We should really get a new topic section for the AFWC on the auteurs
Well, I started my movie-watching marathon with The Ear (Czech) and it was great. Camerawork, acting, direction—everything clicked for me.
I also started with Ucho (The Ear) and liked it very much. Very well put-together. Having to watch it on youtube is frustrating as you can see it’s a gorgeously filmed movie—much of it taking place in candle-lit shadows with a brilliant interplay between light and dark.
It’s edited to heighten the sense of paranoia—which is reinforced as certain lines are spoken directly to the camera.
The acting is powerful, and the relationship between the main characters ebbs and flows in a sad, pathetic, co-dependent and self-destructive cycle that reminded me of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
I would be interested to hear from a Czech on this film. I think it’s got a chance against Goodfellas, depending on how people vote.
It’s a damn shame it’s not more widely available.
Ucho exists on Second Run DVD,a publishing company which has multiple rare treasures and has nothing to be jealous of fuckin’ Criterion!
i’ve had the pleasure to watch this and other films thanks to this company,including the up and coming competitive film Marketa Lazarova,what an epic!!!!
shame on me but i haven’t watched Stagecoach and Trial,haha (Dushane,laugh all you like :P ).so i should get back on track with those as well as the 3 first groups these days,hehe.
I won’t be able to watch most of the WC films now but I wonder if this discussion would soon become unwieldy with hundreds of posts about hundreds of different films… Would separate discussions based on country or head to head be better…?
>i haven’t watched Stagecoach
Dimitris, go to watch it!!!!!! :)
Anyway, when I watched The Ear months ago, it seemed to me too much political and too little cinematic. I think of it as the weak link of the Czech selection, but perhaps I’m the only one to think so. :)
yes,you are Dan :)
i doubt if this is gonna be the weakest link from that team,from what i can see and from what i have seen already,i smell that nothing is weak,the only “weak” part would be the 2000’s choices,in case they won’t be considered as classic as the 60’s or 70’s etc…
ok,ok,i will ;) am thinking of watching them backwards,don’t know yet,since i’ve seen most from Russia,China and Sweden,it would be easier to go backwards,don’t know..
Hopelessly,am pretty sure we’ll figure out a way,we once suggested creating a thread next to the festivals,articles and others as a sole thread exclusively for World Cup,….
tonight is the night of back to back strike :P
@Dan
I disagree about The Ear. I found it beautifully cinematic. Other than the contrasts of light and shadows (and overall lighting) Josh mentioned, I thought the camera wok was brilliant, both inventive and unobtrusive. As for being political, I think it was played out in a way that served the story… Not that a film being “political” is a problem, per se…
Found Ucho pretty interesting. My main complaint is the juxtapoisition of marital and political discord didn’t gel for me – it felt like a somewhat clumsy striving for significance rather than something that rose organically from the story. The switch in focus after the friend’s visit was particularly jarring. Also didn’t like the ending, which worked as an ironic twist, but again, didn’t work in the context of the story.
Still, when it’s in its paranoid mode, it’s powerful. I’m glad it ended on that note.
I just watched Tango, the Polish short that’s up against Zhang Yimou’s To Live. What a bizarre matchup! Tango’s extremely fascinating, but I’ll probably have to give it to To Live. I urge everyone to watch Tango, though. The intricacy of the thing is damn mesmerizing.
i have seen half of his films but not To Live…Myra is definitely playing dangerously since this isn’t such an on-demand popular Zhang Yimou film…
by the way,the South Korean team looks pretty nasty too,Bong Joon-ho’s films are all great but i actually thought of more obscure solutions like Happy End,who knows what’s next… :P
Oh, Yimou´s To Live may not be his most popular film, but I don´t think she´s playing dangerously since it´s most likely his greatest masterpiece. I think the film surpasses everything he has made so far.
Top 5 AWC- watch list:
- The Man Who Had his Hair Cut Short
- Goryeoyang
- Antares
- Mandabi
- Vigil
Bytheway, I’m going to make a Fake Criterion cover for every film I see in the World Cup. Here’s the first, for Ucho.
