2012 MUBI World Cup Voting, Match #9: Greece (The Beekeeper) vs. Kazakhstan (The Needle)
I think Jake may also have a memory problem as he also submitted films that had been used in past Cups, including one that he himself had used before!
I’m just teasing you Jake :)
Ok,I should have checked my PMs first,and then blame Riss….
The Hunters was my top film in the first list I submitted,but I don’t have an avi file of this,unlike The Beekeeper.But then again,at last I wasn’t the one that uploaded Beekeeper,so I should have stayed with The Hunters,hoping that someone could upload that too.
The problem,Riss,is not my memory,is the list that you compiled in your introduction.None of the films that I submitted was in that list!!!
@Rohit
I ended up feeling better disposed towards Beekeeper by the end, it seems now more an allegorical film (having therefore a higher purpose/intent) the girl a kind of cypher, a vehicle to represent all that confounds and titilates with empty promise in life, forever out of reach regardless of how seemingly close, seemingly available, or how robust one’s efforts to possess, touch, connect.
And still you vote for a vacuous wannabe punk film. What kind of reasoning is this?
I didn’t see it as a vacuous wannabe punk film, cheesy sure but for me it was a novel film (and I might say quite nicely filmed) on subject matter in a time and place I’d not been exposed to before starring a Russian rock star I’d never heard of. The narrative of this fast and loose player deciding to save another also engaged me. It lead me to read up on Viktor Tsoi and Kino and play their music on youtube and reflect on how it seems every now and again a person just pops up at the right time and place with some sort of “covenant” to do a particular thing then get snuffed out young. He rallied the youth of Russia with his “anthem” music and was a pretty cool character even ending up with his own stamp. The Needle was fun and kind of touching and I enjoyed it. Hope that’s ok with you! The Beekeeper is old hat subject matter to me and I did not think this was a particularly good rendering of it, it didn’t hold well together for me and didn’t engage me emotionally.
Re “are you really so desperate to post on this forum” or whatever you said I agree one should always wait to consume the whole offering and then reflect over a port and a good cigar before speaking but in my defense in this instance it this wasn’t a case of being at home watching it, breaking, jumping on posting and going back to it. I was at work and when Kuxa’s post came up I did pounce on it as it encapsulated exactly my feeling where I had left the film the evening before. And it did have that feel to it!… but then – for me anyway – it appeared to scramble onto highly ground.
And lighten up….. we’re not playing for a sheep station.
The problem,Riss,is not my memory,is the list that you compiled in your introduction.None of the films that I submitted was in that list!!!
Not that I wanted to incite an argument about this, but just I did just double check and both of the films you submitted that I was referring to, The Sweet Bunch and The Quince Tree Sun, are indeed both on that list I posted in the introduction.
And lighten up….. we’re not playing for a sheep station.
^If anyone posts comments on a film without watching it completely, I will treat those comments like garbage each and every time. Sorry if it sounds rude but that’s how I am, all lightened up.
i like when people post halfway through, mubi is not ossified final draft, and i like the ability of the internet to capture ephemeral fleeting screams and writhing u-turns. if someone wants to update me every ten minutes of the next cup film they watch i won’t mind.
i like when people post halfway through, mubi is not ossified final draft, and i like the ability of the internet to capture ephemeral, fleeting screams and writhing u-turns. if someone wants to update me every ten minutes of the next cup film they watch i won’t mind.
^Next time, I should remember not to expect a rational comment from a woman.
hahaha!
can’t u just ignore us if we’re so annoying, rohit?
can’t u just ignore us if we’re so annoying, rohit?
Aww….I would have to be too mean to do that! It’s nice to have some irrationality around you sometimes.
k then. sorry if we’re trying your patience but it’s our nature :)
and girls, i got yr back
I kind of feel like being a girl right now too. For no particular reason.
Ruby edited her comment, but she said something about poking her nose and that reminded me of this painting
“if someone wants to update me every ten minutes of the next cup film they watch i won’t mind.”
I’m very tempted to do this, if only to annoy rohit.
I’m very tempted to do this, if only to annoy rohit.
Aah…I am enjoying the attention.
cheese
Greece (The Beekeeper) 1 – Kazakhstan (The Needle) 0
mubi is not ossified final draft
:) nor rational enough for the imposing of such exactitude to be anything but entirely otiose
Greece (The Beekeeper) 0 – Kazakhstan (The Needle) 1
i’m glad some people are liking The Needle, it’s a cool film and i was hoping it would be a great addition to the cup! Viktor Tsoi is amazing :)
p.s. since the clocks have gone forward, should this match finish at 11pm BST?
c’mon Beekeeper lovers, where are you all hiding?
Greece (The Beekeeper) 1 – Kazakhstan (The Needle) 0
Greece (The Beekeeper) 0 – Kazakhstan (The Needle) 1
Greece (The Beekeeper) 0 – Kazakhstan (The Needle) 1
since the clocks have gone forward, should this match finish at 11pm BST?
Not sure. I’m going by GMT. You’ll need to figure out your own time zone based on that.
A difficult match for me. I disliked them both just about equally.
I wasn’t excited to see another Angelopolous film after disliking almost all of them I have seen, which was too many after the first Directors’ Cup. So I went into this one with kind of the of the opposite expectations of some people. Kuxa and maybe some others mentioned because they love other Angelopolous films so much they were disappointed by how this one was not as good. I probably actually found the film to be even worse than they did, but because I wasn’t expecting it to be good, I probably actually thought it was better than I was expecting.
I suppose this could be an old man’s masturbatory tale, but like a lot of masturbation it’s fleeting and unfulfilling. So if that’s the message, then maybe it’s a noble one. The problem is that’s always Theo’s message of all his films and he doesn’t give us any hope of an alternative. Has he ever made a film where his protagonists weren’t all dispondent and unfulfilled and then destroyed by a cruel world?
Still I’m voting for it because I read through all of the comments so far to try to make a choice and Rohit’s and Meg’s comments gave me more appreciation of the film than anyone else’s comments did about The Needle. What the point of The Needle was, I’m not sure. Not that there has to be an explicit point, but since I didn’t really enjoy it on any other kind of superficial level I was hoping there might be one.
Greece (The Beekeeper) 1 – Kazakhstan (The Needle) 0
Still I’m voting for it because I read through all of the comments so far to try to make a choice and Rohit’s and Meg’s comments gave me more appreciation of the film than anyone else’s comments did about The Needle
so the master of ceremonies is casting his vote based on the length of the extrapolations of his acolytes, instead of his opinions on the actual films? write more and riss will vote for it?
anyway, if you were actually interested in reading more about the film, there are quite a few words on it in this senses of cinema article
so the master of ceremonies is casting his vote based on the length of the extrapolations of his acolytes, instead of his opinions on the actual films? write more and riss will vote for it?
It’s my job to incite participation including discussing, so anything I can do… ;)
have i got a match coming up? i’ll get my quill out…..
Risselada
I have no idea why Jake is now saying that The Beekeepers would not be his first choice.
He submitted a list to me with five different Greek films. I told him he could only pick one film for Greece. This was his response:
“Well,I submited more than one Greek films,as alternatives,in case some of these films are not available.But,as long as I can’t provide a video file for these movies(as I said,I have them only on DVD),I would change my Greek pick with this one:
The Beekeeper(O Melissokomos) – Theodoros Angelopoulos,1986
So,consider this one as my no.1 pick"