I Just Wanted To Take Another Look At You - the 2018 ILX Film Poll Results Thread

https://i.imgur.com/2tECsPD.jpg

35= Acht Stunden sind kein Tag [Eight Hours Are Not A Day]
w/d: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
DE 1972 16mm TV
98 points, 3 votes

90 minutes to go on Eight Hours... Is this the least neurotic character ever played by Hanna Schygulla?

What comes across in the less distanced/Brechtian performance style is how good and versatile all these actors are.

Also I find Gottfried John ridiculously sexy.

― Dr Morbius, Sunday, 25 March 2018

Halfway through Eight Hours. I don't know who I like better, Grandma or Gregor--they're like the funniest movie old-people since Aunt Lotte in Stranger Than Paradise. (I know--TV, and they came first.) I wonder if Fassbinder considered shooting it in Cinemascope, just to accommodate Gottfried John's eyebrows.

...

I was a little apprehensive about seeing this. There was the length, obviously, but more in relation to my own sleep deprivation and whether I'd hold up. But more than that, I saw a dozen-plus Fassbinder films before I was 25--he was the guy whose every new film you rushed off to see if you were studying film in the early '80s, his and Scorsese's--but, except for Berlin Alexanderplatz a couple of more times--I never went back to anything after that. I just didn't know how his idiosyncrasies would hold up; some of those films I remember positively, some I doubt I'd have much use for today.

Really glad I followed through--liked pretty much the whole eight hours. The wedding party, in particular, was masterful, and there was so much humour. Of all that I could single out, I'd put Gottfried John's unwavering affection for his grandmother at the top of the list. Great soundtrack, too--I'm off in search of the Spooky Tooth song he used.

― clemenza, Monday, 3 September 2018

dead souls my number two, understand the running time (and subject matter) make it a tough proposition. but it's vital, captivating and haunting; an incredible documentation of oral history that interplays with the pretty haunting footage shot at the location of the camps. think someone said it on another thread but it's key that wang never prods or pushes the survivors, lets them tell their stories and keeps editing to a minimum

been awhile since I’ve seen it but I also think there's a lot here to be explored in terms of the ideology of ‘authority' and ‘work’ - and how the organisational structure of the camp kinda lasts to the bitter end when it’s meaningless

haven't seen eight hours..., would love to!

had 8H at #2

on Criterion

https://i.imgur.com/cYdagp7.jpg

35= Phantom Thread
d: Paul Thomas Anderson w: PTA & DDL
US 2018 35mm
98 points, 4 votes

Placed at #1 last year, with 416 points, 19 votes and 6 #1s.

what a windbag movie

- darraghmac, Thursday, 26 July 2018

latecomers

I may have voted for Phantom Thread both years, can't remember.

latecomers people who don't live in NYC or LA, the only cities in which it was released in 2017

i know, just kiddin

(US voters could've recognized NY/LA as part of their country and still voted for it last year... as most did)

won without their votes, a true champion

https://i.imgur.com/nhlDVpq.jpg

35= Can You Ever Forgive Me?
d: Marielle Heller w: Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty b: Lee Israel
US 2018 digital 6K
98 points, 6 votes

Can You Ever Forgive Me? was good and its place in the bottom half of a top 10 is appropriate in a relatively mediocre year

― flappy bird, Friday, November 16, 2018

6/10 - might have rated this higher if the trailer hadn't given away the entire plot of the movie

― Ward Fowler, Saturday, March 2, 2019

the queerest mainstream film I saw last year

First thing I voted for to place! No masterpiece--I had it near the bottom of my list--but I'll take McCarthy in more roles like this, pls.

It understands a central truth about writing: you need money and you lie.

I wouldn't make any great claims for it but I loved it anyway.

precisely

Also, I highly doubt anyone else here watches Jann (singer/songwriter Jann Arden's CBC sitcom) but between it and this film, middle-age-lesbian cringe-comedy seems to be a thing lately.

regret missing this one, will rectify soon

I wouldn't raise your expectations, but it's slier and fleeter than its trailers suggest, and I'd watch a series of movies about the McCarthy-Grant duo.

https://i.imgur.com/RwMEjXq.jpg

34. The Death of Stalin
d: Armando Ianucci w: Armando Iannucci, David Schneider, Ian Martin a: Peter Fellows b: Fabien Nury, Thierry Robin
UK 2017 digital 5K
100 points, 5 votes

Placed at 22 in 2017, with 104 points and 6 votes

I laughed so hard throughout Death of Stalin and also shivered and that's exactly what the film was about, in that regard it's a complete success, basically I don't agree with you guys but I love you all nonetheless.

- Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 25 July 2018

I thought it was very funny and surprisingly moving. I'd have preferred everyone to be British, i guess, it would have made more sense and been funnier. Isaacs was the bomb but Andrea Riseborough's performance was stunning as well.

- jed, Wednesday, 25 July 2018

Can you ever forgive me was my first pick to place as well! It caused me to experience emotions of sadness and didn't try to make the central duo suddenly prosocial at the end which is nice.

"Who the FUCK would want eternal life??" - Buscemi/Khrushchev

this movie was not good

ffs

just save yourself the bother and watch the "hilarious" trailer.

this was bad, panel show levels of unfunny

just watch the armando ianucci shows

go get yer Apatow

can only assume americans not having to put up with smug british comedy 24/7 makes this easier to digest

or smug British comedy fans!

btw sic, the VV P&J used to combine vote totals over 2 years (but wd not have permitted Phantom Thread to win 2 years in a row)

https://sovietmoviesonline.com/comedy/305-hrustalev-mashinu.html

don't watch that watch Khrustalyov, My Car!

Toni Erdmann won in 2016, placed at 40 in 2017.

https://i.imgur.com/dzek4Kj.jpg

33. First Man
d: Damien Chazelle w: Josh Singer b: James R. Hansen
US 2018 16mm, 35mm, IMAX 65mm
101 points, 4 votes

Saw this at the imax last night (because my wife decrees that we have to see all space movies at the imax). It’s not a great movie for that format, the handheld camera is a bit jarring at that size and my enduring impression is that Ryan’s Gosling has weirdly small ears. It does, however set up an interesting counterpoint with the lunar scenes being full imax as opposed to the rest of the film being regular widescreen, as well as going from jumpy handheld to serene. I guess that’s the point, also going from high activity to a very contrasting moment of serenity on the moon.

It also owes a lot to the right stuff, I found the colour and grain to match that film very well and the first scene is almost a mirror of Chuck Yeager’s last flight in that film. (Bouncing off the atmosphere rather than failing to reach space). It’s not quite as inspiring as the right stuff but it’s a much more personal film, very sparse dialogue, reflecting Armstrong’s character.

Worthwhile, I think although was pretty stoked for the queen biopic they trailed before hand.

― Ed, Thursday, October 18, 2018


Oh yeah, all that handheld camerawork really got on my nerves. I saw regular DCP projection fwiw.

Also forgot to mention that when I saw it, when they got the moon and the soundtrack went completely silent, we all heard Lady Gaga belting a song from A Star is Born playing in an adjacent theater. Lol

― flappy bird, Thursday, October 18, 2018

Finally saw this, loved it.

It represented Armstrong so beautifully.
His inscrutability, his steadfastness, his depth...but also how much he and all the Gemini & Apollo astronauts gave to the program, the deeply human cost of getting to the moon & the weight of the achievement of actually setting foot on the moon by showing how much had to go right.

I thought it was truly a beautiful movie, and a credit to
Armstrong & his family.

I never thought Gosling could pull off a characterization of Armstrong but hats (helmets?) off, he really killed it.

― VegemiteGrrl, Tuesday, February 19, 2019

in my top 10

A bore.

A well-meaning one though.

https://i.imgur.com/t86RIM6.jpg

32. Hale County This Morning, This Evening
d: RaMell Ross w: RaMell Ross, Maya Krinsky (doco)
US 2018 DSLR
104 points, 4 votes

tried this one a couple times too

made my ballot

thought this film was beautiful

In my top 5.

I really don’t have anything to say about Can You Ever Forgive Me. It’s the most “fine” movie I saw last year and the least likely I’ll ever revisit.

otm

For a documentary Hale County is extremely oblique and decentered, but it makes sense as an intuitive right-brained portrait of a group of people, and there are many beautiful auditory and visual effects and surreal juxtapositions of images

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is the best of the masterpieces, but I'd say The Wild Pear Tree is a masterpiece as well. Nuri Bilge Ceylan might be my favorite of the, like, praised directors working at this moment. Apichatbong is better, but irregular, ditto Hou Hsaio-hsien, etc. Every couple of years there's a new Ceylan, it's always different, nearly always great, and always in new ways.

The Image Book rose a lot in my estimation as I kept on thinking about it. What a way to go out if this is his last one. The parallels between the old man dancing until he faints, and Godard trying to talk but coughing. Beautiful self portrait in there.

Dead Souls on of the simpler eight hour films I've ever seen - ok, the only eight hour film I've ever seen, and yeah, eight hours is pretty much a day - but the point of showing the funeral close to the beginning, then later on showing all the unburied bones, then having the old, dying people tell their stories before it's too late, is very powerful. These victims deserve to be lamented, and if their families can't, then these eight hours can perhaps help a little.