Sight and Sound 2022 Round 7: 121-140

Trouble in Paradise, Only Angels Have Wings, Johnny Guitar, Notorious, and All That Heaven Allows are peaks for their filmmakers; I could make a case for His Girl Friday and Aguirre too.

I have huge fondness for Enfants du Paradis, it's just about perfect imo.

Tempting to vote Renoir again. I put A Day in the Country on the same level as The Rules of the Game... Renoir at his most lyrical.

My top 5:

Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks; 1939)
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray; 1954)
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock; 1946)
A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir; 1936)
All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk; 1955)

Never, never ever:

There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson; 2007)
Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese; 1980)

Perfect timing.

1. Raging Bull
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Fanny and Alexander

Plenty to like in here, but it's between Aguirre, Colour of Pomegranates and Seventh Seal for me. I could vote a different way on another day, but today I'm voting Parajanov.

I wish Shame were better known; it would be my Bergman pick.

Raging Bull and There Will Be Blood turn me instantly into KJB

of 12 or so I’ve seen

1) it’s a wonderful life
2) pulp fiction
3) aguirre
4) fanny and alexander
5) raging bull

I saw LA CINEAGA a couple of weeks ago, thought it was amazing, a sweatier SUMMER HOURS

I want to say that I don't really get how someone could love Taxi Driver and hate Raging Bull--there's such a continuum there for me--but Kael felt exactly the same.

The Paul Schrader effect is a big differentiator, and I'll admit to having a real weakness for '70s/early '80s-era "NYC is hell" movies

Taxi Driver just has a lot more cognitive dissonance with which to tango; Raging Bull, not really

Because of NYC's seediness and Scorsese's need to capture every neon light and damp pavement, Taxi Driver feels generous and open in ways that Raging Bull doesn't; with the latter it's like I'm stuck in a doctor's waiting room with America's dumbest guy insisting on talking to me. It's not Scorsese's fault per se that he made the movie he wanted.

Anyway, I'm tired of the chatter of these movies when we could be rhapsodizing over A Day in the Country, The Color of Pomegranates, or Trouble in Paradise.

of = about

My favourite putdown ever of a film I love:

"Listening to Jake and Joey go at each other, like the macho clowns in Cassavetes movies, I know’ I’m supposed to be responding to a powerful, ironic realism, but I just feel trapped. Jake says, 'You dumb f—k,' and Joey says, 'You dumb f—k,' and they repeat it and repeat it. And I think. What am I doing here watching these two dumb f—ks?"

I must've had that passage in mind.

Recalling the Jake-Joey exchange reminds me of RG's debt to Cassavetes.

Yes, more DAY IN THE COUNTRY discourse please

I'm glad Renoir didn't finish it; more short films by great directors, please.

The thing I most like about Kael's Bull takedown is that the review, itself, is labored and impatient by her standards

I wish Shame were better known; it would be my Bergman pick.

I'm fulfilling my religious upbringing in planting my flag firmly in Winter Light's camp.

The Summer films are the sweet spot for me

Love these

Aguirre, Wrath of God (Werner Herzog; 1972)
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray; 1954)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy; 1964)
The Colour of Pomegranates (Sergei Paradjanov; 1968)
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson; 2007)
The Ascent (Larissa Shepitko; 1977)
Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman; 1982)
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino; 1994))
A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir; 1936))
The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman; 1957)

but it's between The Seventh Seal, The Ascent, or A Day In The Country.

I like Raging Bull btw. I meant to have that in the list.

Not voting for it.

Yes, more DAY IN THE COUNTRY discourse please

― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.),

Amen. I got a multi-region blu ray player just so I could watch it on the criterion blu ray.

Really tempted to go for Only Angels Have Wings, which amazes me more and more each time. Just sheer emotional sophistication.

there will be blood is really funny. ddl with his "gimme the blood eli" made me laugh v hard.

it's a wonderful life is too tragic and the ending isn't happy imo. the whole scene with pharmacist hitting the boy Jimmy Stewart's bad ear really gets to me tho

Really tempted to go for _Only Angels Have Wings_, which amazes me more and more each time. Just sheer emotional sophistication.

Yeah, she's great in it

Hi!

She's not miscast; I just don't like her. But it's a beautifully poised, adult film.

