Last (x) movies you saw

i'm not sure if you would like prospero's books more but it is my favorite of his; sensory overload

a friend pointed out that his films are kind of inhuman which is probably one reason i like them

greenaway is like sci-fi for art history majors

Might give Prospero's Books a go.

They are uninterested in character or motivation, which is ok depending on what you replace them with. The sexual encounters were filmed with a relish at Mrs. Herbert's distress, which I don't think Resnais (whom Greenaway liked) would've indulged in for a sec.

man I haaaaated Prospero's Books

greenaway liked resnais so much he stole his dp!

drowning by numbers
masque of the red death

scarecrow

The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
Persona (Bergman, 1966)
Au Hasard Balthazar (Bresson, 1966)

shouldve watched andrei rublev too so i couldve got the big 3 from '66.

Die Hard, second time watching -- an action classic
Die Hard 2 -- what a travesty. airplane disaster movie with john mcclane pasted in. some decent set pieces (lol @ ejection seat) but that's it. hideo kojima must love this movie because i was spotting metal gear shit everywhere.
Die Hard With a Vengeance -- that's more like it! they revved up the pace to modern action trash levels -- was this the first major movie at this pace?

Vengeance is my fave in the series and possibly my fave action movie ever after Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Die Hard 2: my dad took me to see it when I was 11 on account of us having watched the original on cable so many times. Already afraid of flying from a childhood non-incident (some time following my first plane ride, I was watching tv when the news of a plane crash came on, to which my seven-year-old's response was "They can crash?!"; that my parents would willingly take me on something that could kill me severed a lot of trust right then and there) this film just made it stick. The plane crash in the film remains one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen in a movie. It's a pretty hostile and threatening film overall, what with the killing of the old man in the church and the revelation of James from Good Times as a villain all on addition to THAT CRASH. I guess I get why lotsa ppl hate it, but it remains a key viewing experience in my life, for better or worse.

I still like Die Harder but it's definitely the worst of the three.

I saw Seven Psychopaths, it was okay.

Life of Pi, the 2D version. It was a preview for an official start today including the 3D version. Visually sumptuous enough in 2D so I think it will be pretty phenomenal in 3D. A lot of the near hallucinogenic stuff at sea will look incredible, as will the underwater stuff.

Not sure exactly how true to the book the film is cos it's been about 5 years since I read it. Can't remember the framing device being the same.
anyway, enjoyed it deeply even though I was somewhat distracted by having my mind on other stuff.

Did wonder if Gerard Depadieu who makes a cameo as the ship's cook was the only known actor in it. Though I'm not familiar with Asian/Indian cinema so could be missing household names without being aware of it.

Just got the Pinky Violence boxed set, so a few of those:

* Criminal Women: Killing Melody
* Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless To Confess

And...

* The Passion of Joan of Arc
* The Battle of Algiers
* Third Planet (1991 Russian b-movie Stalker ripoff. Odd.)

Porco Rosso
It's a Wonderful Life was pretty good except for the fucked up sci-fi b-plot at the end. What the hell was that nonsense all about?

Just started "The Story of Film" which is on Netflix; holy shit, that's good! Fourteen more hours to go.

Live Free or Die Hard -- it's an e-bomb! hollywood is still as tech-stupid as they were circa Max@Job 3:14

has anyone seen 'the imposter' the film abt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Barclay

this cunt is really irritating

nope but the david grann article abt him is p.good
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/08/11/080811fa_fact_grann?currentPage=all

soldier of orange
holy motors
irreversible

Watched Crazed Fruit (Nakahira 1956) the other night. Don't fuck with little brothers!

yeah it's a good story but the imposter himself is just unpleasant and evasive and not really interesting, his rationalizations for his behaviour are drearily predictable

not worth watching unless it turns up in a curtailed version on bbc4 some time

Death Proof (Tarantino, 2007) - Enjoyed it a bit more than previously. Music and Kurt Russell are the highlights. 3/5
My Best Friend's Birthday (Tarantino, 1987) - What remains of Quentin's first film. Too much of Tarantino jabbering on, and his foot fetish. 1/5

Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers, 2012) - 3.5/5
Amour (Haneke, 2012) - Moving, but no masterpiece. 3.5/5
Excision (Richard Bates JR , 2012) - The film doesn't really work, but AnnaLynne McCord is terrific. 3/5

The Hobbit (Jackson, 2012) - 3/5
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson, 2011) - Surprisingly gripping 4/5
Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2012) - Poignant as a fading memory 4/5

Slade in Flame (Richard Loncraine, 1975) - Unexpected social realist take on a thinly veiled biopic of the foot-stomping glam-rockers. 3.5/5
The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993) - Pretty much the apotheosis and the stylistic end point of Burton's twee gothic obsessions. 4/5
The Portrait of a Lady (Jane Campion, 1996) - Campion's best. Coolly beautiful. 4/5

i saw christopher walken be owlish & vulnerable in i can't remember either late- or last quartet, w/philip seymour hoffman & catherine keener. it's sorta autopilot & ridiculous telegraphed but the walken/ageing parts are pretty affecting.

hey clouds, what did you think of holy motors? there's a thread &c but am curious, i caught it a couple of days ago

i was pretty bewildered by it at first but was enjoying it by the end. i'm a big lavant fan so it was great seeing him; he absolutely kills in every movie he's in.

house of games ('87 mamet) 2/5
summer hours ('08 assayas) 3/5
day night day night ('06 loktev) 3.5/5
crackers ('84 malle) 1.5/5
the deep end ('01 david siegel & scott mcgehee) 3.5/5
the queen of versailles ('12 greenfield) 3.5/5
secret sunshine ('07 lee chang-dong) 3/5
bernie ('11 linklater) 2/5
this is 40 ('12 apatow) 2/5 - too long, not funny enough; struck me that it's not far from like a modern diane keaton movie, not that ive seen those

Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942) - pefect xmas matinee film (perfect film full stop, says in brackets). This time I only watched the last 30 mins and basically so my always wtf reaction of 'dude you are putting Ingrid Bergman [and who has ever looked better] out of a plane and your life how can you?!?!' was even stronger than usual.

