Werner Herzog, without hesitation. Aguirre nearly put me to sleep it was such a poorly acted B movie. Herzog is the least talented of the New German Cinema, and should stick to documentaries only. In today’s Hollywood I would say Ron Howard, who is nearly the Spielberg of the 2000’s, the king of melodrama and biographical cheese. And let’s not forget mr. postmodern himself, Quentin Tarantino who has gone downhill after Jackie Brown.
Lucas really should have stopped at Empire. He pilfered from so many films and genres that by the time Return of the Jedi came around it was such an over hyped behemoth of a franchise that he worried more about the merchandising than staying true to the heart of the original film, which was Kenobi and the force, and everyone knows this. I’m sick of people defending his mythology and vision without giving credit to the vast ‘empire’ of ILM effects genius’ that helped create that vision while rarely getting the attention they deserved. At any rate the themes are morally simplistic, puerile fantasy revisions of conservatism that went from possibility to flagrant entitlement and myopia, which is exactly where we are culturally— the modern-day sequel itself has become proof of our inability to let go of what we want. Lucas abandoned his independent film past and the so-called inspiration for the force, 21-87, and has become a capitalist machine himself.
This film is pure poetry, and one of my favorite parts is the beginning silent scene between Vitti and Rabal which spared the audience of the usual loquacious melodrama of arguing. Ironically at the end both Vitti and Delon, on a deeper level, seem to represent an inability to reconcile commerce and humanity. People, especially Italians, always talk of Antonioni’s trilogia dell incomunicabilita’ but I think he intended much more than just an seeming inability to communicate. I think his characters could not understand the changes that were happening in the 60’s and in themselves, and I agree with MIKE G that the final montage of images, not real but almost apocalyptic, hint at the coming spectacle of our consumerist era we are now in
Herzog is losing his mind and deciding to cash in on our culture that watches anything. Nicholas Cage?? Why not Justin Timberlake?!! I can’t imagine a greater insult to the acting profession than attempting to plagiarize Harvey Keitel brilliant performance in a shitty reworking and have the balls to deny that it is a remake. And the only interesting thing about Herzog’s films was Klaus Kinski; Ferrara is more of a realist and at least chooses actors that can act. I’m getting nauseous too, D-man.
Ben, if you could recommend some of Herzog’s more interesting films I’d like to check them out—Nosferatu was the only one that I remember as being truly unique, and I saw that when I was much younger. I still believe he is overrated compared to so many other directors out there.
Steve, I liked the examples you gave of Cage’s better work, and I haven’t seen enough of Asia Argento to comment but if she’s always as bad as she was in xXx—man, that whole movie was a parody of awful! My point was that even with the limited range Harvey Keitel has (Coppola booted him off Apocalypse Now after all) his performance in Bad Lieutenant was clearly the rawest, most honest performance he’s ever done, and transcends any other film with similar characters.
Hollywood is so terrified of taking risks and getting investors to finance gutsy films that it is too easy to rehash something, especially something that doesn’t require being remade at all, perhaps to try and catch up with the older Gen Y’s.
Ben, if you could recommend some of Herzog’s more interesting films I’d like to check them out—Nosferatu was the only one that I remember as being truly unique, and I saw that when I was much younger. I still believe he is overrated compared to so many other directors out there.
Steve, I liked the examples you gave of Cage’s better work, and I haven’t seen enough of Asia Argento to comment but if she’s always as bad as she was in xXx—man, that whole movie was a parody of awful! My point was that even with the limited range Harvey Keitel has (Coppola booted him off Apocalypse Now after all) his performance in Bad Lieutenant was clearly the rawest, most honest performance he’s ever done, and transcends any other film with similar characters.
Hollywood is so terrified of taking risks and getting investors to finance gutsy films that it is too easy to rehash something, especially something that doesn’t require being remade at all, perhaps to try and catch up with the older Gen Y’s.
