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 Current Director: Alfred Hitchcock Films Completed: 24/56 Just Watched: Elstree Calling This one's a technicality. Hitchcock only directed roughly 5 minutes of this even though it's a full 82 minutes. The film is a British musical revue and boy is it hard to get through. Incredibly hit or miss but by the end I just wanted it to be over. Interminable attempts at comedy, boring performances, blackface. Hitchcock directed a rather bland recurring segment where an old man is trying to get his TV set to work so he can watch the revue. These scenes are stiff, poor attempts at comedy, and show no effort on Hitchcock's part. To be fair he only did it because he was contractually obliged. The studio wanted to be able to throw his name on the poster in order to sell more tickets. There are some interesting notes though. There's some early sound-era color in the film, and it is apparently the first film to ever directly address television. There's also a few bright moments including a sketch where a jealous husband murders who he thinks is his wife and her lover before exclaiming "My God! I'm in the wrong flat." I like the last performance as well. But really it's not worth a look unless like me you're being a massive completest.
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Aug 31, 2013 04:38
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Why are you subjecting yourself to that "technically Hitchcock" crap when you still haven't seen Hitchcock's favorite of his own films (Shadow of a Doubt), his most innovative British film (Blackmail), his proto-French New Wave cornerstones (The Wrong Man and I Confess), his funniest film (The Trouble With Harry), or his ballsiest experiment (Lifeboat)?
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Aug 31, 2013 04:43
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penismightier posted:Why are you subjecting yourself to that "technically Hitchcock" crap when you still haven't seen Hitchcock's favorite of his own films (Shadow of a Doubt), his most innovative British film (Blackmail), his proto-French New Wave cornerstones (The Wrong Man and I Confess), his funniest film (The Trouble With Harry), or his ballsiest experiment (Lifeboat)? Because it was sitting on my shelf and I wanted to just get it out of the way. I'm going back to school tomorrow and the library there has most of his post-1940 filmography so I'll be able to dig in to those films with greater ease.
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Aug 31, 2013 04:50
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Current Director: Alfred Hitchcock Films Completed: 25/56 Just Watched: Blackmail Well this was fantastic. It gets surprisingly morbid for it's era, with the attempted rape/murder scene being intense without actually showing anything. I thought Anny Ondra's performance was excellent and Donald Calthrop as Tracy reminded me of Robert Walker in Strangers on a Train. You can tell it was originally intended as a silent from the opening scene as well as that museum chase. I always love Hitchcock's grand finales, the shot where Tracy climbs down a rope and is dwarfed by the head of the sphinx is amazing. Another stand out detail is the use of shadow. When Alice stands up after writing her confession letter I love how the shadows form a sort of noose around her neck.
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Sep 1, 2013 15:54
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Current Director: Alfred Hitchcock Films Completed: 26/56 Just Watched: Stage Fright This one is rarely talked about and for some reason has a bad rap. Yeah, it's not quite Strangers on a Train or Rear Window but it's still an excellent murder mystery that Hitchcock makes shine. First off, that cast. Jane Wyman is fantastic as the lead, which reminds me that I've only seen a handful of her films but every single time she blows me away. Everybody else is great as well, especially Eve's father and Nellie. Kay Walsh's scowl is really enjoyable for some reason. A lot of people find Hitchcock showing Johnny's lie in the beginning questionable, but when the twist happens I thought it was a pretty interesting technique. After all it's deliberately framed as him telling the story to Eve.
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Sep 2, 2013 06:34
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Current Director: Alfred Hitchcock Films Completed: 27/56 Just Watched: Downhill Working through what's available online until the library opens tomorrow. Downhill has some of Hitchcock's stronger moments as a silent director but still doesn't hit the mark. There's several scenes where you can see his trademark visual style starting to take form, particularly when the waitress moves accusingly towards Novello and his friend in the Headmaster's office and the shot of Novello descending on the escalator. I particularly liked the ending POV shots of a delirious Novello finding his way home. It's a strong ending that makes up for the weak second act, which seemed to consist mostly of people talking even though the film is silent.
