Last (x) movies you saw

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.

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.

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)

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

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.

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)

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.

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.

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)

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'.

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.

how was the last?

Short post on the French film thread about this but I think its well worth watching - mixes politics and religion like nothing else I can think of. Goes too often for that arty provocation - both part of its flaw and strengths but I'm still trying to process it all. Wish I dragged a friend to see it but they might not have spoken to me afterwards :-)

Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (Guy Maddin, 1997) 4/5
The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophüls, 1953) 5/5
Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon, 1998) 4/5
Pitfall (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1962) 4/5
Sweet Movie (Dusan Makavejev) 3/5
Poison (Todd Haynes, 1991) 4/5
Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1955) 5/5
Blithe Spirit (David Lean, 1945) 4/5
Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002) 3/5

ratings a deeply practical but inevitably controversial last x movies thread addition. i wanna see sweet movie.

your screening choices are so badass xyzzzz!, you're so rigorous. is it in aid of anything you're thinking about/working on, or are you just watching bc you're interested? la petit soldat was always my fav godard, the iciest, sharpest of those early films.

Hard to hold Sweet Movie on the same rating system as other movies. It's definitely the strangest film I've seen.

oh really?? i'm p sure it was itt i was prodding xyzzzz for encouragement on watching WR, makavejev really spun out after switchboard operator huh

Movies I've seen in 2012:

Margin Call (Chandor, 2011)
The Artist (Hazanavicius, 2011)
A Separation (Farhadi, 2011)
Drive (Winding Refn, 2011)
The Descendants (Payne, 2011)
How to Die in Oregon (Richardson, 2011)

i can't remember the last time i watched a movie.

oh no, wait, i watched "orca: the killer whale" on wednesday, up to the accidental whale abortion scene, but then i fell asleep.

pardon me

Orca: The Killer Whale (Michael Anderson, 1977)

Some people like films.

i can't remember the last time i watched a movie

+1

i can't remember the last time i listened to an album

Last film I watched was Sat night showing Four Lions to a couple of mates who hadn't seen it. They loved it, but one mentioned it cribbed straight from a Thomas Pynchon novel. I'll txt him later and see which one he said, I can't remember cos it was late at night and I wasn't 100% compos mentis.

The one before that was Forbidden Games (Clement, 1954) which blew me away. Loved the kids following their id everywhere. I heard somewhere that the French New Wave where very down on this film - can any film study ILXors give me a rundown as to why?

your screening choices are so badass xyzzzz!, you're so rigorous. is it in aid of anything you're thinking about/working on, or are you just watching bc you're interested? la petit soldat was always my fav godard, the iciest, sharpest of those early films.

― john-claude van donne (schlump), Monday, 20 February 2012 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thanks schlump! I spend time thinking about how film changed, and how that is tied to social change/political upheaval and I'm concentrating on the late 60s to the late 70s. Just a watcher but when I choose what I'll watch (apart from new releases) I have that on the back of my mind.

That Godard is great, there has been a tendancy to say that the Left Bank group is where its at in terms of progressive/political themes on film as oposed to the main Cahiers and while I'd agree this film does throw that off. But then its never straightforward as Godard is v clearly mixing the political and the personal (his love for Karina).

Le Petit Soldat feels a bit lost as a banned film, unfortunately, whereas it might be fruitful to contrast this to Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Last film I watched was Sat night showing Four Lions to a couple of mates who hadn't seen it. They loved it, but one mentioned it cribbed straight from a Thomas Pynchon novel.

Was confused for a second b/c I was thinking of

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/secondhand_lions01.jpg

Valley of the Bees - phtography is great and the comparisons to Tarkovsky are justified in a way.
Gertrud - Ruthless, in every sense of the word.

Gertrud is so great

So great, absolutely can't wait for the Dreyer season at the NFT in March now.

Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost: Revelations
Paradise Lost: Purgatory
Seven Up!
7 Plus Seven
21 Up
28 Up
35 Up
42 Up
56 Up
Ronin
An Unmarried Woman
Tim And Eric's Million Dollar Movie

Did you really see 56 Up. It comes out this May.

Oh, dur. Meant 48 Up, obvs. Might watch To Live And Die In L.A. tonight!

Seven Samurai
Pulp Fiction
8 1/2

^^^ all Blu-rays SS was especially fantastic in this format.

Le Voleur (Malle)
Il Grande Silenzio
Divorce Italian Style

Are the Up films decent then? They look intriguing.

