Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

[shakahislop]

i watched archipelago on dvd. i was prepared for this to be a bit irritating, but i actually found myself really loving it. never seen anything by joanna hogg before but i like how she films everything in this, all very much from a distance (COS THE FAMILY ARE ALL SO DISTANT GEDDIT - well thats maybe why, but what i liked about it was that it wasnt all emotionally cold like i expected despite all the silences) and very still, and as a nice link to the painter character, its all v picaresque. made me think i was watching a european director actually, or a european landscape almost, but its not. lots of good observations on the family dynamic too, as well as a broader drama/examination of m/c manners/behaviour (the restaurant scene is classic and could so so easily have been mined for laughs but its actually got a strange sort of beauty about it), but never cliched, which is what made it seem so fresh to me. the thing that let it down i thought were the scenes with the cook and the painter, not cos theyre not interesting, the conversations are actually some of the most interesting of the whole film, but they kind of undo the sort of tense atmosphere of the rest of the scenes as they seem really docu-like, its like the cook and painter are just acting as themselves, which was a bit TOO naturalistic and unaffected, borderline reality-tv-seeming actually, esp in contrast to the acting by tom hiddleston and his sister (who are both really good). i recommend it anyway. def going to search out the other film joanna hogg made.

saw the souvenir last night. i think basically these kind of films are a bit boring, it's hard to write something about a film like that in a thread called 'films you've seen recently and would highly recommend' without mentioning that these things are essentially boring. that's the whole point i think, that they are slow and non-entertaining and as a result they do something to you on an affective level. so obviously i liked it, and i liked archipelago too. she sort of lets you look at these english middle class social worlds and i think she gets it bang on.

with the souvenir the best thing about it is being able to hang out in i think the late 1970s. there's something really tactile, physical, screenless about that world. it's nice to be immersed in a kind of recognisable but also comprehensively gone version of england. there's also these echoes of an almost victorian old england in it, her mum and dad for example, which are even more comprehensively gone. the way that she shows how men and women interacted was pretty useful for understanding uk middle class feminism now i think. coz the way that men and women interact in the film is what they are / were fighting against. all of the small ways that the men in the film assume superiority over her, the way she accepts it, her comparative lack of confidence, the ways she's talked down to, despite that fact that she's the one with all the money and the power that brings

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

Ive disliked everything from joanna hogg since archipelago Tbh. Found the souvenir enjoyable in various ways but also wildly indulgent like many directors films on their lives/careers (almodovars pain n glory for example) and couldnt bring myself to care, though i liked the period details. Didn't bother with part two.

 

[IdleRich]

saw the souvenir last night. i think basically these kind of films are a bit boring, it's hard to write something about a film like that in a thread called 'films you've seen recently and would highly recommend' without mentioning that these things are essentially boring. that's the whole point i think, that they are slow and non-entertaining and as a result they do something to you on an affective level. so obviously i liked it, and i liked archipelago too. she sort of lets you look at these english middle class social worlds and i think she gets it bang on.

with the souvenir the best thing about it is being able to hang out in i think the late 1970s. there's something really tactile, physical, screenless about that world. it's nice to be immersed in a kind of recognisable but also comprehensively gone version of england. there's also these echoes of an almost victorian old england in it, her 111¹¹11 and dad for example, which are even more comprehensively gone. the way that she shows how men and women interacted was pretty useful for understanding uk middle class feminism now i think. coz the way that men and women interact in the film is what they are / were fighting against. all of the small ways that the men in the film assume superiority over her, the way she accepts it, her comparative lack of confidence, the ways she's talked down to, despite that fact that she's the one with all the money and the power that brings

Someone (possibly you) said something recently about how lately they've grown to understand why it is that people rate films that accurately conjur up another era, regardless of what else the flm sets out to do or how well it achieves that. Well whoever said it it certainly resonates with me in that previously that wasn't something that particularly appealed to me, but now i find that something which successfully transports you to another time immediately draws me in. I can't honestly say why beyond it being something to do witn age... maybe.

 

[shakahislop]

Someone (possibly you) said something recently about how lately they've grown to understand why it is that people rate films that accurately conjur up another era, regardless of what else the flm sets out to do or how well it achieves that. Well whoever said it it certainly resonates with me in that previously that wasn't something that particularly appealed to me, but now i find that something which successfully transports you to another time immediately draws me in. I can't honestly say why beyond it being something to do witn age... maybe.

my ideal film would be something with no storyline where they've spent some massive lush budget trying to painstakingly and accurately evoke the 1890s

 

[william kent]

Bonnie and Clyde

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker carry out a series of robberies in 1930s America.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

Green Border. Slightly too sweet just before the final scenes, but an incredible story of what its like to try and get into europe as an illegal migrant. no corny liberal pieties, no 'hard hitting' or 'bleak' tropes at play either.

