Last (x) movies you saw

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.

'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)

loooove poto

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.

Has anyone seen Robert Kramer's Ice?

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)

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

Pina DID go on forever, MP

cool opinions

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

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

Bombay Beach. Didn't like it.

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.

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.

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

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.