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Windows 98 posted:It’s overt themes actually seem quite revolutionary considering when it came out. Less special today because of where we are now, but at the time far more unique. I have a sneaking suspicion that the things that make this movie so great we’re probably forgotten entirely in the reboot I have not seen, it’s it’s probably a much more straight forward horror. Just speculating but I would be surprised if I was wrong. You gotta remember the prominence of second wave feminism during the early 1970's. It was just as pronounced then as it is today, it was only in the early 80's that the movement went into a recession until it was revived in the 90's with the third wave (and most now say we're currently in the fourth wave in the internet era). So topics like the patriarchy, "women's work" and the role of housewives, sexual liberation were all topical and very much of the time. Simone de Beauvoir's work was highly influential during this time and many films from the late 60's and early 70's dealt with feminist themes, both approvingly and mockingly. For a comedy example, check out Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. Also, as a kind of unintentional companion piece to The Stepford Wives check out Martha Rosler's short Semiotics of the Kitchen, which was made in 1975 and is a pure expression of pent up anger and rage against the dominating "women belong in the kitchen" narrative. The same year Chantal Akerman made Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Bruxelles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuZympOIGC0 Side note about The Stepford Wives: You ever notice in films from this era how everyone has kids but they almost completely ignore them? No wonder Gen X is so hosed up and listless.
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Jan 2, 2019 16:47
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 04:32 |
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The Birds might be my favorite Hitchcock, and I've seen them all. I like to look at it as a postmodern film, it's as if the characters believe they're in a standard Hollywood romance movie, caught up in a small island town love triangle with an ever-predictable plot. But instead it's co-opted and invaded by this absurdist horror, and the characters can't believe it. They try to keep the romantic plot moving as long as they can, until they are overpowered by the force of the birds. By the end the film has firmly transitioned into horror, even recreating the shower scene from Psycho. The final scenes feel like a dry run for Night of the Living Dead, locked up and afraid of the merciless mass outside. If any of y'all are watching for the first time, consider how the bird attacks relate to feminine jealousy and the romantic plot. The two are tightly interwoven.
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Jan 2, 2019 18:09
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Hitchcock's reputation was so entrenched in suspense and the macabre by that point him trying to do a traditional romance would have raised eyebrows that something is up from the get go.
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Jan 2, 2019 19:08
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Windows 98 posted:I fell asleep during The Birds too, right around the birthday party bit. Never came back to it. I will be watching it tonight too! Will try and organize a group watch in discord I think, like we did last night with The Exorcist. That's literally the scene where it pops off. Basebf555 posted:Psycho's marketing was more subtle I guess, it seemed to be more focused on the hotel, like "something really bad goes down here at this hotel but you have to see the movie to find out!" Then the movie itself goes on for a pretty long time before Norman is introduced so its easy to forget that the movie you're watching is even called Psycho(or I imagine it would've been if you saw it before it was so iconic). The Birds is a little more clear about it's intentions early on. It helps that the movie is called "Psycho" so you're kinda gonna go in and expect a psycho of some sort to appear. But like The Birds with the romance genre, Psycho is a film noir where the protagonist takes a literal wrong turn into a horror movie. The movie is basically what you'd get if Detour was a slasher. Franchescanado posted:You should absolutely watch Something Wild, directed by Jonathan Demme. YES.
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Jan 2, 2019 20:20
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I think going into The Birds wanting to be scared is a mistake. There's some chilling images (the eyeless corpse is done so loving well) but I do think it's much more of a bizarre film than a particularly scary film. It's operating on so many layers of story telling to probe things like jealousy and paranoia (the scene in the diner where people start blaming Tippi Hedren for the bird attacks is a real tip of the hat to the Freudian implications for why the birds are attacking in the first place) but again there's also a postmodernist break in the film. The final act when they're boarded up in the house, the characters feel detached from the film itself, like I keep getting reminded of Six Characters in Search of an Author. It's five characters unstuck in their own story, existing outside of the narrative they were supposed to live in and undone by something inexplicable and irrational. The lack of a score, and relying on the ambient silence and the eeriness of the flapping wings really drives home how much the film is breaking from conventional Hollywood moviemaking and remaking the form. edit: Top 10 Hitchcocks 1. The Birds 2. Shadow of a Doubt 3. Vertigo 4. The Wrong Man 5. Strangers on a Train 6. Rebecca 7. Psycho 8. Frenzy 9. North by Northwest 10. The 39 Steps Underrated -- Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Torn Curtain, Topaz, I Confess, Sabotage, Waltzes from Vienna TrixRabbi fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Jan 3, 2019 |
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Jan 3, 2019 16:22
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Windows 98 posted:I spent most of the movie being pretty bored other than looking for the incredibly bad looking masking they used pre green screen. Yeah, that's part of the unreality of it all. Franchescanado posted:I thought that there was some weird reverse Oedipus stuff going on with Mitch and his mother. At least on her end. Yeah, I don't think he's gay (and Rod Taylor was certainly straight as far as we know), but there's some real incestual pathology going on. Anyway, you should all watch Zizek talk about it. "My god, I'm thinking like Melanie. You know what I'm thinking now? I want to gently caress Mitch." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAiQciRjerA
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Jan 3, 2019 16:49
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I still have never seen Audition but I have plans with my gf tonight and she can't even watch run of the mill horror so I think I'll try to catch this one sometime later this month.