 

[dilbert1]

Just saw Altman’s Nashville at the theater. Well worth the ticket.

 

[kid charlemagne]

re earlier posts about london/uk films... just saw children of men, very good film, excellent location and setting work.

 

[Clinamenic]

re earlier posts about london/uk films... just saw children of men, very good film, excellent location and setting work.

Prime "Capitalist Realism" canon. Awesome movie.

 

[Ian Scuffling]

Watching Mad Men again. The greatest show of all time and the end of a golden age?

 

[entertainment]

worst directors:

noah baumbaum
paul thomas anderson
georgios lathanikos
wes anderson

all of these people have something in common that's hard to put a finger on. i think its the complacency. getting away with it.

Luca Guadagnino fits on there doesn't he.

 

[entertainment]

With Paul Thomas Anderson the feeling that persists with me is that, for all the talent and originality, his movies all seem like exercises. Exercises in something that I have to force myself to be interested in.

 

[Clinamenic]

worst directors:

noah baumbaum
paul thomas anderson
georgios lathanikos
wes anderson

all of these people have something in common that's hard to put a finger on. i think its the complacency. getting away with it.

Speaking as someone who likes all these directors, I definitely see what you mean. There is something self-assuredly cinematic about all these guys' films, or maybe its a case of audience capture where their cult fanbases expect certain kinds of films from them. Or a feedback loop between self-assuredness and audience capture. Consumer auteurism.

 

[Clinamenic]

In a way its a natural consequence of indie film developing a bigger market. Post-indie, in a way.

 

[wg-]

Watching the phantom thread here. Never going to let the mrs cook me mushrooms ever again

What an actor Day Lewis is

 

[shakahislop]

worst directors:

noah baumbaum
paul thomas anderson
georgios lathanikos
wes anderson

all of these people have something in common that's hard to put a finger on. i think its the complacency. getting away with it.

saw mishima last night at metrograph. i'd actually, controversially as i know it's versioncore, add paul schrader to the above list. found quite a lot to dislike about that film. the other ones i've seen by him didn't hit the mark for me either. this is probably a matter of taste.

 

[DLaurent]

saw mishima last night at metrograph. i'd actually, controversially as i know it's versioncore, add paul schrader to the above list. found quite a lot to dislike about that film. the other ones i've seen by him didn't hit the mark for me either. this is probably a matter of taste.

Did you think Light Sleeper was bad if you've seen it?

 

[Clinamenic]

saw mishima last night at metrograph. i'd actually, controversially as i know it's versioncore, add paul schrader to the above list. found quite a lot to dislike about that film. the other ones i've seen by him didn't hit the mark for me either. this is probably a matter of taste.

Dare to blaspheme the versioncore, and the Archive will spontaneously shift to your peril.

 

[kid charlemagne]

never disrespect versioncore... thats like the film bible lowkey

 

[shakahislop]

Did you think Light Sleeper was bad if you've seen it?

i've seen mishima, light sleeper and touch. i've somehow also seen the man himself do q&as after watching two of those, he seems to be well up for doing that. light sleeper rolled off me to be honest, was watching it on my laptop and can hardly remember it, probably doesn't do it justice.

there's always a bit of trepidation when you realize you don't like something that loads of other respectable people like. but it's good to try to put your finger on what it is exactly that doesn't click. with schrader's films, like i'm not exactly the content police and find a lot of that stuff annoying, but with something like mishima it was a bit hard to get over the way he represents japan, all of the american stereotypes, that thing of a film made from the outside. in touch and i think light sleeper there's all the stuff about how women are represented as well. i get that these films are 40 years old and come from a different age but still i don't feel much forgiveness towards all of that. there's a way of looking at hollywood as a negative force that i don't think i can just put on the shelf.

all the stuff in mishima that other people probably love like the theatrical sets feels too arch for me. almost everything i've seen that comes from that stage tradition is the exact opposite of the kind of art i like. i definitely lean towards naturalistic things over stylised ones. the other thing for me is that 80s hollywood films in general tend to do a lot of stuff which are the exact opposite of what i normally like with films. things like freezeframes are the equivalent to big echoey snares for me as well, a kind of 80s veneer which i can't get over.