Oh look, Jon Jost w/ Angel City, I hope to see that too!
It's an amazing mess, but fun and fascinating. That brief, pre-Sundance '89 'new narrative' moment is really interesting -- the early Jost things, Mark Rappaport, the handful of Benning narrative films, and the first couple Yvonne Rainers. That stuff was a big deal at the time, but it seems like people would rather forget about it now.
― C0L1N B..., Tuesday, 28 February 2012 23:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
Ward - I guess its in the way Straub frames somewhat matches an experience of actual sitting down and watching music in concert/venue: from one specific (most of the time awkward) angle, sometimes a close up or away from you (lean forwards or backwards, and this is done at points where music reaches a point of high emotion, say). It lets you study and contemplate the performance - how you'll see a few of the orchestra/chamber and sometimes others are simply obscured from your POV. This matches their almost obsessive aim to recreate performances by employing instruments that would have been used in the period, musicians that I guess would be willing to recreate an idea of Bach.
Contrast that with how things are done these days when you watch it on TV - for an orchestra its whoever has the meaty part at that moment is the one who has a close-up. Not to criticise, two different aims, but the film got to something v recognisible about watching concerts.
As a portrait of an artist it just seemed spot on as to what I think they are like - I loved the bit where Bach talks about his theory of music - how it must have god-like harmony not devilish droning and yet the music is so continuous and unrelenting that you'd feel Bach would hate this.
Maximalist => heard someone say this represented an arid and mathematical side of Bach. Can't say I know enough, but this film isn't scared to punctuate with pictures of waves crashing against rocks or this gorgeous duet playing against pictures of passing clouds. xp
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 23:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
See (if you can) S&H's Not-Reconciled — pretty much the definitive "difficult art film". The film is almost all ellipses — either to give a sense of time being "out of joint" or to let the viewer fill in the blanks in the action, like a negative space drawing. After seeing it once I'm not sure if I understand it completely, but it is hypnotic.
― tanuki, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 02:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
Pinocchio - hated this as a kid and now I know why. Truly horrifying and barely redeemed by its happy ending. I'm not kidding when I say that I was literally shaken up by watching this film. Wholly earns its reputation through the power of its images, of course; there is a great momentum to the storytelling that feels like a significant leap forward from the occasionally inert Snow White (I'm slowly going through the classic Disney canon, none of which I've seen as an adult beyond these two). But yeah, the common charge against Disney that the sanitize fairy tales has no ground to stand on with this one.
The English Patient - avoided this one for years due to its reputation as an undeserving best pic winner and for a long standing dislike for Michael Ondaatje (to be fair, never read this particular novel by him). Will say that there's a decent 90 minute pulpy 1940s studio b-movie in here somewhere, but the movie is far too stuffy and high minded to give into such pop pleasures. Dialogue is some of the most embarrassingly bad I've heard in recent memory, which I'm perhaps all too willing to attribute to the source material. Willem Dafoe's character by far the most interesting person in the film.
Moneyball - a baseball movie where the bulk of the action takes place in board rooms and on conference calls. Credit the filmmakers and writers (didn't need to be told that Sorkin worked on this) for making unfilmable material watchable and even interesting, but the film eventually feels rather thin and wholly lacking in drama. Pitt was fantastic though, and not having seen any of the other nominees yet I cannot say I would have objected at all to him getting n Oscar for this.
The Lineup - an early Don Siegal noir with Eli Wallach as the lead villain. Was apparently a spinoff from some 50s cop show that I couldn't tell you nothing about (the cops in the film are the least interesting thing about it). Not a helluva lot of weight, but fast moving and suspenseful with Wallach as a truly nasty bad guy; a scene where he destroys a little girl's doll while looking for drugs is hilarious and mean. Hardly a masterpiece, but I could watch this kinda thing all day.
― I Fucked Up (jer.fairall), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 02:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
Thanks tanuki -- I'll try and seek that out.
re: Red Psalm: there is this lenghty but more than worthwhile essay by Raymond Durgnat
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 1 March 2012 20:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
Never on Sunday
― *tera, Thursday, 1 March 2012 21:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
Zooey Dechanel seems more precious/twee to me but she doesn't create films.
― *tera, Thursday, 1 March 2012 21:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Fritz Lang) - biggest lol in ages when Austin gets killed. That's about all I have. Oh, and I was thinking someone should program this in a dbl bill w/Oshima's Death by Hanging
Arrebato - this ws made by one time Almodovar collaborator Ivan Zuluetta. About a teen film-maker - and his relationship w/a director (he seems to be in the middle of a horror movie and at the end of a destructive relationship w/Cecilia Roth) he gets to know through his cousin. Really all about how things - movies, drugs, relatioships - can consume you.
He never made another film, which is a shame but understandable.
