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| gromit |
 Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 4:13 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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My rankings:
1. Rabbit Hole
2. A Prophet
3. Facing Ali
4. The Wind Journeys
5. Katalin Varga
6. Last Train Home
7. Toy Story 3
8. A Room and a Half
9. Restrepo
10. Illusioniste
11. Children of Invention
12. Exit Through the Gift Shop
13. The Kids Are All Right
14. Black Swan
15. The Fighter
16. You Don't Know Jack
17. Lourdes
18. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
19. The Social Network
20. Entre Nos
So just one traditional Hollywood film in my Top Ten. Which is why I'm finding it hard to vote for some categories.
My bottom 7:
43. A Woman A Gun and a Noodle Shop
44. Somewhere
45. Fish Tank
46. Conviction
47. Secret In Their Eyes
48. Uncle Boonmee
49. My Son My Son What Have Ye Done
Funny that many of these received praise and/or a devoted following. 3 or 4 renowned directors, an Oscar winner, a Criterion issue...
I'd hate to re-watch any of them. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 10:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Only seen three of gromit's bottom seven, but one of them is an amazingly good movie. It's Fish Tank, which boasts several terrific performances as well as a funny, sad, profound theme and well-paced and insightful direction.
Somewhere is a movie that either grabs you or doesn't. It's somewhat pretentious in a neo-Antonioni mode, but also rather touching.
Conviction is deadeningly mediocre and sort of a movie of the week, but has some pretty decent acting as well as horrible makeup for Sam Rockwell. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:08 am |
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Often when I lie down in the afternoon or wake up in the middle of the night I turn on the TV and click around looking for something to watch. Some of the time I end up watching a movie that has already started and I have no idea what movie it is. Something I've found to be very annoying even in movies that aren't all that bad is the interminable use of super closeups. What the fuck is the matter with these directors? Not only do these constant super closeups ruin the effect that these closeups are supposed to provide, they make you want to scream, "Pull the damn camera back, you schmuck."
On a related not, (how many times do I write that?) I saw a little over the last half of a movie that I found sort of corny but touching. I thought I saw most of the movie but when I looked it up it was 2hrs and 18mins long. The Holiday with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black and Eli Wallach.
They are all good in their roles and Wallach playing a noted screen writer from the era when the studios ran the industry was a pleasure to watch. And his last scene at a tribute to him is very moving.
The film is the story of people who have had problems or misfortune with their romantic partners and get to know each other one way or another. You might call it a chick-flick, which probably fits, but I'm not a chick and I enjoyed it. You could also call it a feel-good movie, which it is.
If you are looking for something to see that is an old fashioned romance movie I'd recommend The Holiday. Nice visuals too. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:13 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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You had me at "Winslet." Will look for it ASAP.
Facial pore examination shots are way overdone these days. |
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| grace |
| Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:20 am |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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| Watch out, bartist ..... "The Holiday -- it's a romcom!" (to borrow from Mr. Serling). I enjoy the movie, don't get me wrong; but it will rot your teeth. It also makes me want to kill Jack Black more than ever. Love Wallach and his cronies, though. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:48 am |
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| Grace, I missed about the first hour of the movie. Is the first hour worth seeing. I read about it on Imdb and it sounded OK. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:49 am |
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"Love Wallach and his cronies, though."
Yeah those veterans were great. |
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| grace |
| Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 12:08 pm |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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marantzo wrote: Grace, I missed about the first hour of the movie. Is the first hour worth seeing. I read about it on Imdb and it sounded OK.
The first hour is basically the setup, so you find out a couple of things, like [spoiler alert] that Diaz is a workaholic who throws someone out or gets dumped, Winslet loves someone who doesn't love her, hence the search for a vacation/house swap [end spoiler] - nothing you can't figure out later, but watching the beginning won't make you regret losing an hour of your life or anything.