Very cool to see Monica Vitti on here, so underrated and beautiful she was. And yes, Claudia Cardinale…what a face! Actually I agree with many of the choices here. My favourite was probably Lana Turner, simply angelic…and Janet Leigh stunning eyes and great instinct in front of the camera. Vivian Leigh, extremely pretty! I love Grace Kelly too. Gene Tierney,Yvonne De Carlo (Moses’ wife in Ten Commandments), Loretta Young, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, Elizabeth Taylor…Stéphane Audran was one of the sexiest French actresses ever, next to Claire Drouot.
Nowadays I’d say Sienna Miller, Liz Hurley, Amanda Peet, Kate Beckinsale, Eva Mendes, Zoe Saldana, Saffron Burrows, Eliza Dushku, Charlize Theron…how can you just pick one!!
His skill at composing shots was second to none, and he imparted a New Wave style to Italian cinema that wasn’t there before he came along. His work in Tickets (2005) along with co-directors Ken Loach and Abbas Kiarostami is impressive, even if that B&W genius of his earlier work is no longer there, his understanding of characters has deepened with age.
Blade Runner. It was the last of the New Hollywood and prophetic in how Hollywood would become hypercommercialistic and shallow. More essays have been written on Blade Runner than probably any other film of the 80’s, and it’s themes of dystopia and what it means to be human, what in fact we are becoming as humans in the face of advanced technology is more relevant today than it was back when it came out in 82’. Many Gen Y’s who were born with technology and perfect fashion sense seem to have trouble appreciating this film and what it’s implications are. Kazu and Brandon, if you really want to understand Blade Runner, first I highly recommend you read up on Marshall McLuhan. Then Philip K. Dick. And Existentialism. Trust me, 25 years from now your kids will mock what you find cool at the moment.
Metropolis was what started it all, and deserves a special place in film history. It was more Marxist than anything, and for a silent film is absolutely brilliant, but it doesn’t have the depth of Blade Runner.
This is a funny question! I bought Notting Hill twice by accident, then gave one months later to my girlfriend at the time. I’ve even rented movies more than once by mistake…
Since both La Notte and La Dolce Vita were both co-written by Ennio Flaiano they could be two different takes on similar themes. Flaiano was a harsh critic of fascism and social critic of Italy’s bourgeoisie. I can’t even imagine what he would say now if her were still alive!
Once when I told my friend’s ex that I had seen over 800 films her eyes nearly popped out of her head and she looked at me with the kind of sympathetic look reserved only for drug addicts. (I’m well over 900 now and going strong…but nowhere near Truffaut’s record!)
Every time I watch a film I add it to my list on IMDB religiously, then weeks later go through the list and try to remember some of the ones that have a title that’s unfamiliar and then suddenly it comes back to you.
When a date recommends a movie like DaVinci Code you immediately offer dinner at a restaurant instead because anything’s better than watching a bad film.
Like Anna says watching a movie then immediately rewatching it with the commentary. It’s almost better the second time because you discover things you didn’t know or overlooked, plus it’s a good intro to film theory.
When someone tells you they don’t like watching B&W movies you feel like strangling them.
Going into a local Blockbuster and cringing at DVD box covers that are more gaudy and hyped than the shitty excuse for a movie inside it.
Watching trailers in theatres for remakes that do not need to be remade at all and shaking your head while everyone else appears to be enraptured.
When people judge a film based on whether it won any Academy Awards or worse, a glowing review, then you show them dozens of older Academy Award films in the bargain rack at Bestbuy that they never heard of.
When your friends think that European films are “too slow” and you feel sorry for them.
(Oh, and for the record, I’m not a fatass and I don’t shit raw film stock or have any funky movie tattoos…but I know of another breed of addicts that sit endlessly in front of tv’s and computer screens. I think they’re called gamers.)
