borderpolice
Well-known member
Omaar said:
yep, la nina santa is nice work. i've been around theremin demonstrations ever since i watched that movie
Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:
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yep, la nina santa is nice work. i've been around theremin demonstrations ever since i watched that movie
Got round to seeing Da Vinche Code today. Not sure it really belongs in this thread, as there is no way I would unreservedly recommend it.
It wasn't a bad film, just very boring. The boredomfactor was exagerrated watching it in a non-Christian country. No-one I went with had the faintest idea what in the world was happening for the two and a half hours of the film.
Haven't read the book, so I'm probably not the best person to pass judgement on the flick itself. Surely a few others have seen it by now...
It wasn't a bad film, just very boring. The boredomfactor was exagerrated watching it in a non-Christian country. No-one I went with had the faintest idea what in the world was happening for the two and a half hours of the film.
Haven't read the book, so I'm probably not the best person to pass judgement on the flick itself. Surely a few others have seen it by now...
I'm in the same boat, but fucks sake, what a bland pisspoor movie. It felt like every second line of dialogue was literal plot exposition. The only character worth any empathy was Silas, simply because watching the movie I could relate to his flagellation.tox said:
One of my fave critics:
http://filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/davincicode.htm
IdleRich
IdleRich
I guess that you've all seen it but I watched The Devils last night (and, er, Dodgeball on Sunday). I really enjoyed it, simple plot with inevitable tragic ending and an ambiguous main character you still end up rooting for. At the end you want him to him escape or get some kind of revenge on his tormentors even though you know that he can't. Very nasty though in parts, actually in most of it. I guess that may be necessary to get across what is being shown but I thought that some of it was slightly gratuitous - or am I missing the point?
The other thing I didn't realise was how similar it was (superficially at least) to The Crucible. I knew that they both dealt with hysteria and witch trials but I wasn't aware of the political edge to The Devils. As far as I know though it's not a comment on any contemporary event, it's based on a book by Aldous Huxley and another book by someone else which both deal with true events although I guess that wouldn't necessarily preclude using it as an allegory.
I enjoyed Talk To Her but I preferred All About My Mother. Until recently though I never realised how silly some of his early films are - I've watched Kika, Women on The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and another one (whose name escapes me) recently and I greatly enjoyed the madcap weirdness of all of them.
The other thing I didn't realise was how similar it was (superficially at least) to The Crucible. I knew that they both dealt with hysteria and witch trials but I wasn't aware of the political edge to The Devils. As far as I know though it's not a comment on any contemporary event, it's based on a book by Aldous Huxley and another book by someone else which both deal with true events although I guess that wouldn't necessarily preclude using it as an allegory.
I enjoyed Talk To Her but I preferred All About My Mother. Until recently though I never realised how silly some of his early films are - I've watched Kika, Women on The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and another one (whose name escapes me) recently and I greatly enjoyed the madcap weirdness of all of them.
O
Omaar
Guest
Really enjoyed Lemming, though it did go off the rails a bit, I thought. Similar in bits to hitchcock, Lynch and French social commentary. It has a pretty wicked sense of humour.
Kekexilli - mountain patrol: sort of sino-tibetan-western with social and ecological themes. Some threads in the narrative seemed to disappear though. Cool landscapes and tibetan music.
Kekexilli - mountain patrol: sort of sino-tibetan-western with social and ecological themes. Some threads in the narrative seemed to disappear though. Cool landscapes and tibetan music.
IdleRich
IdleRich
I'm gonna try and see Lemming some time before it disappears.
I watched Brick at the weekend, I don't know that anyone has mentioned it on here but I thought it was excellent. For a start it was so different from everything else that's around at the moment; it had a brilliant and complex plot and a great, slightly surreal, atmosphere. At times it was genuinely tense and it has moments of humour that don't detract from everything else. Straight from the start (which has no credits) you're thrown into it and I was caught up from then. One of my friends told me that the filmmakers spent a sixth of the budget on having Sister Ray play over the credits at the end which I also think is pretty cool.
I watched Brick at the weekend, I don't know that anyone has mentioned it on here but I thought it was excellent. For a start it was so different from everything else that's around at the moment; it had a brilliant and complex plot and a great, slightly surreal, atmosphere. At times it was genuinely tense and it has moments of humour that don't detract from everything else. Straight from the start (which has no credits) you're thrown into it and I was caught up from then. One of my friends told me that the filmmakers spent a sixth of the budget on having Sister Ray play over the credits at the end which I also think is pretty cool.
IdleRich
IdleRich
I dunno if this really belongs here because I can't say that I would unreservedly recommend it, but I watched Radio On on Sunday. Strange film where almost nothing happens, very slowly, but with an excellent soundtrack (Bowie, Kraftwerk and loads of punk type stuff) and looking good in black & white. It's kind of a road movie (in as much as you can have a road movie about travelling from London to Bristol) about a guy who wants to find out why/how his brother died, there is almost no dialogue and no resolution but it's quite watchable and strangely sad. There are a number of random encounters with peculiar characters who simply add to the sense of alienation and the film ends with him abandoning his car and catching a train.