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Sep 2, 2013 22:07
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Current Director: Alfred Hitchcock Films Completed: 28/56 Just Watched: Saboteur It's pretty obvious that Saboteur was made during World War II. All the inspirational speeches about Americanism and the tyranny of fascism feel like very obvious propaganda, and yet it still works with the overall film. It's a fun albeit more methodically paced spy/wrong man thriller. The lack of music during the climax was an interesting choice. I had seen pictures of the famous Statue of Liberty scene, but I envisioned it as having a pounding orchestra to back it up. The silence except for the sounds of wind took me aback. In general there's a lot of nuttiness going on. Through the course of the film Barry is hogtied, meets a circus sideshow cast with a fascist midget, and goes cross country from LA to New York. When I get down to thinking about it it's absurd how much happens. It also makes me think of North By Northwest. There's a lot of similarities between the two. Kane seems like a precursor to Cary Grant's role in Northwest and moments like the auction during the party, or even climaxing on a national monument come back again. Well, I'm officially halfway through Hitchcock's filmography. I'm trying to double down but my ultimate goal is to be completely done by the end of the year if not sooner.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:52
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Saboteur is a rocket ride compared to practically every other Hitchcock film. So much happens that you're left wondering what you saw.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:55
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Saboteur is a rocket ride compared to practically every other Hitchcock film. So much happens that you're left wondering what you saw. It's crazy because it felt long while I was watching it but now I'm wondering how he managed to fit so much into an hour forty-five.
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Sep 3, 2013 23:52
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It served him extremely well for stuff like Strangers on a Train.
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Sep 4, 2013 01:00
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Current Director: Alfred Hitchcock Films Completed: 29/56 Just Watched: Shadow of a Doubt I can see why this was Hitchcock's favorite, although personally I still think he's got a number of films that hit harder for me. Still, Shadow of a Doubt is an excellent, tense noir with amazing performances from Cotton and Wright. To be honest, I knew absolutely nothing about the plot going in. And I think it works best that way. If I knew too much then the beginning might feel slow, but by not revealing what the deal is until nearly an hour into the film the beginning has this bewildering effect - you know something is wrong, but what could it possibly be? And who the hell are those two guys following Cotton? As for cinematography and the mise en scene, Hitchcock does some amazing work with doorways here. One particular shot of Teresa Wright standing outside, but perfectly framed within the door frame with the camera placed at the top of the stairs blew me away. edit: Also, it's interesting to see how obviously influential this film was. The waltzing couples occasionally fading in felt Lynchian, whereas the main plot of a teenager discovering her uncle is a serial killer is very similar to Park Chan-wook's Stoker. TrixRabbi fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Sep 6, 2013 |
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Sep 6, 2013 15:33
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Current Director: Alfred Hitchcock Films Completed: 30/56 Just Watched: I Confess Light weight for Hitchcock at this point in his career but it's still pretty good with great performances. My main issue is that it feels like it doesn't have enough material for a feature. The courtroom sequences in the third act are just repeating what we've been told repeatedly for the entire film and go on for way too long. I do like the visual style here with effective use of dutch angles. And Montgomery Clift is the stand out delivering a great performance with what seems like very little dialogue. He has the perfect face for the role. I wonder if there was any issue with the code for this film. There was a rule about not showing religious officials in a negative light and I wonder if there was any controversy in the process of making it. Apparently it was banned in Ireland for showing a priest having a relationship with a woman. TrixRabbi fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Sep 7, 2013 |
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Sep 7, 2013 01:52
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Current Director: Akira Kurosawa Progress: 21/30 [ Just watched: The Bad Sleep Well. This film, man. It could have been great. The cinematography is spot on - it's claustrophobic and tense. The long corridor shots, twisting paths, and crowded shots give the feeling of being caught in an elaborate trap. It's awesome. The opening scene with the wedding is especially well-done, with sudden walls of reporters appearing, and cake carts plugging the narrow corridors between tables, cutting of the escape attempts of the corrupt businessmen. The tone was also much different from most Kurosawa films. It's a suspenseful drama with ambiguous characters - the protagonist is vengeful, angry, and marries a woman he doesn't care about just to get close to the people he's trying to destroy, and the antagonists all have some redeeming qualities. Hell, most of them are just caught up in the bureaucracy and bullied into wrong-doing by their superiors. The main villain is shown to be a loving and caring father - up to a point. He also does some amazing acting in the climax, where we see him go through a huge range of emotions and hatch a scheme to turn the tables on his nemesis without any exposition. It's an awesome, gritty revenge story that's incredibly well-shot, where the villains win in the end (well, NO ONE wins in the end). Unfortunately, that only describes about 2/3rds of the movie. For some reason, there are several scenes that treat the movie like an optimistic vigilante tale about a man stepping outside the law to bring justice to the men who wronged his father. There's a jaunty, happy melody that accompanies most of these scenes, along with attempts at humor at the expense of the bad guys. These feel like pieces of a completely different film that's much more light-hearted. The hero turns out to be more heroic than he initially seemed to be, actually falls in love with the girl he married, and is trying to find a way to simply bring all of the men responsible for his father's death to justice instead of just killing them (as he was supposedly doing from the start). The things is, if you cut out most of these parts and made the rest a little darker, the pacing would be better, the tone would be more consistent, and the whole movie would be vastly improved. I'm sad that this seeming departure from Kurosawa's typical sentimentalism ended up being tainted by it in the end. Maybe the intent was for these seemingly happy scenes to make the rest of the film more bleak, and the sudden shifts in tone were meant to be disturbing and unsettling, but I mostly found them pointless and annoying. If this film was about 30 minutes shorter and more focused on being what it was obviously meant to be - a stark, violent film about corporate corruption and the failure of the justice system - it would have been almost perfect. As is, it's just so-so. Next up is Yojimbo, which I'm looking forward to as I love A Fistful of Dollars and am anxious to see the film it was Overall rating: C Next up: Yojimbo EDIT: Fixed, sorry. It was The Bad Sleep Well. FLEXBONER fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Sep 7, 2013 |
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Sep 7, 2013 05:51
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^^^^Which one did you watch (no title)?
