A second Cassavetes box would be good. HUSBANDS is in desperate need of a release, and it would be nice to see MINNIE & MOSKOWITZ too.
Why isn’t there an amazing NASHVILLE disc available – there must be loads of extras that could be dug up and it’s such a landmark film of 70’s cinema.
INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN UNDER SUSPICION. Great Morricone score and needs to be availalable.
More RIVETTE would be good – particularly L’amour Fou and also some BRESSON (Un Femme Douce).
Plus some Asian cinema would be good, especially Korean or from Taiwan. I’m thinking some more Edward Yang (A Brigter Summer Day, The Terrorizers) and some Ki-Duk Kim.
I loved “Shadows” and “Opening Night”, but “Chinese Bookie” was a huge disappointment for me. Cassavetes is a challenging watch, but one that is always worthwhile. I love the fact that it always feels like there is so much life poured in his films. For me, “Shadows” is one of the great films of the last 50 years, and to capture on film what Cassavetes did was amazing. The intimacy of those conversations, and the emotions that the film goes through still astounds me everytime I watch it. Gena is always mesmerising and “Gloria” should be accorded more respect too.
I think it seems a bit stagey in places, and I have always found Keitel’s performance quite wooden. Some of the accents are awkward, but it’s still an amazing film. The final cruxifiction scenes are some of the most powerful and compelling in cinema, and I have always found that final shot where the film runs out really unsettling.
Schrader always has really fascninating themes and obsessions in his films, and I really enjoy some of them. HARDCORE was great, I love Mishima and Light Sleeper was a deeply affecting film. I actually liked Autofocus too. I think what undermines him a little, is that his direction is sometimes incomnsistent and vary from being flat to being heavy handed. He reminds me of Friedkin in some ways. They both have great ideas, great stories, but not always the directorial flair to pull them off. Mishima would be an exception in that it is a really cinematic film, although it does have it’s deliberately stage moments. whereas Scorsese has the flair to come up with those truly iconic cinematic images, I’ve always felt that Schrader has had to work a bit harder. It may even be down to the editing. He just misses something. But he’s nearly always fascninating and it’s always worth checking out his work
Ang Lee. He makes very solid and professional films, and that in itself sums him up. His direction is very flat and bland and leaves me cold. I thought that he completely wasted the talents of Tony Leung in “Lust, Caution”.
Raging Bull is a tough watch with no redeemable characters, but it’s one of the most poetic and fascinating studies of a flawed man that has ever been made. It’s just one of those films where the director has put everything they have into it. It doesn’t care about having an audience and it’s precisely that which makes it stand out as film that respects its audience by not patronising the viewer.
If you hadn’t guessed, I love this film. And I think that “Breathless” still looks as fresh and jazzy as always.
Now the over-rated / disappointing.
Anything By Hitchcock. I just don’t get the love for Hitchcock at all. I’ve always found his films rather gimmicky and I don’t like how he directs actors. He makes good, solid entertaining films, but for me, there’s very little to elevate them to the status they have.
The french Connection. I love seventies films, but French Connection is just okay. There’s very little too it, apart from the big setpiece. I should probably give it another go without the hype. I thought the second one was much better, and seemed more of a character study.
E.T. I seriously couldn’t watch this again. It sends me to sleep, and as usual for Spielberg is way too sentimental.
You can add SAVING PRIVATE RYAN there as well, which I thought was technically superb, but emotionally clumsy and way too manipulative for me.
400 BLOWS. Yes it was highly influential, but it hasn’t aged well and it didn’t seem to amount to a whole lot. I think Truffaut generally is over-rated.
I actually think the scene in prison, where he is beating the wall and saying “I’m not that guy” is one of the mots heartbreaking moments in cinema. You know this guys a louse and he knows it too, but you never really get to know who he is. I see it that he doesn’t know how to express himself other than through violence. He’s actually a shy guy away from the ring. Look at how awkward he is socially and with those awkward scenes where he shows Vicky around the apartment. It makes me squirm. He’s this ball of pent-up rage, but maybe there’s more to him than that, although we never get to see it. He almost has a tender moment when he tries to reconcile with his brother near the end. It’s an almost hidden masculine emotion, but it’s there. That scene in the prison is really sad. In many ways De Niro is riffing off another interpretation of the Jimmy Doyle character from New York, New York, only it’s more brutal and without the comedy.
