotgun
Animal Kingdom
Sucker Punch
Green Lantern
Meek's Cutoff
War Horse
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher)
Margaret
Five Easy Pieces
Whisper of the Heart

mix of cinema and home, some for the first time.

>Tokyo Drifter

Would you recommend? I'm tempted to get the Criterion blu, have heard good things from a couple of friends.

― that mustardless plate (Bill A), Friday, 27 January 2012 12:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

Tintin : yeah it had ADD but I loved this.
Hamlet (Branagh) : Also kind of manic but I guess that's the point(?) Liked.
The Age Of The Medici
The Puppet Master
Habemus Papam
Sleeping Beauty (Leigh) : this was terrible

― Lawanda Pageboy (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 27 January 2012 17:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

>Tokyo Drifter

Would you recommend? I'm tempted to get the Criterion blu, have heard good things from a couple of friends.

Yeah, I'd recommend it, although I'm more of a Branded... fan myself. When watching TD, take in the spectacle and don't worry about the story so much. I have the reissue DVD, which is gorgeous, but I've heard the blu is beyond stunning.

― Lady Writer, Male Seether (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 27 January 2012 18:13 (1 year ago) Permalink

the mill & the cross (lech majewski): not sure what to make of it, some aspects of it were rly impressive tho

― am0n, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 20:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Myth of the American Sleepover
Beginners
Meek's Cutoff
The first 40 minutes of The Help
Certified Copy
The Ides of March
Nostalgia for the Light
The Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Moneyball
Le Quattro Volte

― polyphonic, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 20:42 (1 year ago) Permalink

Oh, and The Grey

― polyphonic, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 20:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

― Nicole, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 20:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Face of Another

― Yeah Yeah Bohney (Craigo Boingo), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 22:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

Submarine ('10 Ayoade) - hated this
Missile ('87 Wiseman)
The Great Santini ('79 Lewis John Carlino)
The American Friend ('77 Wenders)
Notebooks on Cities and Clothes ('89 Wenders)
Lightning Over Water ('80 Wenders/Ray)
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (Berlinger/Sinofsky)
Mon Oncle D'Amerique ('80 Resnais)
Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie ('12 Tim + Eric)

>The Myth of the American Sleepover

saw this a month or so ago and several of the scenes have really stuck w/ me for some reason, like the older brother w/ the twins stuff

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 2 February 2012 13:36 (1 year ago) Permalink

film socialisme
the valley of the bees
drive
vantage point
l'argent
ashes and diamonds
mongol
texas killing fields
transsiberian
jonathan meades on france x 3

― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Thursday, 2 February 2012 13:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

How was Valley of the Bees?

― emil.y, Thursday, 2 February 2012 13:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

very good, you should see it

fred camper describes the visual style as perfunctory, rather unfairly....it is v poised for vlacil, there is a sort of cold horror in both the hieratic confines of proto-state and the lawless hinterlands and consequently it's amenable to tendentious political readings (1968 and all that, tho it was made before the prague spring)

the teutonic knights are all haughty psychopaths with some interior religious frenzy, you'd never mistake them for the enterprising imperialists who begot the slow accumulation of a superstate

― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Thursday, 2 February 2012 14:15 (1 year ago) Permalink

Been watching a lot of '68 - '72 stuff myself...

Death By Hanging - Oshima sets up an absurdist situ: man is hanged by the authorities, doesn't die and then has to be made to admit guilt again but, since he has lost his memory he must be made recall his crime so that he must be hanged again. In the process he must remember who he is and who are his masters (a Korean sinking in Japanese Xenophobia). Real sucker punch, no prisoners taken, pardon the pun n' all.

W.R. mysteries of the organism - formally unique: doc (made by makavejev himself) about nutso psychologist Wilheim Reich spliced with a purposefully thin story of a liberated woman's attempt to seduce a soviet 'people's artist' ice skater by the name of Ilyich. Really want to read Durgnat's bk on this.

Ecstasy of the Angels - a film about the inter-factional struggles of a terrorist cell: they argue with each other while fucking! One for the erotic thriller thread.

Nanami and the Inferno of First Love - this japansese new wave film kind of looks fwd to Blue Velvet in a story about a shy youth who dates a 'nude model' and gets entry into a seedy underbelly blah. But there are certain awkward twists, courtesy of a script by Shuji Terayama. There is a season of his films at Tate Modern in March so I'll get to find out more then.