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Jan 3, 2019 17:51
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I was never that big on Let the Right One In. It's a horror movie that's much more of a childhood relationship piece, but a cold one that keeps you at a distance and as such I never felt much of a connection to the film. Also, side note, someone's gotta get y'all new avatars this is too much.
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Jan 7, 2019 16:12
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There's weird rights issues with it, which is also why it never plays repertory screenings. Even if you blind bought a DVD though you won't regret it.
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Jan 7, 2019 19:48
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZoqZxgw7HU
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Jan 7, 2019 21:40
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warez posted:In my RHET 1301 class my first year of college my professor searched up "semiotics" during a lecture on youtube (not sure what he thought he'd find) and stumbled upon this. He remained pretty quiet while it played, just said "well I'm not sure what that was about" when it was finished. Later I e-mailed him a webpage that explained it some thinking he'd actually care (I was a naive freshman). He responded with multiple paragraphs on how much he hates feminists, how sanctimonious he thinks all women are, and how he thinks performance art is a detriment to society Welp. I saw it in a museum.
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Jan 8, 2019 03:09
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Franchescanado posted:I'm gonna politely disagree with your conclusion on the subtext. The film is indicting while colonialism of cultures and native populations of the West Indies. As you mentioned, a white woman is clearly manipulating and controlling the indigenous people for her selfish gain, and in turn she gets destroyed by it. Tourneur wasn't a racist, he was trying to point out that the white people are clearly creating the means of their own destruction while destroying the indigenous people as well. The way that point is explored may not have aged well 70+ years later, but it was a risque and progressive message for the time. Tourneur is a fascinating director and yeah, I Walked with a Zombie is absolutely an indictment of colonialism, not an endorsement. Talking about the extended sequence where we see the Caribbean natives getting to just exist in their own culture (not African) is in itself part of the point, that they have this rich culture that while alien to us is nevertheless legitimate and being destroyed by the invasion of white settlers. The zombie mythos here is as much a metaphor for slavery and capitalism as anything else.
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Jan 8, 2019 20:17
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The zoom on the femur is definitely the highlight of the film. Yeah, don't know that I'd call it an "essential" but it's still a blast and worth watching. If I was choosing a Joe Dante pick though for this particular challenge I'd have gone with Gremlins 2 or maybe even The Howling.
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Jan 10, 2019 16:43
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The Blues Brothers and American Werewolf is up there as one of the strongest back-to-back/one-two punches of any director. Rest of his poo poo doesn't hold up quite so well.
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Jan 10, 2019 19:59
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I've been so busy I haven't had any time to watch any movies in almost a week, although so far the only ones here I haven't seen are Audition and Henry. Will try to catch em before the month is up.
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Jan 10, 2019 21:55
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chitoryu12 posted:
Yo, get at Nightmare 2. An arguable Best of the Series and gay as all hellllll No wizard masters allowed. Just S&M leather daddies gettin' whipped to death
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Jan 13, 2019 16:46
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dat fuckin' staircase
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Jan 18, 2019 16:23
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Peeping Tom's DNA is certainly in giallo as well as the slasher, but I wouldn't identify it as belonging to either genre.
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Jan 23, 2019 17:27
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bitterandtwisted posted:Friday 13th Part 5 A little trick to the series is that, like Star Trek, the even numbered ones are the best. Even Jason Takes Manhattan, which is 75% set on a boat and also incredibly dumb, has some of the most enjoyable scenes of the franchise.
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Jan 25, 2019 15:59
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 04:32 |
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Can we get a collected list of all the film's selected so far?
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Jan 29, 2019 17:07
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