The Film thread

[Zeemon]

if you like the prestige, "the illusionist" is pretty good too

 

[Fuuma]



if you like the prestige, "the illusionist" is pretty good too

I get what you are saying but if you like the prestige, you'll like the slop any filmmaker is serving you.

 

[RXS09]

One of my favorite movies of all time is Prospero's Books. Gielgud's incredible in it, and the set and costume and hell everything is ******* fantastic. On a related note, every halloween I unintentionally watch Coppola's Dracula, which is a **** movie but beautiful and I love it. I also love Brotherhood of the Wolf, which is also ****, but has (in addition to the new Iron Chef Chairman posing as a Native American) great sets and costumes and is, generally, pretty stylish.

Anyway, where I'm going with this is that I love opulent, stage-like set designs, incredible costuming, and acting that is probably better suited for the stage than the screen. Does anyone have any recommendations along these lines? I don't really know enough technical terminology to specify, but I like that stuff. I also like Ran, if that counts.

My favorite movie, and one that I could definitely see you enjoying, is The Fall.
Ah, just saw @g transistor recommended it too.

 

[kindofyoung]

Just saw Interstellar, liked it a lot

 

[1989thenumber]

Just saw Interstellar, liked it a lot

Me too. I love the idea that you can travel through space and slow down time, and when you get back everyone has aged and you haven't. I know it's not a new idea, but I always like it.

 

[GoldenTribe]

To refer back to Fuuma's unnecessarily uncharitable post, Nolan is one of the better filmmakers working in the mainstream today (I don't mind damning him with faint praise), and Prestige is undoubtedly one of his better films (alongside Memento, and, in my opinion, nothing else worth remarking upon outside of Ledger's performance in TDK).

You can't legitimately equate his high water mark with the outright garbage of Transformers, G.I. Joe and Fast Five.

That said, Interstellar is deeply inferior to The Prestige as anything but a vehicle for the special effects -- which are serviceable, but hardly memorable. It's a vacuous echo of Solaris and 2001 with a side helping of laughable metaphysics (referring to transcendental love, not time dilation, which Nolan already served up in Inception) that sabotages the much-vaunted input of theoretical physicists on the effects sequences and plot.

It's got slick production values in place of a soul, just like every other Nolan film. He should be grateful to get such talented casts -- speaking of which, McConaughey was quite good, Chastain was good, (I'm getting sick of seeing Michael Caine dragged into every Nolan project,) Hathaway was less believable as a scientist than she was as Catwoman (even before her hilarious speech about love), though I think the script just introduced her very poorly -- and Matt Damon was awful. I'm always happy to see John Lithgow getting work (he is amazing live on stage), but he hasn't had a properly meaty part in quite a while.

Hans Zimmer's music is the best thing in the film.

 

[ShoutOutsFoMyBo]

just saw birdman for the second time. monotonous and thrilling. i was put into a trance by the end, emotionally numb and aware of how my socks felt against my feet.

 

[the shah]



To refer back to Fuuma's unnecessarily uncharitable post, Nolan is one of the better filmmakers working in the mainstream today (I don't mind damning him with faint praise), and Prestige is undoubtedly one of his better films (alongside Memento, and, in my opinion, nothing else worth remarking upon outside of Ledger's performance in TDK).

You can't legitimately equate his high water mark with the outright garbage of Transformers, G.I. Joe and Fast Five.

That said, Interstellar is deeply inferior to The Prestige as anything but a vehicle for the special effects -- which are serviceable, but hardly memorable. It's a vacuous echo of Solaris and 2001 with a side helping of laughable metaphysics (referring to transcendental love, not time dilation, which Nolan already served up in Inception) that sabotages the much-vaunted input of theoretical physicists on the effects sequences and plot.

It's got slick production values in place of a soul, just like every other Nolan film. He should be grateful to get such talented casts -- speaking of which, McConaughey was quite good, Chastain was good, (I'm getting sick of seeing Michael Caine dragged into every Nolan project,) Hathaway was less believable as a scientist than she was as Catwoman (even before her hilarious speech about love), though I think the script just introduced her very poorly -- and Matt Damon was awful. I'm always happy to see John Lithgow getting work (he is amazing live on stage), but he hasn't had a properly meaty part in quite a while.

Hans Zimmer's music is the best thing in the film.