@ Drew, that is only 800 that I think are worth seeing at least once (I keep ‘score’ on IMDB) and yes over the course of many years, although most have been in the last five years. Quality is better than quantity! I’ll go through long periods of watching nothing, sometimes for several weeks, then periods of only watching films. In one interview I watched with Truffaut he mentioned watching literally over 3000 films! Of course, he had a rough childhood and sneaking into theatres was his past-time. In my case winters are long and boring here, and I got really hooked after some recommendations by a buddy who has a film degree (and a giant stomach!).
Actually, I think it’s pretty cool you are a cinephile at such a young age. I was still being dragged to High Concept silliness in the 80’s at fifteen because it was fun and I didn’t know much better, which is exactly what everyone else that age is doing now. The great thing about cinema is that it only gets better as you get older, and as you begin to read philosophy, cultural and media studies, psychology, etc. the themes become much deeper. I’m 40 and enjoying what movies mean more than ever.
To be fair I haven’t seen the film, only trailers (which these days IS the movie) but after an article in New Yorker I decided to read the original short story and now I have no desire to see the film. They screwed up the story to make it about appreciating your time and the make-up effects on Brad Pitt, while the in original story Button is about immaturity and ignorance, questioning whether we actually become wiser with age or dumber. In short, they decided to lighten it up and make a fairy tale soap opera.
Cinema is, like all art, a reflection of our society and our society seems to be devolving instead of progressing. Technology and hyperconsumerism are choking us without our even realizing it while Postmodernism is laughing in the background. In a more rational culture, we could at least be making great films that question what the hell is going on in our world, at least satirize the insanity but the reality is that studios are run by greedy, conservative multinationals who rely on market research from its customers instead of auteurs and writers. It will take quite some time for cinema to find its heart again, and although Godard stated in this interview:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/apr/29/2
that cinema is over I’m more inclined to say it’s comatose like the rest of society, waiting for something meaningful to wake us up again. Sites like this will hopefully trigger a Renaissance in cinema that is badly needed. I think however, that the problem is much deeper this time and although I agree with many of the comments here that art is cyclical once we can see beyond the thin veneer of money and materialism again I’m sure the ‘poetry’ will return. I’m beginning to think it will take rebels and fighters to balk the system—we need a revolution of sorts.
It’s sickening hypocrisy by the conservative moral police of America. When rappers like R. Kelly are involved with numerous underage girls the fans eat it up and buy more of his music (he apparently has better lawyers than Polanski) or Michael Jackson “jacko”, remember him? The real issue here is prejudice against a non-American brilliant film director who is going to be made an example of, even at the age of 76, by people who celebrated his work and are now jumping on the bangwagon to lynch him so they can sleep better at night, while the kinds of sexual atrocities committed by soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan go unreported because noone wants to hear that kind of news. Hurray for justice! The scapegoat is a little director with personal demons caught up in the decadent lifestyle of Hollywood that was in the wrong place at the wrong time with a slutty little natassja-kinsi-lolita wanna-be and her greedy mother. A botched justice system that can’t make up it’s mind how to convict celebrities compels him to flee the country. With any luck he’ll give his videotaped acceptance speech for lifetime achievement (from the Zurich Film Festival, so much for swiss neutrality) in prison—oops, that wasn’t a real award Roman we just couldn’t think of any other way to trick you after 30 years—and remain there for another five years or so till he croaks, if he’s lucky! Better yet, let’s just throw stones at him and burn all his films—that will fix everything. Then we can exhume Michael Jackson and retry his case, also.
Being a first-generation Italian-Canadian, I agree with Frank T. about the predominant American cast pretending to be Italian as simply dumb and a blatant money grab for Hollywood’s customers, but the reality is that few or any Italian actors would have wanted to be part of this Rob Marshall production. To be fair, I haven’t seen the musical and I am sure Raoul Julia’s performances were excellent in the 80’s. The problem is that they are merely cashing in on the timing of the Broadway success, and the Hollywood template of throwing a huge ensemble cast into this production, as impressive as it may be, will fall flat because it is postmodern, formulaic reinvention of Fellini’s most personal work, and one of cinema’s best. A musical can only be a musical.