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Sep 7, 2013 13:38
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Current Director: Alfred Hitchcock Films Completed: 31/56 Just Watched: Dial M for Murder I'm kind of curious as to why Hitchcock decided to make this screenplay in 3D. That's not to say it's not an excellent screenplay, just that it seems odd to shoot such a simple story that more than 90% of takes place in one location. Still, I'd like to see it in 3D some day and see how the effect works for the film. Even without that, it's still a great movie. The script is tight and the performances are excellent, especially Grace Kelly. This is also one of the more positive portrayals of police in his films. I know Hitchcock had a strong fear of cops which often showed itself in other wrong man films like Saboteur. But here the detective is easily the hero of the story. Also, I love the scene where Grace Kelly is sentenced to death. It's lighted so perfectly. edit: I didn't really know anything about Grace Kelly until just now reading up on her. I had only seen her in High Noon and Rear Window up until this point but apparently she retired from acting at 26 in order to marry a prince. 11 films is too short of a career for such an amazing actress. TrixRabbi fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Sep 21, 2013 |
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Sep 21, 2013 18:46
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 Director currently working on: Edgar G. Ulmer Progress 37/48 Next up: Club Havana The Western Front: Herman Cohen (7/9) Amazon Prime is helping me fill in some gaps. I finally watched Ulmer's first Poverty Row feature - Thunder Over Texas. It's an odd one. His first after burning his bridges with the major studios, I wonder if the man, who was only 31 here, knew the long inglorious road ahead of him. It's certainly a major fall from grace. It's a recent European emigre's attempt at making a western, and man he makes the most western, in all the wrong ways. It's one of those weird '30s westerns that sublimates the cowboy hero's goal from conquering the west to conquering the radio. These are always pretty bad, lots of lumpy comedy and often (though thankfully not here) some pretty brutal songs captured on scratchy equipment. There's a comic relief trio named Tom, Dick, and Harry, who are just abominable, and a cutesy kid, and some of the worst most gee-whillickers mugginest acting I've ever seen from Guinn Williams. At the film's end, he poses cheek-to-cheek with his new bride and strokes the chin of his adoring new adopted daughter. There's no irony or subtlety at all, this is a true-blue kid's western from the era when it was all fresh and nobody had lampooned it broken. There are two moments where a little girl picks up a giant handgun and orders people around. They're played fairly straight, but each ends in heartwarming roughhousing. The child with the gun is alarming but not spooky. It's spooky as hell now. Ulmer, as is his wont, puts in some great shots. Even when it's the same film as a dozen other '30s oaters, almost scene for scene, he livens it up with little touches like moving the camera behind some trees for foreground elements or framing some nice over-the-shoulder shots, which I'm sure nobody was clamoring for but which class up the production quite a bit. Even though it's a particularly bad story for the genre in the era, it looks years beyond them. This shot turns up in at least a half dozen other Ulmer films:  This film reminded me of Taza, Son of Cochise, the great Douglas Sirk's lone western. Another Austrio-German transplant, each filmmaker seemed to at their most unsubtle and most lumbering helming a western. I'd love to see some examples of US filmmakers tackling local European genres. I imagine it's a similar effects.
