His status as screen icon far outweighs his skills as a storyteller. Where most see “economy,” I see an impoverished imagination. If he hadn’t have starred in Leone’s films thirty-some years ago, we would regard him as another aging hack weened on the studio system.
Bobby: Agreed that Medium Cool would be a great addiction…. but I was refering more to the other, less-heralded, films that he’s directed regarding labor unions and social movements. To the best of my knowledge they haven’t seen the light of the day in a while.
Peter Tscherkassky and Martin Arnold. Without doubt.
Their films have fairly distinct narratives, but their aesthetics (found footage, reconfigured into increasingly shocking betrayals of the intent and form of each source) show virtually no trace of mainstream filmmaking. Austria is where it’s at for the avant-garde, nowadays.
Jon Jost’s narrative films are defiantly experimental…. definitely time someone puts them out on pristine DVDs. He might be one of the three or four best American filmmakers of the last 50 years. The Bed You Sleep In and Sure Fire each have more experimentation in a single scene than the entire ouevre of Steven Soderbergh and most of David Lynch’s work have. He’s the real deal and someday we’ll all regret not paying more attention to him while he was active.
Brakhage might be the “most experimental” just because his experiments were so varied.
Let’s not overlook Godard, who has done more for the moving image than any filmmaker since Murnau, Chaplin and Griffith.
And Godard’s favorite filmmaker of the moment: Abbas Kiarostami. A genuine artist, absolutely fearless.
To a lesser extent I would say that Harmony Korine and David Gordon Greene (the former more than the latter) represent mainstream arthouse attempts at more experimental work, though each has “matured” toward more standard fare.
I’d also say that Steven Soderbergh is an experimental mainstream filmmakers, but at the end of the day, his experiments are often facile and his results are jumbled and ugly. (see above)
For the sheer foulness of its vision of American culture: Forrest Gump. The ultimate conformist tripe. A truly reprehensible product. Celebrating the American everyman as a nearly retarded moron, and the American dream as a Dr. Pepper advertisement.
For similar reasons, the manipulative and saccharine Pay it Forward.
I’ll catch shit for it…… but I’d also say that Iron Man is a movie with a foul message of a privatized army storming into foreign countries and blowing shit up. It’s a deeply conservative film under the guise of an extremely liberal film. This blatant inability to make its own message cohere is disturbing. I know I’m in the minority on this film, but the solutions that it proposes for very real problems we face are idiotic at best, terrifying at worst. For this reason I would say it’s one of the worst I’ve seen.
A movie can be poorly constructed, shot, edited, written, acted, whatever….. but still remain spiritually superior to a movie which is expertly crafted yet exhibits a hollowness or a cynicism or a duplicity. I’d rather watch a shitty horror movie with a boom mic in the frame than see Tom Hanks or Robert Downey Jr. tell lies about my world for two hours.
I was a bit disappointed by Mister Lonely….. I think some of the script had the vitality of previous films, but a lot of the images were too…. stately…… too reserved. That said, it was still superior to about 95% of what has been in theaters for the past few years.
There was just a laziness to the editing that sucked the life out of it as compared with Julien Donkey-Boy and Gummo, both masterpieces according to my way of thinking.
I was a bit disappointed by Mister Lonely….. I think some of the script had the vitality of previous films, but a lot of the images were too…. stately…… too reserved. That said, it was still superior to about 95% of what has been in theaters for the past few years.
There was just a laziness to the editing that sucked the life out of it as compared with Julien Donkey-Boy and Gummo, both masterpieces according to my way of thinking.
Shotgun Stories
Snow Angels
Be Kind, Rewind
The Flight of the Red Balloon
Role Models
Pineapple Express
Standard Operating Procedure
Mister Lonely
Che (not one of the best…… but it deserves to be recognized for trying so hard and coming so close.)
Insanely overrated:
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Revolutionary Road
The Wrestler
more or less in order…….. so much I didn’t see this year, on account of laziness coupled with the more attractive revival of classic films in Chicago….. I’m consistently late to the party on current releases. But these films stood out, I just wish I could have seen Ballast and Wendy and Lucy.
Walter Hill
Harmony Korine
Alison MacLean….. doesn’t work much, but Jesus’ Son is a masterwork.
Jonathan Glazer
Ernest Dickerson…. the guy makes beautiful popcorn thriller and horror films. He’s got style.
Lynne Ramsay…. if anyone can find her
Michael Winterbottom……. not sure if people really grasp how talented he is…. hopefully soon.
Joe Dante
Tommy Lee Jones…. after one movie, I think he could easily rise to master status in 5-10 years…. Melquiades Estrada was that good.
and Bela Tarr….. he is well known in critics circles….. but that hasn’t led to the theatrical distribution of his latest film in the United States. If a Master of Cinema can’t receive proper distribution in the United States, he or she is underrated.
Justin….. if you have netflix, you can watch Jost’s The Bed You Sleep In, streaming…. it’s a masterpiece, pure and simple…. ought to be regarded as an American classic. I was out of town when he came to Chicago with his latest films…. (a friend of mine went and told me there were about ten people there, go figure.)
All the Vermeers in New York and Surefire are also available on DVD…. both good…. but The Bed You Sleep In is one of the few truly original American movies in the past 20 years. He is indebted to no one…. but shares a kinship with Godard, Sirk, Antonioni and Brakhage.
I was going to post a separate thread to this same effect….. guess I’m glad I don’t have to…. if they are ranked, I think you can learn a lot more about someone based on their 97th favorite film than their 2nd or, even 1st. Those are the ones outside the canon that just stick with you.
I’ve kept a list as a hobby for a few years, updating when I feel strongly that something should be included, something moved down, something deleted. This is the most recent.
