2012 MUBI World Cup Voting, Match 35: Crush vs Healthy People for Fun
Once again I had problems posting the title correctly. I’m going to try to get someone to fix it.
Also, sorry about posting the match late. It will end an hour and a half later than normal
Somehow this didn’t get posted in the World Cup section. Can anyone with access move it there please?
Just saw Healthy People for Pastime and will watch Crush in a few hours. If someone could please post introductions and context for both, that would be very helpful.
Joe I am moving house at the moment so will not be able to do a full write up for Crush. The film does not really need a cultural context given. Crush is a really nice psychological film very much in the vein of other Australasian films such as Lantana. What makes the film above average in my opinion is Marcia Gay Harden’s great performance. She is one very underused actress. Also Maclean’s wonderful vision of the New Zealand landscape, the geysers, bubbling mud and moody grey rainy skies really make this a film worth watching. I am going to vote later and squeeze in that short Slovenian film.
New Zealand (Crush) 1 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 0
I liked Healthy For People For Fun, but it didn’t greatly stand out and I probably won’t remember it in a few months. I liked the music though.
New Zealand (Crush) 0 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 1
New Zealand (Crush) 1 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 0
Healthy People was a half-baked Makavejev homage done in the style of direct cinema, whereas Crush was delightfully bizarre and risque.
I’m so happy I finally broke my world cup cherry. Best of luck to both films.
I think it helps that I was half-asleep (but still fully engaged) when I saw Crush, which made it that much more dreamlike and surreal. A similar experience can be had with weed.
New Zealand (Crush) 0 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 1
my spirit is too crushed to write anything.
“Healthy People was a half-baked Makavejev homage…”
In what way exactly? Godina was probably influenced by Makavejev but he had a style of his own.
By the way, this is not a Slovenian film. The director was Slovenian but it was produced by the famous film studio Neoplanta in Serbia.
New Zealand (Crush) 1 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 0
maybe this one comes down to personal preference; i didn’t especially care for either film, but i liked Crush more. Not sure why. Neither of these films really excited me, but i assume there are always matches like that for everyone. I have been watching most of the future matches now that i’m finally not so busy. This is the first match i’ve voted on in a while, but that’s okay. I watched these films back-to-back while i was playing diablo3 on mute yesterday, so i probably didn’t give them all of the attention they deserved, but they definitely got 85-90% of my attention throughout anyways. I liked the actors more in Healthy People for Pastime but i liked all the other stuff more with Crush, plus i like New Zealand accents and tales of sexuality.
Well, not just Makavejev, but also Peter Nestler. It tried, I must admit that. It mixed documentary social realism (like Nestler’s Ödenwaldstetten) and Eastern bloc wackiness (like early Makavejev) but it was too short, and too vague, to hit on the finer qualities of either.
I heard and saw it for the first time that people are painting their houses according to their cultural affiliations. For this and for the simplicity of means I do appreciate Godina’s shortfilm commentary.
though oddball things are going on in crush! – so point goes to New Zealand :)
New Zealand (Crush) 1 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 0
New Zealand (Crush) 1 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 0
New Zealand (Crush) 0 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 1
New Zealand (Crush) – 1 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) – 0
Took some time to get into Crush, but I’ll give New Zealand a vote in this match. Nothing much to say about either film. Crush had a creaky storyline and some bad acting, but it did have its moments. It felt a bit too episodic to really get into the complicated emotional undercurrents of the lead characters. But, this Kiwi melodrama trumps the clever pastiche on those ‘healthy’ ethnics in the former Yugoslavia (before they all started clobbering one another in the civil war).
i wish i could say ‘i wish i had a cock’ with a straight face!
:0 spoilers ^
ok i really don’t get the crush love.
new zealand (crush) 0 – slovenia (healthy people for fun) 1
5-4 new zealand :/
New Zealand (Crush) – 0 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) – 1
New Zealand (Crush) 0 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 1
No Crush love here. At all. The short was cool. Loved the music.
New Zealand (Crush) 0 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 1
I think that makes it 7-6 for Slovenia (O:
7-5 Slovenia
VOTING IS CLOSED
Final tally:
New Zealand (Crush) – 5
Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) – 7
The winner is:
SLOVENIA!
God’s blessing on all nations,
Who long and work for that bright day,
When o’er earth’s habitation
No war, no strife shall hold its sway;
Who long to see
That all man free
No more shall foes, but neighbours be.
Who long to see
That all man free
No more shall foes, but . . .
No more shall foes, but neighbours be.
Thanks for the good laugh, tdm, for quoting for us a ‘certain line’ from Crush. That line deserves the ‘cheesiest line ever’ award for any film so far seen in this Cup.
