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Post by The Ghost of LLC on Aug 9, 2006 5:12:32 GMT
Blue Velvet (1986) Director: David Lynch After having found a human ear in a field, a young man interjects himself into a series of bizarre and dangerous situations.Good lord, Dennis Hopper is fucking creepy. That's all I can really think to say at this ungodly hour. I think I had to switch my pants about three times throughout the viewing of this film... and that's a good thing. Performances and cinematography are right up top. Come on, it's a Lynch film; what wrong can the man do? La Dolce Vita (1960) Director: Federico Fellini A tabloid journalist falls in love with a famous actress when she comes to Rome.Deffinately the best of the three Fellini films I've seen thus far. I enjoyed the very distinct feel the film had to it... there is a rare breed of movies that have that particular, unexplainable tone to them, such as La Dolce Vita. Coffee and Cigarettes (2004) Director: Jim Jarmusch Director Jim Jarmusch composes a series of oddball conversations between bizarre mixes of celebrities, all shared over coffee and cigarettes.Here's a flick for the under-rated films list. People seem to over-look this, I feel, and the popular rating within this community seems to be two stars. Well, damn me, I liked it alot. It's not the mans masterpiece, that's for sure, but it was still a great film. I felt relieved that it lacked a continuous narrative or plotline... But, I don't think people realize how much sequence was key in this film. I view this film as if it were an album. You can have a bunch of great songs, throw them on an album, but if the order, flow, sequence... whatever you want to call it... isn't correct, then you could have a horrible album. Well, I felt the order of conversations in Coffee and Cigarettes was an important ingrediant in its tone. It seemed to open on a very confused, bizarre conversation between two people who didn't seem comfortable enought to just talk to one another... And I think this fits the first reaction to the film, without having seen it. Confusion. "What? You mean its just a bunch of talking? Wicka-wicka-whaaaaaa?" The next hour and twenty minutes consists of a well balanced mixture of comical, bizarre, and uncomfortably set conversations. And it ends with a perfect, mellow-dramatic, toned down conversation that references the first conversation. I am ramblind. That is all.
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Aug 9, 2006 8:04:16 GMT
I want to see those first two so bad. Can't seem to find them.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Aug 9, 2006 16:04:02 GMT
Prénom Carmen First Name: Carmen Jean-Luc Godard 1983 France 1st time; DVD A female terrorist tricks her insane filmmaker uncle, Jean-Luc Godard, into lending her video equipment so she can pull off a heist; meanwhile, a clumsy security guard falls in love with her. Instead of jamming as many different threads as possible into one extended essay, Godard builds an entire film around a few ideas; the result is one of his most accessible films. The camera hardly moves at all, as it films waves crashing to the shore, trains passing in opposite directions, and a violin quartet, whose music is edited into the narrative, so that the score, usually added in post-production, is, for the most part, actually diegetic. A clever, mature, and often profound film, perhaps overshadowed by his flashier work from the sixties.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Aug 9, 2006 16:18:27 GMT
The River(1951/Jean Renoir) [First Viewing] Three teenagers growing up in India fall in love with a visiting American war veteran.Renoir's masterpiece. A coming of age story told through the innocent eyes of the three youths. The use of color is extremely beautiful, and the film also displays the unique culture of India, including the excellent musical score. This is Renoir with the most freedom he's had behind the camera. It could almost be considered the first independent film, since the story behind the film is just as fascinating as the film itself.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Aug 9, 2006 20:16:11 GMT
Le Carrosse d'or The Golden Coach(1953/Jean Renoir) [First Viewing] A theater company goes touring in South America in the 18th Century.A wonderful film that, at first, combines the worlds of theater and the film's actual setting, until the two co-exist. The use of color, costumes, and the classical music are all superb, as well as the performances. The Council Meeting scene has got to be the funniest sequence in any of Renoir's films.
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Aug 9, 2006 21:43:02 GMT
American History X 1998/Kaye I really enjoyed Kaye's use of slow-motion here, a directing technique I often feel is unfairly labeled as cliched. Edward Norton delivers his first real powerful dramatic performance, with the look to match, and he's incredibly believable as the preaching supremacist. Furlong was good too. It was slightly dissappointing to find out that Christopher Nolan didn't come up with the idea of going from color to black and white to indicate different timelines. I had always credited him with that genius manuever. It worked well here too though. Overall, a very good film.
