The “Kill Bills” killed it for me. I haven’t brought myself to see “Inglorious Basterds.” The previews looked pretty much like a teenage fantasy of war.
But, I have to admit I’m curious to see what he will do with “Faster, Pussycat Kill Kill,” although I hope the talk of Britney Spears in the lead role is just talk.
Pretty much goes without saying that Tarrantino inspires trash talk, but the guy is talented. There is no doubt. I thought he was starting to mature with Jackie Brown, but seems like not.
The nominations are a joke. The best competition is in Best Animated Feature, which is where Avatar belonged. Pretty much a remake of Pocahontas. And WTF is it with Quentin getting a director nomination for Inglourious Basterds! Did the selection committee even match any movies this year?
Silly me, I didn’t see that this year there are ten nominees for best picture. A Serious Man stiffens the competition a little. Of course, we shouldn’t discount Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire. Isn’t Precious enough? But, I suppose they didn’t want “readers” to get confused.
If they are going to nominate Bullock for an Oscar, they might as well have nominated Mariah Carey for Precious (or is it Push) also.
I’m afraid Tilda Swinton, like Julianne Moore, will simply get no respect among the Academy, not that I think either one of them really gives a damn. Still, Moore should have at least won an Oscar for her “supporting” role in “The Hours.” Julia was 2008, by the way.
“I would ask people to consider films like Triumph of the Will and other fascist films as well as a great many films from the Soviet Union and China. They too espoused philosophies and those philosophies often were densely imbued within the films, but obviously, this isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
Seems to me you are confusing ideology with philosophy. I think the idea of this thread is to look at films that make you think. Triumph of the Will was not designed to make you think. It was a propaganda film meant to convey a specific mention. The same could be said for many of the Soviet and Chinese films during the height of their respective revolutions. We can marvel at the way in which these films were made, but not their message. It was very direct.
That said Eisenstein’s Ivan The Terrible, Part II, was a much more provocative movie than was the first part, which had so enraptured Stalin. Also, very interesting story behind the making of ¡Que viva México!, involving Upton Sinclair.
“I would ask people to consider films like Triumph of the Will and other fascist films as well as a great many films from the Soviet Union and China. They too espoused philosophies and those philosophies often were densely imbued within the films, but obviously, this isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
Seems to me you are confusing ideology with philosophy. I think the idea of this thread is to look at films that make you think. Triumph of the Will was not designed to make you think. It was a propaganda film meant to convey a specific message. The same could be said for many of the Soviet and Chinese films during the height of their respective revolutions. We can marvel at the way in which these films were made, but not their message. It was very direct.
That said, Eisenstein’s Ivan The Terrible, Part II, was a much more provocative movie than was the first part, which had so enraptured Stalin. Also, very interesting story behind the making of ¡Que viva México!, involving Upton Sinclair.
Sorry for the double post. I tried to delete the first one but to no avail.
Interesting points, greg. I watched A Serious Man tonight and wondered if it had some deeper meaning or was just simply a shaggy dog story. Hard to make any real connection between the Ukrainian village scene and the rather typical Jewish suburban life that played out in the movie, but in the end I found myself pondering connections that may or may not have been there. Throughout, I found myself thinking of Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed.
Stalker left me similar perplexed. I enjoyed the movie if for no other reason than it led me along on its wild goose chase, but in the end the danger seemed to be what you made of it, a parable perhaps of life in latter Soviet Union. I haven’t given it much thought in a long time but may return to it.
Kubrick always struck me as a stylist. He loved to explore genres much the same way Polanski does, but in his own detached way.
To me the master remains Bergman, who explored so many themes in his movies and in most cases these movies had a deep emotional resonance.
Funny to see Michael Moore brought up. The guy is great at agitprop, but I wouldn’t regard him as a particularly deep thinker. I guess it comes down to what we want to regard as “philosophy,” not that I have any deep understanding of the subject having read only a relative handful of the philosophers you cite, Frank.