I read once in an interview with Fellini that he spoke of Italy’s “twin castrating forces” as being both fascism and religion, and in 8 1/2 it was dealt with in complete vulnerability and candor while being subtle. I haven’t heard the song in question “Be Italian”, (which was written by American composer Maury Yeston, not the playwright Mario Fratti who originally wrote Nine) and I think the argument is irrelevant about Italians or Fellini being ‘overly sexed’—the point was that he mocked censorship on all levels while admitting his own personal passions and distortions of women. Fellini gave cinema a rare, honest gift with 8 1/2, and that has been appropriated—like alot of things in our culture—into a cheesy, extroverted romp with no meaning or respect for the original. I deeply admire Daniel Day Lewis but I think he stretched himself way beyond his capabilities here if he honestly believed he was going to reinvent Mastroianni, and as for Rob Marshall he can rot in a giant vat of bubbling acid for all I care, along with Weinstein and Fratti.
Vangelis’ score for Blade Runner is the only film I can think of that transformed the film into a separate world; it actually became a character in the film itself. Having watched the workprint version the film is more existential and has an interesting quality with the silence but under Vangelis’ synthesizer the hi-tech, dystopian world of the future he helped articulate the hypocrisy of society, technology and ourselves without the use of familiar violins or orchestra, which wouldn’t have worked in Blade Runner. He even adds unusual sound textures in many scenes to heighten the alienation without melodrama. If you listen to the film’s beginning, it has a distinctly Japanese severity, almost Samurai-like, yet as the film progresses it becomes more melancholy and contemplative, like a character trying to understand the world that society created. Another motif throughout the film is memories and nostalgia, relying heavily on piano for emphasis yet with synthesizer accompanying in very melancholy tones. The famous saxophone of the ‘love scene’ is the only emotional warmth of the entire film save for the ‘Tears in Rain’ soliloquy near the end of the film.
It amazes me that this soundtrack was unavailable for so many years and yet although nominated never won any awards.
I haven’t seen all of Pasolini’s films, but knowing something about him helps to understand his work. He was an atheist, for one thing, and an avowed communist, and also a harsh critic of consumerism. In many of his films he tries to preserve the simplicity of rural life, or of characters that are poor and honest, often using Italian dialects as opposed to standard Italian, and depicting people in situations not popular in cinema or fiction. He was also a poet and writer…a complex character that would warrant a film by itself. In the Italian wikipedia article of him an art critic compares the death of Pasolini to Caravaggio, both tragic realists whose deaths seem to have been so dramatic as to be almost choreographed in a manner similar their art. Pasolini saw the dark side of human nature and the phoniness of society itself as the inspiration behind his marxist views.
As for books, I haven’t seen too many on Amazon but when I was in Italy there were plenty of biographies on him. I would look for any translations as some may have been written by people who actually knew him.
Who do you think the most overrated director is? over 3 years ago
Werner Herzog, without hesitation. Aguirre nearly put me to sleep it was such a poorly acted B movie. Herzog is the least talented of the New German Cinema, and should stick to documentaries only. In today’s Hollywood I would say Ron Howard, who is nearly the Spielberg of the 2000’s, the king of melodrama and biographical cheese. And let’s not forget mr. postmodern himself, Quentin Tarantino who has gone downhill after Jackie Brown.
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How Star Wars Ruined Society over 3 years ago
Lucas really should have stopped at Empire. He pilfered from so many films and genres that by the time Return of the Jedi came around it was such an over hyped behemoth of a franchise that he worried more about the merchandising than staying true to the heart of the original film, which was Kenobi and the force, and everyone knows this. I’m sick of people defending his mythology and vision without giving credit to the vast ‘empire’ of ILM effects genius’ that helped create that vision while rarely getting the attention they deserved. At any rate the themes are morally simplistic, puerile fantasy revisions of conservatism that went from possibility to flagrant entitlement and myopia, which is exactly where we are culturally— the modern-day sequel itself has become proof of our inability to let go of what we want. Lucas abandoned his independent film past and the so-called inspiration for the force, 21-87, and has become a capitalist machine himself.
