As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty – Jonas Mekas 2000
Platform – Jia Zhang-ke 2000
Liverpool – Lisandro Alonso 2008
Flight of the Red Balloon – Hou Hsaio Hsien 2007
Night and Day – Hong Sang-Soo 2008
Tropical Malady – Apichatpong Weerasethakul 2004
Unas fotos en la ciudad de Sylvia – Jose Luis Guerin 2007
L’Intrus – Clair Denis 2004
Paranoid Park – Gus Van Sant 2007
Linda Linda Linda – Nobuhiro Yamashita 2005
Cineaste, Film Quarterly, and Film Comment are the ones I come across the most often, all are excellent, plus FC is published by the Film Society at Lincoln Center which has a fine selections of films each year.
Jimmy: while Jia does come from the same vague vein of master shot aesthetic that Hou uses and similar preoccupations with history he is far from an imitator and his strengths are very different. I didn’t love my first Hou but I didn’t write him off, so if you want to give him another chance I’d recommend Unknown Pleasures.
Jia prefers distanced long shots whereas Hou uses mostly medium shots, and Jia doesn’t maintain the repeated setups that Hou uses, whereas Hou doesn’t use landscapes to the same effect as Jia, not to mention all the unique things Jia does like documentary-fiction hybrids, his surrealist touches etc, so I’d say they are only superficially similar.
I don’t understand how anyone can see his films as cold. There’s plenty of humor to be found and there isn’t a shred of disdain for any of his characters. His film aren’t slow at all compared to people like a lot his comtempoaries like Tarr or Tsai. I think Unknown Pleasures is funnier than anything Hou has made, not that I don’t love Hou too. If you are comparing them in terms of content, they are similar in that Platform is analogous to Hou’s early autobiographical films in the the depiction of their respective generations, and Platform’s “sequels” Xiao Wu and Unknown Pleasures are analogous to Hou’s contemporary films on Taiwanese youth.
Let’s see, it’s ridiculously heavy handed, simplistic morally and politically, black and white in its portrayal of the Spanish civil war, the general is pure caricature while other characters are similarly one dimensional. It’s filled with plot contrivances and inconsistencies why the rebels would need a key instead of just blowing up the locks, not to mention how it revels in gruesome violence.
If you don’t understand, just compare this to films dealing with similar subject matter like El Sur or Spirit of the Beehive and notice how poorly Del Toro handles the material in comparison.
I know it’s a Japanese term, but it’s completely insufficient to characterize a director by a single term or concept, and that’s what a lot of critics try to typify Ozu’s work into, which is totally pigeon holing the diversity of what he’s accomplished.
THE AUTEURS BEST OF THE DECADE: FILMS over 3 years ago
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty – Jonas Mekas 2000
Platform – Jia Zhang-ke 2000
Liverpool – Lisandro Alonso 2008
Flight of the Red Balloon – Hou Hsaio Hsien 2007
Night and Day – Hong Sang-Soo 2008
Tropical Malady – Apichatpong Weerasethakul 2004
Unas fotos en la ciudad de Sylvia – Jose Luis Guerin 2007
L’Intrus – Clair Denis 2004
Paranoid Park – Gus Van Sant 2007
Linda Linda Linda – Nobuhiro Yamashita 2005
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THE AUTEURS BEST OF THE DECADE: FILMS over 3 years ago
grazie Grey Daisies, always nice to see someone so knowledgeable in avant garde films. Keep up your amazing lists!
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Best Cinematography you have ever seen? over 3 years ago
Charmed Particles has easily the most ridiculously good B&W cinematography I’ve seen.
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MOST BEAUTIFUL FILMS IN COLOR over 3 years ago
anything by Jordan Belson
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WHO IS / WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FILM ACTRESS EVER? over 3 years ago
Brigitte Lahaie
Edwige Fenech
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Most valuable film Mags!!! over 3 years ago
Cineaste, Film Quarterly, and Film Comment are the ones I come across the most often, all are excellent, plus FC is published by the Film Society at Lincoln Center which has a fine selections of films each year.
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Soderbergh's Decade over 3 years ago
“Clearly someone hasn’t been watching his Cassavetes and Jost…”
or Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Kenneth Anger, Marie Menken, Jonas Mekas, etc for that matter.
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Films to start the new decade right over 3 years ago
how about the best film you’ll see during all of 2010 (and beyond) : Sans Soleil?
