All Purpose NYC ILX Film Snob Thread

I'm sure I've mentioned I saw Berlin Alexanderplatz in one weekend there in '96. "Shut up!" "You shut up!"

ha, yeah that's the titus
SHHHH
NO YOU SHHHH

anyway, likely heading to Reade at 6:15 for this acclaimed Japanese film:

http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/theatrical-reviews/himizu-20645

Once a man at the Film Forum complained to me about people complaining to him about his loud popcorn eating. I didn't say anything. They were probably right.
I dislike the people loudly discussing the ending of one part of a double feature as others are just entering to begin with the other.
Love the crazy olds at MOMA. I am not an aggressive shusher so I appreciate those who are. Those same people used to be at AMMI or MOMI or whatever they're calling it now.

there's a higher degree of "MY VOICE SHOULD BE HEARD" at film forum than at any place i've been at since college

at IFC the main interaction comes if someone has to find the cell phone they dropped last show

for something like Auteurs Gone Wild, you can always find someone who writes “Perhaps Countess (from Hong Kong) really is Chaplin’s greatest work, his most personal and poetic.”

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-auteurs-gone-wild

http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/series/42271

Yup.

Enjoyed that Kent Jones piece you posted upthread about similar thing. Also recently read some interesting stuff by this guy who was in the Vulgar Boatmen, Robert B. Ray. He is a bit of a gadfly, with lots of interesting ideas, although he thinks the entire Douglas Sirk revival was a case of Auteurism Gone WIld- now that's going to far.

In other news, saw the opening night feature at the NDNF- it's a hit! Rode up on the train next to a top critic (hint he was once accused of "freaking out on arthouse acid".) Introduced myself and talked to him a little bit, he was very nice.

prob my only NDNF tonight -- black metal content!

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/a-spell-to-ward-off-the-darkness

Ernest and Celestine was charming and loads of fun.
Trying Jodorowsky's Dune tonight. nerdfest.

and not just on the screen. "It aaaaaalll comes beeacck to Jodoroooowsky man"... aieeee fuckoff.

did you see it already morbs?

Not a chance! I've never seen any of the films he's actually made, either.

I will admit to LOLing at the trailer when he said he didn't read the book but his friend said it was great.

well i'm excited.

I always miss the Fritz Lang/Kurt Weill You and Me whenever it screens, so I shd go to Anthology tonight at 7, over Hitchcock's Manxman at FF, right? (There'll be more chances, presumably, to see the restored Hitch, and I have a PD copy at home that I've never watched.)

Yes
/thread_starter

My favorite underseen Truffaut, The Green Room, is playing at FF tonight. I thought about making it a traveling double feature w/ Scorpio (Lancaster and Delon as spies) at MoMA, but no one seems to like it much.

Thinking about going to see The Raid 2 tonight which may not be very snobby but maybe should be

Crossposted with ILM,
Punk/new wave doc & concert stuff showing Thursdays and Fridays 6pm (starting this week) at the Museum of Art & Design, and girl punk movies at BAM (in May):

http://www.madmuseum.org/series/go-nightclubbing-archive

http://www.bam.org/film/2014/punk-rock-girls

raid 2 not very snobbish btw but WAAAAAAAAAY too long and full of itself. great fight scenes tho

hey i liked strange little cat, frederik

made me effusive for digital, too

i'm off to see waterface
i mean watermark

x-post: Oh, cool! Is that festival going on right now? I saw Story of my Death today, it's... long... and different. But also beautiful and with images I can't get out of my head. But my god it's long.

I suspect I will go see this low-budget '64 comedy by Theodore J Flicker and Buck Henry at Anthology at 7:30 bcz Letterboxd reports "No one has seen this film."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058690/

Some stathound at 538 should whip up year by year analysis of IMDB ratings and Rotten Tomatoes scores and such to determine the greatest year in film, worldwide.

(post inspired by What’s The Greatest Year In Film? - http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/04/14/freedom-to-fail/ )

Linklater's Boyhood opens BAMCinemafest on June 18

http://www.bam.org/film/2014/bamcinemafest2014

http://www.indiewire.com/article/richard-linklaters-much-loved-boyhood-will-open-bamcinemafest

I can't skip any '30s (or '20s) John Barrymore film I haven't seen, so Reunion in Vienna tonight:

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/20463

I just saw Morgiana last week and liked it quite a bit. The only other Juraj Herz film I can find on dvd is Cremator but I heard mixed things about that. I think he might have some short films on YouTube. Anyone seen his films much?

Keep an eye out for the Obergammergau players, Morbs.

I should know that quote, but don't. The middle act of RiV is hilarious tho.

First of 2-part Fassbinder (plus) retro at FSLC in May:

http://www.filmlinc.com/daily/entry/rainer-werner-fassbinder-retrospective-film-society-of-lincoln-center

MARKETA LAZAROVA looked and sounded really good but somehow I didn't manage to understand what was going on for two and a half hours.

SZINDBAD. A guy walks around talking to women (and one guy, if I remember correctly) about his relationships with women across his life. I'm not sure if his observations are supposed to be particularly good but the film has some nice sequences. Constant close-ups on food, flowers and anything with nice colours and textures. I liked the general approach of this film in terms of the non-linear structure and how the camera seeks out pretty things.

