Wow I missed a few here, but fuck all that.
I saw Sin City, and it was brilliant. I might go to see Old Boy tomorrow, so this could turn out to be one hell of a new movie weekend. I posted some comments in the Sin City thread, but I don't want to say anything about the film except that it should be seen by all. Once you have seen it, then compare notes. I have a feeling that it is a film that is gonna stick with me for a few days, unlike the instantly forgettable trash I usually watch.
Dead Ringers (1988) - David Cronenberg
Took me long enough, but finally got a copy of the Criterion Edition of this, and the movie was fantastic. Cronenberg is one of the most original (and best imo) directors around, and this film is frequently considered his best. Damn good, and although quite strange, perfectly normal in the world of Cronenberg. Jeremy Irons also delivered the performance of his career, at least far better than his Oscar winning turn in Reversal of Fortune.
I agree on the importance of this movie, though I'm not sure that it's Cronenberg's best, there are several others I like quite a lot. It's arguably his sickest, and Jeremy Irons is splendid, perhaps indeed better than in Reversal of Fortune, but that's good too, and a movie one can re-watch without feeling sick--despite also being rather unhealthy material.
Finally saw Terry Zwigoff's Crumb last night.
I woke up at 2am to take a leak and something told me to turn on the t.v.- Crumb had just begun. Weird, isn't it?
I said "hey-this must be Crumb!"
So I watched. And was very intrigued.
First off, Robert Crumb has artistic talent coming out his ass, his pores, his whole body. The guy is an astounding sketch artist.
That said, he's an offensive person. His parents were a large reason for his life course. His parents were psychos if you ask me and because of they way the Crumb children grew up they all have psychological & emotional scars that they cannot hide.
This film does not gloss over anything. It shows Crumb in all his artistic and contempuous glory. (A lot of the things he laments in the doc I also lament- everybody wears logos, corporate greed has tainted everything, people have no "soul", etc.)
It's a pretty sobering and I must say sad viewing experience, but the drawings on display make it all ok. Genius artwork.
Check it out
"Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd
This is a great movie. It heralded great things to come from Zwigoff later on too. I saw it in theaters and loved it. Today I saw Sin City. I thought of you and your enthusiasm, which I can't really say I share. The look of it reminded me of Coppola's Rumble Fish, which I prefer, and which also has Mickey Rourke in it. Somehow I feel like comics are one thing and movies are another. I may write about this in much more detail if I can muster the energy in days to come. This is my last day of an almost two-week stay on the East Coast; I fly back from NYC to California tomorrow morning.
I was wondering where you were ;)
Sin City is a film that will only be appreciated as it should by a certain type of person: a person with cinema and comics history at the forefront of their medulla.
Everyone else won't like it or will say stuff like "cool visuals!",
"Huh?" "Too chock-a-block!", "Too congested!", etc..
I don't mind being elite on this one:
It's a work of cinema art and if you don't like it POUND SALT
"Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd
Doesn't sound like you're allowing much room for discussion but we need to get other opinions on this and I hope other people see it soon. I have enjoyed other comics movies but this one--well, I should save it for a review, though I will admit I'm not an expert, not even familiar with the comic books of this guy.
I hope you see Oldboy and make comparisons. That and Kontroll were reviewed together by the nutty, but sometimes convincing, head reviewer and dismeister (or snitmeister) for the New York Press, Armond White, and he described them as signs of decline: "It's the denial of beauty in Oldboy and Kontroll that marks them as products of our time. Park and Antal appeal to the adolescent taste for outrage and ugliness that defines the peculiar abandon of contemporary movie culture.".... etc. See the whole review (White's reviews can be bracing reading): "Perp Fiction: Sound and fury and incest, signifying nothing" http://www.nypress.com/18/12/film/ArmondWhite2.cfm.
I didn't get to see Kontroll, but did see Oldboy, which I liked at first. (It's certainly original in some ways.)
Films I saw in New York this trip (I got back to California today):
16 Years of Alcohol
Intimate Stories
Schizo
Gunner Palace
Don't Move
The Ballad of Jack and Rose
Ong-Bok: Thai Warrior
Oscar Shorts
Mondovino
Dot the i
Oldboy
Sin City
I might have seen more, but the selection was not outstanding this time of year, and I also had plays to see and concerts to hear and art to look at. The highlight of the trip for me was not a movie but the Jean-Michel Basquiat retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. And the space I most liked going back to was not the Quad Cinema or Film Forum but Carnegie Hall.
