Last (x) movies you saw

A month almost completely dominated by catching up on TCM PVRs and highlighted by two Daphne Du Maurier adaptations (though one was a re-watch).

*The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963) 9/10
Dear White People (Simien, 2014) 7/10
The Thin Man (Van Dyke, 1934) 8/10
Top Hat (Sandrich, 1935) 7/10
Don’t Look Now (Roeg, 1973) 9/10
The Great Dictator (Chaplin, 1940) 7/10
Laura (Preminger, 1944) 6/10

Also, though I don't usually list the shorts I watch here, this one deserves special attention:

Benny’s Gym (Gamlem, 2007) 8/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS3iLKRwHcE

The Old Maid (Goulding, 1940) 6/10
The Collector (Wyler, 1965) 5/10
* The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Bunuel, 1972) 9/10
Ordet (Dreyer, 1955) 5/10

wild tales: oof, talk about bad timing

oh, shit, hadn't thought about that. it will premiere here in a few weeks as well, not good.

alfred ordet explain

Too stagebound, too tied to what sounds to my ears like a howler of a play in which the degrees of faith and unbelief are as schematic as what I'll later see in a Woody Allen movie. I love The Passion of Joan of Arc and -- especially! -- Day of Wrath. By the end I was waiting for the girl to die so I could make my own pot of coffee without Grandfather telling me how I should drink it.

to me the movie was one of those cases where after the first half hour I knew exactly what was going to happen and watching these overdirected-to-death actors exit and enter the home was its own kind of spiritual death.

first: thanks for humouring me & elaborating.

so interesting, though, thinking that what maybe reads as stagebound to you might be the thing that's so distinctly-even-quintessentially cinematic to me; i can't think of another film that so authoritatively uses the camera, i guess hitchcock is the other point of reference, to steer and position us. there's no trace of a stage, there, to me; there's space and geography.

sotto voce i've actually never seen dreyer's joan of arc, but this is so far beyond day of wrath, for me. the tone is so whistling & commanding, so much weight pools in the silences, actors' every action seem to emanate thought & real feeling. there's just such weight. it's so remote & so close. if the thing that was going to happen is, you know, the thing that happens in this film, i guess i can understand something of an overwhelming sense of direction to it - i was either lucky enough to not know or else just too blind to read the signals. but it's just so engrossing, i think. the sense in which it's a play to me is seeing such kind of willy-loman-strength broad characters at work, a weary doctor, a nervous woman, &c, & then feeling like i was on the edge of my seat waiting for the nature of the quieter man to emerge or clarify.

i can't think of another film that so authoritatively uses the camera, i guess hitchcock is the other point of reference, to steer and position us. there's no trace of a stage, there, to me; there's space and geography.

wow -- this is a Big Statement. The shrewdest moments of camera use to me were Dreyer's rendering of Jesus guy. Dreyer rarely isolates him; we see him at almost all times within the confines of medium shots with his family or at least doing bits of business in the background (if my memory serves). He didn't judge him. On the contrary -- his psychosis (if indeed it is one!) and his family's traumas bear the same weight.

What's your problem with The Collector?

Takes a while to get going; it's closer to a 6 but I ain't Pitchfork. Stamp is a singular screen presence, no doubt.

i'm talking, i think, about those deliberate partial rotations the camera will make around the house, & outside it too (tracking Jesus Guy, iirc); it's just done with such surety & it (still) feels novel, to me, still fresh, like it's such a pointed conditioning directorial move - something that we're aware of, that we feel, & which presents us with what we're meant to see - & yet something elliptical or open enough as to be unobtrusive entirely in service of the film. it just feels like such a bold move - austere gets thrown around a lot w/dreyer, correctly, but remembering that it expands to stuff like physically-minimal but totally readable set design, it's major that he is interrupting static shots with an un-gradual, arcing turn. i don't know. it's so long since i've seen this (though: a couple times, i think), & i'm probably trying to extract a physics from something that's really a mood, but yeah i just can't think of anyone doing such precise work with their camera without getting into like ... crash zooms in hong films or hitchcock movements with way more concrete narrative semiotics behind them. i really love ordet. i am pretty sure i could draw a map of the house right now. though this maybe supports your stagebound criticism ...

I love Ordet but its too long since I've seen it to comment. Is it just me or does Dreyer really unnerve people like v few of the classic auteurs do nowdays?

Is it just me or does Dreyer really unnerve people like v few of the classic auteurs do nowdays?