Oh i think To Live is among Zhang Yimou’s popular ones, a good choice i think, and there’s still room for others by him in the knockouts if China qualify. I’ve also just enjoyed Tango, an unusual case of animated choreography. Poland has some interesting animation like Borowczyk and Dumala (as does Czech republic- Trnka, Zeman).
Josh,you should make a film for even films you have already seen :P where’s the Goodfellas one? ;)
i suppose it’s more popular outside of Greece,Yimou’s early period and 2000’s are the most well-known around here,the mid-90’s are practically untouched (as with most Chinese films released)
by the way,i thought that someone would put a feature-film animation (Balkans clearly don’t have such luxuries besides shorts),maybe Kenji you’re saving some Anime for later on? ;)
Dimitris – I saw My Neighbor Totoro up there, so there is feature-length animation going on!
Don’t bank on it, Dimitris, with animation i’ve got Miyazaki but he wasn’t exactly an inspired choice, i was looking for a brilliant short to match my favourites from some other countries, maybe the right one will turn up. I did like one by Ichikawa, and Tezuka, but i could with something like Tale of Tales or Street of Crocodiles..
Watching Tango with my own current leg trouble, i felt the pain of a guy who falls with a yell and hurts and clutches his leg, then i was distracted by a young lady who appears left. There must be a message or lesson in there.
Its’ hard to say with any conviction and assurance, but in my opinion Myra’s Team China has the strongest roster of films of any team. And To Live is a fine film, but I don’t believe it to be one of Zhang Yimou’s strongest works. I tend to favor his earlier works like Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, and Raise the Red Lantern. I have a feeling Ju Dou or Raise the Red Lantern may show up in the later rounds. I’ve seen all of Team China’s films except for The Blue Kite and feel that they’re all masterpieces with the exception of To Live.
And Team Korea’ selections were a pleasant surprise, I must say. Goryeo Jang is on my youtube channel, and it’s a must-see. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F5C7EC7B9D13961A
Kim Ki-young is an absolute genius, and the film makes Imamura’s Ballad of Naruyama (similar theme) look like kiddie stuff. By the way, you’ll notice that there are “blacked-out” scenes where you only hear the sound. This is on the DVD release itself, as the Korean Film Archive was unable to find the missing scenes during the restoration. It’s a shame, but it’s only for 10 minutes or so if I recall correctly. You still know what’s going on with the sound and the subtitles. Kim Ki-young is without a doubt the greatest director in all of Korean cinema. I’d love to upload more Kim Ki-young films for people to watch, but I don’t know if I can. There are some really harrowing very very explicit sex scenes in some of his movies. His film Iodo is unbelievable, but if I uploaded that, I’ll probably be thrown in prison, lol.
Totoro?wow,i must have missed some picks,damn…
well,at least i’ve seen Totoro,hehe,illustrious Miyazaki,more innocent than the spectacles of a Howl…
trust me Kenji,he is an inspired choice,maybe if you had an Oshii it would have been an alarming one as well ;)
oh c’mon Blue K,don’t be so modest,i’ve noticed your Pan-Africa can do some serious damage ;) AND i’ll get to watch Chahine,finally!!!!
It’s a pity Goreo Jang on youtube is missing quite long sections of film (with just subtitled dialogue), this is very unfortunate and distracting, and it seems quite set-bound, i took more to Housemaid. But i’ve always thought China had strong resources, and Myra’s chosen well, while leaving later options open. eg Raise the Red Lantern.
So far of the special world cup viewing i’ve been very impressed with your own Nostalgia for the Countryside, Blue K; a quiet beautiful and engaging film, with delicately handled feelings, but it’s not all sweetness and light, there are tough everyday realities, social changes, outside forces and fate that come into play. It really deserves to be better known and i’m really looking forward to your other selection by the director.
