dvd advice: skip repulsion. the current dvd is pan & scan and looks like shit.
― abanana, Thursday, 19 March 2009 15:31 (fifteen years ago) link
There isn't a Criterion version of Repulsion? That sucks.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 March 2009 15:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Kind of surprised Chinatown is so loved.
It does diagnose what's most wrong with America; when it's set, when it was made, now.
― Past a Diving Jeter (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 19 March 2009 15:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Albacore Insurance Group
"It does diagnose what's most wrong with America; when it's set, when it was made, now."
I don't think it does that any better than oh let's say Who Framed Roger Rabbit though. Rosemary's Baby is just a better movie IMO. Repulsion too, but I can understand why people couldn't get into that as much.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 March 2009 15:47 (fifteen years ago) link
I think RB is a solid #2, like everything that got votes cept Pirates andTwo Men and a Wardrobe (unseen). Preferred Tess to FVK but it's been awhile.
― Past a Diving Jeter (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 19 March 2009 15:49 (fifteen years ago) link
FVK is fluffy. It's kind of hard to imagine it being made by the same guy who did the Tenant.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 March 2009 15:51 (fifteen years ago) link
well, his interest in changing up was a common trait that more current directors w/ talent should investigate. (Wes Anderson, how bout a spy thriller)
oh his Macbeth is one of the 5-6 best Shakespeare films, probably.
― Past a Diving Jeter (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 19 March 2009 15:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Never actually seen that. I should. Do you count Kurosawa as Shakespeare btw?
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 March 2009 15:56 (fifteen years ago) link
nah, not quite. Goes in the "variations" column with Forbidden Planet.
― Past a Diving Jeter (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 19 March 2009 15:59 (fifteen years ago) link
I want to hear your top 5-6 then.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 March 2009 16:00 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm forgetful! Top of the head: Welles' Othello, Olivier's Richard III, Polanski, Almereyda's Hamlet, Chimes at Midnight, then maybe Dieterle's A Midsummer's Night Dream, the Soviet Hamlet from the '60s, and Branagh's Henry V.
― Past a Diving Jeter (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 19 March 2009 16:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Never seen Almereyda's Hamlet. Recall liking Branagh's quite a bit, plus it reminds you that the actual play is long long long (there is a Northrop Frye line about the play being so long cuz no one ever shuts the fuck in it.) Taymor's Titus is good for a very minor play. Can't argue with the first two at all though, Welles and Olivier are stone classics.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 March 2009 16:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Richard III might be the funniest of the tragedies too.
― Past a Diving Jeter (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 19 March 2009 16:14 (fifteen years ago) link
ooh yeah Polanski's MacBeth is fantastic. vividly remember watching it in high school English
― Roberto Mussolini (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 19 March 2009 16:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Welle's Othello also somewhere near the top, Morbz has a good list there
all the film versions of macbeth i've seen are good -- kurosawa's is my fav kurosawa, welles's is great and bizarre (like "caligari" filmed on a star trek set), and polanski's is just a brilliant realization of the play, probably the best polanski i've seen after repulsion and RB.
morb's list would be close to mine (though i haven't seen the soviet hamlet yet -- according to imdb it's called "gamlet"!!), with chimes easily taking top honors.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 19 March 2009 21:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Welles' Macbeth >>>> Polanski's Macbeth >>>> Welles' Othello
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah -- Chimes at Midnight and the William Richert-Keanu Reeves bits in My Own Private Idaho are my favorite screen Shakespeares.
No Keanu Reeves bits are my favorite anything.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:04 (fifteen years ago) link
the William Richert-Keanu Reeves bits in My Own Private Idaho are my favorite screen Shakespeare.
you've said this before and I am nonetheless still alarmed at your toleration for this terribly misguided claptrap. I don't think Keanu even understands a single line he says in that movie.
