Last (x) movies you saw

Seconds (Frankenheimer) 6/10
The Swimmer (rewatch, Perry) 5/10
Senso (rewatch, Visconti) 8/10

hands over the city (rosi, 1963)
pure (langseth, 2010)
bringing up baby (hawks, 1938)
brute force (dassin, 1947)
the lady eve (sturges, 1941)
the philadelphia story (cukor, 1940)
the man in the white suit (mackendrick, 1951)
on the waterfront (kazan, 1954)
to have and have not (hawks, 1944)
le amiche (antonioni, 1955)

All Is Lost (Chandor, 2013)
3 Women (Altman, 1977)
Where Is My Friend's House? (Kiarostami, 1987)
Judex (Franju, 1963)
Une Histoire d'Eau (Godard/Truffaut, 1961)
Scanners (Cronenberg, 1981)
Bulldog Drummond at Bay (Lee, 1937)
Carrots & Peas (Frampton, 1969)
Pather Panchali (Ray, 1955)

Pride (Matthew Warchus, 2013) - The brit left is beaten to a pulp in reality but hey ho we do know how to make 'em look foolish in a film!

Actually there weren't that many cops in this, it was a nice enough re-enactment of a set of events (any attempts at a drama would be more fiction than this could handle; stick to the facts, even if they didn't show how the remaining mining communities were won over by anything else than cash on the table...) and there was a ton you could make out from just this sort of surface-funny rendering.

*The Decline of the American Empire (Arcand, 1986) 8/10
Under the Skin (Glazer, 2014) 6/10
The Hanging Garden (Fitzgerald, 1997) 4/10
Plus One (Iliadis. 2013) 7/10
Oliver Twist (Lean, 1948) 5/10

The Great Beauty (Sorrentino, 2013): 5/10
At Berkeley (Wiseman, 2013): 8/10

Whitewash (Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais,2014)

Haden Church playing a Walter White type character who at first is a good samaritan but becomes unstuck after trying to cover up a drink-snowplough driving accidental homicide incident. I was expecting it to be one of those shitty Fargo type knock-offs but it was decent.

Chambre 12, Hotel de Suede- decent if slightly underwhelming doc on Godard's collaborators and shooting locations for Breathless

*Videodrome (Cronenberg)- Videodrome/10
But yeah, seeing this in a packed theater (even if it was a tiny one, the PFS Roxy) was a weird experience. I've been living in actual civilization for 3 years now and I still haven't entirely gotten used to the idea that other people are into the shit I like

various Walerian Borowczyk short films- So amazing. The only film I was familiar with prior to watching Arrow's new blu-ray reissue was Jeux des Anges (still gorgeous and harrowing and one of my favorite film soundtracks ever, from Parmegiani) but this was revelatory, especially seeing just how much Terry Gilliam and the Quay brothers owe him in terms of their basic visual vocabulary, techniques, comic timing, etc.

The Big Heat (Lang)

*Aliens (Cameron)- part of a "1986 sci-fi" double feature with:

Critters- a puppet says "FUCK" in subtitles. There, I just saved you 82 minutes

*Sunset Boulevard (Wilder)

Theater of Mr and Mrs Kabal (Borowczyk)

Akerman (Letters Home, 1986) - two actresses (playing Sylvia Plath and mother - and that last role by Seyrig), reading letters, one room, a camera or two. Phenomenal piece, managed to be cinematic even if it wouldn't be out of place as a BBC/C4 production from that time.

In the Mood for Love (Wng Kar-wai, 2000) - It was great seeing this on the big screen. Colours really sparkle (those dresses and suits), the narrow passage-ways have an added feel of suffocation when blown up (made me think of Akerman who is an expert at this), but also a feel of contributing to a level of intimacy. The complications in the editing did add to an effect - the furious cutting as Maggie Cheung runs up to see Tony Leung in his larger apartment. I just loved their relationship - their collaboration on those martial arts comics, the reticence on the physical front. The 'play acting' less so. Why do it? No one was coming back? Of course you could argue it was for them to work what happened to them through; and then the 'son' that appears later on. Also when it leaves Hong Kong you start losing the thread although I did like that no one was renewed by what happened. Secrets filed, the end.

A Summer at Grandpa's (1984, Hou) 7/10
*Wings (1927, Wellman) 8/10
*The Exterminating Angel (1962, Bunuel) 9/10
*When Tomorrow Comes (1939, Stahl) 7/10
*The Boys from Fengkuei (1983, Hou) 8/10
*The Last Hurrah (1958, Ford) 6/10
Stop the Pounding Heart (2013, Minervini) 7/10
Memphis (2013, Sutton) 8/10
Whirlpool (1949, Preminger) 8/10
Maps to the Stars (2014, Cronenberg) 6/10
A Borrowed Life (1995, Wu) 9/10
*Dick (1999, Fleming) 6/10
Dark Passage (1947, Daves) 7/10