1. SATANTANGO
2. VERTIGO
3. RAGING BULL
4. WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES
5. INSTRUCTIONS FOR A LIGHT AND SOUND MACHINE
6. MAN OF THE WEST
7. TASTE OF CHERRY
8. KILLER OF SHEEP
9. THE BED YOU SLEEP IN
10. LES CARABINIERS
11. EYES WIDE SHUT
12. TROPICAL MALADY
13. BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA
14. CINEMASCOPE TRILOGY: L’ARRIVEE, OUTER SPACE, DREAM WORK
15. HOLD ME WHILE I’M NAKED
16. AMADEUS
17. THE NAKED SPUR
18. JESUS’ SON
19. LE TROU
20. THE OLD DARK HOUSE
21. TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER
22. OUR HOSPITALITY
23. PIECE TOUCHEE
24. SHADOW OF A DOUBT
25. A WOMAN IS A WOMAN
26. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
27. THE AFRICAN QUEEN
28. PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE
29. THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE
30. THE WALKING DEAD
31. BULLY
32. THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER
33. THE SON
34. STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.
35. I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG
36. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (Don Siegel)
37. MONSIEUR VERDOUX
38. THE CAMERAMAN
39. FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL
40. THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER
41. ON DANGEROUS GROUND
42. WAXWORKS
43. JULIEN DONKEY-BOY
44. L’ATALANTE
45. DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB
46. THE RULES OF THE GAME
47. JURASSIC PARK
48. NAKED LUNCH
49. THE CELEBRATION
50. MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON
51. TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI
52. NIGHTMARE ALLEY
53. THE RED AND THE WHITE
54. THE PASSENGER
55. THE SET-UP
56. ARMY OF SHADOWS
57. THE SACRIFICE
58. THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE
59. SWEET MOVIE
60. THE SECOND CIRCLE
61. THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT
62. CRUMB
63. MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT
64. FLAMINGO ROAD
65. ALONE. LIFE WASTES ANDY HARDY
66. HAXAN
67. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
68. THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE’S OWN EYES
69. THE BODY SNATCHER
70. THE CENTURY OF THE SELF
71. SUNRISE
72. MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA
73. RASHOMON
74. A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
75. PALINDROMES
76. AN UNSEEN ENEMY
77. BATMAN RETURNS
78. GILDA
79. ANNABELLE SERPENTINE DANCE
80. AU HASARD BALTHAZAR
81. FLOATING WEEDS
82. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
83. COSMIC RAY
84. WINTER LIGHT
85. THE PIT, THE PENDULUM AND HOPE
86. THE WEEPING MEADOW
87. GUMMO
88. DAY OF WRATH
89. BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
90. THE WURDULAK
91. KING KONG (Peter Jackson)
92. PASSAGE A L’ACTE
93. L’ENFANT
94. MY BROTHER’S WEDDING
95. KING LEAR (Kozintsev)
96. REPORT
97. THE WIRE: SEASON 4
98. A ROUGH SKETCH FOR A PRPOPOSED FILM DEALING WITH THE POWERS OF TEN AND THE RELATIVE SIZE OF THINGS
IN THE UNIVERSE
99. LE CORBEAU
100. HE GOT GAME
and one extra:
101. NAKED CITY: PRIME OF LIFE (single episode of 50’s television show)
It just hit me…….. Todd Solondz. No. 1 with a bullet.
Besides Lynch, I don’t believe there is another American filmmaker who pushes forward with each film (and that’s debatable if you consider Straight Story, which, while not a disaster, is most definitely a step sideways, rather than forward), each one more experimental than the last. If Storytelling sorta flopped, it was still a structurally ambitious misfire that might have benefited from the inclusion of its deleted scene….. Palindromes is an unheralded (except by Armond White, who is an enthusiastic champion of the film) masterpiece. His next film (at one point titled “Life During Wartime,” I think it’s “Forgiveness” now) will be, from what I’ve read, his most ambitious to date. He has never rested on his laurels, despite revisiting themes and characters several times. Not quite a master of cinema, although I think he ranks with Jim Jarmusch as one of the best American independents. Maybe the best. And few critics and audiences pass him more than a glance.
When I think of “underrated,” I think of someone people either write off or take for granted. He, at times, has received both treatments. He has never sold out, and has trouble getting his films financed because of his outright refusal for compromise. Yet he is just not a fashionable choice for more cinephiles, which baffles me. His films are genuinely edgy and subversive, unlike most of the bullshit that passes for “edgy indie fare” (the label often granted to movies in which same-sex couples kiss or junkies writhe around and cry.)
Here’s a guy who does everything the right way, not a corporate shill, presents a unique, biting, but heartfelt portrait of contemporary American life….. and no one pays attention. Such a shame. He’s not so flashy as his contemporaries, but I’ll take his challenging satire any day over tired indie navel-gazing.
Justin….. good to see Flamingo Road getting the love. I read once it was Fassbinder’s favorite film of all time, and it definitely is not hard to see why. I’m ashamed to admit my unfamiliarity with a lot of the Fassbinder on yr list….. I know the man through reference materials, and I know some of the films (the most obscure I’ve seen is Love is Colder than Death, which I actually liked more than Ali) but haven’t dug deep enough.
Elephant is a movie that I am forced to defend so often….. I can’t understand it, there seems so little to dislike about it. I really liked The Wounds as well….. that’s a film and filmmaker that aren’t widely circulated and/or discussed.
I feel that I must come to the defense of Batman Returns. I think that it is on a very very short list of movies that really understand the appeal of comic books. The movie has fun, is campy and action packed. It’s morbid, self-obsessed, surreal and absurd. It’s the perfect amalgamation of the tones and themes of the great superhero comics. Instead of literalizing the hell out of inherently goofy and fantastical material (unlike the joyless and brainless Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Spiderman)….. it’s the only comic book movie that I feel takes place in the comic book universe. Too many of the superhero movies make the mistake of situating their stories in “the real world,” which, to my way of thinking, only makes them pathetic and awkward. Embrace the comic book sensibility, the juxtapositions of insanity and social commentary! The colors! The unrealistic outfits! The faux-existentialism! Simplistic depictions of sex and romance! But the film does all of these things without stooping to the idiotic and offensive depths of Sin City (the movie and the books….. both annoying and misanthropic tripe, the former moreso than the latter). It’s by far the pulpiest superhero flick, and therefore the best. The only other comic book movie that I think can seriously compare is X-Men 2…. but that’s a distant distant second. Superman and Superman II have the joviality, but not the brains.
There’s an exchange between Batman and the Penguin toward the middle of the movie where the Penguin says to Batman “you don’t think you’ll really win, do you?” Which is the perfect line to sum up the difference between comic books and movies based on comic books. The books will lay it out like that, the logic of heroes winning and villains losing…. whereas the movies prefer the pomposity of assuming their own importance in a gritty “real world.” Also, fittingly, the Penguin finishes this exchange by turning his umbrella into a miniature helicopter and fleeing the scene.
Fans of graphic novels are so happy now that superhero movies are being taken seriously….. but I think that the cost to the original material is too great…. a nasty piece of nihilistic garbage like The Dark Knight does not, to me, anyway, represent the best of what comic books have to offer. The same mainstream that champions The Dark Knight and Iron Man will continue to dog a character like Ant-Man, until they make a grandiose, self-righteous screen adaptation that betrays the spirit of the books. I’ll hold my breath on the Watchmen movie.
