Rate the last film you watched.

[wkw]

The Art of Vision (Stan Brakhage, 1965) - 2

I like my avant garde films to be under 2 hours, thanks.

[Clark Nova]

Nov 29, 2008 22:58:54 GMT -5 captainofbeef said:

Australia
7.5/10
An epic of incredible scale.

Yeah, Australia definitely looks like an epic...fail.

[Clark Nova]

Diamonds of the Night (Jan Nemec, 1964)

rantsandmusings.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/diamonds-of-the-night/

[PTAhole]

Nov 30, 2008 10:10:06 GMT -5 Clark Nova said:

Nov 29, 2008 22:58:54 GMT -5 captainofbeef said:

Australia
7.5/10
An epic of incredible scale.

Yeah, Australia definitely looks like an epic...fail.

Hilarious.

[ie]

Dec 1, 2008 2:54:00 GMT -5 PTAhole said:

Nov 30, 2008 10:10:06 GMT -5 Clark Nova said:

Yeah, Australia definitely looks like an epic...fail.

Hilarious.

I'd give that a 3/10. I've seen better.

[captainofbeef]

Sukiyaki Western Django
7/10
A very fun Eastern meets Western film. I'm usually not a fan of Miike but his overly stylized direction fits perfectly with a western. Sure, outside of Tarantino the acting is pretty pathetic and the storyline is ripped right from Yojmbo. But the film is tongue-in-cheek enough to actually work and it is definitely a fun ride.

[Clark Nova]

The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, et al, 1940)

rantsandmusings.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/the-thief-of-bagdad/

[captainofbeef]

Wanted
5/10
If one wants to watch a nonstop flurry of bullets and bodies tied into a ridiculous and nonsensical plot, then this is their film. Otherwise, stay away.

[drone]

Tokyo Story: 10/10


Behind every smile, behind every gentle bow lies a vibrant, dimly-light notion of melancholy. It travels up their spine, seeps out around the edges and crawls onto each and every character; forceless, absorbing, transient. They resonate with passion and contrived love, the grandmother and grandfather hopelessly lost and neglected amongst their very own children, their only true source of pride and happiness. The excuses and neglect their children produce are unflinchingly heartbreaking, as are the parents undying gratitude and love they exhibit. It's quiet, it's humble, it's a message to those dwelling in some sort of inhabitable reluctance within their lives. Highly recommended, and I look forward to my next Ozu experience.

[wkw]

Dec 4, 2008 5:17:44 GMT -5 drone said:

Tokyo Story: 10/10

Awesome, I'd recommend almost anything by Ozu, but I'd say that my fav ones out on dvd include Late Spring, Early Summer, and An Autumn Afternoon.

[wkw]

Chronicle of a Summer (Jean Rouch, 1961) - 10

Rouch and Morin's sociological experiment follows a group of Parisians from various walks of life during the Algerian War. Like Man With a Movie Camera, this is a fully self reflexive documentary. The filmmakers do not seek to be invisible like the American direct cinema of Pennebaker, Maysles, Leacock, etc. but actively appear on camera to interact with the subjects of the film, even bringing many of these people together interact and reveal things about their lives (there's even a Jean Pierre Leaud lookalike). This gives the film a very intimate and warm atmosphere. One of the goals of the experiment as said by the filmmakers in the beginning was to see if people behaved differently in the presence of a camera, whether people behave normally or act. In the penultimate scene where the people watch scenes of themselves in the film, argumnents arise over whether the subjects were acting or exposed themselves too much to the camera, even the ones who are filmed are not sure if they were acting or not. The films leaves many unanswered questions of the ability for a film to represent a person truthfully, to capture reality.

Duelle (Jacques Rivette, 1976) - 8

Well I had no idea what this was really about, but it's clearly a homage to film noir. There's something about the way the characters interact in this mystery that's strangely compelling to watch. The beautiful images of Lubtchansky and the diegetic music set a great atmosphere.

[ie]

Dec 3, 2008 18:28:19 GMT -5 captainofbeef said:

Wanted
5/10
If one wants to watch a nonstop flurry of bullets and bodies tied into a ridiculous and nonsensical plot, then this is their film. Otherwise, stay away.

Sounds like a masterpiece.