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Post by Vercetti on Aug 9, 2006 21:47:23 GMT
I'm 90% sure not even Kaye came up with that.
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Boz
Published writer
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Post by Boz on Aug 9, 2006 22:01:01 GMT
Well, I wouldn't be surprised. I know it's been done before to indicate chronology changes across long periods of time, like putting flashbacks to the 1940's or 1950's in Black and White because it is somewhat indicative of the time period (eg. Nixon), but American History X and Memento are the only films I've seen where it is used to indicate two different timelines that occur basically within the same time period.
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Post by Michael on Aug 9, 2006 22:23:40 GMT
The slow motion in American History X makes the film about 20 times more ridiculous than it is.
I'll never understand what people see in that film. It's a disaster from beginning to end.
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Boz
Published writer
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Post by Boz on Aug 9, 2006 22:30:50 GMT
Ridiculous? Disaster? What was so wrong with it?
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Post by Michael on Aug 9, 2006 22:40:15 GMT
What was so wrong with it? What isn't wrong with it? It's a poorly directed muddled pile of overblown garbage.
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Boz
Published writer
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Post by Boz on Aug 9, 2006 22:46:58 GMT
I'm just trying to figure out if it's the films message/politics or the films style that upset you.
I guess both?
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Post by Michael on Aug 9, 2006 22:48:42 GMT
I'm just trying to figure out if it's the films message/politics or the films style that upset you. I guess both? Yes, both.
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Post by Vercetti on Aug 9, 2006 23:57:03 GMT
I for one love AMX, but whatever.
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Post by Mike Sullivan on Aug 10, 2006 0:28:12 GMT
World Trade Center (2006) First Viewing Directed by: Oliver Stone Rating: [/i] I've seen better. Could have been worse. This isn't a Stone picture.Scenes between Cage and his trapped partner in the rubble of the Trade Centers are quite engaging and compelling at times. But scenes of the family awaiting their love ones fates feel overly melodramatic quite alot of the time and take away alot. Think of Apollo 13's family scenes and its the same thing. In other words... meh.
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Post by The Ghost of LLC on Aug 10, 2006 0:35:50 GMT
I'm just trying to figure out if it's the films message/politics or the films style that upset you. I guess both? Yes, both. Oh, right, I totally agree with you there; minorities are inferior, and Tony Kaye better learn this fact of life. I dun' take kin'dly ta' yer kin' 'round here, boy.
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Post by Michael on Aug 10, 2006 0:37:31 GMT
Oh, right, I totally agree with you there; minorities are inferior, and Tony Kaye better learn this fact of life. I dun' take kin'dly ta' yer kin' 'round here, boy. What are you talking about?
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Post by The Ghost of LLC on Aug 10, 2006 0:43:10 GMT
Oh, right, I totally agree with you there; minorities are inferior, and Tony Kaye better learn this fact of life. I dun' take kin'dly ta' yer kin' 'round here, boy. What are you talking about? Nothing. Let's dance, sweetie, the night is young, and I've got it all tucked back.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Aug 10, 2006 4:26:17 GMT
French Cancan(1954/Jean Renoir) [First Viewing] A theater producer recruits a washerwoman to star in his new show.Interesting chronicle of the development of the infamous Moulin Rouge. Renoir has got to be one of the few directors to fully understand the use of color in film. Jean Gabin, in his final collaboration with Renoir, turns in a great performance as the womanizing theater owner.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Aug 10, 2006 17:05:01 GMT
Miami Vice Michael Mann 2006 US 1st time; big screen Two drugs squad cops infiltrate a drugs ring. Mann's least impressive film; he seems to have adopted a point-and-shoot method, and so any flair created (such as in the tense final shootout) stems from editing, not shot composition. If filming on DV has freed him up economically, it's also made him a lousy visualist. Character representation is important in Film, but Mann's work is becoming increasingly prone to caricature: the baddies all have baldy heads and Swastika tattoos, and there's almost a knowing, satirical nod near the end when the camera zooms in on a thug's greasy forehead, and a red spot in particular. With most settings exploited only half-heartedly, and most of the action taking place outside Miami, you can't help but feel the title is a mere marketing ploy.
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