Vlad: I think it’s great the Gummo and A Christmas Story are side by side on your list…. I think ranking them makes it more fun, strange bedfellows result. Dead Man is definitely a fantastic #1 pick. and Jackie Brown being so high up makes me so happy! What a great fucking movie. I’d write Tarantino off entirely if not for that movie…. I don’t know how such a sensitive, deep film came out of the same guy that filmed Uma Thurman torturing people with a sword for four hours.
Sorry for being long-winded…… but Batman Returns is a masterpiece.
Johnh, I can’t wait for the Treasures box…. I have the first one, which has some really great stuff, but I’m glad they decided to focus on the avant garde now. The only one I’ve seen is I, an Actress….. which is an absolutely fantastic Kuchar flick. It definitely gets the “direction as performance” thing down, a lot of the Kuchar stuff is about the intersection of film directors and their actors. Hold Me While I’m Naked might be the best….. but I, An Actress might be the most succinct variation on this theme.
Kino has two separate box sets featuring international avant garde films (from 1920-1955)….. definitely worth picking up or taking in over a long weekend. They are called Avant Garde and Avant Garde II.
Also, there is a website, ubu.com that specializes in avant garde art….. they have a films page that includes everything from Robbe-Grillet’s films, the Kuchar brothers, Duchamp, John Lennon, Chris Marker, William Burroughs, Ken Jacobs…. and dozens more…. the quality ranges, and I don’t think they have a fullscreen option for the streaming video….. but it’s an invaluable source: http://www.ubu.com/film/
A personal favorite is Can Dialectics Break Bricks? by Rene Vienet
Martin Arnold’s films are unbelievable and are available on googlevideo: three of his best http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7346135205382749153
Todd Solondz’ Forgiveness…….. has clear signs of being a masterwork.
Tree of Life, most definitely.
Observe and Report…. I think Jody Hill is going to be a very special filmmaker, and this looks funny as hell.
Public Enemies… has the possibility of being stupid, but I’ll see anything by Michael Mann at this point.
Where the Wild Things Are ….. high hopes mixed with low expectations.
And a bit of schadenfreude: I am looking forward to seeing Inglorious Basterds…. because, if the trailer is any indication, this will be the movie that offers undeniable proof that Quentin Tarantino’s films have been worthless garbage since Jackie Brown. Using the plight of the Jews during WWII to justify excessive bloodletting is childish and disingenuous. Other adjectives do come to mind, but I’ll shut up now.
Perhaps Wes Anderson will be rebound with Fantastic Mr. Fox?
Aisbilen, I agree…. especially nowadays when far too many comedies are visually uninteresting, non-auteur films. They rely more on performance than the director’s guidance…. Judd Apatow’s movies are terribly directed and edited, the result of the multi-camera, improv approach leading to incoherence. The general approach to comedy has slackened, and I think a lot of great comedic actors feel embarrassed about their comedies, and strive instead for “legitimacy”…. Jim Carrey would do well to head back to Ace Ventura, because he hasn’t made a watchable film (comedy, I don’t count Eternal Sunshine as such) in about a decade.
As far as the cinephile crowd is concerned, I think many of this type (and I would include myself) don’t feel right delving into the deeper aesthetic/thematic issues of comedies… which is the appeal of Tarkovsky and Bergman, et al. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with analyzing a comedy and its values, there are reasons why things are funny. But I think the more intellectual set feels there needs to be more of a distinction between watching a comedy and watching a drama….. the difference being one invites analysis, while the other precludes it. But I think the distinction is faulty, especially in the case of comedies that are actually thoughtful and/or innovative (see below.) Good comedies don’t need to be placed in a lower register, but bad comedies do.
Todd Solondz’ films are some of the funniest ever made, and I think they straddle a good line between comedy and drama, while being predominantly the former. The difference between that and most comedies is that Solondz has his own voice and style and wants to express them rather than letting Steve Carrell do 50 different takes of a punchline and splicing them together in the editing room.
That said, I think the tide is turning…. I have very high hopes for Jody Hill…. I thought the Foot Fist Way displayed a great mixture of pathos and comedy, shot very well…. Observe and Report looks to be even better. David Gordon Green gave Pineapple Express a bizarro feel that elevated the material. I could see the director of Hot Rod, Akiva Schaffer, continuing to make hilarious, deliberately staged comedies.
Instead of dramatic films that feature a slight comedic flair, it’s refreshing to see directors doing straight comedy focusing on the filmmaking, rather than just the performances. The days of the Farrelly Bros. are over, I hope.
Yes, Steve, that would be the same Jody Hill. I’m a sucker for Danny McBride…. currently the only actor that can make me see a film I wouldn’t otherwise bother with by virtue of his presence. To my way of thinking, he was the best part of Tropic Thunder.
For a low budget comedy…. Foot Fist Way definitely had a strong tone and experimental vibe in some scenes. Say what you will, but it was most definitely not the regular Apatow “place the camera wherever and let them improv” strategy. He’s a real filmmaker. The trailer for Observe and Report looks hysterical.
I agree that Huston is overlooked as an auteur….. One of the best filmmakers in 4:3, without a doubt… he knew how to compose a square frame.
This is indeed great news…. I’ve never been able to see this before, even though it’s based on my favorite novel of all time. There are so many more Huston films that deserved to be rediscovered.
Video games thrive on kinetic violence and movement…… and while some movies do, they are a lot better when they settle the fuck down and observe our world and the people in it. Good movies are about people, good video games are about killing things and getting points…. it’s hard to transplant that mentality to create a mature film.
Take Grand Theft Auto IV:
Really deep as a plot, full of moral choices and all that blah blah blah. A step forward for video games…. but as a movie? We’ve seen it all before, low-level hoods, conflicted morality, urban nihilism, gritty locales, etc. Even this giant leap forward for video games is old hat as far as movies are concerned. All of the above mentioned innovations by GTA4 have been around since Griffith.
I have this argument with my friends all the time…. I don’t see video games as a viable art….. I see them as having more in common with checkers and monopoly than with cinema and literature. You could never make a video game of an Ingmar Bergman film, you could never make a video game about stillness and silence….. it’s antithetical to the nature of moving your thumbs all around to get the golden coins or the medipacks or the invisible shield. It’s Apples and Oranges….. but video games don’t make good movies because gameplay, which is the most important part of any game, cannot be translated in any meaningful way to the cinema. Even if a game has a good story, people will throw it away if it isn’t fun to play….. I don’t see an analogous facet in the cinema.
