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Post by svsg on Mar 5, 2009 5:13:16 GMT
Wendy and Lucy
Kelly Reichardt
English 2008 A girl sets out on a journey to Alaska with her dog.The length of the film is perfect for this particular story. I really can't find any problem with the film and I quite liked the pace and ending. However, it did not have much impact on me and whether it would stay in my mind for long is to be seen. ps: I could not find a thread for this already. I would have guessed that with this being nominated for FCM awards, somebody would have started a thread for this film. Mods, let me know if a thread exists already, I'll transfer this over there.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 5, 2009 16:41:49 GMT
Its impact on you definitely has something to do with the quality of the stream. Imagine those empty shots of the railtracks on the big screen.
I've become quite good at adjusting a bit of flexibility to suit the format I'm watching it in.
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Post by svsg on Mar 5, 2009 16:55:14 GMT
My download was of decent(not excellent) quality, better(I guess) than that stream you gave a link to, which I looked at briefly. I really liked those rail track shots and also the ones in the forest. The tracking shot in the pound was good too. As I said, no complaints on the quality of shots or story or the the theme. Maybe I should give it some time to sink in.
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Post by svsg on Mar 5, 2009 17:49:22 GMT
wetdog, I was reminded of you when I heard this line:
(paraphrasing): "You should not have a dog if you cannot afford dog food".
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 5, 2009 17:51:34 GMT
Haha, I wondered what he'd make/made of that too.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Mar 5, 2009 18:43:32 GMT
This is the kind of film I've been waiting to see for ages.
It starts from the endpoint, the separation of Wendy from Lucy, and works backwards to show how the separation is determined by her economic situation. It's an unsentimental, clear-minded analysis of each cause and effect along the way to the endpoint and never loses grip on her narrow field of choice and its determination by her social situation. It's absolutely fantastic. It's a teleological materialist contextualisation and explanation of a heartbreaking loss. Its intelligence and integrity puts most other films to shame, in my opinion.
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Post by svsg on Mar 5, 2009 18:49:06 GMT
It's a teleological materialist contextualisation Academic terrorist ;D
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Mar 5, 2009 18:54:05 GMT
Haha, I tried to rework that phrase, but I gotta call 'em like I see 'em.
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Post by svsg on Mar 5, 2009 19:03:04 GMT
It starts from the endpoint, the separation of Wendy from Lucy, and works backwards to show how the separation is determined by her economic situation. The very first time we see the separation physically is when the dog runs away towards the campers. But that hardly seemed like a separation at all in terms of relationship. It just looked like the dog was bored and wanted to run freely. So I can't see how it starts at the endpoint. Maybe that scene symbolically foreshadowed what was about to come, but that must be attributed to clever scriptwriting than inferring that the structure of the story was backward explanatory.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Mar 5, 2009 19:16:17 GMT
By "starts from the endpoint" I meant the conception of the film, not the plot. The working out of the plot, I think, begins from the decision that the film is about how Wendy loses her only companion, and then the material conditions that determined that ultimate separation are carefully worked out. It's not a film about a homeless woman who endures hardships with her beloved dog and then tragically happens to lose the dog towards the end of the film. It's an analysis of how the material social conditions in which she lives determined that she would lose her dog, and therefore an indictment of the crushing weight of the system at the bottom-fringe of which she exists.
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Post by svsg on Mar 5, 2009 19:28:53 GMT
Oh, I understand now. Can you give me an example of the reverse? In terms of that conceptualization choice.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Mar 5, 2009 19:49:38 GMT
I suppose any film that's "more about the journey than the destination" or seems to have been conceived as a series of distinct episodes that are then linked together. But if a film is meant to explain why an event takes place I don't see a way around a teleological materialist analysis, whereas the philosophical underpinnings of most Hollywood drama is idealistic and/or individualistic, and much 'art' cinema is plagued with irrationalism.
I wish there were more films that offered this kind of analysis. If anyone has any recommendations I'd appreciate it.
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Jenson71
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Post by Jenson71 on Mar 5, 2009 20:54:14 GMT
It sounds like /The Bicycle Thief/
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Mar 5, 2009 21:01:59 GMT
Yeah, the most frequent comparison I've seen is to Italian neo-realism. I've never seen that film in its entirety, though I've seen a lot of it in various classes over the years.
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Post by svsg on Mar 5, 2009 22:02:11 GMT
the philosophical underpinnings of most Hollywood drama is idealistic and/or individualistic, and much 'art' cinema is plagued with irrationalism. I like individualistic drama more than social ones. And I like Irrationalism (though I am not sure if you and I both mean the same things) too.
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Kino
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Post by Kino on Mar 5, 2009 22:37:03 GMT
I wish there were more films that offered this kind of analysis. If anyone has any recommendations I'd appreciate it. What other films that you've seen have the analysis found in Wendy and Lucy? Or, if there aren't any, what other films come close? I'm not quite sure how one determines if the filmmaker started with the endpoint. I'm asking those questions so I can understand it better. Do some parts of The Wire especially Season 4 qualify?
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Mar 6, 2009 2:30:26 GMT
I thought of The Bicycle Thief, and then I thought of Dukie.
Frozen River was very good too.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Mar 6, 2009 2:43:48 GMT
I like individualistic drama more than social ones. I realised I've been using that term in two ways that aren't quite synonymous. In one sense I'm talking about the axioms of right-libertarian politics, but in the other sense (in the sense in which I referred to The Wrestler as somewhat individualistic) I mean the loss of social context, the loss of a sense of the general in the particular, a fixation on the idiosyncracies of an individual, the individual uniqueness of their experience, the specialness of their joy or sorrow. I think that kind of perspective can only be lacking in truth. As I said, Randy's experience of menial labour is no less degrading merely for the fact that he used to be a bigshot. If Wendy's story was supposed to be rendered all the more tragic by the fact that she was an exceptionally talented violinist, the profundity of the film's social analysis would collapse. Or if it showed her in a situation where her choices are only narrowed to two, one clearly right and one clearly wrong, and she goes for the wrong one because of something that happened to her in her past; there we slip into idealism and a sort of overly specific individualism that can only ultimately be trivial and false. Haha... I feel like I'm making a lot of very categorical statements on here today. I would very, very cautiously say it has its place. But its ubiquity in 'art films' these days is backwards, pointless and embarassing. And what I mean is mostly a kind of romanticisation of the 'unknowable'. It boils down to a politically neutered anti-intellectualism most of the time.
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Kino
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Post by Kino on Mar 6, 2009 3:52:21 GMT
I thought of The Bicycle Thief, and then I thought of Dukie. Frozen River was very good too. I think Berlin Alexanderplatz and Rosetta would qualify. Some parts of Chop Shop and Man Push Cart might qualify, but not the films as a whole, I think, because the end points aren't necessarily determined by their socioeconomic conditions, but the choices along the way are. Let me know if I'm way off on any of those counts in order for me to see if I get what you're saying. LOL.
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Post by svsg on Mar 6, 2009 4:02:49 GMT
I think Berlin Alexanderplatz would qualify. I'll start watching now and tell you about it next month
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