Last (x) movies you saw

West Side Story (Robbins and Wise, 1961) A-
The House of the Devil (West, 2009) B
The Last Temptation of Christ (Scorsese, 1988) B+
Sleeper (Allen, 1973) B+
Vanya on 42nd Street (Malle, 1994) B
Christine (Carpenter, 1983) C+ (maybe a B-)
Margaret (Lonergan, 2011) A
Hocus Pocus (Ortega, 1993) D-
Fright NIght (Gillespie, 2011) B
Payback (Baichwal, 2012) C-

We'll never get a good western again until a director appears with personal experience of the joys of shooting someone.

GoldenEye = videogame neo-realism.

1984 (radford, 1984)
shadows of forgotten ancestors (paradjanov, 1964)
midnight in paris (allen, 2011)

Arabian Nights (Pasolini 1974). About 40 minutes of it, anyway. Hated it.
Ride with the Devil (Ang Lee 1999)

Compliance -- 3/5
The Red Shoes -- 4.5/5

Need to bug the library here to get that Trilogy of Life set. Really don't want my first Pasolini to have to be Salo.

salo is actually more 0_o i think if you watch the trilogy first.

What did you think of 1984, clouds? I think it's fantastic.

i rate it pretty highly. amazon has it streaming in hd, so the deakins photography looks better than i've ever seen it.

The Master (Anderson, 2012) - dug this
The Sacrifice (Tarkovsky, 1986) - awesome opening and ending 10 minutes. the second hour was pretty heavy going tho. still trying to figure out alexander's intentions which is a good thing i think.

Jean-Michel Jarre's Concerts in China 1981 (ridiculous)
Atlas Shrugged Part 1 (very very entertaining, every last second is as inept as the trailer)
Gambling, Gods & LSD (dreamlike three hour long 'documentary' travelogue by Peter Mettler, loosely threaded together on the themes of addiction & enlightenment. if you're going to do a film this free-associative, every shot has to be unbelievable & surprising, or else you simply wake up & lose your patience entirely. I stayed wary for the first 60 minutes waiting for this film to blow it, and then suddenly it just took over -- this film completely works. fantastic collaged soundtrack of O'Rourke + Frith + Fennesz helped. can't wait for his new one.)

Zero Dark Thirty (2012, Bigelow) 2.5/4
The House I Live In (2012, E. Jarecki) 3/4
Looper (2012, Johnson) 3/4
Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story (2012, De Felitta) 3/4
Goodbye First Love (2011, Hansen-Løve) 2.5/4
The Law in These Parts (2011, Alexandrowicz) 3.5/4
The Stones in the Park (1969, Woodhead) 3/4
Searching for Sugar Man (2012, Bendjelloul) 3/4
In Another Country (2012, Hong) 3/4
A Man Vanishes (1967, Imamura) 3/4
Karayuki-san, The Making of a Prostitute (1975, Imamura) 3.5/4
The Master (2012, Anderson) 3/4
Pasolini's Last Words (2012, Crane) 2.5/4

the dark knight rises - reading about it is more fun, 1/10 because the spaceship made me laugh
the white ribbon - kept thinking about the alice miller book from the depression thread, 8/10

I tried watching that Pasolini Arabian nights and didn't get very far. Some of it looked quite good visually but I couldn't really engage, might try it again when I'm more in the mood if I get the chance.

Went to see End Of Watch last night which was pretty enjoyable. A bit bitty, but interestingly done. Guardian review pointed out some implausibilities though I think.
Didn't realise that a supporting character was Ugly Betty until I checked the castlist on IMDB, thought I recognised the actresses name from somewhere though

2012 in theaters:

original release (descending domestic box office b/c reconstructed via boxofficemojo):

The Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises
Skyfall
Wreck-It Ralph
Argo
Lincoln
Looper
Pitch Perfect
ParaNorman
Moonrise Kingdom
Premium Rush
The Secret World of Arietty
The Master
Seven Psychopaths
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bernie
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Sleepwalk with Me

in rep:

Tremors
Attack the Block
Repo Man

This weekend I watched:

Pather Panchali (Ray, 1955) 4/5
Eyes Wide Open (Kubrick, 1999) 4/5
Paranoid Park (Van Sant, 2007) 3.5/5

cosmopolis (cronenberg) - just started watching, holy crap, is it all this bad?
holy motors (carax) - mostly great, loses a bit of steam in the final third, could have done without the closing gag
the hole (dante) - skip
red desert (antonioni) - shit yeah
kuroneko (shindo) - nice gothic ghost story from onibaba dude
high and low (kurosawa) - up there with M, kubrick's the killing
beauty and the beast (cocteau) - a favorite

The Turin Horse
I Wish

The Panafrican Festival of Algiers (William Klein, 1970) - as part of the tate show of Klein's photography: a documentary of the Pan-African fest in Algiers from 1970, inlcudes great fottage of mass crowd movement, events of street theatre and music from various bands and drummers, as well as brief discussions on the struggle for indepedence from European colonial powers, i.e. Angola from Portugal.

There was a talk by Kodwo Eshun before the screening - lotsa great detail - why the Algerian government commissioned Klein, his use of slogan and techniques from the fashion industry put to use for a more militant aesthetic and so on - but very little on the music, which as I watched was central to a Pan-african culture that is rich with revolutionary potential and could be both successful and sustanaible. No mention of Archie Shepp's inclusion which binds a pan-africanism with a music for the exploited from all corners of the globe.