I also acknowledge that an actress who lays on the ingenue bit less thickly than Arthur would've violated the point of the script: a woman who goes to toe-to-toe with Geoff isn't the point.

Of course I typed that as fast as I could just to beat Alfred to the punch.

Reminds me that I started a Jean Arthur thread recently but haven't really done much to pin it to New Answers.

I saw LA CINEAGA a couple of weeks ago, thought it was amazing, a sweatier SUMMER HOURS

it’s mentioned in the first post as one of the films that tied and was left off this poll

Oh, okay, now I see, thanks.

Summer Hours shatters me.

it's a wonderful life is too tragic and the ending isn't happy imo.

Well neither is life!

All the more reason to vote A Day in the Country

Haven't seen either Hawks (who I'm cool on) or the Sirk (who I like a lot). Sayat Nova over Aguirre, though I hope Demy gets a good showing.

I'll wait for the next poll to enthuse over and probably vote for la cienaga, but I'm glad to know it's coming.

Watched Trouble in Paradise not long ago, totally delightful. Also love ... well, a lot of things on this list, really. The one I've seen most recently is The Color of Pomegranates, that was pretty mind-blowing.

For me it’s between Aguirre: the Wrath of God, Fanny and Alexander, and All That Heaven Allows, my absolute favorite Douglas Sirk film. Johnny Guitar is also great.

I really didn’t love Only Angels Have Wings, it was too 1930s hail-fellow-well-met for me. Lawrence of Arabia is weird and maybe underrated. Haven’t seen A Day in the Country yet

I really didn’t love Only Angels Have Wings, it was too 1930s hail-fellow-well-met for me.

It isn't, though. The film critiques this closed homosocial world.

it's been years and I've been meaning to watch it again

Meanwhile: I'm rewatching The Color of Pomegranates. Every early MTV director stole a medium shot and visual effect.

Pulp Fiction

Probably going for Parajanov but a couple of other considerations.

The Colour of Pomegranates (Sergei Paradjanov; 1968)
The Ascent (Larissa Shepitko; 1977)
The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman; 1957)

Not seen:

Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks; 1939)
It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra; 1946)
Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné; 1945)

I've not seen this either

Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch; 1932)

have fun!

https://capsule98.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Sopranos_Out_Of_Context_11.png

this is actually the first section of the list where there's none I have a strong personal connection too

fanny and alexander is so incredible but i will prob vote for the slightly dearer to my heart johnny guitar

The coincidental sequence here of Johnny Guitar-Umbrellas-Pomegranates is quite the visual feast. (I suppose you could add The Matrix there too, but ... nah.)

would be interesting to end on The Ascent, which does so much with the color white

regarding All That Heaven Allows - the incredible expressionist coloring of the film especially at the end, the camera frames, the uptight family and melodrama of a small town scandal about an older woman and younger man, the fairytale ending - I try to imagine what people at the time thought of it

Do people like Johnny Guitar more for being in the Almodóvar movie? I think I do.

Meanwhile: I'm rewatching _The Color of Pomegranates_. Every early MTV director stole a medium shot and visual effect.

regarding All That Heaven Allows - the incredible expressionist coloring of the film especially at the end, the camera frames, the uptight family and melodrama of a small town scandal about an older woman and younger man, the fairytale ending - I try to imagine what people at the time thought of it

― Dan S

if the movie had ended with Wyman entombed with the TV set bought by her children, it might've been the American equivalent of Dreiser or something

Ha!

I still have a blind spot on that one, maybe because I haven’t really watched it enough times or even watched it properly once. Magnificent Obsession I’ve seen enough to like, to name the most adjacent film of his.

all that heaven allows is such a pure paean to unashamed desire and love of self and it has shades of everything that tugs at my own desire and sexuality, even as it's somewhat aware that those things are often seen as foolish by everyone else and that it can't help but be a somewhat unreachable fantasia in the end. i saw it first in college, the first time i'd seen rock hudson in a movie, and he made a big impression on me lol. you have to really have a soft spot for like thoreau and whitman to really fall for it imo. it also helps to be somewhat familiar with what it's like to be a closet case. i'm very emotionally attached to it and i'll be voting for it in this poll.