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Sep 25, 2013 03:10
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Current Director: Akira Kurosawa Progress: 22/30 [ Just watched: I enjoyed Yojimbo, which isn't surprising considering I adore A Fistful of Dollars and it's basically a rehashing of the exact same film. It was interesting watching this right after The Bad Sleep Well, because in that one the few scenes that were light-hearted and comedic didn't blend well with the dark tone of the film, while in Yojimbo Kurosawa does a great job of incorporating some darkly humorous moments into the story - the look on Mifune's face when he sees the happy little dog running down the street with a severed hand in his mouth, for example, is perfect. Mifune is all-around excellent in this film, playing the wandering samurai to perfection. I like how the fact that he's a trained soldier who's actually used to killing and facing death on a daily basis is contrasted with the villains in the film. Most of the guys he's fighting are petty thugs, who are actually afraid of open violence and are content to maintain the "Cold War" status of the conflict. The scene where he watches the two rival gangs have a "battle" from atop the bell tower comes to mind - he is literally and figuratively above all of the ridiculousness going on in the town. The rest of the characters are mostly ok, although I found the town officer incredibly annoying and not particularly funny at all. He's barely in the film, though, so it didn't bother me too much. The unfortunate thing about me seeing A Fistful of Dollars first was that I found myself constantly comparing the two films, and preferring Sergio Leone's version in most cases. It's completely unfair because he got to copy an awesome director and then make his own tweaks (plus he had Morricone doing the soundtrack and I am a huge Morricone fanboy), but I can't help it. I will say that, overall, Kurosawa's cinematography is much better. One of my favorite scenes is off the innkeeper opening all the different windows to show the samurai all of the different sides involved in the conflict. The things Kurosawa could do with a camera and a few windows or doors is pretty incredible. Anyway, this is a fantastic film and you should go watch it if you haven't already. Overall rating: A+ Next up: Sanjurō
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Oct 2, 2013 03:50
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Current Director: Alfred Hitchcock Films Completed: 32/56 Just Watched: The Wrong Man I can certainly see how this was proto-New Wave. Slow, quiet, understated, full of atmosphere. I think the first act is the tensest I've ever been during one of Hitchcock's films, if only due to the inevitably of what is going to happen to the poor man. Fonda is amazing, as is Miles. Also the cinematography is magnificent. Hitchcock's use of close-ups really adds to the claustrophobic feeling of the whole thing. After watching this I got to thinking about how Hitchcock was always looking for ways of experimenting with the medium of film. This was his only film based on a true story, Dial M for Murder was shot in 3D, etc. I can only imagine what he would have done if he lived a while longer. Can you imagine what he might do with CGI? Or if he were around for the current found footage fad? Hell, if he had lived just a while longer and made one more film he could have done amazing things with steadicam.
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Oct 4, 2013 04:55
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After a really long delay, I got back into this. Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda Just Watched: Distance The premise for this one sounds like it could easily be a horror movie: A group of people gather to memorialize members of a suicide cult who all died in a remote location, and when their car goes missing they end up having to spend the night in the only house nearby -- the place where the cult itself used to live! And there's even a former member of the cult there as well! What secrets does he have to reveal? However, it should be no surprise that what follows is not at all a typical horror movie. It's more of what might actually occur if something like this happened. Not only does the story unfold in a more realistic fashion, it is essentially conveyed in a realistic fashion. There's a distinct lack of exposition, and we get people interacting much as they naturally would as they go about what they're doing. It's only after observing for a time that what is happening is made clear. Again the use of handheld cameras and a habit of drawing attention to the camera almost as if the people are aware of it produces a documentary style of film. Some scenes begin to be intercut and eventually we realize some of them are flashbacks to the previous lives of the cult. There isn't much spent on what it's like to deal with the people falling into the cult -- as often as not their reasons seem almost understandable as they are in various ways emotionally separated from those around them. It is this separation that is explored, and as is typical with Kore-Eda he's mostly refraining from judging and simply observing what happens. In several ways it feels like a slightly more lively retread of Maborosi, and I feel that is what it is, for good and bad. Unfortunately I felt it seemed to lack some of the technical brilliance in composition and use of light that his previous films showcased. In the end while it held my interest and has some touching performances, it never quite achieved any real depth or rich portrayal. I think it does deserve praise for the editing this time around (Kore-Eda again did the writing, directing, and editing). Managing to create an interesting movie that holds together but seems as if crafted from naturally captured footage is no small feat, even if it's not a surprise that he is quite skilled at it. Progress: (5/12) Next Up: Nobody Knows
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Oct 15, 2013 04:52
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Director currently working on: Edgar G. Ulmer Progress: 38/48 Just watched: Murder Is My Beat Next up: Club Havana The Western Front: Herman Cohen (7/9) Right after Ulmer's magnificent dusty love triangle The Naked Dawn (which is ESSENTIAL), he quickly spun out this small noir. It's like an inversion of Detour. Instead of that film's black hole of rage, the heroine in Murder Is My Beat is impossibly broken-hearted. Lovely photography in the first half. Snow-swept landscapes and tough talk. It frays as it chugs along, though, and ultimately the longer we spend with these people the less we find in them. Ulmer was a great, but he wasn't a great, and truly, with exactly 3/4 of his life work under my belt, it's clear characterization was his weak point. Except for his Yiddish films, all of his great characters from The Black Cat to Detour to The Amazing Transparent Man are overwhelmed with heartbreak and betrayal. The farther he strays from that template, the worst his stuff ages. This is better than most with a fun windy plot and great camerawork, but it just doesn't have the fuel of isolation and sadness which lights his best films.