I watched all of them in like two weeks.

seven up!
7 plus seven
21 up
28 up

herb & dorothy
bill cunningham new york

twilight: breaking dawn pt.1 (so so horrible)
13 assassins (like seven samurai with all the interesting bits taken out)

had seen the ups, but my gf netflixed them. cool to revisit, but the repetition gets kind of crushing if you watch them all in a bunch.

so tragic that the buttsex scene was left as an outtake in 13 assassins. would have improved the movie 1000%.

The Up series was kind of fascinating, if only insofar as it's fascinating to see the span of a person's life fly by before your eyes. Most of the subjects aren't particularly fascinating themselves, but that's definitely one of the series' strengths, I think. It's a document of ordinary lives and the choices that inform them. I do wish someone would edit Neil's scenes into a single film, though, as he really stands out as someone who's been on a hard-won journey.

ha, i'm trying to write up a response to this but am struggling because i'd be trying to persuade you of stuff that you seem to already agree with. but the idea of excising neil's portions is crazy to me. they're obviously singular and particularly profound, but i think that's true of all of them, in different ways, without being proportionate to how distinctive or off-path their lives were. the thing that always made me saddest about the series was that a couple of the young public school kids dropped out - like i'm p sure one of them went on to be a documentarian for channel four; some of the participants seemed to have found the intrusion of the series really trying, but it's so incredibly valuable as a public resource - like how much it says by proxy about my family, me, britain today, etc, blows my mind - that it's surprising the guy would opt out.

I can understand why people would bow out at a certain point. Unwanted scrutiny and intrusion into their lives and whatnot. I read something about Neil's friend dropping out because he lost his job over having criticized Thatcher in one of the installments.

I should clarify: I was just hoping to find a YouTube-ish splicing of all the Neil scenes, not necessarily an official film. His last scene in the most recent film was really poignant and moving and I wanted to share it with some people who hadn't seen the films but then realized it was largely poignant because of his journey. And I thought it would be nice, rather than asking someone to make a 14-ish hour commitment to watching all of the films sight unseen, to present Neil's life in isolation. Not to diminish the lives of the other participants, but his story in particular is very inspiring in terms of pulling oneself back from the abyss.

That's exciting about 56 Up -- I hadn't realized it was already time for a new one.

you gotta just make the people make the 14 hour commitment. no i know. but i think i flinch at the idea of a reduced version of it; i don't know that i'm making a claim that the form is in some way critical to its success, more just that concision is only going to lose things. obv that's another debate if people are forgoing the whole thing, but there we are.

def excited about 56. iirc the bbc started a series in tandem, last time, like THE NEW CLASS, kinda. i just remember this sweet kid from salford in a manchester city shirt playing videogames. i'm struggling to believe this was seven years ago but i assume we'll re-up that, too.

really interesting note about neil's friend, wow. it's just unfortunate because the deal is sorta obviously that the project and its poignancy outweigh the effect on the individual participants. epitomised by how fascinating an insight it would have been to know the thatcher thing! the series is, in general, a pretty crucial document regarding her tenure i think.

mysterious object at noon (2000 weerasethakul)
the reckless moment (1949 ophuls)
caught (1949 ophuls)
the baby (1973 ted post)
compromising positions (1985 perry)
monsignor (1982 perry)
to kill a mockingbird (1962 mulligan)
fascination (1978 rollin)
silent running (1972 trumbull)
cyrus (2010 duplasses)

Both Ophüls are some of his best, curious about the Weerasethakul, and is Silent Running any good?

yea i liked the ophuls

like the concepts of 'mysterious object' & 'silent running' prob more than i was actually engaged by them; altho from the a.w., i def felt like i understand more what informs his other work better. i also watched the interview w/ him on the disc where he sez he doesnt consider that he 'directed' it, uses 'compiled' i think

Finally saw "If..." (1968 Anderson) last night. OMG.

The Artist - Saw Malcolm MacDowell in that, and everytime I do see him in anything that isn't If... I die a little as its almost always terrible. This was reasonable.

Woman in the Lake - film by appalingly neglected Japanese filmmaker Kiju Yoshida (maybe a bit strong, maybe its my fault I only got round to him last year). You can tell he loves Antonioni (and who didn't in '66) but his way of framing - 'architecturally painterly' (ugh sorry) like A but REALLY far away and still - is his own in this Kawabata story of an alienated, reluctant love - totally suits. Mariko Okada is a new old movie star crush.

Ordet

xps,

What did you think of Fascination?