I do, however, see a future where video games overtake movies as far as cultural relevance goes…. and that’s okay, so long as Jim Jarmusch and Woody Allen and their ilk can still get a few pennies to make genuine works of art.
Video games thrive on kinetic violence and movement…… and while some movies do, they are a lot better when they settle the fuck down and observe our world and the people in it. Good movies are about people, good video games are about killing things and getting points…. it’s hard to transplant that mentality to create a mature film.
Take Grand Theft Auto IV:
Really deep as a plot, full of moral choices and all that blah blah blah. A step forward for video games…. but as a movie? We’ve seen it all before, low-level hoods, conflicted morality, urban nihilism, gritty locales, etc. Even this giant leap forward for video games is old hat as far as movies are concerned. All of the above mentioned innovations by GTA4 have been around since Griffith.
I have this argument with my friends all the time…. I don’t see video games as a viable art….. I see them as having more in common with checkers and monopoly than with cinema and literature. You could never make a video game of an Ingmar Bergman film, you could never make a video game about stillness and silence….. it’s antithetical to the nature of moving your thumbs all around to get the golden coins or the medipacks or the invisible shield. It’s Apples and Oranges….. but video games don’t make good movies because gameplay, which is the most important part of any game, cannot be translated in any meaningful way to the cinema. Even if a game has a good story, people will throw it away if it isn’t fun to play….. I don’t see an analogous facet in the cinema.
I do, however, see a future where video games overtake movies as far as cultural relevance goes…. and that’s okay, so long as Jim Jarmusch and Woody Allen and their ilk can still get a few pennies to make genuine works of art.
Bringing Out the Dead, Raging Bull, Raw Deal, T-Men (anything directed by Anthony Mann and shot by John Alton), In the Mood for Love, The Scent of Green Papaya
Noel – I guess I will concede that it is an art form, but by most definitions, so are television commercials… which require the same process as real television programs and movies.
I guess what I’m saying is that video games exist in a different (lower) register in the art heirarchy….. they have a ceiling that other art forms do not, a quality they share with advertising….. If a genuine approach to stillness and silence is largely off of the table for the medium, then it is extremely limited in its potential, and thus a lower artform.
I don’t hate video games or anything…. I may think they are a waste of time, but don’t wish them to be illegal or anything… and the best video game is probably ultimately more valuable than the worst film…. but at the end of the day, there is a cap on what video games can do….. and this ceiling is significantly lower than it is for other arts. I’ve always thought of them as a diversion…. I’ll concede that a good deal of art (in the broad sense of design and color and drawing) goes into their construction, but I don’t think that proves anything.
Seven Samurai is a good example…. a great film, kinetic enough, probably would make a decent game…. although I’d be worried about losing the moral scenarios of using violence found in the film, when such video games are predicated upon killing as much as possible. But that’s another matter. Anyways….. Seven Samurai could be translated to a video game….. but what about Ikiru? There could be no equivalent. The highest reaches of filmmaking and literature have no equal in the video game world…. because, I hypothesize, the games are too dependent upon gameplay, leaving less room for stillness, quiet, deliberateness and contemplation.
Maybe one day I’ll be proven wrong… but it seems to me that the story of a priest experiencing existential doubt when one of his parishioners commits suicide can be a novel, an opera, a dance, a concept-record, a painting, a sculpture, but could not be a worthwhile video game…. it lacks the kineticism and emphasis on movement that most video games share.
I’m happy to have this discussion…. I think it’s a great, thought provoking subject….. I think video games will form a substantial, dominant chunk of our visual culture in the next few years. as “Interactivity” becomes what the public keeps looking for, why shouldn’t big event movies that are 90% digital effects and weak stories be rendered as video games? If it all looked the same, it would seem to me that a lot of people would rather do the game thing than see the movie…. but I’m just thinking out loud.
I saw Coraline in 3-D this weekend, and I had a splitting headache for hours afterward. I generally liked the film, but geez-louise, I don’t think it needed any extra dimensions (or dimensionality?), and should work just as well on a flat screen.
Does anyone like 3-D movies enough to desire every summer blockbuster to use the format? From what I’ve read, it’s the direction in which we’re headed…. which kinda makes me sad. I don’t see a ton of blockbusters, but I do see the ones I anticipate will be hugely entertaining or eye-popping…. but I have to say, I most likely will not see such movies in the future if they use 3-D, especially if I’ll leave the theater with only a headache to show for my troubles.
I think it’s obvious that Woody Allen and Jim Jarmusch movies won’t be coming to a theater in 3-D any time soon….. but what about Scorsese, Michael Mann, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, if mainstream, artistic filmmakers embraced the trend, would you guys and gals still be onboard with them?
Who’s deciding this shift, anyway? Is this merely to combat piracy, or does the public genuinely desire this technology?
Who do you think the most overrated director is? over 3 years ago
Clint Eastwood, hands down.
His status as screen icon far outweighs his skills as a storyteller. Where most see “economy,” I see an impoverished imagination. If he hadn’t have starred in Leone’s films thirty-some years ago, we would regard him as another aging hack weened on the studio system.
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Most Memorable Villain over 3 years ago
Veda (Ann Blyth) from Mildred Pierce.
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What films would you like to see included in future ECLIPSE releases? over 3 years ago
Haskel Wexler’s Documentaries
Anthony Mann’s noir pictures (a few of which seem to be in the public domain and beg to be remastered)
Bruce Conner shorts
Miklos Jancso (he’s been steadily releasing films for decades, yet only four or five are available in Region 1)
Emilio Fernandez
Chantel Akerman (anything!)
Kuchar Brothers’ works, it’d be nice to catch these as clean as possible, especially considering their rough source materials.
Rene Vienet: Can Dialectics Break Bricks? and The Girls of Kamare…. maybe Debords works as well?
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What films would you like to see included in future ECLIPSE releases? over 3 years ago
Bobby: Agreed that Medium Cool would be a great addiction…. but I was refering more to the other, less-heralded, films that he’s directed regarding labor unions and social movements. To the best of my knowledge they haven’t seen the light of the day in a while.
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Most Experimental Films? over 3 years ago
Peter Tscherkassky and Martin Arnold. Without doubt.