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Soderbergh's Decade over 3 years ago
Jimmy: while Jia does come from the same vague vein of master shot aesthetic that Hou uses and similar preoccupations with history he is far from an imitator and his strengths are very different. I didn’t love my first Hou but I didn’t write him off, so if you want to give him another chance I’d recommend Unknown Pleasures.
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FILMMAKER OF THE DECADE: LARS VON TRIER over 3 years ago
Kim Ki-duk is a pretentious hack.
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Soderbergh's Decade over 3 years ago
Jia prefers distanced long shots whereas Hou uses mostly medium shots, and Jia doesn’t maintain the repeated setups that Hou uses, whereas Hou doesn’t use landscapes to the same effect as Jia, not to mention all the unique things Jia does like documentary-fiction hybrids, his surrealist touches etc, so I’d say they are only superficially similar.
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Soderbergh's Decade over 3 years ago
I forgot to mention Jia’s exploitation of the digital format to create depth of field, whereas Hou only uses film.
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Soderbergh's Decade over 3 years ago
I forgot to mention Jia’s exploitation of the digital format to create depth of field, whereas Hou only uses film.
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Soderbergh's Decade over 3 years ago
I don’t understand how anyone can see his films as cold. There’s plenty of humor to be found and there isn’t a shred of disdain for any of his characters. His film aren’t slow at all compared to people like a lot his comtempoaries like Tarr or Tsai. I think Unknown Pleasures is funnier than anything Hou has made, not that I don’t love Hou too. If you are comparing them in terms of content, they are similar in that Platform is analogous to Hou’s early autobiographical films in the the depiction of their respective generations, and Platform’s “sequels” Xiao Wu and Unknown Pleasures are analogous to Hou’s contemporary films on Taiwanese youth.
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GUARDIAN 100 FILMS OF 2000'S over 3 years ago
yawn
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most overlooked,underrated film of 2009 over 3 years ago
Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis
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Director of the Decade Chris Nolan (Not a dark Knight thread) over 3 years ago
and I thought you couldn’t get any worse than Sodeberg, Alfonso Cuaron, and Del Toro…
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Director of the Decade: Guillermo Del Toro over 3 years ago
Pan’s Labyrinth is one of the worse film’s I’ve seen.
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Director of the Decade: Guillermo Del Toro over 3 years ago
*worst
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Director of the Decade: Guillermo Del Toro over 3 years ago
Let’s see, it’s ridiculously heavy handed, simplistic morally and politically, black and white in its portrayal of the Spanish civil war, the general is pure caricature while other characters are similarly one dimensional. It’s filled with plot contrivances and inconsistencies why the rebels would need a key instead of just blowing up the locks, not to mention how it revels in gruesome violence.
If you don’t understand, just compare this to films dealing with similar subject matter like El Sur or Spirit of the Beehive and notice how poorly Del Toro handles the material in comparison.
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Director of the Decade: Guillermo Del Toro over 3 years ago
*one of the worst :)
El Sur is on youtube, though I would recommend downloading it (no dvd in print).
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Director of the Decade: Guillermo Del Toro over 3 years ago
if by fleshing out the conviction of his character you mean chewing out the scenery then I’d agree :)
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STOP THE LISTS! over 3 years ago
I actually met Hong during a screening of Night and Day, pretty funny guy.
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STOP THE LISTS! over 3 years ago
hi Ally, have we met before?
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STOP THE LISTS! over 3 years ago
I think I’ve come across some Ally person before who loved Irene Jacob.
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STOP THE LISTS! over 3 years ago
yes, and include Unas fotos en la ciudad de sylvia instead of En la ciudad de sylvia.
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STOP THE LISTS! over 3 years ago
Ally that is quite possible since I did go to a Bruce Conner retro, what a great man.
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Favorite Romances of all time over 3 years ago
La Bete
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Mono no aware and Naruse as well as other Japanese directors over 3 years ago
mono no aware is bullshit that western critics use along with nonsense like zen to describe Ozu instead of trying to analyze their body of work.
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Mono no aware and Naruse as well as other Japanese directors over 3 years ago
I know it’s a Japanese term, but it’s completely insufficient to characterize a director by a single term or concept, and that’s what a lot of critics try to typify Ozu’s work into, which is totally pigeon holing the diversity of what he’s accomplished.
Go to Comment