Film obviously can only go so far. It is more about myth and symbolism really than it is any deep philosophical content. There is only so much you can convey in such a format. So, a good director creates “signposts” which the viewer tries to discern and make as much sense of them as he or she can. I really can’t think of any deep philosophical movie.
I have to watch Stalker again, because I didn’t get that much out of it the first time. I preferred his earlier movies like Ivan’s Childhood and Andrei Rublev.
Not that it really matters, but maybe some definition of “philosophy” is in order, so that we can narrow down the field here? A movie can be dense but not necessarily be philosophical in content, meaning holding some deeper truths about our existence. It could just be the director had a lot of ideas in his head and tried to pack as many of them as he could into one movie.
Is Fellini being “philosophical” in 8 1/2, or simply exploring the terrain of his own mind and seeing if there is any sense to be made of it? In La Dolce Vita, he actually had a philosopher, Steiner I believe was his name, who killed his kids and himself because I guess he just couldn’t stand it anymore. In the end, Marcello is left staring at a Sunfish (I presume) and trying to figure out what this ugly beast means, tossing off the wave of the little girl who recognized him from the cantina. It is all fun to watch in its own way, but how much can you really take away from these films?
Mostly, the Academy Awards have become irrelevant. Who really cares when there are so many better films to watch. It is basically just a three-hour-plus fashion show.
Surprised no one has brought up ¡Que viva México! . Linked is a great site to the ongoing restoration project of the film. Eisenstein shot over 200,000 lineal feet of film while working with Upton Sinclair and his wife Mary on the project. It was abruptly halted when Eisenstein panicked over Stalin issuing a command that he return to the Soviet Union. Sinclair eventually pieced together a version, and other versions have been made, but as yet no definitive version that I know of. For whatever reasons, Eisenstein divorced himself from the project.
What ever defects Eisenstein had in his character didn’t make him any less a filmmaker. The guy was obviously tormented in ways we would probably never understand. He apparently made Ivan the Terrible, Part II, as a redress of sorts for Part I, which Stalin loved so much. The second part was less flattering and Stalin shelved it.
Working under Stalinist Russia, much like Hitler Germany,would have been very difficult for any conscientious filmmaker, writer or composer. There was an interesting article not so long ago about the veiled references in Prokofiev’s compositions, which were much harder to detect.
“I disagree with some of the ones people are mentioning. Stuff like Blade Runner and The Matrix brings up a lot of philosophical themes but explores them pretty superficially.”
I don’t know if they so much bring up philosophical themes, as contemporary philosophers use elements of these movies to express ideas. Blade Runner is often alluded to. However, I wouldn’t describe these movies as particularly “dense.”
“This is the one event that causes the general public to think of film in terms of quality.”
I don’t know. I think most people want to see their favorite movie win, and so the Academy has obliged by offering up 10 nominations for Best Picture. It pretty much runs the gamut (they even included a cartoon for god’s sake, or child’s sake I should say) and in all likelihood more people will tune in this year.
“I didn’t care for Jackie Brown because it didn’t have enough of the things that I like about Tarantino’s films …”
Jackie Brown was a nice play on Elmore James and gave Pam Grier the opportunity to play something more meaningful than her memorable “blaxploitation” and “prison chick” movies (for all the wrong reasons). As a film, I thought it was very well done and showed a more mature side of Tarantino, which it seems he decided to shelf. If Tarantino borrowed from anybody it was the great Gordon Parks, who needs to have his Auteurs page updated, goddamit!
More like the Golden Globes, Part Deux. They might as well divide the categories into Drama and Comedy and offer up twice the Oscars. It really is hard to take very seriously anymore. It used to be that the Oscars nominated at least a couple of movies that weren’t big box office flicks, to show they were at least looking beyond the mainstream, but now it is almost pure pap.