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Antonioni (and DiVenanzo) L'eclisse over 3 years ago
This film is pure poetry, and one of my favorite parts is the beginning silent scene between Vitti and Rabal which spared the audience of the usual loquacious melodrama of arguing. Ironically at the end both Vitti and Delon, on a deeper level, seem to represent an inability to reconcile commerce and humanity. People, especially Italians, always talk of Antonioni’s trilogia dell incomunicabilita’ but I think he intended much more than just an seeming inability to communicate. I think his characters could not understand the changes that were happening in the 60’s and in themselves, and I agree with MIKE G that the final montage of images, not real but almost apocalyptic, hint at the coming spectacle of our consumerist era we are now in
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BAD LIEUTENANT over 3 years ago
Herzog is losing his mind and deciding to cash in on our culture that watches anything. Nicholas Cage?? Why not Justin Timberlake?!! I can’t imagine a greater insult to the acting profession than attempting to plagiarize Harvey Keitel brilliant performance in a shitty reworking and have the balls to deny that it is a remake. And the only interesting thing about Herzog’s films was Klaus Kinski; Ferrara is more of a realist and at least chooses actors that can act. I’m getting nauseous too, D-man.
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BAD LIEUTENANT over 3 years ago
Ben, if you could recommend some of Herzog’s more interesting films I’d like to check them out—Nosferatu was the only one that I remember as being truly unique, and I saw that when I was much younger. I still believe he is overrated compared to so many other directors out there.
Steve, I liked the examples you gave of Cage’s better work, and I haven’t seen enough of Asia Argento to comment but if she’s always as bad as she was in xXx—man, that whole movie was a parody of awful! My point was that even with the limited range Harvey Keitel has (Coppola booted him off Apocalypse Now after all) his performance in Bad Lieutenant was clearly the rawest, most honest performance he’s ever done, and transcends any other film with similar characters.
Hollywood is so terrified of taking risks and getting investors to finance gutsy films that it is too easy to rehash something, especially something that doesn’t require being remade at all, perhaps to try and catch up with the older Gen Y’s.
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BAD LIEUTENANT over 3 years ago
Ben, if you could recommend some of Herzog’s more interesting films I’d like to check them out—Nosferatu was the only one that I remember as being truly unique, and I saw that when I was much younger. I still believe he is overrated compared to so many other directors out there.
Steve, I liked the examples you gave of Cage’s better work, and I haven’t seen enough of Asia Argento to comment but if she’s always as bad as she was in xXx—man, that whole movie was a parody of awful! My point was that even with the limited range Harvey Keitel has (Coppola booted him off Apocalypse Now after all) his performance in Bad Lieutenant was clearly the rawest, most honest performance he’s ever done, and transcends any other film with similar characters.
Hollywood is so terrified of taking risks and getting investors to finance gutsy films that it is too easy to rehash something, especially something that doesn’t require being remade at all, perhaps to try and catch up with the older Gen Y’s.
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WHO IS / WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FILM ACTRESS EVER? over 3 years ago
Very cool to see Monica Vitti on here, so underrated and beautiful she was. And yes, Claudia Cardinale…what a face! Actually I agree with many of the choices here. My favourite was probably Lana Turner, simply angelic…and Janet Leigh stunning eyes and great instinct in front of the camera. Vivian Leigh, extremely pretty! I love Grace Kelly too. Gene Tierney,Yvonne De Carlo (Moses’ wife in Ten Commandments), Loretta Young, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, Elizabeth Taylor…Stéphane Audran was one of the sexiest French actresses ever, next to Claire Drouot.