I guess, I mean in some ways his place in the canon seems pretty secure - Joan is a 'top ten classic', most of his 'major' films are available in excellent home viewing editions, he's part of Schrader's transcendental trinity etc. And at least some of that unnerving quality comes from the way he handles space and camera movement and editing in his films - so the 'stagey' quality of Ordet and Getrud especially are undermined by a filmmaking technique that's radically different to the seamless classical Hollywood narrative style. It makes these two films feel slightly dull and wooden and yet intense and cosmic all at the same time.

It makes these two films feel slightly dull and wooden and yet intense and cosmic all at the same time.

Ward - that is really well put. Thanks.

Ordet can't transcend this awful and schematic play, which, I dunno, perhaps plays better in its native tongue.

Only saw Day of Wrath once. It's the only Dreyer film I've not had the desire to see again.

That's also the worst of his I've seen. Though 'worst' is relative wrt Dreyer.

Gertrud is just the best. (Before anyone asks I also like torture.)

did you see any of those early, very bucolic silent features he made, xyzzzz, when bfi released them again a few years ago? really wonderful. i know none of the titles.

Gertrud is just the best. (Before anyone asks I also like torture.)

Truer words...

My list of favorite movies confirms I'm fit to be tied.

schlump I haven't - bfi did a Dreyer retro about two years ago and I didn't get round to anything #iamlame.

*looking at wiki now* Michael is one of the films I wanted to catch then.

I'm not entirely sure what you have against the play, Alfred, so I don't know exactly how to respond. As far as I can tell, Dreyer changed the ending pretty significantly. The writer of the play, Kaj Munk, is def a minor figure in Danish literature, he's more a big figure because he has become very entwined with the German occupation, at first seemingly flirting with parts of nazi ideology, but later condemning the occupants, and ending up being straight up murdered by the Germans - one of the very few artists they killed.

The battle between the religious groups def play well in Denmark, because it's taken from actual life, and it's a battle that still goes on today. I think everybody gets what it's about, what it means that some of them follow Grundtvig, that Johannes has read too much Kirkegaard, and that the other group are Inner Mission. In these small societies, the local church will be the old center of local life, and very old, and receive funding from the state, and the battle of who gets to assign new priests will become very angry and ugly. Like, both my sets of grandparents come from such small towns - in one of them, the church is from the 13th century, I think - and that battle STILL happens - though another group called Tidehverv (Turn of Times) at times takes the place of Inner Mission in being reactionary assholes.

I don't know if that is in any way helpful?

Frederik have you seen the play Gertrud is based on?

Well, no. That is also a Swedish play, and I'm not even sure if it has been played in Denmark in my liftime. Dreyer had a weird taste in drama. According to wikipedia, there's a 1999 Swedish tv-adaptation, if anyone is curious.

I'm not entirely sure what you have against the play, Alfred, so I don't know exactly how to respond.

"Show don't tell" would've been my advice, although I conceded the efficiency and beauty of some of Dreyer's compositions and camera movement. Talk talk talk about the crises.

http://store.unionchapel.org.uk/events/3-apr-15-the-passion-of-joan-of-arc-with-live-score-union-chapel/

^Since we are talking 'bout Dreyer.

Advise and Consent (9.0)
Collateral (7.0)
Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show (5.5)
Dumbo (7.5)
Brokedown Palace (6.5)
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (7.0)
Walk on the Wild Side (6.5)
I Used to Be Darker (7.0)
Proof (6.5)
Certified Copy (7.0)
Casualties of War (10.0)

Wow at that 10.0 for "Casualties Of war". Curious why? I watched it again after many years just a month or so ago. Found it hammy, overwrought and realized Michael J. Fox is/was a terrible actor ( speak a bit of line/look down at floor or to side/stutter/continue with line...repeat)

Sombre (7)
Skin Deep (Edwards) (6
Life Of Riley (Resnais) (6)
My Darling Clementine (pre-release version) (9)

It's been one of my favourite films since it came out--probably seen it 10 times by now. The only time I think it gets heavy-handed is during Fox's (brief) maybe-it-matters-more-than-ever speech; otherwise, it's the rare brutal film that I find very moving.

Seven Samurai (very good)
Pieta (was bracing myself for more brutality but it's surprisingly sad, also very good)

*Blade Runner (Scott, 1982) 10/10
Going Clear (Gibney, 2015) 8/10
A Man Escaped (Bresson, 1956) 9/10
Django (Corbucci, 1966) 6/10
While We're Young (Baumbach, 2015) 5/10

Fruitvale Station (Coogler, 2013)
Redes (Muriel/Zinnemann, 1936)
--- went to a music festival and wound up watching five films:
Haxan (Christensen, 1922; live score by Demdike Stare)
*Eraserhead (Lynch, 1977)
Decasia (Morrison, 2002)
The Great Flood (Morrison, 2013; live score by the Bill Frisell Quartet)
My Winnipeg (Maddin, 2007)
---
Identification of a Woman (Antonioni, 1982)
tried to watch The Tales of Hoffman last night but bailed after Olympia; sorry, ballet, but you and I will apparently never get along.

