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Thread: the LAST FILM YOU'VE SEEN thread

  1. #1
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    the LAST FILM YOU'VE SEEN thread

    I'm stealing this idea from our contributor, wpqx, who has successfully engineered threads like this on other sites. (I'm sure he wouldn't mind since he probably stole it from someone else.) Anyway, the idea is pretty simple, please write a few words about the last film you've seen. The only rule that I can think of right now is if another thread already exists on a specific film then please add your thoughts there (you can also add them here if you like/start a new thread later on if there is none), and, of course, any specific info provided - whether it's the name of the director or the year etc. will be appreciated by the readers. Feel free to post whenever you like and unless you want to, it's not required that you write about every single film you see (I certainly won't be doing that because I simply see too many). This is a great site and I believe there are reasons why it's not being utilized the way it should be, so, I hope this thread gives you the opportunity to contribute on a regular basis.
    Last edited by arsaib4; 02-20-2005 at 08:21 PM.

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    I'll start us off with

    Kansas City
    This is a Robert Altman film released back in 1996. I originally rented it for the soundtrack, which is one of the best I have ever heard. The film is about a woman who kidnaps a woman named Mrs. Stelton to use for leverage to get her husband back from some black gangsters. The gangster runs the Hey Hey Club, which is a jazz club, and supplies the entire movie's soundtrack.

    I found the acting weak, but Altman's directing is very well done. In this he effectively used mirrors to show things that you otherwise wouldn't see. Other than that though, there wasn't much there. There were a few metaphores for playing off the top of your hat, which is what jazz is, but other than that, it was hollow. My suggestion, get the soundtrack if you like jazz, but otherwise there isn't anything very good about this movie other than a scene or too in the club...

    Bad on the spot review...

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    Thanks for sharing you thoughts, Fan of Kubrick. Sometimes, on the spot reviews are the best. I hope you contribute regularly.

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    The Village. A great idea with crappy writing and atrocious execution. Shame on Shyamalan.
    "So I'm a heel, so what of it?"
    --Renaldo the Heel, from Crimewave

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    Thanks for contributing, Horseradish Tree. As for the film itself, I looked at as more of an allegory of the principles this nation was found on so I ended up appreciating it a lot more. I also thought that Bryce Dallas Howard was brilliant.

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    Triple Agent (2004) R2 DVD

    A second viewing of this latest film from Eric Rohmer convinced me of its numerous pleasures. Rohmer is a "triple agent" himself and he fooled me initially while I tried to follow every single narrative strand not realizing that the important things sometimes don't get said. Sergo Renko plays a White Russian living in France before WWII but we slowly find out that he could be a Red Russian, a French leftist, a Nazi, or a Franco loyalist. Perhaps all of them at once or none at all. His beautiful wife, played by Katerina Didaskalu, is a naiveté but at the same time she stays step-by-step with him. As always with Rohmer, art & literature are well on display, and the word-play is phenomenal. Will add more here.
    Last edited by arsaib4; 03-09-2005 at 01:32 AM.

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    Originally posted by Fan of Kubrick
    Kansas City
    My suggestion, get the soundtrack if you like jazz
    There is a companion piece to Altman's homage to his birthplace and its place in jazz history: Jazz '34: Remembrances of Kansas City Swing. It's all jazz except for very brief, informative narration between musical numbers. It's 72 minutes long. It played mostly at Film Festivals in the mid-90s. This one's only available on vhs. I like Kansas City more than most viewers because Jennifer Jason Leigh is my favorite actress.
    Last edited by oscar jubis; 02-20-2005 at 05:31 PM.

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    Yeah I was actually tempted to start this thread here myself, but I've already got at least two of these running, so I was leery on making a third, especially when it's the same basic film. Nevertheless I'll still contribute since I found this is the best way to actually keep track of what the hell I've watched.

    I just watched A Winter's Tale (1994), which makes me have something in common arsaib, in the fact that our last films were both from Rohmer. I'm no expert on his work, but I admired this film. I'm interested to see the other films in this series to see how they all connect if at all, or if not then just to compare them based on quality.

    I have recently found a new haven for oddball films ironically titled odd obession. This place is a godsend for people like me, and I'm getting some great filsm from there, most notably Four Nights of a Dreamer from Bresson.

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    Originally posted by wpqx
    I'm interested to see the other films in this series to see how they all connect if at all, or if not then just to compare them based on quality.
    It's funny that now when I think of the quadrilogy, they all somehow blend in with each other; the characters, the situations etc. It certainly been a couple of years at least but as I've said elsewhere, may be that was what Rohmer intended. The series certainly ranks among his best work. Share your thoughts as you move along.
    Last edited by arsaib4; 02-20-2005 at 08:22 PM.

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    Clive Barker triple feature

    Hellraiser


    The Cotton's are moving into a new house.

    The house becomes a temple/gateway to evil when Larry's brother Frank seduces his wife Julia and has her become a serial killer in order to become "whole again".

    You see, Frank bought a mysterious box that "opens doors", and it summoned the Cenobites, a tribe of creatures who dole out equal amounts pleasure and pain to it's summoners.