Their films have fairly distinct narratives, but their aesthetics (found footage, reconfigured into increasingly shocking betrayals of the intent and form of each source) show virtually no trace of mainstream filmmaking. Austria is where it’s at for the avant-garde, nowadays.
Jon Jost’s narrative films are defiantly experimental…. definitely time someone puts them out on pristine DVDs. He might be one of the three or four best American filmmakers of the last 50 years. The Bed You Sleep In and Sure Fire each have more experimentation in a single scene than the entire ouevre of Steven Soderbergh and most of David Lynch’s work have. He’s the real deal and someday we’ll all regret not paying more attention to him while he was active.
Brakhage might be the “most experimental” just because his experiments were so varied.
Let’s not overlook Godard, who has done more for the moving image than any filmmaker since Murnau, Chaplin and Griffith.
And Godard’s favorite filmmaker of the moment: Abbas Kiarostami. A genuine artist, absolutely fearless.
To a lesser extent I would say that Harmony Korine and David Gordon Greene (the former more than the latter) represent mainstream arthouse attempts at more experimental work, though each has “matured” toward more standard fare.
I’d also say that Steven Soderbergh is an experimental mainstream filmmakers, but at the end of the day, his experiments are often facile and his results are jumbled and ugly. (see above)
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WHAT IS YOUR PICK FOR THE WORSE MOVIE EVER MADE? over 3 years ago
For the sheer foulness of its vision of American culture: Forrest Gump. The ultimate conformist tripe. A truly reprehensible product. Celebrating the American everyman as a nearly retarded moron, and the American dream as a Dr. Pepper advertisement.
For similar reasons, the manipulative and saccharine Pay it Forward.
I’ll catch shit for it…… but I’d also say that Iron Man is a movie with a foul message of a privatized army storming into foreign countries and blowing shit up. It’s a deeply conservative film under the guise of an extremely liberal film. This blatant inability to make its own message cohere is disturbing. I know I’m in the minority on this film, but the solutions that it proposes for very real problems we face are idiotic at best, terrifying at worst. For this reason I would say it’s one of the worst I’ve seen.
A movie can be poorly constructed, shot, edited, written, acted, whatever….. but still remain spiritually superior to a movie which is expertly crafted yet exhibits a hollowness or a cynicism or a duplicity. I’d rather watch a shitty horror movie with a boom mic in the frame than see Tom Hanks or Robert Downey Jr. tell lies about my world for two hours.
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Your 5 Favourite Directors over 3 years ago
1) Bela Tarr
2) Anthony Mann
3) Jean-Luc Godard
4) David Lynch
5) Dardenne Brothers
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Is Mister Lonely a good Korine film? over 3 years ago
I was a bit disappointed by Mister Lonely….. I think some of the script had the vitality of previous films, but a lot of the images were too…. stately…… too reserved. That said, it was still superior to about 95% of what has been in theaters for the past few years.
There was just a laziness to the editing that sucked the life out of it as compared with Julien Donkey-Boy and Gummo, both masterpieces according to my way of thinking.
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Is Mister Lonely a good Korine film? over 3 years ago
I was a bit disappointed by Mister Lonely….. I think some of the script had the vitality of previous films, but a lot of the images were too…. stately…… too reserved. That said, it was still superior to about 95% of what has been in theaters for the past few years.
There was just a laziness to the editing that sucked the life out of it as compared with Julien Donkey-Boy and Gummo, both masterpieces according to my way of thinking.
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The Best Films of 2008 over 3 years ago
Shotgun Stories
Snow Angels
Be Kind, Rewind
The Flight of the Red Balloon
Role Models
Pineapple Express
Standard Operating Procedure
Mister Lonely
Che (not one of the best…… but it deserves to be recognized for trying so hard and coming so close.)
Insanely overrated:
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Revolutionary Road
The Wrestler
more or less in order…….. so much I didn’t see this year, on account of laziness coupled with the more attractive revival of classic films in Chicago….. I’m consistently late to the party on current releases. But these films stood out, I just wish I could have seen Ballast and Wendy and Lucy.
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Most Underrated Directors Working Today? over 3 years ago
Walter Hill
Harmony Korine
Alison MacLean….. doesn’t work much, but Jesus’ Son is a masterwork.
Jonathan Glazer
Ernest Dickerson…. the guy makes beautiful popcorn thriller and horror films. He’s got style.
Lynne Ramsay…. if anyone can find her
Michael Winterbottom……. not sure if people really grasp how talented he is…. hopefully soon.
Joe Dante
Tommy Lee Jones…. after one movie, I think he could easily rise to master status in 5-10 years…. Melquiades Estrada was that good.
and Bela Tarr….. he is well known in critics circles….. but that hasn’t led to the theatrical distribution of his latest film in the United States. If a Master of Cinema can’t receive proper distribution in the United States, he or she is underrated.
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Most Experimental Films? over 3 years ago
Justin….. if you have netflix, you can watch Jost’s The Bed You Sleep In, streaming…. it’s a masterpiece, pure and simple…. ought to be regarded as an American classic. I was out of town when he came to Chicago with his latest films…. (a friend of mine went and told me there were about ten people there, go figure.)
All the Vermeers in New York and Surefire are also available on DVD…. both good…. but The Bed You Sleep In is one of the few truly original American movies in the past 20 years. He is indebted to no one…. but shares a kinship with Godard, Sirk, Antonioni and Brakhage.
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100 Greatest Films over 3 years ago
I was going to post a separate thread to this same effect….. guess I’m glad I don’t have to…. if they are ranked, I think you can learn a lot more about someone based on their 97th favorite film than their 2nd or, even 1st. Those are the ones outside the canon that just stick with you.
I’ve kept a list as a hobby for a few years, updating when I feel strongly that something should be included, something moved down, something deleted. This is the most recent.
