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| gromit |
 Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 1:02 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I had French intertitles with Eng subtitles.
Which was fine with me, but I figured they'd switch in English for the US and maybe the international release.
The intertitle Gary liked was the same in both French and English -- the French used the English word -- which made it (even more) amusing that it was subtitled.
I just think from one scene of their film, you can't tell that the film will be successful. In some ways, it's a successful comeback for him regardless, and good for their relationship. So in those ways, it's a happy ending. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:49 pm |
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| That reminds me of a western I saw in Paris. I'm pretty sure it was The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. It was at one of my neighbourhood theatres which were usually full of Sorbonne students. Near the beginning of the picture James Stewart (I think) goes to a sheriff for some reason or another. The subtitle translates sign outside that says sheriff as shérif. So far so good. The sheriff obviously can't help him because the very next scene has him going to the marshal with the sign outside saying marshal which is translated in the subtitle as shérif. The audience breaks out in laughter. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:46 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Ghulam wrote: The Turkish movie Once Upon a Time in Anatolia directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan is one of the better movies I have seen in the past 12 months. It won the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes. It purportedly is about the bureaucratic aspects of a criminal investigation, but is really about the drudgery and dishonesty that is life. I loved Ceylan's earlier movies Distant, Climates and Three Monkeys, but this one is his most ambitious and best.
I was with the film for the first hour, while it was setting up the characters and the mood and the routine. Some of the compositions of the rugged countryside were really beautiful. But by the time they return to the municipal seat, I was kind of worn down. The exchange of looks and pregnant pauses between the doctor and prosecutor seemed overdone and trying to hard to impress with significance.
The film got too long and mundane and lost me for the last 45 minutes. Some have been comparing it to the Romanian film Police, Adjective, but that film used a fairly ugly aesthetic to match the procedural drudgery, and bored me right out of the gate. I really wouldn't recommend Anatolia, but I was involved with the first half and some of it was starkly gorgeous, with some insights into the mindsets in rural Turkey.
I really liked the taut drama of Three Monkeys and would rec that folks seek that out. Then I went to Ceylan's early films and found them kind of annoying with their static depictions of tense relationships. I think Ceylan is really good with compositions, but his focus on underlying tensions and static long takes, and little action or character development is not that interesting to me. Three Monkeys is his only film which I'm aware of that has an interesting plot and develops characters, and consequently is a terrific film. I likened it to N&S, A Separation. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:10 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| Gromit, I too for a while thought the movie should have ended when they returned to the city, but then I decided that the autopsy scene was necessary to drive home the excruciating boredom, sloppiness and disregard for truth of the daily grind. I thought the direction was exquisite throughout. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 5:58 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| I basically agree with Gromit about the first hour or so of Anatolia, and also about the photography. But ultimately it became wearisome, then excruciatingly boring, and finally infuriatingly slow and bogged down in unnecessary and completely undramatic minutiae. The net net was that I walked out on the movie before the ending. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:04 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Anatolia Spoilers:
(if you select and highlight the hideous yellow, it becomes readable white text)
The confessed killers are in hand. And the whole film is basically finding the body and conducting an autopsy. And yet, in what seems to be a grim joke in the film, we never find out the cause of death. Or rather, we find out what might be the real cause of death and then that is hushed up and buried. So counter to a traditional murder investigation, we never find out how it was done.
That is, how the killers tried to kill the guy is left completely unclear. There is some talk of guns and everybody having them in that region, so we can speculate, but it seems an odd, intentional oversight. Maybe explanations are too ugly, or unpleasant, or uncertain anyway.
This very black humor can also be seen with regard to the hogtying of the victim. The police chief condemns it as unnatural and inhuman cruelty, but then the reason for it turns out to be very prosaic. And the police are even forced to consider doing the same to transport the body.
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Otherwise, I would have edited the film so that the wearied doctor returns to his office and starts to doze at his desk with his head in his hands only to be constantly interrupted. I don't think the prosecutor needs to rehash their mild skirmish, but that could be done. Then the police chief with his prescription request. Then the pathologist conducting the autopsy could call the doctor in to examine what is found and make his obscuring decision. That might have cut 20+ minutes from the film.
It might have also been more effective if the pathologist started lobbying for more funding right after the doctor opts for covering over the truth. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:53 am |
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Marta and I will be going to a movie this afternoon. She mentioned The Iron Lady, but all the reviews I've read have not been favourable except for Streep's acting. Drive is also playing and according to my son and some comments on here that I seem to remember were positive.
Could I hear some opinions on TIL and Drive? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:12 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: Marta and I will be going to a movie this afternoon. She mentioned The Iron Lady, but all the reviews I've read have not been favourable except for Streep's acting. Drive is also playing and according to my son and some comments on here that I seem to remember were positive.
Could I hear some opinions on TIL and Drive?
It is an absolute no-brainer. Next to The Iron Lady, Drive is Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Casablanca all rolled into one. Streep is just fine, but TIL is total and utter dreck. Drive, on the other hand, is a superb neo-noir with great acting, photography, and music. Extremely, extremely violent, however, so be prepared. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:21 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Quote: Next to The Iron Lady, Drive is Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Casablanca all rolled into one.
2nd that. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| grace |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:31 am |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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| Not to be contrarian, but keep in the back of your mind that domestic bliss is a wonderful thing. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:38 am |
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Thanks, guys. Marta is on board. I read her Billy's comment and asked if she were going to hide her eyes when there was violence. She said that she would because there has been enough violence here in the past.
She asked me, "What is dreck?"  |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:01 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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marantzo wrote: Thanks, guys. Marta is on board. I read her Billy's comment and asked if she were going to hide her eyes when there was violence. She said that she would because there has been enough violence here in the past.
She asked me, "What is dreck?" |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:18 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: Thanks, guys. Marta is on board. I read her Billy's comment and asked if she were going to hide her eyes when there was violence. She said that she would because there has been enough violence here in the past.
She asked me, "What is dreck?"
Just to be fair, Dolores hates violence in movies and generally hides her eyes, but she thought Drive was so well done that she actually watched it with interest. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:41 am |
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Whiskey wrote:
She should learn more of the language of your people.
It's a German word, not unlike most words in Yiddish. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 11:00 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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marantzo wrote: Whiskey wrote:
She should learn more of the language of your people.
It's a German word, not unlike most words in Yiddish.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dreck |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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