Gertrud, by Dreyer. The greatest movie ever made? And to finally see it on film…
I am jealous!
The Godfather Part 3 on blu ray WOW!
Does it being on Blu Ray make that movie any better than it’s current reputation?
Technically no, but i guess you would have to see it to judge it for yourself. But it does in my opinion make them look better. But something like the godfather really it doesn’t matter if you watch it on a six inch monitor. It is still gonna be good, but i’m looking at the image quality being so pristine and sharp. That is what makes you go WOW. But like i said it is up to the viewer to decide if they like the look of Blu ray i for one as you can all tell am loving it.
Miracle at Santa Anna (2008) by Spike Lee. I’m still processing this film… interesting in many ways but I wonder what is historically accurate and what isn’t, e.g. the scene of a provocative woman addressing the Black-American regiment over a loudspeaker. Is this a creative fictional device for sending out messages to the audience about the themes the film is treating? Or did the Nazis really resort to such tactics to influence the Black American soldiers? The characters could be more developed, perhaps, but they are effective as archetypes or metaphors…
I thought the Lee film was one of the worst I saw in Toronto, ham-and-heavy handed, and unnecessarily, gratuitously over violent. It was all over the place and far too long as well, some kind of brash, Sam Fuller homage gone way wrong.
Right now, I’m in the middle of Berlin Alexanderplatz…..
Wow!!!!!!!!!!!
Let us know when your done tomorrow.
i’m currently juggling my 2nd viewing of Fukasaku’s Battles Without Honor & Humanity (Yakuza papers Vol. 1) and my 3rd viewing of Richard Stanley’s Dust Devil. my high esteem for both continues to grow…
Lee’s film is definitely violent and it seems almost everybody dies in this film except for the main character and the boy. I can fathom why the main character holds on to the gun given to him by the German officer so that he can defend himself (even back in New York) … but what I find extremely puzzling is the fact that he wasn’t executed but spared in the first place and even given a gun to defend himself (perhaps this is a part of the miracle?) I liked the “chocolate giant” part (and the humanity of the black soldier who plays this role) and the boy’s delusions (Arturo) but felt that the white commander’s ill-temper was overly perverse. Had he been depicted as a weak and cowardly superior who is unfit to lead rather than the mindless and reckless brute he was portrayed to be, it would probably have come across as a more acceptable scenario to me (unless the emphasis was on the superior’s resentment over being put in charge of a black regiment which made him ultimately ineffective as a leader).
The Godfather, always amazing and in this new format it looks awesome.
Halim and Juan, I just came from watching Vicki Cristina. Agree and agree. Great acting though. It made the film, especially Cruz. I’m not a huge Woodrow Allen fan either, but except for the narrative and dialog, it feels almodovar.. again.. it’s about the actors.. I kinda expected caetano veloso to appear singing cucurrucucu paloma at some point.
Pasolini’s “Teorema”. Whew…
Ted Demme’s Blow. Unfortunately this is not a very good film. Although Depp is likeable as George Jung the story is just to flawed for me to want to like him as a sympathetic character just for the love of his daughter. Liotta and Griffith do good work as his parents, but the movie shifts one to many times to try and convey the whole story. Demme really stretched it to give the film a real biopic kind of feel. He falls short, but only because the subject just didn’t warrant this kind of dramatization. Also Penelope looks horribly miscast. Sometimes fame and beauty should be passed over for the right actor. The film does have it’s moments, but at two hours the movie aims too high. Demme’s final film and a waste for he was growing into a fine filmmaker.
The Duchess (2008) by Saul Dibb… the plot and the outcome of the story is rather predictable… but it was nevertheless enjoyable as a story of remarkable feminine courage, sacrifice (for the sake of children), and survival. Some people I know felt she didn’t have a choice but I think she did (an either-or one, to play the game as her circumstances dictated or refuse to comply) and she made a choice not to abandon her children and to play the game convincingly well without wallowing in self-pity or going about it half-heartedly or sullenly. A smart choice, considering the odds.
The Godfather part 2 and The Leopard. It doesnt get any better than these two films which are keeping me up. Six hours of epic pleasure.
