well they got this pig in this mountain in Algeria, looks to have legs, ears and a nose at least
Old movies you've only seen recently...
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well they got this pig in this mountain in Algeria, looks to have legs, ears and a nose at least
klezmer electro-thug beats said:
The Kid With A Bike
Dardenne brothers social realism... kinda. But also kind of plays out like a myth. A young boy, rejected by his father, acts out and hurts people in a search for a surrogate figure, and is hurt in turn. I liked it but it felt kind of "pure cinema" in a way I'm not sure I needed in this kind of story. Like, all of the action felt real and affecting, and it was a pretty physical movie, lots of biking, running, fighting, climbing fences, etc. But the main character in the boy's life isn't shown to have any motivation to be in his life, and the kid's own motivations for changing are left pretty opaque. I'm sure that's on purpose but I'm not sure that's enough for me.
Actually haven't seen that one, but I'm generally a fan. I recently re-watched Rosetta with some students and it's still brilliant and HEAVY.
"Lost In America": Road trip / 80s corporate America satire has some hilarious dialogues. My favorite scene is when Garry Marshall, as the casino manager, refuses to give a refund on stupid gambling losses. "I like Wayne Newton. Are you saying I'm a schmuck?"
"The Gambler": Speaking of casinos, James Caan plays a college professor who gets a rush from the risk of losing his money, girlfriend and life.
"Fitzcarraldo": I heard about the infamous "Apocalypse Now"-style turmoil behind the camera. Klaus Kinski, loosely portraying Carlos Fitzcarrald, with the financial assistance of his brothel-owning wife and challenged by a filthy rich businessman, also involved with the lucrative and environmentally exploitative rubber trade, assembles a ship crew to bring opera concerts to the native tribesmen of a then uncharted territory of the Amazon jungle during early last century. I stuck with it and really enjoyed it.
"Antoni Gaudi": my mother and her husband visited Spain several years ago and raved about the architect's work. That led me to see this Japanese-produced feature from the early 80s. Other than a couple of parts where a historian chimes in to give context, this "documentary" has no spoken words. With the accompanying droning soundtrack and candid footage of people on the street, it reminds me of Godfrey Reggio.
"The Gambler": Speaking of casinos, James Caan plays a college professor who gets a rush from the risk of losing his money, girlfriend and life.
"Fitzcarraldo": I heard about the infamous "Apocalypse Now"-style turmoil behind the camera. Klaus Kinski, loosely portraying Carlos Fitzcarrald, with the financial assistance of his brothel-owning wife and challenged by a filthy rich businessman, also involved with the lucrative and environmentally exploitative rubber trade, assembles a ship crew to bring opera concerts to the native tribesmen of a then uncharted territory of the Amazon jungle during early last century. I stuck with it and really enjoyed it.
"Antoni Gaudi": my mother and her husband visited Spain several years ago and raved about the architect's work. That led me to see this Japanese-produced feature from the early 80s. Other than a couple of parts where a historian chimes in to give context, this "documentary" has no spoken words. With the accompanying droning soundtrack and candid footage of people on the street, it reminds me of Godfrey Reggio.
ppadilha said:
Burden of Dreams, the documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo, is the better than the movie itself
I think Heart of Darkness (IIRC), the doc about the making of Apocalypse Now falls into the same category.
Also pretty sure Tropic Thunder takes heavy influence from that doc/real life and spoofs it.
Also track down My Best Fiend, Herzog's documentary on his decades-long relationship with the madman Kinski.
I spent my day off watching Bertolucci's "1900" and "The Last Emperor". I've heard about both, but never seen either before. The word "epic" gets thrown around a lot, but they are deserving of the description. There is the similar "changing times" theme, regarding Italy and China, respectively.
https://youtu.be/BkdHDr_2yb0
https://youtu.be/QBUbmT8cCkM
https://youtu.be/BkdHDr_2yb0
https://youtu.be/QBUbmT8cCkM
felt like watching something stupid the other day, but this wasn't very good. Except for Mandy Patinkin, he's alright in this.
watched this one last night, I actually hadn't seen it when it came out for some reason, even though it's right up my alley. Dope cast and the movie has aged pretty well IMO.
I've been on a bit of a sci-fi kick, rewatching some things and finally watching others I missed out on long ago. I want to watch Dark City again because I remember really liking it when it came out, and Strange Days because I've never seen it.
"The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp": While I've seen plenty of WW2-era morale booster films and Powell/Pressburger's "Black Narcissus", "Red Shoes" and "A Matter Of Life And Death", this one has escaped me. The opening scene makes it seem like a farce comedy, but it's a touching story of a British soldier's (Roger Livesley) forty year career which involves his friendship with a German officer (Anton Walbrook) and both of their relationships with three women, all played by Deborah Kerr.