it's also a deeply american film that's kind of about moving out west even if no one in it actually moves anywhere. maybe i just like to imagine that idk. it's a huge 'comfort food' movie for me. also agnes moorehead is such a supreme best friend and jacqueline dewit as mona is so purely detestable, i love both of them. i don't recall seeing a movie that shows just how contemptible one's own adult children can be and i love it for that. idk maybe these things are more standard soap opera romance archetypes than i imagine, it's not like i know much else in this genre, but they're just perfectly handled in this movie.

those are great posts map, which really describe the film for me

on another front, Aguirre is about a harrowing journey over the Andes and down the Amazon by conquistadors in search of El Dorado. Aguirre, the second in command of the expedition, becomes obsessed by a vision of great achievement and goes insane. The scenes toward the end of him floating down the river by himself are haunting

if the movie had ended with Wyman entombed with the TV set bought by her children, it might've been the American equivalent of Dreiser or something

True, and I'm glad the movie continued after that just as I am that A.I. continued after the Blue Fairy sequence.

I particularly love the arc that Cary's daughter goes through, from the overly analytical stick in the mud to the very-much-still-a-teen child to the one, of the two, who realizes the mistake she's made.

Wyman and Hudson are genuinely touching together.

TMI

too little information

Trouble in Paradise, with Fanny and Alexander and Pulp Fiction being other contenders.

A Day in the Country -- watched it recently. The P-A Renoir look I didn't care much of, but that ending is a gut-punch. Criterion special features indicate that it was always intended as a short film.

Only Angels Have Wings -- sorry, cary grant's character is just a conservative prick, letting employees die to make a little more money.

That's a reductive reading of what his character suffers when Thomas Mitchell dies or earlier when Joe dies (the "Where's Joe?" sequence is masterful in nailing a certain American attitude toward death), not to mention that he's not sympathetic at all. The film's on Jean Arthur's side.

compassionate conservative, then -- he cares, but does nothing

I want to say that I don't really get how someone could love Taxi Driver and hate Raging Bull--there's such a continuum there for me--but Kael felt exactly the same.

― clemenza, Tuesday, April 4, 2023 10:57 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Late to the party, but Taxi Driver is easily a top ten film for me and I don't even put Raging Bull in my top ten Scorsese films. As much as I really really like it, I think it's beautiful and well-done and acted in ways that take me out of it, it's kinda of a cold movie for a movie with such hot blooded emotions running thru the characters. I also probably find Travis' slow hazily outlined descent more compelling, the way DeNiro manages to create such a multifaceted character who is at war with himself and everyone else, who is in some scenes such a good guy and in others a nightmarish stalker figure, and he seems like a "walking contradiction" but like many irl reporting later, he's just a quiet nice guy a lot of the time who keeps to himself. It's just that no one knows what he's thinking or planning.

It does help that it's beautiful to look at, w/a really remarkable soundtrack (frighteningly off-kilter when it's not achingly beautiful), and mesmerizing in the way an insomniac might see the world at 3am. Idk the cinematic intelligence it took to create this is just sky high.

So yeah to sum up TD is immersive and I could watch it once per week for life, RB is I think largely brilliant but in a way that keeps me on the outside looking in, which is not the case w/my preferred Scorsese jams. Also should add in TD I feel like I'm watching Travis Bickle, in RB I feel like I'm watching what is genuinely an amazing DeNiro performance.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Fanny and Alexander is an incredibly beautiful and very dark Christmas film, with resonant scenes of childhood in relationship to ritual, family secrets, religion, and the theater.

I mentioned elsewhere that I read that maybe Bergman neglected focusing on Fanny in the film because of his fraught relationship with his sister, but that is just speculation

Nice of him to give her first billing, in any case

I can't embrace it totally because Franny interests him not at all

it is a movie like all other movies with completely arbitrary characters and titles that sometimes don't make sense

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I’ll take it

Nice. I expected to be the only Children of Paradise voter, glad I'm not! This is stacked list, though, so many great movies.

I’ll take it too.

Johnny Guitar deserved a vote, tho

Thought the same.

it is a great film

Nobody warned me about the ridiculous fart gags in Fanny And Alexander.

Maybe you should have expected it after reading the directorial credit.

what if fanny & alexander fought the farting kids from Ozu's Ohayu

Loool!