Nice to see you mention Best Intentions, apursansar. One of my favorite films. Really a shame not to see it listed in Auteurs. One only hopes that at some point Criterion will see fit to give it the deluxe treatment it deserves.
Disappointed not to find Rain (1932)
dir: Lewis Milestone,
scr. adaptation: Maxwell Anderson
cinematography: Oliver T. March
art direction: Richard Day
starring: Joan Crawford as Sadie Thompson and Walter Huston as Mr. Davidson.
Russian Film about 3 years ago
I’m surprised no one has mentioned The Irony of Fate or How to Enjoy Your Bath, a classic New Year’s movie from the late Soviet era. Great fun!
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Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection about 3 years ago
I’m still waiting for The Makioka Sisters (Sasame-yuki) by Kon Ichikawa, and Belle August and Ingmar Bergman’s Best Intentions. Long overdue.
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Now that Salinger is dead, Which Director could pull off Catcher in the Rye? over 2 years ago
I think someone like Walter Salles could pull off Catcher in the Rye. Doesn’t seem like On the Road is ever going to come to pass.
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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 2 years ago
The “Kill Bills” killed it for me. I haven’t brought myself to see “Inglorious Basterds.” The previews looked pretty much like a teenage fantasy of war.
But, I have to admit I’m curious to see what he will do with “Faster, Pussycat Kill Kill,” although I hope the talk of Britney Spears in the lead role is just talk.
Go to Comment
Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 2 years ago
Pretty much goes without saying that Tarrantino inspires trash talk, but the guy is talented. There is no doubt. I thought he was starting to mature with Jackie Brown, but seems like not.
Go to Comment
2010 Oscar Nominations over 2 years ago
The nominations are a joke. The best competition is in Best Animated Feature, which is where Avatar belonged. Pretty much a remake of Pocahontas. And WTF is it with Quentin getting a director nomination for Inglourious Basterds! Did the selection committee even match any movies this year?
Go to Comment
2010 Oscar Nominations over 2 years ago
Silly me, I didn’t see that this year there are ten nominees for best picture. A Serious Man stiffens the competition a little. Of course, we shouldn’t discount Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire. Isn’t Precious enough? But, I suppose they didn’t want “readers” to get confused.
Go to Comment
2010 Oscar Nominations over 2 years ago
If they are going to nominate Bullock for an Oscar, they might as well have nominated Mariah Carey for Precious (or is it Push) also.
I’m afraid Tilda Swinton, like Julianne Moore, will simply get no respect among the Academy, not that I think either one of them really gives a damn. Still, Moore should have at least won an Oscar for her “supporting” role in “The Hours.” Julia was 2008, by the way.
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What is your favorite film noir over 2 years ago
I wouldn’t say it is my favorite, but I very much enjoyed Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player, loosely based on a hard-boiled novel by David Goodis.
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The Most Philosophicallly Dense Films over 2 years ago
“I would ask people to consider films like Triumph of the Will and other fascist films as well as a great many films from the Soviet Union and China. They too espoused philosophies and those philosophies often were densely imbued within the films, but obviously, this isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
Seems to me you are confusing ideology with philosophy. I think the idea of this thread is to look at films that make you think. Triumph of the Will was not designed to make you think. It was a propaganda film meant to convey a specific mention. The same could be said for many of the Soviet and Chinese films during the height of their respective revolutions. We can marvel at the way in which these films were made, but not their message. It was very direct.
That said Eisenstein’s Ivan The Terrible, Part II, was a much more provocative movie than was the first part, which had so enraptured Stalin. Also, very interesting story behind the making of ¡Que viva México!, involving Upton Sinclair.