Oh yeah, and it's produced by Wim Wenders and features a cameo by a certain Geordie pop-"reggae" star.
Oh yeah, and it's produced by Wim Wenders and features a cameo by a certain Geordie pop-"reggae" star.
O
Omaar
Guest
IdleRich said:
Did you find the dialogue difficult to understand? I couldn't figure out whether it was the sound in the cinema, the accents, the slang, the speed of the snappy noir retorts, the sound design or my deteriorating hearing, but I found that I just didn't understand alot of what was said.
It seemed sort of fresh in some ways, but looking back on it now it seems that a lot of stuff was lifted from Lynch.
The violence of the main character didn't sit that well on him, I guess this was another noir trope but it didn't seem quite right.
It does hum along quite nicely though.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Good point. My friend had seen it before me and said that he found it difficult to understand - I asked if that was due to the dialogue and he said "no, the sound quality wasn't very good". I think he was right too, in some bits the volume of the speaking did seem too low relative to the background music and at other times it just seemed a bit fuzzy. That combined with the language and the complexity of the plot did make it hard to understand. I'm guessing it's because it was such a low budget film.
Which stuff?
I quite liked the way he suddenly came out with punches. I think it did sit fairly well with him as an emotionally damaged outsider on a mission. I thought that he was a fairly damaged character, which is a noir trope I agree.
O
Omaar
Guest
IdleRich said:
In a few pretty vague general ways: Male protagonist in anonymous small town setting, exposes the seamy underbelly of the community, discovers propensity towards violence within themselves. (I guess I'm thinking mostly of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet). Using quirky suburban stereotypes in contrast with violence and drug dealing. But in particular, the scenes at the Pin's house, and the house of the brutal thug. The use of objects, and minimal interiors in the Pin's room.
I'm sure I've seen another scene recently where a character reveals something to another character through a whisper that the audience doesn't get to hear. Can't remember though ...
Is it a noir thing to have a character repeatedly knocked unconscious? It seems to signify some kind of psychological rupture, some kind of total repression or inability to cope. Maybe it just originated as a narrative technique to make things seem more subjective and fragmented. I suspect it's not a noir thing.
IdleRich
IdleRich
I suppose similar theme but I thought done in a different way and with a different emphasis. In this there is no "overbelly", everyone is aware that there is crime and whatever else going on. It's more like the blatant "sin city" of a noir film than the facade of white pickett fences hiding the truth that you get with Lynch.
True enough now you point it out.
You're right, but what is it? I'll have a think about that.
O
Omaar
Guest
IdleRich said:
Yeah, it's definitely not emphasised, the only bits where it is are in the scenes where Pin's mum is involved - basically anything in the upstairs (the overbelly
) of Pin's house. And those were the bits that for me were the most lynchian. She is the only parent who appears isn't she? And there areonly 2 'adults' in the film, aren't there? her and the VP?
IdleRich
IdleRich
As far as I can remember, they are the only two adults who appear on screen (although others are alluded to throughout), and the scenes when they do are mainly played for laughs ("...if you can't help me then I'll see you at the Parents' Evening!").
In a sense though the scene when he meets the VP is the most direct rip-off of a typical noir scene where the police-chief (VP) warns the maverick detective (our hero here) to stay out of their way in the case because they will only complicate matters, the detective of course not having any of it.
rewch
Well-known member
Omaar said:
definitely a noir thing i'd say... if you read any hammett, chandler or mcbain the detective is out cold at least once per book & in marlowe's case (chandler) often twice or thrice... it occurs usually as a result of poking about in things not understood ('rattling cages' or 'shaking things up' are the preferred nomenclatures) & as long as the detective wakes up it invariably leads to results... brick was on the money in that sense
O
Omaar
Guest
rewch said:
Oh cool, thanks for that. I'm much more interested in noir all of a sudden. I'd always pigeonholed noir as being about emasculated but still very masculine protagonists and femme fatales and odd angles and lighting. This way of contructing subjectivity and narrative sounds much more exciting. There was an adaption of chandler's the lady in the lake filmed as if seen through the eyes of the protagonist wasn't there? like a precursor to 1st person shooters.
What's the movie where the protagonist is knocked out, and we see it happen from his POV, seeing the punch coming at the camera? maybe it happens in a few things, but i seem to remember it being in a lynch film.
O
Omaar
Guest
Really enjoyed Tesis (Alejandro Amenábar, 1996). It has a sort of budget 80s exploitation thriller feeling, but it's quite clever and fun too.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0117883/
http://imdb.com/title/tt0117883/
rewch
Well-known member
went to see renaissance last night... only quibble is that the dialogue is a bit wooden... would have been better in french with subtitles... but astounding imagery & an amazing futuristic paris... superb monochrome animation done using actors, so everything defined by shadows... looks lovely, thumbs up all round
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baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Omaar said:
Must say I was really disappointed by that one, Omaar, especially given that it ostensibly lies in one of my favourite genres - the low-budget, nasty horror. When done well ('My Little Eye' was fabulously nasty), it can be transcendent, but I just didn't find it shocking/exciting in the least. But I loved Amenabar's 'Abre los Ojos' - that had style and panche to spare.