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Oct 16, 2013 03:20
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 Director: John Huston Progress: 18/37 Just watched: Red Badge of Courage Next up: Let There Be Light (The only documentary he is credited as directing) I just found this thread and, since I was already in the process of watching all of his films, I chose John Huston. He has influenced me as a writer and filmmaker more than any other artist. I am also reading his autobiography, I am jealous of his life. In his autobiography he says, "I fail to see any continuity in my work from picture to picture - what's remarkable is how different the pictures are, from one to another." And I think that is why I love his work so much. I don't really subscribe to the auteur theory or like filmmakers considered auteurs. Huston's work, while never perfect, is this ever modulating and evolving experiment. You find similar themes and character aspects between the films; he remains ever curious rather than trying to perfect his "signature". You see his fingerprints is much more subtle ways. Of the 18 I have seen - Must See: The Dead, Prizzi's Honor, Wise Blood, The Man Who Would Be King, Fat City, Moulin Rouge, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, The Maltese Falcon See: The Life & Times of Judge Roy Bean, The Misfits, The African Queen, The Asphalt Jungle, Key Largo, The Red Badge of Courage Don't Have To See: Annie, Victory, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, Moby Dick I just watched Red Badge of Courage and I already posted my thoughts about it in the "Rate the Latest Movie..." thread so I won't be redundant here. Seen:
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Oct 18, 2013 22:31
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Finally had a little bit of time to watch another Kurosawa film. Huzzah! Current Director: Akira Kurosawa Progress: 23/30 [ Just watched: Sanjurō was a great film. Similar to Yojimbo, it had a blend of comedy and action, but the comedy was much less dark (and much more prevalent) while the violence was more sudden, stark, and intense - Kurosawa somehow managed to make the tone more light-hearted and much heavier at the same time. The comedy is incredibly well done in this film. My favorite bit was one where a captured guard gets locked up in a closet, but keeps popping out to contribute to discussions that the protagonists are having. Every time, after he's given his input, he just bows, then locks himself back in the closet. It gets re-used a couple times, but Kurosawa did a great job of making me forget the guy was there and so each time was funnier than the last. Overall, the plot and the humorous tone actually kind of reminded me of an 80s underdog sports movie - there's this awesome ronin who finds a band of young, loyal samurai who are about to get killed and helps them win against the big, scary bad guys using his wits and cunning. At the same time, the film also manages to convey a message - namely, people who live violent lives will suffer because of it - and there are moments of intense violence that provide a sharp contrast to the goofy tone of the rest of the film. Especially the ending. Everything looks like it's going to be a happy ending, with the mysterious wandering samurai disappearing into the sunset, but there's a final scene on the road out of town that puts a huge damper on the mood. And I enjoyed it immensely. I like that the "lesson" of the story is that idolizing murderous vagabonds is a bad idea, even if they did help you save your master. Also, the way the final duel is shot - with one incredibly long and tense take - is awesome. this film, Yojimbo, and The Hidden Fortress just hit all the right buttons for me. They're entertaining, funny, suspenseful, and violent (but not in that over-the-top, modern Hollywood sort of way) with interesting characters and amazing cinematography. Overall rating: A Next up: High and Low
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Nov 14, 2013 02:43
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Oh man, High and Low is almost equally as good, especially after they literally descend into the Low portion of the story. That might just be the framing (or overall message of the film about who really struggles/contributes to society), but structuring it like that lends a lot of weight to the second part being enjoyable.