I love Gangs, but I find it a frustrating experience and a disappointment at the same time. It has some amazing stuff in it. Unfortunately, Di Caprio isn’t quite up to the task, although I thought he was terrific in The Aviator and he gets better with each film (best thing in The Departed, an otherwise sub-standard Scorsese film).
It would have been a much better film without the big budget. There is so much going on in gangs, and with less screen time devoted to the mediocte Diaz-Di Caprio love interest, Scorsese could have spent more time on the history and the rituals of the gangs, which is where his true interest lies.
The budget sometimes leads to some inauthenticities, and I think a more experimental, edgy film would have been made with less money. Also, I think he had the project so long that he evolved in so many directions, and it’s a shame it never got made in the late 70s/early 80s by a Scorsese who was still taking risks.
Spider’s Strategem needs to be on DVD. The Dreamers was just a lot of Eva Green with no clothes on – nice but a bit dull after a while. 1900 really needs revisiting. It’s an absolute masterpiece, albeit a very flawed one.
The thought of Dominique Sanda in Last tango, seems like a great opportunity that was missed. That would have been something.
The music for THERE WILL BE BLOOD was outstanding. It contributed to the horror movie feel, and recalled the SHINING (as did the camerawork).
For me, THE HOURS was totally unwatchable because of the score. It was far too overwhelming and didn’t match the images. I love Glass, and his work with Schrader and Scorsese was breathtaking (the ending of KUNDUN), but was too much in THE HOURS – I had to give up after 45 mins.
Breathless is definitely over-rated, but over-rated in the sense that it’s rare a film can actually live up to the hype of its reputation. It’s still a great film, At the risk of being slaughtered, I actually think Truffaut is far more over-rated, and I can’t see what all the fuss is about with 400 Blows. It didn’t do much for me, and it didn’t engage me throughout.
More korean and Hong Kong films. Some Italian films, from the likes of Rosi (Illustrious Corpses) and oh for INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN UNDER SUSPICION. Some Bresson and Rivette.
Great post. I have a lot of time for this film and it’s vastly under-rated. It’s one of De Niro’s greatest performances, and there’s a lot of humour in it too as well as all the drama. It’s a great clash of styles – the realism and and the artifice, and equally Mninell’s star performance against De Niro’s method. My favourite scene is where Jimmy proposes and asks the car to reverse over him – it has me laughing every time I see it.
Nobody makes cool existential male crime dramas as well as Mann. Thief, Manhunter, Collateral, Heat – they all have these existential male characters. I thought Miami Vice was one of the best adult blockbuster films in recent years. Okay the plot was pointless, but it was all about the characters and the ambience. Mann doesnt dumb down and he doesn’t pander to popcorn audiences. Miami Vice just throws you straight into this world and you either go with it or you don’t. It’s rare to see a maninstream director who credits the audience with some intelligence. It’s often the small details, the incidentals that stand out in a Mann film. Thief is probably his best film and the best use of a Tangerine Dream score (yes, even better than Sorcerer). I don’t understand why Mann gets so much criticism.
Blue K – great to see spome love for Peppermint Candy. It’s such a heartbreaking film, and the fact that you know how it ends makes it even more tragic. All of Lee Chang Dong’s films are worth a look – especially Oasis and Secret Sunshine.
Ki-Duk Kim, especially 3-Iron, Samaritan Girl, Spring, Summer . . .
The koreans also do mature relationship dramas like no-one else. Check out Green Chair, An Affair, Marriage is A Crazy Thing.
Others – A Tale of Two Sisters
OId Boy
Memories of Murder
Maundy Thursday
The Foul King
Epitaph
The Chaser
Happy End
It’s about time Criterion starting to give some Korean films some attention.
There are decent versions of Love Streams and Minnie & Moskowitz from amazon france if your machine can handle region2. Both are essential films in Cassavetes ouvre, in my opinion.
Marty will never make another Mean Streets, Taxi Driver or Raging Bull. And if he tried it would just disappoint and we would all criticise him for trying to repeat his earlier films. The Martin Scorsese of today isn’t the same man that was making films in the seventies – and that’s called life and experience, and we should be thankful that he is still making films to a consistently high standard. An average studio film from Scorsese is always more watchable than 90% of the stuff that comes out of Hollywood. Scorsese is a man who famouly loves movies and he has earnt the right to make whatever he wants in the love of making movies and celebrating the genre movies he loved growing up.