Shallow Hal and Wyatt Earp. I know what a combo! You don’t have to thumb me down, i know they both suck. (though with shallow hal being a comedy the line between it being good and shitty is very thin.) (FYI: dislocated my finger so i am not in a very good mood)
I saw Appaloosa yesterday and it was NOT as good as I anticipated. The acting was fine on Vigo, Ed Harris and Jeremy Irons part, but Rene Zelweger got on my nerves. There were parts in the film that I’m sure were meant to be dry comedy, but there were also parts in the film that the audience laughed at that were NOT meant to be laughed at which is maybe somewhat of a bad sign. I’m thinking that reviews that are being written for the film might be mixed but all together accepting. . .
4 stars from ME!
Martel’s THE HEADLESS WOMAN, a masterpiece! Those tepid reviews from Cannes (and elsewhere) just weren’t paying attention.
Wyatt Earp has a great writer director behind it. But it is a very poor directed film and even worse written. How such a great filmmaker like lawrence kasdan can miss is beyond me. The problem begins with Kevin Costner and goes on for three hours.
Hopefully the Martel will make its way over here eventually.
Mr. Arkadin or The Confidential Report or which ever version you are watching.
I just saw “Waltz with Bashir” in New York Film Festival, and I must say I was highly impressed by it. The animation, the music, the story: all were fantastic. In addition these, it was really refreshing to see a director who was telling his own story without pushing his political agenda into our throats, and I think that was the sole reason behind the power of this film. As the director highlighted in his Q&A session, "this isn’t a hip-anti-war-movie, but an attempt to reflect the real horrors of a massacre that the world seemed to forgot.’ I will have hard time forgetting this film, especially its haunting and at-your-face ending!
Just watched Melville’s ‘Le Doulos’, certainly not my favourite Melville “policier”, story/performance-wise and from a technical standpoint, but there are some great/classic “Melvillean” sequences throughout and it certainly has a superb/absurd ending. I think it’s definitely a film I will come back to for further analysis/appreciation.
I’m rediscovering “Kwaidan” which – like “The Innocents,” Truman Capote’s subtly wrought version of Henry James – is reminding me that an atmosphere of quiet dread is far more frightening than all the boogeymen on Elm Street.
I torture myself with crap like daredevil. A collector of comics it just disappoints me when hollywood studios cash in on our childhood imagination. A miscast ben affleck(whoa what a miscast), a horrible script, a horrible jennifer garner. about the only thing i could bear was collin farrel who goes so over the top he laughed his way to cashing the check he got paid to be in this piece of crap. I should sue tbs for paying this so often. I will now try and shake the devil with The assasination of jesse james by the coward robert ford. (second viewing)
I just saw the documentary, “Up The Yangtze”. It was powerful!
The beginning quote by Confucius was a great opener for the film:
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.”
I also really liked the quote about how it is hard being human, but harder being a common person in China:
[the exact quote] “It’s hard being a human, but being a common person in China is even more difficult”.
That really moved me!
You have to see the film to truly understand!
Plus, the good-looking Chinese guy, Bo Yu Chen, was a splendid site to view.
The story was wonderfully captured and told. Yung Chang directed and wrote the story brilliantly!
“Rachel Getting Married” – really really liked it – really really didn’t think I would. Haven’t been that surprised in the movie theater in quite some time. I also haven’t cried that much during a movie (at happy and sad things) in some time (despite the gaggle of giggling nacho eating girls next to me).
Also I completely agree about the Martel.
Antoine Doinel
Finally caught up with the Norwegian film “Reprise” by Joachim Trier last night and totally enjoyed it. It’s a smart, innovative and stylish film without coming off as being too “slick”, it had a great tone and the overall feel was quite haunting – it totally captures the milieu and the highs and lows that come with trying to be a writer, solid performances, artful cinematography, thoughtful editing (creative use of flashforwards, some particularly nice scenes utilizing time-shifted dialogue over past/present/future images) and it has some great music in it. It’s reminiscent of numerous films and makes use of many innovative cinematic techniques from cinema history but brings them together in such a way that creates something new and interesting.