OK, what’s with this Crush hate, anyway? Here is a film by a female filmmaker (mind you, her first feature), co-written by the director and another woman, with substantial female leads. So, why didn’t it click with many of our voters, esp. female ones? Too corny or artificial? There seemed some sort of Lesbian subtext going on (if I’m not imagining it), particularly in the crush of the young daughter of the writer, Angela, for the Lane character at the beginning of the film. I’m certainly not criticizing the film for this, but by not bringing this out into the open, the film seems to use this as more of a tease. Or is the suppression element of this desire intended as the point?
Not knowing anything about the director’s other work, I’m grasping at straws (or considering a certain gross scene in the hospital, maybe ‘straws’ shouldn’t be mentioned). This crush by Angela turns to hate and then revenge as Lane becomes involved with her dad. Lane seems to be the vortex who sucks in all the other characters around her by her own outrageous behavior. (Not always scoring with her witty dialogue either, as tdm has pointed out).
Lane’s reaction to and guilt about what she has done to her supposed friend, Christina (whom she briefly impersonates), becomes the pivot for the plot. Her denial or inability to confront the accident and what she has done comes to a head eventually. The distraught Angela, (now on the side of the damaged Christina), forces the confrontation of the two women. Are Angela’s actions as a result of jealousy that Lane has gotten together with her father or more in sympathy with Christina? Does anyone really care?
When it seems that maybe some reconciliation is possible (again, what did the kissing between the two women near the climactic scene imply), well, we know what happens (saving this plot spoiler from those still to see the film). Let’s just say that Lane gets her inevitable fall(s). I think the film had potential to be quite a bit better, but give the director some credit for coming up with an interesting idea involving how we can so easily deceive ourselves about the motives of others. Also, about the karmic burden that comes with trying to take the place of another.
Not wanting to beat a fallen horse, but since there was little said about Crush by those voting against it, just curious. It seemed this short from Slovenia, clever as it was, would not have been a match for many another feature in this Cup. Since I said little about the film in my comments, just wanted to add a bit more context to them.
I just found it burdensome, unappealing, and though it tried its darndest not to be (by being oddball), transparently predictable..care factor was dangerously low
That line deserves the ‘cheesiest line ever’ award for any film so far seen in this Cup.
challenged only by “I want to be inside you”
I wasn’t sure how this film was going to be received and lthough I have a certain crush on this film myself I did anticipate some negative reaction. I’m happy though that some of the new participants like Joe and NGA enjoyed the film. I am actually surprised that this film made it into the competition as Crush was definitely a little bit down my list. I guess not too many other people nominated a film from New Zealand.
Australasian films have had a hard time in all the cups so far. Both New Zealand and Australia were thrashed in the first World Cup, then Jane Campion didn’t fare much better in the DC and then Papua New Guinea and New Zealand beaten here. We will see what happens with Australia. Is there some indifference to films from this area on MUBI? If so why? I’m not saying Crush was beaten because of this, but films from this area have had a pretty rough ride in the cups. Maybe the wrong films were chosen, but I am struggling to find any films to mind that would make a major challenge in this competition…..
There wasn’t anyone who just missed voting in this one was there? I feel like I might have ended it early. I can’t remember now
Risselada
This topic is part of the 2012 MUBI World Cup. If you have not already done so, please read the first post at the topic for an introduction to and rules about this year’s World Cup:
http://mubi.com/topics/2012-mubi-world-cup-introduction-submit-your-list-of-films
New Zealand
Original title: Crush
Directed by: Alison Maclean
Approximate runtime: 97 min
Submitted by: kuxa kanema
Slovenia (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
Original title: Zdravi ljudi za razonodu
Directed by: Karpo Ačimović-Godina
Approximate runtime: 14 min
Submitted by: Max painter
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The purpose of this topic is to cast votes in the matchup listed above and also to be a forum for discussing the films in the match.
Anyone who has seen both of the films listed above may vote in this match. You must vote for whichever of the two films you personally like better. In order to vote you must post a reply to this topic containing one of the following sequences:
If you are voting for Crush: “New Zealand (Crush) 1 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 0”
If you are voting for Healthy People for Fun: “New Zealand (Crush) 0 – Slovenia (Healthy People for Fun) 1”
Your vote must contain the names of both films with a “one” after the film you are voting for and a “zero” after the other film. If your vote is not formatted in this way it will not be counted.
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This match will end on Monday, June 11 at 11:30 PM GMT. No votes attempted to be cast after that time will be counted. Shortly after the match ends the votes will be tallied and a winner of the match will be declared. If the films both receive the same number of votes, the match will be considered a tie.
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The results of the matches as well as the schedule for future matches can be found here:
http://mubi.com/lists/2012-mubi-world-cup
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