An overhead view of a road traffic accident, the victim a young girl who has come off her bike is rushed to hospital and into surgery, her life obviously hangs in the balance as surgeons try to save her. This is the opening for Don't Move, directed by and starring Sergio Castellitto with Penelope Cruz as you've never seen her before.
Sergio plays Timoteo a surgeon, the girl in the accident (Angela) is his daughter and all he can do is sit and wait while she is operated on. Something jogs his memory and the majority of the rest of the film is told through flashbacks of a doomed love affair he had.
Penelope Cruz plays Italia, in flashback the other half of the doomed affair, with a mixture of make up and acting she attacks the role of one of society's casualties with aplomb, cheap tacky clothing, multi-coloured streaky hair, a bandy gawky walk and the attitude of a victim, great acting (and in Italian).
What starts off near enough as rape ends up as a passionate affair. Italia, her house and life are the polar opposites to Timoteo's, his wife is very beautiful in a traditional sense, confident, well off and well educated, his house flows with beauty and serenity while Italia's is a sloven shack due to be demolished, he has a successful career and social life, she lives amongst and indeed is one of society's misfits. Several times through-out the film this disparity is clearly illustrated, the first time being when Timoteo is sat on Italia's bed trying to ring his home, we switch from the run down shambles to the luxurious bedroom at the other end of the line, silky curtains blowing in a gentle breeze, stylish furniture and calmness, this type of switch occurs again and again, sometimes to illustrate differences, sometimes because of similarities in circumstance .
From what I can remember there was no background music as such, what appeared to be background music became part of the film whether played in a cafe, car etc this was unusual but worked well within the context of the film.
The story pretty much plays out as expected involving the usual suspects - passion, lust, pregnancy, bitterness, regret and of course death but just manages to steer the right side of mawkish melodrama. The story is fairly obvious and put to music would make a great opera, the acting especially from Ms Cruz holds you till the end.
Worth seeing even if only to see Penelope Cruz act (as opposed to the recent crap she's done) and for those who like this traditional type of dramatic romance.
Cheers Trev.
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce (1975) - dir Chantal Akerman
Not for anyone with little patience. This movie is as static as they come. The camera does not move once in the film, shots hang for inordinate amounts of time, and the whole film is structured around the every day, mundane tasks of the title character. Basically if you went over to your neighbors house and just watched them do whatever they do, it would be the same as this film. It is historically signficant for some reason, and I'm glad I have seen it, so now I can say I've seen at least one film from her.
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Jeanne Dielman is a tough one to talk about but those static medium-master shots had quite an effect on me as they unobstrusively captured the alienated protagonist. If you can get it, try to see D'Est (From the East [1993]), similar in nature but more external. I haven't seen her latest, Demain on déménage (Tomorrow We Move [2004]), yet but it's getting some good press.
Last edited by arsaib4; 04-15-2005 at 09:52 PM.
I have seen other things by Ackerman -- Je, tu, il, elle, Toute une nuit (which have some of the vérité qualities you describe) and the much more accessible -- briefly a 'hit' locally in a theatrical presentation -- 1996 Un divan à New York (A Couch in New York) with William Hurt and Juliette Binoche, which Janet Maslin in The NYTImes called "pleasant but unaccountable fluff." She seems capable of a variety of things.
Didn't think this topic would get so far down. Well I watched Violence at Noon (1966) today. It was directed by Nagisa Oshima, and it did what I expected it to. Which is to say it made me weep and cry that more of his films weren't available. The film itself was innovative, and very evocative of New Wave, it's narrative is jumbled, and it's editing is discontinuous. It makes for an interesting, and at times confusing viewing.
Yes, it is too bad more of his films aren't available here.
Lonesome Dove (1989) - Simon Wincer
An epic that doesn't feel overly long. Produced as a miniseries, thankfully it is available on a rather inexpensive DVD. The film is moving at parts, and often compelling, but does suffer slightly for the low budget restrictions of a made for TV production.
Heartbreak Ridge (1986) - Clint Eastwood
Well the film isn't exactly great, but I loved it. Formulaic, predictable, and at times ridiculous, but it's above all entertaining. You want to see Clint whoop these men into Marines, you want to see the cliched Commanding officer get his, and you so desperately want to see Mario Van Peebles get that earring ripped out.
I probably would have enjoyed this film more a few years ago, and been more critical of it's military accuracy as well, but nevertheless I couldn't help but like it. Mindless patriotic flag waving gung-ho militaristic nonsense. It helps that I'm on a bit of a Clint kick, and this role, ableit not a very challenging one, seems tailor made for him. Eastwood's direction is somewhat standard (as it always is), but he holds the story together.
I got Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil to watch, which I might get to later tonight.
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