RNL
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Post by RNL on Feb 9, 2006 18:13:42 GMT
Julio Médem (1958- )1. Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998) 9/102. Sex and Lucía (2001) 9/103. Tierra (1996) 8/104. Vacas (1992) 8/105. Chaotic Ana (2007) 7/106. The Red Squirrel (1993) 7/10
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 9, 2006 20:12:07 GMT
1. Lovers of the Arctic Circle 1998 2. Sex and Lucia 2001
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Feb 9, 2006 21:42:05 GMT
I just watched Lovers of the Arctic Circle a few hours ago, and I literally spasmed with excitement several times. When I saw Otto in the future as a pilot, then as a child writing a question about love in a paper airplane, then his crashed plane in the book, with the elk that comes alive right before Ana first kisses him, the elk that becomes him, hanging in the trees. Brilliant. When character identities start to switch across time, back and forth, palindromes, and why Ana projects her father's ghost into Otto's body. But, best of all, when Ana realises she's a fictitious character, when the coincidences become the directed narrative, and she starts behaving according to what the writer will write in response - she starts walking, then thinks, "If I run, there will be a delivery for me," runs, and there's a delivery for her. So what about the reality in which she didn't run? We don't see it, but we do see some things that didn't happen - and everything we see is expressed subjectively anyway. Towards the end it stops being merely Otto's perspective/memory or Ana's perspective/memory, and becomes Otto/Ana's, then Ana's Eyes, then Otto in Ana's Eyes. It's just bottomlessly intelligent and rewarding filmmaking. I get so much out of this sort of thing I can't even begin to thank the artists enough for creating it.
It's hard to pick a best, they're all stunning, mind-expanding films. I need to rewatch Sex and Lucía, too, but it melted my brain the first time.
Vacas is an astonishing debut, easily as good as the others. A perfect example of the implied alternate worlds and plastic realities occurs near the beginning. There's two families on a hillside separated by a forested area and a man chopping wood in the heart of the forest. A little girl from one of the houses runs into the forest and walks up behind the man, who stops, turns, sees no one, turns again, and sees a young woman leap up and run out in the opposite direction toward the other house. The thing is, it's not that the girl has turned into the woman, they're different people, it's just an implication, it's just something profound and intangible. I love it love it love it.
I find it irritating and exhilerating that I simply cannot articulate an exact 'meaning' or cohesion, it's as though it all teases past cognition and then explodes in my subconscious, beyond logic. What can I do but gush.
Ana says, after stepping over the borderline into the Arctic Circle and staring at her grandmother's old painting of that mysterious elk; "I felt as if something known had entered into the unknown. I'd arrived at the end of someplace." The tone and evocation of that sentence is something akin to my feelings for these films.
I have Tierra downloaded, and I can rent his documentary.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 9, 2006 22:05:40 GMT
The thing is, it's not that the girl has turned into the woman, they're different people, it's just an implication, it's just something profound and intangible. I love it love it love it. This reminds me of something you said back on the old boards, which has always stayed with me and influenced me ever since in looking at films (it is, I think, the main reason why I could appreciate Lost Highway in the same way you're loving these Medem films right now): that, when we see a man getting out of a car and going to fill it up with petrol, then we cut to the guy getting back in his car, because of what has gone before in Cinema, we automatically assume it is the same guy. But it doesn't have to be. It's ironic that this confuses the average filmwatcher otherwise unexposed to stuff like that; when cinema first came about, the makers worried that cut-aways would confuse the audience as to what the new image was about. Now, the context overwhelms everything.
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jake
Writer's block
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Post by jake on Feb 10, 2006 14:24:08 GMT
1. Lucía y el sexo (2001) 2. Vacas (1991) 2. La Ardilla Roja (1993)
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Post by Vercetti on Feb 10, 2006 17:34:29 GMT
I don't know much about him, but The Red Squirrel has been on my to-see list for months.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 10, 2006 20:46:48 GMT
For what it's worth, my Proview of Lovers read, at the time of my seeing it: Exceedingly clever film which utilises, and perhaps makes fun of, a recurring pivotal moment in mainstream romances: the coincidence. Each scene is based around one of some sort, and the circular narrative consumes its audience like a lyrical poem whose only depth is deceptively on the surface.
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Post by johndav on Feb 13, 2006 18:03:02 GMT
My favourite Spanish director!
Tierra 8.5/10 Lovers of the Arctic Circle 8.25/10 Red Squirrel 8/10 Sex and Lucia8/10 Basque Ball 7.75/10 Vacas 7/10
a sort of sexy earthy mysticism in some of his films- all the better for Emma Suarez' presence. Lovers of the Arctic Circle is terribly touching.
Basque Ball was a documentary on the often violent Basque struggle for independence, greater freedom + rights, criticised wrongly i think for not making a strong statement against "terrorism"- but of course he knows violence + oppression are not the preserve of one side, and a proper background understanding of the grievances is required. Still, i noticed most of the talking heads on the conflict were male.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Mar 13, 2006 23:38:32 GMT
Oh my god.
"Caótica Ana is the story-journey of Ana during four years of her life, from 18 to 22. A countdown, 10, 9, 8, 7... until 0, like in hypnosis, through which Ana proves that she does not live alone, that her existence seems like a continuation of other lives of young women who died in a tragic way, all at the age of 22, and who live in the abyss of her unconscious memory. This is her chaos. Ana is the princess and the monster of this feminist fable against the tyranny of the white man."
Is this going to be the best film ever made? Hm?!
Probably.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 19, 2006 21:41:47 GMT
Sounds very promising indeed.
When I saw In Cold Blood today, I thought of you, in the earlier parts of the film, in its editing technique. By no means as abstract as Medem's suggestions, but it played with the audience for a little while anyway. Like somebody picked up the phone, said, "Hello" and then it would cut to somebody else on a phone, but it took you a few good seconds to work out the lines were not connected. Highly recommended.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Mar 19, 2006 21:52:09 GMT
Yeah, though Capote disappointed me terribly, it did get me very interested in reading and seeing In Cold Blood.
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Pherdy
Ghost writer
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Post by Pherdy on Mar 21, 2006 14:30:24 GMT
Vacas Tierra Los Amantes Lucia
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Post by Anasazie on Nov 1, 2008 11:14:56 GMT
1. Chaotic Ana (2007) 6/10 2. Basque Ball (2003) 6/10 3. Sex and Lucia (2001) 5/10 4. The Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998) 3/10
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Post by quentincompson on Nov 2, 2008 22:39:16 GMT
1.Sex and Lucia 5/10
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