Nowadays I’d say Sienna Miller, Liz Hurley, Amanda Peet, Kate Beckinsale, Eva Mendes, Zoe Saldana, Saffron Burrows, Eliza Dushku, Charlize Theron…how can you just pick one!!
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Ermanno Olmi over 3 years ago
His skill at composing shots was second to none, and he imparted a New Wave style to Italian cinema that wasn’t there before he came along. His work in Tickets (2005) along with co-directors Ken Loach and Abbas Kiarostami is impressive, even if that B&W genius of his earlier work is no longer there, his understanding of characters has deepened with age.
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Metropolis or Blade Runner. over 3 years ago
Blade Runner. It was the last of the New Hollywood and prophetic in how Hollywood would become hypercommercialistic and shallow. More essays have been written on Blade Runner than probably any other film of the 80’s, and it’s themes of dystopia and what it means to be human, what in fact we are becoming as humans in the face of advanced technology is more relevant today than it was back when it came out in 82’. Many Gen Y’s who were born with technology and perfect fashion sense seem to have trouble appreciating this film and what it’s implications are. Kazu and Brandon, if you really want to understand Blade Runner, first I highly recommend you read up on Marshall McLuhan. Then Philip K. Dick. And Existentialism. Trust me, 25 years from now your kids will mock what you find cool at the moment.
Metropolis was what started it all, and deserves a special place in film history. It was more Marxist than anything, and for a silent film is absolutely brilliant, but it doesn’t have the depth of Blade Runner.
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BAD LIEUTENANT over 3 years ago
thanks Ben, I’ll check those out.
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Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection over 3 years ago
Bullfighter and the Lady with Robert Stack…beautifully shot film, highly underrated. I saw it on TCM a few times.
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Ever bought a dvd then realized you already owned it? over 3 years ago
This is a funny question! I bought Notting Hill twice by accident, then gave one months later to my girlfriend at the time. I’ve even rented movies more than once by mistake…
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ITALIAN NIGHT LIFE over 3 years ago
Amen Troy!!
Since both La Notte and La Dolce Vita were both co-written by Ennio Flaiano they could be two different takes on similar themes. Flaiano was a harsh critic of fascism and social critic of Italy’s bourgeoisie. I can’t even imagine what he would say now if her were still alive!
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You know your a cinephile when? about 3 years ago
Once when I told my friend’s ex that I had seen over 800 films her eyes nearly popped out of her head and she looked at me with the kind of sympathetic look reserved only for drug addicts. (I’m well over 900 now and going strong…but nowhere near Truffaut’s record!)
Every time I watch a film I add it to my list on IMDB religiously, then weeks later go through the list and try to remember some of the ones that have a title that’s unfamiliar and then suddenly it comes back to you.
When a date recommends a movie like DaVinci Code you immediately offer dinner at a restaurant instead because anything’s better than watching a bad film.
Like Anna says watching a movie then immediately rewatching it with the commentary. It’s almost better the second time because you discover things you didn’t know or overlooked, plus it’s a good intro to film theory.
When someone tells you they don’t like watching B&W movies you feel like strangling them.
Going into a local Blockbuster and cringing at DVD box covers that are more gaudy and hyped than the shitty excuse for a movie inside it.
Watching trailers in theatres for remakes that do not need to be remade at all and shaking your head while everyone else appears to be enraptured.
When people judge a film based on whether it won any Academy Awards or worse, a glowing review, then you show them dozens of older Academy Award films in the bargain rack at Bestbuy that they never heard of.
When your friends think that European films are “too slow” and you feel sorry for them.
(Oh, and for the record, I’m not a fatass and I don’t shit raw film stock or have any funky movie tattoos…but I know of another breed of addicts that sit endlessly in front of tv’s and computer screens. I think they’re called gamers.)