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Nov 14, 2013 09:36
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Current Director: Akira Kurosawa Progress: 24/30 [ Just watched: My only final was yesterday. Celebrated afterwards by watching High and Low. Awesomely intense film. I like how they show the police doing actual police work and not just making random leaps of logic, relying on hunches, or technological magic (oh, to live in a pre-CSI world). Mifune's acting is superb as usual, especially when he's struggling with himself to decide whether or not to pay the ransom. The character is very believable in his desire to preserve his life and property while at the same time wanting to do the right thing, and the message isn't totally heavy-handed and sappy (like some of Kurosawa's characters have been in past films). I also love the villain's acting, especially how he has almost no spoken lines of dialog when he's actually on screen. At first, I thought some of the dialog scenes with the police - where they are describing how they're going to track down the criminal and are going over all the evidence - were too slow and broke up the pacing, but the train sequence and the tailing scene are so intense you kind of need a breather in between. Both of those sequences are incredibly well-done, especially the sound design, and the claustrophobic/crowded feeling of the shots. The final scene might actually be my favorite, though - the shot-reverse shot with the reflections in the glass, and the stark, sudden ending are just beautiful. I like how Kurosawa's movies become more ambiguous and less melodramatic over time - you can really see him mature as a director. Overall rating: A Next up: Red Beard
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Dec 11, 2013 18:02
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 Current Director Project: Alan J. Pakula Just Watched: The Devil's Own (1997)  There's not a lot to say. I got kind of excited when the film opens with a schmaltzy pastoral Northern Irish family dinner with all those instruments that you only hear in Irish movies playing suddenly interrupted by a gunman killing the dad and then the titles ensue with a great Cranberries song. At this point I'm thinking "All right, this is good. I'm feeling the Troubles." And then the rest of the movie sucks. Harrison Ford plays Generic Cop Dad and Brad Pitt's Irish brogue is, to be polite, awkward. Even Gordon Willis's work here is underwhelming. It's just a completely forgettable 90s drama. Progress: 9/16 Up Next: Rollover (1981)
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Dec 29, 2013 16:10
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Current Director: David Lynch Films watched: 1/11 I've decided to familiarize myself with David Lynch after receiving a few blu-rays at Christmas, and the availability of Twin Peaks on Netflix. I may decide to add his short films later, depending on which ones I can get hold of, as some of them look like they will take some difficulty to find. Eraserhead | The Elephant Man | Dune | Blue Velvet | Currently watching: Twin Peaks. I know it's a TV series but from what I hear, you can't know Lynch without seeing it. GODS NOT REAL fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Dec 30, 2013 |
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Dec 30, 2013 15:33
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I've been forgetting to post in this thread, but I've got three more Scorsese films to report! Director currently working on: Martin Scorsese [feature films only] Watched: After Hours [11/21/13] After Hours was just all kinds of fun. I wasn't really sure what to expect and went in knowing nothing, so it was a pleasant surprise when the hits just kept on coming. A stellar supporting cast, including the parents of Home Alone together in one scene, that was led by Griffin Dunne as the ordinary man thrown into an extraordinary nightmare of a night. Watched: Cape Fear [11/26/13] [re-posting from SHAMEFUL thread] Robert De Niro gives his second best performance of his career here (behind Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy) as Max Cady - a rapist, sentenced to 14 years in prison, gets released and targets his former lawyer Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and his family. De Niro's performance surpasses the film for me. Many serious moments dragged on too long and felt comedic, certain acting was over the top, and there were tonal shifts that took me right out of the moment. Also, seeing Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum in supporting roles was a nice tribute but made me want to turn this off and find the original 1962 version. Watched: The Wolf of Wall Street [12/26/13] Leonardo DiCaprio, as stockbroker Jordan Belfort, gave one of the best WWE promos I've ever seen - topped off with something reminding me of ECW's Sandman when he crushes a beer can into his forehead. He's absolutely fearless in his movie, who along with Jonah Hill as Donnie Azoff, give incredible performances. I can't believe I'm gonna say "two time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill" but dammit he deserves this one. Margot Robbie is an instant star from this performance as Leo's wife Naomi - good god is she beautiful. Rob Reiner was a standout too as well as Jean Dujardin as the Swiss financier. And Matthew McConaughey was very memorable in a small role as he continues his hot streak. Sure the movie was three hours long but the excess in runtime suited the excess that ran through this entire film. Could it have benefitted from cutting out 30 minutes? Probably. But even a mere hour after letting the film sink in, it's clearly gonna be one I want to revisit time and time again. Unforgettable. Progress: 17/23 [Who's That Knockin At My Door, Boxcar Bertha, Next Up: The Color of Money DIRECTORS COMPLETED: Coen Brothers [15/15], Christopher Nolan [8/8], Quentin Tarantino [8/8]
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Dec 30, 2013 17:02
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Gushing Granny posted:Currently watching: Twin Peaks. I know it's a TV series but from what I hear, you can't know Lynch without seeing it. While this is true, only season 1 is really essential. Season 2 has its moments (especially at the beginning and the final episode), but overall is not very good in my opinion, and I don't think Lynch had much to do with the filler stuff in the middle of the season.