Besides, a lot of his stuff is still challenging – it’s just that most people just want him to churn out cool gangster films. Goodfellas was a great film, but in many ways it is a big studio picture. Kundun was a terrific little arthous picture, with some truly stunning imagery set to a beautiful Philip Glass score. Age Of Innocence was Scorsese’s Barry Lyndon. And Gangs of New York was filled with some truly inventive moments and details that actually recall something like A Clockwork Orange – it’s filled with stuff you dont normally see in a big Hollywood film. Unfortunately, Marty compromised his vision in order to get the film made and much of it gets lost in a poor script , huge set pieces and a terrible love story between Diaz and Di Caprio., But I would rather see Marty get ten per cent of his vision up on screen rather than not see at all.
I really hope that he makes Silence, because it sounds like a really personal project.
For the record I am a huge Marty fan and Mean Streets is one of my all time favourite films. The newer films fall way short of his earlier work, but then most films do.
Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection over 3 years ago
A second Cassavetes box would be good. HUSBANDS is in desperate need of a release, and it would be nice to see MINNIE & MOSKOWITZ too.
Why isn’t there an amazing NASHVILLE disc available – there must be loads of extras that could be dug up and it’s such a landmark film of 70’s cinema.
INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN UNDER SUSPICION. Great Morricone score and needs to be availalable.
More RIVETTE would be good – particularly L’amour Fou and also some BRESSON (Un Femme Douce).
Plus some Asian cinema would be good, especially Korean or from Taiwan. I’m thinking some more Edward Yang (A Brigter Summer Day, The Terrorizers) and some Ki-Duk Kim.
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JOHN CASSAVETES over 3 years ago
I loved “Shadows” and “Opening Night”, but “Chinese Bookie” was a huge disappointment for me. Cassavetes is a challenging watch, but one that is always worthwhile. I love the fact that it always feels like there is so much life poured in his films. For me, “Shadows” is one of the great films of the last 50 years, and to capture on film what Cassavetes did was amazing. The intimacy of those conversations, and the emotions that the film goes through still astounds me everytime I watch it. Gena is always mesmerising and “Gloria” should be accorded more respect too.
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The Last Temptation of Christ over 3 years ago
I think it seems a bit stagey in places, and I have always found Keitel’s performance quite wooden. Some of the accents are awkward, but it’s still an amazing film. The final cruxifiction scenes are some of the most powerful and compelling in cinema, and I have always found that final shot where the film runs out really unsettling.
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The Last Temptation of Christ over 3 years ago
.
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Paul Schrader over 3 years ago
Schrader always has really fascninating themes and obsessions in his films, and I really enjoy some of them. HARDCORE was great, I love Mishima and Light Sleeper was a deeply affecting film. I actually liked Autofocus too. I think what undermines him a little, is that his direction is sometimes incomnsistent and vary from being flat to being heavy handed. He reminds me of Friedkin in some ways. They both have great ideas, great stories, but not always the directorial flair to pull them off. Mishima would be an exception in that it is a really cinematic film, although it does have it’s deliberately stage moments. whereas Scorsese has the flair to come up with those truly iconic cinematic images, I’ve always felt that Schrader has had to work a bit harder. It may even be down to the editing. He just misses something. But he’s nearly always fascninating and it’s always worth checking out his work
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Who do you think the most overrated director is? over 3 years ago
Ang Lee. He makes very solid and professional films, and that in itself sums him up. His direction is very flat and bland and leaves me cold. I thought that he completely wasted the talents of Tony Leung in “Lust, Caution”.
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Top 5 Coppola over 3 years ago
Apocalypse Now
The Godfather
Godfather Part II
Rumble Fish
One From The Heart (under -rated)
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WHO IS / WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FILM ACTRESS EVER? over 3 years ago
Faye Wong , Dominique Sanda, Cybil Shepherd (in The Last Picture Show), Winona Ryder
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5 Films you saw that are considered masterpieces that you thought were overated,horrible or you just "didnt like" about 3 years ago
Raging Bull is a tough watch with no redeemable characters, but it’s one of the most poetic and fascinating studies of a flawed man that has ever been made. It’s just one of those films where the director has put everything they have into it. It doesn’t care about having an audience and it’s precisely that which makes it stand out as film that respects its audience by not patronising the viewer.