Dillinger is Dead - would make a great dbl bill w/Death By Hanging, as both are cinematic absurdist plays in 'attack' mode. Michel Piccoli is manages to be utterly compelling as a man who spends much of the time saying 'nothing'.

Here and Elsewhere - Godard film from '74 on the Palestinian struggle...but its never straightforward, which is as it should be.

The Last Bolshevik - Chris Marker doc from the early 90s, using the films of Aleksandr Medvedkin as a jump off point on the (recently deceased) Soviet Union and its films.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 3 February 2012 23:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

loved dillinger is dead + remember almost nothing about it; feel like that's somehow suitable or specific to that film, that it's hazy somehow.

were you into WR? liked 'makavejev's switchboard operator & am p interested

― quick brown fox triangle (schlump), Friday, 3 February 2012 23:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

Loved 'Switchboard Operator' (have it as a VHS but unfortunately I can't get my video to work dammit) but 'WR' buils on this, and is possibly better. One bcz the Reich story is so bizarre and two bcz of what he is trying to argue - that we should use Reich's ideas to revive the utopian dream, to somehow make communism more 'fun' - in a decaying Soviet set-up that has brutalised millions by that point...its barking mad, and yet I can't entirely dismiss.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 3 February 2012 23:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

'WR' makes more sense every time you see it, and the followup 'Sweet Movie' is one of my favorite films of all time. every single detail in the film that at first seems like simple surrealism ends up completely true, it is the exact opposite of a self-indulgent film

Harakiri
The Face of Another
Poto and Cabengo (finally on DVD!)
Pina (I fought this for the first 30 minutes, not that it was bad but I just wasn't in the mood, and then suddenly I wanted it to go on forever)

― Milton Parker, Friday, 3 February 2012 23:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

loooove poto

― quick brown fox triangle (schlump), Saturday, 4 February 2012 00:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

i only just watched routine pleasures, i think i'm in a minority of maybe preferring p&c overall. though still enjoyed a lot. k psyched for the third film, even though people aren't so into it.

― quick brown fox triangle (schlump), Saturday, 4 February 2012 00:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

Has anyone seen Robert Kramer's Ice?

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 4 February 2012 00:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

Pina DID go on forever, MP.

She Married Her Boss (1935, Gregory La Cava)
Pretty Poison (1968, Noel Black)
Unfinished Business (1941, Gregory La Cava)
A Man Escaped (1956, Robert Bresson)
Of Time and the City (2008, Terence Davies)
Come Back, Africa (1959, Lionel Rogosin)
How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster? (2010, Carlos Carcas, Norberto Lopez Amado)
Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971, Robert Bresson)
The Devil Probably (1977, Robert Bresson)
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 4 February 2012 01:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

how was 'the devil probably', that is scheduled 2 play near me in march

― johnny crunch, Saturday, 4 February 2012 02:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

Pina DID go on forever, MP

cool opinions

― RYVITA® (Lamp), Saturday, 4 February 2012 02:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

it's good; not top-shelf R.B. for me but I usually find films about teenagers inherently less interesting. xp

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 4 February 2012 02:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

ive enjoyed the pina trailer every time ive seen it, have no desire to see it at full length

― johnny crunch, Saturday, 4 February 2012 02:28 (1 year ago) Permalink

Bombay Beach. Didn't like it.

― two lights crew (seandalai), Saturday, 4 February 2012 02:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

On the '68 trail:

I am curious (yellow) - I really like the questioning of the leftie social democracy ideal (through the film within a film device that is taken to breaking point) which is, even now, highly praised in the non-scandinavian West.

But like W.R. there is the political, and then there is the personal too.

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 4 February 2012 23:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

L'Amour Fou - Jacques Rivette, 1968, posted on his thread

Malina - had a look at the Isabelle Huppert thread and a notion did come up of parts that no one else could've played (exemplified by The Piano Teacher) and this is one more for that file. In fact it would be a terrific dbl bill. She nails the artful madness in this Werner Schroeter film. Werner has -- for the one other film and a cpl of shorts I've seen from him -- drawn on operas excesses and contrasted with a somewhat 'underground' aesthetic that foregrounds the rawness I always felt was contained by opera houses, and he brings this to bear on an adaptation of this novel (by poet Ingerbord Bachmann, which surely includes plenty of biog detail). But its tricky in the end bcz there is money in the production, hes got stylistic ticks he couldn't employ before so Huppert not only pulls off the mental anguish, but does so in surroundings she somehow finds a space to be 'comfortable' in whereas you suspect the underground muses that worked w/Werner might have stiffened up.