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You know your a cinephile when? about 3 years ago
@ Drew, that is only 800 that I think are worth seeing at least once (I keep ‘score’ on IMDB) and yes over the course of many years, although most have been in the last five years. Quality is better than quantity! I’ll go through long periods of watching nothing, sometimes for several weeks, then periods of only watching films. In one interview I watched with Truffaut he mentioned watching literally over 3000 films! Of course, he had a rough childhood and sneaking into theatres was his past-time. In my case winters are long and boring here, and I got really hooked after some recommendations by a buddy who has a film degree (and a giant stomach!).
Actually, I think it’s pretty cool you are a cinephile at such a young age. I was still being dragged to High Concept silliness in the 80’s at fifteen because it was fun and I didn’t know much better, which is exactly what everyone else that age is doing now. The great thing about cinema is that it only gets better as you get older, and as you begin to read philosophy, cultural and media studies, psychology, etc. the themes become much deeper. I’m 40 and enjoying what movies mean more than ever.
Go to Comment
Am I the only one who liked Benjamin Button? about 3 years ago
To be fair I haven’t seen the film, only trailers (which these days IS the movie) but after an article in New Yorker I decided to read the original short story and now I have no desire to see the film. They screwed up the story to make it about appreciating your time and the make-up effects on Brad Pitt, while the in original story Button is about immaturity and ignorance, questioning whether we actually become wiser with age or dumber. In short, they decided to lighten it up and make a fairy tale soap opera.
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Is Cinema dying? about 3 years ago
Cinema is, like all art, a reflection of our society and our society seems to be devolving instead of progressing. Technology and hyperconsumerism are choking us without our even realizing it while Postmodernism is laughing in the background. In a more rational culture, we could at least be making great films that question what the hell is going on in our world, at least satirize the insanity but the reality is that studios are run by greedy, conservative multinationals who rely on market research from its customers instead of auteurs and writers. It will take quite some time for cinema to find its heart again, and although Godard stated in this interview:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/apr/29/2
that cinema is over I’m more inclined to say it’s comatose like the rest of society, waiting for something meaningful to wake us up again. Sites like this will hopefully trigger a Renaissance in cinema that is badly needed. I think however, that the problem is much deeper this time and although I agree with many of the comments here that art is cyclical once we can see beyond the thin veneer of money and materialism again I’m sure the ‘poetry’ will return. I’m beginning to think it will take rebels and fighters to balk the system—we need a revolution of sorts.
Go to Comment
polanski arrested again over 2 years ago
It’s sickening hypocrisy by the conservative moral police of America. When rappers like R. Kelly are involved with numerous underage girls the fans eat it up and buy more of his music (he apparently has better lawyers than Polanski) or Michael Jackson “jacko”, remember him? The real issue here is prejudice against a non-American brilliant film director who is going to be made an example of, even at the age of 76, by people who celebrated his work and are now jumping on the bangwagon to lynch him so they can sleep better at night, while the kinds of sexual atrocities committed by soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan go unreported because noone wants to hear that kind of news. Hurray for justice! The scapegoat is a little director with personal demons caught up in the decadent lifestyle of Hollywood that was in the wrong place at the wrong time with a slutty little natassja-kinsi-lolita wanna-be and her greedy mother. A botched justice system that can’t make up it’s mind how to convict celebrities compels him to flee the country. With any luck he’ll give his videotaped acceptance speech for lifetime achievement (from the Zurich Film Festival, so much for swiss neutrality) in prison—oops, that wasn’t a real award Roman we just couldn’t think of any other way to trick you after 30 years—and remain there for another five years or so till he croaks, if he’s lucky! Better yet, let’s just throw stones at him and burn all his films—that will fix everything. Then we can exhume Michael Jackson and retry his case, also.
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8 1/2 becomes NINE over 2 years ago
To Dimitri: Amen!