― Roberto Mussolini (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:05 (fifteen years ago) link
haha x-post
His diffidence dovetails nicely with Hal/Scotty's. I didn't say it was a good performance.
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:06 (fifteen years ago) link
The best thing I can say about those sequences is Keanu was even worse in Much Ado About Nothing.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:07 (fifteen years ago) link
I smell a poll!
Alex, Branagh is a lot hammier than Keanu in that movie.
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:08 (fifteen years ago) link
wasn't there some well-known shakespeare critic who called keanu reeves's hamlet (no not kidding, had a brief run in london) the best hamlet ever?
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:14 (fifteen years ago) link
haha, from wikipedia:
He made news by refusing to take part in Speed 2: Cruise Control and choosing to play the title role in a Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Reeves got surprisingly good reviews for his interpretation of one of Shakespeare's most famous characters. Roger Lewis, the Sunday Times critic, wrote that "He quite embodied the innocence, the splendid fury, the animal grace of the leaps and bounds, the emotional violence, that form the Prince of Denmark...He is one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he * is* Hamlet."
(roger lewis, btw, is the guy who wrote that semi-recent anthony burgess biography where he repeatedly refers to burgess as a "complete fucking fool.")
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Pretty sure that first episode of Slings & Arrows has a Keanu in Canada bit in it.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:20 (fifteen years ago) link
hmm I've never thought of Hamlet as an idiot manchild before but I guess its possible
― Roberto Mussolini (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:25 (fifteen years ago) link
i've often thought of Hamlet as an idiot manchild.
― Blackout Crew are the Beatles of donk (jim), Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:26 (fifteen years ago) link
A fairly eloquent idiot manchild though, which would seem to exempt Keanu.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:28 (fifteen years ago) link
fuck u haterz :)
― Past a Diving Jeter (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:42 (fifteen years ago) link
hm, thanks guys, i'm getting some Shakespeare dvds for my roommate for his bday but had no idea what to get
― turtles all the way down (Face of Wolf), Thursday, 19 March 2009 22:51 (fifteen years ago) link
i considered going to Winnipeg for that Hamlet
― Past a Diving Jeter (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 March 2009 11:19 (fifteen years ago) link
http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/2266/483_box_348x490.jpg
Coming (standard & Blu) in July.
― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 16 April 2009 19:40 (fourteen years ago) link
sweet!
I woulda voted macbeth in this
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Thursday, 16 April 2009 19:47 (fourteen years ago) link
i still can't believe how hard Frantic suckerd, AFTER those awesome first 30-40 minutes.
― Ludo, Thursday, 16 April 2009 19:51 (fourteen years ago) link
suckerd :)
― Ludo, Thursday, 16 April 2009 19:52 (fourteen years ago) link
never seen chinatown
― i like to fart and i am crazy (gbx), Thursday, 16 April 2009 19:53 (fourteen years ago) link
waht?
― the table is the table, Thursday, 16 April 2009 20:02 (fourteen years ago) link
the tenant is his best, ftw.
― the table is the table, Thursday, 16 April 2009 20:03 (fourteen years ago) link
or okay, not his best, but his most intersting
oh i would have voted for tess
― I wish I was the royal trux (sunny successor), Thursday, 16 April 2009 22:01 (fourteen years ago) link
Repulsion really isn't very good imo, worth it for Deneuve but the conceit never really convinced me and the ending was quite weak.
― Young Chizzy (country matters), Thursday, 16 April 2009 22:10 (fourteen years ago) link
I am led to believe that Polanski subsequently got a lot better but for some reason Repulsion's finished second in this poll :-/
― Young Chizzy (country matters), Thursday, 16 April 2009 22:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Woah woah woah, why don't you think Repulsion is good? It's far and away my favourite.