LEGEND OF THE SURAMI FORTRESS. I really love Parajanov's style and approaches but I never love the films as a whole. Some really great shots in there with the repetitive rhythmic movements and dances. Obviously great costumes.

I have to say that I don't understand the ejaculatory praises for most of the arthouse canon I've seen. I vastly prefer the style of these directors to most films but I often think that critics overrate films because they want to encourage the more interesting things (even if they aren't totally great) because they have to see so much slush, so they cultivate the approaches they prefer.
Does anyone really watch Bergman, Tarkovsky etc.. saying to themselves "this is fucking amazing!"?

yes

Lucky them (you?)

Very much so.

But even then, I think it's completely right for critics to talk up interesting and different things even if they aren't totally great. Film - and culture in general - should be seen more like a stream, rather than as a collection of separated entities. Criticism should be a companion to film, a way to follow up after people have left the cinema, rather than just saying 'this is great' / 'this is a bit less than great'. IMO. Otherwise, you end up with nit-picking ridiculousness, such as critics arguing over whether that penultimate shot in Stray Dogs would have been better at 11 min rather than 13, etc.

Does anyone really watch Bergman, Tarkovsky etc.. saying to themselves "this is fucking amazing!"?

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, April 27, 2014 8:18 AM (17 minutes ago)

I consider myself a very poor "reader" of films -- I pretty much have to have my hand held through any level beyond the most basic narrative/textual level -- and I definitely do. Especially Bergman and Ozu.

But the dvd boxes are always covered in words like "astonishing masterpiece!", "an overwhelmingly emotional revelation!" and to be honest, I'm not sure I've seen more than a small handful of films that merit that kind of praise. Even when I enjoy them, I sit wondering where all this pleasure comes from.

I think nitpicking can be constructive.

I am a big fan of alternative animation sometimes. A lot of it from Russia, Hungary and Belarus in 60s-early 90s. Last year I discovered Gyorgy Kovasznai and I was hugely impressed but I can imagine it boring some people.

Would anyone be interested in a animation for snobs thread? No Disney, Pixar, mainstream anime; Stuff like Quay Bros, Svankmajer, Russian guys?

Another vote for "amazing!" And Frederik B. otm.

Can't speak to what goes on in the bemused poster's mind but I seem to remember what went in on in my own when I first started to watch this stuff and was feeling uncomfortable, felt like it might be a con, or that it was attacking the classic Hollywood style or questioning my existence or something. Eventually came to think- if there are boring moments in the film-there are plenty of boring moments in life, and without those you wouldn't get the epiphanies, such as they are. The existence that it is being challenged, if that is what is going on, is not necessarily mine, but that of the characters or the director or his proxy. Finally I don't view it as a threat to the Classic Hollywood Style but the other side of the same coin, one which needs to be flipped over every now and then.

also, Manakamana has ice cream

Basically you, RAG, are expressing some kind of fear of an aesthetic elitism and arguing against it with a simplistic arithmetic elitism -"there is only room at the top for a handful of masterpieces, thereby these guys must be overreacting."

Your proposed thread seems interesting however, although I don't know much about that stuff.

Lol, the icecream scene in Manakamana was so amazing to watch at the theater. First, a bit of uncertain laughter - we're supposed to be watching art, you know. Then, as the scene becomes more and more absurd, it slowly spread. And as the two women themselves starts laughing, the whole theater errupts in relief. Such an astonishing masterpiece. Also: goat-butt!

I wouldnt use the M word, but tons better than Leviathan

http://grandoldmovies.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/lorre-agent.jpg

Peter Lorre as anticipatory plagiarist of Biz Markie.

"You say she's just a friend, don't you, Rick?"

Sorry.

Anyway, not in the business of using the M word myself- for one thing, don't want get into those "Is! Is not!" discussions, but I am aware that others use it and try to take it with a grain of salt if I have to.

is RAG secretly Dan Kois attempting to reignite the "cultural vegetable" shitstorm?

Don't know how anyone can watch the Bell sequence in Andrei Rublev and not be overwhelmed.

James Redd and the Blecchs says "Basically you, RAG, are expressing some kind of fear of an aesthetic elitism"

I wouldn't say so at all, the world needs far better aesthetic standards and I'm always complaining about it. I was way more perplexed and frustrated as a teen but now I'm just a bit more curious about how and why other people enjoy this stuff.
Kim Ki Duk does long slow quiet scenes, many characters never speak but I've never found him remotely boring. Everything seems so tight and disciplined.
The general aesthetics of "snobby" films are rarely a problem for me. It's usually the clarity of the story and the tightness of the pacing that I have problems with, but I'm more than happy to be told that I just don't get some films. I generally don't enjoy the social realist approach, I prefer films that are closer to purely visual and don't really have to make much sense.
I really liked Malle's Black Moon but I've got the impression that most of his fans hated it.

I really do love that ending semi-famous scene from Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors. That is precisely the kind of thing I want from films.

I haven't seen Andrei Rublev yet.

Really? You should give it a try if you have time although be forewarned that you might have problems with the clarity of the story and the tightness of the pacing.