Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 24, 2006 17:59:53 GMT
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943/Deren)Very interesting short. Deren moves gracefully around a villa, seeing a haunting man with a mirror for a face, keys and knives dissappearing and switching, and eventually, clones of herself. In the end, she is awoken from what seemed like a dream by a gentle male figure, but upon the sudden arrival of the knife from the dream, she stabs him in the forehead, shattering his cranium to reveal a beach and an ocean inside. In the end, we find that the film was perhaps a pictoriliazation of the dying woman's thoughts, as the male figure from earlier enters her appartment to find her dead from an apparent suicide. A Study in Choreography for the Camera (1945/Deren)A silent short in which we watch a slow-moving dancer moving in and out of several different settings as he dances. Less entertaining than the former film, could've used some music. Scorpio Rising (1963/Anger)Perhaps the best short film I've ever seen. Anger mixes varying motifs, from religion to masculine idealism, to nazism, to homosexuality, all wrapped up in colorful, fast-paced but visually detailed film with no dialogue but a fantastic late 50's soundtrack. While it was somewhat dissappointing to see the vague homosexual undertones that were established in the first half descend into an orgy around the midpoint of the film, the scenes and montages that proceeded to wrap the piece up redeemed it. What begins as a nostalgic look at the age of Marlon Brando films, leather jackets, and cigarettes, eventually morphs into what appeared to be a comment on societal views of gay organizations and ideals. Another key element of the film seems to be the "live fast, die young" idea, with the sporadic appearances of a grim reaper, a noose, and newspaper articles about motorcycle accident deaths forming a morbid picture of the youth's future. And the somber ending bathes a fallen biker in the red flashes of an ambulance siren. Overall, a complex, sometimes disturbing, consistently fascinating film. Kustom Kar Kommandos (1964/Anger)Supposedly originally conceived as a companion piece to Scorpion Rising, Anger ran out of of money so it was instead released a simple 2 minute video of a greaser buffing his custom car and then driving it away to a slow song from the 60's. The only real point of interest here is odd KKK reference in the title. Rabbit's Moon (1972/Anger)We watch as a man dressed as a white rabbit jumps around the forest which is bathed in blue light. He is obsessed with the moon, and is visited by a demonic clown and a beautiful woman as he is engulfed in the moon's gaze. Anger utilizes good music again, but the meaning or quality of this short is otherwise lost on me.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 26, 2006 1:27:58 GMT
Rebecca Alfred Hitchcock 1940 US 2nd time; big screen A young new bride to a wealthy widower struggles to rid the house and servants of memories of her predecessor. Suffocatingly constructed "woman's picture", full of feminine aspirations to be desired by the male, who here, played by Laurence Olivier, is a welcome contrast to the infuriating (and effective) Joan Fontaine. The final half-hour or so opens up into a murder mystery we care little about, and the ambiguities hitherto maintained are lost. [Shoddy bfi print; upset the rhythm.]Children of Men Alfonso Cuarón 2006 UK/US 2nd time; big screen London, 2027: with the entire female population infertile, and the government at war with nationalist rebels, a ministry worker must escort a pregnant refugee to a safe zone called the Human Project. Outstandingly-shot film, full of breathtaking sequences, using long takes and a hand-held, fiercely independent and roaming camera which restricts our view but enhances the immediacy of many incredibly complicated settings. The most impressive of these are the rebel attack on a car full of people, with the camera rotating three-sixty degress inside the car, before alighting and ending up left to observe two dead policemen as the car speeds off; the giving birth of a child in some worn-out, secluded safe house, with the very near threat of war and manic dogs outside; and the moving to different levels via a stairwell in a building at the heart of the fierce battle, with the relentless cry of a baby which, by the end of the shot, has silenced the guns and brought calm to a scene of devastation. It's genuinely thrilling, with a believable grittiness rarely seenin sci-fi.Sky Captain and the World TomorrowKerry Conran 2004 US/UK/Italy 1st time; big screen 1939 New York: giagantic robots attack the city, and a pilot and a journalist track down the source of their power. It might be easy to defend this film as a) experimental, b) an interesting failure, or c) visually fantastic. We probably shouldn't ignore the fundamental innovations of blue-screen, but just because it's new and experimental doesn’t mean it is by