1. SATANTANGO
2. VERTIGO
3. RAGING BULL
4. WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES
5. INSTRUCTIONS FOR A LIGHT AND SOUND MACHINE
6. MAN OF THE WEST
7. TASTE OF CHERRY
8. KILLER OF SHEEP
9. THE BED YOU SLEEP IN
10. LES CARABINIERS
11. EYES WIDE SHUT
12. TROPICAL MALADY
13. BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA
14. CINEMASCOPE TRILOGY: L’ARRIVEE, OUTER SPACE, DREAM WORK
15. HOLD ME WHILE I’M NAKED
16. AMADEUS
17. THE NAKED SPUR
18. JESUS’ SON
19. LE TROU
20. THE OLD DARK HOUSE
21. TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER
22. OUR HOSPITALITY
23. PIECE TOUCHEE
24. SHADOW OF A DOUBT
25. A WOMAN IS A WOMAN
26. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
27. THE AFRICAN QUEEN
28. PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE
29. THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE
30. THE WALKING DEAD
31. BULLY
32. THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER
33. THE SON
34. STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.
35. I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG
36. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (Don Siegel)
37. MONSIEUR VERDOUX
38. THE CAMERAMAN
39. FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL
40. THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER
41. ON DANGEROUS GROUND
42. WAXWORKS
43. JULIEN DONKEY-BOY
44. L’ATALANTE
45. DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB
46. THE RULES OF THE GAME
47. JURASSIC PARK
48. NAKED LUNCH
49. THE CELEBRATION
50. MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON
51. TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI
52. NIGHTMARE ALLEY
53. THE RED AND THE WHITE
54. THE PASSENGER
55. THE SET-UP
56. ARMY OF SHADOWS
57. THE SACRIFICE
58. THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE
59. SWEET MOVIE
60. THE SECOND CIRCLE
61. THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT
62. CRUMB
63. MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT
64. FLAMINGO ROAD
65. ALONE. LIFE WASTES ANDY HARDY
66. HAXAN
67. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
68. THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE’S OWN EYES
69. THE BODY SNATCHER
70. THE CENTURY OF THE SELF
71. SUNRISE
72. MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA
73. RASHOMON
74. A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
75. PALINDROMES
76. AN UNSEEN ENEMY
77. BATMAN RETURNS
78. GILDA
79. ANNABELLE SERPENTINE DANCE
80. AU HASARD BALTHAZAR
81. FLOATING WEEDS
82. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
83. COSMIC RAY
84. WINTER LIGHT
85. THE PIT, THE PENDULUM AND HOPE
86. THE WEEPING MEADOW
87. GUMMO
88. DAY OF WRATH
89. BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
90. THE WURDULAK
91. KING KONG (Peter Jackson)
92. PASSAGE A L’ACTE
93. L’ENFANT
94. MY BROTHER’S WEDDING
95. KING LEAR (Kozintsev)
96. REPORT
97. THE WIRE: SEASON 4
98. A ROUGH SKETCH FOR A PRPOPOSED FILM DEALING WITH THE POWERS OF TEN AND THE RELATIVE SIZE OF THINGS
IN THE UNIVERSE
99. LE CORBEAU
100. HE GOT GAME
and one extra:
101. NAKED CITY: PRIME OF LIFE (single episode of 50’s television show)
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Most Underrated Directors Working Today? over 3 years ago
It just hit me…….. Todd Solondz. No. 1 with a bullet.
Besides Lynch, I don’t believe there is another American filmmaker who pushes forward with each film (and that’s debatable if you consider Straight Story, which, while not a disaster, is most definitely a step sideways, rather than forward), each one more experimental than the last. If Storytelling sorta flopped, it was still a structurally ambitious misfire that might have benefited from the inclusion of its deleted scene….. Palindromes is an unheralded (except by Armond White, who is an enthusiastic champion of the film) masterpiece. His next film (at one point titled “Life During Wartime,” I think it’s “Forgiveness” now) will be, from what I’ve read, his most ambitious to date. He has never rested on his laurels, despite revisiting themes and characters several times. Not quite a master of cinema, although I think he ranks with Jim Jarmusch as one of the best American independents. Maybe the best. And few critics and audiences pass him more than a glance.
When I think of “underrated,” I think of someone people either write off or take for granted. He, at times, has received both treatments. He has never sold out, and has trouble getting his films financed because of his outright refusal for compromise. Yet he is just not a fashionable choice for more cinephiles, which baffles me. His films are genuinely edgy and subversive, unlike most of the bullshit that passes for “edgy indie fare” (the label often granted to movies in which same-sex couples kiss or junkies writhe around and cry.)
Here’s a guy who does everything the right way, not a corporate shill, presents a unique, biting, but heartfelt portrait of contemporary American life….. and no one pays attention. Such a shame. He’s not so flashy as his contemporaries, but I’ll take his challenging satire any day over tired indie navel-gazing.
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100 Greatest Films over 3 years ago
Justin….. good to see Flamingo Road getting the love. I read once it was Fassbinder’s favorite film of all time, and it definitely is not hard to see why. I’m ashamed to admit my unfamiliarity with a lot of the Fassbinder on yr list….. I know the man through reference materials, and I know some of the films (the most obscure I’ve seen is Love is Colder than Death, which I actually liked more than Ali) but haven’t dug deep enough.
Elephant is a movie that I am forced to defend so often….. I can’t understand it, there seems so little to dislike about it. I really liked The Wounds as well….. that’s a film and filmmaker that aren’t widely circulated and/or discussed.
I feel that I must come to the defense of Batman Returns. I think that it is on a very very short list of movies that really understand the appeal of comic books. The movie has fun, is campy and action packed. It’s morbid, self-obsessed, surreal and absurd. It’s the perfect amalgamation of the tones and themes of the great superhero comics. Instead of literalizing the hell out of inherently goofy and fantastical material (unlike the joyless and brainless Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Spiderman)….. it’s the only comic book movie that I feel takes place in the comic book universe. Too many of the superhero movies make the mistake of situating their stories in “the real world,” which, to my way of thinking, only makes them pathetic and awkward. Embrace the comic book sensibility, the juxtapositions of insanity and social commentary! The colors! The unrealistic outfits! The faux-existentialism! Simplistic depictions of sex and romance! But the film does all of these things without stooping to the idiotic and offensive depths of Sin City (the movie and the books….. both annoying and misanthropic tripe, the former moreso than the latter). It’s by far the pulpiest superhero flick, and therefore the best. The only other comic book movie that I think can seriously compare is X-Men 2…. but that’s a distant distant second. Superman and Superman II have the joviality, but not the brains.
There’s an exchange between Batman and the Penguin toward the middle of the movie where the Penguin says to Batman “you don’t think you’ll really win, do you?” Which is the perfect line to sum up the difference between comic books and movies based on comic books. The books will lay it out like that, the logic of heroes winning and villains losing…. whereas the movies prefer the pomposity of assuming their own importance in a gritty “real world.” Also, fittingly, the Penguin finishes this exchange by turning his umbrella into a miniature helicopter and fleeing the scene.