Tony Manero - I guess almost any Chilean film that gets in the West will be about the '73 coup in some way, huh? But this is artfully done - a film about a Saturday Night Fever obsessive getting by (w/murder and living in a 'subsersive' commune-like arrangement) in post-Allende Chile. The central performance is great, has a 70s Pacino like intensity.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 3 March 2012 11:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
Almost every film I see now has me thinking about double bills, even though they hardly ever exist nowdays.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 3 March 2012 11:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
i watched nobody's business by alan berliner last night. i can't remember where i heard about it. so good! what else is good by him? i'm searching ilx for previous mentions of the guy.
― john-claude van donne (schlump), Saturday, 3 March 2012 16:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
xyzzzz:I do the same thing! They do a classic movie thing at the Paramount in Austin over he summer and double bill, but yeah, that's it. Double Billing Thread, teehee...so my mind can suddenly go blank.
― *tera, Saturday, 3 March 2012 18:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
tera - actually you reminded me that Riverside cinema in London often do dbl bills, its just that a lot of them are sorta dull and obvious.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 4 March 2012 11:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
Fox and His Friends - one of Fassbinber's best at times (the trip to Morocco). I can think of half a dozen I like more though. Impressive how every type of prejudice seems to have been inserted throughout the script. Which is part of the problem, its so damn obvious.
Secret Beyond the Door - another Fritz Lang. Psychoanalysis so cuckoo.
Shadows of a Hot Summer - Frantisek Vlacil film from '78.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
Three Resurrected Drunkards (Nagisa Ōshima, 1968) 4/5Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937) 4/5Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989) 4.5/5Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo, 1964) 4/5Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002) 4/5Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955) 5/5The Thief of Bagdad (Michael Powell et al, 1940) 4/5Sukiyaki Western Django (Takashi Miike, 2007) 2/5Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003) 5/5Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959) 3/5
― tanuki, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 13:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
Knuckle (Ian Palmer, 2011) 3/5Whale Rider (Niki Caro, 2002) 4/5More Than Just A Game (Junnaid Ahmed, 2007) 3/5The rocky Road To Dublin (Peter Lennon, 1968) 5/5Page One: Inside The New York Times (Andrew Rossi, 2011) 3/5Scum (Alan Clarke, 1979) 4/5Elephant (Alan Clarke, 1988) 4/5Road (Alan Clarke, 1987) 3.5/5Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973) 4/5Frida (Julie Taymor, 2002) 3/5101 Reyjkavik (Baltasar Kormakur, 2000) 3.5/5
― Michael B Higgins (Michael B), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 14:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
obsessed with alan clarke movies of late. im going to write my FYP on him.
― Michael B Higgins (Michael B), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 15:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
Kelly's Heroes at the weekend. Think I've seen it several times but only rarely from the beginning, this might be 2nd or 3rd time.Like the film. Just looked it up and it was written by the same guy as the Italian Job. Had assumed it would be somebody to do with MASH or something similar. But same writer also went onto do Red Heat maybe that says more about it?
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 21:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
ive had that on my dvr to watch for like 6 months. how was rickles in it?
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 21:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
Not bad. He's in it for most of the film I guess, not quite central but in the main group. Don't remember him being overly funny. He's the wheeler dealer quatermaster guy that Kelly enrols.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 21:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
The Bad And The Beautiful 5/5 - Kirk Douglas was so great in this. Him and Turner together were great. Loved the structure of the story too. That final scene when they're all crowding to hear him talk on the phone was so perfect.
A Star Is Born 5/5 - cannot believe I never saw this movie til now. Beautiful and so sad.
The Right Stuff 3/5 - the flight sequences were beautiful and thrilling, and Sam Shepard was a perfect Yeager, so steely and handsome and just right on the money...but I didn't like the way the Mercury astronauts/NASA were played for comedy, the Goldblum/Shearer bits were actually kind of annoying to me. And I *hated*, HATED the handling of Grissom's splashdown. I want to give the movie 5 just for handling the adrenalin of flying/space travel, but I just can't. But I wish I had seen it as a kid, I know I would have loved it.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 21:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
I need to see A Star Is Born.
― tanuki, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 22:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
stevolende, if you're on a troy kennedy martin kick, check out the original bbc edge of darkness tv series, its p amazing (prob best to avoid the american remake w/ mel gibson)
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 22:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
xpost tanuki, you should! It's so captivating.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 22:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
I may actually have that on file somewhere from a couple of years back. Seem to remember downloading it. May have even burnt it to disc but somehow not watched it. TV series that is.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 22:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
'37 or '54? James Mason is great and Judy brings the songs, but Gaynor-March is a better film (and also has many of the remake's good lines).
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 22:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
54. James Mason was fantastic.
Can I ask a dumb question? Why did they make the same movie with Judy twice?