default any good; the acting is atrocious, often painful to watch, with nobody interacting with their CGI surroundings. Sound design is very flat, and it doesn't even look all that nice.Meet Me in St. Louis Vincente Minnelli 1944 US 1st time; big screen A well-to-do family's highs and lows during 1903 St. Louis. Piercingly colourful musical, which, if it suddenly becomes preachy in its nostalgia and family moralsin its final quarter, is delightful from beginning to end due to some wonderful performances and a sharp, often dark script. The younger children, sweet, innocent and imaginative, are all obsessed with murder and death, whilst the older daughters, including Judy Garland, are interested solely in impressing the men in town. The narrative, divided into four seasons in a year - three of which constitute a single night - gives a real sense of depth to these characters without ever becoming detached; Minnelli only cuts when he has to.Weekend Jean-Luc Godard 1967 France/Italy 5th time; DVD A bourgeois couple travel to Oinville, but their journey is hampered by an endless traffic jam and forest-dwelling savages. Godard's vision of Hell is depicted with brutal force at the expense of middle class consumerism. Full of new images, with the director creating some of his most visually arresting work, but also notable for its interesting use of music as a distancing tool, seen at its most effective in three key sequences: one in which a woman sits on a table and relates a sexual experience to a lover; one in which a pianist plays Mozart as the camera pans thrice round a courtyard; and the image of a butcher cracking eggs over a woman's parted legs, to the sound of a drummer in a forest. Essential viewing; it is quite clearly made by somebody disgusted with the world.
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Post by Michael on Oct 26, 2006 1:32:23 GMT
Did you add more to your proview for Week End, Capo?
I need to re-watch it. I feel it deserves a higher rating than I've given it. I think it'd be a different experience now that I've seen more of Godard's work. It is the only film (I've seen) in which the characters begin to realize that they're in a film, thus the "End of Cinema." I never really thought of how amazing a concept that is.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 26, 2006 1:36:47 GMT
Did you add more to your proview for Week End, Capo? No. I only watched it because I got talking to a girl the other night who is also studying Film, albeit a few years older than me, and she said she couldn't stand it. So we watched it together tonight.
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Post by Michael on Oct 26, 2006 1:47:20 GMT
Hmmmm, I don't remember you including this part in the past:
but also notable for its interesting use of music as a distancing tool, seen at its most effective in three key sequences: one in which a woman sits on a table and relates a sexual experience to a lover; one in which a pianist plays Mozart as the camera pans thrice round a courtyard; and the image of a butcher cracking eggs over a woman's parted legs, to the sound of a drummer in a forest.
Did the girl change her mind at all?
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 26, 2006 1:58:30 GMT
I don't know, but she's fond of kissing. I intend on writing a follow-up essay to ram down her throat.
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Post by Michael on Oct 26, 2006 2:31:49 GMT
Do you intend on ramming anything else down her throat?
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 26, 2006 3:50:28 GMT
No. I'm an intellectual, not a brute.
You savage, you.
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Post by Michael on Oct 26, 2006 18:23:33 GMT
Is it possible to be an intellectual brute?
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 27, 2006 0:55:01 GMT
Romance & Cigarettes John Turturro 2005 US 1st time; big screen A working class New York family fall apart when the father's infidelity is found out... Interesting, clever and original, with James Gandolfini in a role which is, in many ways, very similar to that of Tony Soprano - and there are signs here that he could break his tough guy typecast, but probably won't. It's a musical at heart, and the Coens' influence on Turturro results in a wordy, winding film with no real sense of consistency in tone or rhythm. In fact, it has a lot going for it, bar the sense of emptiness once you've left the cinema. [Possibly deserves a higher rating, but I was distracted throughout with infuriating laughter coming from the back. It wasn't even funny.]Back to the Future Robert Zemeckis 1985 US 1st time; DVD A teenager, with the help of a mad scientist, travels back in time to makes a man out of his father. Colourful and inventive, immensely detailed too: Michael J. Fox has ample charm to carry this witty, well-written adventure, and the chemistry between him and other actors, notably Christopher Lloyd as the mad professor, is enjoyable to watch.