Excuse the pun here but Jessica Chastain is a singularity of infinitely dense garbage. The only draw for me was the rendering of the black hole without the addition of special effects, as in all these claims that it was simply some very accurate numerical solutions to general relativity equations. I could suffer through hours of cliched Nolan for that, but if Chastain plays any major role id rather jump into the black hole

Irrationality aside, the drivel you listed in comparison to Nolan would elevate a second rate curry festival production to a National Theatre Shakespearean production level.

All in all, I think you've outlined a pretty realistic expectation for me and I'm considering just watching it when it's available without the extortionist fees of cinemas to pass some time. I honestly have more fun going through Leonard Susskind lectures on YouTube than watching most movies so I guess I'm a nerd like that.

 

[accordion]

I think she's a good actress, not enough redheads in the mainstream. She was good in Take Shelter.

To watch list for next week:

Deux jours, une nuit AKA Two Days, One Night by Dardenne brothers

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles by Chantal Akerman

Kes by Ken Loach


Saw Gone Girl just cuz, not bad, would've been better if someone like Von Trier directed it instead; the story calls for a director more ruthless than David Fincher, who's "bleakest" film was Seven.

 

[Lionheart Biker]

Dude, you could have mentioned any other chastain movie but you had to go with "Take Shelter"... that "performance" of hers is the definition of wooden acting. She doesn´t really convey much to me in general.

 

[Biggskip]



You can't legitimately equate his high water mark with the outright garbage of Transformers, G.I. Joe and Fast Five.

Well those are just fighting words right there. In all seriousness, I'm pretty sure that ever since Justin Lin took over the franchise each film is made with an eye towards the "Grindhouse" effect. When you think about them from that standpoint, in that they are creating ridiculousness for the purpose of their audience appreciating how ridiculous it is, they are far more enjoyable.

It's got slick production values in place of a soul, just like every other Nolan film. He should be grateful to get such talented casts -- speaking of which, McConaughey was quite good, Chastain was good, (I'm getting sick of seeing Michael Caine dragged into every Nolan project,) Hathaway was less believable as a scientist than she was as Catwoman (even before her hilarious speech about love), though I think the script just introduced her very poorly -- and Matt Damon was awful. I'm always happy to see John Lithgow getting work (he is amazing live on stage), but he hasn't had a properly meaty part in quite a while.

Love him as the heavy in Ricochet and Cliffhanger.

 

[pickpackpockpuck]

Stanley Kubrick's use of red. Not an in-depth examination or anything but fun to watch. Would love to see one on his use of symmetry. [VIDEO]
Red: A Kubrick Supercut from Rishi Kaneria on Vimeo.
[/VIDEO]

 

[RXS09]

Hans Zimmer's music is the best thing in the film.

Certainly not wrong there. It was a fun watch, definitely not my favorite Nolan film though

 

[the shah]

so i just went and saw interstellar. just seemed like pseudointellectual sewage (transcendental love, 5-dimensional beings, atemporal communication, a/retrocausality, metaphysics blahblahblah) trying to elevate a lacking story line--why was the earth going to hell in a handbasket anyway, why didn't anyone set out to study the dust storms that kept ruining the crops, how did the big plan A spaceship work if Caine's equations were wrong but Chastain solved them, which would probably mean building a new ship, what was Matt Daemon's brilliant plan after having given up on life .....--into a feel good layer of horsecrap by abusing even my rudimentary understanding of physics. the first hour or so showed potential as the plot was building up, once they entered the wormhole the toilet was being flushed. and i didn't think @GoldenTribe's analysis of Hathaway was serious but then began her babbling nonsense and she managed to outdo chastain.

 

[Fuuma]



so i just went and saw interstellar. just seemed like pseudointellectual sewage (transcendental love, 5-dimensional beings, atemporal communication, a/retrocausality, metaphysics blahblahblah) trying to elevate a lacking story line--why was the earth going to hell in a handbasket anyway, why didn't anyone set out to study the dust storms that kept ruining the crops, how did the big plan A spaceship work if Caine's equations were wrong but Chastain solved them, which would probably mean building a new ship, what was Matt Daemon's brilliant plan after having given up on life .....--into a feel good layer of horsecrap by abusing even my rudimentary understanding of physics. the first hour or so showed potential as the plot was building up, once they entered the wormhole the toilet was being flushed. and i didn't think @GoldenTribe's analysis of Hathaway was serious but then began her babbling nonsense and she managed to outdo chastain.

There's this chick who's really into Jean-Luc Nancy and Jacques Rancière who was hanging out with the Olivier Zahm crew, she was apparently quite depressed about her life. You should be watching films by Tariq Teguia and you're going to see Interstellar, don't ******* complain you had a bad experience!!