"Manhunter": I read "Red Dragon" years ago so I know how it played out although the film differs quite a bit near the end. I haven't seen the 2002 remake to compare. Tom Noonan is ice cold in this and Brian Cox was an excellent choice for Hannibal Lecktor.
"Coup De Torchon": i was going to see director Bertrand Tavernier's debut, "The Clockmaker Of St. Paul", but the only subtitled copy I have of it was eaten up in my tape player. So instead, I opted to see this. I haven't read the book it is based on ("Population 1280") nor have I heard of the author Jim Thompson prior, admittedly. Philippe Noiret plays a slovenly but cunning police officer who resides with his wife in a Senegalese village during the late 30s, right before the outbreak of WW2. It's a very interesting mix of revenge thriller and comedy.
"The Player": Movies about the making of movies is a well-worn shoe but this one was fun, especially with all the cameos by actors playing themselves, none of which think highly of Tim Robbins' smug studio exec character.
"Confessions of a Police Captain" and "I Am Afraid": Both are a part of Damiano Damiani's series of movies which examine the socio-political climate during Italy's Years Of Lead. Very well made but maybe not for someone expecting a thrilling "cop movie" of the type the country excelled at during the same period.
"The Beguiled": Clint Eastwood plays a wounded soldier hiding in a girls' school during the US Civil War. One of his lesser films, but at least he doesn't sing.
While I helped my mother clean out her garage this past weekend, I found my VHS collection. Many which have been released on DVD by now were donated to the thrift store, but here is the majority of the ones I kept. Sharing with you who may enjoy box cover art:
dizzybull said:
I’m finally watching Ken Burns’ Jazz. It is really good. I mean it’s great.
funny, I've been watching it too, but some of it irks me. For one, there's an abundance of those stupid comments about "the most important musician on Earth" or whatever. One dude at one point comes in just to spit a whole paragraph about Louis Armstrong moving to NYC that's like "the most important musician in the world moved to the biggest city in the world to work with the biggest band leader in the world" or something like that. Put down your superlatives, buddy.
I'm about halfway through right now, and I'm not sure swing music deserves 4 hours of content, and I'm pretty sure I'll be pissed when it ends because I can tell it's just going to ignore a lot of actual jazz history that they could have easily covered but maybe doesn't fit into Ken Burns' mythology about America. And it's kinda weird that one of the main criticisms of his work is how so much of it is told from a white american's point of view, and yet he seems to go out of his way to make sure white people are equally represented in a series about a musical genre that is predominantly non-white. I wonder if people like Machito even come up (so far only on a club marquee).
ppadilha said:
dizzybull said:
I’m finally watching Ken Burns’ Jazz. It is really good. I mean it’s great.
funny, I've been watching it too, but some of it irks me. For one, there's an abundance of those stupid comments about "the most important musician on Earth" or whatever. One dude at one point comes in just to spit a whole paragraph about Louis Armstrong moving to NYC that's like "the most important musician in the world moved to the biggest city in the world to work with the biggest band leader in the world" or something like that. Put down your superlatives, buddy.
I'm about halfway through right now, and I'm not sure swing music deserves 4 hours of content, and I'm pretty sure I'll be pissed when it ends because I can tell it's just going to ignore a lot of actual jazz history that they could have easily covered but maybe doesn't fit into Ken Burns' mythology about America. And it's kinda weird that one of the main criticisms of his work is how so much of it is told from a white american's point of view, and yet he seems to go out of his way to make sure white people are equally represented in a series about a musical genre that is predominantly non-white. I wonder if people like Machito even come up (so far only on a club marquee).
Interesting points! I'm only on the second episode so far.
I saw the whole thing years ago. I enjoyed it, especially the use of archived footage and photos. However, many big names were left out (Eric Dolphy? JJ Johnson?...), with the exception of those who were mentioned in passing to, for example, mention drug addiction (an episode was dedicated to this) or influence on Wynton Marsalis. The wheels fall off on the last episode: "After 'Bitches Brew', everyone forgot about jazz...until these youngsters came along!". I remember that a grouchy Stanley Crouch dismisses fusion and rap.
Electrode said:
I saw the whole thing years ago. I enjoyed it, especially the use of archived footage and photos. However, many big names were left out (Eric Dolphy? JJ Johnson?...), with the exception of those who were mentioned in passing to, for example, mention drug addiction (an episode was dedicated to this) or influence on Wynton Marsalis. The wheels fall off on the last episode: "After 'Bitches Brew', everyone forgot about jazz...until these youngsters came along!". I remember that a grouchy Stanley Crouch dismisses fusion and rap.
Stanley Grouch
I can see Stanley Crouch getting grouchy about fusion and whatnot, but he's actually one of the best things about the series so far.