If you hadn’t guessed, I love this film. And I think that “Breathless” still looks as fresh and jazzy as always.
Now the over-rated / disappointing.
Anything By Hitchcock. I just don’t get the love for Hitchcock at all. I’ve always found his films rather gimmicky and I don’t like how he directs actors. He makes good, solid entertaining films, but for me, there’s very little to elevate them to the status they have.
The french Connection. I love seventies films, but French Connection is just okay. There’s very little too it, apart from the big setpiece. I should probably give it another go without the hype. I thought the second one was much better, and seemed more of a character study.
E.T. I seriously couldn’t watch this again. It sends me to sleep, and as usual for Spielberg is way too sentimental.
You can add SAVING PRIVATE RYAN there as well, which I thought was technically superb, but emotionally clumsy and way too manipulative for me.
400 BLOWS. Yes it was highly influential, but it hasn’t aged well and it didn’t seem to amount to a whole lot. I think Truffaut generally is over-rated.
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5 Films you saw that are considered masterpieces that you thought were overated,horrible or you just "didnt like" about 3 years ago
I actually think the scene in prison, where he is beating the wall and saying “I’m not that guy” is one of the mots heartbreaking moments in cinema. You know this guys a louse and he knows it too, but you never really get to know who he is. I see it that he doesn’t know how to express himself other than through violence. He’s actually a shy guy away from the ring. Look at how awkward he is socially and with those awkward scenes where he shows Vicky around the apartment. It makes me squirm. He’s this ball of pent-up rage, but maybe there’s more to him than that, although we never get to see it. He almost has a tender moment when he tries to reconcile with his brother near the end. It’s an almost hidden masculine emotion, but it’s there. That scene in the prison is really sad. In many ways De Niro is riffing off another interpretation of the Jimmy Doyle character from New York, New York, only it’s more brutal and without the comedy.
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Gangs of New York about 3 years ago
I love Gangs, but I find it a frustrating experience and a disappointment at the same time. It has some amazing stuff in it. Unfortunately, Di Caprio isn’t quite up to the task, although I thought he was terrific in The Aviator and he gets better with each film (best thing in The Departed, an otherwise sub-standard Scorsese film).
It would have been a much better film without the big budget. There is so much going on in gangs, and with less screen time devoted to the mediocte Diaz-Di Caprio love interest, Scorsese could have spent more time on the history and the rituals of the gangs, which is where his true interest lies.
The budget sometimes leads to some inauthenticities, and I think a more experimental, edgy film would have been made with less money. Also, I think he had the project so long that he evolved in so many directions, and it’s a shame it never got made in the late 70s/early 80s by a Scorsese who was still taking risks.
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FEMALE DIRECTORS about 3 years ago
Gina Kim. Never Forever and Invisible Light deserve a bigger audience
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What happened to Bernardo Bertolucci? about 3 years ago
Spider’s Strategem needs to be on DVD. The Dreamers was just a lot of Eva Green with no clothes on – nice but a bit dull after a while. 1900 really needs revisiting. It’s an absolute masterpiece, albeit a very flawed one.
The thought of Dominique Sanda in Last tango, seems like a great opportunity that was missed. That would have been something.
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WHO IS / WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FILM ACTRESS EVER? about 3 years ago
Dominique Sanda. Not enough of her films on dvd.
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What's the most annoying film music you've had to endure? about 3 years ago
The music for THERE WILL BE BLOOD was outstanding. It contributed to the horror movie feel, and recalled the SHINING (as did the camerawork).
For me, THE HOURS was totally unwatchable because of the score. It was far too overwhelming and didn’t match the images. I love Glass, and his work with Schrader and Scorsese was breathtaking (the ending of KUNDUN), but was too much in THE HOURS – I had to give up after 45 mins.
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5 Films you saw that are considered masterpieces that you thought were overated,horrible or you just "didnt like" about 3 years ago
L.A Confidential. Solid and very watchable, but I really couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about
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Classic movies you can't get on d.v.d. about 3 years ago
a gentle woman
investigation of a citizen under suspicion
teresa (with pier angeli)
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Kinda disappointed with breathless about 3 years ago
Breathless is definitely over-rated, but over-rated in the sense that it’s rare a film can actually live up to the hype of its reputation. It’s still a great film, At the risk of being slaughtered, I actually think Truffaut is far more over-rated, and I can’t see what all the fuss is about with 400 Blows. It didn’t do much for me, and it didn’t engage me throughout.
