Last (x) movies you saw

Simon Killer (Campos, 2013) 7/10
The Tall T (Boetticher, 1957) 7/10
The Hidden Fortress (Kurosawa, 1958) 8/10
That Obscure Object of Desire (Bunuel, 1977) 8/10
Germany Year Zero (Rossellini, 1948) 8/10
A Separation (Farhadi, 2011) 8/10
Tusk (Smith, 2014) 3/10
Dans Ma Peau (Devan, 2002) 7/10
Rancho Deluxe (Perry, 1975) 6/10
Shame (Bergman, 1968) 9/10
Play (Ostlund, 2011) 7/10
The Spy in Black (Powell, 1939) 7/10
Enfants Du Paradis (Carne, 1945) 8/10

Birdman (Inarritu, 2014) 6/10
Big Eyes (Burton, 2014) 6/10
Foxcatcher (Miller, 2014) 5/10
Whiplash (Chazelle, 2013) 5/10

Enfants Du Paradis (Carne, 1945) 8/10

Changed your mind over this? Or am I misremembering it?

You remember correctly, think having now watched some of the earlier Carne/Prevert films helped me to 'see through' the theatricality, or whatever was bothering me before. The ending, which I didn't get to on my last attempted viewing, is as bleak as any neo-noir.

I love the earlier films, just never got around to this.

MOEBIUS. Really enjoyable, almost fun but not quite. I thought all his previous films were supposed to be completely realistic with moments of poetic fantasy but after seeing this totally unrealistic film I think maybe Coast Guard wasn't supposed to be as serious as I thought (I thought it was flawed because it was it was a series of unlikely fuckups presented as reasons against what the south Korean military were doing, but maybe not).
I not sure what to make of the whole Buddhist aspect of Moebius. What kind of sex life is Kim Ki-Duk advising?

Really got me in the mood for more Kim Ki-Duk. I thought I'd seen all I needed of his after 7 or 8 of his films but I think he's changing enough to be refreshing.
He's not my top favourite director but I think he's the most consistently enjoyable director I've ever encountered.

Would a Kim Ki-Duk poll be viable?

haven't seem any of Kim's work; is moebius an okay intro point?

It is but it's not totally representative. It's more extreme than most of his films. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring is probably the standard entry.

the isle and bad guy were my entry points, and i'd probably recommend the latter to those curious abt kim. moebius is amazing, but also insanely grisly, fair warning.

Big Eyes (Burton, 2014) 6/10

― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Sunday, February 1, 2015 2:59 AM (9 hours ago)

oh yeah, i forgot that one when making yesterdays list. did not enjoy it at all. 4/10 (if we're doing this imdb style)

But The Isle has some of the most horrific and nasty injury I've ever seen despite the film being so quiet. I'd give this one more warning despite Moebius being more extreme overall.

wait, make Big Eyes a 3/10 after all

also, though redundant:

Birdman (2014) - 7/10
Hard to Be a God (2013) - 8/10
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - 7/10
Gone Girl (2014) - 4/10
Only Lovers Left Alive (2014) - 7/10
Predestination (2014) - 8/10
Enemy (2013) - 8/10
Maps to the Stars (2014) - 6/10
Nymphomaniac: Vols I & II (2013) - 7/10

xp yeah, i'm recommending bad guy as a starting point, not the isle

Bad Guy is maybe more consistently bleak than the others. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring is a really gorgeous film and although all his films are depressing or unpleasant in some way, most of them have beauty or moments of joy. I think Bad Guy doesn't have much of a bright side so I'm not sure about that entry point, it may not have enticed me to want more.

Here's how I'd rank the ones I've seen.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring
Moebius
Breath
Time
3-Iron
The Isle
The Bow
Bad Guy
Samaritan Girl
The Coast Guard

Moebius was banned very briefly but I don't think it's nearly as unpleasant as I Saw The Devil or Sympathy For Mr Vengeance.

I've heard worrying things about growing censorship in South Korea. Maybe Park Chan Wook is trying to make his films outside there now?