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 22:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
oh wait never mind, lol I thought Judy was in both. DUH
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 22:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
Deep End on Film4 last night - good damn that was beautiful. And how many films will have Cat Stevens AND Can on the soundtrack.
El Anachoreta - Spanish man locks himself in the toilet for 11 years (its a huge toilet, so its cheating as far as I'm concerned). Yeah you know why he's there so its not like the film needs to spend time pretending there is something special about it. The girl who tries to tempt him out is v beautiful tho', so that kept me watching.
Kanal - Wadja smash hit, from '57, detailing the Polish resistance's flight to Warsaw's sewers. Really brutal and to the gut.
The Fall of the House of Usher - Jean Epstein's adaptation, just saw this at the NFT with piano/accordion accompainment. Awesome, such a strong visual language (read about some of his theories beforehand and glad I did). French cinema from the 20s through to the end of the war is my 'biggest gap' and I need to correct this.
Decasia by Bill Morrison followed. Bunch of found silent films that have decayed, now strung together. There is no structure to discern and the score totally gave it away: there is an eletric guitar, but its like it wasn't plugged in. Certainly not worth an hour.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 22:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
she did a radio play version of the first movie around 1940, when she was "the right age"
xp
Decasia is nearly great.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 22:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
seven samurai - great great great, rewatching it makes 13 assassins seem that much more disappointing in retrospectthe rum diary - a river of shitpom poko - non-myazaki studio ghibli flick about balls animals, odd & kind of sadknife in the water - maybe my favorite polanski, certainly one of his best
― meticulously showcased in a stunning fart presentation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 22:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
also:
the wicker man (2006) - huh
― meticulously showcased in a stunning fart presentation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 23:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
Bottle Rocket 3/5: You can tell it's his first film and it'll get better, but all the things I love about WE (composition, pace, character) are half-formed imo.To Kill A Mockingbird 4/5: Gregory Peck gives a authoritative performance and I think the two main kids are sweet and fun, but it's got serious POV issues, I think. And I don't get the central theme - is it that justice is universal to all, or that bad people can go without justice? I don't get it. I suppose "sometimes we gotta do bad things for the best" is a very cold war opinion.
― get ready for the banter (NotEnough), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 07:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
haha I like julio's takedown of Decasia
― Luomas (admrl), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 22:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
dont avntgrd film bros generally poop on decasia
― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 22:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
would like his films more if he didn't insist on adding dreary portentous soundtracks to all of them
― althea and (donna rouge), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 22:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
yes!
― Luomas (admrl), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 22:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
Bill Morrison and Jem Cohen are like the guys avntgrd bros seem to love to hate.
― Luomas (admrl), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 22:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
er...I had no idea of Bill Morrison's existence, ws there for the Epstein.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 22:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
Oh I wasn't saying you were one of these bros
― Luomas (admrl), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 22:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
Thx :-)
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 22:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
last night:
watched hamlet 2. great! laffed my bo.
tried to watch i know who killed me. became stupefied about 10 minutes in, so i went to bed.
― meticulously showcased in a stunning fart presentation (contenderizer), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 23:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
Babydoll
― *tera, Sunday, 11 March 2012 05:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
Rio Grande - I think I'm in love w/ Maureen O'Hara.Les Maitres Du Temps - RIP Moebius. Lovely film. The ending always chokes me up.
― Lawanda Pageboy (Capitaine Jay Vee), Sunday, 11 March 2012 09:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
I finally saw Control. It was pretty good.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Sunday, 11 March 2012 10:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
Footprints On The Moon (dir L Bazzoni, 1975) got watched at film club last night. Was considering a double-bill with Bazzoni's 'The Fifth Cord' but didn't quite manage it.
Footprints is a hell of a visually striking film, amazing architecture and interior design all through, and Florinda Bolkan is perfect for those surrounds. The ending is so brilliantly done.
― Cragenham Craig (Craigo Boingo), Sunday, 11 March 2012 16:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
and they are in turn pooped on by me
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 11 March 2012 16:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
Laura - this ws awesome, v funny. Tierney is gorgeous, found myself wanting imperfections tho'.Renoir - La Chienne. Really good, didn't think the tracking shot up and down the building worked, or what that was for. The thing itself ws good.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 11 March 2012 21:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
the makioka sistersdie hard 1-3la pianistecarnagemarcy mae bla
cbfed finishing blank city & a dangerous method which means both of those films are empirically worse than die hard 2
― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Monday, 12 March 2012 01:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
how was The Makioka Sisters?
― tanuki, Monday, 12 March 2012 01:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
it's sweet, very well observed and mostly quite subdued
the tanizaki novel is v canonical in japan & it's maybe a bit 'dutiful literary adaptation'
― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Monday, 12 March 2012 01:46 (1 year ago) Permalink