Aparajito (Ray, 1955) 4.5/5 loved. Ray deals with death really well.
Russian Ark (Sokurov, 2002) 4/5 good stuff. an exercise in formalism but the interplay between the camera and marquis was pleasing.
Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922) 3/5 found a little disappointing. Schreck was impressive looking though.
Ugetsu Monogatari (Mizoguchi, 1953) 4/5

Nosferatu is better studied/discussed/remembered than actually, you know, watched.

same with cabinet of caligari. it doesn't help that both of them get cheap-sounding soundtracks added on. suggest playing some musique concrète or one of the later john cage number pieces as a backdrop.

watched yesterday:

theme et variations (germaine dulac, 1928)
la fin du monde (abel gance, 1931)
phase iv (saul bass, 1974)
my nights are more beautiful than your days (andzrej zulawski, 1989)

I like Caligari considerably better than Nosferatu. Particularly if you go into it blind, there's actually something to discover there. It feels a lot less like homework to me.

as with many silents, nosferatu is much more awesome if you see it on the big screen. seeing it that way with live piano accompaniment was one of my best ever movie experiences (spoiled only slightly by the couple in front of me who kept muttering about how 'dated' it was).

^ should've killed them

Amour 3/10
The Perks of Being a Wallflower 6/10
Not Fade Away 6/10
Barbara 8/10
Let the Bullets Fly 7/10
Saint Jack (1979, Bogdanovich) 8/10
Trans-Europ-Express (1968, Robbe-Grillet) 6/10
Beasts of the Southern Wild 6/10
Neigboring Sounds 7/10
Consuming Spirits 7/10

I dunno - I find the recent (2007?) restoration of "Nosferatu" on Kino pretty amazing. There's a reproduction of the original score on there that's very good but I prefer to watch it with no sound at all - just whatever sounds pop up around the house in the dark. I watch it often. It's still an uncanny film and I think always will be.

Gang of Four 4/5
Dredd 3/5
Shut Up And Play The Hits 2/5
Shattered Image 4/5

I now need to rewatch Nosferatu the Jay Vee way.

film socialisme. read the plot in advance and use non-navajo subtitles so you can actually enjoy the movie instead of getting a major headache = 9/10. this might be my favorite godard movie but I'm not sure, yet.

Looper 7/10
Ted 8/10
I Love You Phillip Morris 8/10
The Snapper 9/10
Toy Story 2 7/10
The Girl 7/10

Love in the Afternoon (1972; 4.5/5)
The Taking of Pelham 123 (1974; 2nd viewing; 4/5)
Skyfall (2012; 3/5)
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012; 3/5)
Bedazzled (1967; 2nd viewing; 3.5/5)
The Deep Blue Sea (2011; 4/5)
Magic Mike (2012; 3.5/5)
The House is Black (1963; 3.5/5)
Bernie (2012; 3/5)
The Queen of Versailles (2012; 3.5/5)
Iron Monkey (1993; 3/5)
Django Unchained (2012; 3/5)
The Kid with a Bike (2011; 4/5)

Skyfall 3/5

Alice In Wonderland (Burton, 2010) 1.5/5
Contempt (Godard, 1963) 4/5
Ivan's Childhood (Tarkovsky, 1962) 4/5
Fanny and Alexander (Bergman, 1982) 4.5/5
Life of Pi (Lee, 2012) 3/5

Theatrical or full miniseries cut of F&A? Cause only having seen the latter, I cannot imagine a single thing being cut, let alone a couple of hours worth of the film.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 4/5
Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present 3/5
Army of Shadows 4/5
Casa de Lava 2/5
The Expendables 2 3/5

Savages 2/5, has to be seen for the Benicio scenes.

it was the theatrical version. they have a stream of it on the lovefilm site. it worked well imo but I'm sure the long one is better.

Pretty sure the theatrical cut lacks the chair story scene, which is my favourite single scene in any movie ever.

The Sting (Hill, 1973) B-
Christmas Vacation (Chechik, 1989) B+
The Muppet Christmas Carol (Henson, 1992) C-
Live and Let Die (Hamilton, 1973) D-
The Mill and the Cross (Majewski, 2011) B-
Summer with Monika (Bergman, 1953) B
The Dark Knight Rises (Nolan, 2012) C
Living in the Material World (Scorsese, 2011) D
Chinatown (Polanski, 1974) A
A Night To Remember (Baker, 1958) B+

Zorns Lemma (Hollis Frampton 1970)
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino 2012)
The Masseurs and a Woman (Hiroshi Shimizu 1938) -- now I'm convinced that Robert Altman was a time traveler and went back to pre-WWII Japan to make movies occasionally

the new version of "On the Road" is pure unadulterated bullshit; i left about halfway thru

Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky, 1966) 4.5/5 - I got the Artificial Eye collection for xmas so I'm catching up on the ones i havent seen. For the first two thirds its a beautiful/thoughtful historical epic, but the last third is especially top notch. By the end i was actually on the edge of my seat/entranced.

The Bourne Farrago (2012) - 2/5
Killer Joe (2012) - 2/5
In Another Country (2012) - 4/5
The Queen of Versailles (2012) - 4/5
Django Unchained (2012) - 3/5
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1968) - 3/5
Oasis (2002) - 3/5