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Post by Valenti on Oct 27, 2006 9:58:24 GMT
[Possibly deserves a higher rating, but I was distracted throughout with infuriating laughter coming from the back. It wasn't even funny.] I know what you're talking about, man. The only movie theater in my town is often populated by bored teenagers, and a result I have to hear a lot of "Bullshit" and "What a fag" and incessant random laughter.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 28, 2006 0:43:03 GMT
Since my aesthetic tastes are fair to a fault, and since I didn't have to pay all that much, I decided tonight to give Spielberg's appalling Munich a second chance, and found more this time round.
Munich Steven Spielberg 2005 US 2nd time; big screen Five Mossad agents secretly are employed to hunt down and eliminate the Palestinian terrorists responsible for the death of the Israeli Olympic team in the 1972 Olympics. Here we have a series of actors from around the world speaking English (for Western audiences) with an Israeli accent, travelling the world to reap vengeance on those who caused devastation to their country, so that the result takes on a kind of comment on international politics. Even so, it's crudely done for the most part, too prone to two-dimensional characters and risible one-liners. Of worth however are the various assassinations: in the context of an overlong narrative they become increasingly tedious as the film develops, but the camera work, often including several different viewpoints in the same motion and focus-change, is impressive.
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 28, 2006 5:42:32 GMT
Camp Out (2006/Grimaldi & Maroclina)A group of teenagers attend the first summer camp for gay Christian youth.Saw this as part of a class field trip of sorts to the Pittsburgh Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Examines the inner turmoil, the persecution, and the mixed feelings of heavily religious homosexual teenagers. Low-budget documentary, but it still relays a strong message. I had trouble finding much interest in the subject matter though.
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 29, 2006 8:57:36 GMT
Black Rain (1989/Scott)Perhaps one of the most visually brilliant films I've ever seen. When you combine the late 80's, with Ridley Scott, and Tokyo, it's a serious formula for success. The generic action movie plot doesn't help, and I'm not quite sure Michael Douglas can play the tough guy role, but overall, very enjoyable.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 29, 2006 16:51:01 GMT
I went to the London Film Festival yesterday; first time in the capital, ever. And caught two films, one at the NFT. Percy, Buffalo Bill och jag Percy, Buffalo Bill and I Anders Gustafsson 2005 Sweden 1st time; big screen A young boy goes on a summer vacation with his parents and brother and best friend to his grandparents' fishing village, and falls in love… Typically Swedish, in that it has the audacity to make its young protagonist a bit of a brat, and it assumes in this sense a naivety of youth. But it's far from anything new: a repetitive narrative makes an unfavourable comparison with Hallström's My Life as a Dog, to which it is most similar. It's a sugary film lacking in any imagination whatsoever.Forbidden Frank Capra 1932 US 1st time; big screen A lonely woman falls in love with a married politician and has a child to him. A melodrama with a dark side, not afraid to build up expectations and follow through with them - in this sense, it might be predictable, in other, very satisfactory, such as when Stanwyck pulls out a gun and shoots the man she has married to avoid the truth of her daughter coming out.