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Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection about 3 years ago
More korean and Hong Kong films. Some Italian films, from the likes of Rosi (Illustrious Corpses) and oh for INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN UNDER SUSPICION. Some Bresson and Rivette.
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Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection almost 3 years ago
Now that the World Cinema Foundation has got its hands on it – how about A Brighter Summer Day.
Also, Voyage En Douce, The Mattei Affair, City of sadness, Mr Klein . . .
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NEW YORK NEW YORK (1977) almost 3 years ago
Great post. I have a lot of time for this film and it’s vastly under-rated. It’s one of De Niro’s greatest performances, and there’s a lot of humour in it too as well as all the drama. It’s a great clash of styles – the realism and and the artifice, and equally Mninell’s star performance against De Niro’s method. My favourite scene is where Jimmy proposes and asks the car to reverse over him – it has me laughing every time I see it.
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Your opinion on Michael Mann? almost 3 years ago
Nobody makes cool existential male crime dramas as well as Mann. Thief, Manhunter, Collateral, Heat – they all have these existential male characters. I thought Miami Vice was one of the best adult blockbuster films in recent years. Okay the plot was pointless, but it was all about the characters and the ambience. Mann doesnt dumb down and he doesn’t pander to popcorn audiences. Miami Vice just throws you straight into this world and you either go with it or you don’t. It’s rare to see a maninstream director who credits the audience with some intelligence. It’s often the small details, the incidentals that stand out in a Mann film. Thief is probably his best film and the best use of a Tangerine Dream score (yes, even better than Sorcerer). I don’t understand why Mann gets so much criticism.
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Best or Favorite Opening Sequence almost 3 years ago
“Be My Baby”, Scorsese and Harvey Keitel’s head hits the pillow – it’s MEAN STREETS
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your fav. korean language film ? almost 3 years ago
Blue K – great to see spome love for Peppermint Candy. It’s such a heartbreaking film, and the fact that you know how it ends makes it even more tragic. All of Lee Chang Dong’s films are worth a look – especially Oasis and Secret Sunshine.
Ki-Duk Kim, especially 3-Iron, Samaritan Girl, Spring, Summer . . .
The koreans also do mature relationship dramas like no-one else. Check out Green Chair, An Affair, Marriage is A Crazy Thing.
Others – A Tale of Two Sisters
OId Boy
Memories of Murder
Maundy Thursday
The Foul King
Epitaph
The Chaser
Happy End
It’s about time Criterion starting to give some Korean films some attention.
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questions on John Cassavetes over 2 years ago
There are decent versions of Love Streams and Minnie & Moskowitz from amazon france if your machine can handle region2. Both are essential films in Cassavetes ouvre, in my opinion.
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Whatever Happened to Martin Scorsese? over 2 years ago
Marty will never make another Mean Streets, Taxi Driver or Raging Bull. And if he tried it would just disappoint and we would all criticise him for trying to repeat his earlier films. The Martin Scorsese of today isn’t the same man that was making films in the seventies – and that’s called life and experience, and we should be thankful that he is still making films to a consistently high standard. An average studio film from Scorsese is always more watchable than 90% of the stuff that comes out of Hollywood. Scorsese is a man who famouly loves movies and he has earnt the right to make whatever he wants in the love of making movies and celebrating the genre movies he loved growing up.
Besides, a lot of his stuff is still challenging – it’s just that most people just want him to churn out cool gangster films. Goodfellas was a great film, but in many ways it is a big studio picture. Kundun was a terrific little arthous picture, with some truly stunning imagery set to a beautiful Philip Glass score. Age Of Innocence was Scorsese’s Barry Lyndon. And Gangs of New York was filled with some truly inventive moments and details that actually recall something like A Clockwork Orange – it’s filled with stuff you dont normally see in a big Hollywood film. Unfortunately, Marty compromised his vision in order to get the film made and much of it gets lost in a poor script , huge set pieces and a terrible love story between Diaz and Di Caprio., But I would rather see Marty get ten per cent of his vision up on screen rather than not see at all.
I really hope that he makes Silence, because it sounds like a really personal project.
For the record I am a huge Marty fan and Mean Streets is one of my all time favourite films. The newer films fall way short of his earlier work, but then most films do.
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