Just remembered another thing that gets a bit tired is Wynton Marsalis busting out his horn to toot away an answer to a question
Just remembered another thing that gets a bit tired is Wynton Marsalis busting out his horn to toot away an answer to a question
I just watched two movies back to back that totally work as a double feature but it was not intentional.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - I'd never watched this and you know how film nerds will bring this kind of thing up, so I figured I finally should. It'd been a while since I watched any other Bunuel movie and I kinda forgot that he can trick you with things lining up to make traditional narrative sense and then blow it all up. Extremely dream logic, avaricious bourgeois types trying to get served a meal in like every scene and and thwarted in every scene. They never get to eat, but never stop feeling entitled to a fancy meal around a table with servants. I feel like there's a lot of individual stuff to break up and analyze but I deliberately didn't try. It was fine. I don't buy people talking about this being so laugh-out-loud funny though. It's like Sensible Chuckle Magazine.
The Big Feast - I kept thinking "this is the most 70s movie ever". 70s European movie anyway. Another critique of bourgeois entitlement and consumption, but with zero light touch. If it's subtext, it's like, those subdermal implants that make shapes through your skin that are fully visible from outside. No deep reading necessary: 4 successful professional men hole up in a lavish old house determined to eat themselves to death. The whole movie, outside of a brief intro, is just four dudes wolfing down insane portions of the ugliest looking 70s-cookbook-photography type food you've ever seen, in scene after scene. They get some girls in and there's some awful 70s sex, but without stopping eating the awful 70s food.
This movie could be useful as a diet aid. I keep thinking back to it and going "I'm gonna just have some yogurt for lunch". It was like a 70s horror-exploitation with no gore. Same feeling. And while it wasn't pleasant and didn't need to be anything other than a 10 page short story, much less a 130-minute movie, I don't mind that it exists and can be watched. It's the wrench hitting you in the face of bourgeois-decadence movies. And the 70s concentration is off the charts:
a brutally simple one line class-politics message that doesn't justify the story but is the only reason for it existing,
passionless hellish sex scenes,
loads of nasty fucking blancmanges, pates and shit,
dark-ass wood paneled rooms that appear to have no windows,
Marcello Mastroianni at his most intolerable, full juvenile mania.
Also it had lots of farting.
So one movie about bourgeois types never getting to eat, and one movie where they finally do, to death. Appetites foiled, then sated.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - I'd never watched this and you know how film nerds will bring this kind of thing up, so I figured I finally should. It'd been a while since I watched any other Bunuel movie and I kinda forgot that he can trick you with things lining up to make traditional narrative sense and then blow it all up. Extremely dream logic, avaricious bourgeois types trying to get served a meal in like every scene and and thwarted in every scene. They never get to eat, but never stop feeling entitled to a fancy meal around a table with servants. I feel like there's a lot of individual stuff to break up and analyze but I deliberately didn't try. It was fine. I don't buy people talking about this being so laugh-out-loud funny though. It's like Sensible Chuckle Magazine.
The Big Feast - I kept thinking "this is the most 70s movie ever". 70s European movie anyway. Another critique of bourgeois entitlement and consumption, but with zero light touch. If it's subtext, it's like, those subdermal implants that make shapes through your skin that are fully visible from outside. No deep reading necessary: 4 successful professional men hole up in a lavish old house determined to eat themselves to death. The whole movie, outside of a brief intro, is just four dudes wolfing down insane portions of the ugliest looking 70s-cookbook-photography type food you've ever seen, in scene after scene. They get some girls in and there's some awful 70s sex, but without stopping eating the awful 70s food.
This movie could be useful as a diet aid. I keep thinking back to it and going "I'm gonna just have some yogurt for lunch". It was like a 70s horror-exploitation with no gore. Same feeling. And while it wasn't pleasant and didn't need to be anything other than a 10 page short story, much less a 130-minute movie, I don't mind that it exists and can be watched. It's the wrench hitting you in the face of bourgeois-decadence movies. And the 70s concentration is off the charts:
a brutally simple one line class-politics message that doesn't justify the story but is the only reason for it existing,
passionless hellish sex scenes,
loads of nasty fucking blancmanges, pates and shit,
dark-ass wood paneled rooms that appear to have no windows,
Marcello Mastroianni at his most intolerable, full juvenile mania.
Also it had lots of farting.
So one movie about bourgeois types never getting to eat, and one movie where they finally do, to death. Appetites foiled, then sated.
I watched The Big Feast in college and I remember enjoying the fact that this movie exists more than the movie itself.
Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is cool. I think my favorite of his is The Phantom of Liberty, which is even more absurd but has a few incredible scenes in it.
Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is cool. I think my favorite of his is The Phantom of Liberty, which is even more absurd but has a few incredible scenes in it.
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