I think its true for the main actors on this. Their performances seem stiff because they had to work w/elemens he brings from his other work; and maybe their roles have less meat to them.

― xyzzzz__, Monday, 6 February 2012 23:05 (1 year ago) Permalink

Let's Talk About Kevin. Just didn't click with me. Great idea, but somehow it lacked something.

― Nathalie (stevienixed), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 09:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

Argila - Werner Schroeter short from '69

In a Year With 13 Moons - Fassbinder film from '78. V beautiful, make sure you see it at night.

A Valparaiso - Joris Ivens short film from '62, script written by Chris Marker dcoumenting the day-to-day of a Chilean coastal town. Beautiful shots taken from top of hill trains. Then pics of seagulls, fishing, a wedding veil blowing in the wind, a local council meeting

Battle for Chile - Patricio Guzman worked as an assistant on the Ives film, with Marker providing assistance. You know all the stories of the coup, the mytholgies and the basic facts but it doesn't make it any easier. Too much in here chills the bone: from speeches, to debates between comrades (many of whom surely perished?) to acts of kindness to incredibly prophetic remarks (one from a communist who took part in the Spanish Civil war).

Valparaiso makes an appearance, too, as a site where the army checks out the graves to see if any weapons were being stored - so there is an echo from that council meeting in that Ivens film...

The coup take place at the end of the 2nd part, with the the 3rd devoted to the good things that came out of Allende's time (creation of all kinds of support groups and organisations), but also a frustration sets in - they didn't get round to arming themselves.

Vital film and a very hard fkn watch. Not exactly a recommendation.

Idade Da Terra - Glauber Rocha's last film. Like this article says (scroll right at the end) its a toughie. Lots of beautifully shot images of favellas, carnivals, sunsets hitting modernist architecture with screaming matches between allegorical figures. Like nothing I've seen so go when it screens at yer neighbourhood art gallery or you'll need to wait another decade.

The Embassy/Sixth Side of the Pentagon - Two short films by Chris Marker. The latter was recycled in Grin Without a Cat documenting an anti-vietnam rally in '67. The former is his other fictional film. Take the sound out and its 15 people in a room sitting, eating, arguing, waiting, playing w/kids and watching TV. Turn the sound on to hear the voiceover and its a group who have gone to an embassy and are seeking asylum. Its Brilliant and there should be more films like it.

Black Panthers - Agnes Varda film from '68. Exactly what it says. She was away from Paris only in geographical terms.

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 11 February 2012 11:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

If I had Four Camels - Chris Marker photo journey film from '66 and the exact mid-point between La Jetee and Sans Soleil. His photographs so pleasing to look at, his script so good, the voices he chooses to narrate are so correct and the music is spot on.

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 11 February 2012 12:36 (1 year ago) Permalink

Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)
The Descendents (Alexander Payne, 2011)
Little Children (Todd Field, 2006)
Before The Devil Knows Youre Dead (Sidney Lumet, 2007)
The Grey (Joe Carnahan, 2012)
Dont Look Now (Nic Roeg, 1973)
The Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles, 2004)
Depeche Mode 101 (D.A. Pennebaker, David Dawkins, Chris Hegedus 1989)

― Michael B Higgins (Michael B), Monday, 13 February 2012 01:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Volker Schlöndorff, 1975) 4/5
Morning's Tree-Lined Street (Mikio Naruse, 1935) 4/5
Four Nights of a Dreamer (Robert Bresson, 1971) 5/5
The Man from London (Béla Tarr, 2007) 4/5
Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977) 4/5
The Mill and the Cross (Lech Majewski, 2011) 4/5
The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963) 4/5
The Crucified Lovers (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954) 4.5/5
Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees (Masahiro Shinoda, 1976) 3/5
The Smiling Madame Beudet (Germain Dulac, 1923) 4/5
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Ôshima, 1983) 4.5/5
Southland Tales (Richard Kelly, 2006) 2.5/5

― tanuki, Monday, 13 February 2012 02:28 (1 year ago) Permalink

Went to the cinema for the first time in a while.