    Clive Barker's first feature film (1987) is a masterpiece of neo-horror. It was very different and had an impact on pop culture (Pinhead is just as famous as Jason or Freddy) and the horror film genre.

    Fuckin' great movie



    Nightbreed

    Nightbreed is the film adaptation of Cabal, a Barker novel.
    The Nightbreed are monsters who live in Midian, Alberta Canada, at a huge gothic cemetary. Aaron Boone is inadvertantly enveloped in their world when he cannot remember murders he committed.

    David Cronenberg plays Dr. Decker- Boone's psychiatrist. Cronenberg is not exactly a guy who lights up the screen with his thespian skills but he's actually not bad. He's what you'd think Cronenberg would act like.

    This film was a box-office flop, and Barker was dissappointed with it's reception. I love it as well- consider it a guilty pleasure film.




    Lord of Illusions

    Scott Bakula, Famke Jannsen, swords, fire, illusions, strange strange visions: echoes of Cocteau, Blake, etc.
    Lovely, low-key Los Angeles art film.

    Song "Magic Moments" is used effectively;
    "You are on the threshold of a miracle".
    I like it a lot- a perfect "midnight movie:.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

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    Re: Clive Barker triple feature

    Originally posted by Johann
    Hellraiser
    Fuckin' great movie
    You're right. Hellraiser typified the Horror films from the 80's...atleast the kind I've seen...and you could always count on at least one gratuitous sex scene. Too bad this series went to shit!

  12. #12
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    Constantine
    Well. What should I say about this? Luckily, I didn't have to pay for it. I have to comment on several things about it. Firstly, it was a lot like The Matrix in the outline. Both Neo and Constantine are disturbed people who where dark clothing and fight otherworldy beings while traveling through different worlds.

    Fortunately or unfortunately, The Matrix was much better. The writing in Constantine was sorely lacking. The worst writing was the scene in the hospial, in which Constantine yells at Angela to tell him what Isabel left behind. The pace of the entire movie is switched up, Angela forgets that she is helping Constantine and in the end, she helps him anyway.

    I think that Keanu Reeves, has the capability to be a good actor, but his style doesn't allow him to do that. Rachel Weisz is shaky anyway, but Max Baker and Shia LeBouf were pretty good. I thought that casting Tilda Swinton as Gabriel was a very bold statement on the bible. Francis Lawrence tried to make it hard to tell if Gabriel was a man or a woman. But it was rather obvious. I think that Lawrence was commenting on womens' roles in the bible and different gospels.

    Just a few thoughts and another on the spot review. Hopefully I'll watch a good movie in the next couple of days.

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    NASHVILLE

    Speaking of Altman, I recently re-watched "Nashville", his masterpiece from 1975. I don't have the film knowledge or background that the rest of you guys do, but this is at the top of my list for brilliant filmmaking. Altman's a genius, not just in crafting a pretty looking picture, but in peeling back the layers of our complex selves and society. I don't know of a more intelligent and discerning voice in the world of film.

    Also, I just bought the new Criterion release of "Short Cuts", which is up there with "Nashville" and "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" on my Altman shrine.

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    Re: NASHVILLE

    Originally posted by JustaFied
    Speaking of Altman, I recently re-watched "Nashville", his masterpiece from 1975.
    Well, I probably don't know as much about Altman as you do, but there's no other way to describe Nashville; it's one of the most poetic American films ever made. The Player certainly has to be ranked if not for anything else then just for the fact that it's been one of the most influential films in recent years. I haven't seen the likes of The Gingerbread Man, Dr. T, and The Company, but something tells me that they aren't the kind of films this man should be making.

    It was good to hear from you and hopefully you'll continue to add when possible.

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    Pont du Nord, Jacques Rivette

    Nice thread! Just saw Rivette's "Pond du Nord" at the Walter Reade. I think I need to understand the political context a bit better... A very interesting film to say the least. Bulle Ogier stars opposite her daughter as a revolutionary just released from prison trying to figure out her philosophical place in a politicized, impersonal world.

    Bulle Ogier introduced the film along with Film Comment's Gavin Smith. In a funny moment, the translator mistranslated "un peut preverse" as "a bit of pervert" with regards to Rivette....oh well. Anyone seen this one?
    P

    From the film description:
    "The cinema consists first of all of capturing something that happens at a certain time and place," Jacques Rivette once said, "and that will never happen again." Said impulse lies at the heart of this seldom seen, utterly hypnotic film (shot by William Lubtchansky). Marie (Bulle Ogier) has been released from prison. Baptiste (Bulle's late daughter, the ethereally beautiful Pascale Ogier) has just arrived in Paris. Fate brings them together, and for four days this oddly touching duo out of Lewis Carroll lives out a kind of board game, as if "Chutes and Ladders" had mysteriously merged with real life. A strangely unsettling film, and, thanks to the luminosity of mother and daughter, an oddly touching if not enchanted one. With Pierre Clémenti and Jean-François Stévenin. Music by Astor Piazzola."

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