Go to Comment
The Most Philosophicallly Dense Films over 2 years ago
“I would ask people to consider films like Triumph of the Will and other fascist films as well as a great many films from the Soviet Union and China. They too espoused philosophies and those philosophies often were densely imbued within the films, but obviously, this isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
Seems to me you are confusing ideology with philosophy. I think the idea of this thread is to look at films that make you think. Triumph of the Will was not designed to make you think. It was a propaganda film meant to convey a specific message. The same could be said for many of the Soviet and Chinese films during the height of their respective revolutions. We can marvel at the way in which these films were made, but not their message. It was very direct.
That said, Eisenstein’s Ivan The Terrible, Part II, was a much more provocative movie than was the first part, which had so enraptured Stalin. Also, very interesting story behind the making of ¡Que viva México!, involving Upton Sinclair.
Go to Comment
The Most Philosophicallly Dense Films over 2 years ago
Sorry for the double post. I tried to delete the first one but to no avail.
Interesting points, greg. I watched A Serious Man tonight and wondered if it had some deeper meaning or was just simply a shaggy dog story. Hard to make any real connection between the Ukrainian village scene and the rather typical Jewish suburban life that played out in the movie, but in the end I found myself pondering connections that may or may not have been there. Throughout, I found myself thinking of Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed.
Stalker left me similar perplexed. I enjoyed the movie if for no other reason than it led me along on its wild goose chase, but in the end the danger seemed to be what you made of it, a parable perhaps of life in latter Soviet Union. I haven’t given it much thought in a long time but may return to it.
Kubrick always struck me as a stylist. He loved to explore genres much the same way Polanski does, but in his own detached way.
To me the master remains Bergman, who explored so many themes in his movies and in most cases these movies had a deep emotional resonance.
Go to Comment
The Most Philosophicallly Dense Films over 2 years ago
Funny to see Michael Moore brought up. The guy is great at agitprop, but I wouldn’t regard him as a particularly deep thinker. I guess it comes down to what we want to regard as “philosophy,” not that I have any deep understanding of the subject having read only a relative handful of the philosophers you cite, Frank.
Film obviously can only go so far. It is more about myth and symbolism really than it is any deep philosophical content. There is only so much you can convey in such a format. So, a good director creates “signposts” which the viewer tries to discern and make as much sense of them as he or she can. I really can’t think of any deep philosophical movie.
Go to Comment
The Most Philosophicallly Dense Films over 2 years ago
Well, there was Mindwalk or some might have thought it a Mindf@%k.
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The Most Philosophicallly Dense Films over 2 years ago
I have to watch Stalker again, because I didn’t get that much out of it the first time. I preferred his earlier movies like Ivan’s Childhood and Andrei Rublev.
Go to Comment
The Most Philosophicallly Dense Films over 2 years ago
Not that it really matters, but maybe some definition of “philosophy” is in order, so that we can narrow down the field here? A movie can be dense but not necessarily be philosophical in content, meaning holding some deeper truths about our existence. It could just be the director had a lot of ideas in his head and tried to pack as many of them as he could into one movie.
Is Fellini being “philosophical” in 8 1/2, or simply exploring the terrain of his own mind and seeing if there is any sense to be made of it? In La Dolce Vita, he actually had a philosopher, Steiner I believe was his name, who killed his kids and himself because I guess he just couldn’t stand it anymore. In the end, Marcello is left staring at a Sunfish (I presume) and trying to figure out what this ugly beast means, tossing off the wave of the little girl who recognized him from the cantina. It is all fun to watch in its own way, but how much can you really take away from these films?
Go to Comment
The Validity of the Academy Awards over 2 years ago
Mostly, the Academy Awards have become irrelevant. Who really cares when there are so many better films to watch. It is basically just a three-hour-plus fashion show.
Go to Comment
Looking for Asian Comedy over 2 years ago
Pretty much anything by Juzo Itami :
Tampopo
A Taxing Woman
The Funeral
I thought Tetsuo, the Iron Man funny too, in a Japanese B-movie sort of way.
sad too.
