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| whiskeypriest |
 Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 4:14 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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billyweeds wrote: Any film fan who misses A Separation is nuts.
A Separation is a flat out brilliant piece of film making and - especially - writing. I cannot recall a movie that was so perfect in tone and pacing, so perfect in the way it set up the conflicts between people, among families, inside the characters, and between characters and their God. So many little betrayals and fibs for understandable reasons, all adding up.... Every time a line of dialogue connected back or a small incident from earlier and became a perfectly natural plot turning point, without once seeming anything other than perfectly natural and perfectly normal, I smiled. And considering the subject matter of the movie, I smiled a lot.
Praising the writing particularly should not be viewed as neglecting the brilliance of the rest of the movie. The other thing I really want to single out was Sarina Farhadi, who gave as great a performance as I have seen out of a child, ever. Understated and underplayed - not what you normally get from a child - and yet you could see how that exterior was a cover for what was tearing her up inside.
The rest of the actors were excellent as well - for some odd reason, perhaps because she popped up in a trailer immediately before the movie for a film I suspect even billy could not get me to see at this point, or because of the red hair, I kept thinking Leila Hatami looked a little like Julianne Moore - and, well, if it has a flaw I cannot recall what it is, except perhpas - perhaps - I would have ended the film with the drive home rather than the Court scene, but from all available evidence Asghar Farhadi knows what he is doing and so there is a damned good chance that I am dead wrong.
A truly great film. Easily the best I've seen this decade. If you haven't seen it, I do not care the obstacles in your way, go see it now. Seriously. Get the keys. Now. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 4:41 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| I just cannot get Termeh out of my mind. Intelligent, watchful, observant, soaking it all in, and learning life lessons from her parents they wish to God they were not teaching her when they take the time to think about it.... |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 7:16 pm |
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Location: New York City
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Sarina Farhadi's Termeh was in fact the supreme performance of the many great ones in A Separation. She's the director's daughter, you know, or maybe you don't. Well, now you do.
And, yes, it's the writing that's the best of the many great facets of the film. The fact that it lost the screenplay award to The Artist is...sick.
The movie just keeps surprising you, over and over and over, and thrilling you as it surprises. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:00 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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billyweeds wrote: Sarina Farhadi's Termeh was in fact the supreme performance of the many great ones in A Separation. She's the director's daughter, you know, or maybe you don't. Well, now you do.
And, yes, it's the writing that's the best of the many great facets of the film. The fact that it lost the screenplay award to The Artist is...sick.
The movie just keeps surprising you, over and over and over, and thrilling you as it surprises. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:24 pm |
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Location: AZ
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Whiskey.........so you drove all the way to Camelview...............
Quote: So he's the thief of necessity, the good thief, the starving man loaf of bread thief.
Ghulam..........there's a connection there. Maybe Scorsese was inspired by Victor HUGO's Les Miserables.
Shannon........Again.......Chacon a son gout....... |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:32 pm |
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Befade wrote: Whiskey.........so you drove all the way to Camelview...............
Quote: So he's the thief of necessity, the good thief, the starving man loaf of bread thief.
Ghulam..........there's a connection there. Maybe Scorsese was inspired by Victor HUGO's Les Miserables.
Shannon........Again.......Chacon a son gout....... |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 12:12 am |
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| talk about testimonials.........(I saw it there, too.....but I've also gone there and gotten dog food....) |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:27 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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whiskeypriest wrote: billyweeds wrote: Sarina Farhadi's Termeh was in fact the supreme performance of the many great ones in A Separation. She's the director's daughter, you know, or maybe you don't. Well, now you do.
And, yes, it's the writing that's the best of the many great facets of the film. The fact that it lost the screenplay award to The Artist is...sick.
The movie just keeps surprising you, over and over and over, and thrilling you as it surprises. One correction: the film that apparently unjustly deprived A Separation of the Oscar was Midnight in Paris. Apparently because while I have not seen MiP, unless the screenplay was dipped in gold and enclosed in a stunningly bejeweled case it could not be a greater work of art.
You're right, and it's only minimally less sick. My personal second choice would have been Bridesmaids in a walk, but really, really, really, there is no second choice to A Separation. It's not just the best in its class, it's in a class by itself. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 9:07 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Scored an Artificial Eye edition of A Separation tonight.
Also nabbed:
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Young Adult
The Help
So I'd got some recent films to peep.
Still waiting for:
The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr)
The Artist
Take Shelter
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
and the Herzogs,
along with a few others.
Also picked up Design for Living which I am purty excited about. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 9:59 am |
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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Befade wrote: talk about testimonials.........(I saw it there, too.....but I've also gone there and gotten dog food....) |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:54 pm |
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Gromit.......You're not Ghulam......sorry.
and Whiskey.....the dog food I was referring to was We Need to Talk about Kevin. I'll see Tilda Swinton in anything......but this was a pure downer.....and disturbing.
Billy and Whisk........exactly what you said about A Separation: the writing and the teenage actor!!! |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 3:26 pm |
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Location: Black Hills
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I foamed at the mouth shamelessly over A Separation a few days ago, and glad to see Whiskey is now as dazzled and somehow more able to articulate what was so good about it. Agree with WP and BW on Farhadi's supremacy (did not know she was the directorial daughter, and wonder what career opportunities await her in Iran or elsewhere) in terms of acting. I though the corridor shot worked as a good watercooler ending.
The crowd I saw it with, it was amusing to watch some firmly planted in their seats (people tend to jump up and leave when the credits roll, so my film pal and I are often the last ones out) all through the end crawl, looking like they were hoping for some further resolution.
Befade, this...
Quote: ...the dog food I was referring to was We Need to Talk about Kevin.
An interesting sort of commentary on a film I'd heard nothing about. I need to see this, and then we need to talk about We Need to Talk About Kevin. [/quote] |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 4:03 pm |
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Location: New York City
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| Befade is exactly correct about We Need to Talk About Kevin. Another overrated piece of turgidity. Swinton is a great actress, but this one-noter is far from her personal best. Nor is it John C. Reilly's, or even young Ezra Miller's. Miller is flat-out amazing in the underrated Another Happy Day, but as the titular Kevin he is forced to attitudinize and is actually outperformed by the toddler who plays a younger version of the character. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 4:25 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I liked Young Adult.
Actually from the trailer I saw last week, I thought it was a comedy. It has comic moments, but it's also kind of sad and pathetic too. Charlize does a really good job with a character barely staying afloat. She has some great scenes. And Patton Oswald is good as a her foil.
I liked the warped motivation for the action. The woman discovers that her high school boyfriend and his wife just had a baby, and decides the time is right for them to get back together -- even though they haven't seen each other in years. Uh, you go girl.
In some ways, it reminded me of The Descendants. An adult character, a bit too aware of aging, stumbles around acting childishly, trying to find him/herself.
I thought the ending scenes were a bit of a letdown. The late confrontation/meltdown scene seemed awfully forced and familiar. And the sister talk didn't convince me much either. Endings are tough, it seems, and I don't hold that against a film. Another solid enjoyable Reitman film. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 4:31 pm |
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billyweeds wrote: Befade is exactly correct about We Need to Talk About Kevin. Another overrated piece of turgidity.
How dare you say something bad about a film I just picked up. |
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