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 29, 2006 22:01:20 GMT
Nowhere (1997/Araki)A group of teenagers try to sort out their lives and emotions while bizarre experiences happen to each one, including alien abductions, bad acid trips, bisexual experiences, suicides, bizarre deaths, and a rape by a TV star. All of this happens before "the greatest party of the year".A colorful barrage of violence and sex, fast-paced and disturbing. Described by critics as "90210 on acid," "MTV meets Requiem for a Dream," "a complete waste of time," as well as "a bizarre masterpiece." Polarizing to say the least, it may seem to lack substance on the surface, and contain a whole lot of symbolism that represents little to nothing, but overall it's a hell of a viewing experience, cheapened only perhaps by the cop-out-to-humor ending.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 30, 2006 2:53:33 GMT
Manhattan Woody Allen 1979 US Nth time; DVD The chronicles of a TV writer's complicated sex life in the city he loves. Conversational piece, wherein characters pretentiously refer to other artists as a way of dealing with inner neuroses. The whole thing, acted with a naturalistic naivety, is shot in stunning black and white; if the actors are not framed in the extreme left or right of screen, they are obscured in vivid darkness, with the light catching only the edges of their face and body. He's a fantastic writer, but the visual wit here, such as that in the montages to music with his son and the weekend away with a girlfriend and friends, and the conversation between an infuriated Allen and best friend, with Allen standing next to a silent skeleton, is not to be missed.
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 30, 2006 4:33:32 GMT
What do you rate Annie Hall? I felt like Manhattan was a less-interesting companion piece. Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969/Anger)Anger takes us on a psychadelic trip through the occult, touching on themes of death, drugs, and the supernatural. Mick Jagger does the score and the Stones make an appearance. Anger's use of rapid cross-cutting, superimposing several seperate shots, and just his editing in general makes this a masterpiece for its time. Puce Moment (1949/Anger)More from the avant garde, some of Anger's early work. We watch as an old fashioned Hollywood starlet flips through her multitude of dresses, looks at herself in the mirror, perhaps hallucinates, and then takes her dogs for a walk. I read that due to the need to overexpose the film, Anger had his star move very slowly and then sped it up in post-production. This adds an eerie sort of quality to her movements, as evident in her rapidly swinging earrings. The highlight is the soundtrack, which consists of a Mick Jagger-like singer over an acoustic guitar, although this music was supposedly added some 15 years later, which accounts for the fact that it's very much 60's-sounding. Overall, interesting. Anger's body of work is very much worth exploring for those who haven't. Youtube has a lot of his stuff.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 30, 2006 13:43:32 GMT
What do you rate Annie Hall? I felt like Manhattan was a less-interesting companion piece. I love it, but I think both films are quite different to one another. It's the first of Allen's semi-serious comedies, and told in a very influential, avant-garde style which often gets overlooked by those who enjoy it for laughs: I especially love the way Allen and others watch on, as adults, re-enactments of past memories, present in the room (this is taken from Bergman's Wild Strawberries), and the use of split-screen once over to highlight two different cultures at the table. It's Allen's use of editing in these films where much of the comedy stems from: he's editing images together which otherwise might seem of vague interest, and making them into something rather indescribable in its comedy-inducing rhythm. As an example, there's a moment in Annie Hall where Christopher Walken gives a lengthy speech to Alvy (Allen) about thoughts of suicide while driving, and then his sister comes in the room and tells Alvy her brother will drive him home. Allen cuts just at the right moment to a two-shot of the pair of them in the car, with the rain lashing down and oncoming lights seen in the reflection of the windscreen. Alvy's face, in the light of the preceding scene, is priceless. But I prefer Manhattan because I think it explores relationships further, and on a more visually sumptuous level. I think it would be too lazy to say the black-and-white adds maturity, but there's certainly something more fitting with it. I love the distance and warmth Allen creates between his characters in various ways: be it shooting two characters together in long-shot, such as when Ike dissuades Tracy from falling in love with him in his apartment; or the growing strain (unbeknownst to Ike) between Ike and Mary when she recieves a phone call from Yale - the two are in separate rooms, and Allen shoots the whole thing so as to frame them not only in different shots, but also different frame space ... Allen on the far left of screen, Mary on the far right, and of course both shot within a door-frame, a frame within the frame. It's visually sophisticated stuff, edited together in a rhythm set up at, and maintained from, the very beginning, with shots of Manhattan edited to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue".
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Post by Michael on Oct 30, 2006 18:03:29 GMT
I admit I'm not a fan of Allen's humor, but I do like his editing style. He uses the medium pretty effectively, I just wish the scenes in his films were more intense and less comical and light-hearted.
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