RIP Bigas Luna

[rubberdingyrapids]

probably dont need anymore RIP threads but i loved his films. golden balls is one of my all time favourite movies (though not for everyone - you probably have to love spanish melodrama).

 

[baboon2004]

Jamon, Jamon was very diverting as I recall.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

penelope cruz is always very diverting.

 

[baboon2004]

Anna Galiena too, as I recall.

Edit: Yes, I recalled correctly.

 

[viktorvaughn]

penelope cruz is always very diverting.

Yes, she's pretty amazing as a young woman in this, different vibe altogether from now.

Only seen 3 or so of his films in a box set but RIP

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

volver is one of her best imo.

i have a soft spot for vicky, christina, barcelona also.

 

[Benny Bunter]

I guess Jamon Jamon is the film that made stars out of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, in Spain at least.

Goldenballs is definitely top of my to see list now, only seen JJ and The Ages of Lulu which was pretty terrible soft porn unfortunately.

 

[viktorvaughn]

I guess Jamon Jamon is the film that made stars out of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, in Spain at least.

Goldenballs is definitely top of my to see list now, only seen JJ and The Ages of Lulu which was pretty terrible soft porn unfortunately.

Yeah, of the 4 monvies I've seen (this collection) Jamon Jamon and Goldenballs are deffo the best two. Like early raucous and melodramatic Almodovar but with a tragic/hard edge.

 

[IdleRich]

Goldenballs has enough sex in it to qualify as soft porn if I remember rightly.

 

[baboon2004]

And had Jamon Jamon not had Anna and Penelope, I doubt I would've been too enthralled by it tbh...

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

Goldenballs has enough sex in it to qualify as soft porn if I remember rightly.

i dont remember it being porny - the sex fit the narrative. never felt ropey or there just to get bums (who would only watch foreign films for the sex) on seats/make boys watch it late night on channel 4 (although ok, it did work in that sense, the tit and the moon especially). but it has the greatest karaoke session in any movie (bardem doing julio iglesias). its a film about male identity/ego/ambition/friendship and how that is affected by women imo.

RIP Jess Franco too. just saw that he also died. bad week for strange spanish cinema.

do we have any 'weird' auteur type filmmakers still working today? there was the guy who did taxidermia. i suppose theres harmony korine too. maybe lars von trier if he counts. prob others i cant remember but seems like that time has passed.

 

[IdleRich]

Wasn't meant as a criticism, just saying that there was a lot of sex.
I wish my name was Bigass.
Saw that Jess Franco had died too - I have a soft spot for his films although they are always pretty rubbish.
Idiosyncratic auteurs still working... let me have a think...

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

he always has a lot of sex lol. though ive not seen the later ones, id like to see them as i read theyre quite restrained.

 

[IdleRich]

How about the guy who did Drive and Valhalla Rising - really odd films I think. Somehow smuggled into the mainstream.

 

[baboon2004]

Refn. Hadn't made the connection between those two films before tbh - VR is certainly very weird. Cronenberg and Haneke spring to mind as two obvious ones - I'd say there're quite a few others, but can't think right now

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

in re: weird auteurs

shane carruth (primer), the coen brothers, gregg araki, almovodar, I mean the list is endless really, plus WERNER HERZOG IS STILL ALIVE + MAKING MOVIES

it also really depends what you mean by "weird auteur" tho. like in a lot ways james cameron is a weird auteur. christopher nolan. danny boyle. trying + failing to think of female directors, except miranda july who is x1000000 too twee for me

I think maybe the divide between mainstream and underground cinema is much fuzzier than it was in the time of kenneth anger or godard, or even the pre-blockbuster auteur 1970s (malick, coppola etc). tho it in other ways it's much sharper

 

[baboon2004]

Re female directors, Andrea Arnold?

Good call on Gregg Araki. I hugely enjoyed Kaboom - utter fluff of course compared to other of his films, but just so magically enjoyable in its queerness (in the broadest sense of the word)

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

also, harmony korine sucks. or I don't know about him, but his movies uniformly suck. they're like jack kerouc books, they seem awesome and other-worldly when you're 14 and then you grow up and realize how stupid (in a bad way) they are.

back to RIPing this guy, tho

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

or stupid is the wrong word, trite is better. kerouac was the exploiter of beat culture. korine is the exploiter of middle class suburbia's fascination with otherness

 

[IdleRich]

I have never seen a Harmony Korine film. There's something that strikes me as very annoying about him and it always puts me off although I guess I might check his new one. But you're right, back to Bigas Lunas...