The Film thread

[diniro]

Over July 4th weekend:

The Grand Budapest Hotel - Not a big Wes Anderson fan, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. Maybe the best I've seen this year. Probably need to go back and watch his other films. Style inspiration:

Noah - Also enjoyed this. Has some cool visuals.

this gif: https://www.filepicker.io/api/file/Q0b1VvHyRLCCLP8rZXbH

Also caught up on the UK show Utopia. Interesting plot, good soundtrack, although it's worth watching for the cinematography alone. I really like the saturated color schemes.

Style inspiration:

Apparently David Fincher is doing a remake of the show for HBO. Should be good.

 

[g transistor]

re: Wes Anderson

I recently watched Grand Budapest Hotel too and I absolutely loved it. I'm a fan of Wes Anderson's stuff, my favorites being Darjeeling Limited (something about Brody, Wilson, and Schwartzman makes it so fun), Royal Tenenbaums (I think it's Wes Anderson enough without being too Wes Andersony), and of course Fantastic Mr. Fox. Hated Moonrise Kingdom and don't really like Steve Zissou or Rushmore.

Loved that part of Noah, @diniro. Probably the best part of the film, I think it went downhill very, very quickly after that midpoint

 

[ShoutOutsFoMyBo]

snowpiercer was good, left me feeling very weird for a while. i just sat eating el polo loco, staring out into nothing

 

[kindofyoung]

Utopia is so damn pretty
Fair warning though to anyone interested, it's a heavyweight series and while I usually marathon series I really didn't want to watch more than 2 episodes in a row of it.
None the less it's really good

 

[sipang]

Yeah pretty is the word. Thought it was kinda poor story wise though, visuals, camerawork, soundtrack and overall dark tone somewhat made up for it but the whole thing fell short and felt a bit gratuitous to me. Still very enjoyable for the cinematography alone as Diniro said, but definitely a case of style over substance.

Liked that sequence in Noah too. Still haven't finished though, watched Black Swan instead eh.

 

[g transistor]

I liked Black Swan a lot. That's a bit more of the psychological aronofsky I like better

 

[accordion]

Watched Carlos Reygadas's Japon. For those not familiar, he's a great imitator and borrower of masters like Kiarostami, Tarkovsky, Dreyer, but does it well enough to be considered an auteur in his own right, and probably the most highly regarded Mexican filmmaker. I'm sure there's a fashion equivalent somewhere. Also who can guess where my avatar is from?

 

[pickpackpockpuck]

I liked Japon but I wasn't blown away the way I was by Dreyer and Tarkovsky when I first saw their work (the passion of joan of arc is my favorite movie). I tried watching Battle in Heaven at one point but didn't enjoy it. I noticed that Netflix has some Sokurov movies I never saw so will make it a point to watch those eventually.

oh, and your avatar looks familiar but I can't place it! making me crazy now

 

[GoldenTribe]



I liked Japon but I wasn't blown away the way I was by Dreyer and Tarkovsky when I first saw their work (the passion of joan of arc is my favorite movie).

Have you seen Bresson's "Trial of Joan of Arc" from 1962?

I recently watched it after reading on wikipedia that --

Bresson's The Trial of Joan of Arc is often compared with The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) by Carl Theodor Dreyer. Bresson compared that film unfavorably with his own, expressing his dislike of the actors' "grotesque buffooneries" in Dreyer's film.

However, I was practically stricken when I saw Dreyer's film the first time; Bresson's seemed too intent on its own supposed subtleness and did not move me.

On the other hand, I found Soderbergh's encapsulation/recapitulation of Solaris more successful; it certainly didn't capture the awe of the original, but I thought it offered some good moments and effective atmosphere, it just wasn't emotionally engaging (whether due to length or just the director's typical clinical style).

 

[pickpackpockpuck]

I haven't seen Bresson's. I know I should check it out since I like him a lot. His comments about Dreyer's movie are pretty funny. Not surprising I guess coming from someone who referred to his actors as "models" haha. But Dreyer's Joan of Arc completely blew me away the first time I saw it, and I still think it's amazing every time I watch it.

I really liked Soderbergh's Solaris too. One of my favorite movies he's made actually. It was a good movie to remake too. I don't think you could successfully remake any of his others because you won't get better than the original, but I thought Tarkovsky's Solaris didn't come together the way it could have so it left some room.

 

[sipang]

Speaking of Reygadas, haven't seen Post Tenebras Lux (yet) but that opening sequence (00:58 > 08:00) is something else.

 

[accordion]

Yea that's one of my favorite scenes, the child just learning to attach names to objects while running around freely amongst wild animals in a sort of primordial state. She's also the cutest kid ever. Reygadas definitely has some tricks up his sleeves; the time lapse still shots in Silent Light, the sound editing in Post Tenebras Lux, etc. PTL is a very divisive film - it was booed at Cannes of all places - but it's without a doubt the most memorable film I saw last year. I think Silent Light is perhaps the best intro to his tiny oeuvre, followed by Japon. Btw my avatar is from Cassavetes's A Woman Under the Influence. back when America had real auteurs.

Also not to be pedantic but that scene in PTL reminds me of Nietzsche's Heraclitean Child in the beginnings of Birth of Tragedy. Reygadas is very good at depicting these overintellectualized concepts that usually only exist in philosophy such as the pantheistic nature in Silent Light, and metaphysical and religious redemption in Japon.

 

[sipang]

Only saw Japon so far and it's was a while ago, definitely time for a rewatch. From what I understand it's the most conventional of his films.


Booing is actually pretty common at Cannes, it's almost a tradition. Antonioni was booed several times, Taxi Driver and Pulp Fiction were booed when they won the Palme d'Or, Cronenberg's Crash was booed when it won the jury prize.

And it's not reserved to foreign films either, Eustache was booed for The Mother and the Whore, Pialat was famously booed for Under the Sun of Satan, Bresson was booed when he won the best director award for L'Argent (shared with Tarkovsky for Nostalghia)






[VIDEO][/VIDEO]



so much cinema on that stage, Tarkovsky = swag

 

[accordion]

That's a really cool video, didn't know that about the Cannes crowd, thought that they'd appreciate PTL since Reygadas's previous films were received positively there. Definitely gonna watch L'Argent now.

 

[noob in 89]



Eustache was booed for The Mother and the Whore

Accordion: are you a Walkabout fan? I'm pegging you for a Walkabout fan.