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Robert W Peabody III's Posts

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I can't get into Werner Herzog over 3 years ago

Herzog is brand you can trust.
His documentaries are quirky and personal – you are going with him to the south pole or the jungle or he is telling you about a personality conflict he had with an actor.
This is not serious stuff – not on the order of Bus 174, but would you send something as taught as Bus 174 to represent us on another planet?

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Liminality and Cinematic Media over 3 years ago

Jennifer Malkowski
PhD Candidate, UC Berkeley Film Studies: “….its overlap with fiction has been surprisingly benevolent – giving us works that simply and deeply explore individual lives.”
The stuff works for the casual viewer – I guess the fear would be that historians can’t use it down the road

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Your definition of film-art over 3 years ago

Nietzsche’s admonishment was recognizing an important social order, which was something his fellow intellectuals were not doing when they killed God.
This is what meant by noblesse oblige – they should look to the greater good i.e. be responsible.
A contemporary example is EO Wilson bringing green to religion – something many of his fellow biologists would turn their noses up to doing.

秋刀魚の味 “Who decides what is and isn’t meaningful? “

The culture and culture tells us who we are.

This gets back to bolo ties first parry:
“And Nietzsche is just another guy. Who cares what Nietzsche ….. unerring conscience of thinking types.”

The Western ancients, the renaissance, the enlightenment and a few outliers (Spinoza, Thoreau, Nietzsche) comprise the Western consciousness that we all possess.
Understanding the thinkers of the past helps use understand ourselves – they are where our minds come from.
Most of us, however, as Zizek put it: don’t know what we know.

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone had a definition for film-art.

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Feelings about Andrei Rublev? over 3 years ago

An unforeseen problem has arisen:
I haven’t seen any of Andrei Tarkovsky’ films except Solaris
If Andrei Rublev is the greatest film of all time, should a build up to Andrei Rublev?
How would you order these:

Stalker
Andrei Rublev
Steamroller and the Violin
The Sacrifice
Mirror

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Liminality and Cinematic Media over 3 years ago

Looking for a definition of liminality:

Anxieties and Imperatives at the Emergence of Autobiographical Documentary
eroding the fragile distinction

Authentic Stasis/Transcendent Movement: The Liminal Space of Motion Comics"
the static and the kinetic, the tactile and the digital, the authentic and the transcendent.

Unbound Gender(s): Female Masculinities/Male Feminities
broken boundaries

Liminal Plotspaces in Antonioni’s Late Neorealist Films
a crucial thread between these two halves

Terminology at the Margins: A Historical Examination of “Independent Film”
perceived liminality where Hollywood ends and independent film begins is indistinct

“Between Hollywood and Bollywood: Economic and Aesthetic Relationships in the Age of Globalization”
the relationship between these two industries by considering the aesthetic content of their movies

Spectral Monuments: Hitchcock’s Vertigo and San Francisco’s Haunted Spaces of Commemoration."
liminality that is San Francisco’s spectral, cinematic double,
that haunt, subtend, and blur San Francisco’s local borders between the screen and the profilmic, past and present, temporality and spatiality

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What are the best documentary films ever? over 3 years ago

Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry
I remember seeing this right after I read the book – is good.

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Last movie you saw and rate it over 3 years ago

Zizek: The Reality of the Virtual (2004) Ben Wright
This is an lecture format I only watched the first 20 minute about reality of the virtual and last 5 minutes where he talks about utopia. 2/10
Zizek! (2005) Astra Taylor
This is an irreverent look at Zizek: a great intro to his madness.
8/10

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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 3 years ago

it’s part of the entertainment !

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Last movie you saw and rate it over 3 years ago

The Shop on Main Street: Academy Award™ for Best Foreign Film in 1965.

75/100
This rating thing is difficult – what are the criteria?
I think this film needs to be seen to capture the totality of Czech cinema, but it wasn’t that effective for me which may have only been because I was distracted worrying about the Red Sox being down 12-1 in the fourth

closely Watched Trains is next …

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Favorite Movie Soundtracks? over 3 years ago

Pope of Greenwich Village – ha !

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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 3 years ago

“With each viewing it loses something..”

Is it less because it was entertainment and as entertainment it had a shelf life?
Doesn’t great art get better with each viewing?

I think of QT’s work as I do “peelers”
From a distance she looks great, especially if you are drunk, but up close and sober?

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Your definition of film-art over 3 years ago

秋刀魚の味 said about 16 hours ago:

This site “sucks” because no one can debate something without getting their feelings hurt and either attacking anyone who sees something different from them, or starting threads where their opinion is the only correct one, and every one else is an idiot, or just being “fashionable.”

This site “sucks” because seriousness has become a dirty word, and everyone has to think of film as just a useless hobby, or “pointless,” lest they be constantly hounded to the ends of the earth by people who have never left the sixth grade mentality.

This site “sucks” because nobody can talk about films that don’t conform into their idea of what makes something great.

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What are Your Thoughts on Louis Malle? over 3 years ago

God’s Country: watch at the end and remind yourself – that was1986 – so prophetic I get the chills just thinking about it

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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 3 years ago

it’s only “fashionable” to hate Tarantino within the film community

Kinda like Microsoft – people in the computer community hate Windows.
Like QT, Windows works for me, I don’t love it or hate it.
The strong feelings maybe come from the pervasive power-QT is everywhere get over it !
This thread has certainly given some perspective to QT though….