Fans of graphic novels are so happy now that superhero movies are being taken seriously….. but I think that the cost to the original material is too great…. a nasty piece of nihilistic garbage like The Dark Knight does not, to me, anyway, represent the best of what comic books have to offer. The same mainstream that champions The Dark Knight and Iron Man will continue to dog a character like Ant-Man, until they make a grandiose, self-righteous screen adaptation that betrays the spirit of the books. I’ll hold my breath on the Watchmen movie.
Vlad: I think it’s great the Gummo and A Christmas Story are side by side on your list…. I think ranking them makes it more fun, strange bedfellows result. Dead Man is definitely a fantastic #1 pick. and Jackie Brown being so high up makes me so happy! What a great fucking movie. I’d write Tarantino off entirely if not for that movie…. I don’t know how such a sensitive, deep film came out of the same guy that filmed Uma Thurman torturing people with a sword for four hours.
Sorry for being long-winded…… but Batman Returns is a masterpiece.
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Most Experimental Films? over 3 years ago
No problem, Juston….
Johnh, I can’t wait for the Treasures box…. I have the first one, which has some really great stuff, but I’m glad they decided to focus on the avant garde now. The only one I’ve seen is I, an Actress….. which is an absolutely fantastic Kuchar flick. It definitely gets the “direction as performance” thing down, a lot of the Kuchar stuff is about the intersection of film directors and their actors. Hold Me While I’m Naked might be the best….. but I, An Actress might be the most succinct variation on this theme.
Kino has two separate box sets featuring international avant garde films (from 1920-1955)….. definitely worth picking up or taking in over a long weekend. They are called Avant Garde and Avant Garde II.
Also, there is a website, ubu.com that specializes in avant garde art….. they have a films page that includes everything from Robbe-Grillet’s films, the Kuchar brothers, Duchamp, John Lennon, Chris Marker, William Burroughs, Ken Jacobs…. and dozens more…. the quality ranges, and I don’t think they have a fullscreen option for the streaming video….. but it’s an invaluable source: http://www.ubu.com/film/
A personal favorite is Can Dialectics Break Bricks? by Rene Vienet
Martin Arnold’s films are unbelievable and are available on googlevideo: three of his best http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7346135205382749153
Watch and spread the word!
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What Film Are You Most Looking Forward To In 2009? over 3 years ago
Todd Solondz’ Forgiveness…….. has clear signs of being a masterwork.
Tree of Life, most definitely.
Observe and Report…. I think Jody Hill is going to be a very special filmmaker, and this looks funny as hell.
Public Enemies… has the possibility of being stupid, but I’ll see anything by Michael Mann at this point.
Where the Wild Things Are ….. high hopes mixed with low expectations.
And a bit of schadenfreude: I am looking forward to seeing Inglorious Basterds…. because, if the trailer is any indication, this will be the movie that offers undeniable proof that Quentin Tarantino’s films have been worthless garbage since Jackie Brown. Using the plight of the Jews during WWII to justify excessive bloodletting is childish and disingenuous. Other adjectives do come to mind, but I’ll shut up now.
Perhaps Wes Anderson will be rebound with Fantastic Mr. Fox?
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A Random Film You Like over 3 years ago
Freddy Got Fingered. Seriously.
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Performances that make you wince over 3 years ago
Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator
Jamie Lynn Sigler in any episode of The Sopranos.
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If you had to pick ONE film as your favorite... over 3 years ago
Satan’s Tango…… there is so much of it, literally and figuratively speaking.
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Best Director 2008 over 3 years ago
Hou Hsiao-Hsien (The Flight of the Red Balloon)
David Gordon Green (Snow Angels)
Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In)
Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories)
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Except for the acknowledged classics, I am finding that most people in these forums prefer dramas over comedies. Why is that so? over 3 years ago
Aisbilen, I agree…. especially nowadays when far too many comedies are visually uninteresting, non-auteur films. They rely more on performance than the director’s guidance…. Judd Apatow’s movies are terribly directed and edited, the result of the multi-camera, improv approach leading to incoherence. The general approach to comedy has slackened, and I think a lot of great comedic actors feel embarrassed about their comedies, and strive instead for “legitimacy”…. Jim Carrey would do well to head back to Ace Ventura, because he hasn’t made a watchable film (comedy, I don’t count Eternal Sunshine as such) in about a decade.
As far as the cinephile crowd is concerned, I think many of this type (and I would include myself) don’t feel right delving into the deeper aesthetic/thematic issues of comedies… which is the appeal of Tarkovsky and Bergman, et al. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with analyzing a comedy and its values, there are reasons why things are funny. But I think the more intellectual set feels there needs to be more of a distinction between watching a comedy and watching a drama….. the difference being one invites analysis, while the other precludes it. But I think the distinction is faulty, especially in the case of comedies that are actually thoughtful and/or innovative (see below.) Good comedies don’t need to be placed in a lower register, but bad comedies do.
Todd Solondz’ films are some of the funniest ever made, and I think they straddle a good line between comedy and drama, while being predominantly the former. The difference between that and most comedies is that Solondz has his own voice and style and wants to express them rather than letting Steve Carrell do 50 different takes of a punchline and splicing them together in the editing room.
That said, I think the tide is turning…. I have very high hopes for Jody Hill…. I thought the Foot Fist Way displayed a great mixture of pathos and comedy, shot very well…. Observe and Report looks to be even better. David Gordon Green gave Pineapple Express a bizarro feel that elevated the material. I could see the director of Hot Rod, Akiva Schaffer, continuing to make hilarious, deliberately staged comedies.
Instead of dramatic films that feature a slight comedic flair, it’s refreshing to see directors doing straight comedy focusing on the filmmaking, rather than just the performances. The days of the Farrelly Bros. are over, I hope.
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What Film Are You Most Looking Forward To In 2009? over 3 years ago
Yes, Steve, that would be the same Jody Hill. I’m a sucker for Danny McBride…. currently the only actor that can make me see a film I wouldn’t otherwise bother with by virtue of his presence. To my way of thinking, he was the best part of Tropic Thunder.
For a low budget comedy…. Foot Fist Way definitely had a strong tone and experimental vibe in some scenes. Say what you will, but it was most definitely not the regular Apatow “place the camera wherever and let them improv” strategy. He’s a real filmmaker. The trailer for Observe and Report looks hysterical.
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WISE BLOOD on CRITERION! over 3 years ago
I agree that Huston is overlooked as an auteur….. One of the best filmmakers in 4:3, without a doubt… he knew how to compose a square frame.