[drone]

Dec 4, 2008 17:50:50 GMT -5 wkw said:

Dec 4, 2008 5:17:44 GMT -5 drone said:

Tokyo Story: 10/10

Awesome, I'd recommend almost anything by Ozu, but I'd say that my fav ones out on dvd include Late Spring, Early Summer, and An Autumn Afternoon.

Just ordered An Autumn Afternoon today. I can't wait to watch it.

[wkw]

The Koumiko Mystery (Chris Marker, 1965) - 8

This was Marker's first film about Japan, made during the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, a modernized city undergoing globalization. It focuses on a young woman named Koumiko, who describes herself as Japanese in looks, but mixed up in spirit due to being born in Manchuria and having studied French. There are a lot of images of Tokyo that are reminiscent of Sans Soleil, but the two films are quite different. The narration here consists of various French news broadcasts and conversations between Marker and Koumiko where Marker asks her many sociological questions as well as more more personal ones. We hear her thoughts about what she wants from life and reminisces about her childhood, which are often quite poetic in their own way. I wish the video and sound quality was better, Icarus needs to release more of Marker's films.

[mixed]

No posts for ages so a few:

Rushmore - 9/10 - Just as colourful and amusing as I remembered.

Battleship Potyemkin - 8/10 - Great and all but slow in parts. Odesa stepas sequence is remarkable.

Eastern Promises - 10/10 - Holy cow, one of the best I've seen all year. Mortensen is sensational as the Russian 'driver'. Great fight sequence in a sauna....immense!

Deck the halls - 1/10 - Christmas bullshit, what happened to you Mr Devito?!

Beverley Hills Cop - 5/10 - I'd actually never seen this, some of it was funny in the dumbest of ways...

American psycho - 7/10 - reasonable but it's dodgily directed imo.

Fringe (tv!) Addictive, albeit poorly written. It's nice popcorn fodder.

Silence of the Lambs - 10/10 - amazing as always, just class!

[Clark Nova]

JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)

rantsandmusings.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/jfk/

[captainofbeef]

Brotherhood of the Wolf: The Director's Cut
7/10
Interesting blend of genres into a pretty entertaining movie. The plot isn't anything revolutionary and the plot twist is pretty obvious, but it keeps the viewer entertained nonetheless. Vincent Cassel, Samuel Le Bihan, and Monica Bellucci all deliver good performances and without them the film would fall apart. As with most director's cuts, the film is much too long and drawn out. But fans of period pieces and kung-fu should definitely give this one a look.

[ie]

Dec 8, 2008 18:11:03 GMT -5 captainofbeef said:

Brotherhood of the Wolf: The Director's Cut
7/10
Interesting blend of genres into a pretty entertaining movie. The plot isn't anything revolutionary and the plot twist is pretty obvious, but it keeps the viewer entertained nonetheless. Vincent Cassel, Samuel Le Bihan, and Monica Bellucci all deliver good performances and without them the film would fall apart. As with most director's cuts, the film is much too long and drawn out. But fans of period pieces and kung-fu should definitely give this one a look.

It's about twice as long as it should be, though. All the cool stuff just kind of wears out and we're left with not enough kung-fu and too much other stuff.

[mixed]

Vertigo - 9/10
I think it's overlong but the final half an hour amuses me and the denouement is pretty cool and unexpected. Plus vertigo really draws you in, one of the best mysteries ever I feel.

[mixed]

7.5/10

Oh and Rec, the original film now remade as 'quarantine'. I only learnt that before I watched it. I liked the film, some of it really freaked me out and the concept is good, if nothing particularly new. Good handheld camera work, barely any cuts and the performances remain decent. Good sfx too, and the ending is mucho creepy! My breathing got rather heavy in those last 5 minutes! Worth seeing.

[ie]

Dec 9, 2008 19:56:49 GMT -5 mixed said:

7.5/10

Oh and Rec, the original film now remade as 'quarantine'. I only learnt that before I watched it. I liked the film, some of it really freaked me out and the concept is good, if nothing particularly new. Good handheld camera work, barely any cuts and the performances remain decent. Good sfx too, and the ending is mucho creepy! My breathing got rather heavy in those last 5 minutes! Worth seeing.

I like you forgot the title as well.