Rivette's Out 1 continues - nearly half way there now..

Yojimbo
The Decameron
The Canterbury Tales
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows 1
The London Nobody Knows

The Misfits (John Huston, 1961) 2/5
Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012) 3/5
The Cabin In The Woods (Drew Goddard, 2011) 2/5
Something Wild (Jonathon Demme, 1986) 4/5
La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette, 1991) 2/5
The Man On the Train (Patrice Leconte, 2002) 2/5

I tried watching that Pasolini Arabian nights and didn't get very far. Some of it looked quite good visually but I couldn't really engage, might try it again when I'm more in the mood if I get the chance.

Pasolini combines adaptation of bawdy stories w/theories around primitivism as a good and an eroticism unchecked by capitalist forces...its not gonna help but that seems to be deal from what i can tell. I liked it a lot, the nudity just feels less gratuitous with all that in mind..xp

simon of the desert
tokyo godfathers

Holy Motors
Hari Kari (original, much better than Miike's take)
A Canterbury Tale
Howl's Moving Castle
Princess Mononoke
Ocean Waves (justifiably obscure ghibli release, for completists only... very banal but watchable)

Watching Pontypool and Cabin in the Woods tonight for a metahorror double feature

cosmopolis (cronenberg) - just started watching, holy crap, is it all this bad?

― i know your nuts hurt! who's laughing? (contenderizer), Sunday, December 2, 2012 2:45 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

no... its worse

La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette, 1991) 2/5

― Michael B Higgins (Michael B), Sunday, December 2, 2012 3:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, this sucks.

juliet of the spirits

Undocumented....ugh, not sleeping tonight.

Have seen White Material and Antichrist these last few days... Not sleeping for the next few weeks.

2012 in the theaters:
taxi driver 4/5
beyond the black rainbow 1/5 pretty look at and great score but incoherent.
the avengers 5/5 when I saw it in the theater, 4/5 after re watching it
moon rise kingdom 4/5
Prometheus 2/5
dark knight rises 2/5
the french connection 5/5
once upon a time in the west 5/5
skyfall 3/5
once upon a time in america 5/5
looper 3/5

Livid - knew nothing much about this before viewing so the direction it took was unexpected and fun. 3.5/5

The Innkeepers - loved the atmosphere and good leads, but didn't really add up plotwise. Watched via projector with a gang of friends in a countryside barn rental (we wanted a ghost film) and general "eh?" although no wild complaints. Def. never staying at The Yankee Pedlar. 3/5

Damsels in Distress - feel like I need to see it again just to catch all the zings. 4/5

Skyfall - way better than QoS, not as good as CR. 3.5/5

Sightseers - 2nd fave Ben Wheatley film after Down Terrace now. Wonderful lead turns, great script. Was surprised by how pretty some of it looked. I got what they were trying to do with the tone (ha-ha vs gore), but didn't think it quite worked. Do think that at some point Wheatley will make a true classic. 4/5

I liked that along with all the disgruntlements in Sightseers, the film's use of classic horror music for the outdoor scenes seemed disgruntled too - The English countryside use to be terrifying! Now it's just Visitor's Centres!

i saw the devil

what did you think? I dug it.

i liked it! i was expecting an amoral revenge flick but it turned out to be strangely affecting.

anna karenina. complete garbage.

i saw the devil is good tho.

I liked Anna Karenina.

Rashomon (Kurosawa, 1950) - I get that its important and all but I didn't enjoy it.
Heat (Mann, 1995) - Eh. I don't know what I was expecting really.
The Squid And The Whale (Baumbach, 2005) - Decent.
Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans (Murnau, 1927) - A joy and a delight. Perfect.

Joy Ride (3/5--early A.I. Joseph Ruben film; bonus for great ELO soundtrack)
Barton Fink (3.5/5)
Gregory J. Markopolous (Swain/Ming Green/Through a Lens Brightly/Sorrows/Gilbert & George--some underground American films I've liked a lot, but I didn't get much out of these)
The Master (3.5/5)
Malcolm X (4.5/5)
The Hot Rock (3.5/5)
Inventing David Geffen (4/5)
The World Before Her (3.5/5)
The Fruit Hunters (4/5)
Color Me Obsessed: A Film About the Replacements (3.5/5)

grave of the fireflies and spirited away
loving these miyazaki double features

I watched My Neighbour Totoro today!

i think it's a top five film for me.

Grave of the Fireflies is Studio Ghibli but not directed by Miyazaki.

always love the fact that grave of the fireflies and totoro were released as a legit double-feature in japan. nothing like watching the most joyful film ever made followed by a film that takes your heart and crushes it as if it was soap bubble.

emotion (ôbayashi)
the future (m. july)
letter not sent (kalatazov)

I liked Anna Karenina.

― Pat Finn

I liked it, too. Lurkers unite!

I admit I'm not sure how much of that was the book (which I love) shining through, though.

Yah, i know dasher
Ifc is doing the yearly ghibli retrospect and i have been to a lot
Next up: pom poko and my neighbors the yamadas
Then laputa and porco rosso

xp i deny pleasure to none, o but it was so so bad. what with the theatrical staging, thisthenthatthenthis and the trembly-lipped knightley of it. such joy to see that final, ice-bound engine appear.

gonna go see holy motors in the theater this week. woots.