The 'Recently Watched Films' Thread

[Liam]

^^Oh and the baby scene is only the tip of the iceberg. Add to it the rape of the main character's little son (by the proud father himself) + sex with the body of a woman whose head has JUST been cut off, and the point is... modern-day Serbia???

[Hamlet]

I keep hearing about this film, metaphor for the state, hmm, I don't think so, read a few views and the problem is the "anything passes for art" excuse "It's art!" -- nahh, it's publicity and controversy gets you noticed, sometimes for good reasons, but I don't think this is one of those.

Films I've watched fairly recently:-

Ran by Akira Kurosawa

The Hurt Locker, it was watchable, pretty good actually.

Grosse Pointe Blank

Very watchable, a bit glib in parts but Cusack is excellent and full of "quotables".


Repo Man

-- there's an awful lot in there, social satire, punk sensibilities, but I felt that Cox had overloaded it and he admitted it himself, but it's a still a great lil film, and you can often see a new in-joke, or detail each time you watch it.

I enjoy European or World Cinema, and keep an eye on BFI, Criterion, Tartan et al, but unfortunately I got through our local stocks of interesting cinema, if you're reading Liam, it's not NYC here, so it's a rental situation or good ole TV to catch films. I've not been watching too much cinema recently and prefer to read.

I also receive email newsletters from SF noir, an online *free* update on all thing noir and restorations of old moives, as I particularly like the older noirs of the 40s.

[Liam]

if you're reading Liam, it's not NYC here

Where is here?

[Hamlet]

Midlands, but more towards Wales Liam, counties of Shropshire/Staffordshire. (England, of course).

I should have said "where I'm located, rural but not too far from major cities, as you never are in England Liam, London is two hours, so is Birmingham/Manchester. Perhaps less time in the case of latter two.

[Liam]

The Turin Horse, dir. Bela Tarr:

I still swear by Satantango, but this, his "last" film, is just not as concentrated (despite being four hours shorter!) Some scenes just didn't belong, like the gypsies scene, and the drunken neighbor scene; I thought if the film had simply concentrated on the Father and Daughter, it would have been a masterpiece, without this disjointed feeling it ultimately leaves of something not quite belonging to the main narrative thread.

But my god, the black-and-white photography, the performances, the haunting musical score and the scenes of the whirling leaves in the wind--everyone ought to see this film, and come away with whatever he or she may.

[Stiffelio]

I thought The Turin Horse was a great film. I wasn't bother by the gypsies scene; it breaks the monotony of the father-daughter lives. The film is also a technical masterpiece: Tarr shot it in just 30 takes. By the way, I recommend Tarr's Damnation (1988).

[Liam]

I've seen all of Tarr's films, Stiffy, including the earlier ones which are indeed very un-Tarr-like.

I would place Damnation fourth or fifth on my list, but it was a very intriguing film. You could already see him stretching his legs in that one.

And no, I disagree with you about the gypsies scene "breaking the monotony" of the rest of the narrative. The monotony is the point. If these characters returned or if, indeed, their lives kept being interrupted by different characters I could see it as part of some great design, but these two appearances, the first one by the neighbor and the second one by the gypsies just don't make any sense within the neo-biblical Six Day narrative.

The gypsies scene, especially: overtly political, which jarred sharply with the highly symbolic, universal, and neo-apocalyptic imagery of the rest of the narrative. It felt like Tarr was explicitly acknowledging his country's mistreatment of this one minority (the chasing away, the curses, the refusal to give water, etc), and as such it felt cheap and out of place.

[Old Possum]

Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev. Found it quite pleasurable, both for Tarkovsky's technical mastery and for his unique exploration of art.

[herenerves]

I don't know if Nanni Morretti's works are famous in europe and in the rest of the world but I think that his films are very interesting. Sogni d'oro (Golden Dreams) and Ecce bombo talk about the 68s generation but not in a simple and classic way, but with a personal point of view on the bequest of theese years of social revolution.
Michele Apicella is the main character of four of Moretti's works and played by himself of course. He's my source of ispiration.

[Flint]

Elena (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
Very well acted, very well photographed, very worrying.

[Stiffelio]

Le gamin au vélo (The Kid with a Bike) by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (2011) . This is an excellent Belgian movie by the Dardenne brothers. It won the Grand Prix at the Cannes film festival last year. The story is heartbreaking but uplifting at the same time. With winks to Truffaut and to neo-realism, this fast paced movie never falls into sentimentality. Acting by Thomas Doret as the twelve year-old boy and by Cécile de France are superb.

[Stevie B]

Le gamin au vélo (The Kid with a Bike) by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (2011) . This is an excellent Belgian movie by the Dardenne brothers. It won the Grand Prix at the Cannes film festival last year. The story is heartbreaking but uplifting at the same time. With winks to Truffaut and to neo-realism, this fast paced movie never falls into sentimentality. Acting by Thomas Doret as the twelve year-old boy and by Cécile de France are superb.

I'm really looking forward to watching this one, Stiffelio, especially after just recently seeing La Promesse for the first time. Last night I watched Monsieur Lazhar +, a recent Canadian release. It focuses on the "fish out of water" theme that always interests me in telling the story of an Algerian refugee who ends up teaching Canadian schoolchildren. Excellent performances all around.

[kpjayan]

Bela Tarr - Werckmeister Harmonies : I guess, reading 'Melancholy of Resistance' helped a great deal in appreciating the movie. Very well done. Musical score was brilliant.

[Stevie B]

Bela Tarr - Werckmeister Harmonies : I guess, reading 'Melancholy of Resistance' helped a great deal in appreciating the movie. Very well done. Musical score was brilliant.

Jayan,

I own the novel and have access to the film. I assume you'd recommend I start with the book?

[Liam]

I actually did the reverse, watched the film first, then read the novel; same with Satantango, since the film became available before the book (in English translation). I would say it really makes no difference, they're both great, and you'll either hate both, or love both.

But with Satantango you should definitely read the book first. I watched the film first, and some parts of it were so confusing that I was not able to appreciate them at the time; it was only later after I finally read the novel that everything became clear, like the ambiguous ending for example.

[kpjayan]

and some parts of it were so confusing that I was not able to appreciate them at the time; it was only later after I finally read the novel that everything became clear.

Exactly, my wife and a cousin, who watched this with me had gone through the same.

Also, I always make it a point to read the book first before watching the movie ( especially for the literary adaptation). One exception was 'Farewell my concubine'.

[maidenhair]

In their recent poll among 800+ critics the Sight and Sound magazine lists Satantango as the 36th best film of all time and Werckmeister Harmonies as the 171st.

[kpjayan]

In their recent poll among 800+ critics the Sight and Sound magazine lists Satantango as the 36th best film of all time and Werckmeister Harmonies as the 171st.

..and what is the best movie according to them ? Could I request for the link here, please ?

[maidenhair]

..and what is the best movie according to them ? Could I request for the link here, please ?

http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/

For our 2012 edition, riding on the back of an increasingly globalised movie culture, we made a concerted push to take the poll truly worldwide – extending invitations to over 1,000 critics, programmers, academics, distributors, writers and other cinephiles, and receiving 846 top-ten lists from correspondents in 73 countries, citing 2,045 different films. [...] here the 358 top-ten lists we received in our parallel film directors’ poll, which we’ve also conducted every decade since 1992[...]

[Old Possum]

I saw Jesus de Montreal -a very clever biblical allegory.