Saw Shame - wouldn't have known it was about sex addiction per se (and hilarious to read about this in the press) - just don't know much about it - but then again its so personlized to one man's situation; and its very depoliticised as an issue and never spelt out. I almost always like dramas where there is no reason for a characters actions (or little is given) and its all cold alienation, a private prison with no escape and redemption (reminded me a bit of Pavese's The Political Prisoner). The characters were so charmless too.

Ootoh they say too much, and sometimes Brandon feels through music, that doesn't quite sound right apart from when he puts on Bach when running. His boss felt unnecessary; the relationship w/his sister was a half-way, that argument toward the end wasn't needed.

Overall tho' - UK Film Council R.I.P.

― xyzzzz__, Monday, 13 February 2012 11:08 (1 year ago) Permalink

silver bullets ('11 swanberg)
the alley cats ('66 metzger)
the savage is loose ('74 george c scott)
hausu ('77 obayashi)
last night ('98 mckellar)
demoniacs ('73 rollin)
koyaaniqatsi ('82 reggio)
guess who's coming to dinner ('67 kramer)
david and lisa ('62 perry)
dinner with andre ('81 malle)

― johnny crunch, Monday, 13 February 2012 12:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

Wnstanley - Possibly one of the best historical films I've seen, due to the really stunning B&W photography (the quality of fog, fire and light) and the reading from Winstanley's pamphlets, they form a poetry of sorts.

I Just Didn't Do it - whch is part of the Japanese fest going on at the ICA. More of a campaigning film, highlighting the mess that is the Japanese legal system. Could have been a documentary.

Far From Vietnam - segments by Godard, Resnais, Varda, Ivens, Lelouch on the then ongoing conflict.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 15 February 2012 00:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

Pina (I fought this for the first 30 minutes, not that it was bad but I just wasn't in the mood, and then suddenly I wanted it to go on forever)

Didn't fight, just wanted to go on - did you love the s/track as much as I did?

Robert Kramer's Ice, a fictional doc-drama on an insurrectionist cell plotting against a fascist US Govt blah, v '69. This is where I cry out for 'cinematic' moments, the grain of B&W wasn't right.

Extreme Private Eros - Kazuo Hara doc from '74 and a stone cold classic where he wants to make a film of his wife he has recently split up with "to be close to her" (and their son). So he watched her get into and out of relationships w/1) another lover in Okinawa, 2) a black GI soldier, whom she has another baby with, and 3) watches her give birth to this baby (soldier had run off by then) by herself in Hara's flat in Tokyo (this is an incredible 10 min sequence) and then 4) finally join a commune, where her kids are taken care of while she works nights in a strip club.

In between Kazuo starts an affair w/one of the crew working in the doc, and he makes her interview his wife, too. All v layered, and v sweet, as you can imagine.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 17 February 2012 11:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yellow Sky (1948, William Wellman)
The Purchase Price (1932, William Wellman)
The Man I Love (1929, William Wellman)
The Miners' Hymns (2011, Bill Morrison)
The Devil's Cleavage (1973, George Kuchar)
The Geisha Boy (1958, Frank Tashlin)
Two Rode Together (1961, John Ford)
The Fairy (2011, Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy)
Satantango (1994, Bela Tarr)
Crash (1996, David Cronenberg)

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 19 February 2012 13:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

Xpost

I think my problem was just not being in the mood for the Stravinsky warhorse, but once that dancer got on the tram with a big pillow I was fine with everything

Extreme Private Eros sounds incredible

Me and a friend have agreed to watch The Human Condition once a week for six weeks. First half of part 1 was brutal bt great. Have to wonder what they're saying when they translate words to 'leftist'.

― Milton Parker, Sunday, 19 February 2012 19:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah it was a near 20 min sequence as I recall. Ws relieved (for my friend most of all) when that ended and you could have shorter bursts and the film settled into a mix of monologue and dance: she liked it v much.

Love to see Human Condition sometime...

Making my way through The Hour of the Furnaces, four hour doc from '68 by Fernando Solanas (he of 'Third Cinema' fame), a leftie no holds barred history of oppression of Latin America and her people(s).

Le Petit Soldat

Hadewijch.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 19 February 2012 21:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

how was the last?

― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Sunday, 19 February 2012 21:30 (1 year ago) Permalink