― emil.y, Thursday, 16 April 2009 22:12 (fourteen years ago) link
I watched it with a friend (who's BIG into film) under the impression that it was a great lost classic. Deneuve's performance (and general air of glacial smouldering cool) was infinitely alluring but the remainder of the movie felt like a let-down, especially towards the end. It just didn't force home a promising conceit with any sort of elegance. We both agreed that it wasn't a particularly affecting experience, and that even one's focus upon and belief in Deneuve begins to waver as events unfold. It remains the only Polanski I've seen, but it wasn't a particularly enjoyable (or memorable) experience for me. I'm not dissuaded from seeing others.
― Young Chizzy (country matters), Thursday, 16 April 2009 22:18 (fourteen years ago) link
I fell asleep when I tried to watch Repulsion. All his other movies are among my favourites. Don't understand this.
― swedes put dill on fields of salmon (fields of salmon), Thursday, 16 April 2009 22:19 (fourteen years ago) link
Hm, I'm not sure what exactly 'force home a promising conceit with any sort of elegance' means. How can you 'force home' something with elegance? I'm not sure it does lack elegance at any rate - for me, the film-making is exquisite; every camera angle is perfectly poised, and the balance between quietness and interior violence very 'elegant', if that's the descriptor we're using.
I can understand that perhaps Deneuve's psychosis seems a little arbitrary, if that is the conceit that you mean, but then isn't everything arbitrary? I thought that the manner of expression of that psychosis was very convincing.
― emil.y, Thursday, 16 April 2009 22:26 (fourteen years ago) link
Well, the film seemed to use cheap shock tactics to "escalate" her psychosis, such as the rabbit carcass, the deadly strike with the poker, the final scene with the hands etc...none of them really seemed to fit in with the prior mood of the film, and their shock value was actually diminished by this IMO. A little hamfisted. My main qualm with the film was that it made me feel profoundly indifferent to the denouement. The first 2/3 had actually been quite tense, quite nicely observed, if not the most riveting hour of film I've seen. I'll need to see it again, mind, this was over a year ago.
― Young Chizzy (country matters), Thursday, 16 April 2009 22:31 (fourteen years ago) link
Carnage was ok. Foster overracting a bit much, and since all you have in this kind of movie is the acting, when one of the four actors is distracting it becomes a bigger problem than it might otherwise be. Winslet's character seemed underdeveloped compared to the other three. Waltz and O'Reilly are great, deliver some much-needed laughs.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 23 December 2014 16:19 (nine years ago) link
Liked Foster, bcuz I haven't even bothered to see much she's in the last 15 years, and that is a scarcely exaggerated Park Slope Parent, really.
Venus in Fur is both superficially "stagier" and more cinematic.
― things lose meaning over time (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 23 December 2014 16:30 (nine years ago) link
there was just so much vein-popping straining going on w her
my wife's review: "I'm glad we don't live in New York" lol
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 23 December 2014 16:32 (nine years ago) link
My list and comments.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 August 2017 02:17 (six years ago) link
Oh my, The Tenant is an easy second behind the obvious winner.
I have unwatched copies of The Pianist and Tess (not to mention Oliver Twist) that I should get around to someday.
― Say, I Heard You Had a Quarrel With Your Best Girl (Old Lunch), Saturday, 12 August 2017 02:22 (six years ago) link
I have good-ish memories of Bitter Moon and Death and the Maiden. Anyone seen them lately?
― the general theme of STUFF (cryptosicko), Saturday, 12 August 2017 03:58 (six years ago) link
I thought Frantic was terrific but only saw it once, on release. I'd like to see it again.
― WilliamC, Saturday, 12 August 2017 12:23 (six years ago) link
...an opinion I've already put in this thread. I need to remember, "just quit posting."
― WilliamC, Saturday, 12 August 2017 12:25 (six years ago) link
From the Criterion Daily:
Back in August, a woman identified only as Robin became the third woman to accuse Roman Polanski of sexual assault after Samantha Geimer and Charlotte Lewis. On October 3, two days before the New York Times blew the Harvey Weinstein scandal wide open, a fourth woman, Renate Langer, accused Polanski of raping her in 1972 when she was fifteen. Last week, Marianne Barnard became the fifth woman to come forward and, as Martha Ross reports for the Mercury News, her call to have Polanski expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been met with considerable support.