Hmm, Spring, Summer, Fall [etc.] is probably my least favorite among the Kim films I've seen. It's both lovely and accessible, but I just didn't get much out of it. I recommend Bad Guy because it came as such a gripping, startling and difficult viewing experience for me - without quite so fully crossing into the toe-curling nastiness of stuff like The Isle and Moebius. Not that it's by any means a pleasant film, and it's arguably the most morally troubling of the lot. I haven't seen as many as you, RAG, but i'd rank them:

Moebius
Bad Guy
Pieta (just watched, still sorting)
The Isle
3-Iron
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring

Need to see Samaritan Girl and the post 3-Iron run from The Bow through Dream (avail thru Netflix atm).

so glad people have realized that Christoph Waltz turns only one boring trick.

yeah :[

As horrific as those scenes are in The Isle, looking back I think the kissing scene at the start of Bad Guy is the most unpleasant thing in any of the Kim Ki-Duk films I listed. The first time I saw that was really hard to deal with.

I not sure what to make of the whole Buddhist aspect of Moebius.

Karma-like, innit?

Yes, the repetitions and cycles are made clear but I wasn't quite as clear as I'd like about the choice the son makes at the end. But that can't be discussed without spoilers.

"overcoming attachment"

lol

Watched the Dumb and Dumber sequel last night. Really just about as lame as you'd think. Maybe 10% as funny as the first one.

Festival!!!

Key House Mirror (Noer, 2015)
Timbuktu (Sissako, 2014)
The Iron Ministry (Sniadecki, 2014)*
Mateo (Gamboa, 2014)
Tokyo Tribe (Sono, 2014)
La Sapienza (Green, 2014)
My Skinny Sister (Lenken, 2015)
Goodbye to Language (Godard, 2014)
Daugther... Mother... Daughter... (Rezaee, 2014)
Pixadores (Escandari, 2014)
Alive (Park, 2014)
In Your Arms (Salhstrøm, 2015)
Life May Be (Cousins & Akbari, 2014)
Field of Dogs (Majewski, 2014)
Winter Buoy (Kempff, 2015)
Journey to the West (Tsai, 2014)*
Paris of the North (Sigurdsson, 2014)
Thou Wast Mild and Lovely (Decker, 2014)
Wild Tales (Szifron, 2014)
Still the Water (Kawase, 2014)
Something Must Break (Bergsmark, 2014)
They Have Escaped (Valkeapää. 2014)
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Andersson, 2014)
Homesick (Sewitsky, 2015)
Underdog (Sandahl, 2014)
When I Will Be a Dictator (André, 2014)
Amour Fou (Hausner, 2014)
Every Face Has a Name (Gertten, 2015)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Assayas, 2014)
Pervert Park (Barkfors & Barkfors, 2014)
From What Is Before (Diaz, 2014)
Good Girl (Melkeraaen, 2014)
Women In Oversized Men's Shirts (Flikke, 2015)
Democrats (Nielsson, 2014)
Horse Money (Costa, 2014)*
Jauja (Alonso, 2014)
Dust in the Wind (Hou, 1987)*
Exit (Chienn, 2014)
Butter on the Latch (Decker, 2014)
National Gallery (Wiseman, 2014)
Li'l Quinquin (Dumont, 2014)

Shorts
Mommy (Alami, 2015)
Cupcake (Magnusson, 2014)
Four Women (Vinberg, 2015)
Northern Great Mountain (Kernell, 2014)
Boys (Carbonell, 2015)
Second Deputy Speaker (von Aertryck, 2015)
(Fragments from Lost Swedish Silent Films)

42 showings. Only possible because I could stay on the couch of my cousin, who lived right in the center of the circle of cinemas, meaning I never had more than a 15 min walk to and from a showing. And they even made dinner and coffee for me at times! I loooove festivals!

National Gallery (Wiseman, 2014)

Any good? Don't know anything about Wiseman but I love the National Gallery.

I was absolutely riveted, but I majored in cultural communication, and most of it is people explaining works of art, so it was right up my alley. It will probably make you love the National Gallery even more, they seem like they are really great at what they do.

Cool, looks like I've missed the theatrical release but might be able to catch it at a festival next month..

loved it

it's fine but i'm ready for FW to move off the institutional settings (eg Jackson Heights, Queens is his next subject)

Frederik B - Over what period of time did you see all that? And what were the highlights?

Clouds of Sils Maria (Assayas, 2014)

how was this

10 days. Highlights were Amour Fou, rewatching Journey to the West, Horse Money and Dust in the End (that final one on 35mm!!) discovering Josephine Decker as my favourite new American filmmaker, that the Danish films Key House Mirror and In Your Arms were extremely good for Danish films, and being shocked and stunned by finnish roadmovie They Have Escaped and the 5½ hours of From What Is Before. And also La Sapienza, had no idea who Eugene Green was.

The lowlight was Still the Water, which I don't like at all.

I wrote about Clouds of Sils Maria here Short version: It is quite good, but I will never be a huge fan of Olivier Assayas.