Being a first-generation Italian-Canadian, I agree with Frank T. about the predominant American cast pretending to be Italian as simply dumb and a blatant money grab for Hollywood’s customers, but the reality is that few or any Italian actors would have wanted to be part of this Rob Marshall production. To be fair, I haven’t seen the musical and I am sure Raoul Julia’s performances were excellent in the 80’s. The problem is that they are merely cashing in on the timing of the Broadway success, and the Hollywood template of throwing a huge ensemble cast into this production, as impressive as it may be, will fall flat because it is postmodern, formulaic reinvention of Fellini’s most personal work, and one of cinema’s best. A musical can only be a musical.
I read once in an interview with Fellini that he spoke of Italy’s “twin castrating forces” as being both fascism and religion, and in 8 1/2 it was dealt with in complete vulnerability and candor while being subtle. I haven’t heard the song in question “Be Italian”, (which was written by American composer Maury Yeston, not the playwright Mario Fratti who originally wrote Nine) and I think the argument is irrelevant about Italians or Fellini being ‘overly sexed’—the point was that he mocked censorship on all levels while admitting his own personal passions and distortions of women. Fellini gave cinema a rare, honest gift with 8 1/2, and that has been appropriated—like alot of things in our culture—into a cheesy, extroverted romp with no meaning or respect for the original. I deeply admire Daniel Day Lewis but I think he stretched himself way beyond his capabilities here if he honestly believed he was going to reinvent Mastroianni, and as for Rob Marshall he can rot in a giant vat of bubbling acid for all I care, along with Weinstein and Fratti.
I think Weinstein should have played Saraghina!
Che schifezza!
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The Perfect Film Score over 2 years ago
Vangelis’ score for Blade Runner is the only film I can think of that transformed the film into a separate world; it actually became a character in the film itself. Having watched the workprint version the film is more existential and has an interesting quality with the silence but under Vangelis’ synthesizer the hi-tech, dystopian world of the future he helped articulate the hypocrisy of society, technology and ourselves without the use of familiar violins or orchestra, which wouldn’t have worked in Blade Runner. He even adds unusual sound textures in many scenes to heighten the alienation without melodrama. If you listen to the film’s beginning, it has a distinctly Japanese severity, almost Samurai-like, yet as the film progresses it becomes more melancholy and contemplative, like a character trying to understand the world that society created. Another motif throughout the film is memories and nostalgia, relying heavily on piano for emphasis yet with synthesizer accompanying in very melancholy tones. The famous saxophone of the ‘love scene’ is the only emotional warmth of the entire film save for the ‘Tears in Rain’ soliloquy near the end of the film.
It amazes me that this soundtrack was unavailable for so many years and yet although nominated never won any awards.
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WHAT FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM YOU WANT TO SEE ON CRITERION? 9 months ago
Quiet Days in Clichy by Jens Jørgen Thorsen
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Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life" 9 months ago
Beautiful film…I’m amazed he actually got it made in today’s world of corporate greed and demographics.
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Explaining Pasolini 9 months ago
I haven’t seen all of Pasolini’s films, but knowing something about him helps to understand his work. He was an atheist, for one thing, and an avowed communist, and also a harsh critic of consumerism. In many of his films he tries to preserve the simplicity of rural life, or of characters that are poor and honest, often using Italian dialects as opposed to standard Italian, and depicting people in situations not popular in cinema or fiction. He was also a poet and writer…a complex character that would warrant a film by itself. In the Italian wikipedia article of him an art critic compares the death of Pasolini to Caravaggio, both tragic realists whose deaths seem to have been so dramatic as to be almost choreographed in a manner similar their art. Pasolini saw the dark side of human nature and the phoniness of society itself as the inspiration behind his marxist views.
As for books, I haven’t seen too many on Amazon but when I was in Italy there were plenty of biographies on him. I would look for any translations as some may have been written by people who actually knew him.
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Most erotic films you've seen. 9 months ago
Une liaison pornographique, Lie with Me, Lower City, Suely in the Sky, Histoire d’O, Love in the Afternoon, Trasgredire, En la cama***
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