[Clark Nova]

Nixon (Oliver Stone, 1995)

rantsandmusings.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/nixon/

[wkw]

On the Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Unity of Time (Guy Debord, 1959)
Critique of Separation (Guy Debord (1961)

I haven't seen Howls for Sade yet, but these are among the earliest of what can be described as essay films. The text is often pretty dense and vague for me to understand and I'll have to reread them online. These films are essentially anti-cinema or anti-documentary in their critique of cinema's role as a part of the language that perpetuating the oppressiveness in a bourgeoisie society, to promote a cinematic spectacle. To quote:

There are now people who pride themselves on being authors of films, as others were authors of novels. They are even more backward than the novelists because they are unaware of the decomposition and exhaustion of individual expression in our time, unaware that the arts of passivity are over and done. They are sometimes praised for their sincerity since they dramatize with more personal depth the conventions of which their life consists. There is talk about “liberating the cinema.” But what does it matter to us if one more art is liberated to the point that Tom, Dick or Harry can use it to complacently express their servile sentiments? The only interesting venture is the liberation of everyday life, not only in a historical perspective, but for us, right now. This project implies the withering away of all the alienated forms of communication. The cinema, too, must be destroyed.

The cinematic spectacle has its rules, its reliable methods for producing satisfactory products. But the reality that must be taken as a point of departure is dissatisfaction. The function of the cinema, whether dramatic or documentary, is to present a false and isolated coherence as a substitute for a communication and activity that are absent. To demystify documentary cinema it is necessary to dissolve its “subject matter.”

Anyway he sounds like an asshole and a hypocrite. The point is that if cinema is so worthless then why express your ideas through them? These films would probably work well enough as essays.

Up, Down, Fragile (Jacques Rivette, 1995) - 10

Fantastic! Rivettian conspiracy + musical numbers+ secret societies + expressive colors + long takes = badass

P.S: Anna Karina, how far thou hath fallen.

[wkw]

Moe No Suzaku (Naomi Kawase, 1997) - 7

A nice film with some beautiful 16mm photography. I agree with sidehacker's review in that it reminds me of Hou and Koreeda, plus some verite footage montages, though its use of repetition doesn't quite work as well as in a Hou film. I thought the aunt niece relationship was too vague and underdeveloped and the aunt's discontent with her life is left unexplored as well. Nontheless I like Kawase's style very much and look forward to her other films.

Noroît (Jacques Rivette, 1976) - :where's the wtf smiley when you need it:

The weirdest and most theatrical (complete with Act intertitles :lol:) Rivette I've seen thus far, and one of the most bizarre films I've seen. It's an anachronistic gynocentric pirate film, avant garde theater, Jacobean revenge play in gorgeous eurotrash cinematography of William Lubchansky. The idea of having a live band perform the soundtrack to every scene is genius.

Take note, Gore Verbinski. This is how you make a pirate film.

[mixed]

Dec 9, 2008 19:56:49 GMT -5 mixed said:

7.5/10

Oh and [glow=red,2,300]Rec[/glow], the original film now remade as 'quarantine'. I only learnt that before I watched it. I liked the film, some of it really freaked me out and the concept is good, if nothing particularly new. Good handheld camera work, barely any cuts and the performances remain decent. Good sfx too, and the ending is mucho creepy! My breathing got rather heavy in those last 5 minutes! Worth seeing.

Maybe the title is clearer now?

[drone]

Ballast: 10/10

I walked into my local art house theater, headphones on and hood up, alone, and purchased by ticket for my much anticipated Ballast. The small lobby was completely empty, a young female behind the popcorn counter aside. I got into the theater and took a seat somewhere in the middle. It was completely empty. The film started in about ten minutes, so I was both worried and excited that I'd be the only person in there. Five minutes later, an old couple walked in with a bag of popcorn and sat two rows below me. Another younger guy walked in and plopped down in the front row. The lights dimmed, the previews began. After the previews ended, the film started abruptly, right away, without anything more than a black production title slide. What follows could be considered a film. It could be considered an array of images strung together at the edges, dangling around in the breeze.