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Dec 30, 2013 21:35
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Agreed on Twin Peaks. If you have to watch season 2, only go until they reveal the murderer, because there's some straight up terrifying and weird parts.
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Dec 31, 2013 06:31
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The whole Season 2 is bad thing is confusing, because the first half of Season 2 is amazing, right up until the reveal of the killer. When people say Season 2 is terrible they're referring to the second half of that season, post-reveal. Even then, it's worth finishing for the amazing final episode, which you should see before the movie.
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Dec 31, 2013 06:45
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TrixRabbi posted:The whole Season 2 is bad thing is confusing, because the first half of Season 2 is amazing, right up until the reveal of the killer. When people say Season 2 is terrible they're referring to the second half of that season, post-reveal. Even then, it's worth finishing for the amazing final episode, which you should see before the movie. You are right, the first half of season two is great, but on a recent rewatch I couldn't even get through some of the episodes in the second half and ended up skipping to the finale. Since he mentioned that it was his first exposure to Lynch, though, I was just mentioning it so he doesn't get soured on him or anything.
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Dec 31, 2013 14:38
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 Current Director: Takeshi Kitano. I started off with Outrage, because I needed a movie to watch on Netflix and I liked the poster. I didn't really like it at first, but it kept kind of lodged in the back of my mind, and I wanted to see more from the director. Sonatine was next, and from there, I kind of started to get Kitano. His style of brutal violence contrasted with serenity and calmness is extremely jarring, but it's turned into my favorite thing about him. I think he handles violence in film the best out of any living filmmaker, starting from even his directorial debut (Violent Cop.) I've been consuming his films since, and I'm really looking forward to watching more. Progress (5 out of 16.): Last Watched: Brother. This is unfortunately my least favorite Kitano film so far. People familiar with his work know this is his only foray into Western production, with the majority of the film taking place in Los Angeles and featuring a mix of Japanese and English. You would expect a language barrier to form here with just about any filmmaker, but it affects Kitano's work in the worst way possible. It makes sense, and it's not really Kitano's fault; imagine yourself, as an English speaker, trying to get an authentic performance from a Japanese actor. At some point, how do you know what's good and what isn't? That being said, when the movie lets itself go and returns to the normal Kitano formula of bitter violence and nihilism, it makes all the performance issues worth enduring. Except for some irritating CGI. Next Watch: Beyond Outrage. I'm super excited for this one. I loved all the scheming, brutal, selfish characters from Outrage and I look forward to seeing (let's be honest here) how they all probably die horrible deaths.
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Dec 31, 2013 18:47
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Daveski posted:You are right, the first half of season two is great, but on a recent rewatch I couldn't even get through some of the episodes in the second half and ended up skipping to the finale. Since he mentioned that it was his first exposure to Lynch, though, I was just mentioning it so he doesn't get soured on him or anything. Honestly, I'm about 3/4 through season 2 (first time viewing) and so far, everything past the halfway point is still pretty good, even if it isn't quite as amazing as the earlier episodes.