I just issued the romcom alert because I have, on occasion, received some ribbing about my appetite for extra-sugary romcoms. All in all, The Holiday is pretty good (if you don't have a romcom aversion issue in the first place, that is). |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 9:17 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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| Finally got round to "An Education" -- a Brit period dramedy set in the 60s that sort of reconsiders "Jane Eyre" -- Sarsgaard is great as a Mr. Rochester figure, and Carey Mulligan as the brainy schoolgirl he romances. He oozes such charm that the parents become as infatuated as the girl and pretty much hand her over, creating moments that swing between hilarious and sad, sometimes both. Sarsgaard's various kinds of shadiness and con artistry emerge, and disillusionment ensues, serving the irony of the film's title. I think I'm becoming a Sarsgaard fan. He has a presence, and a way of drawing attention to the underlying flaws of any character I've seen him play. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:58 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I'm thrilled by some news I heard yesterday. There's a new doc in the Tribeca Film Festival called Carol Channing: Larger Than Life, in which a clip shows Channing singing one of my tunes. Very exciting. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:46 am |
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| Great. Do you get any royalties for that. Everyone loves Carol Channing. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:35 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| No, don't get royalties. It's apparently part of a montage of Channing singing at various stops on a tour. The song, btw, Gary, is titled "Anyone Who's Anyone (Is Jewish)." |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:37 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I quite enjoyed Roy Anderson's first full length feature, Swedish Love Story (1970). It does a good job of capturing the innocence and urges, frustrations and awkwardness of young love. The central couple are almost 14 and both have a real flair. I might be wrong, but I felt this was influenced the Prague Spring films from the years just before, in its rhythm and charm and approach to the characters. Maybe just my recent viewings.
I'd like to find out more about Anderson, and his fairly long hiatus from filmmaker. In the 21st C, Anderson has made a significant comeback with Songs From the Second Floor and the more recent absurdist You, The Living.
Apparently he spent much of his career making Tv adverts.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ofPRv29RMs
Reportedly, Ingmar Bergman is a big fan of Anderson's commercials.
Quote: Roy Andersson was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1943. A year after graduating from the Swedish Film Institute in 1969, he directed his first feature-length film, A Swedish Love Story. The film, awarded four prizes the same year at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival, looked at the nature and nuance of young love and turned out to be a major critical and popular success for Andersson. Following this success, Andersson fell into a depression. As he didn't want to get stuck with the same style and expectations he cancelled what was going to be his next project, with the script half-way finished, and skipped a couple of other ideas for plots he had previously planned to realize.[1] Eventually he directed the film Giliap which was released in 1975. The film was a financial and critical disaster, went wildly over budget, and suffered lengthy delays in post-production. Giliap went in a decidedly different direction than A Swedish Love Story -- replacing crowd-pleasing joy and soft humour with dark comedy and unforgiving deadpan. After Giliap, Andersson would take a 25-year break from film directing, focusing his efforts mainly on his commercial work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Andersson
The AE disc of Love Story has clips of his other films, so at least I can get a few minute glimpse of his sophomre jinx Giliap. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:41 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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| Has anyone seen It's Not Me, I Swear! (2008) a French Canuckian film about a kid whose mother fucks off (pardon my French Canadian)? |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 1:14 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Those Anderson clips were interesting, especially the ones from his 2 short films.
Quote: he directed a short-film commissioned by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare entitled Something Happened. Made in 1987, the short was meant to be played at schools all over Sweden as an educational film about AIDS, but was canceled when it was three-fourths complete because of its overly dark nature and controversial use of sources. The official explanation was that it was "too dark in its message," and it wasn't officially shown until 1993.
I can see why it was deemed too dark, as the scene provided has a warden asking prisoners if they are willing to volunteer for a medical experiment.
Quote: His next short film, 1991's World of Glory, developed this style even further and was a critical success, winning both the Canal Plus Award and the prestigious Press Prize at the 1992 Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. The film is on a top ten list of all time best short films, set by the Clermont-Ferrand festival.
World of Glory isn't so cheery either with an absolutely chilling seen of a mobile mass murder gassing.
I really enjoyed the scene of 2nd Floor, when the one guy throws unsold crucifixes of varying sizes on to a garbage heap. Very black comedy which had me laughing out loud. Followed by his partner being haunted by ghosts of his past marching down
the road towards him and an empty field coming to life. Makes me think I should re-watch that. |
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