I thought Fruitvale Station was nicely understated.

Between Two Wars (Farocki, 1978)
The Lonely Voice Of Man (Sokurov, 1987)
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
White God (Mundruczo, 2014)
Tales of Hoffmann (Powell/Pressburger, 1951)

Wanted to like that first Farocki feature but the dialogue let it down. Absolutely loved The Lonely Voice Of Man as an attempt to try and capture Andrei Platonov's voice. Maidan was an interesting application of Straub/Huillet principles w/out it being quite as in love with its boredom. Hoffmann had a section for the credits where the singer was shown on one side and the actor on the other, this at a time when in a musical the singer wasn't given credit. Just found the whole thing incredibly moving.

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, March 21, 2015 10:52 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hey how was white god?

I haven't been watching a lot of movies this year.

The Dark Crystal (1982) 3/10
When Harry Met Sally (1989) 7/10
Under the Skin (2013) 7/10
The Heat (2013) 5/10
The Interview (2014) 6/10
Boyhood (2014) 8/10
The Hunt (2012) 7/10
Now You See Me (2013) 7/10
Intolerable Cruelty (2003) 6/10
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) 7/10

There was a dedication to Jancso, which I didn't understand at the time except I have since found out last week he passed away. And Red Psalm is prime 70s film.

White God = Crufts + The Birds. The first ref point may not make sense to you. Watched it over a month ago now but I'd sketchily say the symbolism was way too heavy - but its often the case with Eastern European and Russian film, and I actually like the overloaded symbolism except there were political points here that were obscure to me. I know diff Eastern European nations have different experiences within the European Union, wasn't sure how to map this onto what I was watching or whether I should. Maybe there is no direct politics except than more of a 'we find out about ourselves by the way we treat dogs/animals'. its a bit banal tho'. So we can love and be cruel to them too..

There is a family drama, which did feel tacked on.

Have you seen it? xp

White God was a disappointment.

White God (Mundruczó, 2015) 4/10
I Killed My Mother (Dolan, 2009) 6/10
The Old Maid (Goulding, 1940) 7/10
* Masculin Feminin (Godard, 1964) 8/10

Signed up for HBO Now, so I'm watching some of the movies while waiting for Game of Thrones on Sunday. Two days ago I saw Non-Stop, aka Liam Neeson On A Plane. It was OK. Last night I saw Rush, the Ron Howard movie about the Formula 1 rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda in the 70s. My dad was obsessed with Formula 1 back then, when I was 4-5 years old, so it brought back a lot of childhood memories. I used to have photos of myself at Watkins Glen racetrack, maybe age 3, with giant wads of cotton stuffed in my ears.

aw, i was excited about white god.

i just did 'actress' and 'only lovers left alive' and was drastically underwhelmed by both. couldn't even get through actress. jarmusch is a great film maker but his later films suffer from a flimsiness of plot and character that reminds me of wes andersen.

OLLA much flimsier than recent Wes imho.

thought Actress was a fine x-ray of a certain type of conflicted striver.

Going Clear (2015) 6/10
Force Majeure (2014) 5/10
Mr. Turner (2014) 9/10

Both Going Clear and Force Majeure spend most of their time and energy skewering some very soft targets. But Going Clear has better villains.

i will have to cop to saying i enjoyed Budapest Hotel more than Only Lovers. Five months ago me would be shocked to hear that.
Actress felt awkward and boring in the extreme; if it was a drama, it was barely fit to serve, as a documentary, it seemed stunningly lopsided and pretentious.

Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind. Pretty good but the main character was annoying for a lot of the film. Maybe I shouldn't have watched the English dub, don't know if that would make much difference.

Throne Of Blood. This is usually ranked very high in Kurosawa's output but I didn't like it as much as most of the others I've seen. Still some very good scenes in it.

Orphee. Liked bits of this.

I wasn't able to catch what they'd decided on at the end of Only Lovers Left Alive. Wish Mia Wasikowska was in it much longer. Haha at Rodney Dangerfield on the wall of friends.

Agree that Throne of Blood is NBD.

I love Throne of Blood. Probably my favorite Shakespeare movie.

throne of blood was my fave movie as a kid; saw it recently and it holds up well imo

as a kid!