Dust in the Wind god dammit.

Don't you like Carlos Frederik, really one of the best films of the last few years I think.

Yeah, I like Carlos, and Summer Hours even more. But I don't love love them, and I don't love his filmmaking as a whole. Not the way I love for example Claire Denis, where, even when I don't really love something like Bastards, I still like it as another film by Denis. I think I don't care for Assayas' favorite themes, and I think he at times handles them in an uninvolved matter.

really you never saw Clementine before, Wm? Top 3 Ford for me.

― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, January 21, 2015 9:22 PM

Should I record She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Cheyenne Autumn this Saturday?

If I can claim a favorite working director, it's Assayas.

He's a decent 84th place.

who are the 83 above him

Robert Redford.

he's only 78

Wm, yes

Is Emmanuel Olivier still alive?

saw him move

before Carlos, the last Assayas I sorta loved was Les destinées (2000). Usually good tho.

(best Limoges china movie evah)

Watched The Drop this morning because Gandolfini, but he didn't get much to do, mostly imitate Tony Soprano in fussy bossypants mode, even when he was killin' a guy. One okay monologue, but otherwise a dim bulb surface: he couldn't really think he was likely to get away with this shit, but I figured he mainly just wanted outta this fuckin' life one way or the other, and Lehane's novel of his screenplay of his short story confirms my figure in passing. Tom Hardy and the rest of the cast are real good, as good as the writing allows, which is good enough, except for G.'s character, Cousin Marv. The dog's good tool and he doesn't get killed---ooo spoiler, but often dogs do get killed, esp. to show that the movie daringly deals with serious human concerns, but this flick, though decidedly whattayagonnadoo fahgeddaboutit familiar and minor, doesn't lean on that shit, so respect.

agghhh, the dog's good *too* I meant--shaddap you!

Dream Castle (James B. Harris, 1973)
McCabe and Mrs Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
Ceddo (Ousmane Sembene, 1977)
Sanka (Kaneto Shindo, 1972)
Happiness (Aleksandr Medvedkin, 1934)
A Canterbury Tale (Powell & Pressburger, 1944)
Les Creatures (Varda, 1966)
Go Go Second Time Virgin (Wakamatsu, 1969)
Ukrainian Rhapsody (Parajanov, 1961)
To Sleep With Anger (Burnett, 1990)
Affair in the Snow (Kiju Yoshida, 1968)
Inside/Out (Rob Tregenza, 1997)
Tod und Teufel (Peter Nestler, 2009)
Waiting (Peter Nestler, 1985) (short film)

Highlights aplenty: Dream Castle is a favourite of one-time ilxor (?) (Kevin John Bozelka), thought I'd give it a go and this might be the best film Richard Pryor was in -- as crackhead using his disruptive energies, further distorting the dream logic -- you really didn't know where this was going at all, as if surrealist principles had been way too rigorously applied that when the end came you couldn't believe you hadn't seen it. Time to wake up! Ceddo is pure crystal ball today, with its Muslim guerrillas taking over parts of Africa, has some great music and might be slightly overshadowed by the greatness of Xala. A Cantebury Tale is surely P&P's most under-screened classic on Brit TV (have never seen it). I don't think anyone has written scenes of friendship as well as these guys. Must get to Canterbury in spring. Inside/out is a more than a curio although I got a shagged out copy. There is enough flair in the B&W, the light comes through strong enough at those windows, even if it doesn't exactly illuminate the darkness in this obliquely told story of inmates in the asylum. The threat and violence of the police/authority are never far away which raises it above technicals into more of what I mostly look for from film. Peter Nestler is a contemporary of Straub/Huillet and Tod und Teufel puts together his Nazi grandfather's story -- from his photographs in East African to films made in the v early days of film. Nestler is so sharp, one of the greats - he actually never makes anything out of the family connection (mentioning 'questions that persisted' but that's about it). Nestler doesn't let the personal interfere -- we need to think too -- by letting the images and quotes from his father's diary stand for itself, stating facts almost bloodlessly, and not editing this way or that so that the contradictions are allowed to breathe.

The Thief of Bagdad (Powell, Berger, Whelan, Korda, Korda & Menzies, 1940)
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (Powell/Pressburger, 1942)
Olive Kitteridge (Cholodenko, 2014)
Silence (Shinoda, 1971)
Blow Out (DePalma, 1981)
A Most Violent Year (Chandor, 2014)
* Grand Illusion (Renoir, 1937)
The Game (Fincher, 1997)