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billyweeds

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 10:29 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

There is no such thing as a good Lars von Trier movie.

Marc

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 11:12 am

Joined: 19 May 2004 Posts: 8424

Billy, now you're just being ornery. The cover article in the new Film Comment is on Von Trier and Antichrist. Why would one of the finest, if not the finest, film magazines devote a cover and precious pages to a director who's never made a good film? Clearly, there are many people who disagree with you. Me being one.

Marj

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 11:26 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan

I may end up agreeing with Billy, but from what I've been reading, I'm becoming intrigued by Antichrist. I also like Gainsborough a lot.

gromit

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:26 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9008 Location: Shanghai

Maria Larsson's Eviga Ogonblick aka Everlasting Moments was Sweden's 2009 Foreign Language Film nominee. Apparently made it to the final eight, but missed the last cut.

It's a look at a poor working class family in turn-of-the-last century Sweden, in which the father is a tyrant whose moods descend upon his wife and children. He's a manual laborer who drinks too much and chases skirts and throws tantrums. Maria perseveres and raises her growing brood of children.

She wins a camera in a lottery just before getting married, and after years go by, she takes an interest in it, and this becomes an increasing part of her identity and experience of an independent world. It also allows her to earn some extra cash as she becomes more proficient. I like how it is subtly implied that marriage prevents her from achieving independence, a career of her own, and happiness. Maria is the rock of the family, but even for her the world of photography pulls her at times away form her family.

It's a low-key film full of dysfunctional family clashes and strikes and political issues touching upon the father's workplace. In this, it's like a sociological look at that time and place, extending from around 1905 - 1930, and based upon the real remembrances of the daughter (who passed away in 1991). After watching the film, I found it fascinating to see some of the real photos Maria Larsson had taken, some of which the filmmakers intelligently replicated in the film.

I really liked the black-brown-earth tones of the film, recreating a black& white era. And the period details were handled well. Both of the leads, Maria and Siefried Larsson, do a superb job, along with the friendly photographer Mr. Pederson. The film moves along according to time and family incidents, and not along any determined narrative. I think many here would like this film. It's very lovingly well-crafted, capturing the era without much getting sentimental. It's about real life. In some ways, it reminded me of Heimat.

I wonder if anyone has seen Jan Troell's earlier films, such as The Emigrants 1971 (with Liv Ullman & Max von Sydow) or its sequel The New Land (1972) with the same actors?

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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

marantzo

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:27 pm

Guest

Quote:

Haven't we all questioned the presense or the absence of god or a higher being, during many hard moments of our lives?

I never have. Maybe I'm the only one? Laughing

Befade

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 3:55 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ

And of course........you never question yourself.....

Quote:

Maybe because the French actually take philosophy seriously

I have had a current experience with this fact. I read The Elegance of the Hedgehog written by a French philosophy professor......a popular book but not a page turner....VERY heavy on the philosophy (big words, too).

_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno.

marantzo

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:54 pm

Guest

Befade wrote:

And of course........you never question yourself.....

Quote:

Maybe because the French actually take philosophy seriously

What has questioning myself got to do with questioning if there is some kind of deity? Though I usually don't have to question myself. It's apparent to me when I do something stupid or just wrong. Wasn't the same when I was an adolescent, but I'm not anymore. (I think) Smile

Befade

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:29 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ

Quote:

What has questioning myself got to do with questioning if there is some kind of deity?

Nothing, Gary. I lapsed.....

_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno.

billyweeds

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:35 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Marc wrote:

Marc is apparently gone, but I will restate that IMO von Trier is a misogynistic provocateur par excellence but not a good filmmaker.

Befade

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:17 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ

Quote:

misogynistic provocateur

Is that the way you would describe Quentin Tarantino, too?

_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno.

Melody

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:28 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2242 Location: TX

Jumping in late on this discussion, but I agree with Billy vis-a-vis Breaking the Waves. Haven't seen any other LvT films, and after all I've read about Antichrist I doubt I'd see that, although I suppose I could be talked into it.

But Betsy, I would not characterize Tarantino as mysogynistic. He seems to revere strong women in his writing. I'm thinking of Alabama in True Romance and the Bride in Kill Bill and the theater owner in Inglorious Basterds off the top of my head.

I gather you're not a QT fan?

_________________
My heart told my head: This time, no.

Befade

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:28 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ

Oh, I am. Except he seems to enjoy scenes of torture: Death Proof's Kurt Russell pulled off a few. Reservoir Dogs I couldn't watch. Kill Bill" Uma Thurman sought revenge for her abusers.

Lars von Trier........I found Dancer in the Dark very moving.......though it was very grim and apparently the actress had a hard time working with him.

_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno.

Terese

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:22 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 127 Location: Melbourne, Australia

Melody wrote:

Jackie Brown was a very strong woman.

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dogs teach you how to love cats teach you how to live

Joe Vitus

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 7:19 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston

It is a mistake to think that if a character is shown being tortured, the director must hate the person of that sex, race, class, etc. Roots was filled with images of torture. It was not anti-black.

I think Tarantino shows women being absued because, unfortunately, women are abused. And it's not as if men never get tortured in him movies. He particularly likes to show, not a woman grovelling and submitting to torture, or dying in the process, but coming back and kicking major ass.

_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher

billyweeds

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 7:29 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

The only evidence of Tarantino hating women is that he often makes them look ridiculous on screen. The trendy, talky, amazingly boring hen parties that occupy most of Death Trap are enough to turn me off the opposite sex for three hours. But the women in Inglourious Basterds are the most decisive and impressive characters in the movie.

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