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Dec 31, 2013 22:56
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Director currently working on: Werner Herzog Updates: Added his new short film, From One Second to the Next. Also, I believe I've tracked down the impossible-to-find Les Français vus par: Les Gaulois, so I'm adding it to the list. Progress: 57/62 Just Watched: From One Second to the Next - This is a 35-minute documentary about the effects of texting and driving. It focuses on four cases in which people were either killed or maimed in accidents caused by drivers who were texting. Both the drivers responsible and the victims are interviewed. Herzog's knack for capturing an emotional reaction from his interviewee is in full effect. This is some sad poo poo. Personally, I don't text and drive. I guess I'm good at learning from others' mistakes. But I know plenty of people who do. Everybody should watch this. I read that it's being distributed to 40,000 high schools. This isn't one of those cheesy PSA type videos that my school used to make us watch. This is the real deal, and I imagine all but the incredibly stubborn will be convinced by it. 75/100 Next Up: Echoes from a Somber Empire Directors completed by this thread: David Cronenberg (22/22)
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Jan 6, 2014 23:28
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caiman posted:Next Up: Echoes from a Somber Empire I just watched this a few days ago as part of his Shorts & Documentaries Collections and there was a good 30 minutes or so without English subtitles. Luckily I have a small grasp on French so I wasn't completely lost, but you might not be so lucky. That aside it's a good watch with a very, typically Herzog, haunting opening and closing.
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Jan 7, 2014 00:35
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Starscream posted:I just watched this a few days ago as part of his Shorts & Documentaries Collections and there was a good 30 minutes or so without English subtitles. Luckily I have a small grasp on French so I wasn't completely lost, but you might not be so lucky. That aside it's a good watch with a very, typically Herzog, haunting opening and closing. Mine has English subs.
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Jan 7, 2014 01:00
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caiman posted:Mine has English subs. Mine did too! They just didn't work during a couple segments. I'm watching A Year in the Taiga now and loving it!
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Jan 7, 2014 02:03
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Director: John Huston Progress: 19/37 Just watched: Let There Be Light Next up: Freud (a.k.a. Freud: The Secret Passion) Let There Be Light A documentary produced by the US Government, and immediately suppressed by the US Government, this is one of the first documentations of PTSD on soldiers returning home after WWII. This was a really hard film to watch at times because it shows what war can do to a person's mind. It drifts into the idea of hypnosis and other alternative treatments, making them look like miracles. A lot of people are saying that use this film as inspiration for The Master. There is a simplicity in this film that you don't see in current day documentaries or "reality" television - no fancy graphics or stunts. It mainly consists of interviews and treatment sessions with soldiers because that's all it needs. I can understand why the government suppressed the film but at the same it is a bit of propaganda making it look like these facilities fixed these guys completely. Walter Huston narrates this film beautifully. (9/10) Seen: Must See: The Dead, Prizzi's Honor, Wise Blood, The Man Who Would Be King, Fat City, Moulin Rouge, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, The Maltese Falcon, Let There Be Light See: The Life & Times of Judge Roy Bean, The Misfits, The African Queen, The Asphalt Jungle, Key Largo, The Red Badge of Courage Don't Have To See: Annie, Victory, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, Moby Dick Seen: York_M_Chan fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Jan 13, 2014 |
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Jan 13, 2014 15:32
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Director currently working on: Werner Herzog Progress: 58/62 Just Watched: Les Français vus par - Meaning "The French as Seen by...", this is an 11-minute film he made in 1988 for the French magazine Le Figaro. For those who have seen David Lynch's The Cowboy and Frenchman, this is a part of that same anthology (I think Godard did one too). It's essentially two scenes; one, titled The French, of two men of some religious affiliation taste testing some delicious wine, and another, titled The Gauls, of men playing rugby. There's a title card at the end that asks "what does France mean to you?" and a man says "It's something that warms the heart." His response is repeated two times. So what's the point of it all? I don't really know. The two segments are strikingly different, but both are fairly interesting, with the rugby segment being the more Herzog-y of the two. Slow-motion shots of men pounding the crap out of each other with gorgeous vocal music playing behind it takes up about the last third of the film. 75/100 But really the most interesting thing about this, personally, is just how loving DIFFICULT it was to track down. Seriously, I've been searching for this movie, almost obsessively, for about a year and a half. It seemed to literally not exist. I finally found it at an Austrian company that burned me a copy to DVD from an old French VHS. Then I enlisted the help of the SA forums to have it translated to English (it was in French with no subs), then I made subs for it. Of all the films I've tracked down for this endeavour, this is by far the most gratifying to finally be able to rate. This thread has brought out obsessive tendencies in me I didn't even know I had. Next Up: Echoes from a Somber Empire Directors completed by this thread: David Cronenberg (22/22)
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Jan 16, 2014 02:36
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caiman, now that you are close to done, I'd be interested to hear what your feelings on Herzog and which are his most 'essential' or intriguing films. I've been following your posts cause I've been meaning to look into his movies more and I'm sure others would also be interested in what the best/most interesting Herzog works are after this real formidable undertaking.
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Jan 16, 2014 03:55
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