I’d like Synecdoche, NY, Let The Right One In, Paranoid Park, Rachel Getting Married, and Youth Without Youth to be completely ignored so the academy can continue to be the willfully ignorant barometer of nothingness it always has been.
Yeah, Dark Knight was kinda fun, but when a film starts asking much more than it can answer for, it’s time to edit. It sure looks nice and I give it props for not using music during that chase scene, but I don’t see what the huge goddamned deal was? It was a superhero movie, it’s riddled with holes, and people treat it like the second coming. There were just better films this year.
I loved it. I think films carried by female performances are special when they work. It reminded me of Opening Night in that regard. Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh have performances I can only describe as awesome. I think Baumbach captures the horror of his childhood in a way others can relate to at a distance. Uncomfortable and mesmerizing.
The end of Brian Yuzna’s Society is a pretty sick little affair. Not dramatic or…good or anything, but, as endings go, I can’t say I saw it coming. Traumatic seems an accurate term, but…does it count if the director was trying to traumatize you?
Sorry, I hate these films. That they’re being heralded as some new, great, original, independent movement is absurd. These movies have nothing to offer and I’ve seen just about all of them. Their characters are shallow, the laughs obvious and for too protracted to be natural. I dislike the formula and I can’t stand most of the protagonists. There are better films being made for no money.
Isabelle Corey – Bob Le Flambeur
Simone Simon – Cat People
Sylvia Pinal – Viridiana
Yumiko Nogawa – Story of a Prostitute
Tatyana Samojlova – The Cranes Are Flying
Jitka Bendová – Closely Watched Trains
Irene Jacob – Double Life Of Veronique
Marika Green – Pickpocket
Zouzou – Love In The Afternoon
Anna Karina – Bande A Part / Le Petit Soldat
Kelly Macdonald – Gosford Park
Valentina Malyavina – Ivan’s Childhood
Kate Hudson – Almost Famous/The Skeleton Key
Natalya Bondarchuk – Solaris
Cristina Galbo – Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
Anna Levine – Unforgiven
Brigitte Bardot – Contempt
Harriett Andersonn – Sawdust and Tinsel
Deborah Kerr – The Innocents/Night of the Iguana
Lucy Davis – Shaun of the Dead
Jeanne Moreau – The Lovers
Kim Novak – Of Human Bondage
June Duprez – The Theif Of Bagdad
Angela Winkler – The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum
Olivia Thirlby – Snow Angels
Catalina Sandino Moreno – Maria Full of Grace, Che
Charlie Young – Ashes of Time
Radha Mitchell – Silent Hill
oh and early 60s Peter O’Toole, cause that man was gorgeous
Dersu I liked, as it was a complete stylistic 180. It was the start of his no close-ups, sprawling mise-en-scene that led him through to Kagemusha and Ran and later Rhapsody in August, Dreams, and Madadayo. I liked Dersu because of it’s objective take on things and because its characters are so lovely and because it is so different from all of Kurasawa’s other work. There’s no period, for me, reliably at which I can point to as my favorite of Kurasawa’s work. I love High and Low and The Bad Sleep Well, I find most of his late 40s stuff a little too angry (save Stray Dog which I liked) and Red Beard too sentimental. He was a dark filmmaker when he wanted to be (Throne of Blood, Ran, The Quiet Duel), and his films are as close to Shakesperian tragedy as I’ve ever seen a director come (I don’t simply refer to his ‘adaptations’). Seven Samurai is really where film as a conscious art form begins. Kurasawa is Japanese culture at its apex.
Directors who act in their own films are generally pretty offputting, but often in a good way. Mostly I’m thinking Cassavettes in Opening Night and Orson Welles, the rest are just plain creepy.
Ray Dennis Steckler
Bruno VeSoto
Ed Wood
Jesus Franco
It is approximately my favorite film. With All That Heaven Allows is the greatest romance ever made. With Near Dark, the greatest Vampire movie ever made.
http://punkeinfilm.blogspot.com/2008/11/david-tafoya-film-appreciation-society.html
A remake is a sin. Alfredson said, rightly, that the reason you remake a film is because there’s something wrong with it. I hope the producers of the remake are killed before the film can be put into production.
I’ve coined a term to describe the generation of filmmakers who are now winning oscars and getting massive budgets. I call them the New School as I’ve got nothing better for it.
The New School consists of Ang Lee, Wong Kar Wai, David Fincher, Tom Tykwer, Wes Anderson, Matthieu Kassovitz, P.T. Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Darren Aronofsky, Danny Boyle, Todd Haynes, Guillermo Del Toro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Alfonso Cuarón, Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman.