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Your definition of film-art over 3 years ago

I’m not sure what you meant by ‘serious’.
Spinoza had a hierarchy of thought:
Opinion was the lowest, analysis next and the highest was intuition.
So, serious might be non-opinion. If you go through the thread you see that opinions get flushed out, people supply an analysis (rationale for their opinion) and some get an intuitive sense of QT’s place in the culture.

Once you’re at the intuitive point one can be less emotional/opinionated and the issue should fade…

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IF WE IGNORE 81/2 AND DOLCE VITA, WHAT'D BE THE BEST FELLINI MOVIE? over 3 years ago

Put me down for La Strada – I can still feel the end of that movie now, even though I haven’t seen it for years.

It was started when I Vitelloni was finishing – I Vitelloni was the beginning of a turning point – La Strada was the completed turn for Fellini

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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 3 years ago

Josh

Looking at some of the criticisms, the comparison could be made:
“his plagiarism, his lack of originality, the fact that he considers himself an auteur…”
Gates is sometimes referred to as a great programmer – he bought DOS – most of MS apps were purchased from others.

Edit: Damien Hirst is the “Bill Gates” in the visual arts

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Your definition of film-art over 3 years ago

Okay, without getting into semantics, generally speaking, some people aren’t serious.

Mike’s comment made me laugh, so I can appreciate some of the irreverence here !

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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 3 years ago

So what’s wrong with that?
Hirst used a hedge fund to finance (10M$) his diamond encrusted skull – supposedly on the market in 2007 for about $100 million.

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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 3 years ago

Indifference is QT’s greatest fear…..

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Anyone going to film/art school over 3 years ago

Regarding QT’s involvement with financiers:

There is an insight in the Damien Hirst story – you wont like it I’m sure , but it is something to think about.
The below is essentialized to produce the insight. Obviously, he was at the right place at the right time before he had the epiphany and, in the end, it is unlikely that your medium will be money. The take-away is not to look at the situation as artist vs. the suits, but to get on the side of mutual respect and get your project funded.

Hirst did a series of interviews with Charlie Rose.
The last one was where he put his stuff on the table.
Charlie asked a series of questions.
First was: “you produce the first item right?
Hirst said: I have 100 people working for me. (i.e. I don’t touch the stuff.)
Regarding the diamond skull Charlie asked: “why get 10M from a hedge fund; you could have put up the entire 20M?
Hirst looked at Charlie funny.

One might have been thinking: is Hirst an artist?
For that, you need a definition of an artist
My definition, not meant to be definitive, would be: an artist is someone who pushes a medium to its limits.
So the next obvious question is what is a medium ?
The thing Charlie didn’t get was that Hirst’s medium is money and he got the hedge fund involved as a way to push the limits of the medium of money

Hirst is a genius who had an early insight into who in the world are the creative geniuses. The creative geniuses are the gallery owners, the buyers, the producers, the film financiers, the modern-day Medici – the people with money to burn on projects.

He was an unknown when he sold a few works at a Saatchi show. He went back to Saatchi after the show with ideas and asked which they could sell.
That was 1991 – any idea what his net worth is now?

I would guess north of 1B$

If you are an aspiring artist reading this, you are ready to puke, but there is a slight of hand at play. When you approach the geniuses, you have a list of things you want to do – they chose from your list – so you get to do what you want.

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what did you watch today? over 3 years ago

Cleo from 5 to 7 (1961) Agnes Varda

An ending, beautiful in its simplicity.
I couldn’t place the tentative camera work in time, but this explains: the grandmother of the French new wave, Varda belonged more precisely to the complementary Rive Gauche movement. Of course, hubby was the redoubtable Jacques Demy (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg).
Lots of technical objections:
neither lead worked for me – they put the female lead in flatter shoes when she met the guy. Harsh lighting – shooting EOD makes a difference even in B&W. Glaring continuity problem in the middle of the intersection
Not enough Michel Legrand music – you recognized him in the film.
Guy she meets pops out of nowhere – symbolic of love. Clichéd, he’s going off to war the next day.
In terms of drifting around the Champs Elysees , nothing will compare to what Malle did with Jeanne Moreau in Elevator to the Gallows – but hey, that was an entirely different film !

This has got to be one of those films that, despite all its faults, will endure 9/10.

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Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School over 3 years ago

Yeah, but he’s not looking for aspiring film makers, he’s looking “For those who have worked as bouncers in sex clubs…”
It is for people who have an affinity for the madness game, sort of like baseball camp for nutters.
The cost? Priceless!
Could it be Werner has found money is the medium or did Bernie ‘made-off ‘with Werner’s money too?

Here’s my tagline contribution:
‘Werner promises to do to you what he did to Klaus ….’

…..thanks for the link

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Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School over 3 years ago

///Plot your demise in a Peruvian jungle?\\\
…make one homicidal

The Herzog brand: somewhat Hemingway-esque, in fact Hemingway is on the reading list
Can a clothing line be far off?

This sadly whorey attempt at self-parody is difficult to understand.

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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 3 years ago

////self promote and make himself the topic\\\

Indeed, he is becoming a brand. von Trier is doing the same thing in a very subtle way, perhaps unintentionally.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Party_%28film_series%29

So apparently is Herzog becoming a brand

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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 3 years ago

“Duchamp didn’t “see” beauty in a urinal. "

Actually it had nothing to do with beauty – it was a comment on how art had moved from the sensorium to the cerebral..

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Favorite Books over 3 years ago

Beauty and Visual Thinking

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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 3 years ago

I can’t believe this fell off the top of the list, but in a case of perfect symmetry or syncopation, it is right next to the other QT thread !

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