Jack Lehtonen on mubi.com, the social network for people who love film.

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Jack Lehtonen

El Centro, California

About Me

My Blog

The Vulgar Cinema

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see Jack Lehtonen's filmography

Night of the Demon

One must dispense with the obvious first: the creature/ Chris Fujiwara already argued why the appearance of the demon is necessary. It informs the entire philosophy of the film. This is one of the profound films. It is a man denying the unknown, denying fear, denying doubt, and ultimately, critically, denying mortality. This is one of the grand Tourneur masterpieces. Dana Andrews, or Tourneur himself, or us, not only stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the mysticism of cinema, but refuses to face up to the reality of death. A horror film about the unknown becomes an absolute encounter with the void.

Favorite Films

Displaying 4 of 340 films

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Wagon Master

Histoire(s) du cinéma

The 47 Ronin

Blaise Pascal

Lists

Displaying 10 of 15 lists

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Style

Auteur-driven
Pop Art

Following

Following 181 people

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Rüdiger Tomczak

Dr. Pepper

Bruno Leal

Matt L

The Way

Wall

Displaying 4 of 578 wall posts.

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João MC Palhares

18May13

Hey, Jack! What version of 'Legend of the Mountain' did you see? The 1h52 version or the 184 min. version? I've been wanting to see that but I can't find the longer version and I'm a little resistant to the shorter one.

Jack Lehtonen

19May13

Alas, the shorter one. Though I was clearly missing out on what the longer one likely offers, it was still so potent and mysterious a piece of King Hu craft that I couldn't help being overwhelmed!
João MC Palhares

19May13

All right, I'll watch that one one of these days, then. Your five star rating got me very interested. The director's cut seems to add this (according to Daniel Kasman): "The rare director’s cut of Legend of the Mountain screened at the festival (on video, alas, but we take what we can get!) spends nearly one (out of three) hours languorously setting the mood through successive traveling shots following our scholar-hero (and crypto director stand-in) as he passes through one sun-stroked landscape after another" http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/iffr-2011-the-way-of-the-silents-king-hus-legend-of-the-mountain

Zachary W

18May13

290 films? What happened, ma brutha?

Jack Lehtonen

18May13

Well, I have rejected my old Mubi profile. I was going to delete the entire thing and start a new one, but Neil, Kurt, Tyson, and CJ advised me against it.
Jack Lehtonen

18May13

My primary focus now, favorites-wise, is to add groups of films from my absolute favorite directors.
David Grillo

19May13

please don't ever delete this Jack your profile is invaluable
Zachary W

19May13

Over the top and haughtily extravagant. I would expect nothing less from you, Jack.
Zachary W

19May13

At the very least it warms my heart to see the influx of Jia Zhangke (and you picked his three masterpieces thus far; good call).

HKFanatic

8May13

Do I sense a Kiyoshi Kurosawa marathon in the near future? :]

Jack Lehtonen and Trevor Tillman like this

Jack Lehtonen

13May13

Indeed! Bright Future was my first, Cure and Pulse soon to follow!

Zachary W

5May13

You saw Isole de Fuoco! Have you seen any other De Seta yet? My two favourites are Shepherds of Orgosolo and A Day in Barbagia, which play as sort of companion pieces, and also contain the most stunning examination of labour that I've ever seen in film.

Jack Lehtonen likes this

Jack Lehtonen

13May13

Haven't watched any of the others yet, but his power with sound and image is remarkable. The sound in particular, my god.
Zachary W

13May13

What gets me most about De Seta is how tangible and fleshy and material his sounds and images are. Everything seems to come back to the Earth and the work that humans do on it and with it.
Jack Lehtonen

13May13

Giving Isole a 4 feels, honestly, embarrassing. Not being able to articulate my grievances makes me think they may be phantom. It's so earthy! Flooring.