I knew what to expect really. Minimalism, long takes, mediocre acting that was levied by the beautiful shots of rain, roads, and other ordinary, however textual, bits and pieces of the Mississippi Delta. I was wrong, but I was right. The cinematography was, as expected, absolutely beautiful. Breathtakingly vivid and drab, it captured the entire atmosphere of the film perfectly, a finely tuned 35mm recording every drop of water that splashed around. The non-actors are brilliant, often improvising over the written script giving it an extremely natural and lifelike feel. The story is downtrodden and melancholic, both engaging and depressing in terms of visual and subtle aesthetics. There is just so much content here, so simplistically portrayed you lose yourself in the film. It's abrupt with it's beginning, abrupt with it's ending, and completely real in its portrayal. The past is unknown, weaving its own way into the present as the story progresses at this minuscule juncture in their lives. The future, just as irrelevant. Anything can happen, it hasn't been created nor will it ever be preconceived. It's one fleeting, despairing moment that we happen to stumble upon. We drift in and out of the film, progress inadvertently alongside the characters and witness incidents and achievements just as any human would.

As the credits rolled, in silence, I sat there. Recuperating from what had just happened, I tried pulling myself together, the seat rocking as I stumbled to bring my legs back into reality. I glanced down at the old couple that had been watching the film. I had forgotten they were there. I hadn't really noticed at first, but on second glance, I noticed they were crying. Not sobbing, just quietly crying to themselves, not even sharing it with each other. I sat there, unsure of what to really do, if anything, other than get up and leave, or sit there and share the pristine atmosphere of it all. It was all so real, all so delicately fabricated. The husband looked up after a moment, nodded towards me, and looked back down. I then left the building.

Synechdoche, New York: 10/10

I'm struggling to really articulate what I want to put. There are so many dimensions, so many lines, so many absorbing thoughts that I want to express, yet simply lack the will to do so. Maybe after I watch it five, six, seven more times (which I will undeniably do) I'll be able to finally realize what it's trying to point me towards, what I finally want to express that simply escapes me.

Synecdoche is a work of art. Simple as that. Any flaw you find has already been accentuated by the film itself; it's punctual with its faults and subversive with its own idle idiocy. It's still life fast forwarded and fragmented, it's beauty revisited, it's art redefined. It's the textual and emotive study of paranoia, depression, loneliness, and morality. It's a slight nod of appraisal towards inevitability. We are not works of beauty, we are disgusting and trivial, bound effortlessly to a life of failure.

It aches, but we persevere.

[ie]

wkw:
WHO IS THIS SIDEHACKER FELLOW YOU SPEAK OF? We have no SIDEHACKER here.

mixed:
No, I require significantly more portions of BOLD.
...Yes. It was too long, so I didn't bother reading it.

drone:
I like the puppah.


I can't remember the last movie I've seen. I probably still go here to annoy doubled.

[drone]

rofl

Makes sense ie

[Clark Nova]

Dec 14, 2008 22:40:36 GMT -5 ie said:

wkw:
WHO IS THIS SIDEHACKER FELLOW YOU SPEAK OF? We have no SIDEHACKER here.

CAREFUL, wkw, you came this close to revealing the existence of our secret forum utopia.


...whoops.

[Clark Nova]

Dec 14, 2008 21:41:17 GMT -5 drone said:

Synechdoche, New York: 10/10

I'm struggling to really articulate what I want to put. There are so many dimensions, so many lines, so many absorbing thoughts that I want to express, yet simply lack the will to do so. Maybe after I watch it five, six, seven more times (which I will undeniably do) I'll be able to finally realize what it's trying to point me towards, what I finally want to express that simply escapes me.

Synecdoche is a work of art. Simple as that. Any flaw you find has already been accentuated by the film itself; it's punctual with its faults and subversive with its own idle idiocy. It's still life fast forwarded and fragmented, it's beauty revisited, it's art redefined. It's the textual and emotive study of paranoia, depression, loneliness, and morality. It's a slight nod of appraisal towards inevitability. We are not works of beauty, we are disgusting and trivial, bound effortlessly to a life of failure.

It aches, but we persevere.

God damn it...every single write-up I see of this movie, whether it's by the likes of Roger Ebert or some chump blogger (not that you're some chump blogger, i'm just using an example ), even if they didn't like the movie, has been some grand treatise on lofty philosophical ideals and big words that tell you nothing about what the movie was actually about. Is this movie really that profound? lol