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EISENSTEIN over 2 years ago
Surprised no one has brought up ¡Que viva México! . Linked is a great site to the ongoing restoration project of the film. Eisenstein shot over 200,000 lineal feet of film while working with Upton Sinclair and his wife Mary on the project. It was abruptly halted when Eisenstein panicked over Stalin issuing a command that he return to the Soviet Union. Sinclair eventually pieced together a version, and other versions have been made, but as yet no definitive version that I know of. For whatever reasons, Eisenstein divorced himself from the project.
Go to Comment
(Temporary) Film database submission mechanism over 2 years ago
Probably repeating,
People on Sunday (1930)
Robert and Curt Siodmak
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The Validity of the Academy Awards over 2 years ago
Fellini has won four foreign language film Oscars and one for lifetime achievement, but that doesn’t make the Oscars anymore valid.
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EISENSTEIN over 2 years ago
What ever defects Eisenstein had in his character didn’t make him any less a filmmaker. The guy was obviously tormented in ways we would probably never understand. He apparently made Ivan the Terrible, Part II, as a redress of sorts for Part I, which Stalin loved so much. The second part was less flattering and Stalin shelved it.
Working under Stalinist Russia, much like Hitler Germany,would have been very difficult for any conscientious filmmaker, writer or composer. There was an interesting article not so long ago about the veiled references in Prokofiev’s compositions, which were much harder to detect.
Go to Comment
The Most Philosophicallly Dense Films over 2 years ago
“I disagree with some of the ones people are mentioning. Stuff like Blade Runner and The Matrix brings up a lot of philosophical themes but explores them pretty superficially.”
I don’t know if they so much bring up philosophical themes, as contemporary philosophers use elements of these movies to express ideas. Blade Runner is often alluded to. However, I wouldn’t describe these movies as particularly “dense.”
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The Most Philosophicallly Dense Films over 2 years ago
I wouldn’t call it dense but Jarmusch’s “Limits of Control” does raise a few existential questions.
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The Validity of the Academy Awards over 2 years ago
“This is the one event that causes the general public to think of film in terms of quality.”
I don’t know. I think most people want to see their favorite movie win, and so the Academy has obliged by offering up 10 nominations for Best Picture. It pretty much runs the gamut (they even included a cartoon for god’s sake, or child’s sake I should say) and in all likelihood more people will tune in this year.
Go to Comment
Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 2 years ago
“I didn’t care for Jackie Brown because it didn’t have enough of the things that I like about Tarantino’s films …”
Jackie Brown was a nice play on Elmore James and gave Pam Grier the opportunity to play something more meaningful than her memorable “blaxploitation” and “prison chick” movies (for all the wrong reasons). As a film, I thought it was very well done and showed a more mature side of Tarantino, which it seems he decided to shelf. If Tarantino borrowed from anybody it was the great Gordon Parks, who needs to have his Auteurs page updated, goddamit!
Go to Comment
The Validity of the Academy Awards over 2 years ago
More like the Golden Globes, Part Deux. They might as well divide the categories into Drama and Comedy and offer up twice the Oscars. It really is hard to take very seriously anymore. It used to be that the Oscars nominated at least a couple of movies that weren’t big box office flicks, to show they were at least looking beyond the mainstream, but now it is almost pure pap.
Go to Comment
(Temporary) Film database submission mechanism over 2 years ago
Nice to see you mention Best Intentions, apursansar. One of my favorite films. Really a shame not to see it listed in Auteurs. One only hopes that at some point Criterion will see fit to give it the deluxe treatment it deserves.
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(Temporary) Film database submission mechanism over 2 years ago
Great to see all the Karel Zeman movies listed.
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(Temporary) Film database submission mechanism over 2 years ago
Disappointed not to find
Rain (1932)
dir: Lewis Milestone,
scr. adaptation: Maxwell Anderson
cinematography: Oliver T. March
art direction: Richard Day
starring: Joan Crawford as Sadie Thompson and Walter Huston as Mr. Davidson.
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