*rewatches

on the waterfront ('54 Kazan) 3.5/5
the illumination ('72 zanussi) 3/5
veronica mars (2014 rob Thomas) 2/5
12 years a slave (2013 McQueen) 4/5
stories we tell (2013 polley) 3/5
buttwhistle (2014 teeny Fairchild) 2/5
there's a girl in my soup ('70 boulting) 4/5
the onion field ('79 becker) 3/5
land ho! (2014 aaron katz & Martha stevens) 4.5/5
the shaft (2001 dick maas) 3.5/5
the housemaid ('60 kim ki-young) 2.5/5
take out (2004 sean baker & shih-ching tsou) 4/5
supermensch: the legend of shep Gordon (2013 mike myers) 2.5/5

Trouble in Mind (Rudolph) 7/10
Stromboli (Rosselini) 7/10

on the waterfront ('54 Kazan) 3.5/5
there's a girl in my soup ('70 boulting) 4/5

jeeeezus

heh sellers > brando

There's a Girl in My Soup was about naming names iirc.

well it also changed film acting

howso

with Goldie Hawn

?

just joeks

srsly this Waterfront backlash must end

Bernstein's score is worth 4 out of 5 alone.

i coulda been a contender! i coulda been somebody!

July to now

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014, Reeves) [3D]
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014, Gunn) [3D]
Samurai Cop (1991, Shervan) download
21 Jump Street (2012, Lord & Miller) netflix

Then some Marilyn Monroe DVDs:
Seven Year Itch, the (1955, Wilder)
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953, Negulesco)
We're Not Married (1952, Goulding)
Let's Make Love (1960, Cukor)
Niagara (1953, Hathaway) *rewatch
My Week with Marilyn (2011, Simon Curtis)

Avanti! (1972, Wilder) download
Star Wars (1977, Lucas) [De-Specialized Edition]
Escape from the Planet of the Apes: Apes Go Somewhere Cheap (1971, Taylor) bd
Broadcast News (1987, James L. Brooks) netflix
Anchorman 2 (2013, McKay) netflix
Mulan (1998, Bancroft & Cook) bd
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014, Anderson) bd
Tim's Vermeer (2013, Teller) [around half; skipped around] netflix

Escape from the Planet of the Apes: Apes Go Somewhere Cheap

well, it proved rather costly to the chimps

Lucy (Besson, 2014) 6/10
A Walk Among the Tombstones (Frank, 2014) 5/10
Maps to the Stars (Cronenberg, 2014) 6/10

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Richardson, 1962) 7/10
Schizo (Walker, 1976) 6/10
A Tale of Springtime (Rohmer, 1989) 7/10
The Iron Rose (Rollin, 1972) 7/10 - Hughes Quester double bill!
The Trouble With Harry (Hitchcock, 1955) 7/10
McCabe and Mrs Miller (Altman, 1971) 9/10
A Winter's Tale (Rohmer, 1992) 8/10
X The Unknown (Norman, 1956) 5/10

Gentleman's Agreement (Kazan, 1947)
Kim (Saville, 1950)
Penthouse (Van Dyke, 1933)
Under Capricorn (Hitchcock, 1949)
Ronin-Gai (Kuroki, 1990)
Ip Man (Yip, 2008)
Bulldog Drummond's Peril (Hogan, 1938; edited by Edward Dymytryk)
Gone Girl (Fincher, 2014)
Laura (Preminger, 1944)
Green for Danger (Gilliat, 1946)

Gone Girl (Fincher, 2014) 4/10
Woman is the Future of Man (Hong, 2005) 7/10
Peeping Tom (Powell, 1960) 7/10 (rewatch)
The Small Back Room (Powell-Pressburger, 1949) 8/10 (rewatch)

Salvatore Giuliani (Rosi, 1962) - this is a mixture of Kane like investigation w/an absent central figure, turns on some Eisenteinian/Soviet realist moves in his symbolism: there are scores of nameless 'peasants' and 'politicians' of Sicily and their 'wives', culminating with all groups mingling in a carnivalesque round-up halfway thru. But just when you thought you'd figured it out it switches to a court room drama and cover up.

Was looking at my watch, not the film's fault tho'. I just so know the kinds of emotions/themes its going for.

Platform (Jia Zhangke, 2000) - a cultural troupe of Maoist singers are 'privatized' in 80s to become a bunch of punk and disco singers reflecting the changes in China at the time). It was lengthy, slow-cinema type stuff, so the transitions catch you unawares at times (didn't help I was really tired), and was as much preoccupied with the lives of the people in the troupe as the politics, which surely had to be alluded to in some way, hence the potential of this type of cinema rather than simply one of many aesthetic choices.

The Orphanage (2007) - like, this was good and everything but there was something missing.

All Good Things (6.0)
And the Band Played On (7.0)
After Alice (4.5)
Trance (6.0)
Altman (7.0)
Zodiac (10.0)
Jungle Fever (8.5)
The Last House on the Left (5.0)
Edge of Darkness (6.5)
Clueless (7.5)

Thought Ray Winstone was really good in Edge of Darkness.

Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013) - otherwise drab-looking places are beautifully photographed (and its a vigorous B&W, framed so the faces would at times occupy just a quarter, often in the lower right hand side), the script is peppered with humour so communist-era Poland doesn't just = 'grey'. Besides you see the arrival of the West (in the form of then modern jazz). The face of Ida was very beautiful too, 'angelic', and yet played with enough nuance that any undercurrents of desire for the outside world could flow through to the viewer. Her lawyer aunt was a perfect contrast: someone who lived out there, made her choices - a different kind of suffering. Their encunter was well worked through - at first cold and stand-offish, then gradually they influence each other's lives in crucial ways.

Ida was one of my disappointments this year.

So what did you like again? :-)

lol you reminded me: we should reactive the 2014 thread

no

that "what are your fave films this year, denizens of places that all show different films" thread is among the most pointless.

It isn't. Many films are vailable on Netflix or to stream; seeing other's peoples lists gives me ideas, which is precisely the point of sharing lists.

*available

Lol unlike this thread of titles of films and directors' names and a year and a meaningless number and whether you had seen them before

a buffet vs a menu

Gone Girl – What is this junk? Apparently it tells us things about the way we are in marriage. Well, I'm not married so maybe it went over my head. I love Rosamund Pike but too much acting her stop.
Le jour se lève - I love it when a film is re-released for no good reason and I've never heard of it and it's brilliant
Pride – So much better than the trailer. God, what they did to the miners was fucking brutal.
Ida – Second time viewing. Love it. Simultaneously pulls off nostalgia, innocence and tragedy. Give Agata Kulesza an award.
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night – The Iranian vampire movie filmed in Taft, CA. I guess it was kind of good, maybe a bit hip for me. Sounded great.
Bird Man – The surprise film at the London Film Festival. Good surprise. Sounded AMAZING.

her = here

framing in ida unbearable

Got me to thinking about the framing as soon as I posted that. Did you find it too obvious?

I watched Food Inc a couple days ago.
Very depressing for several reasons.
Main one I can think of is what can be done about Monsanto. It is so monumentally counterproductive to the human race and global environment to have those shits continue to exist. But seems that things are being forced down a dead end route, so hoping something can be done. I need to make sure I never buy another product made by them or affiliate firms if that is possible.

Kwaidan (Kobayashi, 1964)
Naked Lunch (Cronenberg, 1991)
The Disappearance of Alice Creed (Blakeson, 2009)
Sparrow (To, 2008)
Virirdiana (Bunuel, 1961)
La Strada (Fellini, 1954)
Festen (Vinterberg, 1998)
Babe: Pig In The City (G. Miller, 1998)
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (R. Miller, 2009)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen Bros. 2013)

A really good run here. Festen and Inside Llewyn Davis are all timers. I didn't know much about Festen beforehand, but it blew me away. So emotionally raw and the first speech by the son is one of those Great Moments of Film I think. ILD had lots of stuff that immediately appeals so it was v. easy to enjoy. I'd never seen La Strada or Viridiana properly before so it was good to catch up with those, enjoyed them both.

The last ten I watched:

Blanche (Walerian Borowczyk, 1971) - 8/10 I liked how this looked 'medieval' without being too stylised one way or another. Just clean and simple.
The Beast (Walerian Borowczyk, 1975) - 6/10 - Downton Abbey with even more bestiality, basically.

Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves, 1968) - 9/10
Cry of the Banshee (Gordon Hessler, 1970) - 2/10
Mark of the Devil (Michael Armstrong, 1969) - 5/10 - an accidental witch-finder trilogy. MotDevil is proto torture-porn; there are no banshees in CotB, only women being continuously assaulted; and WG is a terrific western transplanted to 17th century England.

Gone Girl (Fincher, 2014) - 5/10
The Zero Theorem (Gilliam, 2014) - 5/10
Thunderbolt & Lightfoot (Cimino, 1974) - 7/10
Life of Crime (David Shechter, 2014) - 6/10
Topaz (Hitchcock, 1969) - 5/10
Night Moves (Reichardt, 2014) - 7/10
Red River (Hawks, Rosson, 1948) - 8/10
The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears - (Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani, 2014) - 7/10

Make that 13.

The Beast (Walerian Borowczyk, 1975) - 6/10 - Downton Abbey with even more bestiality, basically.

I wont forget that ending in a hurry. Here's the last ten movies Ive watched

Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946) 7/10
Goldfish Memory (Gill, 2003) 2/10
The Lady from Shanghai (Welles, 1946) 6/10
A Prophet (Audiard, 2009) 8/10
Gone Girl (Fincher, 2014) 6/10
Lincoln (Spielberg, 2012) 6/10
Room 237 (Ascher, 2012) 7/10
They Live By Night (Ray, 1948) 6/10
The Butcher Boy (Jordan, 1997) 10/10 (rewatch)
Bigger Than Life (Ray,1956) 9/10

The Lady from Shanghai (Welles, 1946) 6/10

Guh?!