They all have a striking visual sense, innovative use of music, thought-provoking subject matter, ensemble casts, new takes on old genres, focus on family, love and community, and they all got their start with little films in the 1990s (I know that Kar Wai Wong started in the late 80s, so you’ll forgive me that). Some favor certain performers and crew members (Anderson: Owen Wilson, Bill Murray; Tykwer: Franka Potente; Fincher: Brad Pitt; Haynes: Julianne Moore; Jeunet: Audrey Tatou & Dominic Pinon, etc. to say nothing of their cinematographers).
I’d like to hear what people think of this. Have I forgotten anyone? Are there elements I’m ignoring? Where do I get off? etc..
Here’s my article with specifics.
http://punkeinfilm.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-school-of-directors.html
Last House is not based on facts. It’s based on the Virgin Spring. It’s a vile piece of post-modern trash that switches between murder and black stereotypes over banjo music. Craven said it was his response to vietnam and that he was going for what I take to be Funny Games 72, he just didn’t have the prowess to pull it off. The result is hideous. Salo I have a hard time with because Pasolini deliberately made it devoid of artistic value. He was punishing the viewer and himself. It will unsettle you if nothing else.
Yeah, it’s just a remake and Craven thought that would have more impact than saying he took the idea from a much better non-horror film. I personally can’t stand Last House because it can’t be the film it wants to be. It doesn’t play with the conventions of acceptability in a fast enough way so its just cruelty/farce/cruelty. I also have to say that the way that the mother character dispatches the Fred Lincoln character Weasel is just preposterous and misogynistic. Craven could have done something subversive and fascinating, but chose to do something juvenile and hateful. And I know he had it in him to make a better film, because Hills Have Eyes is that much better film. It deals with family and vengeance and doesn’t make me pine for the end credits like Last House did. Hills Have Eyes is by contrast what I’d call essential horror viewing as it marks the perfect synthesis of the cruelty of Italian films which would hold sway for much of the 80s and the DIY of George Romero and Tobe Hooper. Hills Have Eyes also lacks Last House’s odious comic relief.
Ok, has anyone noticed that the Magnolia DVD release changed the subtitles from the theatrical release. It’s incredibly distracting as I saw it more than once in theatres. Why would they do that?
Thriller is truly bothersome because it makes rape/revenge both gratuitous and boring. They actually inserted footage of people actually having sex to the uncut version which is just gross and unnecessary. The film could have only been helped by pacing, a better more logical script, and a more talented editor. Granted Cristina Lindberg is cute as a button, Thriller is brainlessly exploitative. A little like Last House, in my opinion.
They have made Thriller in America. Look at Hostel, Cabin Fever. No subject matter is too taboo for Americans today. Watch the remake of Last House, that’ll show you how far we’ve come. If you take the real inserts of obvious body doubles going at it, there’s nothing in Thriller that isn’t in American Gangster or Saw. We can’t be shocked anymore.
Rip-offs (I make no claims about their quality): Rocket Science, Igby Goes Down, I Heart Huckabees, Garden State, Juno, Napoleon Dynamite, the latest Robert Patton-Spruill film looks like a total life Aquatic Crib.
NODS - What & who do we want to see win? over 3 years ago
I’d like Synecdoche, NY, Let The Right One In, Paranoid Park, Rachel Getting Married, and Youth Without Youth to be completely ignored so the academy can continue to be the willfully ignorant barometer of nothingness it always has been.
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Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection over 3 years ago
Executive Koala
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Does anyone else feel THE DARK KNIGHT is way overrated? over 3 years ago
Yeah, Dark Knight was kinda fun, but when a film starts asking much more than it can answer for, it’s time to edit. It sure looks nice and I give it props for not using music during that chase scene, but I don’t see what the huge goddamned deal was? It was a superhero movie, it’s riddled with holes, and people treat it like the second coming. There were just better films this year.
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What's the most annoying film music you've had to endure? over 3 years ago
Gone With The Wind or Heaven’s Gate.
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Who do you think the most overrated director is? over 3 years ago
Sergio Leone
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best new/auteur directors not from US in the last 20 years over 3 years ago
Tomas Alfredson, Danny Boyle, Lars Von Trier, Cuaron, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
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Return your oscar statuetes over 3 years ago
Chicago. best picture?
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Margot at the Wedding over 3 years ago
I loved it. I think films carried by female performances are special when they work. It reminded me of Opening Night in that regard. Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh have performances I can only describe as awesome. I think Baumbach captures the horror of his childhood in a way others can relate to at a distance. Uncomfortable and mesmerizing.