Oh and in The Last Wave, i was thinking frogs, when….
note on Goryeo Jang: it’s fortunate enough that there are subs to compensate for the sound department,probably one of my picks has that same problem too,not so with the quality of sound as much as the negative alterations at times…
am hoping someone will upload this Koundouros’ film through rapidshare since it’s in the only format so far i’ve found it with English subs.
then again,we have time to watch some countries before moving to the unobtainable as of yet ones..
Yes, Kenji, Goryeo Jang is, in fact, completely set-bound, so that is surely liable to turn off a lot of sophisticated cinephiles.Personally, the obvious artificiality of the set enhances the other-worldliness of the whole film. What I love about Kim Ki-young is that the guy has no boundaries—he’s willing to throw in B-movie elements, willing to shoot from bizarre unconventional camera angles, and so on. He breaks all the rules. The guy hated “isms” and was all about letting his wild and crazy imagination fly.
Did you get to read my explanation for the missing sections in Goryeo Jang? They’ve yet to discover the missing parts. :(
Isn’t Nostalgia for the Countryside great? That’s the kind of film I had in mind when I started that Can Colored Folks Get Some Love from Criterion Too thread. If that were a Japanese film, the head honchos at all the “boutique” DVD companies would give up their left testicles for the right to distribute it. As it stands, there is ONE place on this earth which sells the DVD—not lying, I’ve even talked to Vietnamese friends about this—a small non-profit organization called Asian Film Archive in Singapore! What a shame.
Dang Nhat Minh’s When the Tenth Month Comes might even be a better film. I won’t give too much away except to say that it is an incredibly haunting and poetic depiction of the effect that the Vietnam War has on a Vietnamese family. General Westmoreland, the commanding US General in Vietnam once actually said, “Well the Oriental, doesn’t put the same high price on life, as does the Westerner. Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the Orient. And ah, … as the, … ah, philosophy of the Orient, ah, expresses it, ah, life is, ah, … not important” After watching When the Tenth Month Comes, you will want to sojourn down into the depths of hell to find Westmoreland and shove the DVD up his rectum.
Our good friend Apursansar will upload it sometime next week.
Dimitris, I will try to track down and upload Young Aphrodites on youtube during the next two weeks, I hope it´s not so controversial that I will get banned for uploading it.
I just enjoyed Tango too. Makes you wonder how they did it almost 30 years ago. I have to see To Live to make up my mind. God we have some homework! But a homework we actually enjoy..
in about a decade or 2,the throne of Ki-young will be threatened by Miike :P
i suppose it’s not blatantly controversial,unless nudity or paganism are clauses of violation (?),i mean…they have Window Water Baby Moving there,Aphrodites isn’t THAT explicit :P
i may also watch some of them randomly,i mean…i was always curious of Vigil and Ward’s first period…
Well, it depends on wether it gets flagged or not, but I will try to put it up nevertheless, let´s hope that the nudity won´t get punished.
I just finished watching Insiang, the Filipino pick by Blue K for Southeast Asia. Boy was it good. How every character managed to come off as being sympathetic monsters was amazing. I loved the blocking and composition in this one. The women are often behind bars, and Insiang herself is usually placed as the center of a trio in a shot, always being bullied and surrounded.
I think this beats Cleo from 5 to 7 for me.
Wednesday i’ve scheduled to finish off with every single short film in the competition,hehe :)
Goodfellas vs Ucho: both get 10 from me…difficult to vote…
Run Lola Run vs Belle de Jour: i smell more challenging Bunuel to arrive no matter how i admire this,so i may give my vote for a close call to the fast-spinning Lola…
Rules of the Game vs Green Fish: Rules is a damn masterpiece but i’ll be soon watching Green Fish and i’ll arrive with a new list of matches i’ve seen.
I had already seen Goodfellas, Ucho, Stagecoach, and Alice from the US v. Czech matchup, so I started with Postava k podpirani/ Josef Kilian and The Trial by Welles. Both are so surreal, but I have to say, I know I’m “supposed” to like The Trial better, but Postava k podpirani may get my vote.
Dan8700
Please, do write here (for those who want to) the opinions about the films, so the topics don’t get messy.