Whatever the outcome, films such as Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974) will endure, even if the context in which they’re viewed now or in the future evolves. The Cinémathèque française will present its Roman Polanski retrospective from October 30 through December 3, and Polanski, now eighty-four, will evidently carry on working. He’s “returned to Poland for the first time since the country's top court rejected a U.S. extradition request last year to shoot a documentary about his life in wartime Krakow,” according to Nick Holdsworth in the Hollywood Reporter. Polanski, Horowitz (working title) will be “about his childhood and youth in the southern Polish city with his longtime friend, the photographer Ryszard Horowitz.” The AP notes that they’ve specifically visited “the site of the former ghetto where he was held as a child by the German Nazis. His mother was taken from there to her death at Auschwitz, and later his father made him flee the ghetto.”
Relevant links here:
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5058-the-daily-in-the-works-polanski-cuaron-and-more
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 October 2017 15:17 (six years ago) link
Just seen Tess and I think it's my favorite, really beautiful, glad I didn't pass on it. Tenant is probably my second.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 3 June 2018 13:30 (five years ago) link
for a debut feature-length film, Knife in the Water is outstanding
― Dan S, Sunday, 30 December 2018 23:22 (five years ago) link
This has been out since February, but I just stumbled over it last week.
http://www.amazon.ca/Big-Goodbye-Chinatown-Years-Hollywood-ebook/dp/B07QSPPLQQ
Waiting for the price to come down, will certainly read it then.
― clemenza, Friday, 22 May 2020 03:47 (three years ago) link
Just finished it a couple weeks ago, and while I think the author sometimes presumptively gets inside his protagonists' heads in a way that kind of turned me off, and while its denouement is a little sharper than I'd hoped for, it's not merely the love letter to New Hollywood the subtitle suggests.
― Vegemite Is My Grrl (Eric H.), Friday, 22 May 2020 13:56 (three years ago) link
tragic he’s not dead yet
― no (Left), Friday, 22 May 2020 14:13 (three years ago) link
He will be. His films will go on, so you'll have to come to terms with that.
(xpost) I don't think I have any illusions about that period. I'm sure the Peter Biskind book barely touched on the horrible stuff that went on off-camera (if that's what you mean). And as I've said many times, the more self-indulgent films of the era are almost unwatchable by any standard except repeated exposure to them at a young age (i.e., why I can still watch, say, Save the Tiger).
― clemenza, Friday, 22 May 2020 16:11 (three years ago) link
I will watch a Roman Polanski movie no sooner than the day he dies, I decided quite some time ago.
― silby, Friday, 22 May 2020 16:49 (three years ago) link
i read that book, it was fairly interesting but the writing was frustratingly florid
― na (NA), Friday, 22 May 2020 17:07 (three years ago) link
(xpost) Intrigued by the marker; I would have thought that people are either okay with watching his films or not okay with that, regardless of the timing.
― clemenza, Friday, 22 May 2020 17:28 (three years ago) link
(xp) yeah, I think that's kinda where I was trying to go with the bit about needlessly inserting himself into the mindset of the players
― Vegemite Is My Grrl (Eric H.), Friday, 22 May 2020 17:32 (three years ago) link
"tess" is a decent historical costume drama but dang it LOOKS gorgeous
― na (NA), Tuesday, 13 July 2021 14:29 (two years ago) link
How does nobody vote for FVK? Bloomin Bad Brains even wrote a toetapping toon with the title
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 13 July 2021 15:45 (two years ago) link
Fearless Vampire Killers is amusing and well-made, doesn't deserve the terrible reviews I've read; I saw both it and Tess on the big screen. My vote would have been for Cul de Sac.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 13 July 2021 20:59 (two years ago) link