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Favorite use of a song in a film. over 3 years ago
New Dawn Fades in Reprise.
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Most Traumatic or Dramatic Film Endings over 3 years ago
The end of Brian Yuzna’s Society is a pretty sick little affair. Not dramatic or…good or anything, but, as endings go, I can’t say I saw it coming. Traumatic seems an accurate term, but…does it count if the director was trying to traumatize you?
Go to Comment
Mumblecore over 3 years ago
Sorry, I hate these films. That they’re being heralded as some new, great, original, independent movement is absurd. These movies have nothing to offer and I’ve seen just about all of them. Their characters are shallow, the laughs obvious and for too protracted to be natural. I dislike the formula and I can’t stand most of the protagonists. There are better films being made for no money.
Go to Comment
Greatest Albums of All-time over 3 years ago
Neon Bible by Arcade Fire
Pink Moon by Nick Drake
Real Gone by Tom Waits
Kid A by Radiohead
Paris 1919 by John Cale
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Favorite Cinematographer over 3 years ago
Emmanuel Lubezki
Deakins
Slawomir Idziak
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Who Was/Is The Most Beautiful Film Actor Ever? over 3 years ago
I’ve been keeping a list since I was 16
Isabelle Corey – Bob Le Flambeur
Simone Simon – Cat People
Sylvia Pinal – Viridiana
Yumiko Nogawa – Story of a Prostitute
Tatyana Samojlova – The Cranes Are Flying
Jitka Bendová – Closely Watched Trains
Irene Jacob – Double Life Of Veronique
Marika Green – Pickpocket
Zouzou – Love In The Afternoon
Anna Karina – Bande A Part / Le Petit Soldat
Kelly Macdonald – Gosford Park
Valentina Malyavina – Ivan’s Childhood
Kate Hudson – Almost Famous/The Skeleton Key
Natalya Bondarchuk – Solaris
Cristina Galbo – Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
Anna Levine – Unforgiven
Brigitte Bardot – Contempt
Harriett Andersonn – Sawdust and Tinsel
Deborah Kerr – The Innocents/Night of the Iguana
Lucy Davis – Shaun of the Dead
Jeanne Moreau – The Lovers
Kim Novak – Of Human Bondage
June Duprez – The Theif Of Bagdad
Angela Winkler – The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum
Olivia Thirlby – Snow Angels
Catalina Sandino Moreno – Maria Full of Grace, Che
Charlie Young – Ashes of Time
Radha Mitchell – Silent Hill
oh and early 60s Peter O’Toole, cause that man was gorgeous
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WHAT MODERN...AMERICAN...HORROR FILMS SHOULD BE ADDED TO THE CRITERION COLLECTION? over 3 years ago
The Brood by David Cronenberg
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Which Kurosawa are you? Which cinephile are you? over 3 years ago
Dersu I liked, as it was a complete stylistic 180. It was the start of his no close-ups, sprawling mise-en-scene that led him through to Kagemusha and Ran and later Rhapsody in August, Dreams, and Madadayo. I liked Dersu because of it’s objective take on things and because its characters are so lovely and because it is so different from all of Kurasawa’s other work. There’s no period, for me, reliably at which I can point to as my favorite of Kurasawa’s work. I love High and Low and The Bad Sleep Well, I find most of his late 40s stuff a little too angry (save Stray Dog which I liked) and Red Beard too sentimental. He was a dark filmmaker when he wanted to be (Throne of Blood, Ran, The Quiet Duel), and his films are as close to Shakesperian tragedy as I’ve ever seen a director come (I don’t simply refer to his ‘adaptations’). Seven Samurai is really where film as a conscious art form begins. Kurasawa is Japanese culture at its apex.
Go to Comment
what actors do you consider creepy? over 3 years ago
Directors who act in their own films are generally pretty offputting, but often in a good way. Mostly I’m thinking Cassavettes in Opening Night and Orson Welles, the rest are just plain creepy.
Ray Dennis Steckler
Bruno VeSoto
Ed Wood
Jesus Franco
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Who is the worst critic in the business right now? over 3 years ago
Maltin…and Pauline Kael
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Let the Right One In about 3 years ago
It is approximately my favorite film. With All That Heaven Allows is the greatest romance ever made. With Near Dark, the greatest Vampire movie ever made.
http://punkeinfilm.blogspot.com/2008/11/david-tafoya-film-appreciation-society.html
Go to Comment
Let the Right One In about 3 years ago
A remake is a sin. Alfredson said, rightly, that the reason you remake a film is because there’s something wrong with it. I hope the producers of the remake are killed before the film can be put into production.