This is indeed great news…. I’ve never been able to see this before, even though it’s based on my favorite novel of all time. There are so many more Huston films that deserved to be rediscovered.
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Why don't videogame adaptations ever work? over 3 years ago
Video games thrive on kinetic violence and movement…… and while some movies do, they are a lot better when they settle the fuck down and observe our world and the people in it. Good movies are about people, good video games are about killing things and getting points…. it’s hard to transplant that mentality to create a mature film.
Take Grand Theft Auto IV:
Really deep as a plot, full of moral choices and all that blah blah blah. A step forward for video games…. but as a movie? We’ve seen it all before, low-level hoods, conflicted morality, urban nihilism, gritty locales, etc. Even this giant leap forward for video games is old hat as far as movies are concerned. All of the above mentioned innovations by GTA4 have been around since Griffith.
I have this argument with my friends all the time…. I don’t see video games as a viable art….. I see them as having more in common with checkers and monopoly than with cinema and literature. You could never make a video game of an Ingmar Bergman film, you could never make a video game about stillness and silence….. it’s antithetical to the nature of moving your thumbs all around to get the golden coins or the medipacks or the invisible shield. It’s Apples and Oranges….. but video games don’t make good movies because gameplay, which is the most important part of any game, cannot be translated in any meaningful way to the cinema. Even if a game has a good story, people will throw it away if it isn’t fun to play….. I don’t see an analogous facet in the cinema.
I do, however, see a future where video games overtake movies as far as cultural relevance goes…. and that’s okay, so long as Jim Jarmusch and Woody Allen and their ilk can still get a few pennies to make genuine works of art.
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Why don't videogame adaptations ever work? over 3 years ago
Video games thrive on kinetic violence and movement…… and while some movies do, they are a lot better when they settle the fuck down and observe our world and the people in it. Good movies are about people, good video games are about killing things and getting points…. it’s hard to transplant that mentality to create a mature film.
Take Grand Theft Auto IV:
Really deep as a plot, full of moral choices and all that blah blah blah. A step forward for video games…. but as a movie? We’ve seen it all before, low-level hoods, conflicted morality, urban nihilism, gritty locales, etc. Even this giant leap forward for video games is old hat as far as movies are concerned. All of the above mentioned innovations by GTA4 have been around since Griffith.
I have this argument with my friends all the time…. I don’t see video games as a viable art….. I see them as having more in common with checkers and monopoly than with cinema and literature. You could never make a video game of an Ingmar Bergman film, you could never make a video game about stillness and silence….. it’s antithetical to the nature of moving your thumbs all around to get the golden coins or the medipacks or the invisible shield. It’s Apples and Oranges….. but video games don’t make good movies because gameplay, which is the most important part of any game, cannot be translated in any meaningful way to the cinema. Even if a game has a good story, people will throw it away if it isn’t fun to play….. I don’t see an analogous facet in the cinema.
I do, however, see a future where video games overtake movies as far as cultural relevance goes…. and that’s okay, so long as Jim Jarmusch and Woody Allen and their ilk can still get a few pennies to make genuine works of art.
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Why don't videogame adaptations ever work? over 3 years ago
whooops, sorry that was posted twice. technical glitch, not vanity.
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I need help over 3 years ago
Bringing Out the Dead, Raging Bull, Raw Deal, T-Men (anything directed by Anthony Mann and shot by John Alton), In the Mood for Love, The Scent of Green Papaya
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Why don't videogame adaptations ever work? over 3 years ago
Noel – I guess I will concede that it is an art form, but by most definitions, so are television commercials… which require the same process as real television programs and movies.
I guess what I’m saying is that video games exist in a different (lower) register in the art heirarchy….. they have a ceiling that other art forms do not, a quality they share with advertising….. If a genuine approach to stillness and silence is largely off of the table for the medium, then it is extremely limited in its potential, and thus a lower artform.
I don’t hate video games or anything…. I may think they are a waste of time, but don’t wish them to be illegal or anything… and the best video game is probably ultimately more valuable than the worst film…. but at the end of the day, there is a cap on what video games can do….. and this ceiling is significantly lower than it is for other arts. I’ve always thought of them as a diversion…. I’ll concede that a good deal of art (in the broad sense of design and color and drawing) goes into their construction, but I don’t think that proves anything.
Seven Samurai is a good example…. a great film, kinetic enough, probably would make a decent game…. although I’d be worried about losing the moral scenarios of using violence found in the film, when such video games are predicated upon killing as much as possible. But that’s another matter. Anyways….. Seven Samurai could be translated to a video game….. but what about Ikiru? There could be no equivalent. The highest reaches of filmmaking and literature have no equal in the video game world…. because, I hypothesize, the games are too dependent upon gameplay, leaving less room for stillness, quiet, deliberateness and contemplation.
Maybe one day I’ll be proven wrong… but it seems to me that the story of a priest experiencing existential doubt when one of his parishioners commits suicide can be a novel, an opera, a dance, a concept-record, a painting, a sculpture, but could not be a worthwhile video game…. it lacks the kineticism and emphasis on movement that most video games share.
I’m happy to have this discussion…. I think it’s a great, thought provoking subject….. I think video games will form a substantial, dominant chunk of our visual culture in the next few years. as “Interactivity” becomes what the public keeps looking for, why shouldn’t big event movies that are 90% digital effects and weak stories be rendered as video games? If it all looked the same, it would seem to me that a lot of people would rather do the game thing than see the movie…. but I’m just thinking out loud.
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3-D Discussion over 3 years ago
Is 3-D really the future of cinema?
I saw Coraline in 3-D this weekend, and I had a splitting headache for hours afterward. I generally liked the film, but geez-louise, I don’t think it needed any extra dimensions (or dimensionality?), and should work just as well on a flat screen.
Does anyone like 3-D movies enough to desire every summer blockbuster to use the format? From what I’ve read, it’s the direction in which we’re headed…. which kinda makes me sad. I don’t see a ton of blockbusters, but I do see the ones I anticipate will be hugely entertaining or eye-popping…. but I have to say, I most likely will not see such movies in the future if they use 3-D, especially if I’ll leave the theater with only a headache to show for my troubles.
I think it’s obvious that Woody Allen and Jim Jarmusch movies won’t be coming to a theater in 3-D any time soon….. but what about Scorsese, Michael Mann, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, if mainstream, artistic filmmakers embraced the trend, would you guys and gals still be onboard with them?
Who’s deciding this shift, anyway? Is this merely to combat piracy, or does the public genuinely desire this technology?
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