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Post by bobbyreed on Aug 20, 2006 18:30:10 GMT
Ranking: Safe Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story Velvet Goldmine Watch Superstar here.
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Boz
Published writer
Posts: 1,451
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Post by Boz on Aug 20, 2006 19:04:06 GMT
Is that 0 Stars for all three? Or do you just not use stars.
I'm very interested in seeing Safe. Supposed to be very good.
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jake
Writer's block
Posts: 215
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Post by jake on Aug 20, 2006 19:28:31 GMT
1. Safe (1995) 2. Far From Heaven (2002) You'd have to hold a gun to my head to make me watch Far from Heaven again. It's not often that I loathe a film but for that I can make an exception.
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Omar
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Professione: reporter
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Post by Omar on Aug 20, 2006 19:48:31 GMT
Isn't he the one making the Bob Dylan "biography"?
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RNL
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Posts: 6,624
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Post by RNL on Aug 20, 2006 19:51:56 GMT
Now, this guy really interests me.
I have Safe, Far from Heaven and Superstar downloaded. Safe sounds like it was tailor-made for me.
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Post by bobbyreed on Aug 20, 2006 20:37:20 GMT
Is that 0 Stars for all three? Or do you just not use stars. I don't use stars. Isn't he the one making the Bob Dylan "biography"? Yeah. It's called I'm Not There and will have six different actors playing Dylan (in different parts of his life, I guess?).
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RNL
Global Moderator
Posts: 6,624
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Post by RNL on Sept 29, 2006 19:47:15 GMT
1. Safe (1995) 8/10 2. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987) 7/10 3. Far from Heaven (2002) 3/10
Far from Heaven reminded me of something Vincent Gallo said: "I want to make a movie about a black, blind, crippled lesbian so I can win at Sundance."
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Boz
Published writer
Posts: 1,451
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Post by Boz on Feb 7, 2007 21:54:13 GMT
Hhhmmm the girl sitting next to me in the library today was watching Far From Heaven and it looked awful good. I know TSP ranks it pretty highly on their 21st century list.
I get some idea of what was wrong with it from Wetdog's Gallo quote but could someone perhaps elaborate?
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RNL
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Posts: 6,624
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Post by RNL on Feb 8, 2007 16:38:28 GMT
In a nutshell: A well-to-do white woman falls in love with her black gardener, her friends and neighbours don't approve. Moral: Racism is bad.
It is seriously every bit as banal as that sounds.
It's an ever-so-worthy, self-righteous, morally contrived PC melodrama. The whole thing made me cringe.
It does look fairly slick, though, that's true.
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jake
Writer's block
Posts: 215
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Post by jake on Feb 8, 2007 16:48:58 GMT
In a nutshell: A well-to-do white woman falls in love with her black gardener, her friends and neighbours don't approve. Moral: Racism is bad. Not only that, Homosexuals had to repress their feelings during that period. This is revelatory stuff, it really is. Haynes never makes his mind up between satirizing that period in the U.S. and Douglas Sirks films or paying homage by making a straight-faced melodrama. Either way, it doesn't work. It's just a smug, manipulative, slimy, righteous film. Along with Passion of the Christ, the worst one I've ever seen I feel. Just thinking about it makes me feel psychically sick. :-(
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RNL
Global Moderator
Posts: 6,624
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Post by RNL on Feb 8, 2007 16:53:55 GMT
Ha, oh yeah... I forgot about her husband.
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Capo
Administrator
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Post by Capo on Oct 26, 2007 21:59:12 GMT
(In response to a deleted post): Excellent post. ^^^
Though I suppose there are certain 'messages' and 'meanings' which one might deem obvious (racial injustice), or overlooked (violence is real), as an oppositional stance to how society, as a whole, consumes and is constructed by media. The news is always about racism, about inequality, but it rarely explores the reality and devastation of violence, not at least without adding to its own sensationalism. Cronenberg's violence is disturbing, made to make the audience feel uncomfortable; Haynes' treatment of racism perhaps doesn't.
It depends on who you are and where you are, too: socially, culturally, economically, politically. I think all criticism, ideally, should validate itself by confessing, before anything else, the background from which it comes. White working class male? Black bourgeoisie? Etc., etc.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Oct 26, 2007 23:23:12 GMT
As for "Moral: Racism is bad," we could do that type of reduction for any film. I've read and heard people deride Cronenberg w/ "Ooh, violence is real." True, but missing the point through simplification. That's true. I didn't mean to dismiss the film solely on the grounds of its message. Obviously an anti-bigotry message isn't a bad thing. It's just the genre is typified by trite PC moralising, and Haynes' treatment of it is unironic. So any moral/political statement made would be undermined by the form. As you say, his interests lie elsewhere, but that element just cripples the film. To be honest, I didn't hate it, I just found it "an ever-so-worthy, self-righteous, morally contrived PC melodrama." You're not really disputing that, just saying he adopted that form and applied it towards other ends. But I really think those elements need to be subverted if the film as a whole is to be taken seriously, they're just risible.
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Capo
Administrator
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Post by Capo on Oct 26, 2007 23:24:43 GMT
I'd be interested what you make of Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul, wetdog. It's a remake of the same film Haynes remade, Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows (which is, at least on aesthetic grounds, excellent).
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Capo
Administrator
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Post by Capo on Dec 21, 2007 18:38:47 GMT
1. I'm Not There 2007 2. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story 1987 3. Far From Heaven 2002
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RNL
Global Moderator
Posts: 6,624
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Post by RNL on Dec 30, 2007 3:46:51 GMT
1. Safe (1995) 8/10 2. I'm Not There (2007) 8/10 3. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987) 7/10 4. Far from Heaven (2002) 3/10
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Kino
Published writer
Posts: 1,200
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Post by Kino on Jan 6, 2008 3:44:13 GMT
Wetdog, I'd love to hear your thoughts on I'm Not There even just a blurb.
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Post by quentincompson on Oct 31, 2008 17:22:09 GMT
1.Safe 9/10 2.Poison 7/10 3.Velvet Goldmine 5/10 4.Far From Heaven 5/10
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Post by Anasazie on Nov 1, 2008 4:54:18 GMT
1. Safe (1995) 9/10 2. Poison (1991) 8/10 3. I'm Not There (2007) 8/10 4. Far from Heaven (2002) 6/10 5. Velvet Goldmine (1998) 2/10 (need to see this again)
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Post by Michael on Nov 4, 2008 9:33:47 GMT
1. I'm Not There (2007) **
okaynobodyhitmeplease
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