Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

The Mascot is kind of like Toy Story but with more advanced animation and from eighty years ago.
I really like Paradjanov - was supposed to go and see some of his films at the BFI last year but due to a mix up I somehow failed to meet up with the person who had my ticket. I think there is a thread on him somewhere. Here it is in fact

http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?8311-Sergei-Paradjanov&highlight=paradjanov

"Would love to hear some insides on L'Eclisse. I kinda liked it, but I didn't understand it at all"

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Well I wouldn't claim to have any insides or even recall it that well but... from what I remember I thought it was about alienation, the two beautiful people who in the end just fail to connect for no real reason. SPOILER I take that to be the ending right? The screen shows their meeting place but neither of them are there. Also, isn't there a newspaper or something you see towards the end that possibly implies that there is a nuclear war about to happen, maybe the ending also reflects this. I suppose their relationship, once it begins and then peters out, contrasts with the way that Alain Delon's character is so alive when he is at the exchange - maybe it's supposed to be something to do with the way that capitalism has somehow absorbed him in such a way that he is only able to live through that. Although that said the portrait of the exchange is so kind of exciting and almost affectionate that it's hard to say that Antonioni doesn't secretly approve.

Huh, it turns out I've seen The Mascot before. It was on a DVD with Dreyer's Vampyr for some strange reason. Yeah, it is really great. Did not get it's realations to Vampyr, though.

I think the thing I didn't get about L'Eclisse was, that they were supposed to meet. To me the ending was just five minutes of weird pictures with no story to them what so ever. And it was by far my favorite part of the film. It guess that I think that is a good film. I'm looking forward to seeing again sometime.

Europa is a really great film, but it has absolutely no emotions in it at all. It is almost inhuman in it's focus on amazing visuals over human emotions. The really uncomfortable part though (SPOILER), is when von Trier casts himself as a character simply called 'Jew', who is forced to exhonorate the Hartmann family for their crimes doing the war. Hartmann of course being the last name of the man he had just found out was his biological father at the time. That scene just has way to many weird connotations to it at the moment.

"I think the thing I didn't get about L'Eclisse was, that they were supposed to meet. To me the ending was just five minutes of weird pictures with no story to them what so ever. And it was by far my favorite part of the film. It guess that I think that is a good film. I'm looking forward to seeing again sometime."

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Yeah, that's it isn't it, they were supposed to meet and somehow they just... didn't. They both independently decided that it wasn't worth it, despite all their advantages they are ultimately unable to make a worthwhile human connection and they would rather just retreat to the safety of loneliness.

This thread has become tediously pretentious. Please, no more of that emetic film studies babble.

IdleRich said:

I really like Paradjanov - was supposed to go and see some of his films at the BFI last year but due to a mix up I somehow failed to meet up with the person who had my ticket. I think there is a thread on him somewhere. Here it is in fact

http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?8311-Sergei-Paradjanov&highlight=paradjanov

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thanks!

''How To Train Your Dragon''. Best non-Pixar animated kids film I've seen in ages - funny, exciting, beautifully animated and designed. Put a huge smile on my face for at least half its running time, as these things usually do. Disney's ''Tangled'' is very good, too, despite weak songs and syrupy sentimentality (although to be honest that schmaltzy stuff still works shamefully well on me). The animation is so pristine and bright that it hurts the eyes a bit.

I re-watched ''Hard Boiled'' last night (after enjoying ''Face/Off'' beforehand) and more or less loved it again. Completely absurd storyline that makes little/no sense but the action scenes are gobsmack good.

And ''13 Assassins'', which I saw at the cinema last week. Stunning action sequences there, too.

Corpsey said:

And ''13 Assassins'', which I saw at the cinema last week. Stunning action sequences there, too.

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Aww hellz yeah. Saw this the other night, great stuff. The only quibbles I had were some of the dialogue, which was very much of the "We must crush the Akashi dogs for the dishonour they have done my father!" school (but then again, maybe that's pretty much how samurai really spoke) and the way [SPOILER] the assassins could clearly have just massacred the wicked duke and all his men but instead choose to pick a few off until the odds are 'merely' 10-1 against them and the jump down to fight hand-to-hand. Honour 'n that, I guess.

I liked the way the camerawork got more and more unsteady, close-up and disorienting as the battle progressed and there were fewer and fewer characters left alive, and those that were left were more and more exhausted and injured. Really evoked the chaos and horror of hand-to-hand fighting, I thought.

My girlfriend went into the film saying "I might have to hide if there are some really gory bits", and at the she end was saying the first hour was wasted on exposition when it could have been used for decapitations and disembowlments like the second half...

I quite liked the cheesiness of the dialogue. I loved it when the tongueless woman held up that ''TOTAL MASSACRE'' sign too. It was nothing like a Kurosawa film, for example, it was very comic book-ish and unrealistic, despite there being interesting issues going on alongside the action (i.e. the contrast between holding a moral code and just doing things because they're fun). I enjoyed the moodiness (darkness and fire-light) of the first hour and although they didn't establish many of the characters beyond a few lines I think it did make you invest emotionally in their mission (then again, establishing that the villain was a TOTAL BASTARD is a pretty easy way of doing that...).

But yes, the last hour is just amazingly entertaining.

not everyday you get a Guy Tavares recommendation! Cruising starring a young Al Pachino i thought there was enough to like about it to stick this film here.

Good, isn't it -- same guy who did The Exorcist and The French Connection.

Recently watched and loved 52 Pick Up -- can anyone recommend any more films like this?

craner said:

Good, isn't it -- same guy who did The Exorcist and The French Connection.

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i didn't realise that. the park bench scene was straight out of Warriors. i'm guessing it's Central Park used for those creepy park shots?

also saw The Hustler, which tbh i had low expectations but this was great.

The Human Centipede II looks as though it should be good.

The principal focus of The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is the sexual arousal of the central character at both the idea and the spectacle of the total degradation, humiliation, mutilation, torture, and murder of his naked victims. Examples of this include a scene early in the film in which he masturbates whilst he watches a DVD of the original Human Centipede film, with sandpaper wrapped around his penis, and a sequence later in the film in which he becomes aroused at the sight of the members of the ‘centipede’ being forced to defecate into one another’s mouths, culminating in sight of the man wrapping barbed wire around his penis and raping the woman at the rear of the ‘centipede’."

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Sounds like they may have sacrificed some of the subtlety of the original.

IdleRich said:

The Human Centipede II looks as though it should be good.


Sounds like they may have sacrificed some of the subtlety of the original.

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1st one anygood?

should be a thread for super ridiculous films. i'd file Tiptoes in there.

"Huh, it turns out I've seen The Mascot before. It was on a DVD with Dreyer's Vampyr for some strange reason. Yeah, it is really great. Did not get it's realations to Vampyr, though."

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Just watched Le Romans de Renard also by Starewicz on Youtube. Completely awesome - his only feature film.

Speaking of Paradjanov, I seen a film the other week in the Rio in Dalston which reminded me of him, Le Quattro Volte, which is kind of Paradjanov style moving paintings mixed with the animal bits from a Herzog film mixed with slapstick. Funny and engaging for a film thus, I'd recommend it.

nochexxx said:

also saw The Hustler, which tbh i had low expectations but this was great.

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The novel is brilliant, by the way.

slim jenkins said:

The novel is brilliant, by the way.

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i could do with a good straight narrative read, ta for the tip.

I wrote a piece about it here on me blog if you wanna look.

nice review. would love to find more about Sarah's character. has there ever been a better film/book about pool?