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| Shane |
 Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 3:16 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1168
Location: Chicago
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| Car, I loved that show! I guess it showed a lot of places cause I saw it in Ga. and Co. and Marilyn saw it here in Chicago. |
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| Shane |
| Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 3:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Chicago
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bartist wrote: Watching the Clooney confection that is "The American" on dvd, I felt I was seeing the sort of slow and contemplative film that Americans generally don't much care for. It's a lovely and sensual sojourn in Italy, where a covert op/assassin of some sort tries to sort out his lonely life (with the help of good-hearted hooker Violante Placido (heart-palpitatingly lovely and charming), who quickly promotes Clooney from client to boyfriend) while staying hidden from vengeful Swedish agents. I loved the sedate pace of the film, but I suspect the many came to theaters looking for a little more action in what, from a bare-bones plot synopsis, might have sounded like a conventional bang-bang kill-kill thriller.
I hope we'll see more of this slower paced, contemplative sort of thing coming from his work around his home, Italy, now. It's so refreshing and invigorating like a breeze blowing down from the mountains....ooohh never mind. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 3:59 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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Quote: the one that effected me the most waterworks/wise.
Title of future film favorite: Men With Tears |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:11 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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When a 1947 film seems both a precursor to Being John Malkovich and most of Guy Maddin's output, it is officially INTERESTING.
Hans Richter's Dreams Money Can Buy posits a guy who needs to pay his rent, so he opens up a business selling dreams. Plenty of clients come for this novel experience. The dream sequences are often surreal, created by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, Fernand Léger and Man Ray. I'd already made the connection to Being JM, when whaddyaknow the two Calder dreams involve puppets. Ding, ding! I'll eat Werner Herzog's shoe if Charlie Kaufman didn't see this.
And Guy Maddin? There this serio-comic element to the whole film. A rapid-fire narration takes the place of speaking for most characters throughout the film. All of the clients are slightly exaggerated stereotypes. The film often subverts the authority figures of the world. It's all an off-kilter distortion of Norman Rockwell America. It's full of whimsy as well, such as the tune, The Girl with the Prefabricated Heart in the Leger dream sequence.
It's not entirely successful. Some of the abstract dream sequences seem a little quaint and decidedly low-budget today. Also, the contradiction between the dream business, run like Sam Spade's office, and the gentle poetry and art of the dreams doesn't really mesh. But this is an interesting avant garde film which should be seen. The BFI put this out recently, and it stands up there with Maya Deren's better-known work. |
Last edited by gromit on Wed Feb 09, 2011 8:02 am; edited 1 time in total
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:43 am |
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Very interesting. I don't think I've heard of Richter. Is this an American film or German or what? Quite an impressive list of artists. I guess Dali was unavailable.  |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Fritz Lang's Fury was his first American film and a worthy successor to M and Metropolis, though not nearly as good as either of them. Visually it's pretty great, if only for a sequence about halfway through where a mob descends on the jail where (anti-)hero Spencer Tracy is incarcerated for a trumped-up charge and burns it down, presumably kiiling him and (cue "Men with Tears") his little dog. The socio-political statements are not remotely subtle, nor is Tracy's acting (confession: I've never been a particular fan of ST), but the kineticism of the staging is undeniable. And (apologies to gromit) I saw it on the small screen where the visuals were certainly muted, so it's probably even better in a theater.
Sylvia Sidney, meanwhile, is aces in the less central role of Tracy's sweetheart. She was a great actress. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:58 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Yeah, Silvia Sydney is terrific. Wish her role was expanded. It's a powerful film. I think it would be memorable on a big screen. I like the nasty edge.
Did you get to any other of the FF's Langs?
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Hans Richter was an avant garde artist and buddies with everyone in the mix. Most of those artists wrote and directed their dream sequences. So, in many ways, it's a string of surrealist short films linked together by a Richter narrative.
Quote: Richter moved from Switzerland to the United States in 1940 and became an American citizen. He taught in the Institute of Film Techniques at the City College of New York.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_That_Money_Can_Buy
Dreams was made in 1947 and plays off of the noir/detective films of that era.
The dvd also has 3 of Richters early abstract/dadaist films from the 20's. I know I've seen at least one on an avant garde compilation. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 9:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: Yeah, Silvia Sydney is terrific. Wish her role was expanded. It's a powerful film. I think it would be memorable on a big screen. I like the nasty edge.
Did you get to any other of the FF's Langs?
Love your misspelling of both Sylvia Sidney's first and last names.
Couldn't get to either double bill I wanted to, because of time conflicts. One is today, when I would have gone to see You Only Live Once and You and Me, both starring Sidney. |
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| Shane |
| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 9:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Chicago
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| Gromit, I will be checking this one out quickly what with the Film Noir blogathon getting underway shortly. It might be just the thing for me to write about. I notice he has a lot of documentary's out so this is going to be a journey for me..love docs. Thanks for the heads up. I got a chance to meet Guy Maddin at the Big Island Flim Fest. while Marilyn interviewed him. He is a card. Thanks again for this one. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 10:35 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Here's Time Out's 100 Best British film list:
http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/855/100-best-british-films-the-list/7
Some that I'd like to see:
Piccadilly (1929)
Went the Day Well? (1942)
Dead of Night (1945)
It Always Rains on Sunday (1947)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960
London (1994)
Nil By Mouth (1997) |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 12:09 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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| Very weird list, in my opinion. My taste is obviously quite different from that of the fellows who chose the films. If "The Third Man" were number one instead of number two, I might be more forgiving, but many of the movies are obscure and some were just dead boring. Several Monty Pythons (that's fine) but no Beatles? Only one Alan Bates flick? How about "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "The Bed-Sitting Room" and "The Wrong Box" and "Bedazzled" and "Victim" and... oh well, I'll make my own list. (Though, how come I've never seen "Night and the City"? As a Widmark fan and an anglophile, I'd really love to check that one out.) |
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| Shane |
| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 12:25 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Chicago
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| Carrobin , Oh yes and let's not forget Pick up on South st(though of course not British)....Thelma Ritter really played that one good. Nil By Mouth was one I liked when I saw it but it is pretty forgettable. Love the Wrong Box for sure. I saw Malcom McDowell in 'Look Back in Anger' recently...he was young and the angst just seethed from every pore!! |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:29 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| gromit--Looks like I may get to see that great double bill of You and Me and You Only Live Once after all. I hadn't noticed that it's playing tomorrow (Thursday) as well, and I can go! I shall report. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:16 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Let us know how those Langs are.
I'm really hoping this means a lot more Lang dvd's start turning up.
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A Brit list needs Seance on a Wet Afternoon.
Night and the City is really good.
Widmark gets to stretch out in a role as a wrestling promoter/huckster. |
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| Shane |
| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:57 am |
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Posts: 1168
Location: Chicago
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| Seance on a Wet Afternoon received a place in my collection right after I saw it the first time. So for that matter did 10 Rillington Place (which is enjoying a release on DVD through Columbia U.K.. |
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