Go to Comment
What underappreciated filmmaker deserves an eclipse release? about 3 years ago
Kaneto Shindo
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What underappreciated filmmaker deserves an eclipse release? about 3 years ago
Kaneto Shindo
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What underappreciated filmmaker deserves an eclipse release? about 3 years ago
Kaneto Shindo
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Russian Horror Classic: Vij 1967/2009 about 3 years ago
Looks delightful
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The New School of Directors about 3 years ago
I’ve coined a term to describe the generation of filmmakers who are now winning oscars and getting massive budgets. I call them the New School as I’ve got nothing better for it.
The New School consists of Ang Lee, Wong Kar Wai, David Fincher, Tom Tykwer, Wes Anderson, Matthieu Kassovitz, P.T. Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Darren Aronofsky, Danny Boyle, Todd Haynes, Guillermo Del Toro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Alfonso Cuarón, Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman.
They all have a striking visual sense, innovative use of music, thought-provoking subject matter, ensemble casts, new takes on old genres, focus on family, love and community, and they all got their start with little films in the 1990s (I know that Kar Wai Wong started in the late 80s, so you’ll forgive me that). Some favor certain performers and crew members (Anderson: Owen Wilson, Bill Murray; Tykwer: Franka Potente; Fincher: Brad Pitt; Haynes: Julianne Moore; Jeunet: Audrey Tatou & Dominic Pinon, etc. to say nothing of their cinematographers).
I’d like to hear what people think of this. Have I forgotten anyone? Are there elements I’m ignoring? Where do I get off? etc..
Here’s my article with specifics.
http://punkeinfilm.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-school-of-directors.html
Go to Comment
Salo/ Last House on the Left (original)? about 3 years ago
Last House is not based on facts. It’s based on the Virgin Spring. It’s a vile piece of post-modern trash that switches between murder and black stereotypes over banjo music. Craven said it was his response to vietnam and that he was going for what I take to be Funny Games 72, he just didn’t have the prowess to pull it off. The result is hideous. Salo I have a hard time with because Pasolini deliberately made it devoid of artistic value. He was punishing the viewer and himself. It will unsettle you if nothing else.
Go to Comment
Salo/ Last House on the Left (original)? about 3 years ago
Yeah, it’s just a remake and Craven thought that would have more impact than saying he took the idea from a much better non-horror film. I personally can’t stand Last House because it can’t be the film it wants to be. It doesn’t play with the conventions of acceptability in a fast enough way so its just cruelty/farce/cruelty. I also have to say that the way that the mother character dispatches the Fred Lincoln character Weasel is just preposterous and misogynistic. Craven could have done something subversive and fascinating, but chose to do something juvenile and hateful. And I know he had it in him to make a better film, because Hills Have Eyes is that much better film. It deals with family and vengeance and doesn’t make me pine for the end credits like Last House did. Hills Have Eyes is by contrast what I’d call essential horror viewing as it marks the perfect synthesis of the cruelty of Italian films which would hold sway for much of the 80s and the DIY of George Romero and Tobe Hooper. Hills Have Eyes also lacks Last House’s odious comic relief.
Go to Comment
Let the Right One In about 3 years ago
Ok, has anyone noticed that the Magnolia DVD release changed the subtitles from the theatrical release. It’s incredibly distracting as I saw it more than once in theatres. Why would they do that?
Go to Comment
Salo/ Last House on the Left (original)? about 3 years ago
Thriller is truly bothersome because it makes rape/revenge both gratuitous and boring. They actually inserted footage of people actually having sex to the uncut version which is just gross and unnecessary. The film could have only been helped by pacing, a better more logical script, and a more talented editor. Granted Cristina Lindberg is cute as a button, Thriller is brainlessly exploitative. A little like Last House, in my opinion.
They have made Thriller in America. Look at Hostel, Cabin Fever. No subject matter is too taboo for Americans today. Watch the remake of Last House, that’ll show you how far we’ve come. If you take the real inserts of obvious body doubles going at it, there’s nothing in Thriller that isn’t in American Gangster or Saw. We can’t be shocked anymore.
Go to Comment
Wes Anderson Imitators, the worst kind of directors/writers? about 3 years ago
Rip-offs (I make no claims about their quality): Rocket Science, Igby Goes Down, I Heart Huckabees, Garden State, Juno, Napoleon Dynamite, the latest Robert Patton-Spruill film looks like a total life Aquatic Crib.
Go to Comment